When the plan was determined, Zheng immediately flew into the sky. He looked down from ten thousand metres up in the sky, still unable to see the ends of this vast and endless sea. With Zheng’s current strength, he was able to break through to the atmosphere with just Destruction, without even activating Chaos, Genesis Splitter.
His newly learnt defensive technique using the collision of Refined Qi and Magic, as well as the Red Flame, protected him from burning up in the atmosphere. However, he wasn’t able to survive for long periods in a vacuum, so ten thousand metres up was his best choice.
(It’s the second last battle. The final battle is next. No matter what battles may come in the future, at least against my clone, I don’t want to lose again! I definitely won’t lose!)
Zheng silently looked down, where the remainder of team China was. They were the comrades most worthy of his trust and reliance. Whether for them, for Lori, to live on, or to return to the real world, he wasn’t permitted to lose!
“Team East Sea! We have to capture their psyche force user alive, or else Xuan’s and Honglu’s plan for the final battle will have deficiencies, and Lan…”
Zheng sighed softly again. He had complicated feelings towards Lan. Saying that he didn’t like her would be a lie. A beauty with deep feelings for him who could give up even her life for him. No matter how cold hearted he was, or how deep his feelings for Lori were, he wasn’t able to erase the guilt and complicated feelings he had for Lan in his heart. This was obvious from how he had carried Lan when that pitiful girl had fallen into the sea just now.
(Whatever. These feelings really can’t be severed. Thinking about it is still confusing, so I’ll ignore it for now. I have to save her from her heart’s devil. I won’t let team East Sea escape.)
Zheng let out a long and loud cry in the sky, and flew far off. That speed was several times faster than aeroplanes, and he disappeared from team China’s line of sight in the blink of an eye, leaving the ten or so of them there floating in the sea.
Xuan had been engrossed in his documents the whole time. He only lifted his head to look at the sky after Zheng was gone, then lowered his head. “The storm shall be here soon.”
(The storm is coming… and it’s a really huge one!)
Zheng had already flown several tens of kilometres. Before he had flown far, he saw dark storm clouds in the distance. The distant sky, to the distant horizon, were all enshrouded in these storm clouds, without an end in sight. Lighting and thunder accompanied one another in these storm clouds, and from time to time one or two streaks of purple lightning would strike the sea. Violent hurricanes continuously blew. It truly was a large storm.
Zheng was slightly hesitant. Then, he directly flew below the storm clouds. If he flew above, he wouldn’t have to suffer the wind and rain. However, he didn’t have psyche force scanning, so he could only search for ships below the clouds using his eyes. As soon as he entered, several lightning bolts bombarded Zheng.
A gorgeous brilliance flashed on Zheng, and the lightning bolts scattered into nothingness. However, it hadn't been comfortable for Zheng either. Refined Qi and Magic didn’t come from nowhere, so after taking a few lightning bolts, he finally descended from ten thousand metres in the sky to just a thousand. It was only that this position couldn’t see as far on the sea, and the speed of searching for a boat was much slower.
(The scope of this storm is really huge, and its power is so violent. This should be the difficulty of the disaster movie, The Perfect Storm. Normal ships indeed aren’t fast in this storm. If we can seize a warship, we can ride the wind and waves, and can get to Senkaku Islands faster than team East Sea!)
Not discussing Zheng’s search for a ship for now, the remaining people were floating in the sea. After about half an hour, the horizon began to darken. A rain cloud as thick and solid as ink opened, and slowly unfurled. Slowly, small waves began to appear on the surface of the sea, getting higher and higher as they came. The swaying made everyone float there unsteadily.
“Dammit, the storm really is coming, and we’re floating like this on the sea? We’ll probably have sunk to the bottom of the ocean before Zheng finds a ship, right?” Cheng Xiao, that loud mouth, began to babble rubbish.
The rest remained silent. Only the few who had just entered the Realm had faces filled with worry. They didn’t know if this small airship basket was sturdy enough in the face of this menacing storm, and whether it could resist the surging waves in this storm. If it couldn’t, they wouldn’t be able to survive alone in the sea with their constitutions. If things reached that stage, it would be terrible.
Everyone cast their gazes at Xuan. This fellow was always referred to as Doraemon by Zheng, so he would surely have a way to resolve the current predicament, right? This was a fixed mindset everyone was used to, that Xuan, the one with the deepest secrets in team China, would definitely have something hidden up his sleeves. They were just waiting for him to take it out.
