Blown into the Sky

When he reached Hefei, he went ahead and searched for the location of the Longevity Lock.

After all, it was right in the urban district, at a scrap recycling station.

Mo Qiong searched around. At close range, all he had to do was lock onto it with a piece of paper, and he quickly found the Longevity Lock.

"Just as I thought... These things were taken off the children long ago."

The Longevity Lock lay amid a pile of miscellaneous items, many of them children's belongings and even clothes. They were covered in dust and had clearly been dumped there a long time ago.

This old object, which Qin Ya had described as collectible-grade, was now lying in an inconspicuous corner like a piece of trash.

Nearby, Mo Qiong also found the GPS device he had shot over and picked it up as well.

"This must also be one of the places where that gang stops."

Mo Qiong silently noted it down, then hurried through the night to a nearby county town.

By midnight, he had recovered the other five GPS devices one by one in the county.

All five GPS devices were concentrated in the corridor on the second floor of a travel agency.

"Hey, are you here to rent a room or look for someone?" A fat woman followed Mo Qiong upstairs and asked suspiciously.

After all, Mo Qiong had rushed upstairs the moment he entered.

"I'm here to rent a room, but I have to take a look first, don't I? Your place is a little dirty." Mo Qiong smiled.

There was no doubt that this travel agency was connected to that gang.

A human-trafficking gang would never casually stay somewhere unrelated to them.

Mo Qiong did not ask further. After expressing his disdain, he left directly.

It had only taken Mo Qiong four hours to come from Weifang. The GPS devices had not been discovered, yet everyone here was gone.

Without a doubt, the children had been transferred normally—or rather, they had begun being transported elsewhere. Hefei was merely one stop along the route.

"Four hours ago, they were in this corridor, but now they're gone... That means they were taking the children away at the time."

Mo Qiong frowned. Four hours was more than enough for them to have traveled a long distance.

To find out where they had gone, Mo Qiong needed to track them with the GPS devices.

If he casually threw out a piece of paper, he could certainly catch up to the paper, but who knew when he would catch up to the people?

In other words, he had to use a Living Arrow.

But it was the middle of the night, almost midnight. Where was he supposed to buy a bat?

Even if he managed to buy one and caught up, what if the other side stopped and started repeatedly while transporting the children?

He needed time to pursue them. By the time he arrived, they would have left again. Should he continue chasing? He might not truly catch up until they reached their final stop.

If the five children were transported separately by then, it would be even more troublesome.

"Tsk... Actually, the best Living Arrow isn't a bat."

"It's me..."

Mo Qiong smiled. If he pursued the target at high speed himself, he could interrupt it at any time.

After all, he could not shoot himself, so he would have to use a vehicle. As long as he pushed away the vehicle and reset the Landing Point, he could interrupt the Absolute Hit on the previous Landing Point.

In terms of flexibility and controllability, there was no more perfect Living Arrow than himself.

The only drawback was that a living person flying through the sky was far more abnormal than an animal.

He could dive underwater in the sea, but what could he do on land? He could hardly burrow underground, could he?

At night, however, he could fly directly.

He was wearing black clothes, and as long as he flew high enough and stayed away from brightly lit cities, it would be fine.

In a corner of the county town, he found an apartment building.

He ran to the top floor, only to discover that the door leading to the rooftop was locked.

That did not matter. He lay on the windowsill at the end of the corridor and gazed outside, locking onto a cloud in the sky.

He casually threw a stick out the window, then grabbed the stick and jumped straight out after it.

Yet he did not fall. His body was lifted higher and higher by the stick, heading toward the clouds.

After rising above the height of the rooftop, he looked down at it and found a Landing Point. He casually threw out a pen and quickly grabbed it.

At the same time, he released the stick. His entire body was pulled toward the rooftop by the pen.

With a snap, he released the pen and landed on the rooftop. Since he had reset the stick's Landing Point, it had already flown down there ahead of him.

"Whew... That was still a little nerve-racking."

Everyone was somewhat afraid of heights. The difference was merely that for some people it was an illness, while others were simply afraid of dying.

Mo Qiong had originally planned to use only the stick for that maneuver, but halfway through, he still threw out the pen with his other hand, taking the safest approach.

"This place is good. It's spacious, and there aren't any other tall buildings nearby."

