It was not until night had fully fallen and the sky was filled with stars that Zhang Tie piloted the glider back to Crystal Battle Fortress with Lan Yunxi beneath the light of the twin moons.
The glider touched down gently, glided a short distance across the ground, and came to a stop. Zhang Tie and Lan Yunxi climbed out together as the ground crew came running over from afar.
"Thank you!" Lan Yunxi said to Zhang Tie. "I had a wonderful time today. Thank you for letting me be reckless for once."
Zhang Tie glanced at the ground crew running toward them and smiled. "As long as you liked it. Just remember to call me next time you want to skip class!"
Lan Yunxi smiled. "I've found that you're not actually that bad."
"What do you mean, not that bad? I'm one of Black Flame City's Four Outstanding Young Men! I'm a genuinely good man, all right?" Zhang Tie cried indignantly.
"I'm going back first. It would be best if no one else learned about what you showed today."
Zhang Tie knew what Lan Yunxi meant. She meant his ability to fly a glider into the stratosphere. To glider pilots, such a feat was practically mythical—the ultimate application of aerial atmospheric phenomena.
Below the stratosphere lay the troposphere. The rising thermal currents that allowed gliders to fly were products of the troposphere, and those rising currents generally ceased beneath the stratosphere. Thus, in most people's understanding, it was simply impossible for a glider to reach stratospheric altitude. But that was true only for others. Apart from those rising thermal currents, Zhang Tie could also sense even more powerful spiraling updrafts within the troposphere.
If there were tall mountain ranges on the ground below, or where warm and cold air