A black-clad girl descended from the sky, her landing a spectacle. The moment she touched down, her long trench coat continued to billow, leaving the captain and co-pilot breathless.
The samurai sword effortlessly sliced through the twisted, deranged monsters sent by a spatial locator, reducing them to mere fragments. The blade was so sharp that as these strange figures were cut into pieces, they didn't even have time to bleed before being incinerated by flames.
The captain and co-pilot witnessed a flash of silver light, followed by a surge of black flames. In the blink of an eye, the cockpit was as pristine as ever, save for the divine-like girl who haughtily flicked her long hair. The samurai sword in her hand, unstained by a drop of blood, was sheathed.
"Hmph, quite the repertoire," Bai Cha tossed the long samurai sword in her hand. The slender blade shimmered with a cold light, as if washed by autumn water. With a glint, the captain and co-pilot saw a flash of white. A white light streaked across, and a mechanical box, no bigger than a thumb and square-shaped, was cleanly bisected.
The mechanical box let out a faint crackle of electricity and was immediately rendered useless. The cloaking film that enveloped it was also shattered into pieces by Bai Cha.
This kind of cloaking film couldn't truly make objects invisible; it merely altered light to create visual illusions. Such a simple trick was as good as nonexistent to Bai Cha. In fact, Bai Cha had discovered this trick long ago and had been waiting for the mastermind to take the bait.
Or rather, the mastermind saw through Bai Cha, and Bai Cha saw through herself.
That mysterious person, who had been lurking in the shadows, forcing Bai Cha to break through countless situations and leaving her shadow forces stretched thin, saw through Bai Cha's anger and disappointment. They had also calculated that those clinging to Bai Cha's coattails, having recently been idle, would surely become flustered by Bai Cha's detachment and rush to pledge their loyalty.
Therefore, that mysterious person had made preparations long ago. This was precisely when Bai Cha had a competition. Failing to participate in a World Championship would result in an automatic loss, and falling out of the top ten would have equally severe consequences.
Unfortunately, Bai Cha knew she would be angry, so she also deduced that Gong Yuechen and his group would act erratically. However, Bai Cha actually thought that this blood-related person wouldn't be so "emotional." The result was that Bai Cha had indeed overestimated her brother.
Gong Yuechen, this person always possessed an untainted beauty of rationality at critical moments.
Fortunately, Bai Cha had a backup plan, sending Su Qing to use a challenge slot and engage the challenger in a prolonged battle to delay the match.
It was a shame that the item just destroyed was a smoke bomb, but it didn't matter. With so many, at least one was connected to the real terminal. She was eager to see who would win this game of chess between her and the mysterious person.
Although, it currently appeared to be a draw.
"Miss... Miss Bai?"
The captain was dumbfounded. He was an experienced captain who had weathered storms in crises, which was why he was entrusted with transporting these high-ranking officials. Bai Cha was no stranger to him, and the moment he saw her, his heart was filled with a mixture of nervousness and relief.
The relief came from the certainty that with Bai Cha present, everything would be fine, or at least their survival was largely assured. Miss Bai never missed her mark.
However, there was a significant issue: Bai Cha only appeared in places of genuine crisis. This meant that Bai Cha's presence here...
...signified a true, true, true, true, true crisis!
How could he not be nervous!
Upon hearing the captain's words, the co-pilot also regained his senses and stammered, "Miss... Miss Bai, were those... zombies just now?"
This meant that after the dragon phenomenon, the world was becoming even more fantastical. What were those grotesquely shaped, twisted, green-faced, fanged figures? Were these Western zombies? And if so, would Eastern Jiangshi be far behind!
The two captains felt their already fragile scientific beliefs crumbling. Establishing a worldview was difficult, but destroying it took mere moments. Even though scientists had worked as quickly as possible to explain the principles of dragon power, it didn't prevent more fantastical myths and legends from spreading like wildfire.
"No, if people die, they die. Zombies, body transformations, and such are basically impossible without remote control," Bai Cha said, shrugging. This statement gave the two captains confidence in believing in science.
However, the next sentence made them question their entire existence even more.
"So, these aren't zombies, they are Ashuras," Bai Cha added.
The captain and co-pilot exclaimed in unison: "What the heck?"
"Well, have you heard of the Six Paths of Reincarnation? The Asura realm is filled with numerous Ashuras, with males being extremely ugly and females extremely beautiful, born from hell to guard the Asura realm," Bai Cha mused, her fingers on her chin, speaking fluently based on her memories from books. "However, if I recall correctly, these low-level, irritable, and aggressive Ashuras are the weakest. Calling them zombies isn't entirely wrong... Hmm? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Bai Cha was explaining seriously, but she found the world-view shattering expressions on the captain's and co-pilot's faces rather perplexing.
"Oh, don't misunderstand. I'm just explaining from ancient texts. These things didn't crawl out of the Asura realm in hell; they are artificial."
Artificial? That was good. It seemed everything in this world could still be explained by science.
The captain and co-pilot simultaneously patted their chests, sighing in relief.
After all, the composition of dragon power, energy generation, explosion causes, and how it operated within the human body had all been explained. So, this time it would surely be explainable by science, right?
