Chapter 234: Visitors from Beyond the Sky
That night, the area outside the tents was brightly lit. The slum, usually dark and lifeless, had rarely been this noisy, suddenly bustling with activity.
Qi Yanxin was so anxious she couldn’t quite fall asleep. Xu Zhi, on the other hand, was unusually relaxed. After thinking through the problems they might face and mentally preparing herself, she decided not to let herself sink any deeper into tension. She even had the leisure to comment that the army rations weren’t as tasty as the food Qi Yanxin cooked.
Qi Yanxin couldn’t help but laugh. “This food is already way better than what we usually eat.”
Xu Zhi blinked. “Didn’t taste it.”
Qi Yanxin couldn’t tell whether Xu Zhi was trying to comfort her or genuinely thought her cooking was better. Sometimes she felt Xu Zhi might once have been a pampered young lady; other times, Xu Zhi’s habits didn’t seem delicate at all, more like those of a child who had endured plenty of hardship.
“Alright,” Qi Yanxin said. “I’ll take that as true.”
Real or not, it was pleasant to hear.
Outside, the noise continued unabated—footsteps coming and going. Even so, Xu Zhi chose to lie down and try to sleep. The days ahead were unlikely to be easy, and it was better not to let physical exhaustion pile up.
Early the next morning, Xu Zhi was jolted awake by a roar even more violent than factory machinery.
To be honest, after spending so long in the lower districts, she was already used to falling asleep amid noise. But this morning, it felt as if some massive machine were pressing directly against her skull, roaring nonstop. She opened her eyes in a daze and looked toward Qi Yanxin.
Qi Yanxin had pulled open the tent’s curtain and was peering outside. Then, her face lit up with excitement as she waved at Xu Zhi. She was clearly saying something, but Xu Zhi couldn’t hear a thing—only make out two words from her lips:
“An airplane!”
What?
Xu Zhi climbed out of bed, skillfully settled into her wheelchair, and rolled over to the window. Through the transparent panel of the tent, she looked up and finally saw what had been making that deafening noise.
It was indeed an “airplane,” just as Qi Yanxin had said—but not like any Xu Zhi recognized. It looked more like a craft straight out of a sci-fi movie. The body was pitch-black, traced with silver patterns, enormous in size. At that moment, it hovered steadily above the army’s encampment, its sheer bulk nearly matching the entire base below.
From Xu Zhi’s angle, she could only see its “belly.” Fighter jets of normal size were emerging from the massive body one after another, then landing in the open spaces of the encampment. A few other aircraft—less like fighters, more like small transport planes—also descended from its underside. Xu Zhi couldn’t see clearly, only vague moving shapes, but it seemed that quite a few people were disembarking.
The clearest thing she could see was a striking golden lotus engraved on the black hull.
What did that symbolize?
“This must be from the upper levels,” Qi Yanxin said, her voice tinged with awe and a hint of reverence. She didn’t really understand the differences between aircraft and simply lumped them all together as “planes.”
“The upper levels?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “See that lotus? That’s our city’s emblem. When it’s carved so prominently, it’s usually something only the upper levels would do.”
“I’ve seen it on TV—some people from the upper levels even have golden lotuses embroidered on their clothes. It represents a kind of honor.”
In other words, not something the lower levels were worthy of.
In a city with such harsh and rigid class divisions, the symbol being a lotus felt strangely ironic.
“It must be something very serious,” Qi Yanxin said, worry written all over her face.
Indeed. The upper levels had arrived even faster than expected. Xu Zhi didn’t fully understand how the city was structured, but she knew that after receiving the news, these people had likely convened overnight, gathered manpower, and then flown down from “the sky.”
It seemed they truly placed immense importance on the [Cup].
Xu Zhi soon withdrew her gaze—not because she had lost interest, but because she couldn’t actually see much anyway.
The extraordinary circuitry inside her body had grown again. When it first formed, it had been no larger than a speck; now it was about the size of half a palm. Even so, it was still expanding, sprouting numerous “tendrils,” and didn’t look like it would stabilize anytime soon.
At present, she had very few extraordinary abilities she could use. According to Doctor Zhuang, in the real world, apart from their innate talents awakened at birth, extraordinary beings could probably learn other, more “universal” abilities—but those required study, and the knowledge was likely extremely expensive.
The [Lamp] attribute didn’t allow her to use the Eye of Secrets, which belonged to the [Moth] pathway. Given the current situation, Xu Zhi didn’t dare to casually start constructing a [Moth] circuit.
Moreover, she could now almost exclusively absorb [Lamp]-aligned energy. Once that circuit was fully formed, she would only be able to sense the presence of [Lamp] in the air.
Reconstructing a [Moth] circuit would require opportunity and resources. She didn’t know whether these people from the upper levels might bring her such a chance.
Just as Xu Zhi had anticipated, it wasn’t long before someone knocked on their tent.
When Qi Yanxin opened the door, a familiar soldier stood outside, accompanied by a person in a white lab coat carrying a case. They said they needed to conduct an attribute test on Qi Yanxin.
As expected—no one would be overlooked.
Qi Yanxin had never undergone such an assessment before. With a mix of anxiety and curiosity, she held out her hand. After the reagent dripped onto the back of it, they waited about a minute for the result.
The man in the white coat shook his head. “An ordinary person. Attribute leans toward Winter, but there’s almost no chance of awakening. Extraordinary affinity is far too low.”
The disappointment was immediately visible on her face, though it only lingered briefly. She quickly adjusted her mindset. After all, wasn’t the inability to become an extraordinary being something scavengers had long accepted?
Still, hearing the verdict spoken aloud inevitably stung.
“Miss Xu, a new doctor has arrived. She’d like to examine you. Please come with me.”
The soldier was just an ordinary man. Even though Xu Zhi was, in a sense, being “softly detained” here, she was still an extraordinary being. When facing her, the soldier instinctively carried a measure of respect reserved for those like her.
Here it comes, Xu Zhi thought.
The army could never fully trust Zhuang Xu’s words. She was bound to undergo a thorough examination eventually. She just hadn’t expected it to happen after the arrival of the upper levels.
She suspected that this new doctor was probably one of them.
