IWOL Chapter 111: Divine Bird Ziz

The bird was gigantic.

With its two wings spread out, it nearly obscured the entire sky. Every flap of its wings stirred up a small whirlwind. Each tail feathers were distinct, and its screams seemed to pierce their eardrums.

Cui Zuojing looked up. The Wonton Insurgency team had met this giant bird when they were on the northern canyon. It seemed to have set off from the center of the island every evening to patrol in all directions before returning before dark.

It was the divine bird God had created to protect all birds, and along with Leviathan and Behemoth, it would be used as fodder for the new holy world.

The pressure Ziz gave off was simply too strong. Everyone immediately scrambled to find a hiding place. Dong Zheng heard Heinrich cursed out loud before he pulled Beverly into a run towards a boulder.

Allen and Lin Hangzhi protected Wang Que and pressed against a wall to hold themselves upright. Under the strong wind, Victor was unable to move. He clung to the rock wall, pressing his whole cat body into it so as not to fall.

To anchor himself, Cui Zuojing plunged his sword into the ground and gave Dong Zheng his hand. Dong Zheng’s right arm wrapped around Cui Zuojing’s arm, his hand tightly grasping his upper arm. Cui Zuojing also did the same. They held each other firmly and weren’t too affected by the wind.

Not bothering with the people on ground level, Anzu looked straight at the small, white figure on the cliff wall. With a scream, it rushed toward Victor!

“Uncle, be careful!” Cui Zuojing and Dong Linhai shouted at the same time. Dong Linhai stretched out his hands, ready to catch Victor, shouting, “Let go!”

“It’s guarding the box!” Cui Zuojing’s voice was muffled by the wind. Victor didn’t hear him but soon discovered it for himself. Without hesitation, Victor climbed up against the wind and reached the wooden box. Ziz swooped down.

Victor pushed the box off the cliff.

As the giant bird charged, Victor let go, allowing his whole body to drop down in free fall. Dong Linhai accurately caught him.

Victor was a full ten pounds, and the height of the fall was too high. The impact shook Dong Linhai’s arms numb. The boy hugged the white cat in his arms and rushed toward the hiding place he’d been optimistic about.

The wooden box flew obliquely in the wind, fell to the ground with a loud crack, and rolled a few more times. Allen looked at its position, rushed out from behind the stone like lightning, and reached out to grab the box.

Ziz immediately shifted target and flew toward Allen. Due to his ability, Allen was moving so fast that there were almost afterimages. The recent period of training had allowed him to accurately master his ability. He moved back and forth in the open space between the cliffs and rocks, and the bird couldn’t get close to him at all.

They needed a solution. Cui Zuojing quickly observed the surrounding terrain. He guessed that the top of the cliff was the place where Ziz usually rested, and it would patrol this area every day. After Anzu managed to successfully snatch the box, it probably brought the box over to this place, and Ziz effectively took over the task of guarding the box.

Ziz could access the cliffs and utilize absolute control of the air. The only thing they could use to their advantage was greater mobility.

Allen couldn’t last for long. After three minutes of high-speed exercise, Allen was starting to feel the exertion.

“Linhai!” he shouted, throwing the box in his hand in Dong Linhai’s direction.

Ziz tried to intercept it in the air. Just as its claws were about to touch the box, a ball of fire flew over. The giant bird hurriedly ducked sideways, but the scorching fireball still managed to brush against his wings, scorching the ends of its feathers. The distinct smell of burning protein immediately filled the air.

No matter what kind of animal, be it small or large, the fear of fire was innate. This was enough to make Ziz dodge, allowing the box to successfully pass into Dong Linhai’s hands.

Beverly was partially leaning out from behind a stone, flames rising from her palm. The hot fire in her hand was like an obedient child. She’d noticed Allen’s escape and took the opportunity to throw a fireball over.

Dong Linhai took the weather-beaten box, held it against a stone, and smashed it into pieces with his fist. The wooden pieces scattered, and the object inside was finally revealed.

It was an Ω-shaped amulet in varying shades of purple with a silver chain. When Dong Linhai took it out, Ziz roared, infuriated.

Despite the strong demonic energy, Dong Zheng still felt the amulet emitting the fluctuations of primal chaos. Cui Zuojing frowned and directly asked Domingo, “What is that?!”

He was certain that Domingo must know. If he didn’t say anything, it was probably merely because he didn’t want to.

Domingo loudly replied, “The goddess Taweret is frequently shown with a pregnant belly. She is responsible for childbirth and fertility and is often depicted holding an Ω-shaped protective sign. This thing should have a similar function! Maybe it’s needed to destroy the demon seed.”