(Speaking of which, he’s getting closer to Doraemon’s image by one big step now with his spatial pouch.)
Zero and the rest didn’t open their mouths to say anything, however they were laughing internally. They saw several rookies who were still inexperienced look at Xuan. They were also excited to see how Xuan would resolve the current predicament.
That fellow was also extremely straightforward. He lifted his head and looked at several people. Then, he looked down to look at documents again. “Err, if we don’t hold out, then we’re dead… probably.”
(He really said that in the end.)
Zero, Wangxia and a few others laughed bitterly seeing this. This fellow Xuan could never say anything pleasant sounding. He had also talked about how Zheng would die if he couldn’t endure when he was Establishing his Foundation. Now, facing everyone’s expectations, he naturally wouldn’t stand out like some great hero. If he really stood out like some great hero, people would most likely conversely not dare to accept his help. After all, no one wanted to casually be schemed against like Zheng… like the matter with Foundation Establishment.
“Xuan, are the documents you keep looking at about the data obtained during Zheng’s Foundation Establishment?”
“Yes. It was data obtained with great difficulty.”
(As expected. A large reason of why he wanted Zheng to Establish his Foundation was so that he could get this data to research Cultivation…)
Several of the rookies felt a chill in their heart hearing this. They didn’t dare to look at Xuan, afraid of being dragged into Zheng’s destiny of being schemed against for a long time. The veterans of team China were smiling bitterly. They didn’t have too much of a fear towards Xuan, but rather emotions of not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He was the brain of team China, and also team China’s soul. It could be said that he was an irreplaceable member of team China, existing at the same position as Zheng. Apart from some bad habits he had, this man had never betrayed or abandoned his comrades in the battlefield. Of course, this was with the precondition he acknowledged you as his comrade.
At this moment, a wave several metres tall came crashing down. It tossed the small airship basket into the air. When it fell, several people dropped into the water. Before they could float up, several more waves came crashing over. The waves came in a never ending manner. Pea-sized raindrops gradually fell from the sky as well. When everyone had floated up from the sea, purple lightning abruptly flashed in the skies. With a boom, the storm finally arrived.
The distant Zheng flew faster the more he flew. In the end, he used Explosion, shooting forward like lightning. As he saw the storm get more and more violent, and the surface of the sea filled with metre high waves or even more, he didn’t know whether his comrades would be able to hold out. They didn’t even have a ship, and the rookies had prospects more grim than promising. Zheng couldn’t not do his best to find a ship, to save them from the storm even earlier.
“I see it!”
At the limits of Zheng’s vision, he saw a small ship in the distance floating there. He immediately shouted in excitement. That voice even covered the roaring of the storm, causing several on the ship to look at the sky. The dynamic vision of these humans was limited, so they only saw a human figure descend from the skies at high speed. Before they could recover from their surprise, a man about twenty years of age was standing on the deck of the ship.
As Zheng had come in too strange a manner, for a time the sailors on deck all stood transfixed to the ground, until a giant wave came rolling over, dragging a sailor into the water. The sailor cried out, and everyone recovered from their shock. However, how were they to save that sailor? In this violent storm, it was a death sentence if anyone was thrown overboard.
Just as everyone was mournfully calling out the sailor’s name, Zheng stomped down suddenly and shot out. He picked up the sailor before the sailor even landed in the water, then his foot stepped down on the empty air and shot back up. This sudden change made everyone call out, but what they were calling out was ‘superman’, as if they had determined he was one of those superheroes from American movies.
“Whether or not I’m a superman, I’m commandeering this boat now. Come with me to save some people!” Zheng exhaled. Being drenched with rainwater and breathing in the damp air from the waves wasn’t pleasant, but the significance of standing on a deck made him heave a sigh of relief.
The sailors froze hearing this, with obvious hesitation. However, a man wearing a short sleeved shirt behind them hurriedly said, “Didn’t you hear him? Quickly man your posts, go with this sir to save them!”
“Yes, captain!” The sailors immediately shouted as one. They then ran to various parts of the deck, leaving behind only the short sleeved shirt man and Zheng standing there, looking at each other.
“I’m the captain of this fishing boat, Arnold Bates. Is this sir a member of a God’s Realm team?”