Plumes of white smoke rose into the air.
The three of them fell silent, eventually fixing their gaze uniformly on someone who pretended to be asleep.
The Tomb Ghost, with arms crossed, twitched his eyelids and after five seconds, could no longer keep up the act. He burst out in anger, "You’ve got to be kidding me... You’re blaming me for this?"
Gu Nanfeng had a complex expression on his face.
He sighed softly and, ultimately, did not say anything. He pushed open the car door to go check.
Gu Shen also got out of the car with him.
Upon opening the car door, coarse sand grains flew in their faces. This desolate no-man’s-land was barren, lacking vegetation and hostile, with raging winds and sandstorms all year round.
Gu Shen squinted his eyes, and a slow-burning Blazing Fire began to ignite at the center of his forehead. The first thing he did after getting out of the car was not to check the tires... but to inspect the surroundings for any unusual Transcendent Aura and spiritual fluctuations.
A gentle voice arose beside his ear.
This was a windstorm environment.
In such conditions, Gu Nanfeng’s "Wind Eye" ability was greatly enhanced. His spiritual power had already covered a large area around them, constantly sensing any movement... just in case of any accidents.
Despite the affirmative answer, Gu Shen checked once more anyway.
It wasn’t because he didn’t trust Gu Nanfeng, a Titled Transcendent of top-notch capability.
It was because... the nature of his Blazing Fire was indeed special, able to "see" things other Transcendents could not. Only after scanning the surroundings did Gu Shen finally relax, assured that there were no abnormalities.
"It looks like... the tire was punctured by a sharp object," Gu Nanfeng said as he squatted down, narrowed his eyes, and continued, "It won’t affect our journey... We can just replace it with the spare tire and move on."
Gu Shen, however, appeared thoughtful as he looked in the direction they had come from.
Under his Blazing Fire Vision, sand grains couldn’t obstruct his view.
The way they had come was smooth and flat.
Where did a sharp object come from?
And to penetrate the thick tires of an off-road vehicle wasn’t something ordinary sharp rocks could accomplish.
Could it really be a coincidence?
That would be too... unlucky.
"Indeed interesting..."
Gu Nanfeng took the spare tire from the back of the car; while changing the tire, he murmured, "The jinx spurned by the Goddess of Destiny, even drinking cold water could lead to choked teeth; so such people do exist..."
"Anyway... it seems, looking at it now, not taking the private jet was the right choice."
Gu Shen gazed towards the sky with a deep look, saying, "After all, up there, there are too many uncontrollable factors."
Malfunctioning instrument panels, wings catching fire, or even getting hit by a bird... were all possible events.
Just like what was happening right now.
An unreasonable tire blowout.
Upon looking up, Gu Shen’s expression slightly changed... within the scope of his Blazing Fire Vision, it seemed like he could see something very high in the sky, a secretive object that was retracting its faint glow.
Spiritual Link activated.
"Could you investigate ’this thing’ in my eye?"
A snapshot of the retina was taken, the scene in front of him captured and then uploaded... Deep Sea’s source code began to operate immediately, analyzing the situation. In the desolate no-man’s zone to the north of Da Du District, the environment might be barren, but at intervals, there were still "Heavenly Eyes" sensors spread out.
"The object in the image corresponds to the area covered by sensor C103E; there are traces of an Extraordinary Aura," Chu Ling gave the analysis result within three seconds, "The unidentified object appears to be a sealed item... but with a very low level of threat."
Gu Shen’s expression remained unchanged as he looked away and noticed that Gu Nanfeng also glanced at the sky.
"Observant, aren’t you?" Gu Nanfeng smiled softly with a lowered voice, finishing changing the tire without causing a stir and asked quietly, "A journey without smooth sailing, indeed... What do you think?"
"Do you know what that thing is?"
"That’s Changye’s ’Wind Eye,’ similar to Deep Sea’s Heavenly Eye, but it only floats above Changye. The ’Wind Eye’ monitors every movement in Changye... When I first arrived in East Continent, this thing hadn’t appeared yet. But after leaving Da Du, it started to keep an eye on me. It seems the folks in Changye City have already been informed." Gu Nanfeng spoke indifferently, his voice tinged with disappointment, "After all these years, they’re still using ’Wind Eye.’ It appears Changye hasn’t made much progress."
"So this thing is just a monitoring object... Is it related to the tire blowout?" Gu Shen furrowed his brows.
"The tire blowout... was probably just our bad luck." Gu Nanfeng dusted off his hands as Lan Qie whisked away the dust on his palm. He examined the new tire and said softly, "But now, we won’t have similar problems. Lan Qie has covered the entire car, so any sudden accidents... I will feel them before they occur."
An invisible and silent breeze formed a protective air membrane.
"There’s a question I need to ask you."
Once back in the car, Gu Nanfeng, while reversing, glanced back at the Tomb Ghost.
The latter, feeling somewhat guilty under that look, shrank back.
"What kind of vehicle did you use when you fled to Da Du originally? You didn’t run all the way there on foot, did you?"
After hearing this, the Tomb Ghost hurriedly shook his head, "How could that be!"
"But I crashed twice in airplanes... Later, it was Cui Zhongcheng who sent someone to pick me up in a car..." His voice trailed off to a whisper.
"Alright." After getting his answer, Gu Nanfeng restarted the car and said indifferently, "As long as your luck wasn’t so bad that you had to rely on your legs to reach your destination, that’s fine."
The Tomb Ghost scratched his head.
"Is there something unclean?" Lu Nanjin asked quietly, clutching the knife.
Indeed, very sharp... Gu Nanfeng smiled and said, "You could say that."
Lu Nanjin hugged the long knife tighter, puzzled, "My Lan Qie didn’t detect it..."
"Don’t worry, just wait a bit more..." Gu Nanfeng whispered, "Give ’it’ some time."
The Tomb Ghost, listening to their cryptic conversation, became more anxious the more he thought about it; he inched closer to Gu Shen, looking for some reassurance, and whispered, "Xiao Gu, is there something unclean here... Where is it?"
"Something unclean... I think there probably is." Gu Shen thought for a moment.
The Tomb Ghost’s face turned pale, and he moved in even closer, "Outside? It’s not in the car, is it?"
Gu Shen was silent for a second, then said, "I’m not sure about outside... but there’s definitely one inside the car."
Three pairs of eyes turned to look at him at once.
Even the docile orange cat in Gu Shen’s arms had an unusually strange look in his eyes.
The unclean thing, is that me?
The Tomb Ghost stood stunned for a moment before he pitifully curled up into a ball.
Just like the previous incident... the tire made a muffled thud!
Lu Nanjin, sitting in the passenger seat, had his pupils constrict, while Gu Nanfeng remained composed.
But this time, things were different.
The entire car was enveloped by Lan Qie’s winds.
At the moment of impact, what first encountered the "sharp object" wasn’t the tire, but Lan Qie!