Ziz fiercely flapped its wings. Like arrows, dozens of feathers shot off from the wings straight toward the people on the ground. Each of its feathers were as long as a forearm. With a swish, they hit the ground, protruding upright like steel needles.

Cui Zuojing and Dong Zheng did not hide.

As soon as the feathers shot toward them, Dong Zheng moved. In his eyes, the feathers were dragged with afterimages, each corresponding to a string of data. He instinctively pulled Cui Zuojing in certain directions. With each step, the strong wind brought about by the lethal weapons brushed against them, but the weapons themselves landed one after another without causing the slightest harm to them.

Naive Bayes used a set of existing data to classify and calculate the probability of each possible outcome.

This was Dong Zheng’s basic understanding of the Naive Bayes algorithm. Now that the kernel has awakened this algorithm, he must have some ability related to it.

Dong Zheng thought about the lines and phantom images he’d seen when battling against Hydra.

The phantom images were the opponent’s probable future state. The lines were likely the best course of action to take based on various calculations and analysis.

Dong Zheng watched Ziz’s every move, trying his best to recall that particular feeling he’d felt during the battle with Hydra while also simultaneously trying to construct a matrix in his program kernel. He shouted, “Everyone, tell me your abilities. Quick!”

“I can temporarily alter the weight of an object!”

“I can melt a body part!”

“Life energy transfer!”

“Use fire!”

“Increased scope of vision!”

“…………”

The situation was critical, and no one hid their strengths. Everyone reported their abilities one after another. Except for two that were not practical at all, the rest had their own merits.

The team that once owned Lillian had a person who could enhance his throwing ability, which would be quite suitable for this situation. Unfortunately, he’d already died in some unknown place.

Dong Zheng frowned and loudly asked Domingo, who was hiding on the other side, “I remember that you’re good at archery!”

“Yes!” Domingo affirmed.

Dong Zheng had a general idea. He shouted to Beverly, “Can you drive this bird up?!”

“Yes!”

Dong Zheng asked the pilgrim who could change the weight of the object, “How light can you make a person?”

“If I try my best, it should be about one percent, but only for a short, short duration.”

“Good enough!”

The plan was forming in his mind, but it was still missing the most important link. Dong Zheng tried many times, but he couldn’t find that particular feeling he’d felt when fighting against Hydra.

Ziz continued to go after Dong Linhai. Meanwhile, Wang Que hid behind a stone, watching Dong Linhai awkwardly dodge lifting and right, and momentarily felt helpless.

Victor wants to use the power of the Master of Body, but he was afraid of being discovered by the other pilgrims. Allen is still panting and resting. Although Cui Zuojing was strong in combat, he can’t fight against a bird flying in the air. Therefore, he could do nothing but look on.

This won’t do.

Dong Zheng gritted his teeth and sank into his kernel world. The moment he climbed onto the back of a crawler, he said, “Take me up.”

The crawler turned around silently and docilely. It flew straight toward the palace suspended high in the air–The laws of physics had no say in this kernel world composed entirely of various data.

Dong Zheng leaped onto the platform in front of the hall. The two half-gods and half-demon statues with six wings stood on either sides, exuding a warm, white light. But, he ignored them and strode forward to push open the doors to the hall.

In an instant, countless pieces of information poured into his head, accompanied by an unbearable pain.

Dong Zheng opened his eyes. This time, he saw the phantoms images belonging to Ziz, and numbers floating on each shadow. Those were the most likely next steps after calculating and analyzing the probability.

He stared closely at the changing numbers and phantom images, and for a moment, he felt as if he’d seen the future. “Beverly!”

“Got it!”

Heinrich held Beverly with one hand and Tao Ji with the other, transferring the pure, semi-transparent qi gathering in Tao Ji’s body to Beverly.

In an instant, the small fireball in the Argentine’s woman’s hand increased by a factor of ten, turning into a huge fireball. The burning flames were sent flying toward Ziz.

Ziz hurriedly raised its body to dodge. The fireball passed underneath it and burned a large, black hole into the rock wall.

Dong Linhai finally had some breathing space. He turned his head and looked at Ziz. Then, clutching the amulet, he rushed toward Victor.

After Ziz escaped and was planning to launch another attack, another fireball was shot at it!

Massive fireballs spurted out of Beverly’s palms one after another. Tao Ji’s head was covered with a cold sweat, and his body was starting to tremble uncontrollably. The efficiency of Heinrich’s energy transfer was quite low, but his qi was still being taken away at terrifying speed. If this continued for even another minute, he would be drained on the spot.

Several fireballs directly blocked Ziz’s descent and drove it to constantly ascend instead. It’s figure was forced to rise and rise until it hovered above the two rock walls.

“Hangzhi!”

