The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4446 Dark Prelude (Thirty-One)

Ambulances arrived as quickly as possible. Police, guards, and the military quickly surrounded the scene, and countless reporters flocked to the scene, instantly crowding the street.

Clark was quickly put into an ambulance, but unfortunately, the scene was a large car accident, and many cars had lost power and could not be pushed, so the ambulance could not get out for a while.

Everyone was doing their best to evacuate the crowd, and tow trucks were rushing over. But the presidential palace ultimately decided not to wait any longer and to transfer the injured president to a helicopter, from where he would be taken to the hospital.

The helicopter landed on the ground, and the stretcher carrying Clark was taken off the ambulance and transferred to the helicopter.

The transfer was a bit chaotic. On one hand, the density of the steel body was quite high, and Clark was heavier than an average person, so moving him was naturally more difficult; on the other hand, the ground was slippery, making it hard to walk. For just a few meters, the group stumbled along for what felt like forever, almost dropping the stretcher in the process.

Although Clark was conscious, he was still aware of his surroundings. He listened intently to every sound around him, and suddenly, he heard a very soft plucked string.

Clark pretended to struggle in pain, then suddenly raised an arm in an attempt to roll over. This caused the already unsteady stretcher to tip over to the other side, pulling the stretcher bearers to the ground as well.

But the next second, with a "whoosh," an arrow struck the ground not far away. The surrounding soldiers and police erupted in commotion, brandishing their guns and beginning a search. They quickly pinpointed the direction from which the arrow had come and immediately began their search.

Clark, pretending to have fallen to the ground, looked up and saw that the arrowhead was green. Without a doubt, it was made of kryptonite. This stuff is incredibly abundant on Earth; since its discovery, the amount used in its creations has likely far exceeded that of many rare metals.

Wait, why a bow and arrow?

Clark recalled the sound he heard and concluded it was a compound bow. He only heard the plucking of the string because he wasn't familiar with the sound a compound bow should make when drawn, and simply mistook it for noise. While this thing was powerful enough to cause significant injury to ordinary people, it couldn't possibly compare to a gun, could it?
The arrow's flight speed was, after all, a bit too slow, which gave him time to react. If it had been a sniper rifle, he might not have been able to dodge it at all; the bullet simply wouldn't have been able to penetrate his defenses.

Just then, with a "bang," a bullet pierced Clark's neck, striking his carotid artery. Clark let out a painful groan and clutched his neck.

He could feel that the bullet that had pierced his body was still a kryptonite bullet, and it was incredibly accurate, aimed directly at killing him. Fortunately, he had long since become immune to kryptonite, and could even absorb it. The bullet was immediately digested after entering his body.

Clark was going crazy; he couldn't keep up the act anymore. Damn assassin, I'll make you pay today!

But as soon as he took a breath and prepared to get up, he began coughing violently. It turned out that the shot had been very accurate; though not fatal, it had caused some blood from his artery to enter his trachea before the kryptonite was fully absorbed. Although the wound healed instantly, it still left Clark quite choked.

He coughed and gagged, struggling to expel the blood he had inhaled. By the time he tried to get up again, there was no unusual movement around him. Clearly, the assassin had timed his escape to leave his field of vision.

Since settling scores with the assassin was impossible, he might as well keep acting. Clark sighed inwardly, then collapsed again, and had someone carry him into a helicopter and take him to the nearest hospital.

Of course, the president wouldn't use ordinary doctors; he would have a professional medical team. The medical team Clark hired were the same doctors who had previously helped him deceive Amanda. These people rushed in and found Clark sitting unharmed on the operating table.

“Mr. President, you…” They all stared wide-eyed, trying to find evidence that Clark was bluffing. After all, the person who had gathered them had described a very serious situation: first a stab wound, then a near-arrow shot, and finally a gunshot wound to the neck. Even a god couldn't survive that, right?

Surprisingly, Clark was completely unharmed, sitting on the operating table deep in thought. He waved his hand at them and said, "I'm fine. It was all an act, to make the assassins think they had succeeded."

“Uh…why?” they asked.

Clark shook his head, not going into details with them. Actually, there wasn't much else to it; the main purpose was to maintain the information gap.

These assassins, having somehow gotten information, assumed he was vulnerable to Kryptonite. That was true before, but now, through various training and experiments, he was essentially immune to Kryptonite, a fact unknown to them.

That's why Clark faked his injury, keeping them in the dark. This way, they would continue using Kryptonite against him instead of coming up with new tactics.

Just like the assassination attempt, if he hadn't been seriously injured and collapsed after being hit by the kryptonite dagger, the two assassins behind him might have realized that kryptonite couldn't counter him, and they would have simply run away. But by putting on this act, the two assassins behind him were exposed.

This information is important because the person who stabbed him with a dagger wasn't particularly skilled. It's about striking while the opponent is off guard; it doesn't require expertise, just a lot of courage.

But the other two were different. Both the archer and the gunner were absolute professionals, top-tier assassins. Their teamwork was also impeccable: first, they used an arrow to distract him, then a sniper bullet struck his vitals. Had he not upgraded his resistances, he might truly be in mortal danger.

