Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 405 The Kryptonians' Fatal Weakness

The weakened Superman was choked by Zod, and no matter how hard he struggled, he could not get out of the predicament.

General Zod said smugly, "Don't bother struggling. The difference in strength between you and me isn't that great. Now that your strength has been weakened by at least half due to the Kryptonian environment, you're no match for me at all."

"You think Kryptonian spaceships are so easily destroyed?"

"Last time you broke through from the inside, and we couldn't do anything about it. But if you want to break through a Kryptonian spaceship from the outside, even a research transport ship, it will have strong electromagnetic protection and defensive heavy particle streams."

"It was me who ordered these weapons and protective gear to be shut down in advance, just to let you in, then reseal you, so you could experience the pressure of the Kryptonian environment again!"

"El-El, have you noticed that the spot where you crashed into is the same hole you made when you escaped last time?"

Superman's pupils contracted slightly as he finally realized he had fallen into General Zod's carefully laid trap, and he became extremely anxious.

But at this moment, his body was suppressed by the simulated Kryptonian environment inside the cabin, and he was no match for General Zod. He was dragged into a bright cabin without any ability to resist.

Vale Tomé, a Kryptonian scientist, was waiting there with several assistants. They held strange restraints and green-edged knives, looking like they were about to dissect Superman.

General Shazor pressed Superman down on the large platform, grinning maliciously as he said, "Next, I will extract the Central Codex from your body and begin breeding more Kryptonians to rebuild Kryptonian civilization, using Earth as a base."

"We Kryptonians will become even stronger, and Kryptonian civilization will become even more prosperous and glorious!"

"But all of this has nothing to do with you, you traitor!"

"Oh dear, you Kryptonians, how can you be so cruel to your own kind?" Xia Zuo's voice suddenly rang out.

Superman, Zod, Valetome, and the other Kryptonians all looked at Shazor, who was wearing a NASA spacesuit and awkwardly waving to the Kryptonians.

"Hi everyone, I came in through the hole that Superman smashed open. I hope you don't mind."

Then he chuckled jokingly, "Hehehe, but Superman is my friend, and I can't allow you to treat him like this."

General Zod roared, "Seize him!"

Several Kryptonians dropped their tools and pounced on Xia Zuo.

Wearing a heavy spacesuit, Xia Zuo had no intention of fighting the Kryptonians and instead turned and charged towards the wall.

He imitated Superman, smashing a large hole in the wall, then the next wall, and then another, until he crashed through the outer wall of the Kryptonian spaceship.

With the outer shell of the Kryptonian spaceship shattered, the basic conditions necessary to maintain the Kryptonian environment ceased to exist.

Superman instantly regained his strength and threw General Zod away.

Superman then looked at Valetome and the other Kryptonians, but in the end he didn't attack them. Instead, he chased after General Zod.

The battlefield shifted inside the Kryptonian spaceship, leaving General Zod feeling constrained, fearing that the two's outburst would destroy the Kryptonian spaceship.

He didn't even dare to face Superman, and kept running away from the spaceship.

Just as Superman was about to give chase, Shazor, who had once again crawled back in, shouted, "Stop chasing! This is the Kryptonians' weak point. Let's go to the power bay or the engine, or something similar. I bet General Zod will come back soon."

Superman immediately realized, "Xia Zuo, you're right. The battle was so intense that I got confused."

"That bastard Zod has taken many citizens hostage in Gotham City, forcing me to fight him head-on. Now it's time for him to taste that kind of pain."

Xia Zuo laughed heartily: "That's right. In battle, you must take the initiative and never follow the enemy's lead. You must never fight on a battlefield where the enemy has an advantage."

Superman asked curiously, "How did you get here? Is the battle in Metropolis over? Were the losses significant?"

Shazo replied, "The battle in Metropolis is over. I killed two Kryptonians and defeated two others, the strongest of whom was the female Kryptonian named Fuora."

"You know how badly your metropolis was destroyed by the planetary engines, right? This time, there certainly wasn't much more damage, at least no one died—right?"

Xia Zuo clicked his tongue: "Okay, someone must be dead."

