Li Zhi

Biodata

Training and Rank Progression

Background

Previous Life and Rebirth

In his previous life, Li Zhi was a decorated special operations soldier whose awards included two first-class merit medals. He died during a special mission after choosing to take the enemy down with him to cover his teammates' retreat. His ambition to become an air force pilot had ended earlier because his eyesight failed the initial physical screening 1 24.

His rebirth did not involve taking over another person's body: he was conscious from the time he was in his mother's womb. Raised in Jinling, he pursued the same ambition through disciplined exercise, careful eating, and self-study using aviation books. By the time he entered flight college, he had already spent roughly ten years systematically studying flight knowledge 1 9.

Personality

Li Zhi combines strong military instincts with an unusually persistent commitment to flying. Before formally becoming a soldier in his second life, he intervened against armed hijackers because he could not stand aside. At the academy, he worked so intensely that even his instructors urged him not to push himself too hard 1 9.

He is composed in emergencies but willing to take substantial risks for a practical purpose. When ordered to eject from a malfunctioning fighter, he continued attempting a landing so investigators could identify the fault and protect other pilots. He also accepts demanding instruction: although Liu Jin's advanced requirements made training difficult, Li Zhi understood their value 14 26 27.

Against Peacock Country's pilots, he becomes mischievous and provocative, treating evasive encounters as games. This does not mean he ignores operational limits: during one patrol, he explicitly ruled out crossing the border or attacking without orders. His reputation for unsettling enemy pilots eventually became useful enough for commanders to assign him a deliberate diversion mission 35 44.

Despite his combat experience, Li Zhi is romantically inexperienced. He has never been in a relationship across either lifetime and becomes visibly embarrassed when psychologist Xia Chuxue asks personal questions. He finds aircraft considerably easier to understand than women 28.

Abilities & Skills

Fighter Piloting and Aerobatics

• Trained under Golden Helmet recipient Liu Jin, who had almost nothing left to teach him by graduation 11 14.
• Performs advanced maneuvers including the Cobra, Immelmann Turn, and uneven-flap spin 14 15 19.
• Retains strong spatial awareness during aerobatics: he counted seventeen and a half rotations during Liu Jin's demonstration without consulting the instruments 12.
• Uses clouds, terrain, and extremely low flight to break visual or radar tracking 35 41 44.
• Manages fuel deliberately during patrols, avoiding unnecessary maneuvers when reserves may be needed for emergencies 35.

Emergency Aircraft Handling

• Landed passenger flight CM696 with remote assistance after its pilots were killed, despite having no practical airliner experience 3 5 8.
• Preserved an Eighth Master after both engines failed, using its drag chute, speed brakes, and automatic brakes to stop four meters from the runway's edge 27.
• His early theoretical knowledge did not immediately translate into practical control: an attempted airliner turn exceeded a 70-degree bank and sent the aircraft into a descending spiral 5.

Combat and Reconnaissance

• Uses autocannon fire against small aerial targets; shooting down the intruding drone required repeated attack runs rather than an immediate hit 20 21.
• Operates an infrared night-vision pod to locate people on the ground and direct troops to their positions 23 24.
• Uses fire-control radar locks to pressure enemy pilots and interrupt attacks against friendly ground forces 45 50.
• Held two enemy fighters occupied until Steppe Wolf arrived, giving ground troops time to clear the area and establish air defenses 50.

Close-Quarters Combat

• Retains the combat experience of his previous military career and can decisively overpower armed opponents 2 3.
• During the hijacking, used clothing as a garrote, threw a steel pipe at a gunman, and entered the cockpit behind an unconscious attacker used as a shield 2 3.
• Identified gunfire amid cabin noise and recognized that the unfamiliar weapon was likely homemade or modified 1.

Memory and Learning

• Possesses an exceptionally strong memory, described as approaching photographic recall 7.
• Mastered flight theory substantially faster than his classmates and taught himself simulated takeoffs and landings 9 11.
• Recalled the precise sequence of warnings and engine behavior when questioned by the aircraft investigation team 29.

Aircraft and Equipment

• L-8 advanced trainer — Aircraft used for his practical academy instruction under Liu Jin 11 12.
• Eighth Master — His initial frontline aircraft type. Before receiving his own fighter, he borrowed Xu Feng's aircraft for training and operational duties 17 19 24.
• Jiaolong 10B, J20024 — Selected from four fighters being handed over by Yu Aircraft. Peacock pilots later recognized its number and associated it with Li Zhi 32 39.
• Infrared night-vision pod — Temporarily fitted for the search for the Liu brothers. It alerted him to targets not marked by the friend-or-foe identification system and was removed the following day 23 24.
• External drop tanks — Carried for the diversion mission; he later jettisoned them toward an unmanned Peacock fighter, striking its canopy with one tank 44 49.

