Han Qingyu didn't look at the crowd. Turning his back, he raised a hand and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
What had just looked so dashing and formidable would have left him severely wounded—or dead on the spot—if even a single detail had gone wrong.
*Fortunately, everything went according to plan. Now I just need to wait for Yang Qingbai to loop around... Here he comes.*
Up in the sky, most of the Great Spike craft were still chasing behind the Needlefish.
Meanwhile, the six craft that had broken off earlier to ram Han Qingyu had already struggled to turn around, diving once more toward him and the rooftop.
Glancing back at the six craft, Han Qingyu reached out and hung the blue column sword back onto the hook behind him.
He didn't move to intercept them, because Yang Qingbai would arrive first.
He would drop the dead iron chain...
Then the "train" would keep driving across the sky, except the greatest threat would be temporarily eliminated.
*Whoosh!*
The Needlefish-class craft traced an arc above the rooftop.
Because it had closed in so aggressively, it directly drew the attention of the remaining six shuttle craft, swept them away, and then, leading the train behind it, banked across the sky and sped into the distance.
Han Qingyu stood on the rooftop, momentarily stunned.
During that entire pass, Yang Qingbai hadn't lowered the dead iron chain.
It was as if his loop had solely been meant to draw them away, pulling along the final six Great Spike craft.
"Qingbai! Qingbai! What are you doing, Yang Qingbai?!"
Realization dawned on Han Qingyu, and he shouted anxiously into the communicator.
A few seconds later, Yang Qingbai chuckled. "Heheh, I'm taking them for a few more laps..." He said with a light laugh, "Yuejiang University shouldn't be far from here. Hurry and go, Qingzi."
"You..."
"What are you worrying about? I told you, I'm the best, and you said you believed me," Yang Qingbai said breezily. "Trust me. Get going."
So this was probably what he had planned from the very beginning.
He had never intended to drop the chain at all.
It was just that back then, encased in Azure's specially designed flight suit—one perhaps heavier and more complex than an astronaut's spacesuit—Yang Qingbai hadn't let Han Qingyu catch the subtle oddity in his tone or expression.
In truth, the Needlefish could no longer stop.
Just moments ago, a transmission from the Rejecters had informed Yang Qingbai that more than ten Great Spike craft had appeared scattered across the skies above Linzhou, and they were expected to be drawn to him soon.
It was precisely at that moment that Yang Qingbai had said, "I'm the best... Because I met you guys, I have to be."
There was a disparity in absolute speed. Against the blue-sheened Great Spike craft that were by no means rare, the Needlefish hardly even dared to fly in a straight line.
As more and more Great Spike craft tailed it, and as blue-sheened craft continued to join the pursuit, it would never be able to decelerate even the slightest bit.
Against an aerial swarm hunting it down, it had even begun losing the ability to choose its own direction.
It could only passively react, surviving again and again through narrow slits between life and death... flying aimlessly on and on until its energy was depleted, overtaken by one Great Spike craft after another, rammed, and destroyed.
Yang Qingbai couldn't take Han Qingyu to Yuejiang University anymore.
The situation there was urgent. Moreover, Yang Qingbai knew his own physical condition all too well; he couldn't let Qingzi carry him down either...
Finally, he couldn't let Han Qingyu return to the craft.
To put it nobly, there was another thought in Yang Qingbai's mind: even if Han Qingyu had a chance to bring him down safely, Yang Qingbai couldn't allow the more than twenty Great Spike craft trailing behind them to lose their aerial target right here, right now, and plunge straight into the crowd of tens of thousands of evacuating citizens below.
"Did you leave yet? ...Fuck, get moving! You were never one to dawdle, Han Qingyu."
As Yang Qingbai said this over the communicator, the train in the sky had grown even longer, completely vanishing from the sight of the crowd on the avenue and from Han Qingyu's view.
"You..." For the first time on a battlefield, Han Qingyu was torn, completely at a loss.
"Get going! Go help them, damn it! As long as you stop bugging me, I won't die!"
*Click!*
With that curse, Yang Qingbai cut the transmission, cutting off the entire channel that connected them.
Above the long street and the crowd, the train flying through the sky had vanished.
No one knew what had actually transpired on the rooftop, but cheers erupted among the crowd over the two Great Spike craft that had crashed in the distance.
The cameraman had finally swapped in a fresh battery.
Yet the figure on the rooftop was already gone.
"I'm thinking about how on earth I can describe that scene to you..." The reporter's hand trembled as he held the microphone, his voice shaking alongside it.
***
Over the past three years or so, aside from the test-flight phase and structured intensive training toward the end, Yang Qingbai had spent much of his time at Squad 1777. While there, he had lived at the sentry post, looking after the cat and the dog.
Naturally, he chewed on source energy blocks too. With his F-grade constitution, he occasionally managed a sliver of absorption; a single standard source energy block would last him about half a year.
Bu Mang and Mangmang Mangmang had originally stayed with him at the sentry post, sleeping on the shared bunk, which had been their nest to begin with. Later, however, racked with terror and nervous exhaustion, the cat and dog had abandoned the nest and fled on their own accord.
Because Yang Qingbai was a terrifying person—he would suddenly sleepwalk in the middle of the night, grabbing a cat head, a dog head, or a dog leg... and start piloting.
***
Taking a deep breath, Yang Qingbai narrowly dodged a lateral ramming attempt, his face twisting into a bitter grimace.
*Damn right. I am the best.*
He had made such a choice, a choice that could lead to his death, but he refused to accept that he was doomed. This was the spirit of Stream Vanguard, the hallmark stamped into him by Han Qingyu.
Right now, Yang Qingbai's only chance was to reach the sea.
He could no longer control his flight path with precision, but the sea was vast and required no exact route. As long as he found the slightest gap or opportunity, he would fight to adjust his angle, inching toward the ocean by perilous fractions...
Maybe he had less than a ten percent chance of holding out until he reached the sea.
Once over the water, he would find an opening to stake everything on a single dive, plunging straight down.
That might give him another few percent chance of surviving.
Yang Qingbai didn't bother calculating his final odds of making it out alive. As long as there was a chance, he would try, step by step.
*I wonder how Plague Chicken, Rusty Sister, and Xu'er are doing over there?* Regretting severing the channel for a moment, Yang Qingbai felt a pang of worry.
Just for an instant... Yang Qingbai cast aside all distractions, focusing entirely on the flight.
On that day, above the city of Linzhou in Huaxia, there flew an ever-lengthening, lonely train. Many people saw it from many places, watching it navigate deadly perils without a fixed direction, yet never once stopping.
***
*Bang! Bang...*
Following the sound of gunfire, Han Qingyu finally found the location.
As far as his eyes could see:
There was only a single Red Shoulder on the scene, riddled with several wounds. The largest was a deep gash through its abdomen, being continuously torn wider by bullets.
Meanwhile, Rusty Sister was struggling bitterly to hold on, the iron armor on one of her shoulders completely caved in.
*Boom!*
Han Qingyu charged straight into the fray from the flank, his column sword sweeping up to parry a slashing strike from the Red Shoulder on Rusty Sister's behalf. At the same time, the blade in his right hand dragged along the Red Shoulder's waist.
"*Awoo!*" The Red Shoulder shrieked in pain and retreated, briefly parting the two sides of the battlefield.
"Where's Wu Xu?" Han Qingyu asked anxiously.
"He... Xu'er activated Near-Death Surge! He traded wounds to drive a spear through this one and left it to us... while he went off alone, dragging the other Red Shoulder away!" Rusty Sister choked out through sobs.
Chapter 621