Chapter 973: Spaceflight City

"Lin Dui, are we going to throw away these bird things?"

Looking at the many bird corpses that had smashed into the cabin, Zhang Tie, feeling disgusted, shoved them aside and instinctively asked Lin An.

Although he didn't really understand what had happened in there, seeing Lin An's thoughtful expression and hearing the conversation, he realized the road ahead probably would bring considerable trouble.

These damned things, when they pile up in number, are truly a headache.

Just thinking of the scene of corpse birds covering the sky and flying over, he felt his scalp go numb.

"Put them away."

After a moment's thought, Lin An's ring on his hand flashed white light, and in the blink of an eye he stored the bird corpses in a corner of the ring.

The unknown fluid in the birds' pancreases is hard to test here, but perhaps we could experiment with it after bringing it back to Long An.

Biological research—Chu An would surely be very interested.

After thinking it over, he then looked toward Yun Tian:

"How far is it to the satellite base?"

"How is the warplane doing?"

The cabin lights flickered on and off.

Although the breaches had been patched up somewhat under Yun Tian's ability, Lin An could clearly feel the warplane trembling during flight, and he dared not increase its speed.

The suddenly attacking hawks were like small shells, and many precision components deformed under the impact.

The speed was simply too fast; the warplane's built-in defensive shield had no time to deploy.

One could say that avoiding a crash landing was entirely due to Yun Tian straining to hold on.

His face turned pale.

Yun Tian, who had emerged weakly from the fuselage, glanced at the route map, hesitated briefly, then gave a wry smile and replied:

"Brother Lin."

"At our current speed, we still have at least six and a half hours of flight ahead."

"Moreover, we cannot encounter any mishaps along the way."

"One engine was pierced by a hole in the recent impact; I've repaired it, but its power won't go up."

"You know, once acceleration becomes unbalanced, flying at high speed easily causes airframe vibration, leading to metal fatigue..."

"By then..."

He nodded, Lin An slightly raised his hand to indicate Yun Tian didn't need to elaborate, and he meant no blame toward Yun Tian:

"How long will it take to fix, or rather, can it be fixed at all?"

He was not at all surprised by the "fragile" performance of the spiritual-energy warplane.

The higher the technological content of a product, the more fragile it tends to be, even delicate.

The spiritual-energy warplane was originally a test craft produced by Long An through reverse engineering; being able to perform as it does now, achieving this speed to save him time, he is already quite satisfied.

You should know that, among past supersonic aircraft of various nations, the most representative is the Blackbird warplane—historically 32 were built, with a Mach 3 airspeed, and from its debut to the present it has never been shot down.

But it has suffered as many as twelve natural crashes...

Long An merely relied on the base vehicle to have just begun exploring some spiritual-energy technology; to have gotten this far, he really can't ask for much more.

A few seconds later, Yun Tian hesitated a moment, then gritted his teeth:

"Captain Lin, if we keep flying, we can't repair it."

"If we stop and find a place to replenish spiritual energy, it should take about three days or so to get it fixed."

"If we don't fix it, we can only maintain low speed."

"Three days...?"

After hearing Yun Tian's answer, Lin An frowned slightly, thought for a moment, then spoke decisively:

"Then we'll descend near the satellite base."

"If nothing unexpected happens, there should still be flocks of birds near the satellite base; we don't need to take the risk."

"After we stop, you stay here to repair the warplane, while I take Zhang Tie inside."

Hearing Lin An's instructions, Yun Tian nodded helplessly.

The three-day estimate was actually something he gritted his teeth to give.

If it weren't for his mechanical aptitude not being "scientific," he would have neither tools nor materials, and would have to use his head to fix this high-precision warplane...

Mo Ling, standing nearby, hearing that Lin An would only take Zhang Tie, immediately grabbed his arm and stared at him with her big eyes:

"I want to go too!"

Without waiting for Lin An's reply, she pointed at the bird feathers on the ground and quickly added:

"Don't worry about me."

"I can control this stuff a bit; it's just that earlier it was too fast and I didn't have time to control it!"

"Huh?"

Lin An, hearing the sound, was startled and instinctively looked at the stubborn Mo Ling.

He indeed hadn't originally planned to take Mo Ling along.

After all, bringing Mo Ling out was purely to help her find a way to increase her strength; the method has already been found, so there's no longer any need to let Mo Ling risk herself by following him.

The hawks' speed is too great; with a slightly slow reaction, little Mo Ling says she'd get blown apart if hit in the head.

Moreover, who knows what else might be lurking at the base.

Although little Mo Ling being able to control this stuff surprised him somewhat, but...

As if seeing Lin An's hesitation, Mo Ling pressed her lips and stared back at him, unwilling to yield:

"What are you worried about me for!"

"I've even killed a Third Rank before!"

「Do you believe it or not? When you get to the base, you might still need my help! 」

With a cold snort, a flash of deathly stillness passed through Little Mo Ling's pupils, her whole eyes as if occupied by blackness.

Skill activated.

In an instant, an azure-blue spirit body suddenly appeared before Lin An.

The spirit body's death-white eyes stared straight at Lin An; suddenly a female ghost popped out, startling Xiong Hanzi.

As the temperature in the cabin plummeted, a bone-chilling cold spread.

Head held high, chest out, Mo Ling lifted her head, her small hand tightly gripping Lin An's arm.

The summoned spirit body trembled, as if it were about to unleash a sharp shriek in the next second.

「Stinky Lin An, I'm not useless! Don't forget! Back then, there wasn't a day you didn't need me! 」

Her gaze was resentful.

Unlike other girls who like to hide behind others for protection, Mo Ling is more accustomed to relying on herself.

She has never been a weak, timid little girl who only cries.

Watching Mo Ling as if she were trying to prove herself, a hint of embarrassment flashed across Lin An's face.

He subconsciously recalled the past.

Alright.

When I was still weak, I would indeed use her for no reason....

Even from the start, he had regarded Mo Ling as his biggest trump card, and back then he hadn't stopped fantasizing about conquering the world relying on Mo Ling....

One could say, Little Mo Ling was someone he coaxed and tricked into coming.

Helplessly nodding, Lin An grabbed her small body in an embrace, sat back in his seat, and gestured for Little Mo Ling not to glare at him so angrily.

Sometime ago, he began to feel that Mo Ling was more like his own sister, and subconsciously he didn't want her to face any danger.

Perhaps it was that rainy night, perhaps it was Mo Ling being left alone in the mountain of corpses... the sight of her stumbling out left too deep an impression on him....

As for the trip to the base, Mo Ling's unique abilities could indeed be of help to him.

The plan was finalized.

The fighter jets maintaining low-speed flight shuttled across the gradually dimming sky.

Night had fallen.