Chapter Ten: Fire Crow
In the waiting hall.
Hu Yue was chatting and laughing with Professor Ma, excited at times, and lamenting at others about the cultural relics from Tangcheng that had flowed into the trading market.
It was clear that aside from the ominous aura he exuded, he genuinely cared about recovering the relics.
Liu Banxian, who rushed into the boarding gate ahead of time, was predictably kicked out. The ground staff who arrived to mediate the conflict between him and several middle-aged women quickly found themselves united with the women under his persuasive rhetoric, and it looked like things were about to get physical.
Lu Yibei stood at the consultation desk, tirelessly discussing the ticket change with the staff. Under the assault of his convoluted arguments, the staff member’s mouth twitched continuously.
At that moment, the announcement rang out, and the three stopped their activities almost simultaneously, looking towards the boarding gate, pondering.
“Attention to passengers traveling from Huacheng to Tangcheng: Boarding for flight 3U2333 is now starting. Please take your personal belongings and present your boarding passes…”
Hu Yue, “……” Perhaps this time there would be a chance to see that thing?
Liu Banxian, “……” d*mn it, just out of the dragon’s den and into the tiger’s lair; it’s truly uncomfortable owing others favors.
Lu Yibei, “……” d*mn it, the professor actually bought a deeply discounted ticket reserved by an agent. It can’t be changed; am I really stuck on this flight?
Among the four present, only Professor Ma remained unaffected, full of energy as if he were eager to teleport directly to the destination hotel.
Facing Lu Yibei’s nonsensical comments like “Once the conch sounds, it’s a straight delivery!” and “A monk’s farewell is not a farewell, it’s an exorcism!” and “Professor, walking to Tangcheng wouldn’t take much longer,” Professor Ma completely ignored him and forcibly dragged him into the boarding gate.
Realizing there was no turning back, Lu Yibei straightforwardly abandoned Professor Ma, gritted his teeth, took out his phone, and upgraded his class on the boarding app.
Professor Ma did not stop Lu Yibei; he was already delighted that he managed to get the guy onto the plane without being suspected of kidnapping.
Minutes later.
Finally seated on the plane, Lu Yibei carefully fastened his seatbelt and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Although he was unsure what kind of troubles he might encounter by being on the same flight as those two unfortunate souls, he had studied the probabilities earlier. Judging by safety, the business class might indeed be safer.
At least if the plane lost oxygen, he would d*e slower, there were a few lockable small spaces, if a terrorist wanted to hijack the plane, there could be effective interception, and if some urban legend really did k*ll the captain and co-pilot, he could take over the plane at the first moment.
With all that in mind, spending money to upgrade didn’t seem so painful; after all, money buys life!
But speaking of taking over the plane…
Lu Yibei looked at a passing flight attendant and waved, “Miss, Miss, come here for a moment.”
The flight attendant came over smiling, “Hello, how can I assist you?”
“Do you know how to fly a plane?” Lu Yibei said expressionlessly.
“Hello, I don’t know!” The flight attendant smiled, but her gaze turned strange as she looked at Lu Yibei.
This was a medium-sized aircraft without a first class, with business class being the closest cabin to the cockpit, which is often the terrorists’ first choice for hijacking.
Seeing the flight attendant say nothing, Lu Yibei pressed on, “By the way, do you know what the probability of a plane crash is? Do you think we’ll have an accident this time?”
“Hmm?” The flight attendant froze for a second, her voice unconsciously weakened, but she still managed to maintain her smile, “Hello, as one of the safest modes of transportation in the world, the chance of one person experiencing a plane crash is one in 1.2 million, while the chance of dying in a crash is one in 11 million.”
Lu Yibei widened his eyes, “The probability is that high? Then isn’t that just asking for trouble?”
Flight attendant, “??? ”
“Miss, do you provide paper and pen on the plane for passengers to write last wills? I want to leave a letter for my beloved, telling her if I make it back alive, I’ll marry her, but if I don’t, she shouldn’t wait for me.”
Flight attendant, “…”
What the hell is wrong with you? Don’t set up such flags, okay?
……
And so, half an hour after the plane took off, after continuous servicing by three different flight attendants, Lu Yibei finally fell asleep.
Although technically his actions did not constitute harassment, they still felt unsettling.
Watching him asleep, the flight attendants secretly sighed in relief, glad that the high-sugar treats and warm milk had taken effect, and they lamented that the world had finally quieted down.
—————
Lu Yibei was very aware that she shouldn’t have fallen asleep on the plane.
However, after two consecutive nights without sleep, coupled with the special care from the flight attendants, she eventually fell into a deep slumber.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself standing on the crumbling and decaying rooftop of a dream.
Looking far out, the familiar city had vanished, replaced by a pitch-black mountain shrouded in thick fog.
The outline of those rolling mountains exuded a majestic yet strange feeling, completely unlike anywhere she had seen before.
