Chapter 106: Captain Tingyun's Maiden Flight

GO, GO! Departing for Cloudford!

Following the fragmented memories of his past life and the sporadic signage of the Xianzhou, Chen eventually found his way to the Luofu’s sprawling spaceport. It didn’t take him long to lock onto his target: a small, unassuming starskiff parked in a secluded berth, clearly forgotten in the current chaos.

Chen rubbed his hands together, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. After a quick, theatrical glance around to confirm no one was watching, he nimbly vaulted over the side and dropped into the pilot’s seat.

He leaned back, ready to play the part of a seasoned captain. Then he looked at the cluttered control panel in front of him and froze. He was utterly, completely, dumbfounded.

‘Uh… what in the seven hells is this button for? And this lever? This… this looks like a steering wheel, but what is this spherical thing in the middle? Energy injection valve? Manual gear? Automatic gear?’

Chen’s fingers hovered uselessly in the air, his mind a complete and utter blank. He’d played countless video games, piloting everything from mechs to starfighters, but the reality of operating an actual starskiff was a completely different beast.

“…Can the Transformation System maybe just grant me some driving skills?” he muttered to himself, his confidence rapidly deflating. Then, a spark of inspiration ignited in his mind.

“Right! Tingyun! Didn’t I just unlock her icon? She’s a merchant who travels far and wide, a Ferrymaster of the Sky-Faring Commission! She has to be proficient with starships and skiffs, right?”

No sooner was the thought formed than it was acted upon.

With a mere flicker of intent, a soft light enveloped him. The air shimmered. A pair of fluffy fox ears twitched atop his head, and a shrewd, captivating smile graced his lips. In an instant, the bumbling Chen was gone, replaced by the elegant Miss Tingyun, her brocade robes settling perfectly as she sat poised in the pilot’s seat.

The moment the transformation completed, a wave of new information washed over Chen’s consciousness—a torrent of basic operational knowledge and an instinctive familiarity with a wide variety of common transport vehicles.

‘This is for ignition, this one controls liftoff, that adjusts direction, and this one modulates speed.’

“Ohhh, I see now!”

Chen’s eyes, now Tingyun’s sharp, intelligent gaze, lit up. Her—his—fingers danced across the control panel, tapping and flicking with a smooth, natural grace.

“This is the start button… this is the speed adjustment lever… and you use this sensory sphere for directional control… It’s so simple!”

He felt as though he had instantly transformed from a complete novice into a seasoned, veteran driver. While he probably couldn’t pull off any high-difficulty combat maneuvers, a smooth takeoff, basic navigation, and a safe landing now seemed entirely within his grasp.

“Alright!”

Chen, in Tingyun’s body, patted the control panel with a newfound, slightly arrogant confidence.

“You’ve already learned how to fly a starskiff! Now, let’s depart!”

She pressed the ignition button. The skiff hummed to life with a low, resonant thrum. Carefully, she pulled back on the liftoff lever. The vessel vibrated, then smoothly detached from its berth, rising gracefully into the air.

“Haha! Success! Captain Tingyun, setting sail!” Chen let out an excited, low cry, maneuvering the starskiff and slowly accelerating in the general direction of Cloudford.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Luofu, Dan Heng found himself traveling with two strangers he had met by chance.

One was a young woman who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, her hair tied back in a neat, high ponytail. Her face was a picture of youthful vitality and a curiosity about the world that had yet to be dampened. It was, of course, Li Sushang. She had been under orders from her superior to rescue civilians in the vicinity when she happened upon Dan Heng and her other companion.

The other was a tall woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, dressed in slim-fitting clothes of an exotic, foreign style. Slung across her back, she carried a massive object nearly as tall as she was, wrapped and shaped unmistakably like a coffin. It was Luocha.

Li Sushang, blessed with a youthful spirit and a warm, generous heart, saw that both Dan Heng and Luocha seemed to be in need of assistance. Given the current unrest in the area, she had volunteered to escort them to a relatively safe zone.

“Don’t you two worry! I’m super familiar with this area! I’ll make sure you get to your destination safe and sound!” Sushang patted her chest with a bright, hearty smile, offering a guarantee as solid as her own conviction.

Dan Heng simply nodded in thanks, his gratitude quiet but sincere.

The unlikely trio, each lost in their own thoughts, walked onward along the covered passage of a grand gallery bridge.

Suddenly, Luocha stopped. She tilted her head, her gaze directed toward the sky as she spoke with a hint of confusion.

“Young lady Li… is air traffic on the Luofu… not restricted?”

“Restricted?” Sushang blinked, momentarily stunned, and followed Luocha’s gaze upward. “It should be, right? Hmm, I remember the Yaoqing is especially strict about it, and the Luofu… is probably about the same? Why do you ask?”

Luocha pointed a slender finger diagonally upward, toward the night sky visible behind a towering edifice. “Up there. There’s something that appears to be… circling? And its flight path is quite unstable.”

Dan Heng’s eyes immediately snapped to the spot. His vision was exceptionally sharp, and he quickly pinpointed the speck of light moving erratically through that patch of darkness.

It was a small starskiff.

And just as Luocha had described, it was lurching through the airspace, tracing crooked, irregular circles. It would speed up and slow down unpredictably, its altitude fluctuating wildly. It was clear the pilot’s skills were either extremely amateurish, or… the skiff was malfunctioning.

Sushang squinted, finally spotting it as well. She scratched her head. “That’s strange. At a time like this, is someone really up there practicing their flying? But… wow, this pilot’s technique is really something else. Just watching those turns is making me a little dizzy…”

The skiff’s bizarre circling didn’t last long, however. It seemed the pilot had finally managed to wrestle some semblance of control over their direction, and the vessel stopped its looping.

But then, it began to wobble violently and… dive. Straight towards the gallery bridge where the three of them stood.

“Eh? Wait! Why is it coming this way?” The teasing look on Sushang’s face vanished, replaced by sheer surprise.

“Its velocity is increasing,” Luocha’s tone remained placid, but her emerald eyes narrowed dangerously.

Dan Heng had already shifted his grip, his hand quietly closing around the haft of his spear, Cloud-Piercer, preparing for a potential impact.

The starskiff looked like a drunken meteor, its engine emitting an unstable, guttural howl as it descended along a skewed trajectory. It grew larger and larger in the pupils of the three onlookers with terrifying speed. It seemed to be trying to pull up, or perhaps turn, but the panicked maneuvers only served to intensify its downward momentum.

“It’s going to crash!” Sushang finally cried out in alarm. She instinctively reached for the hilt of her sword before remembering her duty to protect the “civilians” beside her.

Luocha’s feet shifted slightly, her body tensing as if to dodge. But after her gaze swept over Dan Heng and Sushang, she stilled her movements.

Dan Heng, meanwhile, had already calculated the optimal evasion angle. He was also prepared to strike, to deflect the skiff if necessary and minimize the damage to the structure and his companions.

Inside the cockpit, Chen was a frantic, sweat-drenched mess.

“Pull up! Pull up! This lever! No, not that one! It’s this ball! Turn left! Oh boy, oh boy, it’s going to crash, it’s going to crash!”

Seeing the ornate architecture and the three small figures on the bridge below rushing up to meet him, Chen’s mind went completely blank. In a moment of pure, instinctual panic, he had only one thought: he had to switch characters and forcibly bring this thing down.

[Elysian’s Note:

Having a good time with the story?

Every single bit helps immensely:

Thanks a ton for making this journey possible!]