America: The Cremator

Chapter 137 The Annihilation Girl and the Four-Star Advancement!

The dense rain curtain kept Seattle's dazzling neon lights out of sight.

The car sped along the auxiliary road until it entered a gasworks park in the Union Lake area, where Su Long slowly slowed down and parked the car in a secluded and open corner.

This area is open and usually sparsely populated. With the current bad weather, there isn't a soul in sight.

Elena looked around and nodded: "This is a good location, quite suitable for fighting."

Su Long nodded silently, then pulled out "Sirius" from his back waist with a backhand, skillfully opened the cylinder, confirmed that all six bullets were loaded, and then flipped his hands over, revealing a pair of bright silver brass knuckles on his fists.

Seeing this, Elena lit the lantern at her waist, then unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled out a silver sword from under the back seat.

Surong removed the "Raphael" from his waist, tilted his head back, and took a large gulp of wine. After regaining some energy, he handed the wine jug to Elena and asked, "Want a sip?"

Elena glanced at him, did not refuse, reached out and took the wine jug, took a sip, and then handed the jug back to Su Long: "Phew, much better now."

Just as Su Long hung up the wine jug, the rain outside the car window suddenly intensified, followed by a strong black gust of wind that swept up from the ground.

The raindrops that were originally falling turned upside down, twisting and swirling violently in mid-air, slowly coalescing into a blurry black shadow.

Su Long narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the blurry black figure outside. The figure was tall and slender, with body proportions that completely defied normal human anatomy.

She was completely wrapped in a pure black long dress, and on her head she wore a wide black sun hat with the brim pulled low, obscuring most of her facial features, leaving only a sharp, pale chin exposed.

Su Long and Elena exchanged a glance, then got out of the car and faced the eerie black figure from a distance. The cold rain lashed against Su Long's face, but he grinned, revealing a wild smile: "You've finally arrived, Sister Yu. Long time no see, I've missed you."

Before he could finish speaking, Su Long's smile vanished instantly, and he said seriously to Elena beside him, "Cover me, I'm going in."

"Be careful, don't break any arms or legs," Elena coldly warned, as the bronze lamp at her waist shone brightly.

Su Long took a deep breath, and the primordial fire instantly burst forth from his palm, attaching itself to his fist and knuckle duster, erupting with dazzling golden light.

He slightly bent his knees, lowered his center of gravity, and then suddenly exerted force with both legs, charging straight towards the woman in the rain. The puddles under his feet were instantly shattered by the violent force, exploding into a huge splash.

The woman in the rain slightly raised her right hand and flicked her finger at Su Long, who was rushing towards her. The next moment, a drop of blood tore through the dense rain curtain and shot straight towards Su Long's face.

A glint appeared in Su Long's eyes, and he unleashed [Bullet Time]!

In an instant, the world before Su Long's eyes underwent a dramatic change.

The raging wind disappeared, the dense rain stopped, and everything around us was forcibly slowed down.

The raindrops falling from mid-air transformed into transparent glass beads suspended in the air, and the deadly rain of blood that was shooting down became slow and sluggish.

He could even see the dark red ripples constantly rolling on the surface of the blood rain, as well as the black impurities mixed in with it.

Sulong tried to turn his head to avoid it, but he found that he couldn't run and jump freely in a slow-motion world like the superheroes in the movies.

My movements became unusually slow, as if I were sealed inside a piece of solidified amber.

In this slow-paced world, his own movements were also severely restricted.

However, his agility attribute of up to 30 points, combined with his extremely fast-working brain, gives Su Long a terrifying ability to make adjustments.

He forcefully controlled the muscles in his neck and waist, gradually changing his forward momentum, and finally shifted his head slightly to the left, allowing the deadly drop of blood to slide past the tip of his nose.

After dodging the fatal blow, Su Long used the remaining time to slowly adjust his posture and movement trajectory. By the time he was in the best posture to exert force, the bullet time had just ended.

