Hong Haocheng had no idea how long he’d been falling.
The earth, so close yet seeming to recede the nearer it drew, left his mind in a haze. When he finally came to, his body was twisted against the door at the middle of the cabin in an awkward pose.
Buzzzz—!
He noticed that the aircraft had sprouted a fleshy membrane!
–This… I didn’t get crushed to death?–
Hong Haocheng frantically peered through the porthole, now clouded gray. Below lay an unfamiliar land, its distant reaches shrouded in a gray mist!
In his mind, the memories inherited from Xu Fei had grown hazy.
—Once, on the planet Xu Fei hailed from, someone had returned from a world that shouldn’t exist, many years after he vanished.
—That man brought back a fruit.
—The fruit, presented to the king, granted him such overwhelming power that he enslaved all life upon the land for over a millennium.
—And so, people rose in rebellion.
Only a deep, distant sensation lingered in the memory…
—For nearly three centuries, people sought by any means to gain powers that could counter the king’s uncanny might. Resisters came from everywhere—including the king’s own concubines and children scattered across the continent—and the king seemed to relish this game of suppression. It wasn’t until a certain mercenary band, guided by the ancient myths of a few ethnic minorities, discovered a possible countermeasure in a perilous ruin far from civilization, that the king finally realized… his power was not unique.
— The thousand-year-old king ordered the encirclement and annihilation of this band, and the extermination of their entire tribe. But the army he dispatched mutinied and turned their weapons against him. So the king, in a panic, mounted his horse and personally rode out of the city to attack the band, along with the rebel forces that surged toward him like madmen. Nearly half the continent sank as a result.
— But at the last moment, the powerful mercenary, with his last breath, returned and stuffed the scroll he had found into the hands of the only surviving clerk in his team.
Hong Haocheng took a deep breath of the foul air thick with the smell of blood, then immediately coughed violently twice.
–My wife… turns out to be an alien. Cough, cough, cough…-
The clerk is none other than Concubine Xu!
{Ba…}
Suddenly, a strange sound arose in Hong Haocheng’s heart.
He was suddenly startled, his eyes darting left and right, but there was no one there. Then he looked up and saw, on the top of the machine, blood-and-flesh patterns like a fine iron net spread out like a giant spider web.
–Who?-
{…ya ya… fei fei…}
A strong urge to seek food pervaded Hong Haocheng’s heart.
This feeling was very strange, as if… another self?
Another hungry self?
Hong Haocheng tore himself free from the web-like binding. Glancing at his hand, he saw it had grown more adult-like—the skin surface was much tougher! Without time to dwell on it, he staggered step by step toward the suitcase of Xufei hanging nearby.
Unfortunately, aside from clothes, there was nothing particularly magical inside. It didn’t resemble the travel bag of a godlike figure at all—just the belongings of an ordinary girl.
Rumble!
The plane trembled again.
{…Ah…Eat…More…}
–What do you mean?- Hong Haocheng frowned. –What do you want to eat?-
{…Eat…Fly…}
–You want to eat a part of me, and then you can fly?- Hong Haocheng turned his head to look out the other window. The wing that had exploded earlier had grown a fleshy membrane and a skeletal frame. Though still somewhat tattered, it had clearly sprouted recently!
–I’ve gone crazy!- Hong Haocheng picked up a red flight jacket at random and put it on.
Although the voice of the plane was hard to understand, through the telepathic exchange, Hong Haocheng could roughly sense what the other party timidly wanted.
{Eat…}
–If I fall to my death as soon as I cross over, I’m afraid Xumei’s plan will fall through.-
Seeing the bizarre, ruined city getting closer, along with figures running through it, Hong Haocheng nervously pressed his hand against the aircraft wall.
{Eat……!}
Watching the ground approach outside, Hong Haocheng felt a momentary daze in his heart.
A surge of information appeared in his mind…
[Life Investment.]
His eyes lit up, and instantly his hair turned coarse and dry, his facial skin rapidly hardening, as if he had become a tall, handsome young man of twenty-six or twenty-seven in the blink of an eye.
……
In the city, high-rises stood like unfinished buildings.
Today, in the middle of the month, many powerful teams were guiding newcomers arriving here. Suddenly, a plane spiraled down from the sky, trailing flames and smoke, diving toward the ground.
–Holy crap!-
A few people waiting near a building were startled.
–A plane came this month?-
Across the city, countless newcomers and veterans looked up at the private jet carving a black trail across the sky.
–What a shame—that plane’s definitely going down.-
I’ve heard that some cities had passenger planes before, but none ever landed safely.
–Looking at the model, the people inside must be some business tycoon.-
–Or a celebrity, but I’ve never seen a celebrity with a private jet like that… wait… it’s turning toward us—run!-
The crowd watching the out-of-control plane scatter in panic.
