After locking onto his targets, Hattori prepared to act.
Based on his calculations, there were roughly seven hours left before the preliminary round officially ended.
"Plenty of time."
Looking at the three sitting firmly in their kingly positions on the Anywhere TV, a smile of complete control curled on Hattori's lips.
Such powerful individuals would certainly be unwilling to be controlled.
Even if subdued by force, they would harbor resentment and could rebel at any time.
Hattori, who adhered to the principle of caution, would never allow such a phenomenon to occur.
Therefore…
'The Soul-Summoning Gu from the Hongmao Lantu dimension is perfect for dealing with this world's Espers.'
Hattori flipped his right hand, and a crystalline jade vial appeared in his grasp.
Soul-Summoning Gu.
Due to the limitations of its origin, its effect on higher life forms is limited.
For instance, on the Sea Kings from the One Piece World, or Digimon at the Ultimate level and above in the Digital World, the Soul-Summoning Gu is difficult to take effect, becoming rather useless.
But in this parallel world, although the powerful Espers possess special 'abilities', they are essentially still human.
The Soul-Summoning Gu can achieve a one hundred percent effect on them.
Holding the jade vial, Hattori formed a one-handed seal.
A giant wooden humanoid emerging from the ground gently lifted him up.
It began moving slowly towards the coordinates of Island #651.
Island #651.
Dong Wanzhong, a full 2.3 meters tall, with explosive muscles, raised his thick eyebrows high.
He floated in the seawater beside the island, a trace of seriousness flashing in his eyes.
Then, as if having made a decision, he took a deep breath and dove headfirst into the seabed.
"Lift!"
Underwater, Dong Wanzhong's muscles bulged violently, veins popping out, exerting all his strength to lift the island.
Clang.
The small island, hundreds of meters in diameter, emitted a faint tremble.
Clang, clang, clang.
The trembling grew louder and louder.
Even the seawater around the island was stirred into swirling vortex storms by a terrifying great force.
Hattori stood on the head of the wooden giant, quietly observing all this from several kilometers away.
"Not bad strength."
He praised.
The so-called islands in the Thousand-Star Archipelago are actually just fragments of land, and their weight cannot compare to real islands.
But even so, their weight must exceed a hundred tons and a normal person could never lift it.
Moreover!
Dong Wanzhong was in the water, where it's difficult to exert force, making the act of lifting the island even more challenging.
Lift!
However, even in such a state, Dong Wanzhong's face still turned red, his muscles swelling again as if about to burst through his skin.
On his epidermis, thick veins, like roaring dragons, seemed to roar at the island.
Bang!
Finally, under Dong Wanzhong's limit-breaking strength, the island fragment weighing over a hundred tons was slightly lifted by an inch.
In that very instant, a terrifying power aura erupted from Dong Wanzhong's entire body. His height suddenly increased by three centimeters, and his muscles swelled again.
Viewed from afar, he resembled a small muscular reef, straddling the island and the ocean.
'Success.'
A flash of pleasant surprise appeared in Dong Wanzhong's eyes.
This was his 1009th time breaking through his limits. After the first thousand times, finding a new critical point each time became extremely difficult.
Of course,
Every breakthrough after the thousandth time also increased his strength exponentially.
During his 1008th breakthrough, he lifted a small hillock.
Approximately 178 tons.
This time, he broke through his limit again.
He had measured this island.
If exerting force underwater, it required strength equivalent to lifting a 400-ton weight on land to barely lift it.
Four hundred tons of immense force!
Simply a human-shaped monster!
Furthermore, after completing this breakthrough, Dong Wanzhong's lower limit of strength became four hundred tons.
Lifting the #651 island fragment with both hands became as easy as lifting a chick.
"This way, I have absolute confidence to break through the advancement round and charge towards the champion's throne."
A confident curve lifted the corner of Dong Wanzhong's mouth.
"That might not be the case."
Right at that moment, an ethereal voice, seeming to drift from a faraway place, reached his ears perfectly.
Dong Wanzhong's hearing had also been enhanced 319 times. Although not as much as his strength, it was still hundreds of times better than a normal person's.
"Who's there?!"
A ferocious glint flashed in Dong Wanzhong's eyes. His muscles instantly erupted as he shot towards the source of the voice like a missile.
However, when he saw the full appearance of the person he faced, the confidence and wildness in his heart all turned into fear and trembling.
"This is..."
A hundred meters? A thousand meters?
Neither.
A colossal entity, its feet treading the depths of the sea thousands of meters below, its head reaching the sky thousands of meters above, towering into the clouds, resembling a deity, stood quietly before him.
His proud physical skills, fists, feet, strength, speed, explosive power were like an ant hitting an elephant, not even enough to tickle.
An expression of disbelief appeared in Dong Wanzhong's eyes.
'Such a monster...'
'Could it really be born on this planet?'
'Dong Wanzhong is the brute force type. Just overpower him with strength, then feed him the Soul-Summoning Gu. Relatively easy to deal with.'
Five minutes later, Hattori placed the casually knocked-out Dong Wanzhong on the wooden humanoid, poured the Soul-Summoning Gu down his throat, and thought to himself, 'The remaining two are relatively more troublesome, but they can be dealt with quickly too.'
He shrugged, a relaxed expression on his face.
With a wave of his right hand, the wooden humanoid slowly walked towards the direction of Island #981.
Moyan sat alone in a corner of the beach, gazing intently in the direction Hattori was approaching.
'He's coming.'
He looked at his own palm, murmuring to himself.
Moyan's ability was not the 'God-tier Luck' or 'Chain Reaction Calculation' that Hattori had guessed.
But 'Foresight' and 'Altering the Foreseen'.
He could see one minute into the future and could make slight changes to alter that future.
For example, when being chased, throwing that pebble at a specific angle, in Moyan's eyes, he saw the scene one minute later: He was alive and well, while all his pursuers died miserably.
This heaven-defying ability, Moyan had always kept hidden in his heart.
If not for something he desperately wanted in the The Number One Under Heaven Martial Arts Tournament, he wouldn't have risked participating.
But, just half a minute ago, Moyan saw a future that made him despair.
A man stood on a giant level with the sky.
A large hand reached out, gently picked him up.
Then poured some unknown medicine down his throat, after which he lost all consciousness.
Unwilling to wait for death, Moyan naturally desperately sought a way to change it.
In one second, he could mentally simulate thousands of possibilities.
However!
In every single one, the outcome did not change.
The only different result was him committing suicide before that person arrived.
"I won't commit suicide."
A deep hatred flashed in Moyan's eyes, similar to the members of the Darkening Chat Group.
Bearing a sea of blood and deep hatred, he absolutely could not die before achieving his goal.
'Even if controlled, even if becoming that person's puppet, I won't commit suicide.'
Tap…
Just like the future he saw in his mind, a giant wooden humanoid stopped before him.
Moyan gently stood up, patted the dust off his clothes.
Looking at Hattori, who slowly descended from the wooden hand, as if a god, he spoke.
"I know what you want to do. I won't resist and will cooperate fully. Whether it's gu poison, soul control, brainwashing, anything is fine."
Moyan stared into Hattori's eyes, forcing out his final words from his constricted throat.
"Just promise me... help me kill that person."