In an instant, the roar of the wind and rain filled his ears again, and the drop of blood flew past Su Long's cheek.

Using his newly adjusted stance, Su Long charged towards the woman in the rain at full speed, like a raging cheetah.

Seeing that Su Long had dodged the rain of blood, the woman in the rain suddenly swung her slender arms, causing the surrounding rain to surge violently. Hundreds and thousands of raindrops rapidly elongated and condensed in mid-air, transforming into sharp, transparent rain swords that shot towards Su Long's face.

Without a doubt, if an ordinary person were hit like that, their entire head would probably be smashed.

As Su Long watched the dense rain of swords hurtling towards him, his chest suddenly bulged, his lungs filled with air, and he let out a deafening roar.

"roll!"

The violent sound waves transformed into a visible, substantial fan-shaped impact surface, crashing down on the rain of swords like a tsunami. A series of dense cracking sounds exploded in mid-air, shattering the incredibly sharp rain swords and turning them back into a sky full of mist.

Su Long's sprinting figure shattered the mist and instantly reached the woman in the rain. He suddenly exerted force in his waist, and the powerful twisting force was transmitted from his spine to his right shoulder. The muscles of his entire right arm bulged, and the brass knuckles with blazing golden flames tore through the rain curtain in front of him and smashed straight into the woman in the rain's face.

The power of this punch was extremely terrifying; the force of the punch even created a small vacuum zone around it.

However, just as the punch was about to land, the woman's head turned into a puddle of murky rainwater, which splashed away instantly, causing Su Long's sure-fire punch to miss completely.

The woman in the rain tried to turn her body into rainwater and escape, but Elena wouldn't let her. She slapped her lantern, and the orange light suddenly shone brightly.

Several thin, luminous threads emerged from the lampshade, quickly piercing through the rain and tightly binding the tall, slender black body of the woman in the rain, immobilizing her in place.

She let out an extremely sharp and piercing scream, her slender limbs struggling wildly as she tried to tear off the golden threads.

Su Long immediately seized this rare opportunity to attack, adjusted his center of gravity, and unleashed a fierce uppercut with a powerful thrust of his left arm.

The punch landed squarely on the woman's head in the rain, instantly shattering her newly formed head into a cloud of black vapor that sprayed in all directions.

As the skull shattered, a pale blue system notification appeared on Suron's retina.

Our side gains the armor penetration effect.

The enemy is slowed.

At the same time, Elena attacked from the other side. The light from the lantern at her waist was even more dazzling than before, and countless thick golden threads gushed out from it, instantly wrapping around the woman in the rain.

Su Long caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of his eye and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

The density of these golden threads is much greater than when they fought Shoggoth in the sewers, indicating that Elena has also used that mithril coin and enhanced the lantern.

Elena, entangled in golden threads, instantly surged with power, her movements becoming incredibly swift. She stomped her legs on the ground, transforming into a blinding golden light that smashed through the dense rain in front of her. Her sharp silver sword, accompanied by a piercing whistle, slashed horizontally towards the woman's neck in the rain.

The woman in the rain sensed Elena's threat and forcibly twisted her body. The surrounding rain was immediately drawn in, turning into a thick curtain of water with a viscous, asphalt-like texture, which enveloped her head in an attempt to forcefully withstand the slash.

The sharp silver sword arrived in an instant, and the thick rain curtain only held for half a second before being torn apart by Elena's overwhelming power, severing the half-formed head of the rain-soaked woman without diminishing its momentum.

Black, viscous liquid shot into the sky like a fountain, and the mangled head detached directly from the slender neck, spinning and flying into the air.

However, before the head could even hit the ground, Su Long's fist came hurtling towards it.

The remaining rain barrier, which had originally enveloped the outside of the head and was attempting to reassemble, shattered like fragile glass before the knuckle dusters, which were imbued with armor-piercing effects and primal fire.