“What is this place?” Lu Yibei mumbled, then raised her voice a bit, shouting, “Ancestor! Are you there?”
“Ancestor, come out and study blowing things up!”
After calling out twice with no response, Lu Yibei attempted to contact Meng Meng using her familial mark, and her expression gradually became grave.
This kind of dream realm without Qing Ji’s presence, and unable to contact Meng Meng, had appeared before, when Mu… was preparing to plant the flesh of the Pestilence Taijie in Huacheng.
The emergence of such a bizarre dream…
“Oh no, something big is going to happen!” Lu Yibei exclaimed, her mood instantly becoming anxious and restless.
I’m doomed; I knew I shouldn’t have been on this flight. The professor had to drag me on!
If something does happen, and it triggers the power of the Hundred-Armed Giant within me, it might just blow up a few mountains; isn’t that just like dropping missiles?
This is bad; even if I’m doomed, if the plane crashes near some city, that would be a huge problem.
Lu Yibei thought frantically.
At that moment, a warm wind suddenly blew from afar, startling her, and she looked in the direction the wind was coming from.
The horizon was touched with a hint of red, seemingly from a raging fire, spreading and engulfing the sky in crimson clouds.
Golden beams of light, like boiling molten metal, shot up from below the horizon, leaping upward and coalescing into a massive glowing orb in the sky, shining bright and glorious.
Is it sunrise?
Lu Yibei was momentarily taken aback.
She had never seen a sunrise in her dreams; her previous dreamscapes seemed eternally covered by darkness.
No, that doesn’t seem to be the sun, Lu Yibei thought.
When that seemingly warm light fell, the first feeling she sensed was not warmth, but a chill, making her instinctively want to avoid it.
The next moment, a violent wind surged.
A sharp shriek erupted from the valley as a small black shadow soared up, charging directly towards the “sun” in the sky.
It was like a brush, tearing through the magnificent oil painting depicting the sunrise, leaving behind a straight trail.
“Chirp—!”
Only when the cry of the bird reached her ears did Lu Yibei realize that the shadow was actually a bird.
A trivial bird, flying towards the “sun.”
It resembled Icarus from Greek mythology, who, with wings made of wax and the feathers of seabirds, escaped the labyrinth and flew toward the sun, fearless of the scorching heat that was gradually burning its wings.
It screamed.
In a moment of illusion, Lu Yibei felt she heard within its cries a surge of anger and persistence, as well as a determination to burn together with the jade.
It seemed to want to… crash into the “sun”?
Lu Yibei was stunned. She didn’t understand where that little creature found the courage to undertake such an uneven challenge.
But as she heard its call, she could not help but silently cheer for its bravery, and she couldn’t help but anticipate the moment of impact, a vision of the “sun” exploding and blooming into a d*ath flower in the sky flickered in her mind.
However, everything stopped the moment the bird’s figure was swallowed by the blinding sunlight.
The outcome, unknown.
————
The turbulence of the plane jolted Lu Yibei awake. She opened her eyes to see a slightly tense flight attendant hurriedly pass by her.
“……”
Just dozed off for a moment and the plane is in trouble? Lu Yibei’s heart sank.
The next moment, the plane’s announcement rang out.
“Dear passengers, our plane is experiencing noticeable turbulence due to air currents. Please remain seated and fasten your seatbelts. The restroom will be temporarily unavailable. Thank you for your cooperation!”
What the hell, just air currents? That scared me… Lu Yibei grumbled inwardly, raising her trembling hand to fasten her seatbelt, her heart that was about to settle instantly jumped back up.
【They attacked the cockpit】
The anticipatory thought flashed in her mind, startling Lu Yibei, and she quickly looked out the window, catching sight of a red light sweeping across the sky like a ribbon.
Looking closely, outside the window, flickering lightning danced among the leaden clouds, a swarm of fire-wrapped crows was swirling up and down around the plane, bringing an ominous presence, with faintly visible dark eyes glinting maliciously.
They looked like demonic creatures resembling birds.
They brushed against the plane, their sharp claws hanging towards the fuselage, and suddenly a faint golden shimmer appeared on the fuselage. That golden glow lasted less than two seconds before becoming fragmented, glowing debris swept into the clouds by the fierce wind, disappearing without a trace.
This is bad, the monks’ spell is about to break…
d*mn it, what the hell is that? Is this a group of fire crows from an urban legend trying to hijack the plane?
Could it be that the little bird crashing into the sun I saw in the dream actually represents the explosion of the plane?
Lu Yibei grumbled, retracting her gaze, expressionless as she looked at the purser beside her, quietly asking, “Excuse me, are there any red air currents?”
“No.” The purser replied curtly and coldly.
Those little girls can’t handle you; how can I not?
“What about the bird-shaped ones? You know, those who scream and are engulfed in flames, like an urban legend air current?”
Still with the D+ to C spirit energy fluctuation, prepared for a terror attack kind… Lu Yibei added silently in her heart.