"After all, when extreme evil and extreme good are overstimulated and imbalanced, they can indeed turn demonic, essentially transforming humans into hellish creatures," the captains hadn't fully relaxed when Bai Cha added, "Humans have gone too far, and it's only right for the gods to inflict punishment..."
"Hmm? Why are you still looking at me like that?" Bai Cha touched her chin, raising an eyebrow at the captain and co-pilot whose expressions shifted from terrified to calm, then from calm to terrified. "Oh... you two, pretend I didn't say anything."
Bai Cha had suddenly overlooked an important issue. Due to their special professions, they often walked a fine line and were accustomed to strange occurrences. They had forgotten that ordinary people were always kept in the dark.
She figured they had fallen for the researchers' elaborate deceptions.
The captain and co-pilot: "..."
How could you possibly expect us to just forget what you said? Our entire worldview has shattered! Your look clearly conveyed, "You actually believed those lies," and it was utterly dismissive!
"Knock knock..."
A soft knocking sound.
"Bang bang bang!"
Before the captain could even ask who it was, the knocking became more urgent. The loud knocks startled the captain and co-pilot, and this time, they knew something was wrong without even looking.
"You two, stay inside the protective shield and don't move," Bai Cha said, tilting her head and gesturing for them to look forward. "You're in charge of watching the plane."
As soon as she finished speaking, the plane dipped, as if suddenly burdened with tons of weight, tilting sharply.
"So fast?" Bai Cha muttered softly. She wasn't in a hurry, casually strolling to the door. With a push of her left thumb, her sharp long sword partially emerged, silver light flickering.
Bai Cha gripped the door handle, a faint, wicked smile playing on her lips. She actually seemed to be in a good mood.
"Let's see how powerful the Muramasa from the Miyamoto family is," she mused.
"But since it's a sacrificial blade, I hope there are enough minor monsters."
Meanwhile, on the other side, Gong Yuechen and his companions were utterly stunned.
They were pinned to their seats, unable to move. Initially, they had felt relieved upon hearing Bai Cha's broadcast, but then, a scene beyond their wildest imaginations unfolded.
Suddenly, a horde of zombies appeared around the front, back, left, and right of the plane. These zombies were green-faced, fanged, and grotesquely ugly, occasionally interspersed with oddly beautiful zombies, some even possessing four arms.
Yes, oddly beautiful. Their noses and eyes were exquisitely sculpted. If any one of them were placed on their own faces, their appearance would skyrocket.
However, perhaps it was the strange skin tone of these female zombies, resembling a palette mixed with acrylics of blue, yellow, and red into a single blob, dry and pitted, that made their otherwise attractive features utterly horrifying.
Yet, they couldn't deny that these female zombies were truly beautiful. With such ugly skin, coupled with their figures and facial features, it evoked a feeling of disgust and admiration simultaneously.
As for the male zombies, they were simply ignored. They would never admit that those bizarrely ugly, strangely shaped, crooked, and disheveled humanoid creatures were male zombies. The mere association with the word "male" felt like bad luck.
No, that wasn't the point. The point was why there were so many zombies on the plane!
Gong Yuechen was completely beside himself. These zombies were trampling on the corpses of their own kind, frantically gnawing at their protective shields. Looking at their uneven, black and yellow teeth, and their grotesquely varied tonsils, Gong Yuechen felt he would never want to look in a mirror while yawning again.
It would surely leave psychological trauma!
The cabin remained silent, with the exception of the wriggling and gnawing sounds of these zombie-ashuras. Everyone was like a chicken with its throat choked, wanting to say something but having their voices stifled. Watching the zombies gnaw at their protective shields, they felt their own teeth ache.
"...Damn it, Bai Cha, save us!"
Gong Yuechen's heart was filled with tears. He had never wanted to see Bai Cha so badly. He voiced everyone's sentiments.
They weren't afraid of ghosts, but they were afraid of ugliness! They were so ugly, so terrifyingly ugly, they were about to vomit their dinner!
"Screech screech!"
Strange gibberish sounds came from the front of the cabin. All the zombies suddenly stopped moving, lifted their heads, and stared blankly ahead. They slowly crawled down and then rushed forward in a frenzy toward one direction.
Those sitting in the front were most affected. For example, Gong Yuechen, who was in the second row, was almost crying from disgust. A flash of silver light appeared, and he thought he was mistaken. But the next second, the zombies densely packed on his protective shield were sliced into scattered fragments. Then, a flash of black flame disappeared, incinerating these disgusting creatures.
Following that, Bai Cha flicked her wrist, and another spatial projector was rendered useless. Two on the plane's hull, one in the cockpit, and the spatial projector at the front of the cabin that was sending zombies were all shattered by Bai Cha. However, the mental energy Bai Cha used for reconnaissance yielded no results. It seemed like another smoke bomb.
But it didn't matter; only the last one remained.
Bai Cha narrowed her eyes, strolling forward step by step as if walking in a garden. With every step she took, the zombies within a few meters were sliced into pieces, then burned to ashes. The zombies kept increasing, but the clean area behind Bai Cha also grew larger.