The next instant, the brass knuckles slammed solidly into the mangled skull. The explosive force of the flames erupted in the center of the skull, and the blazing golden flames instantly engulfed all the black vapor. The high temperature directly evaporated the strange liquid that was trying to reassemble.

With a muffled bang, the woman's head exploded into a cloud of grayish-white steam in mid-air, leaving not a single drop of black water behind. The violent shockwave spread outwards, clearing away the surrounding rain and creating a brief vacuum.

Elena stared at the rapidly dissipating steam in mid-air, then at Su Long, whose fist was still burning with golden flames. Her eyes widened instantly. She knew Su Long was strong, but this scene still far exceeded her expectations.

In just a few days, this guy's strength and explosiveness have improved to another level. The timing and destructive power of that punch just now were even more ferocious than those of senior B-level exorcists.

After the initial shock, Elena quickly regained her senses. She flicked her wrist, creating a sharp sword flourish, and twisted her waist as she pushed off with her feet, slashing her silver sword straight at the woman in the rain's abdomen.

The silver sword, gleaming with a chilling light, sliced ​​through the rain, effortlessly cutting open her slender waist and abdomen. Black rainwater gushed out from the smooth cut, like a ruptured high-pressure water pipe.

The woman in the rain let out a painful scream, and her severed upper and lower body quickly lost its physical outline, with violent ripples spreading along the edges, attempting to transform back into the rain and scatter and escape.

"Trying to leave?"

Su Long snorted coldly, his eyes suddenly widening, and the terrifying impact of [Overlord Aura] was suddenly activated, an invisible mental hammer immediately pouring down on the woman in the rain.

The woman in the rain suddenly froze, her liquefied body interrupted, forcibly reverting to its solid state, turning into two severed pieces that crashed heavily to the ground.

But she was clearly unwilling to die like this. The two pieces of her body that had fallen to the ground began to writhe violently. The surrounding rainwater was drawn in and turned into streams of water, rushing toward the gaps between the limbs in an attempt to forcibly stitch the broken body back together.

Seeing the black water lines in the gaps, Su Long roared, and a violent sound wave burst from his mouth, turning into a powerful wind pressure column that was visible to the naked eye, and slammed into the two severed bodies of the woman in the rain.

The rainwater that had accumulated on the ground and the water that was trying to heal its wounds in the gaps were all blown away by the powerful sound waves into a fine mist that filled the sky.

"Elena, control it! Don't let it get away!"

Elena quickly untied the lantern from her waist, then held the silver sword upside down in her right hand, inserted the lantern into a special groove at the end of the sword hilt, and rotated the lantern to secure it firmly.

The light inside the lantern suddenly surged, and the dazzling golden light flowed from the hilt into the blade, then spread wildly along the fiber optic structure inside the blade, instantly enveloping the entire silver sword.

Elena gripped the sword hilt tightly with both hands, raised the longsword shrouded in golden light high, and plunged it fiercely into the heart of the woman in the rain on the ground.

"Pfft!"

The silver sword, surrounded by golden light, pierced the heart of the woman in the rain without any doubt.

The sword's momentum didn't diminish; accompanied by a teeth-grinding scraping sound, the longsword pierced directly through the hard asphalt concrete road below, pinning the woman's upper body to the concrete ground.

Su Long stood not far away, watching this scene with some surprise.

Although silver-tungsten alloy is hard, it is by no means possible to penetrate a concrete road surface so easily with just arm strength.

It seems that the enhanced lantern not only strengthened Elena's physical strength but also improved the sharpness and hardness of the silver sword.

The rain-soaked woman, who had been pinned to the ground, finally grew her head back and let out a heart-wrenching scream.

The sound was like fingernails frantically scratching on a blackboard, extremely piercing.

Her mangled lower body writhed wildly nearby, but she could never get even half a step closer to her nailed upper body.

Su Long strode through the mud to the head, looking down at the strange creature that had once caused him considerable trouble. He slowly raised his right hand, extended his index finger, and placed it in front of his lips.

"Shh, be quiet, you're too noisy."

