Chapter 35: Airship

As dawn broke, Ji Xinghuo got up.

Jiangnan Caiyi had risen even earlier to prepare breakfast for everyone.

After breakfast, everyone shouldered their bags packed the night before and left the villa.

Chi Zhonglin led the way. He switched to a set of retractable elastic fiber battle clothes, shouldering a lava spear and carrying a huge marching backpack.

This backpack held the team’s tents, sleeping bags, inflatable rafts for river crossings, bundles of nanorope totaling over one thousand meters, five hundred arrows bought by Ji Xinghuo, and various other supplies and tools weighing over 60 kilograms, almost as heavy as his spear.

As the only strength-based extrahuman in the team, the task of carrying the backpack fell to him.

Chi Zhonglin was already used to it.

Ji Xinghuo and Ren Mian walked in the middle of the group.

Ren Mian put her hat back on and covered her face with a scarf. She was still in a women’s battle skirt, with an extra multifunctional belt around her waist designed with square pockets, each containing plant samples.

Every plant witch has such a belt. During a fight, they draw plant samples from it to release their powers.

Ji Xinghuo was also fully armed.

He wore composite ceramics-steel armor, wore hurricane boots, Thunder Racer hung at his waist, and he carried a composite hunting bow and quiver. Anyone could tell he was a ranger.

Jiangnan Caiyi walked a few steps behind Ji Xinghuo and Ren Mian.

She too wore a black scarf covering her face leaving only her eyes visible. Her black armor covered her body. Unlike at home, she exuded an aura of a stranger to be wary of.

The four traveled in silence.

They left the residential area and boarded a steam bus.

The other passengers knew from their appearance this was a team heading out of the city for a hunt and instinctively kept their distance.

Shortly after, the four alighted at the airship landing area to the east of the city.

“Are we taking an airship?” Ji Xinghuo, looking up at a slowly ascending steam airship, asked with some surprise.

“Hmm.”

Ren Mian nodded lightly, “The surroundings of Olympia have been cleared out. There isn’t much game left. We need to leave the areas explored by humans.”

Ji Xinghuo asked, “Where to?”

“City of Freedom,” answered Ren Mian. “First to City of Freedom, then westward.”

Ten minutes later, the whole team boarded the airship.

These passenger airships, over two hundred meters in length, featured a giant gasbag on top with a thirty-meter-long cabin suspended underneath. From the walls to the floor, everything was made of the lightest materials, resembling a thin-skinned bus filled with over a hundred passengers.

“This feels so unsafe.”

Ji Xinghuo complained inwardly. Despite the luxurious interior decor of the airship cabin, it was full of safety hazards.

The biggest threat was the gasbag overhead.

Though the gasbag had internal compartments to prevent a single puncture from causing a total burst, its huge size made it a vulnerable target in the sky. A group of flying creatures or a powerful monster firing from the ground might cause it to crash.

Sitting beside Ji Xinghuo, Ren Mian seemed to notice his concern and smiled, “Within human-controlled areas, airship safety is still guaranteed.”

Ji Xinghuo nodded.

“I suggest taking the train next time. Even though it’s slower, it’s safer,” said Chi Zhonglin from the front row, turning around.

Ren Mian did not take the advice, “We’ll talk about it next time.”

Ji Xinghuo had a vague idea. She probably had a way to ensure the whole team would land safely even if the airship crashed.

The airship quickly ascended, pushed westward by steam-powered propellers.

It was Ji Xinghuo’s first time viewing the entire city of Olympia from above and realizing how big it truly was. The airship traveled at about 100 kilometers per hour, flying from east to west for half an hour to cross the city before overflying its walls.

Outside Olympia was an endless vast forest where two winding rivers met, providing the city with ample water supply.

Humans had carved a few roads through the forest leading to other cities.

Alongside the roads, towering trees stood, dozens of meters tall, with some reaching over a hundred. The variety of trees was also different from those on Earth.

The farther from Olympia, the more deserted it became.

Ji Xinghuo’s vision allowed him to clearly see scenes several kilometers away—seeing more than others could.

In just a few minutes, he spotted at least twenty different types of wild animals and birds. The ecosystem was much larger and more complex than on Earth.

A rift valley appeared ahead, splitting the forest in two.

As the airship flew over, Ji Xinghuo leaned forward to peer into the rift but couldn’t see the bottom—it was dark and foggy like a maze.

A bridge spanned the rift, and just then, a train crossed it, appearing to fly over a chasm.

Ji Xinghuo muttered, “Seems like taking a train isn’t that safe either.”

The Star Realm isn’t Earth. Not only are natural disasters more frequent, but Star Realm creatures pose a threat with destructive powers comparable to natural disasters, capable of destroying a bridge or train track without much difficulty.

He looked into the distance, unable to see the end of the rift, which he estimated to be hundreds of kilometers long.

Train tracks simply couldn’t avoid it.

West of Olympia were six cities, mostly belonging to countries in the “Western Alliance.” Four hours later, the airship passed two cities and arrived at City of Freedom, over 300 kilometers away.

Built in a valley, City of Freedom was one-fifth the size of Olympia.

