Airship

At dawn, Ji Xinghuo got up.

Jiangnan Caiyi had risen even earlier and prepared breakfast for everyone.

After breakfast, everyone shouldered the packs they had packed the night before and left the villa.

Chi Zhonglin walked at the front. He had changed into a set of retractable elastic-fiber combat gear, with the Lava Gun slung over his shoulder and a huge marching pack on his back.

The pack contained the team's tents, sleeping bags, inflatable rafts for crossing rivers, several bundles of Nano Rope with a total length of over a thousand meters, five hundred arrows Ji Xinghuo had recently bought, and various other supplies and tools. It weighed over sixty kilograms, nearly as much as his spear.

As the only strength-type Aberrant on the team, he was the only one who could handle carrying the load.

Chi Zhonglin had long since gotten used to it.

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

Ren Mian had put her conical hat back on, with a scarf covering her face. She still wore a women's battle dress, but now she had an extra multifunctional belt around her waist. It had a row of square pockets, each containing plant samples.

Every Plant Witch had a multifunctional belt like this. Once battle began, they would take out plant samples and use their abilities.

Ji Xinghuo was fully armed as well.

He wore Composite Tao Steel Armor and Gale Boots, with Thunder Gallop at his waist, a Compound Hunting Bow and quiver on his back. One glance was enough to tell that he was a Ranger.

Jiangnan Caiyi walked at the rear, a few steps behind Ji Xinghuo and Ren Mian.

Her face was covered by a black scarf, leaving only her eyes exposed. Her black carapace armor hugged her entire body, and a long blade and a short blade hung at her waist. She was utterly unlike the gentle, sweet woman she had been at home, radiating an aura that warned strangers to stay away.

The four of them traveled in silence.

After leaving the villa district, they boarded a Steam Bus.

The passengers immediately recognized them as a Hunting Team heading out of the city and instinctively kept their distance.

Before long, the four got off at the Airship Landing Field on the eastern side of the city.

"We're taking an airship?" Ji Xinghuo looked up at a Steam Airship slowly rising overhead and asked in surprise.

"Yes."

Ren Mian nodded lightly. "The areas around Olympia City have mostly been cleared out. There aren't many valuable prey left, so we have to leave the range of human expansion."

"Where are we going?" Ji Xinghuo asked.

"City of Freedom," Ren Mian replied. "We'll go to the City of Freedom first, then continue west."

More than ten minutes later, the whole team boarded the airship.

This passenger airship was over two hundred meters long. Its largest section was the enormous gasbag overhead, while the cabin hanging beneath it was only a little over thirty meters long. From the walls to the floor, everything was made of ultra-lightweight materials. It was like a thin-skinned bus carrying more than a hundred passengers.

This is way too unsafe.

Ji Xinghuo grumbled inwardly. Although the airship cabin was rather luxuriously decorated, safety hazards seemed to be everywhere.

The greatest danger was the gasbag overhead.

Although the gasbag was divided into separate compartments, so a single puncture would not make the entire thing explode, it was still such a huge target flying through the sky with pitifully weak protection. If it ran into a flock of flying creatures or a powerful monster fired at it from the ground, it might crash at any moment.

Ren Mian sat beside Ji Xinghuo. Seemingly noticing his concern, she smiled. "Within the territory controlled by humans, airships are still safe enough."

Ji Xinghuo nodded.

"I'd suggest taking the train in the future. It's slower, but safer." Chi Zhonglin turned around from the seat in front of them.

Ren Mian did not agree. "We'll talk about it next time."

Ji Xinghuo vaguely guessed that she probably had some way to ensure the whole team could land safely even if the airship crashed.

The airship quickly rose into the sky and flew westward, propelled by steam-powered propellers.

It was Ji Xinghuo's first time looking down on all of Olympia from such a height, and he truly understood just how enormous the city was. The airship traveled at around a hundred kilometers per hour, yet it took a full half hour to fly from the east side to the west side. Then it passed over the city wall and left the city.

Beyond Olympia stretched an endless great forest. Two winding rivers converged here, their surging waters providing the city with an abundant water supply.

Humans had carved several roads through the forest, leading to other cities.

Towering trees lined both sides of the roads. Trees dozens of meters tall were everywhere, and those over a hundred meters high were nothing unusual. However, their species were not entirely the same as those on Earth.

The farther they traveled from Olympia, the fewer signs of human presence there were.

Ji Xinghuo's vision allowed him to see scenes thousands of meters away, letting him spot far more than others could.

In just a few minutes, he discovered at least twenty different kinds of beasts and birds in the forest. The ecology here was vastly larger and more complex than Earth's.

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

As the airship flew overhead, Ji Xinghuo leaned out to peer into the rift but could not see its bottom. It was dark within, shrouded in mist like a maze.

An arched bridge spanned the rift, and a train happened to be crossing it at that moment, as though soaring over an uncrossable abyss.

Ji Xinghuo muttered, "Taking the train doesn't seem all that safe either."

The Star Realm was not Earth. Not only were natural disasters more frequent, but the greatest source of danger was Star Realm creatures. Their destructive power was no less devastating than natural disasters, and destroying an arched bridge or train tracks would not be difficult for them.

He raised his eyes toward the distance but could not see the end of the rift. It was likely hundreds of kilometers long.

The railway could not possibly go around it.

There were six cities west of Olympia, most belonging to various member states of the Western Alliance. More than four hours later, the airship had passed through two cities and arrived at the City of Freedom over three hundred kilometers away.

