Riding the Wind into Mingguan

The liaison froze, then hesitated. "Mr. Chen, we still don't know what's happening with Mr. Hu. Should we..."

He was thinking that the man had been inside for some time, and it was hard to say how he was faring. If something had gone wrong, they needed to be cautious about sending another person in.

Chen Chuan said, "Precisely because we don't know how he's doing, we need to hurry."

The liaison said no more and immediately ordered the airship toward the island.

Those white rocks could stop warships, but they could not stop an airship. Under normal circumstances, however, flying an airship over territory occupied by a Fighter was extremely dangerous. It could easily be shot down, so this was rarely done. Even with a Fighter aboard now, the crew could not help feeling nervous.

This time, though, they encountered no trouble on their approach. Most likely, Howling Moon Hermitage was being held in check by the Fighter who had arrived first.

The airship reached the beach without incident. Beyond it stretched houses and woodland, but while those had been discernible from a distance, once they were overhead, a bank of mist drifted over. The scenery below immediately became indistinct, and even the island itself seemed to vanish.

Chen Chuan glanced down a few times and thought this was probably the effect of some Esoteric Ritual. He said, "This is far enough. I'll go down from here."

With that, he leaped off the terrace, his figure plunging straight into the mist.

The liaison immediately ordered the airship to turn back, then used the Domain Field organism aboard to contact the warship.

"Mr. Chen has gone down. Yes, there shouldn't be any problem. Mr. Chen should be strong enough to handle it."

He had just come from the An Ying