On the rooftop, Mo Qiong tried jumping off several more times. Each time, he easily flew back up, confirming that he did not suffer from acrophobia.

He then removed the backpack from his back and gently pushed it forward.

Although he could make any piece of clothing fly by throwing it, that was too inconvenient.

He needed a vehicle with a relatively solid form, one that would also allow him to reset its Landing Point at any time.

The backpack was quite suitable. He could sit in it, hang from it, lie prone on it, or even lie down in it.

After preparing the shoulder straps and fastening the waist belt, he could lock himself tightly to the backpack.

If necessary, he could also separate himself from it easily.

He had bought the backpack from a middle-school student who was still loitering outside in the middle of the night. He had casually taken out three hundred yuan, and the student happily dumped out all his books and gave him the backpack. He had even helped Mo Qiong go home and get several sturdy canvas bags.

At that moment, the backpack floated forward at a slow speed of ten centimeters per second.

Mo Qiong then followed the backpack, put on the shoulder straps, fastened the waist belt, and wore the backpack on his front.

Hugging the backpack tightly, Mo Qiong drew in his legs, and his feet immediately left the ground. His body lay against the backpack, suspended in midair.

He was flying, but at this speed, he would still have been better off pedaling a bicycle.

"Next is air acceleration..."

The situation they had worried about on the plane was both a disaster and a blessing.

For an enclosed cabin, it was indeed very dangerous. But for a partially enclosed hot-air-balloon structure, it became an accelerator.

Lying on the backpack, Mo Qiong took out a canvas bag, wrapped both hands around it, brought it to his mouth, and blew into it with all his strength.

"Whoosh!"

In an instant, the canvas bag bulged violently and shot forward.

Mo Qiong's hands hurt, and he almost failed to hold on.

The initial speed of a person's exhalation was generally only ten meters per second, so Mo Qiong did not cause any commotion when breathing normally.

But if someone blew with all their strength, then in terms of initial speed alone, a person could blow out a typhoon with winds of force twelve or thirteen.

The initial speed could reach roughly thirty-two to forty meters per second.

Of course, calling it a typhoon was merely an analogy. The air's speed would rapidly decay under resistance.

Mo Qiong's air arrow was different. It maintained its outlet speed and struck its target without any loss.

This created a constant, sustained propulsive force.

Because their paths were aligned, the backpack made Mo Qiong fly, while the canvas bag accelerated him.

At that moment, he was flying toward the children at roughly thirty-five meters per second, or 126 kilometers per hour.

That speed was already faster than cars on the expressway.

On the other hand, Mo Qiong also experienced what it felt like to have typhoon-force wind slap his face. He could barely keep his eyes open.

"But I'm not dizzy... So flying myself really is fine?"

"I'll make do for now. If I get the money this time, I'll get some proper equipment before going home."

"A backpack and a bag really are too crude."

Mo Qiong lay on the backpack with his face twisted, the rushing wind roaring loudly beside his ears.

His body tore through the air, and all the air he displaced was controlled into the canvas bag, continuously maintaining his acceleration.

With careful control, the air displaced by his body could even form currents that struck his legs, abdomen, and chest.

This allowed the airflow to rise from below and support him. In midair, he did not need to put all his weight on the backpack. The rest of his body also had a slight buoyancy, as if air were constantly surging from below to lift him.

However, since he could not fly by himself, unless he bought a wingsuit, relying solely on air buoyancy would at most allow him to slow his descent. Without the backpack, he still could not hover.

"Whoosh!"

Mo Qiong flew through the air above the expressway, using the cover of night to pursue them all the way.

However, because he was pursuing them personally, he could not know which vehicle he was chasing. That did not matter. Based on the known circumstances, the gang transported people one stop at a time rather than taking them straight to their destination.

Otherwise, if they stayed in the car for ten hours, the adults might endure it, but the children would not.

The group that had set out at night would definitely stop when dawn was approaching, then stay for another day in some city or county.

"Huh?" After flying for about an hour, Mo Qiong realized that he was gradually losing sight of the road. He was straying farther and farther from the expressway and beginning to cross mountains.

"Are we almost there? No, they must have arrived. They left the expressway and began traveling laterally, so my path is getting farther off course."

As he flew, Mo Qiong narrowed his eyes and saw a large tree blocking the way on a hill ahead.

