Death… And Me

Chapter 4461: Wiggle

Tobao joined Arcis, Kavile, and Aurundi in front of Zukai Country, the nation from whose direction the enemy was supposedly approaching.

”What did the scouts report?” Tobao asked as soon as he arrived.

”Nothing,” one of the Zone Gods replied. ”They haven’t seen any Godly Hordes at all. We contacted them several times, and they’re completely lost. According to their reports, there isn’t anything unusual in the area where the Sacred Relic says the target passed by.”

Tobao narrowed his eyes before connecting to his own RC. The map immediately appeared in his mind, displaying the approaching target. Everyone present was looking at the exact same marker, silently waiting for whatever had managed to alarm the Sacred Relic. Judging by its speed, it wouldn’t take long before it entered visual range.

However, what eventually appeared on the horizon was the last thing anyone expected.

”Wait...” one of the Law Gods muttered. ”Isn’t that...”

Tobao and Arcis recognized it almost immediately.

”Fuck! It’s them again!”

Inside the airplane, Rean naturally noticed the large gathering of high-level cultivators waiting ahead. He frowned as he reduced the airplane’s speed. ”Hum? What are all those guys doing there?”

Roan, Celis, Kentucky, and Lukay also looked through the windows, quickly spotting the army blocking their path.

”Did something happen?” Roan asked.

Lukay looked just as confused. ”Even Clasou is there... Those aren’t just ordinary guards. Almost everyone important in Besgol seems to have gathered.”

Since both sides had already recognized each other, everyone’s RCs immediately began ringing.

Rean answered Tobao’s call first.

”Err... Senior Tobao? What’s happening?”

-That’s my question!- Tobao almost shouted, not even trying to hide his disbelief. The monk failed to keep calm with the twins’ group... again... His RC was sharing everything he saw with Arcis, Kavile, and Aurundi. -The Sacred Relic detected a powerful Godly Creature entering its range, so we all came here to intercept it. How the hell did it turn out to be you? No... wait! Forget that! How are you still alive? You spent more than half a year outside the Sacred Relic’s influence! Are you really Rean and your group?-

Rean had the call connected to everyone inside the airplane, including Lukay. The five of them looked at each other in complete confusion.

”Powerful Godly Creature?” Rean repeated. ”Where? There’s only Roan, Celis, Kentucky, Lukay, and me.”

Lukay felt another headache coming.

’They know Senior Tobao this well, yet never bothered mentioning it to me...’

Still, this obviously wasn’t the right moment to bring that up.

Rean brought the airplane to a complete stop roughly one kilometer away from Tobao’s group, not wishing to make anyone even more nervous than they already were.

-That can’t be right!- Arcis immediately joined the conversation. -The Sacred Relic is still identifying a powerful Godly Creature. There has to be something with you.-

”And I’m telling you there isn’t!” Rean insisted. ”You can come over and inspect the airplane yourself if you don’t believe us.”

Celis suddenly thought of something. ”Wait... we collected a lot of Godly Predator Crystals during this trip. Could the Sacred Relic somehow be mistaking all those crystals for a powerful Godly Creature? We even have a Godly Horror Crystal.”

Rean and the others exchanged glances. It wasn’t completely impossible.

Tobao looked equally puzzled.

-Godly Predator Crystals? You found more?-

Arcis immediately remembered their previous expedition.

-Could it be you found another ruin filled with stored Godly Predator Crystals?-

-That’s beside the point,- Tobao interrupted before Arcis could continue. -I’m happy you found them if that’s the case. However, the Sacred Relic wouldn’t mistake stored crystals for a living Godly Creature. Otherwise, the exact same thing would’ve happened the last time you returned with all those crystals.-

”...True,” Rean admitted after thinking about it for a moment. ”We didn’t trigger any reaction back then.”

The twins’ group had no argument against that reasoning.

Finally, Rean sighed before speaking again. ”Senior Tobao, I’ll land the airplane. After that, one of you can come over and inspect everything personally.”

-No,- Arcis immediately replied. -I’ll be the one going. Tobao is our strongest Law God. If this somehow turns out to be a trap, we can’t risk sending him first. You understand, don’t you?-

”No problem, Senior Arcis.”

