Chapter 11: The Savior’s “Flashy” Debut! Izayoi Ame: It’s…

“I think he’s brewing up some more trouble.”

Aboard the small aircraft heading toward the Third District, Yun Zhou was whispering to Du Shui, complaining about Liu Ming, who sat nearby leisurely listening to music. Du Shui gritted her teeth and slapped his shoulder. “Could you speak any louder?”

Yun Zhou was struck with panic. “If I speak any louder, won’t he hear me?”

Du Shui looked like her head was starting to ache again. Her point was that Yun Zhou’s voice was already so loud that even Liu Ming, who was wearing headphones, could definitely hear him. This guy in front of her truly had zero self-awareness regarding his booming voice.

Ying Huo let out a sigh as well. “I don’t know about before, but that guy definitely heard you just now.”

Liu Ming took off one earbud with a beaming smile. “If it bothers you that much, I can pretend I didn’t hear.”

Yun Zhou felt like, sooner or later, Liu Ming was going to give him PTSD when it came to speaking.

He looked around at his teammates, then at Liu Ming, who was trying to act innocent but still radiated the vibe of a venomous snake. Suddenly, he felt like he could see his entire future flashing before his eyes.

“Wait, Savior, don’t have a breakdown just yet.”

Liu Ming suddenly frowned. He looked out the cabin window as a small, silver-blue snake wound its way out from his hair of the same color. “…The airflow is a bit off.”

Yun Zhou was horrified. “I know you’re sharp-tongued, but don’t be a jinx! We’re one, two, three, four, five, six… whatever, we’re tens of thousands of feet in the air!”

Liu Ming didn’t bother responding. He was trying to use his mental power to probe the surroundings, but soon, he didn’t need to probe anymore.

“Vroom-!”

The autopilot system of the aircraft emitted a piercing warning, followed by a violent jolt. Du Shui and Ying Huo quickly stood up and rushed to the control console, only to see on the automatic sensor display that the surrounding airflow had become as chaotic as a ball of yarn tangled by a cat.

Yun Zhou let out a scream. He tried to rush over, but the turbulence sent him tumbling back onto the floor. “Wait, what’s going on?!”

Ying Huo’s brow was furrowed. He had already canceled the autopilot and taken full manual control of the flight system. “Something’s wrong. The turbulence here is too intense! We have to prepare for a rapid descent!”

Yun Zhou was incredulous. “You mean we’re going to drop from the sky with descent gear right in front of the Third District delegation waiting for us, and then awkwardly pack up our parachutes?!”

Liu Ming chose that moment to twist the knife. “Oh my, such an entrance is just too perfect for the Savior.”

Yun Zhou shouted in a breakdown, “Liu Ming! If you say one more word, you’re the one doing the negotiations!”

Waaah, why did he have to be the unlucky captain!

Fortunately, Yun Zhou wasn’t the only one having a breakdown.

At the same time, at the Kanagawa Passenger Airport, the largest in the Third District.

Last night’s fierce battle had only taken place on the Kanagawa fortifications. Kanagawa, the largest island city of the seven districts, remained as prosperous and bustling as ever. The smell of gunpowder and the stench from the deep sea had mostly been swept away by the sea breeze, and the entire city had quickly resumed its high-speed daily operations.

The rain had stopped, but the sky remained gloomy. Lead-gray clouds hung low, looking as if they might pour down again at any moment.

Izayoi Ame stood at the airport exit, his black Haori fluttering slightly in the wind. His eyes were like a frozen deep sea, calm and rippleless, reflecting the somber sky and the busy passenger scene below.

Hozuki stood half a step behind him. She held a laptop in one hand and pressed a headset to her ear with the other. She had already made eight hundred calls on her phone, dealing with the Anomaly tide incident on the Kanagawa platform from the previous night.

Behind her was the Third District delegation, standing in formation. To welcome this “Salvation” squad personally formed by Black Swan, the Third District had truly pulled out all the stops.

Hozuki could sense the faint low pressure surrounding the Clan Head. She sighed. “My Lord, the Tree Tower Academy aircraft has entered our identified airspace. It’s expected to land in three minutes.”

“Mm,” Izayoi Ame responded flatly, not even turning his head.

Three minutes… In three minutes, he would meet that Salvation squad made up of juniors. There were four members in total, and each was more suspicious than the last.

The captain, Yun Zhou, went without saying. He was the prophetic core Savior trusted by Council Chairman Black Swan, and not long ago, he carried the title of the Son of the Devil. He was the biggest variable among the four.

Liu Ming was the successor personally cultivated by that insidious and cunning fellow, Liu Lin. He was deep-thinking, and no one knew what his actions implied regarding the First District’s hidden agendas.

