Bina was sent flying by Zhou Tengyun, subsequently plunging into the seawater below, and Zhou Tengyun was preparing to dive after him. Suddenly, the ocean surface erupted in an explosion. Bina shot out of the water, looking utterly battered, his Adamantine Transformation completely vanished.

The instant Bina breached the surface, he knew he was gravely wounded; his mission for the day was certainly forfeit. He forcibly channeled his qi, mobilizing a secret technique to suppress his severe injuries, then began taking strides forward. With each measured step, his entire body dissolved into the void, reappearing a hundred meters away. Then another stride, another disappearance, another reappearance a hundred meters further.

Bina’s movements were incredibly swift, managing to escape the range of the laser weaponry and vanish into the distance. Zhou Tengyun’s speed was no match for him, and mindful of potential enemy accomplices nearby, with his primary objective being the protection of the desalination vessel, he feared falling for a diversion tactic. Thus, he abandoned the pursuit while holding the advantage and watched Bina escape.

Zhou Tengyun frowned, and seeing nothing unusual in the vicinity, he leaped, turning back to rejoin the desalination vessel.

Ah Huo, seeing the enemy repelled, immediately barked orders: “Dispatch a speedboat to capture those US soldiers remaining in the water. If they resist, execute them without hesitation.”

Liu Hui, having lost contact with the Persian Gulf desalination vessel, understood that the US military had officially launched its offensive against the Starry Sky Group. He immediately directed Xiao Hei into action. Xiao Hei first swiftly swam out of its hiding trench and headed toward the Strait of Hormuz.

The day prior, Xiao Hei had scouted the Strait of Hormuz to observe enemy positions. There, it had spotted the US Navy’s Nimitz-class carrier strike group, along with several underwater survey vessels examining the wrecks of the Eisenhower-class carrier strike group sunk earlier, attempting to analyze the cause of their demise.

Because Liu Hui still harbored a faint hope of resolving the conflict with the US peacefully, he had not commanded Xiao Hei to attack the Nimitz strike group. However, now that the US military had formally initiated its assault on the Starry Sky Group, that hope for peace was shattered.

Liu Hui cast aside all reservations and commanded Xiao Hei to charge, bristling with killing intent, toward the waters where the Nimitz strike group was stationed. Xiao Hei departed from the vicinity of the desalination vessel but did not proceed at full speed. As it advanced, it cautiously scanned the surrounding waters for any US warships or vessels that might have entered the Persian Gulf, as such incursions would pose a severe threat to the desalination vessel.

Fortunately, the US military, believing they already had the Hampton nuclear submarine positioned within the Gulf, did not deploy any further submarines into the area, much to Liu Hui’s initial relief.

Since Xiao Hei did not accelerate within the Persian Gulf, an hour had elapsed by the time it reached the domain of the Nimitz strike group.

During that same hour, the US military had already suffered a major blow at the hands of the Starry Sky Group’s desalination vessel, and James had swiftly grasped the predicament he faced. Consequently, he recalled all attack units, temporarily halting the execution of Operation ‘Gale Wind.’

But Liu Hui paid this no mind. Since the US military had made its move, he was determined to inflict severe pain upon them to deter any future threats. He guided Xiao Hei to cautiously enter the waters beneath the Nimitz strike group to commence its assault.

The USS Nimitz was currently maneuvering, recalling its embarked aircraft and preparing to withdraw. Their position was not far from the Starry Sky Group’s desalination vessel, and there was no telling whether the enemy’s laser weapons could reach that location.

Xiao Hei surveyed the underwater situation and immediately, at Mach 1, slammed into the USS San Pablo/Minneapolis, a Los Angeles-class attack submarine performing submerged watch duties. This submarine was completely unprepared, and with a length of less than a hundred meters, Xiao Hei’s powerful body cleaved it in two, sending it sinking into the depths.