As the most important stronghold of the Western Alliance in the Star Realm, City of Freedom’s population exceeded three million, definitely qualifying it as a large city.

Ji Xinghuo and his companions disembarked from the airship. Most of the extrahumans around were blond and blue-eyed, citizens of the Western Alliance.

However, there were also many extrahumans from other countries, so they didn’t stand out.

Except for Ji Xinghuo, the other three had visited City of Freedom multiple times. They didn’t linger in the city but quickly left from the west gate.

They continued westward.

At first, they walked on a major road, speeding up their journey. By dusk, they had already traveled over a hundred kilometers from City of Freedom.

Along the way, they encountered many other hunting teams. Each team maintained some distance from the others to avoid misunderstandings.

Several hunting teams left the main road at different spots to enter the boundless primeval forest.

As they moved farther from City of Freedom, the road narrowed, and signs of civilization decreased, with no other teams in sight.

Night fell on the Star Realm.

The team rested briefly to eat before continuing their journey.

The days on the Star Realm were too long to camp out just because it was dark. The “Silver Glare” and its reflection in the Milky Way provided enough light at night, not hindering the progress of extrahumans.

Naturally, nights are more dangerous than days.

However, the purpose of extrahumans venturing out was to hunt. To some extent, they needed the dangers that brought opportunities, letting the prey come to them.

After walking for over an hour in the starlit night, the human-made road had completely disappeared.

Ahead lay unknown territory.

“Starfire.”

Ren Mian reminded him, “From here on out, you need to be fully alert.”

“Understood,” Ji Xinghuo nodded slightly.

The archer’s role in the team was twofold: provide long-range attacks during combat and act as the team’s “eyes,” scouting for dangers around the team and alerting them in advance.

Often, scouting was more important than long-range attacks.

A team lacking long-range attack capabilities could still engage in close combat, but insufficient scouting meant always losing the initiative and being passively attacked. Sometimes, they were unaware of approaching enemies, even being surrounded, leading to the entire team being wiped out by a single misstep.

A team could do without an archer, but not without “eyes.”

There are various scouting methods, usually involving different types of perception.

Trackers have eagle eyes and elephant nose techniques; Wind Guests sense air currents; Earth Walkers feel ground vibrations, and so on.

There are also unique methods associated with other professions.

To be safe, many teams have at least two or even three types of sensory perception—visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile—employing cross-checking for greater security.

Ren Mian distributed a transparent liquid to the team.

Ji Xinghuo followed their lead by applying the liquid under his nose.

Immediately, a pungent, strange scent rushed into his brain, apparently derived from some type of plant.

Seconds later, he found his sense of smell had become very sharp.

He could detect odors tens of meters away and roughly distinguish the sources of these smells, whether they were moving or not.

“We used to rely on this ‘Smell Fly Grass’ juice to detect the location of prey,” Ren Mian explained. “This olfactory liquid needs to be reapplied every three hours. The smell isn’t pleasant, but it’s bearable.”

Chi Zhonglin grumbled, “I’ve almost vomited from the smell.”

Jiangnan Caiyi also covered her nose, frowning slightly.

“It’s up to you now, Starfire,” Ren Mian said with a light laugh. “If your perception is strong enough, we won’t need to use this unpleasant stuff.”

“We’re counting on you!” Chi Zhonglin looked hopeful.

Ji Xinghuo glanced at his teammates and suddenly said, “This Smell Fly Grass juice really isn’t very effective…”

“What’s wrong?” Chi Zhonglin was a bit puzzled.

Ren Mian’s face changed.

Ji Xinghuo quickly took down his composite hunting bow, drew several arrows into his palm, one already nocked and drawn, aiming at a direction above to the left.

“There’s a monster coming.”

“Lots of them.”

“It’s a large group of spiders, 25… 28… 35… numbers still increasing…” he rapidly counted, alerting his teammates.

As he reported, Chi Zhonglin set his backpack aside, took up his spear, and stood in front of the team, his body swelling as he entered combat mode.

Jiangnan Caiyi drew her twin blades. Her figure became transparent and she vanished in an instant.

Ren Mian gently pressed her chest with her right hand, and immediately, her voice sounded in the minds of Ji Xinghuo and the others: “Starfire, no need to speak out loud. Just tell us any information through this mental link.”

“Okay.”

Ji Xinghuo nodded, quickly adapting to this form of mind communication, thinking, “They’re likely Shadow-Roaming Spiders.”

He had read about this type of spider monster before and recognized them quickly.

“Understood.”

Ren Mian responded immediately, pulling a seedling from her belt and throwing it at her feet. The seedling, initially only as long as a finger, grew to four or five meters tall within seconds. Its trunk, thick as an adult’s thigh and silver in color, burst into hundreds of leaves that flared up like magnesium, dispelling the forest’s gloom and brightening the area as if it were daylight.

Ji Xinghuo remained undistracted.

Illuminated by the “Fire Tree Silver Flower,” he saw a huge spider revealed in his field of view. It leaped silently from the shadow behind a large tree to another tree.

Whoosh!

Ji Xinghuo’s arrow shot out.