Right at that moment, the helicopter squadron shifted course, hurtling straight toward where Luke Lane stood.
“A sorcerer moves with the tide,” Luke Lane murmured, a slight smile touching his lips as he raised his right hand.
“Since you’re offering yourselves up, I might as well give you a little push. Xun Trigram: Turbulent Clouds.”
*Whoosh!
Whoosh!*
The clear, boundless sky abruptly turned violent.
Howling gales erupted from every direction like an angry tide.
The fierce winds tore savagely at the aircraft.
The helicopter Hulk had set his eyes on shuddered violently, its rotor speed dropping drastically as its nose tilted and it fell out of control.
“Hulk!”
Hulk crouched deep before springing up, grabbing hold of the helicopter’s landing gear.
His massive frame shot into the air like a cannonball.
“No!!!”
Inside the cockpit, the pilot turned deathly pale.
Just as his fingers reached the ejection button, Hulk flexed his arms.
Muscles bulging, he tore the entire war machine in half with sheer raw power!
Amid the ear-splitting shriek of twisting metal, the airframe snapped, spraying fuel as fiery explosions burst forth.
He wasn’t done.
Using the recoil of the breaking fuselage, he flipped in midair and slammed headfirst into a second helicopter, tearing, ripping, flipping, and smashing just as before…
In just a few short seconds, all five warhawks were completely dismantled.
Trailing black smoke and blazing flames, they crashed down onto the pavement, exploding into brilliant red fireballs.
“Bastard!!!”
Seeing his elite forces wiped out in an instant, veins bulged on General Ross’s temples.
He snatched up his radio, his voice cold as ice: “Captain Blonsky, lead your special ops squad immediately. Capture Hulk and that blue-haired Asian man alive! Can you do it?”
“Mission guaranteed, General!”
On the other end of the radio, a veteran in his early thirties answered in a deep voice without a shred of hesitation.
“Hulk!”
Having cleared out the noisy “iron flies,” Hulk felt immensely proud of himself and pounded his chest in a roaring frenzy.
His newborn consciousness was still as reckless and violent as a toddler’s—whoever picked on him, he would pay them back tenfold.
“Hulk!!!”
After two more deafening roars, he turned and sprinted toward the weakest line of defense, intending to break out of the cordon in one go.
The moment he took a step, dozens of special forces soldiers on the rooftops along both sides of the street seized the high ground.
Heavy machine guns wove a tight network of fire, raining down bullets that forced Hulk to bow his head.
Snipers lurked in the shadows, aiming anti-material rifles directly at his soft spots—eyes, throat, groin.
Armor-piercing rounds whistled through the air one after another.
They couldn’t pierce his skin, but they hurt like hell.
The injuries were minor, but the humiliation was absolute.
Though he wasn’t bleeding, Hulk jumped around in pain, his rage boiling over.
His body expanded another full size, veins twisting across his flesh like gnarled tree roots.
Before long, the suppressing fire began to falter.
A soldier grabbed his radio and screamed, “Commander Blonsky! The fire network can’t hold him! Requesting permission to retreat!”
“Hold for one more minute!”
On another high point, Blonsky remained completely motionlessly.
He held an anti-material rifle of his own, but his muzzle was not aimed at Hulk.
Instead, it was locked steadily onto another figure on the battlefield.
“Handle the weak one first, then focus on that brute.”
Through the crosshairs, the Asian man with blue hair and blue eyes stood in the wind, his expression completely calm.
Blonsky let out a cold laugh and lowered his crosshairs slightly, locking onto the man’s right leg before decisively pulling the trigger.
*Bang!*
A specially crafted armor-piercing round burst from the barrel.
Paired with the latest anti-material rifle, its muzzle velocity exceeded one thousand meters per second.
He didn’t believe an ordinary-looking youth like this could dodge it.
Yet the expected scream and spray of blood never materialized.
In the scope’s crosshairs, the man merely smiled faintly, his lips moving as if saying something.
Just a fraction of a second before the bullet left the barrel, he stepped forward by half a pace.
The armor-piercing round whistled past his trouser leg, failing to touch even the hem of his clothes.
“A sorcerer’s greatest strength has always been seeking fortune and avoiding calamity.”
Blonsky was fluent in multiple languages and had painstakingly learned lip-reading for past covert operations.
From that single instant of lip movement, he had mentally read the man’s exact words.