……
On the other side of the city, Chen Yunze and his team, emerging from the subway passage with disappointment, heard a rumble overhead.
They looked up and saw the plane, trailing black smoke, plummeting.
A burly man walked over and said, –Too bad, Captain. We rarely see planes.-
–Yeah, but there’s basically no chance of survival.-
–Too little time—it can’t even spawn an Enightmare.-
–It’s going to explode.-
The booming sound only reached the ears of a few at this moment, but just as it was about to crash, it abruptly pulled up and soared back into the sky in a sweeping arc.
The panicked crowd fleeing below all felt a jolt in their hearts.
–What! That thing seems to have already turned into an Enightmare!-
–Oh my god, the plane has become an Enightmare? It can fly!-
Throughout the city, those who understood Moxel abilities erupted in shocked clamor.
A flying Enightmare plane — its significance goes without saying.
For instance, the much-hyped Great Star Train of the Lost Frequency Land is a top-tier mobile Enightmare. The plane before us, though not yet psychically transformed, has flight capabilities that are no less practical.
If subdued, this would be a near-top-tier companion Enightmare, second only to the Great Star private train.
–So fast! The people inside actually uncovered the secret of birthing an Enightmare this quickly!- Everyone was astonished.
At the subway entrance, Cheng Yunze said, both surprised and delighted: –Quick, notify everyone to head over there. Our primary objective for the next two days is to find this Enightmare plane! We’ll deal with things like the A-level Cross Zones and subway station later.-
But as soon as his words fell, a small black streak shot up from the ground!
An explosion rang out from the sky!
The Enightmare plane, which had just veered, began to fall to the ground.
–What’s happening!-
–Brother Chen, that Enightmare has been attacked.- A woman with black-rimmed glasses shouted.
Cheng Yunze erupted with rage, –Who did it! Is he an idiot!-
–I saw it. It should be that guy who built the artillery last month.-
A burly man beside Cheng Yunze, his face red with anger, said:
–Fuck, this moron! Does he think blowing up a plane will make the Four-Phase Team look up to him and invite him to join?-
–You mean Ruan Jiancheng, the one who blew up the building last time?- Cheng Yunze fumed, –Get in the car quickly. We’re going over.-
The group clattered toward the Enightmare car parked by the roadside, but a broken line materialized from the air faster than they could move.
{I am Ruan Jiancheng. Please invest in me. This is a demon! Ah!}
–Damn it, you bastard! Invest in your mother!-
–Why did you have to fire at the Enightmare plane? Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how precious a flying modular device is?-
–Don’t do anything reckless. Hang in there, people in the plane!-
The moment they linked to Moxel, they immediately cursed the initiator.
But the next second, they froze.
They saw the plane, which had crashed amid a violent explosion, surrounded by a sea of fire. A figure, scorched by flames with a ferocious expression on his face, was walking step by step through the blazing inferno, emerging from the aircraft.
He gripped a red bone-like steel pipe in one hand, while the other hand clutched a man’s throat, lifting him up.
{Why… did you attack me?}
A hoarse voice rang out, sending chills down the spines of everyone who heard it.
The man emerging from the flames—his skin melted like wax dripping—somehow still stood, even managing to lift a writhing, scorched enemy!
Watching this, Cheng Yunze’s face turned grim.
Beside him, a woman in an elegant long dress let out a soft cry.
{Ah yi… ya yi.}
The wreckage of the yet-unfinished Enightmare aircraft crashed to the ground, part of it transformed into bony flesh, the rest still artificial machinery—though flames sporadically erupted from the mechanical sections.
Thrown aside by the explosion, Ruan Jiancheng scrambled to his feet, aimed a homemade cannon at the man a few meters away, and snarled with a hint of malicious glee:
{Someone invested in me, haha! Come on! I’ve got Chronos again now—go to hell!}
Bang! A cannonball shot toward the man.
The man in flames jerked his head around, swiftly hurling the person in his grip at the projectile.
Boom!
The thrown man was blown to pieces. At the same time, the man in flames dashed in an arc toward Ruan Jiancheng manning the cannon.
{Ya yi… ba ba…}
The aircraft let out a faint, pained sound.
Hong Haocheng, still in motion, heard the aircraft’s sound and instantly became more alert. He abruptly twisted his body and lunged to the side, reaching out to grab a person struggling on the ground, trying to crawl away.
Seizing the moment, the man behind the makeshift cannon set a modified gas canister in place and growled through gritted teeth:
{Monster! Put Zhang Lao Er down! My range is farther than you can imagine—if you don’t, I’ll make you die together with your Enightmare devil!}
More than ten meters away, Hong Haocheng turned a deaf ear. He turned and threw the person in his hand into the gaping hole blown open in the airplane’s cockpit.
{Damn it!}
Boom!
The small iron can was quickly launched out of the iron barrel by the makeshift cannon.
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