Volume 5 – A Distance Within Reach, Chapter 71: Nangong Xiaoniao
An old man beside him said, “Heir, this armor was made too urgently. The pattern is somewhat coarse, and the engravings aren’t very detailed. But all the origin arrays that should be added have been added, and I guarantee they are all top-quality.”
Wei Potian didn’t express his opinion and only kept on examining it over and over. Afterward, he activated the origin arrays on it one by one.
The primary material of this chestguard was the silken essence gold Wei Potian had obtained from Zhang Zixing with the addition of a dozen or so rare supplementary materials. It took the Wei clan’s smith several days from the forging of the mold to the carving of the origin array—everything was crafted by hand.
The chestguard wasn’t very big, and it was shaped like an inverted maple leaf. Although the old man had, in his modesty, claimed the molding was coarse, it was in fact fairly exquisite and beautiful. However, it was only capable of protecting the vital areas of the chest and couldn’t even cover the shoulders and part of the waist.
The old man saw Wei Potian’s less-than-delighted expression and hurriedly explained, “It was impossible to make it thinner because the requirement was for it to be capable of blocking a blast from a grade-six origin gun. You also know that there’s only so much material. Because of the limited surface area, we had to especially design this shape so that it will protect the vital areas of the chest and abdomen simultaneously.”
Wei Potian also knew that the chestguard’s design was fairly exquisite—the origin arrays on it were mainly defensive, and they had even used rare layering techniques to increase the strength of the effective surface area. The Wei clan smiths had worked day and night against the clock to finally complete it on time. Nothing more could be asked of them.
In truth, Wei Potian’s displeasure was largely because the armor looked like a leaf no matter how he looked at it. And whenever he thought of leaves, he couldn’t help but recall a certain annoying fellow. But his depressed feeling had lessened quite a bit after conning Song Zining a couple of times recently.
Wei Potian placed the armor back in the box and said, “Send this to the Dark Flame Headquarters and hand it to Uncle Hu. Ask him to give it to Qianye when he returns. While you’re at it, ask Dark Flame if they have any news on the army? Where is Qianye at the moment?”
“Understood, Heir.” The old man withdrew with the armor box in hand.
Wei Potian watched the room doors close and was distracted for a moment. He picked up a letter from atop the table and scanned it a couple of times. Actually, he had already read this letter from Marquis Bowang before.
Marquis Wei’s letter stated that Wei Potian had left the family for too long and asked him to return to the Far East Province immediately even if the wedding business hadn’t reached a conclusion.
Although the cold wave had forced the Wei clan and the dark races into a deadlock outside of the Jade Gate, the other side seemed to have no intention of pulling back, and battle could break out at any moment. Wei Potian, as the clan’s heir, couldn’t stay outside for too long during such a critical period. In addition to military matters, there were also other affairs that required his eventual participation. Only by doing so could he convince the masses.
Wei Potian had already expected this letter. In truth, he had already known that he could only linger on Evernight Continent for half a month at most, and now, the time was up more or less.
As the successor of his clan, he naturally couldn’t act too headstrong. Since he had already received the clan’s letter, it was time for him to return. As he grew older day by day, this young man who had once dreamt of breaking the sky with a single fist felt that he was gradually losing his free will.
At the thought of this, Wei Potian somewhat envied Song Zining. Regardless of how evil and cunning this fellow was, he had abandoned the struggle for the Song clan lord’s position without hesitation and was working hard on his own. Although the process was arduous, he was completely unfettered.
Wei Potian sighed silently. He had already announced the news of his imminent departure, and those noble ladies would likely follow him. Even those who had designs on Song Zining wouldn’t linger too long on Evernight Continent. It would take a couple more days for them to pack and prepare—it was unknown whether he would have the chance to meet Qianye before leaving.
Someone knocked on the study door at this time. Wei Potian frowned ever so slightly. He closed the letter and said, “Enter.”
Nangong Ling entered with a tea tray in hand and said delightedly, “I just roasted some new tea, let’s try it out together! Speaking of which, I never thought there would be wild tea in a place like Evernight Continent. Moreover, the taste isn’t bad at all.”
“It’s unexpected that you’re still in the mood to do these things.”
Nangong Ling smiled warmly. “Everyone is familiar with such ordinary skills. The only difference is whether they have the consideration.”
Wei Potian picked up the teacup and was just about to drink when he gazed out the window with an “Eh?”—an airship had appeared over the distant horizon and was speeding toward Blackflow City. This airship’s style was fairly odd, and it was traveling abnormally fast. It had expanded from a black dot to the size of a basin in the blink of an eye.
Wei Potian’s eyesight was capable of seeing the scorpion tail on the side of the airship; his eyebrows furrowed involuntarily. “Red Scorpion’s airship? Why haven’t I ever seen that model before? What the hell are they up to? Could this be reinforcement?”
Two Red Scorpion battalions had arrived last time and stayed over in Blackflow City as though they had nothing better to do. But two nights ago, an entire battalion disappeared along with the dozen-meter long metallic crate.