“But… what is a sorcerer?”
He froze on the spot, his face stiffening.
Compared to a brute monster like Hulk who tanked bullets through raw toughness, the Asian youth before him—who seemed capable of predicting everything—sent a chill straight down his spine.
“Want to learn? I can teach you.” Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Before the sentence even ended, Luke Lane was already perched on the balcony railing, squinting his eyes as he looked down at him with a pleasant smile.
[Shock Points from Emil Blonsky +600]
“I don’t care who you are, die!”
Blonsky’s heart sank.
Drawing his sidearm with lightning speed, he emptied all six rounds from his Colt pistol in a single volley.
“A waste of effort.”
Luke Lane tapped his toes lightly, stepping firmly into a favorable position, and said lazily, “Xun Trigram: Wind Inspection.”
The moment the words left his mouth, an invisible gust wrapped around him.
Though light as feather, it caught every bullet, bleeding off their kinetic energy until they hovered motionless half a foot away.
“You’re just like Hulk—you’re not human at all!”
Blonsky’s face turned ash-gray.
He reversed his grip on the military knife strapped to his thigh, rolling across the ground to close the distance, lunging straight for Luke Lane’s lower body.
“Now that’s not very dignified.”
Luke Lane raised an eyebrow, stepping forward with his right foot as explosive inch-power erupted.
*Crack!*
The Bajiquan passed down by Zhuge Qing emphasized close-quarters combat and devastating strikes.
This single kick was as swift as thunder, snapping Blonsky’s knife-wielding wrist on the spot.
Losing none of its momentum, his foot slammed squarely into Blonsky’s chest.
*Pfft!*
Blonsky spat out a mouthful of blood.
Before he could even grunt, he was sent flying backward, tumbling off the sixth-floor roof.
When he hit the ground, he had barely a single breath left in him.
Luke Lane glanced down briefly, paid no further attention, and turned back with a faint smile toward Hulk, who was currently swinging soldiers around like sandbags in the distance.
Honestly, General Ross really needed to think things through.
Knowing full well that Hulk was a walking battering ram with maxed-out defense, sending ordinary troops to grind him down was nothing short of throwing wood onto a blazing fire.
“Hulk!”
As Luke Lane swept his gaze over, some nerve in Hulk suddenly twitched.
A roar burst from his throat, and he abruptly abandoned the soldiers surrounding him, charging straight at Luke Lane.
“Heh.”
The corner of Luke Lane’s mouth curled up.
His left foot planted firmly on a favorable Kun position, and he raised his hand with a short bark: “Kun Trigram: Earth Dragon!”
*Rumble!*
Before his voice faded, the ground churned violently.
A massive dragon formed of mud and stone erupted from the earth, opening its jaws in a deafening roar as it slammed down onto Hulk with the weight of a thousand tons!
[Shock Points from Hulk +800]
[Shock Points from Bruce Banner +1000]
“Oho, double exp? One guy counts for two!”
Luke Lane glanced down at the green giant half-buried under crushed rock, raising an eyebrow with a smile that gradually sharpened into something formidable.
The battlefield where the military clashed with Hulk sat right in Lower Manhattan.
This was New York’s famous financial district, the busiest part of downtown.
On ordinary days, traffic flowed continuously and crowds flooded the streets.
Even late at night, the neon lights never dimmed and the noise never ceased.
But right now…
The flames of war had torn apart that bustling reality.
The once-crowded streets were devoid of civilians, leaving only abandoned vehicles and broken wreckage scattered everywhere.
Across this chaotic ruin, military soldiers lay strewn all over the ground.
Only two figures still stood in the wind.
To be precise, one was a human, and the other was a towering green shadow roaring toward the sky.
Unsurprisingly, that green shadow was Hulk!
First he had been hunted around by the army today, and just as he finally shook off those buzzing “wasps,” he was slammed to the ground and crushed by a bizarre human.
If he swallowed this insult, he wouldn’t be Hulk!
Bruce Banner could endure it, but the Hulk never would!
“Hulk!!!”
He pounded his chest and roared once more, his fury boiling to a peak.
His muscles bulged, his bones condensed, and his body swelled even taller, his thick sinews resembling cast-iron rock.
Leaping from the rubble, he crossed hundreds of meters in a single bound.
A heavy fist carrying thunderous force slammed down straight toward Luke Lane’s head!