Story Role / Major Arcs

CM696 Hijacking

• While traveling from Jinling to Yuzhou for pilot-selection reexamination, Li Zhi discovered armed hijackers holding the flight attendants captive 1.
• He neutralized four attackers in business class, but the cockpit gunman killed the captain and himself; the copilot was already dead 2 3.
• With help from experienced captain Wu Lei over the radio, he brought the airliner to Yuzhou Airport. A crosswind caused a tire blowout and wing scrape, but the aircraft stopped and nearly a hundred people survived 5 8.
• His combat ability initially made investigators suspicious. Lei Hu's intervention allowed him to attend the flight college's reexamination on time 8.

Frontline Assignment and Intelligence Leak

• After graduation, Lei Hu assigned him to the remote Bird's Nest, whose small pilot roster was under pressure from border tensions and a wounded colleague 16 17.
• During an armed training flight, he encountered what he initially believed was a friendly target drone. After it fired at him, Xu Feng confirmed it was an intruder and ordered him to destroy it 21 22.
• Li Zhi subsequently located its operators, Liu Lei and Liu Xin, at night and fired ahead of them to force their surrender to ground troops. Investigators confirmed they had not transmitted the stolen intelligence 24.

Eighth Master Emergency and Re-equipment

• Li Zhi refused to abandon a malfunctioning Eighth Master while he believed it remained controllable. His forced landing preserved the aircraft for investigation and reduced the incident from a Class A accident to Class C 26 27.
• He underwent medical and psychological assessment, then answered questions from Yu Aircraft's experts while temporarily unable to fly 28 29.
• Sent to collect four Jiaolong 10Bs, he took off in one in under 350 meters. His abrupt bird-avoidance maneuver prompted an investigation and military escort, but he was cleared of wrongdoing 30 32 33 34.

Border Encounters and Growing Reputation

• Li Zhi repeatedly frustrated Peacock pilots by disappearing into clouds and radar blind spots. One encounter preceded Sangji Ayi losing control and flying toward Muhante City, prompting Peacock's own defenses to shoot down his fighter 35 38 39.
• Eagle Country publicly attributed the incident to an ejection-seat failure and Peacock modifications. Among nearby Peacock pilots, however, J20024 became feared as the aircraft whose pilot had driven an opponent into a breakdown 38 39 41.
• Dragon Country neither formally rewarded nor punished Li Zhi for the incident, though he had to submit a detailed report 38.

Diversion Mission and Great Snow Mountain Battle

• Xu Feng selected Li Zhi to draw Peacock's attention away from a ground operation. His instructions were to create the largest possible disturbance, prioritize survival, and avoid firing first 44.
• Li Zhi approached under radio silence at extremely low altitude, then revealed himself and provoked pursuing fighters with radar locks 44 45.
• After Xiaerdi ejected from a still-flying armed fighter, Li Zhi attempted to bring it down without simply destroying it. He punctured its wings to drain fuel, then struck its canopy with a discarded drop tank 48 49.
• Following a resupply stop lasting less than five minutes, he returned to combat over the Great Snow Mountain. He interrupted two Peacock fighters attacking Dragon Country's ground troops and held them until Steppe Wolf arrived 49 50.

Awards and Recognition

Relationships

• Lei Hu — Division commander and long-term supporter. Helped him attend reexamination, secured his frontline assignment, and sought to develop his talent without rushing him 8 14 30.
• Liu Jin — Academy flight instructor and Golden Helmet recipient. Required Li Zhi to adapt and innovate rather than merely reproduce maneuvers 11 14.
• Xu Feng — Bird's Nest captain and immediate superior. Arranged his solo clearance, lent him a fighter, and directed his early operational missions 17 19 44.
• Liao Yifei — Fellow base pilot, friend, and formation wingman. Teases him as “Xiao Lizi” and encourages him to paint a victory star on his aircraft 39 40 41.
• Zeng Yuan — Fellow Bird's Nest pilot who shares the base's patrol and combat-readiness duties 17 24 44.
• Wang Chen, Liu Zhixin, and Lin Dong — Academy roommates and friends. All entered the fighter cadet class but received separate unit postings after graduation 8 11 16.
• Wu Lei — Experienced airline captain who remotely guided him through the CM696 emergency 5 6 7.
• Xia Chuxue — Military psychologist who assessed him after the forced landing. Her teasing personal questions left him more nervous than the aircraft emergency 28.
• Parents — Supported his aviation ambitions. After he sent his salary card home, unexplained award payments and the classified base's communication restrictions led them to fear he had been harmed; his former academy helped them contact him 8 31 40.
• Steppe Wolf — Wolf's Lair pilot whose arrival relieved Li Zhi during the two-against-one engagement over the Great Snow Mountain 50.