"But you can't blame me for this. The army and police fired warning shots to keep people away, but they just couldn't stop those people from sneaking into the ruins and looting the buildings."

"All I can say is that they're asking for it, and I can't help them."

Superman sighed and said, "Xia Zuo, you're right. These people's deaths are not your fault."

"My battle in Gotham —"

Superman suddenly couldn't continue. With Shazo's reminder, he suddenly remembered that he had fought with General Zod in Gotham City, which may have caused huge casualties.

His face gradually turned pale.

Xia Zuo naturally guessed Superman's thoughts and immediately comforted him, "Don't think too much about it. If it weren't for your bravery in blocking General Zod, how much damage could he have caused?"

"Without you, Earth would most likely have been conquered by the Kryptonians, who have no pity or compassion for humanity and do not even treat humans as intelligent beings."

"Who knows if, after Earth is conquered, the Kryptonians will come up with some kind of plan to exterminate humanity, perhaps not specifically targeting humans, but exterminating them as a side effect."

"For example, the Kryptonians probably have more than one method for plans like using planetary engines to terraform Earth, right?"

With Shazo's encouragement, Superman's guilt subsided, and he regained his fighting spirit, pointing in a direction and saying, "I've found the spaceship's power bay."

Superman had figured out the spaceship's structure. After approaching the power bay, General Zod obediently turned around and took a shortcut to block Superman and Shazor's path.

At this moment, General Zod's face was extremely grim. He gritted his teeth, lowered his head, and pleaded, "Can you please leave the Kryptonian ship? This is the last hope of Kryptonian civilization—"

Superman thought of the towering buildings in Gotham City, and the horrific casualties he had been forced to fight. His eyes reddened as he said, "It's too late. You were the one who first caused the massacre on Earth, in Gotham City—it's too late."

The red in his eyes grew increasingly intense, clearly indicating that he was entering the state before the thermal radiation was emitted.

General Zod was terrified and rushed forward to shield Superman from the heat rays with his body, because Superman was looking at the power bay of the Kryptonian spaceship, and if the heat rays pierced through it, it would inevitably cause a terrifying explosion.

By then, all the Kryptonians on the spaceship will perish. Even if they are not killed instantly by the explosion, these flightless Kryptonians will fall into the atmosphere, and death will be their inevitable fate.

General Zod also possessed the heat beam. He knew that even if he stood in front of it, he couldn't stop the heat beam from destroying the power pod, but he still instinctively stepped forward.

Because protecting Kryptonian civilization was an integral part of General Zod's own ideology.

Just as General Zod was painfully awaiting destruction, Shazor suddenly reached out and blocked Superman's view, his hand easily burned through by the blasting heat rays.

Superman was startled and quickly turned away, closed his eyes, and stopped emitting heat rays.

This action was also extremely damaging to Superman. His eyes were steaming, and he looked at Xia Zuo in confusion, asking, "Why did you stop me?"

Xia Zuo sighed, "I consider myself a madman, but you, this kind-hearted person, are even crazier than me when it comes to the crucial moment!"

"Superman, why did you destroy the Kryptonian spaceship? Was it revenge for General Zod's massacre on Earth?"

"If you want revenge, just kill General Zod. Why implicate all Kryptonians and destroy any hope of Kryptonian civilization's revival?"

"When did you become so cruel?"

Superman: "————"

His mind was in turmoil. Shazor's words deeply shocked Superman, freeing him from the guilt of failing to protect Gotham and escaping his completely out-of-control extreme emotions.

Superman, as if waking from a dream, sincerely thanked Xia Zuo, saying, "Thank you, Xia Zuo, thank you for stopping me from making a terrible mistake."

"Are you alright with your hand?"

"No, how could I be alright? I... I deserve to die!"

Just as Superman was painfully about to slap himself, Shaza suddenly reached out and blocked his slap.

He smiled and showed Superman his severed hand; the wound had stopped bleeding and was rapidly twitching, healing itself at a visible speed.

"Hehehe, I'm an immortal man. Losing a hand or something won't affect me at all."