Then, Xiao Hei instantly twisted its body, flicked its tail, and struck the USS Providence, another Los Angeles-class attack submarine further out. Xiao Hei’s speed was phenomenal; even if the Providence had detected its presence, there would not have been enough time to evade, let alone the fact that they remained completely unaware of Xiao Hei. Without question, the USS Providence was also bisected by Xiao Hei and sank beneath the waves. Due to the suddenness of Xiao Hei’s attack, not a single US service member aboard either submarine managed to escape or even issue a warning.

Onboard the USS Nimitz, James was directing the landing of naval aviation when his sonar operator hesitated slightly and spoke, “General, I think I just heard a massive impact sound underwater, along with the sound of water rushing into the hull…”

Rear Admiral James frowned. “What exactly are you trying to say?”

The sonar operator immediately reported, “General, I believe our two submarines below us have been attacked, and they’ve been sunk…” However, his voice trailed off; even he found it unbelievable that any force on Earth could silently sink two of their submarines right under their noses.

Rear Admiral James knew more than the sonar operator. He instantly recalled the bizarre sinking of the USS Eisenhower and urgently demanded, “Contact our submarines immediately! See if they respond…”

But James’s order could not be executed. At that very moment, a deafening roar erupted from directly beneath the Nimitz carrier, causing the entire hull to violently leap four or five meters into the air before crashing heavily back into the ocean.

The impact was utterly sudden. Everyone in the carrier’s Combat Information Center, not just Rear Admiral James, was violently slammed against the ceiling before falling back to the deck. This unexpected jolt left them all severely injured; the sonar operator, tragically, had his skull crushed, dying instantly.

James was surprisingly fortunate, suffering only a minor injury—a mere gash on his face that did not impede his movement. Yet, his heart turned cold. Judging by the immense vibration and noise, his carrier had clearly been struck by the enemy, requiring an attack from a super-heavy weapon to produce such a violent effect.

Before James could issue any command, another tremendous boom echoed through the carrier, followed by violent side-to-side rocking that nearly caused the massive vessel to capsize. Sensing immediate peril, James dared not remain in the CIC. He roared, “Get out now!” and stumbled out of the command center, only to be met by a scene of carnage.

The entire USS Nimitz was shaking violently from side to side, and the deck-landed aircraft were tumbling into the sea like dropped dumplings. There was no sign of life on the flight deck; they had likely been flung overboard by the violent motion. One side of the carrier’s hull appeared to have been struck, mangled beyond recognition, revealing a large…

Just then, James saw a massive, black object surge from the water. This colossal black mass slammed directly into the already ravaged port side of the carrier. The carrier immediately began to rock violently from side to side again. James gripped a nearby railing to avoid being thrown off.

His mind raced with terrifying questions—what enemy weapon could inflict such massive impact damage upon his carrier?

The hidden black object beneath the water struck the carrier’s side once more. This time, the vessel’s rocking intensified, culminating in it flipping completely over, settling upside down on the surface of the sea. The exposed underside of the hull bore a massive hole, through which seawater was pouring in torrents.

It was Xiao Hei, attacking from below, that had struck the Nimitz. It first targeted the carrier’s keel, then furiously used its powerful serpentine body to ram the ship’s sides. After three such impacts, the carrier was inverted.

With the carrier upside down, it was certain that virtually no US service members aboard could survive; they would all perish with the ship, including Rear Admiral James. The overturned hull now showed a massive aperture, over twenty meters in diameter, through which the ocean was relentlessly surging. It appeared the carrier’s sinking was a matter of minutes.

Xiao Hei finished dispatching the USS Nimitz in less than a minute. The remaining escort ships of the Nimitz strike group, along with the aircraft still airborne, were stunned into immobility. By the time they reacted, the USS Nimitz was already on the verge of sinking. A segment of black material emerged briefly near the wreck before diving back into the water.