The moment he finished speaking, a cluster of primordial fire ignited from his fingertips, and he opened his mouth again, unleashing a shrieking attack.

The powerful wind pressure column, carrying the primordial fire, formed a raging pillar of fire that instantly engulfed the two severed bodies of the woman in the rain.

The screams from the golden sea of ​​fire lasted for less than two seconds before abruptly ceasing. The black vapors that tried to resist the high temperature were completely incinerated the moment they came into contact with the golden flames.

In just a few seconds, the woman's eerie body in the rain was reduced to a pool of grayish-white embers by the scorching flames, which were then washed away and diluted by the rain.

The next instant, a pale blue light screen unfolded on Su Long's retina.

[Burning the corpse of the C-level eerie woman in the rain grants 30 experience points]

[Completely annihilate the C-rank Mysterious Rain Lady; its existence has vanished from the world. Special reward: +1 Soul Crystal.]

]

Su Long stared blankly at the prompt on the screen.

He had thought that by completely eliminating a long-standing C-level anomaly, the system would generously reward him with a critical hit-level experience point, since he had previously gained a lot of experience just by burning a pile of corpses.

Unexpectedly, in the end, the regular experience points were only thirty, but there was an extra special reward I had never seen before: 0.

With a slight thought, Su Long summoned his detailed attribute panel.

My gaze fell to the side of the experience points balance, where a brand new independent section had appeared.

[Soul Crystals: 1]

Before he could properly study the use of this newly appeared prop, the system screen suddenly flickered, and a pop-up window emitting a dark golden light forcibly occupied his entire field of vision.

[Key upgrade materials detected!]

[The path to upgrading four-star attributes has been unlocked!]

When the entry could be upgraded to three stars, he began to have doubts. Things with star ratings usually have a maximum level of three or five stars.

At that time, he wasn't sure if Samsung was the end of the line, but now it seems there really is a ceiling to upgrade!

Su Long suppressed his urge to immediately study the Soul Crystal on the spot, turned to look at Elena, flexed his wrists, and said in a relaxed tone, "Done. Now we can go home in peace."

Elena had already taken the lantern off and hung it back on her waist. She looked Su Long up and down and exclaimed, "Su, what kind of monster are you? In just a few days, your strength has improved again. I'm afraid it won't be long before you surpass me."

Su Long smiled, walked to the driver's side of the Cadillac, opened the car door, and casually said, "There's no monster, it's just my hard work and sweat."

"Besides, Captain Elena, your lantern seems to have improved a lot too."

Elena rolled her eyes after hearing this, opened the passenger door and got in: "If you don't want to talk about it, then don't try to fob me off with this nonsense."

Su Long shrugged, offered no further explanation, started the car, and drove out of the gas plant park along the original route, heading towards Elena's villa.

Just as they were about to enter the main road, a rapid ringtone broke the silence in the carriage. Elena took her phone out of her pocket, glanced at the caller ID on the screen, frowned slightly, and then pressed the answer button: "What is it?"

She didn't turn on speakerphone, but for Su Long, who was both physically and mentally 30, it made no difference whether it was on speakerphone or not. He could hear the voice on the other end of the phone very clearly from both the driver's and passenger's seats.

"Captain, the FBI has just given an official response. Their spies have also discovered a similar situation and confirmed the accuracy of our previous intelligence."

"FBI senior management has agreed to form a joint investigation team with our agency to conduct an in-depth investigation into this matter."

Upon hearing this news, Elena's expression did not relax; instead, it became even more serious: "Understood. You all start screening personnel immediately. I need to see the list of our team members as soon as possible."

Elena paused, then pressed on, "When exactly is the joint investigation scheduled to take place?"

The sound of papers being turned over came from the other end of the phone. The assistant then reported to the leader: "It is tentatively scheduled for a week later. The FBI needs time to mobilize elite agents, and we also need time to prepare the relevant equipment and logistical support."

"Okay, keep me updated on the progress."