"When I fought Batman before, he blasted a huge hole in my head with a laser cannon, boiling my brains, but I was still fine."

Xia Zuo became more and more smug as he spoke, and then he put his hands on his hips and burst into laughter.

Superman was finally completely relieved. He looked at General Zod and said, "General Zod, if the Kryptonians stop attacking Earth, we will stop attacking the Kryptonians too."

"Stop!" Xia Zuo quickly stopped laughing, interrupting Superman's words: "You guy, how come you're such a two-dimensional being? Either you're extremely ruthless in destroying Kryptonians, or you unconditionally give up the advantages you've worked so hard to gain."

"Superman, get serious! We're at war!"

"Not attacking Kryptonian ships is our basic human decency, but that doesn't mean we should tie our own hands!"

Superman was dumbfounded and stammered, "Then, what should I do?"

Xia Zuo sighed and said, "Sigh, I'll do it."

He looked at General Zod and said, "General Zod, what conditions will you offer in exchange for us abandoning our attack on the Kryptonian warships?"

"Please think carefully before you answer me. After all, we now have a fatal grasp on the Kryptonian civilization."

"I know the Kryptonians will soon be ready to escape, but what about this Kryptonian spaceship? Can it escape too?"

"Even if Superman's central code is still intact, does the Kryptonian civilization still have a chance to revive after losing this Kryptonian spaceship?"

""

General Zod's eyes widened suddenly, staring at Xia Zuo as if he had seen a ghost: "You, how do you know the Central Code?"

"El-El, you traitor! How could you tell such a top-secret information to the Earthlings!"

Superman was speechless, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say, and even more afraid that he might say the wrong thing and cause serious consequences.

After much deliberation, Superman decided to shut up and leave all the bickering to Xia Zuo, because Xia Zuo really knew how to hit a nerve.

Didn't you see how contorted General Zod's face was?

Zod's "I want to kill you, but I can't do anything about it" attitude gave Superman a great feeling.

Xia Zuo jumped up, pointed at Zod's nose, and yelled, "Are you an idiot?!"

"You're allowed to shout and kill at Superman, deceive him, imprison him, and even dissect him, yet you have the nerve to ask Superman to keep your secrets? How can you be so shameless?"

"Have you even realized that you and we are now enemies, in a life-or-death war?"

"You deliberately used Earth's cities as battlefields to gain an advantage for yourself. You've already reached such a shameless level, so why should you expect your enemy to have morality?"

"Yes, I stopped Superman from destroying Krypton, but that's because even a madman like me has a bottom line of humanity. I can't just destroy the hope of an intelligent civilization so casually."

"But I am human! A human being of Earth! My premise for maintaining humanity and principles is that humanity will not perish because of my principles!"

"If you're still standing there, trying to use moral blackmail to coerce me, I can destroy this spaceship without Superman even lifting a finger, believe it or not?"

General Zod's imposing manner suddenly crumbled; his voice lowered as he asked, "What do you want me to do?"

Xia Zuo's smile faded, and he said seriously, "From our perspective as humans, the Kryptonians attacked Earth first and deliberately provoked battles in Metropolis and Gotham City. These are unforgivable war crimes."

"General Zod, as the leader of the Kryptonians, you planned and executed all of this, so you are an unforgivable criminal."

"My demand is your life!"

General Zod's expression remained unchanged, his eyes fixed on Shazo like a hawk's, and he asked, "I'd give my life for the survival of Kryptonian civilization, that's not impossible, but how can I trust your promises?"

"If I die, and you and Kal'el team up to attack the Kryptonian ship, we won't be able to resist, and we'll still perish, won't we?"

"If you cannot give me a credible guarantee, I would rather lead my fellow countrymen to fight you to the death, and even if it means my death, I will make the earth pay the price."

Xia Zuo nodded and said, "Strength is the key to guaranteeing this. If you agree, I will release Fuora. Together with that super-giant who attacked New York, that should be enough to protect the Kryptonian ship, right?"

General Zod closed his eyes, pondered for a long time, and finally nodded, saying, "Alright, I accept your terms."

"I'll give my life to ensure the survival of Kryptonian civilization."