Even with his upgraded version, that bullet still caused him some trouble. Clark wasn't naive enough to think it was a coincidence; it must have been premeditated.

The bullet struck not the head, nor the chest, but the neck, which is actually the most difficult target. The angle and force of the shot were extremely precise, drawing blood from the artery directly into the trachea, buying the shooter ample time to escape. This goes beyond mere professionalism; it would make even Superman uneasy at the thought of such an assassin existing on Earth.

Indeed, he's no longer afraid of kryptonite. But what if the opponent attacks him with the power of death? Or with some other strange and unusual power?

Clark thought about it more and more and felt that his plan to feign injury was wise. As long as they believed that he had been seriously injured by Kryptonite, they should not try to find other powers, and he would be safe for the time being.

But it was only temporary. Diana mentioned that when his arm was disfigured like that, he saw a thin black line. That thing was fast and insidious; even when Damian hit it, Diana's arm was still affected. If that assassin had hit it, his head would probably have been dead for a while.

Clark immediately started making calls, demanding a thorough investigation of the killer. He essentially turned the heavily guarded operating room into another office and began leveraging resources from all sides to track down this mysterious killer.

At this point, the police brought new information. They found a contraption in a nearby building—a timed compound bow launching device made using the simplest physical mechanisms. In other words, the arrow wasn't fired by a person, but by a mechanism.

Clark understood; this meant there might only be one assassin. And the choice of a compound bow was likely a way of reminding himself of this possibility.

The sound of the bowstring being pulled was unusual and easily noticed. The arrow's flight speed was also relatively slow, giving him time to dodge. Coming from that angle, he could only roll in another direction. In that case, he would most likely land in the assassin's predetermined position.

The assassin had been aiming the whole time, and the sniper bullet arrived precisely the instant the assassin paused. That was the deadly move.

He shouldn't have dodged that arrow. However, his instinct to avoid danger and his superhuman reflexes subconsciously saved him from the assassination attempt, but he didn't expect to fall into an even more dangerous trap.

If he weren't the victim, Clark would have applauded the assassin. The killer must have known something about him, knowing his superhuman senses and reflexes, to have set up such a trap. An ordinary person probably wouldn't have been able to dodge even the first arrow.

Clark mobilized almost the entire nation in a frantic search. But he also realized that this would likely be ineffective. First, the killer was too skilled and probably wouldn't leave any clues; second, there weren't enough people available everywhere. While it was said that the entire national police force was being mobilized, the only ones truly usable were the state troop police, and the New Jersey state troop was particularly ineffective, with a success rate of only around ten percent.

Just as Clark was racking his brains trying to figure out how to catch this terrible killer, Diana called.

"Clark, I saw the news about your attack. I have some clues I'd like to tell you..."

Diana was mainly referring to the theft from the archives on the second floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At first, Clark didn't realize how this had anything to do with his assassination attempt, until Diana mentioned the emerald.

"That document contains a detailed account of the legend of Tutankhamun slaying the serpent. The myth says that Tutankhamun killed your kin with a scepter inlaid with green gemstones. This is the most important clue in the document."

"You mean, they stole this clue to find my weakness?"

"Yes. Although I don't know how they did it, they seem to know that the Martian invasion was just a lie, and you couldn't possibly be a Martian. But at that time, they didn't know that the Serpent of Frini was also a lie. They thought the Serpent of Frini was real, so it was easy for them to see the similarities between you and that giant red and blue serpent from the previous legends. So they must have been looking for your weaknesses in the information related to the Serpent of Frini."

Clark suddenly understood. That made sense. The key to the theft of artifacts seemed to be the artifacts themselves, but in reality, stealing the artifacts might just be a smokescreen. What the real buyer wanted was detailed mythological information.

They wanted to find the Kryptonians' weaknesses by examining the stories in mythological texts about ancient Egyptians killing aliens who appeared to be Kryptonians. This would allow them to use these weaknesses against themselves, the most important and difficult opponent.

Of course, based on previous news reports, it's reasonable to infer that Kryptonians fear the green gem, so there's no need to look for detailed information. However, while the news reports gave a general overview, they made no mention of the origin of the green gem. Everyone treated it as a lighthearted anecdote, and no one delved into it, so no one investigated the origin of the green gem.

But these guys wouldn't do. If they wanted to truly harm Clark, they'd need at least a piece of the Emerald Gem. So they wanted more detailed information, to find out where to find the Emerald Gem that could harm Kryptonians.

There is a piece on the serpent's tail, which is said to be the one on the scepter, but no one knows if there is enough of it. Of course, the more of this kind of thing the better. If you could get a kryptonite TNT, that would definitely be more useful than any small dagger or arrowhead.

However, what Clark found strange was that since they had smashed the Phrygian Serpent, they should have already known the artifact was fake, and therefore should have also believed the legend was false. So why would they use something from a fake legend to attack themselves?
(End of this chapter)