I, the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon, am being kept by the state.

Wang Yijun gritted his teeth and stopped talking.

Time passed by, second by second.

That stick of incense seemed to last as long as an entire century.

Six more people were pulled out of the water after they had passed out.

The rest of the people are just barely holding on.

Lei Zhan's consciousness was already blurred.

He felt that his body was no longer his own; every cell was burning, disintegrating, and then reorganizing.

"No... I'm dizzy..."

He bit his tongue hard, his mouth filled with the taste of blood. "I can't... lose to a vat of water..."

That aloof voice echoed in his mind.

Too weak?

Ants?

"Fuck you, you ant!!"

Lei Zhan roared inwardly, an indomitable will erupting on the verge of collapse, forcefully resisting the excruciating pain.

at last.

"Time's up!"

Wang Yijun's voice is like heavenly music.

Lei Zhan suddenly opened his eyes, and a glint of light flashed in his eyes, which were originally bloodshot.

He braced his hands on the scalding hot rim of the vat and exerted force.

"Splash!"

Water splashed everywhere.

He jumped out and landed heavily on the ground.

Immediately afterwards, the remaining twenty-two soldiers crawled out one after another. They looked like blood gourds, their skin frighteningly red, covered with a thick layer of black sludge, and emitting a foul stench.

"Alive..."

"I'm still alive..."

Some people collapsed on the ground, crying and laughing at the same time.

Lei Zhan stood there, panting heavily.

As his breathing calmed down, he suddenly felt... something was wrong.

The body is very light.

That feeling of lightness was like unloading a burden weighing hundreds of pounds.

Moreover, it felt as if a fire was burning inside him, and an unprecedented sense of power filled his limbs and bones, giving him the illusion that he would explode if he didn't release it.

He subconsciously looked at the wall next to him.

That was a specially made alloy blast wall, 30 centimeters thick, designed to test the power of heavy weapons, capable of withstanding rocket bombardment.

Lei Zhan didn't even think about it; his body reacted instinctively.

Twist your waist, thrust your hips, and throw a punch!

There were no fancy moves, just a simple straight punch.

"boom!!"

A loud bang made everyone's eardrums ache.

The entire basement seemed to shake.

Everyone was stunned. Even the busy medical staff stopped what they were doing and stared at Lei Zhan in disbelief.

Lei Zhan remained in a punching stance, his right arm muscles bulging like coiled pythons.

And in front of his fist.

On that supposedly indestructible alloy explosion-proof wall, a fist print five centimeters deep was clearly visible!

The clearly visible knuckle lines are deeply imprinted on the steel plate.

The surrounding steel plates developed twisted, radial cracks due to the immense impact.

"this……"

Lei Zhan withdrew his fist and stared blankly at his hand.

The skin wasn't broken, and the bones weren't fractured.

There wasn't even a hint of redness or swelling.

The feeling of that punch was like hitting a slightly hard piece of tofu.

"Holy crap..."

A soldier nearby swallowed hard, his voice trembling, "Captain, are you... are you even human?"

Lei Zhan suddenly turned to look at Wang Yijun, his eyes blazing with fanaticism.

"Commander! This...this is..."

Wang Yijun took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in his heart.

It became.

It really happened.

A single medicinal bath can enhance the physical strength of a mortal to this extent? This is practically... creating a god!

"That is power."

Wang Yijun's voice trembled, but more than that, it was filled with excitement: "The power that belongs to the Dragon Kingdom."

……

Meanwhile, Jinghu Lake.

A water mirror floated in front of Li Chen, showing the scene in the basement.

Looking at Lei Zhan's punch, he curled his lip in disdain.

"It's just brute force; it hasn't even scratched the surface of spiritual energy."

Just as Li Chen was about to disperse the water mirror, his movements suddenly stopped.

Those golden vertical pupils narrowed slightly, their gaze piercing through the screen and locking onto the man named Lei Zhan.

To be precise, it was locked onto Lei Zhan's back.

Beneath that thick layer of black sludge, a faint, almost invisible golden line appeared on Lei Zhan's back.

The patterns were irregular, yet they subtly conveyed an ancient and desolate atmosphere.

"what?"

Li Chen let out a soft exclamation, and his dragon whiskers twitched slightly.

"Not only did it withstand the onslaught of dragon energy, but it even absorbed a trace of it, condensing a 'pseudo-dragon pattern' within its body?"

A playful smile curved at the corners of Li Chen's lips.

Could there really be such talent among ordinary people?

"That's interesting."

Li Chen slowly closed his eyes, his voice echoing in the empty hall.

"This seed... might grow into a decent crooked tree."

"Someone come here."

The assistant beside him immediately stood up and respectfully said, "Lord Dragon Lord."

"Tell Wang Yijun that the boxing kid will have his medicinal baths tripled in potency from now on."

Chen Wei was taken aback, then lowered her head and said, "Yes."

If you have talent, don't waste it.

......

A month later.

