NOVPUBChapter 114: Chapter 113: Night Flight
Chapter 114 -113: Night Flight
“Found it, the source is right below us,” Ailuodi said after a quarter of an hour. “Can you make out what’s down there?”
About a hundred meters above the ground, and with only the moonlight and starlight reflecting at night, Chaoyang could only vaguely see a dark shape stretched out between the beach and the waves. “Let’s descend a little more; it’s too dark here.”
Ailuodi quickly descended further.
The silhouette expanded accordingly, appearing no longer a single entity, but rather a collection of many fragmented things pieced together.
Chaoyang observed for a while, then suddenly realized what these things were…
“This is a ship graveyard; below are all the stranded and scrapped vessels!”
“Indeed, this does make for a good hiding place.” After confirming there was no one on guard, Ailuodi, along with Chaoyang, silently landed on the bridge of a damaged large ship. One could tell that the ship beneath their feet was supposed to be an ocean freighter, its steel deck covered with patches of rust, half of it soaking in the sea, with hollow thuds echoing each time the waves hit the hull.
However, the two of them quickly noticed strings of sea fish hanging on the railings on either side of the bow.
This was obviously not the work of fish jumping up and getting themselves stuck.
Without a doubt, someone lived here long-term.
“Can you perform the Dream Entering Technique through a wall?” Ailuodi asked.
“If it’s just to impart suggestions, a wall is no issue. But, to read memories, it’s best to make close contact.” Chaoyang closed his eyes and began to shape an avatar, “Let’s go with the old method then. I’ll handle the infiltration, and you can guide me through my vision.”
The advantage of abundant wishing power was the capability to fully utilize one’s abilities—a temporary avatar consuming fifty wishing power was no longer significant for him, its main cost had come down to time.
Next was optical invisibility, at five points of wishing power per hour.
An hour and a half later, Chaoyang’s avatar, now completely blending with the surroundings, climbed through the bridge window and began to advance down the stairs. The interior light of the vessel was much dimmer than outside, almost pitch dark, as if one could not see one’s own hand. As per his usual practice, he activated Lingxi vision for close-range night vision, but unexpectedly discovered that his newly-acquired transparent circle almost perfectly outlined the surrounding environment!
Especially the small filled-in circle, which presented the ground in a striking gray-white, hardly different from daytime.
“Can you see things around you clearly?” he suddenly remembered that Angel was linked to his vision.
“Barely, it’s as you see, so I see,” came the reply.
Clearly, the other party couldn’t see the circle.
Chaoyang didn’t inquire further and continued on to the lower deck of the ship—here, there were no signs of water ingress, but the entrance to the cabins was blocked by an iron door.
The door was not the usual watertight kind and even had a handle on the outside. He tried pushing it, finding it locked.
“Looks like we need to find another way…”
“Don’t you know how to pick locks?”
“Of course not, I’m a law-abiding citizen! Do you know how?”
Ailuodi’s voice suddenly lowered, “…I learned a bit in the slums.”
“Then give it a try. Concentrate, and I’ll guide your consciousness in—” This wasn’t the first time for Chaoyang to do this; when he had Zhang Zhiyuan and Zhou Zhi squeeze into the same body, he had used this method. “I am going to relinquish some control, and you can try moving your hands.”
“This feeling… it’s so strange,” Ailuodi murmured.
“After all, now you have me within you, and I have you within me. Can you move?”
Angel used her consciousness to lift her hand, and the body responded accordingly, “It worked. But I need tools, like… a hairpin or something.”
“Easy,” Chaoyang created two hairpins out of wishing power, “Now it’s in your hands.” 𝒏𝒐𝙫𝙥𝙪𝙗.𝒄𝙤𝙢
“The abilities of a demon are too convenient!” Ailuodi couldn’t help but envy.
“You need wishing power for that. If I hadn’t found Paradise, by now I would probably be drinking the soup of oblivion.”
“What soup?” Angel asked while fiddling with the lock.
“A soup that can give you a new life, an Eastern speciality. If you ever get the chance to come here, I’ll treat you to it.”
“Why do I feel like you’re pulling my leg… It’s open!”
With a click, the door handle turned all the way.
Ailuodi also saw a line of text emerge in her vision: Lock Picking Skill Level Up!
“If possible, I hope you don’t waste wishing power on such things.”
“It’s just an effect, this doesn’t cost anything,” Chaoyang regained control of his hands and gently pushed open the iron door. Astonishingly, a faint glow of fire appeared below the cabin!
“Be careful, there’s someone on your left!” Ailuodi warned as well.
A burly man was seen walking along the iron grated walkway, his footsteps echoing loudly in the cabin.
Upon reaching the door, he glanced around, muttered “I must have heard wrong…” in a confused tone, and then returned into the shadows.
Chaoyang breathed a sigh of relief, thankfully he closed the door quickly. The closest they had been to each other was no more than thirty centimeters, saying they brushed past each other was not an exaggeration.
“Where’s the target?”
“About seventy meters from you, but you need to keep heading down.”
Chaoyang cautiously lifted his foot and started to slowly move forward—the pathways in the cabin were mostly iron grates suspended in mid-air, and his shoe soles made a distinct echoing sound when he stepped on them. Although he could render himself visually invisible, he couldn’t silence the noise he made, so moving in such a place required extreme caution.
Looking down the corridor, only empty cargo holds with five or six iron barrels were in view. The barrels were filled with burning wood and grease, the sources of light. Beside these barrels lay perhaps a hundred people—they didn’t even have beds, and could only lie on the simplest of bedrolls. Some seemed to be injured, with bandages and blood stains visible on their bodies.
Undoubtedly, the Miners’ Brotherhood had transformed the graveyard of ships into their secret hideout.
But on further consideration, it was indeed a good place—the southeastern outskirts of Magnificent Castle were often plagued by pirates, and ordinary people would not set foot in this dangerous area. The city’s guard patrol only protected a few villages on the southern coast, posing limited threat to the Brotherhood. Plus, there was no fog at sea, meaning they could head northwards in small boats along the coastline, reaching the eastern side of the mines to pick up their brethren escaping from the mining zone.
The only problem was that there was a watchtower at the southeastern corner of the city; if a large number of people were spotted moving between the wasteland and the city, suspicions would surely arise. Therefore, Chaoyang guessed there must also be a secret passage connecting the ship graveyard with Magnificent Castle.
Following Ailuodi’s guidance, Chaoyang went down to the bottom of the cabin, sneaked past the densely populated central area, and reached the partition at the bow of the ship. The space here was divided into several parts by watertight bulkheads, and the signal Angel sensed came from inside one of the rooms.
He noticed that there was not even a single guard in this area—probably because the Brotherhood was short on manpower, or because they believed the bottom of the ship was absolutely safe. In any case, now the only thing standing in their way was a few heavy sealed doors. These doors couldn’t even be locked; a slight turn of the valve, and the door would open at the sound.