If he continued flying like this, he would definitely crash into it.

"Wait... They're not planning to go around it?"

Mo Qiong was startled. He hurriedly released the canvas bag with one hand, letting the air arrow go.

Then he blew toward the upper diagonal, adjusting his direction with his mouth.

After narrowly avoiding the tree, Mo Qiong hurriedly continued climbing, rising to a height of several hundred meters before resetting the air arrow again.

"This height should be fine."

After being blasted by the cold wind for so long, Mo Qiong already felt cold all over.

However, the other side had stopped. He was now heading directly toward the destination, and as long as he held on, he could definitely catch up.

After enduring for nearly another four hours, Mo Qiong felt that he should be almost there. Ahead of him was a small county town.

"Where is this...?"

Mo Qiong hurriedly reset his speed and floated on the backpack at only a few meters per second.

He took out his phone and checked his location, discovering that he was in a county under a city in Gan Province.

Mo Qiong was speechless. "Damn... I crossed provinces again. I flew more than five hundred kilometers."

As he neared the town, Mo Qiong slowly floated down and found a place to land.

"I almost froze to death... I can't do this on the way back. Once I get paid, I'll get some equipment first."

Mo Qiong rubbed his arms, lit a cigarette, and began following the smoke to find the target's exact location.

He looked exhausted and had not slept. Unable to resist, he inhaled several mouthfuls of smoke.

In the past, inhaling smoke into his lungs would have made him choke, but this time he had somehow managed it by accident, which refreshed him somewhat.

He had set out from Dengzhou and traveled by every possible means, taking trains and planes... and even flying himself.

When he saw the smoke enter a shabby inn, he could not help sighing. Making money was really damn difficult.

With a cigarette between his teeth, he slapped the large iron gate shut beneath him.

"Who is it? We're closed!" someone shouted from upstairs.

Mo Qiong ignored him and continued kicking the door.

The person upstairs hurried down and opened the door. After glancing at Mo Qiong, he was just about to chase him away.

But Mo Qiong blew smoke into his face, and it drilled straight into his nostrils.

"Cough, cough, cough..." After choking twice, the man felt Mo Qiong shove him aside and barge in.

"Give me a room. I'm staying here," Mo Qiong said.

The man hurried after him and grabbed him in the lobby. "Stop! We haven't opened yet."

"It's almost daylight, and you still haven't opened?" Mo Qiong walked straight ahead with the cigarette in his mouth. The man was thin and could not pull him back at all.

After being dragged two steps, the man saw that Mo Qiong was about to go upstairs and said helplessly, "All right, all right, I'll open it for you."

Mo Qiong followed him to the counter and glanced at the room layout.

The man said, "How about 204? It's early in the morning, so don't make a fuss. We still have guests."

Mo Qiong shook his head. "I don't like four. I'll take 205."

"205 won't do. Someone's staying there." The man's expression changed.

Mo Qiong took a drag of his cigarette. "It's fine. I'll go talk to him. I guarantee they'll switch rooms with me."

As he spoke, he started walking upstairs again.

The man grabbed him. "No, no. How about 206?"

"No. I don't like the number six." Mo Qiong acted capriciously.

The man's nose twisted with anger. He glared and said, "Are you damn well picking a fight?"

At that, Mo Qiong stopped. He glanced at the man.

The man thought Mo Qiong had finally calmed down. Little did he know that after pausing for more than a second, Mo Qiong suddenly exploded.

"Bang!"

Mo Qiong kicked the counter, which weighed dozens of kilograms, sending it flying, then threw his cigarette onto the floor.

"I've got a short temper, and you say I'm picking a fight? You want to fight?" His sudden outburst frightened the man into retreating three steps.

The man was genuinely terrified. He had never seen anyone so overbearing and unreasonable.

"You... You damn... If you dare touch me, I'll call the police!" the man threatened.

Mo Qiong laughed and directly took out his phone to dial 110.

The man's expression changed. He hurriedly tried to snatch the phone while shouting, "Come down quickly! Someone's causing trouble!"

Someone upstairs seemed to have been listening at the door all along. Upon hearing that shout, the footsteps of several people immediately thundered downstairs.

Mo Qiong sneered. That was more like it.

He had been chasing them all night and was nearly numb with cold. He had been wanting to stretch his limbs.

P.S.: Sorry.