The City of Freedom was built in a valley and covered only one-fifth the area of Olympia.

As the Western Alliance's most important stronghold in the Star Realm, the City of Freedom had a population of over three million. It definitely qualified as a major city.

The four of them disembarked from the airship. Most of the Aberrants passing by had blond hair and blue eyes and were citizens of the Western Alliance.

However, there were also many Aberrants from other countries, so they did not stand out.

Other than Ji Xinghuo, the other three had visited the City of Freedom many times. They did not linger in the city and quickly left through the western gate, departing the City of Freedom.

They headed west.

At first, they traveled along the main road, and the team picked up speed. By dusk, they had already gone more than a hundred kilometers from the City of Freedom.

They encountered many other teams along the way, all out hunting. The teams kept a certain distance from one another to avoid misunderstandings.

Hunting Teams left the road at different points and entered the boundless primeval forest.

As they traveled farther from the City of Freedom, the road grew narrower, traces of civilization dwindled, and no other teams could be seen nearby.

Star night fell.

The team only paused briefly to rest and eat before continuing onward.

Days in the Star Realm were too long. It was impossible to make camp as soon as darkness fell. During star night, the Silver Luminary and Milky Way Reflection in the sky provided ample illumination, which did not hinder the Aberrants' progress.

Of course, star night was certainly more dangerous than daytime.

But Aberrants went out to hunt precisely for that reason. To some extent, they needed the opportunities brought by danger, letting prey come to them on its own.

After walking through the star night for more than an hour, the roads carved out by humans had completely disappeared.

Ahead lay unknown territory.

"Xinghuo."

Ren Mian reminded him, "From here on, you need to stay alert the entire time."

"Understood." Ji Xinghuo nodded slightly.

A shooter's duties in a team were mainly divided into two parts. One was providing ranged attacks in battle, while the other was serving as the team's "eyes," scouting for danger around the group and warning their companions in advance.

In many situations, scouting was even more important than ranged attacks.

A team lacking ranged attack capability could make up for it with close combat. But if its scouting ability was insufficient, it would always lose the initiative and be attacked passively. Sometimes, even when powerful enemies had approached or surrounded them, they would not realize it. One mistake could wipe out the entire team.

A team could do without a shooter, but it could not do without "eyes."

There were many scouting methods, usually involving various forms of perception.

A Tracker's Eagle Eye and Elephant Trunk Technique, an Evil Wind Adept's Airflow Perception, an Earth Walker's sense of vibrations through the ground, and so on.

There were also unique methods used by other professions.

To be safe, many teams possessed at least two or even three kinds of sensory abilities among sight, hearing, smell, and touch, allowing them to cross-check one another and remain safer.

Ren Mian took out a transparent liquid and handed it around the team.

Ji Xinghuo followed their lead and smeared the liquid beneath his nose.

A pungent, strange smell immediately rushed into his head. It seemed to be squeezed from some kind of plant.

A few seconds later, he discovered that his sense of smell had become extremely sharp.

He could smell scents dozens of meters away and roughly distinguish their source, as well as whether the source was moving.

"In the past, we relied on the juice of this Scent Flygrass to detect the location of prey," Ren Mian explained. "This scent solution has to be reapplied every three hours, and it smells awful, but it works well enough."

Chi Zhonglin said in a muffled voice, "I'm sick of this smell."

Jiangnan Caiyi covered her nose as well, her brows slightly furrowed.

"We're counting on you now, Xinghuo." Ren Mian chuckled. "If your perception is good enough, we won't need to apply this foul-smelling stuff anymore."

"We're all depending on you!" Chi Zhonglin said with an expectant look.

Ji Xinghuo looked at his teammates and suddenly said, "This Scent Flygrass juice really isn't very useful..."

"What's wrong?" Chi Zhonglin looked puzzled.

Ren Mian's expression changed.

Ji Xinghuo had already swiftly removed his Compound Hunting Bow. He pulled out several arrows and gripped them in his palm, while one arrow was already nocked and drawn, aimed toward the upper left.

"Monsters are coming."

"A lot of them."

"It's a huge swarm of spiders. Twenty-five, twenty-eight, thirty-five... and the number is still increasing..."

As he rapidly counted them out to warn his teammates, Chi Zhonglin had already removed his pack and set it aside. He held his spear in front of the group, his body swelling by a full circle as he entered a combat state.

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

Ren Mian lightly pressed her right hand to her chest, and her voice immediately rang out in the minds of Ji Xinghuo and the others. "Xinghuo, don't speak. Tell us anything directly through the Mind Link."

"Alright."

Ji Xinghuo nodded. He quickly adapted to this form of mental communication and said in his mind, "They should be Shadow Lurking Spiders."

He had read information about this spider monster before and quickly identified them.

"Understood."

Ren Mian immediately responded. She took a sapling from her belt and tossed it at her feet. The tiny sapling, originally only as long as a finger, grew to four or five meters tall within seconds. Its trunk was as thick as a thigh, its entire body silver-white, and hundreds of leaves ignited like magnesium blocks, dispelling the gloom of the forest and making it as bright as day.

Ji Xinghuo was not distracted by this.

By the brilliant white light of Fire Tree Silver Flower, he saw an enormous spider exposed within his field of vision. It leaped out from the shadow behind a large tree and silently sprang toward another tree.

Whoosh! Ji Xinghuo fired his arrow.