The Broken-Winged Angels and the Red Scorpions had never gotten along in the army. Wei Potian disliked them even more because of what happened to Qianye. He only felt relieved for his good friend after finding out that these two units were from the Blood Scorpion Camp and had no direct connection with Qianye. Unexpectedly, more of them were arriving immediately after one had just left.
Nangong Ling’s gaze froze for a moment as she looked at the airship—it was as though she had noticed something. A layer gloominess flitted past her countenance, and her lips moved ever so slightly. However, she said nothing in the end.
Blackflow City opened up the territorial airspace after seeing the flag signals transmitted from the Red Scorpion airship. Hence, the airship dashed straight over with a long trail of flames spewing out of its end. Numerous flames streaked out of its sides when it was right above the landing pad—the airship was thus brought to an urgent stop and made to hover therein.
This was a maneuver only a high-performance jeep could pull off on the ground. People had long since gotten used to the whale-like movement of the airships; some main battleships would need a trajectory of several kilometers just to make a turn. From this, it was obvious that this airship possessed extraordinary flexibility and control.
The airship descended abruptly after coming to a hovering stop. It fell tens of meters before spitting out more flames and braking itself in the air. At this moment, the airship was only tens of meters from the ground. The cabin doors were thrown open, and dozen-odd figures jumped out from within.
One of them was completely enveloped within a thick set of armor and looked just like a human-shaped mecha at a glance. This person flipped open the visor after landing on the ground—there was a hint of childishness in her pair of round and brilliant eyes as she glanced about left and right.
It was actually a young girl inside such an armament, and she didn’t seem too old. The surrounding Red Scorpion soldiers, however, were apparently quite respectful toward this young lady. At this moment, numerous Red Scorpions entered the airship port. Their leader was a burly man—it was precisely the commander who had arrived earlier.
The young lady performed a salute and said, “General An, I’ve come to Evernight Continent to do some studying. I’m only here at Blackflow to resupply and will leave for Darkblood City tomorrow. No need to mind me if you’re on a mission.”
Brigadier General An was startled. “Darkblood is one of Boulder County’s most strategic cities. The state of the powers there are fairly complicated, and it seems to be less than peaceful in the recent days. Transportation and flights between Darkblood and Blackflow have also been reduced by half. If you can make adjustments to your study area, might I suggest considering Blackflow or the nearby Broken River City? They’re smaller in scale, but the geography and atmosphere are all quite similar.”
The lady lowered her gaze and said indifferently, “I’ll consider your suggestion, but I want to go and take a look at the situation in Darkblood City first.”
Brigadier General An seemed to understand the lady’s temperament. He nodded and said, “I will probably stay here for about a week. Tell me if there’s anything you need. I can give you two companies when necessary.”
“Many thanks. I will definitely ask for help when needed.”
At this time, two jeeps were lowered to the ground via cables. Their most eye-catching part was the giant exhaust pipe at the back of the car.
The Red Scorpion Brigadier General drove the new Red Scorpion warriors into the gates of the Seventh Division. This place was more or less under General Zhang Zixing’s control in Qianye’s absence. The combined forces of the third imperial army division and Red Scorpion had occupied most of the barrack’s living quarters.
Wei Potian stood before Qianye’s office window and watched the two obviously foreign jeeps drive through the main gates. For Qianye’s safety, he had to come over and see which boot camp this new unit was from, no matter how much he disliked the Red Scorpions.
But a puzzled expression appeared on Wei Potian’s face after seeing the new arrivals. He thought of a certain possibility but found it to be rather inconceivable.
“Could it be that person?”
Nangong Ling, who had followed him out from behind, was now wearing a rather ugly expression. She said coldly, “Who else can it be but her? Humph, fiddling with these useless things to make up for her mediocre strength.”
Wei Potian laughed loudly and became quite relaxed. If it really were that person, then there was no connection whatsoever to Qianye’s former boot camp, the Tiger Scorpions. “I heard people from your family got into quite a disagreeable argument with her?”
“Only a minor matter. What kind of wind and waves can she kick up on her own?”
Wei Potian laughed meaningfully without making any comments. He glanced at the girl in heavy armor jumping down from the car and said, “I wonder what she’s here for?”
Nangong Ling followed along and was just planning to say something when she suddenly realized that she might have been acting too harsh in front of Wei Potian. She swallowed the words she was just about to say and bit her lips.
At this time, Zhang Zixing and a fair number of third army corps officers walked out from the barracks, and some of the noble ladies who had come after Wei Potian had also just arrived. The small plaza in front of the divine headquarters was colored with extraordinary liveliness.
It wasn’t just Zhang Zixing alone—the high ranking officers of the third corps and the newly transferred champions all had slight changes in their expression after seeing the girl’s appearance and the Red Scorpion emblem on the heavy armor. They whispered among each other, “Don’t tell me it’s that person?”
“What is she doing here instead of staying at the Red Scorpion Headquarters?”
“With so little guards? She probably snuck out.”
Brigadier General An led the Red Scorpion procession before Zhang Zixing and proceeded to make an introduction after exchanging salutations. “This is the Red Scorpion Armored Division’s Colonel Nangong.”
The heavy-armored girl said with neither expression nor enthusiasm, “Nangong Xiaoniao.”