The fighters overhead immediately opened fire on the spot where the black object vanished, but the object descended too rapidly, causing all the aircraft weapons to miss. Mere seconds later, a thousand meters away, the USS San Jacinto, a Ticonderoga-class Aegis cruiser, began to shudder violently side-to-side. Then, that same section of black object appeared beside it, striking the San Jacinto once more, causing the Aegis cruiser to immediately list, then flip completely upside down on the sea surface.

Xiao Hei paid no heed to the attacks from the airborne fighters; such conventional weaponry could not harm it in the slightest. After capsizing the San Jacinto, Xiao Hei proceeded to strike the remaining ships—the destroyers USS Laboon, USS Cole, and USS Curtis Wilbur (all Spruance-class), the frigate USS Simpson (Perry-class), and the supply ship USNS Bridge—knocking them all over onto their sides. The aircraft above were powerless to stop it.

Xiao Hei rapidly completed the mission assigned by Liu Hui, turning every major and minor warship in the Nimitz strike group upside down. However, Xiao Hei was now in a killing frenzy, unsatisfied with the slow sinking of these vessels. It charged again, attacking the hulls from beneath the surface, breaching the metal and accelerating their descent. Soon, the warships vanished from sight, and fewer than fifty US sailors who had escaped them were seen floating nearby.

The pilots of the surviving aircraft watched the horrific scene unfold, their eyes burning with rage, yet they could not halt Xiao Hei’s destruction of their carrier strike group in the slightest. Only after all the warships had sunk did Xiao Hei contentedly submerge. As it passed the marine survey vessels that were investigating the sinking of the USS Eisenhower, it flicked its tail, destroying those survey ships beneath the waves as well. Since the US had resolved to wage war against the Starry Sky Group, all Americans were now its enemies, and Liu Hui naturally showed no mercy.

Having annihilated the US Nimitz strike group, Liu Hui was preparing to guide Xiao Hei back to the Persian Gulf waters when a sudden impulse struck him. He commanded Xiao Hei to head south toward the Indian Ocean. Xiao Hei moved with incredible speed, vanishing before the eyes of the remaining US fighters.

Liu Hui directed Xiao Hei to swim south for some distance. Once certain they had shaken off the pursuit of the US aircraft overhead, he changed direction and stealthily guided Xiao Hei along the seabed back toward the Persian Gulf.

A wave of relief washed over Liu Hui. By eliminating two carrier strike groups, the US Fifth Fleet in the region was now truly neutralized. The Persian Gulf area would experience a military vacuum for a significant period, with little chance of reinforcement.

After all, the US only possessed eleven carriers globally, distributed to protect their worldwide interests. The loss of these two strike groups would create a critical manpower shortage, forcing the US into a strategic contraction for a time. If the US began this strategic contraction, it would buy Liu Hui crucial time to develop his own forces further, rendering the US military ultimately incapable of opposing him in the future.

As Liu Hui directed Xiao Hei’s movements, he suddenly received a message transmitted by Wu Yuanjia: a Starry Sky Logistics Company transport vessel in the Pacific had been seized by pirates.

Liu Hui startled, immediately instructing Xiao Hei to return to the desalination vessel in the Persian Gulf on its own, while he began questioning Wu Yuanjia about the hijacking of the Starry Sky Logistics vessel.

It turned out that at 2:00 PM that day, which corresponded to 10:00 AM Guam time, two of Starry Sky Logistics’ 100,000-ton cargo ships were hijacked in the waters near Guam in the Pacific by a pirate vessel.

The news of the hijacking was secretly relayed by the security personnel aboard the cargo ships while the hijackers were distracted. However, the information they sent back contained notes of suspicion: the hijackers did not resemble typical pirates. They were operating a dilapidated warship—though clearly old and retired, it possessed the uniform precision of military personnel rather than common pirates.

Upon receiving this intelligence, Liu Hui sneered. Guam waters were US territory; could there truly be pirates operating there? Furthermore, the timing of the hijacking was suspicious, coinciding exactly with the US formal attack on his desalination vessel in the Middle East. Therefore, Liu Hui had every reason to believe the so-called pirate vessel was merely a US disguise, an attempt to achieve their covert objectives by continuously seizing his company’s transport ships.

