A Meteor Racing Toward Them
Buzz--Buzz--
The Communication Soul Tool hanging on Yun Jingheng's waist suddenly vibrated, emitting a very short, low-frequency buzzing sound, and the indicator light flashed rapidly, which was particularly eye-catching in the night.
That was the signal from an emergency communication channel, the highest level of encryption, and only a very few people knew the access code for this channel.
Yun Jingheng glanced down at the caller ID that popped up on the communicator screen.
Tang Wulin.
The name made him raise an eyebrow slightly. Tang Wulin rarely used the emergency channel, especially when he and Ye Xinglan were acting alone.
He pressed the answer button, held the communicator to his ear, and held Ye Xinglan's hand in his other hand.
"Wulin?"
A brief static came from the other end of the communicator, and then Tang Wulin's voice came through.
He spoke a few seconds faster than usual, but his tone remained calm and unhurried, as if he were reporting something he had already thought out the cause and effect of, and was just waiting for Yun Jingheng to confirm.
"Jing Heng, let's get down to business first—are you and Xing Lan looking for a suitable place to stay?"
Yun Jingheng and Ye Xinglan exchanged a glance.
Before he could answer, Tang Wulin continued speaking, giving him no chance to interrupt.
"Don't bother searching outside. It's not safe in the wild. Although the Federation patrols have temporarily withdrawn, the Spirit Pagoda's mobile monitoring towers are still operating. If you stay on the surface for too long, your Soul Power fluctuations will be detected sooner or later."
He paused, as if flipping through something, the papers rustling, then continued, "Come to Heaven Dou City. I'm currently at the headquarters of the Blacksmith Association in Heaven Dou City. The association president is my teacher; I've already spoken to him."
"He said that as long as you come, the top-floor training room of the association can be made available for you. That training room is on the top floor of the association's main tower, with floor-to-ceiling windows on all four sides, offering excellent privacy and ensuring you won't be disturbed. It also includes a forging workshop, a materials warehouse, and a separate living room."
He paused for a moment, then added a sentence, his tone carrying a very faint hint of teasing that only someone like Yun Jingheng, who had known him long enough, could discern.
"You're already quite famous on the mainland, and now showing your face alive will cause a lot of trouble. Your teacher is very interested in your Soul Tool technology. He said that the association's doors are always open as long as you're willing to come."
"It's convenient to do whatever you want. The forging workshop is at your disposal, and the material warehouse supplies materials at cost price."
Yun Jingheng remained silent for a moment.
"Let me think about it."
"Good."
Yun Jingheng pressed the mute button on the side of the communicator, temporarily blocking out Tang Wulin's voice.
He turned his head and found that Ye Xinglan was also looking at him.
"Wulin said that the Heaven Dou City Blacksmith Association can provide us with a place to stay. It's a training room on the top floor with floor-to-ceiling windows on all four sides, letting in unobstructed moonlight. There's also a matching blacksmith workshop and a separate living room. The association president is his teacher and has already made arrangements. It'll be convenient to do whatever we want, and the material warehouse will supply materials at cost price."
He succinctly summarized the core of Tang Wulin's long invitation in three sentences, then asked, "Are you going or not?"
Ye Xinglan did not answer immediately.
Instead, she looked at Yun Jingheng with her still-moist silver eyes and asked earnestly, "What do you think?"
"I'm asking you a question."
"Wherever you go, I'll go."
Then she paused, raised her hand, and wiped the tear stains from her cheek with the back of her hand. "Moreover, Heaven Dou City is located in the heart of the Sun Moon Federation, where the Spirit Pagoda and the Federation military's influence are relatively weak."
"The Blacksmith Association is a neutral organization, not affiliated with any faction, and its privacy is guaranteed. It's much more reliable than us searching for a mountain stronghold in the wild."
Yun Jingheng looked at her and couldn't help but chuckle, "You've even analyzed this?"
"During the two weeks you were recovering from your injury, I looked up all the places that might be suitable for you."
Ye Xinglan's tone returned to its usual concise and calm manner, though a slight nasal tone lingered at the end, "The Heaven Dou City Blacksmith Association is also on my shortlist, ranked third."
"And who's ranked first or second?"
"It's gone. It was flattened by the shockwave of the explosion."
"... Alright. Then let's go with Heaven Dou City."
Yun Jingheng lowered his head to unmute the communicator and said to Tang Wulin, who was still waiting for a reply, "Wulin, let's go over there."
"Okay."
Tang Wulin agreed readily, then added, "No, send me the coordinates. You all stay where you are and wait. I'll have Teacher Mu Ye come to pick you up; he'll be here in Red-Grade Mecha, he'll be very fast."
Yun Jingheng raised his eyebrows slightly.
Red-Grade Mecha are among the greatest masterpieces of the Mecha Association. There are no more than a handful of blacksmiths on the entire continent who can pilot Red-Grade Mecha.
Tang Wulin actually managed to get Mu Ye to come and pick him up personally; this kind of treatment can't be explained by "the teacher speaking to the president."
"Senior Mu Ye has come in person?"
He said he actually wanted to see you.
Tang Wulin's voice held a faint hint of amusement, a smile Yun Jingheng knew all too well.
It was a tone of schadenfreude, born from being tormented by a senior figure, yet one that dared not speak openly, "He said he wanted to see how pathetic the kid who could make a level twelve Fixed Soul Guidance Cannonball would be."
"... You told him I was the one who caused it? You didn't tell him about my situation?"
"I already told him. He said, 'That's perfect, wounded soldiers can't run fast, so they'll be easier to catch.'"
Yun Jingheng was silent for a moment, then ended the call.
Ye Xinglan watched his expression from the side, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly.
"Senior Mu Ye," she said, "The one who taught Tang Wulin forging?"
"Yes. The Body Douluo, a friend of the Divine Craftsman, taught Wulin how to strengthen his physical body."
Yun Jingheng put the communicator back into his waistband and took out another small device, about the size of a palm.
That was an upgraded version of the radiation detector he had calibrated by the door two weeks ago. The casing was still pieced together, with a few loose wires sticking out from the seams, but the dial had stabilized at a relatively low value.
"Heaven Dou City isn't too far from here. At the speed of Red-Grade Mecha, it should be—"
Before he could finish speaking, the night sky in the distance suddenly lit up.
It was a scorching, crimson streak of light with a metallic tail, rising from an unseen point on the horizon, tracing an extremely long parabola across the night sky, and then rapidly plunging down in their direction.
The sound of air being torn apart arrived two or three seconds later, low and persistent.
The streak of light suddenly slowed down over the ruins a hundred meters in front of them, the transition from extremely fast to extremely still taking less than a second.
A mech hovered above the scorched earth.
It stands approximately six meters tall and is covered entirely in crimson armor plates, with soul-guided patterns inlaid on the edges of each armor plate.
Six wings unfold from its back, each with a blue trail of plasma thruster at its tip that slowly retracts. When switching from combat mode to hovering mode, the six trails of flame converge simultaneously, forming a symmetrical six-pointed star array behind the mech.
"Wow~" x2