In late autumn, Yufeng Mountain is covered with red leaves, creating a breathtaking tapestry of colors.

On the dedicated highway leading to Jinghu Base, a convoy of twelve black bulletproof SUVs snaked its way up like a long dragon.

The front of the vehicle was decorated with the United Nations flag, as well as the flags of the United States, Britain, France, and other countries.

Inside the middle stretch Lincoln, Professor Wilson was nervously wiping his glasses.

Ever since he saw the microscopic image of that dragon scale, the old man hasn't had a single good night's sleep.

As the chief advisor of this "Joint Scientific Expedition," his purpose in coming here is less to conduct research and more to "falsify" existing theories.

"Professor, relax."

Sitting opposite him was a burly white man.

He was wearing a large black trench coat, sunglasses, and a black mamba snake with its tongue out tattooed on his neck.

He is "Black Mamba," the top special operations team leader of the Western Alliance, and also the security chief for this inspection team.

"People from China are masters of deception and fraud."

Black Mamba chewed his gum, his tone dismissive. "That so-called microscopic structure diagram is definitely a composite. As for the energy fluctuations that night... ha, probably some kind of high-power microwave weapon experiment went out of control."

Wilson put his glasses back on, his hands still trembling slightly. "But what about those five 'Ghost' squad members..."

"That's because they're stupid."

Black Mamba sneered, his arrogance emanating from his very bones. "This time is different. We've brought 'Titan'."

He patted his bulging waist under his trench coat.

That place is the third-generation exoskeleton power-assisted system, hailed as the crown jewel of Western military industry.

With its miniature hydraulic drive and aerospace-grade titanium alloy frame, it enables an ordinary soldier to lift a two-ton weight and achieve a burst speed comparable to a cheetah.

Combined with a subcutaneously implanted neural response chip, this is a real-life "super soldier".

"Faced with an absolute technological gap, those tricks of the East are as laughable as the witchcraft of primitive people."

Black Mamba spat out his chewing gum, his eyes sharp as knives.

……

The main gate of Jinghu Base.

Chen Dong and Wang Yijun stood side by side, with no flowers, no red carpet, and no honor guard behind them.

There were only twenty-three people.

Twenty-three men, dressed in black cloth shoes and loose-fitting exercise clothes, stood there with their hands behind their backs, looking like a group of old men doing morning exercises in a park.

The only difference was that they were too quiet.

This silence wasn't the kind of quiet that comes from strict discipline, but rather the deathly stillness of stones standing there.

The wind blew past the corners of their clothes, but it couldn't move their hair.

"Old Chen, is this the high-level reception you were talking about?"

Wang Yijun glanced at Lei Zhan and the others behind him, and his lips twitched involuntarily. "If I let these bastards be the greeters, I'm afraid they'll wet their pants in fright."

Chen Dong's eyes held amusement. "Since the foreigners want to see muscles, let them see them. However, our muscles are not quite what they understand."

The convoy came to a stop.

The car door opened, and a group of diplomats in suits and scientists in white coats filed out.

Following closely behind were thirty bodyguards in trench coats with stern expressions.

The moment the two sides met, the atmosphere instantly became strange.

Black Mamba took off his sunglasses, his gaze sweeping over Lei Zhan and the others, his contempt almost undisguised.

"Is this the security system of the Dragon Kingdom?"

He scoffed at his deputy in English, "Not even bulletproof vests? Are they planning to use the internal energy from kung fu movies to stop bullets?"

The deputy shrugged, laughing so hard his shoulders shook: "Maybe they think cloth shoes can outrun our tactical boots."

A low murmur of laughter erupted from the Western delegation.

Professor Wilson stepped forward and shook hands with Cao Xun, but his eyes kept glancing towards the base. "Mr. Chen, when will we be able to see... that creature?"

"No rush."

Chen Dong smiled and blocked his view. "According to the procedure, we need to go through security checks first."

"Security check?"

Black Mamba strode forward, looking down at Cao Xun from his towering height of nearly two meters, like an iron tower.

"We have diplomatic immunity, and our equipment is self-defense weaponry specially approved by the United Nations, so we don't need..."

"This is the Dragon Kingdom."

Lei Zhan, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up.

His voice was soft, a little hoarse, and sounded unremarkable.

But he only took one step forward, and his relaxed demeanor instantly changed.

Like a dozing tiger, it slightly opened its eyelids.

Black Mamba instinctively took a half step back, then became enraged.

Was I scared off by a short person dressed in pajamas?

This is utterly disgraceful!

"What if we refuse?"

Black Mamba narrowed his eyes, his right hand seemingly casually slipping into his trench coat pocket, but in reality, he had already grasped the exoskeleton's activation grip.

If he wanted to, the hydraulic arm could unleash a three-ton impact force in a second, smashing the ignorant yellow-skinned monkey in front of him into a bloody pulp.

Lei Zhan remained expressionless, not even lifting his eyelids.

"You can give it a try."