But since the Starry Sky Group was already engaged in open conflict with the US military, Liu Hui cared little whether they were genuine pirates or not; he would find a way to sink them all.

Liu Hui inquired, “Chief Wu, where is our Starry Sky One right now?”

Wu Yuanjia replied, “Starry Sky One is currently near Guam. We had originally dispatched it toward Hawaii for a special mission, but they have not been traveling at maximum speed and have only just reached the Guam vicinity.”

Liu Hui laughed. “This is truly heaven-sent. Immediately send a dispatch to Starry Sky One: instruct them to locate our cargo ships and eliminate the pirate vessel nearby. Oh, and I recall Starry Sky One carries one of our elite security teams, correct?”

Wu Yuanjia nodded. “Yes, that security team was originally en route to Hawaii for the Boss’s confidential assignment.”

Liu Hui said, “In that case, direct them to change course, sink the pirate vessel, and rescue our personnel.”

Wu Yuanjia immediately set about sending the transmission. At this moment, with the massive US retreat and the collapse of their command center, the electromagnetic interference that had blanketed the Persian Gulf desalination vessel finally lifted. Ah Huo contacted Liu Hui instantly, providing a detailed report of the situation in the Gulf.

At the US Department of Defense, it was 5:00 AM, and a large contingent of generals was once again assembled, though their previous supreme confidence was entirely gone, replaced by sheer dejection in their eyes.

These American generals had watched the entire execution of Operation ‘Gale Wind’ in the Middle East. By usual convention, their observation was meant to be a visual feast, like watching a movie of the US military systematically crushing an opponent, with no risk to themselves.

Instead, they watched today’s military observation in stunned silence, their faces pale and heart rates spiking. The Starry Sky Group’s desalination vessel was far from the fragile target they had imagined. Its laser weapons specifically targeted and neutralized the US military’s advanced high-tech equipment, inflicting heavy losses in personnel and materiel upon the Americans.

Yet, given the deep reserves of the US military, such losses should not have been debilitating. If they truly committed their full strength, the Starry Sky Group would still be crushed to dust, even with their laser weaponry—it would only cause the US a bit more trouble.

But as the US forces began their major withdrawal, an unforeseen catastrophe struck, the very event that caused these generals to look so despondent. A mysterious object suddenly materialized in the Strait of Hormuz and assaulted the US Navy’s Nimitz carrier strike group. In less than ten minutes, the entire powerful Nimitz strike group was annihilated. They were sunk by this mysterious black object using various baffling attack methods. Out of over eight thousand US service members, only fifty-eight managed to escape. This sudden turn of events in under ten minutes had grievously wounded the US military.

Moreover, as the mysterious black object departed the combat zone, it also destroyed the investigation team assembled by the US to probe the sinking of the Eisenhower carrier group, killing the military experts within. However, the demise of these investigation experts was ultimately irrelevant, as the situation had now become painfully clear: the previous Eisenhower carrier strike group had certainly been destroyed by this same mysterious black unknown object.

“Gentlemen, our analysis results are in. These are footage and photographs taken by our aircraft at the scene. After restoration and organization by our technicians, we have extracted some valuable intelligence. Please take a look,” Gates said, beginning to play the images and videos on the large screens.

“What the hell is that thing?” one general exclaimed upon seeing the restored footage of Xiao Hei’s enormous body.

“Judging by its flight path and movements, it appears to be a living biological entity. But what creature on Earth grows this large? Its body length exceeds two hundred meters?”

“My God, its strength is truly immense. Our carrier’s hardened hull looked like tissue paper before it—one strike, and it breaches…”

And its speed was astonishingly fast, certainly exceeding the speed of sound; it actually managed to outpace our fighter jets in an instant. But why did it head toward the Indian Ocean? Could the Indian Ocean be its lair?

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