In comparison, Du Shui and Ying Huo, who had no significant backgrounds, seemed almost innocent.

However, according to the previous Tree Tower Academy newsletters, the relationship between Yun Zhou’s trio and Liu Ming couldn’t be called good; in fact, they were practically at each other’s throats…

Izayoi Ame felt his temples throbbing. He rubbed his brow in pain. Letting these four students with complex backgrounds, almost zero experience, and problematic internal relationships form a squad to investigate Anomalies within the top ten sequences at the front lines where erosion was most severe?

Either Black Swan was crazy, or he was. He didn’t even need the prophecy of Anomaly Y009 to foresee the chaotic scenes of the coming days.

Speaking of which… three minutes had long since passed. Why weren’t those four troublemakers here yet?

Izayoi Ame looked up. “Hozuki, are they not here yet?”

Hozuki was rapidly searching the surrounding airspace for the Tree Tower aircraft. She looked like she was starting to get a headache too. “The signal shows they have reached the airspace above us…”

Suddenly, her voice began to tremble. “Wait, My Lord, look over there-“

Izayoi Ame looked in the direction she was pointing. His triple-layered blue pupils trembled with shock. “…You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The roar of engines grew from distant to near. High in the sky, an aircraft bearing the Tree Tower Academy insignia was flying in a manner that could only be described as wild. It twisted and shuddered through several erratic flight paths before dropping hundreds of meters in just a few seconds, hurtling straight toward the sea outside the airport.

The entire Third District delegation stood there with eyes wide, watching helplessly as the aircraft struggled, skipped through the air, and then failed its fight for stability. It spun a dozen times in the sky before diving down to kiss the surface of the sea.

A massive splash sent a wave of seawater crashing directly into Hozuki’s face.

Hozuki wiped the water from her face, her mouth twitching. “Are they really that eager to find Y008 Kraken? Diving into the ocean the moment they arrive?”

The aircraft had shrieked past the edge of the airfield as it fell, the resulting downdraft sending debris clattering across the ground.

Izayoi Ame took a deep breath, just about to call for a rescue team, when he noticed several shadows in the sky getting closer and faster by the second.

He narrowed his eyes, then suddenly his pupils dilated. Those shadows were actually four people!

A dark premonition grew vivid. Izayoi Ame scrambled back a step and shouted, “Get back!”

Hozuki moved with incredible speed, instantly pulling the other Correctors back with her. The moment Izayoi Ame came to a halt, the four figures falling from the sky were already right in front of them.

“Help! Help! Aaaaah! Nobody told me it was this high!”

A scream erupted from a wolf-eared boy who was so panicked he couldn’t even suppress his Spiritual Body traits.

“Shut up! Use your spiritual power to assist the descent! Dammit, who forgot to put the parachutes on the aircraft!”

Du Shui sounded angry enough to slice Yun Zhou in half right there in mid-air.

Ying Huo stretched his body out in the air, trying to enjoy the fall. Though his heart was pounding violently, his mouth remained flippant. “It’s been a long time since I felt such intense weightlessness… It’s wonderful. I think I can see my great-grandmother. Oh, look, she’s stewing chicken soup for me.”

Beside them, Liu Ming was surrounded by a special energy field that allowed him to descend at a constant speed. This was one of the usable Anomalies stored by the Liu Family that could help a Corrector temporarily levitate. He watched the other three with a detached air and sighed. “I didn’t expect to part ways with you all so soon. I knew this captain was unreliable. I’ll burn spirit money for you this time every year.”

Still struggling to maintain his balance in the air, Yun Zhou grew furious at Liu Ming’s words. “What did you say?! How could I be so unreliable that I’d kill my own teammates? Just watch me!”

A second later, mere moments before they hit the ground, a pale gold wind surged up. It instantly and perfectly enveloped the four falling figures. The swirling currents dissipated the force of their descent, and the four were visibly buoyed by the wind about two meters above the ground. After hovering for a few seconds, the pale wind finally dispersed.

Liu Ming landed steadily, even finding the leisure to brush some dust off his cuffs. His blood-red eyes held their usual sense of detachment and scrutiny as he critically surveyed the environment, the equipment, and… Izayoi Ame himself, standing not far away.

Du Shui and Ying Huo were exceptionally agile. They used a nearby streetlight to break their momentum and landed gracefully on the ground. Only the wind-controller, Yun Zhou, lost his balance again. He crashed face-first into the ground and skidded forward for a good distance.

Izayoi Ame thought: …If these are actually people, I’ll eat my hat.