Don't Go Too Far

"Field pressure 1001, southwesterly winds at force five, gusts at force five. The wind is a little strong, so be careful!"

Autumn was gradually setting in, and the autumn winds had begun to blow across the entire southwest. Hardly a day passed without wind.

"Roger!"

Weather like this could no longer affect Li Zhi. He had been flying solo for a month, and he was no longer the rookie he had once been!

Rumble!

With a roar, Li Zhi took off in the base's only Jiaolong 10.

On the way to the border, Li Zhi did not perform any other particularly fuel-intensive maneuvers. This time, he had a training mission covering nearly 400 kilometers.

He had to reserve fuel for emergencies, so Li Zhi needed to budget carefully.

This time was no exception. As soon as Li Zhi crossed the other side's so-called identification line, a Peacock fighter came over and flew alongside him, with the border between them.

Perhaps because he had not seen them for so many days, Li Zhi wanted to express how much he missed them.

"Chicken Coop, I'm going to play with him!"

Li Zhi had to report any unplanned maneuvers to keep his own side from worrying.

"Don't go too far!"

The control tower naturally could not refuse Li Zhi's request. Ever since the collision last time, pilots at nearly every base responsible for the Peacock Country front had engaged in "friendly" exchanges with Peacock pilots.

Without any warning, Li Zhi's fighter suddenly dropped sharply in altitude.

The Peacock pilot across the border was clearly caught off guard. Seeing Li Zhi's fighter begin an unusual maneuver, he hurriedly descended after him while reporting the situation to his own base.

There was no way the Peacock fighter could let Li Zhi out of its sight. Although there was almost no chance of a Dragon Country fighter making a low-altitude penetration, they still had to guard against it.

Of course, Li Zhi had no intention of making a low-altitude penetration. He had received no such orders; he only wanted to play with the other pilot.

Descending rapidly from the clear skies at ten thousand meters, the fighter soon entered a thick layer of clouds.

Li Zhi's fighter also disappeared from the Peacock pilot's sight.

In close-range encounters, an aircraft's onboard radar was actually not all that useful.

That was mainly due to how radar worked. The radar had to emit radar waves, which struck an object and bounced back. Only from those returning waves could it detect the other party's presence.

The process took time, and most radars refreshed at intervals of around five seconds.

Five seconds seemed very short, but in an aerial engagement, especially a close-range dogfight, five seconds was enough to decide the victor!

The moment he lost sight of Li Zhi, the Peacock pilot looked at his radar screen.

The few seconds of waiting were unusually agonizing for the Peacock pilot.

Soon, a red dot representing Li Zhi appeared on the radar screen. He was only four kilometers away, not much different from before.

Wait, something's wrong!

He's only four kilometers away, but the altitude doesn't look right. How could he be above me?

As it turned out, Li Zhi had performed a steep climbing maneuver shortly after entering the clouds. The clouds had concealed his movements from the Peacock pilot.

Li Zhi's fighter quickly burst out of the clouds and returned to the sky above them. He then leveled off, just as before.

The only difference was that the Peacock fighter was no longer there to keep him "company."

Li Zhi silently counted the time in his head. He did not seem to have had enough fun yet.

Now!

When Li Zhi reached a certain number, he immediately steered his fighter back into the clouds. Shortly after he entered them, the Peacock fighter also returned to the sky above the clouds.

Li Zhi had anticipated the Peacock pilot's move. Before the pilot climbed back up, Li Zhi had entered the clouds again.

Li Zhi was playing hide-and-seek with him-or rather, to be precise, he was making a monkey out of him!

"May all your children be daughters!"

The Peacock pilot said this in the Peacock language. Although Li Zhi could not hear him, he still could not help cursing aloud.

Those words were the most vicious insult in Peacock Country, directly because of the customs there.

Someone unfamiliar with Peacock Country might be baffled upon hearing them, but they really were the most vicious insult in Peacock Country.

The wedding customs there were exactly the opposite of Dragon Country's. When a Peacock family married off a daughter, they really could lose everything they owned!

On top of that, Peacock had no concept of eugenics or sound child-rearing, so wishing someone nothing but daughters was a very vicious curse in Peacock!

Li Zhi had no idea the other man was cursing him, and even if he had known, he would not have cared. Having a daughter was a good thing, and Li Zhi loved daughters!

This time, Li Zhi did not climb back up. Instead, he continued descending.

Li Zhi's "fun" would have ended there. Having toyed with the other pilot, he was in a good mood and had not planned to continue.

But the other pilot seemed to have grown careless, or perhaps he was still angry. He did not follow Li Zhi down at all.

That gave Li Zhi another idea!

Of course, he was not going to attack the other pilot or cross the border. Such actions required orders from above.

Li Zhi only wanted to give him a scare and teach him a lesson, so they would know to stay close to him in the future.

"Chicken Coop, I'm going to disappear for a little while!"

Li Zhi seemed about to disappear from radar for a while, so he gave the base advance warning to keep them from worrying.

"Three-Yellow Chicken, don't go too far!"

The base's reply did not seem to reach Li Zhi. His fighter's signal also vanished from the base's radar screen.

Li Zhi's fighter had dropped below the minimum altitude detectable by radar, and radio communications had also been cut off. Unless the base activated satellite communications, they could no longer contact him!

The control tower naturally had to report the situation to Xu Feng, but Xu Feng did not react much upon hearing the news.

Partly, that was because Li Zhi had reported his intentions beforehand, so Xu Feng knew what was happening. The other reason, naturally, was that he had no particular fondness for Peacock either, so of course he supported Li Zhi's actions.

At the same time, Xu Feng made preparations to provide support at any moment, in case the other side lashed out in desperation.

As Li Zhi dropped lower and lower, the Peacock pilot realized something was wrong.

His pride had been hurt after Li Zhi toyed with him, so he had chosen to ignore Li Zhi. But as Li Zhi descended farther and farther, he began to panic and hurried after him.

But it was already too late. Li Zhi's fighter was too close to the ground, and it soon vanished from the Peacock fighter's radar screen.