Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 677 - 670: Shared Interests

Chapter 677: Chapter 670: Shared Interests

Luo’er didn’t know how to explain to her, so he silently took her back to the bed in her room and let her rest. The current mission was unfinished, and Tangmo was a non-combat casualty. Luoer felt overwhelmed.

"Sister Moumou!" As soon as Luoer put Tangmo on the bed, Hu Daoke hurried over upon hearing the news, hurriedly appearing at the cabin door.

"Perfect timing. Please take care of your sister, I’m going to meet with Ziang to plan our next steps." Seeing Hu Daoke arrive, Luoer breathed a sigh of relief and then spoke to him.

"Eh, what happened to Sister Moumou?" Hu Daoke asked in surprise when he saw Tangmo curled up on the bed, wiping her tears.

"Er, she’s in pain and crying. Please stay with her and fulfill any needs she might have. I’ll be off." Luoer coughed, and then stuttered out his words.

"Oh." Hu Daoke nodded his head, watching as Luoer left the cabin. He couldn’t shake the feeling that Luoer was hiding something.

After completing a search of the ground, the air fleet began ascending above the cloud layer, hovering and waiting for directives from Headquarters.

With Tangmo’s bold attempt, Zhuyan Yu and Nightingale made significant progress in their research on Feng. But there were still many unresolved mysteries about her. Zhuyan Yu even thought about taking her from Luoer for further study.

But she realized it wasn’t feasible. Not to mention whether Luoer would agree, even if he did, Feng may not. Feng’s abilities were not to be taken lightly. If she resists, everyone on this supply ship will be in trouble.

Without a medium, Feng can still output Magic Power as an offensive tool, pure Magic Power without any nature change.

However, long-term studies have taught them that just raw magic power couldn’t achieve effects similar to sword energy. Magic power is intangible, and without a nature change, it can’t possible cut a living person in half from meters away.

So, Feng’s sword energy and her magic power are not the same form of attack. As previously confirmed, Feng doesn’t need a medium to release magic. Therefore, it’s unlikely that she needs a sword as a medium to change the form of magic to create sword energy.

But to study her two attack methods, they would need to observe them. Tangmo has already tested Feng’s magic power, next, they just need to examine her sword energy to understand the principle behind it.

However, the Advance Team is on a mission now. Everyone is on the Airship, and there isn’t enough space to perform these dangerous experiments. They will have to wait until they return to Headquarters to continue the investigation into Feng’s secrets.

But the cultivation manual brought back by Luoer is a valuable reference. Even though, as it currently stands, hardly any person from Otherworld or subhumans can learn this cultivation method, it could still serve as a reference.

Zhuyan Yu took the opportunity of free time to hastily draft a paper, discussing the drastically different ways in which magic power channels with two different body constitutions. She planned to co-publish the paper with Nightingale, so both were up against time gathering materials and drafting.

The captive who was taken aboard the airship was guarded and interrogated by the High-peak people. After the Advance Team spent a night on the air fleet, the High-peak liaison officer came to report valuable intel extracted from the captive, including the position of the crashed reconnaissance aircraft.

Upon receipt of the news, the air fleet immediately dispatched numerous reconnaissance aircraft, transport planes, and ground troops to search for the wreckage in the forested hillside area.

For the High-peak people, the reconnaissance aircraft was not important, nor was the life or death of the pilots. The most important thing was the anti-gravity engine on the aircraft. It had to be recovered; otherwise, the secret of Ronisca’s anti-gravity could fall into other hands.

The main reason Luoer was so adamant about the air fleet descending to bomb the area, despite the threat of ground fire, was because he knew that they would do everything necessary to recover the anti-gravity engine. As long as the anti-aircraft positions were not cleared, they would not dare to dispatch reconnaissance aircraft and transport planes to search.

By the afternoon, the air fleet found the wreckage of the reconnaissance plane, and even located the buried dwarf pilot nearby.

However, to their disappointment and alarm, the anti-gravity engine on the reconnaissance plane was missing. Judging by the traces on the wreck, the engine was deliberately removed, rather than lost in the crash.

Following the report of the issue, the commander of the airborne fleet could no longer sit idle. He demanded that his subordinates expedite the interrogation of the captured prisoner, in a bid to find out about the whereabouts of the anti-gravity engine.

In this way, the interests of the airborne fleet coincided with those of the headquarters. Since the anti-gravity engine disappeared alongside the virus sample, there was a strong chance that these items had been taken by this group. While the advance team was trying to recover the virus sample, the airborne fleet might also be able to locate their lost anti-gravity engine.

As their interests converged, life became somewhat easier for the advance team. The airborne fleet no longer remained aloof. Instead, they interrogated the prisoner even more urgently than the advance team, trying to trace the anti-gravity engine.

While the airborne fleet was exhaustively occupied, headquarters was also active. The frontline headquarters initiated the first large-scale mobilization of their longstanding business intelligence network to search for the whereabouts of the virus sample and the anti-gravity engine.

The area around Yazhi City was tightly surrounded by commercial spies and bounty hunters. Anyone entering, even a fly, would be reported to the onsite headquarters instantly.

But despite such careful plans, Wang Xu still couldn’t rest easy. Since the virus sample went missing, he had barely slept, spending all his time in the office, awaiting good news from the intelligence network and the advance team.

The people from the Central Intelligence Agency assured him that the virus sample would not be used for spreading the infection, slightly relieving Wang Xu’s worry, as this meant that the worst possible outcome would be avoided.

However, he was well aware that no one could be certain if the virus sample had been taken by the Central Intelligence Agency. What if it was taken by someone else with a different agenda? What if they didn’t want to negotiate, but rather expand the range of the pandemic?

Regardless, Wang Xu felt that he could only rest easy after the virus sample had been found. In another two days, a new batch of virus samples would be transported to their base. There could be absolutely no mistakes this time round, as any disruption in HQ’s schedule would bring an unbearable responsibility.

Wang Xu sat at his desk, staring at the oppressing dark clouds outside his window. His current state of mind mirrored the gloomy view outside. As soon as he took a deep breath, he broke into a fit of severe coughing.

Ever since he left Earth to take up the position as the highest-ranking officer at front-line command, he hardly returned to Earth. Although the headquarters later assigned suppressive drugs, his body had already been weakened due to magic power erosion beforehand.

"Sir, your coffee..." Came a soft knock and a frail voice from the door. Wang Xu covered his mouth, momentarily suppressing his coughs.

The maid Daier walked over to the office table with a cup of coffee. As she placed the coffee on the table, she saw Wang Xu’s haggard face and couldn’t help but persuade him, "Sir, please stop and rest for a while, please."

"Thank you for your concern." Wang Xu took a deep breath then picked up his newly brewed coffee.

"You should rest. I hope you’ll respect my request," Daier awkwardly uttered, with her hands clenched around the platter.

"I’ll rest in a bit, I can’t leave just yet." Wang Xu responded.

"Sir!" Daier was not willing to give up and plucked up the courage to raise her voice, trying to convince him once more.

Wang Xu, already under a lot of stress, felt a touch of annoyance due to Daier’s obstinacy. But seeing her worried expression, he couldn’t bring himself to lose his temper.

The headquarters advocated equality among all. Daier was here on equal employment terms with the command center, so he wasn’t allowed to reprimand her as his subordinate.

After a moment of silence, Wang Xu breathed out lightly, deciding to make a compromise, "Can you give me half an hour? I’ll rest after half an hour."

"I’m so glad. I apologize for my stubbornness, but I’m thrilled you took my advice." Hearing that Wang Xu had agreed to compromise, her face lit up with a relieved smile.