Lin Hangzhi was originally unclear about Dong Zheng’s plan, but when he heard that himself being cued, he suddenly understood everything with happiness.

“Heinrich’s birthday is March 4, 1992. His bank card number is CH066293714591877533R, and the password is 291743. He had about nineteen ex-girlfriends! Come on! Let the bad luck come as fiercely as possible!!!”

Lin Hangzhi opened his arms and yelled up to the sky. Heinrich, who suddenly had almost all of his financial information revealed, was momentary stupefied. Then, in the next moment, he shouted in a heartbreaking voice, “You’re talking nonsense! I only have 17 ex-girlfriends!”

Beverly grabbed his ears and shouted, “That’s useless! You scumbag!”

Soon after Lin Hangzhi’s voice fell, there was a dull thunder. The clear sky instantly clouded, full of thunder and lightning.

As everyone watched, several bolts of lightning exploded from the thick clouds and shot straight at Ziz up high in the sky!

The moment it was hit by lightning, Ziz let out a heart-piercing scream. Its whole body was scorched, and a strong burning smell filled everyone’s nostril.

Under the condemnation of heaven, the giant bird lost nearly all of its ability to move. It stiffly fell from the sky with wings spread out.

Dong Zheng shouted, “Alberto!”

The middle-aged man was long prepared. He held Cui Zuojing’s hand, changing his weight to only one percent of his original weight. Meanwhile, Domingo adjusted the string of his crossbow for the greatest strength, rested his right wrist above his left arm, aimed at the slowly falling Ziz, and pulled the trigger.

The arrow shot out at a speed that was difficult to capture with the naked eye. The powerful recoil made Domingo stagger backward. Meanwhile, the twine rope tied to Cui Zuojing’s wrist instantly grew taut. With his weight reduced to only a few pounds, the youth rushed toward the sky!

When all was said and done, a divine beast was still a divine beast. Despite having suffered a heavy blow, Ziz was able to slow down it’s descent by flapping its heavy wings, trying to prevent itself from falling to the ground

At this time, a silver light passed through its pupils.

In the center of his kernel world, Dong Zheng had his finger on Arabidopsis, clearly transmitting thoughts to Cui Zuojing’s mind.

He knew every possible point of attack, and the best place to kill with one blow.

Ziz’s huge body was an obvious target. There was no need to worry about landing a blow even if he stabbed at random. However, Cui Zuojing only had one blow, and he had to make it count.

His weight was gradually returning, making speed of the arrow he was tied to slower and slower. Cui Zuojing stared at the scorched-black bird with its head raised and its wings flapping. He lunged at its face.

Now!

Cui Zuojing slashed.

The cut wasn’t made with any skills; it was simple and unpretentious, but Cui Zuojing poured all his strength into it.

Blood spilled down like a waterfall. Ziz didn’t even have the chance to scream. Its head flew out and thudded to the ground, rolling a few times.

Even so, it hadn’t completely lost its vitality. It headless body continued to flap its wings, and to everyone’s horror and excitement, it directly flew away.

“It could still live after this?” Dong Linhai was stunned.

Alberto’s ability stopped working, and Cui Zuojing changed back into a 143 pound youth, pulling Domingo’s arrow down from the air. (1)

Dong Zheng directly summoned him back into the prisoner’s space, leaving only a lone arrow dropping to the ground with the rope.

Cui Zuojing immediately came back out, caught the falling Tang Sword, raised his hand excitedly, and tried to high-five Dong Zheng.

Dong Zheng raised his hand to high-five, but he missed.

In the next second, he fell straight down.

Cui Zuojing hurriedly caught him. The prisoner link couldn’t transfer pain, but his hands and feet felt weak. It was obvious that Dong Zheng’s energy was on the verge of being overdrawn.

Alright. Cui Zuojing held Dong Zheng and dragged him to a safe place.

The thunderclouds in the sky hadn’t cleared. Lin Hangzhi hadn’t fully guessed Heinrich’s bank card number correctly, but by relying solely on the information he did manage to guess correctly, the retribution would be difficult for everyone to deal with.

Lin Hangzhi curled up under Wang Que’s feet, holding his head in his hands and bending over to protect his soft and vulnerable stomach. In a pitiful, weak, and helpless voice, he said, “Que’er, hurry up and get away from me! Ahhhhh, I’m going to die!”

Wang Que: “…………….”

Without hesitation, she bent down, grabbed Lin Hangzhi’s back collar, and dragged him away with difficulties.

Behind them, a bolt of lightning struck the boulder they had just been hiding behind.

———————

Translation Notes:
(1) 143 pounds — The author actually wrote 130 jin, which translates to catty and is equivalent to 500 grams. But, writing “130 catty youth” seems really awkward so I took the liberty of converting it to 143 pounds.

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