Chapter 116: Wind Element

Guduhao.

This is the name of the airship moored at Bremen City Square.

It is an old-style airship whose ownership belongs to the Schain Royal Family, purchased twenty years ago from the Igor Clan.

An old-style airship from twenty years ago still delivers a powerful shock when seen today.

To swiftly quell the unrest caused by the Hogan Vein, the Schain Duchy dispatched this airship to Bremen City, bringing along court mages.

On its return journey, it carried many rare goods unique to the Bremen region, including tea, minerals, and other expensive commodities.

And several young people originally from Bremen City, preparing to travel to Shengxien City to “pursue studies.”

On the first day of Dark Moon, Gao De boarded the airship for the first time, posing as Jie Li Ka’s servant.

At this moment, half a year had passed since Gao De arrived in this world.

And he was about to complete his “three-stage leap”: from Hogan City to Bremen City, then from Bremen City to Shengxien City, the most prosperous city in the entire Schain Duchy.

Amidst a swaying motion, accompanied by the loud, rhythmic hum of propellers, the airship slowly rose into the sky.

Inside the cabin.

The immense thrust from ascent pressed Gao De’s body tightly against the wall.

The sensation of blood rushing to his head and ringing in his ears felt both familiar and strange.

After a while, as Gao De gradually adapted to the feeling, he looked down through the cabin window.

People and buildings on the ground shrank slowly, becoming tiny black dots.

The outline of Bremen City grew increasingly blurred.

The hum of the propellers sounded especially loud in the air.

Soon, the city’s outline vanished.

What followed were endless stretches of primeval forest, rolling hills and mountains, winding rivers.

Everywhere they passed was sparsely populated wasteland.

After all, compared to the vast territory of the Schain Duchy, cities that had been developed and gathered populations were far too few.

Gao De watched the scenery through the window for a while; the novelty quickly faded, and the repetitive views grew monotonous and dull.

He returned to his cabin.

Gao De, who had boarded by occupying Jie Li Ka’s maid’s berth, was assigned the lowest-class cabin meant for servants, located at the very bottom of the airship.

It was cramped and tiny, barely large enough to fit a bed and a table, leaving almost no room to stand.

But Gao De was already satisfied.

After all, this was the Schain Royal Family’s airship, not a vessel designed purely for transport or passenger service.

Besides, he was just a hitchhiker—having a room at all was lucky, let alone a private one.

Gao De took out a bottle of Basic Magic Potion and placed his luggage under the cabin bed.

The Guduhao airship was a massive vessel over three hundred meters long and nearly seventy meters tall.

Although it was an old-style airship from decades ago, its cruising speed still reached one hundred and fifty kilometers per hour.

At this speed, the journey from Bremen City to Shengxien City took less than ten hours.

The enormous Guduhao airship included: isolated compartments for buoyancy gas storage, a magical propulsion chamber, a command cabin for the captain to pilot the airship, a cargo hold for storing goods and supplies, a weapons chamber equipped with airship armaments, a maintenance chamber for repairs and upkeep, and even an observation cabin for better visibility.

Only after these sections came the living quarters.

Even so, the Guduhao airship’s carrying capacity exceeded a thousand people.

Aside from the three young masters and ladies of the Hains Family, all passengers aboard were mages from Shengxien City.

And they were all full-fledged mages, not 0-rank apprentices masquerading as students.

This gave Gao De the feeling of being locked in a room with hundreds of tigers.

So he decided to stay in his cabin until they reached their destination.

Thinking this, Gao De downed the Basic Magic Potion in his hand and began his daily cultivation.

Gao De had assumed the airship journey would proceed smoothly.

But reality proved that even the sky, in this era, was filled with danger.

BOOM!!

The airship suddenly shook violently. Clattering sounds of falling objects erupted one after another, jolting Gao De out of his meditation.

He opened his eyes, startled: “What’s going on? Did we hit a violent air current?”

The next instant, a sharp, urgent alarm blared from within the airship, explaining everything.

“Attack, attack! Vein creature attack! All personnel to your stations!”

Immediately after, Gao De heard rapid footsteps above the cabin ceiling.

He leapt from his bed, opened the cabin door, and ran out.

The corridor outside the cabin was not narrow—in fact, it was wider than the cabin itself.

Those living on this level were mostly crew members in uniform, and a few passengers like Gao De, classified as “servants.”

Crew members ran in small steps, each heading to their assigned posts.

“It’s an adult wind elemental!”

“How could something like this appear on this route?”

“Almost certainly escaped from the Hogan Vein. Wind elementals are solitary by nature, move fast, ride the wind, and can appear anywhere.”

The crew’s frustrated voices rang out.

“The airship’s protective magic array is already active—this will drain even more of our energy reserves.”

From the crew’s tone, it seemed the danger wasn’t severe; they weren’t panicked, merely lamenting the energy cost of the protective array.

Gao De instantly felt reassured.

He looked out through the window, straining to catch sight of the outside.

Though his cabin level was the lowest on the airship, severely limiting his view, he could still clearly see the wind elemental’s body.

Because it was enormous, and it was circling the airship.

True to its name, the wind elemental’s body was composed of raging winds, shaped like a colossal tornado, twisting and spinning.

In its hands it held a bow, also made of wind, occasionally letting out deafening roars.

Each roar brought howling gales that churned the surrounding clouds like a boiling ocean.

“Dala Beng ba Bangde Bei!”

The wind elemental emitted a jumble of sounds, but Gao De couldn’t understand a word.

These were syllables unique to the wind elemental language, brimming with primal ferocity and power.

Though he couldn’t comprehend the wind elemental’s speech, Gao De felt the wild power and aura radiating from it, and the fury in its voice.

“Aires, this route belongs to us. You have intruded into our path, not we into yours!”

Immediately after, Gao De heard a voice from his own airship—calm, steady, and radiating undeniable authority.

“Bangla Kaba Xi!” The wind elemental remained furious, refusing to back down, responding with violent fury.

The next instant, Gao De saw it draw back the massive bow woven from wind.

An arrow, trailing a swift tornado, shot toward the airship.

Yet the magical runes on the airship’s hull came alive, surging forth a layer of magical light.

These magical lights interwove, forming an unbreakable magical shield that tightly enveloped the airship.

The tornado arrow struck the airship’s magical shield, exploding in a deafening roar.

BOOM! The entire airship shuddered violently, as if caught in a giant wave.

“Ungrateful beast!”

Gao De then heard a furious shout from within the airship, brimming with anger and indignation at the wind elemental’s provocation.

BOOM! The specific details that followed, Gao De could no longer see clearly through the small window.

He could only see flashes of brilliant colors outside, magical lights clashing violently, forming a dazzling sky battlefield.

The airship rocked continuously in the fierce battle, as if about to plummet at any moment.

Each jolt of the airship made Gao De’s heart leap into his throat.

He had neither a “parachute” nor any flight magic—if the airship truly fell, he would have no chance of survival.

This feeling of life and death resting in others’ hands left Gao De deeply uneasy.

(End of Chapter)