*BOOM!*
Where the fist’s wind reached, buildings trembled, glass shattered, and the entire street seemed to have been struck by a giant sledgehammer.
As for the core area right beneath Luke Lane’s feet, it looked as if it had been struck by a meteor.
The hard concrete fractured inch by inch, collapsing into a deep crater dozens of meters wide centered around Hulk’s strike.
He had been chasing Hulk all this time, assuming the creature was merely thick-skinned with a strength of a few dozen tons at most.
Only now did he realize: Hulk hadn’t been unable to beat them back—he had simply been too lazy to bother!
“Hulk!!!”
With the new crater formed, Hulk looked down, only to find the space beneath his fist entirely empty.
He let out another roar and whipped his head around to scan his surroundings.
“Looking for me?”
Without even a rustle of his clothes, Luke Lane stood right at the outermost edge of the meteor crater—not a step more, not a step less.
Seeing Hulk look over, he even raised his hand and waved cheerfully.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻!
The green giant immediately decided: this was a blatant provocation!
Roaring into the air, he swung both arms in a wide arc like warhammers, slamming them down toward Luke Lane from above!
“Tsk, what a temper.”
Luke Lane stepped forward with his right foot, taking the Xun position, and spoke lazily: “Xun Trigram: Wind Ropes.”
The moment the words left his mouth, the invisible wind suddenly solidified into dozens of silver-white ropes that bound Hulk tightly in midair, wrapping around him layer by layer until he couldn’t budge.
Luke Lane used the momentum to leap up, tapping his toes light as a feather as he landed on Hulk’s back.
Just before his opponent could react, he smiled calmly: “Gen Trigram: Kunlun.”
Gen governed mountains.
When “Gen Trigram: Kunlun” was cast in Wuhou Qi Men, the caster’s bones became like steel and their weight became like a mountain, heavy and immovable.
And so, the moment Luke Lane’s feet landed, Hulk’s spine suddenly sank.
It felt as though what had pressed down onto his back wasn’t a person, but a towering mountain rising straight out of the earth!
*BANG!*
The two plunged down together.
Under the impact of immense force, another crater sank right beside the first.
A shockwave swept across the surroundings, shattering all glass within a hundred meters to dust and causing nearby buildings to sway precariously, looking as if they might collapse at any second.
[Shock Points from Hulk +1200]
[Shock Points from Bruce Banner +1500]
At the bottom of the second crater lay a human-shaped indentation, with Hulk embedded right inside it.
Luke Lane stood firmly on his back, meeting his dazed eyes, and asked with a grin, “Big guy, do you yield?”
“Hulk… DOES… NOT… YIELD!”
Hulk gritted his teeth and roared softly.
His body expanded once again, veins bulging violently as he struggled to push himself up.
“You really can take a beating!”
Luke Lane’s eyes twitched slightly.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he raised his hand: “Zhen Trigram: Thunderbolt!”
Zhen represented thunder—unyielding and fierce.
In an instant, electric sparks erupted around him like dancing silver snakes.
Arc after arc of lightning wove into a net that slammed directly onto Hulk inside the crater.
*Sizzle…*
Hulk’s hair stood straight on end.
His entire body twitched violently, and wisps of black smoke spewed from his mouth.
Yet even so, he still refused to submit.
With a roar, he straightened his waist and stood up, his body expanding by another third.
“Never-ending, huh?”
Luke Lane’s brow furrowed.
Shifting his left foot, his voice suddenly dropped: “Li Trigram: Crimson Flame!”
Li belonged to fire, stationed in the south.
Before his words died away, the temperature inside the crater shot up drastically.
The scorched earth glowed crimson as fiery flames leaped into the air, tongues of fire twisting and sending a wave of scorching heat washing over everything.
[Shock Points from Hulk +1500]
[Shock Points from Bruce Banner +2000]
Hulk’s struggling movements came to an abrupt halt.
It wasn’t that he was afraid.
The fire hurt like hell, but he wasn’t afraid of pain.
It was just that…
Looking down, several large holes had been burned into his shorts.
The fabric was charred and curled at the edges, on the verge of sliding off completely.
*You can lose a fight, but you can’t lose your shorts!* Banner had said so.
“Hulk does not yield! Fight again next time!!”
He argued frantically with Banner in his mind before finally being persuaded.
With a sudden burst of effort, he held onto his precarious shorts, turned, and sprinted away as fast as his legs could carry him.