Rean slowly guided the airplane toward a nearby open area before landing it on the ground. He, Roan, Celis, Kentucky, and Lukay all stepped outside to wait, making sure their hands remained visible the entire time so they wouldn’t appear threatening.

Only a few seconds later, Arcis descended from the sky and landed several meters away from the twins’ group.

His Celestial Sense immediately spread out, sweeping across Rean, Roan, Celis, Kentucky, Lukay, and the entire airplane. He carefully inspected every corner, not missing even the smallest detail. Even after checking everything several times, he couldn’t detect anything remotely dangerous. Still, he didn’t let his guard down.

”How exactly did you survive more than six months outside the Sacred Relic’s influence?” Arcis finally asked.

Rean and Roan exchanged a brief glance.

Naturally, the real answer was that they had disguised the airplane as a Godly Creature several times, which periodically reset the ever-increasing attraction cultivators developed outside the Sacred Relic’s protection. Arcis himself had once known that secret...

Before his memories had been erased.

”My airplane is very fast,” Rean replied with the excuse he had already prepared long ago. ”It can fly as fast as a Zone God, so avoiding Godly Creatures wasn’t particularly difficult. Sure, more and more of them began gathering from farther away as time passed, but all we had to do was avoid staying in the same place for too long. As long as we kept moving, we could eventually shake them off.”

Arcis narrowed his eyes. ”I did see the blueprints you released for your new Celestial Thrusters. Ever since you made them open source, the airplane manufacturers have been working to include them in their new models. Still... surviving outside for more than six months is another matter entirely. That is an awfully long time.”

”We’re standing here, aren’t we?” Roan replied with his usual calm expression. ”Whether you believe it or not, the result speaks for itself.”

Arcis sighed before reconnecting to his RC. Since he was already here, he wanted to take another look at what the Sacred Relic was reporting.

Then his expression suddenly changed.

The twins’ group was now standing several meters away from the airplane.

Yet the marker hadn’t moved in the slightest.

Arcis looked back and forth between the airplane and the group several times before speaking again.

”The airplane...” he muttered. ”The Sacred Relic is identifying the airplane itself as the Godly Creature.”

”The airplane?” Rean and the others turned around at the same time, completely caught off guard.

’Sister Orb, could our Godly Pressure Disguise Array somehow be causing this?’ Rean asked through their Soul Connection.

[Impossible,] Sister Orb immediately answered. [The array hasn’t fundamentally changed since we first created it. We only improved its efficiency. Its function is exactly the same as before. There is absolutely no chance the Sacred Relic is reacting to the disguise itself. Besides, the array is off, so what is there to be detected?]

Naturally, Arcis and Lukay couldn’t hear that exchange.

”Why would my airplane be mistaken for a powerful Godly Creature?” Rean asked, unable to understand the situation any better than everyone else.

Arcis slowly approached another few steps, though he remained fully alert. ”Are you absolutely certain there isn’t a Godly Creature hiding somewhere inside? Perhaps it concealed itself while you were traveling.”

”No way,” Rean immediately denied. ”My Godly Pressure Detection Array would’ve picked it up. Any Godly Creature powerful enough to mobilize all of you would possess an overwhelming amount of Godly Pressure. There is simply no way such a creature could hide from my detection array.”

The detection array itself wasn’t a secret. He had originally obtained its design from the Arrays Guild before improving it considerably with Sister Orb’s help.

Even so, the twins’ group couldn’t help replaying everything that had happened during the last six months. They had fought countless Godly Creatures, including several Godly Predators and even a Godly Horror. Could something really have slipped aboard without any of them noticing?

Rean thought back to every stop they had made, every battle, and every repair he had performed on the airplane. Nothing came to mind...

Then his expression suddenly froze.

His mouth twitched.

Don’t misunderstand it. Rean didn’t remember anything at all.

However... as he looked at the airplane, he just noticed something sticking out from the opening of one of the airplane’s landing gear compartments—the compartment where the wheels retracted after takeoff.

It was white...

It was fluffy...

There were two of them...

Both slowly swayed from side to side, occasionally giving a small wiggle that looked strangely adorable.

Rean stared at them for several long seconds before slowly raising a hand to massage the bridge of his nose. A bitter smile appeared on his face as every piece of the puzzle finally came together.

”Well... fuck!”