The purser glanced at Lu Yibei, then looked outside, feeling a chill down her back.
Outside, there was nothing but the rolling leaden thunderclouds stirred by the fierce winds.
“……”
It seems like I really can’t handle this; you should go complain to me instead. The purser silently thought as she prepared to explain something to Lu Yibei when he interrupted her.
“Sorry, may I ask if you’ve eaten?”
The purser, “??? ”
What’s the point of asking that? What is he up to?
Taking advantage of the purser’s moment of distraction, accompanied by a wave of spirit energy fluctuations, nearly a hundred pale, slender tentacles extended from behind Lu Yibei, silently penetrating into the heads of all the passengers.
In comparison to using Meng Meng’s ability to pull Jiang Li into the dream, drawing in the 99.99% ordinary people on the plane into the dream was much easier.
After confirming that all passengers were pulled into the dream, Lu Yibei unfastened her seatbelt and headed toward the cockpit.
Since there were indeed terrorists hijacking the plane, she’d stop them in the cockpit.
————
Half a minute later, in the cockpit.
The captain had already ordered the co-pilot to start turbulence checks and disconnected the autopilot. With a serious expression, he began to pilot the aircraft manually.
However…
Just as the captain was piloting the plane through a patch of thunderclouds.
A large flock of strange black-winged crows suddenly entered his field of vision, very close, less than two kilometers away, as if they had been lying in wait behind the clouds.
Immediately after, a dense formation of crows, upon the plane’s appearance, erupted with flames beneath their wings and charged toward them with a fierce momentum, like shooting meteors streaking across the sky.
Having already infiltrated the cockpit, Lu Yibei watched the scene outside, her pupils contracting.
It seemed unavoidable; she could only gamble now.
Hopefully, they wouldn’t draw a “grand prize.”
Cursing in her mind, she quietly began to chant the spell formula for the Four Beasts Bright Sky Cannon.
This was the only spell among all she had mastered that wouldn’t cause damage to buildings, vehicles, or planes.
But, in this moment within the airplane, she had no chance to release other spells or adjust the amplification of her spell.
She could only hope to keep the amplification below 1.
If it exceeded that ratio, given her current physical state, she would likely be unable to endure it.
d*mn! What good is having good luck at such a time?
Lu Yibei cursed angrily in her heart and looked up at the swarm of birds less than ten meters away from the plane.
【They shattered the glass】
The thought of prediction flashed through her mind, and beads of sweat suddenly appeared on her forehead.
Just as the spirit energy was being violently consumed, her nerves were intensely strung, and she felt herself on the verge of fainting, a sound like a flute drifted past her ears…
————
Meanwhile, in the locked restroom of the plane.
A man who should not have been there at this time had somehow evaded the flight attendants’ inspections and appeared here.
He stood in the narrow space of the restroom, leaning against the wall, eyes closed, lost in a trance as he continuously played a bone flute.
It was a pale, slender bone flute, seemingly made from the leg bone of a certain large bird, unlike the flutes commonly seen today; it only had five holes, and was intricately carved with dense, twisted designs.
Before long, a tune ended, and the flute sound abruptly stopped.
He slowly lowered the bone flute, one hand pressed against his chest, panting heavily, then looked up out the window.
Seeing the clawed firebirds transform into billowing black smoke amidst their piercing cries, a trace of unwillingness flashed in his eyes, and he instinctively clenched his fists.
————
Cautiously opening the cockpit door, Lu Yibei walked out, still immersed in shock.
She couldn’t understand if someone was instructing those birds to attack the plane, what was their purpose?
And why would they choose to give up just as success was at hand?
Or was there another reason?
As Lu Yibei pondered, walking back to her seat, a sudden “click!” sounded from the front.
Following the sound, far away, her vision through the corridor and the curtain separating the cabins caught sight of a figure emerging from the economy class restroom, whose clothes looked strangely familiar, and in their hand…
Was a bone flute!
In an instant, Lu Yibei recalled the moment just prior when the fire crows had unexpectedly vanished, and the fleeting sound of a flute had drifted past her ears, causing her eyes to tremble.
Just as she noticed that person, they seemed to sense her gaze as well, slightly turning to look this way.
In that instant, their eyes met, and both saw surprise reflected in each other’s expressions.
He can see me?
Why is he standing by the restroom/cockpit door at this time?
Could it be him just now?
Grumbling, in that split second, both moved.
One hurriedly ran toward the economy class while the other quickly walked back to their seat as if escaping.
“Whoosh—!”
In an instant, Lu Yibei threw back the curtain, her gaze swiftly scanning the large cabin, but all she found were a crowd of sleeping passengers, not locating that person’s figure.
Then
Her gaze landed on the sleeping Hu Yue, her brow furrowing.
“……”
Isn’t the color of his clothes a bit similar to that shadowy figure from earlier?
