Opening - Seeking Divine Light

According to Japanese military flight manuals, not even a scrap of paper could be left on a propeller. The secret to the Zero fighter's maneuverability, just like the secret to Japanese cars' fuel efficiency in later generations, was its light weight. But Wan Yue's magic had covered the fighter in a thick layer of ice armor. The only possible result was mechanical failure and a plunge into the sea. At the very least, its speed would drop sharply, leaving it too slow to catch up.

The pilots behind them were startled. They could only roll to evade the iron-gray clouds, afraid of meeting the same fate as the pilot ahead of them.

The two sides chased and fled, fighting in fits and starts. Before anyone knew it, thirty minutes had passed.

The Zero fighters behind them had apparently had enough. At last, they turned tail and flew home.

The Driver finally let out a sigh of relief and gave a bitter smile. "Those guys are finally gone."

"Aren't you happy we won?"

"One piece of good news and one piece of bad news?"

"Just give us the bad news!" Little Fatty was already numb to it.

"We're out of fuel," the Driver said with a bitter smile.

"How is that possible? This plane can fly hundreds of nautical miles. How could it run out of fuel after only half an hour?" Wang Han asked in surprise.

The Driver smiled wryly. "It hadn't finished being serviced by the ground crew when we took off, so they didn't fill the tank. And all those aerial maneuvers just now made it burn through fuel even faster. We can't keep going."

"What's the good news?" Little Fatty asked, refusing to give up.

"The good news is that the Japanese didn't know and turned back.