Airship Departure

As it turns out, Julong underestimated just how tired he himself was. When he finally opened his eyes - waking up inside of the cockpit he had been sleeping in, he was greeted with Qingchans' complicated mocking and sweetly grateful gaze.

"Well, well, well. Finally coming back to life?"

"Hmm? What's that supposed to mean?"

It was obviously her trying to poke fun at the fact that Julong had slept longer than her, but he decided to ignore that to intentionally annoy her.

"Seems like you were more tired than I was, despite insisting that I was the tired one."

Julong grinned as he rubbed his eyes, pushing himself out of the chair.

"May I remind you that you were almost stumbling your way down the hallway because of how tired you were?"

She looked away with a grunt.

"I suppose you were the one who did more work with the rune than me, but still you should take better care of yourself. To end up sleeping even longer than me when I was asleep for almost 10 hours, you must not realise how tired you really are."

At this point, she had gotten closer to where he was standing, looking up at his slightly taller figure with concern.

"I should also thank you for letting me sleep so long. Though I am concerned about having lingered too long with a possibility of being caught rather easily."

Julong chuckled at her words.

"Don't worry about all that, I just felt like helping you, as for my health, I'm perfectly fine. I just didn't end up sleeping until a few hours after you.

"Discussing the airship, even though the airship is indeed branded, it is almost impossible to see or detect it through this fog, not unless they have someone at the Materialising Realm or higher. This fog is quite formidable as it turns out, and in addition, even if they could see, this thing gives off little to no noise and also releases non-detectable power. Before I fell asleep I used my Spirit and took an in-depth survey of the fog and the ship to make sure we couldn't be found out."

Qingchan sighed with a small scratch of her head. She was once again a little self-conscious. He was a lot more prepared than she had thought, and he just seemed to have very collected and rehearsed responses to her more worldly concerns about him.

"I guess I was worrying for nothing then...

"If that's the case, quickly, let's replace the Auto-Directional Transport Rune and be on our way."

Julong smiled at her with his usual temperament whenever she was acting differently from her usual stern self. It sort of ticked her off, but she also appreciated the fact that he had the ability to be so real to himself when she was around him. That was something a lot of people refused to do thanks to her status in the Sect.

He quickly took the Jade Tablet out of one of the pockets in his robes and attached it to the clip next to the yoke.

Power from the Rune could immediately be felt gushing into the controls of the ship. It began rattling and turning around mid-air, signalling Qingchan and Julong that it was their time to finally leave.

Once again walking out onto the deck which they had originally watched the nature of the Territory on, they prepared to get off as the airship moved away from their location.

"Ready?"

"I should be the one asking you that."

Qingchan couldn't believe what he was saying. She had not only been the one to invite him, but this was also his first mission. How ridiculous it was for him to ask her if she was ready. Of course she was!

He poked her on the nose and then ran to the edge of the ship and jumped off falling backwards, eyeing the currently immobile Qingchan who was looking at him a little dazed. No one had poked her nose before. It was in all honesty a little weird, but she didn't mind it.

She watched as his robes billowed in the fog as he fell. It was then that she came from her stupor and realised she also had to jump.

She had a feeling that somewhere in the near future, no matter how badly she wanted to catch up to Julong, she wouldn't be able to. She had to appreciate the present time she had with him.

Doing just that, she dove like a rocket toward Julong before she spread out her body to slow her descent and keep pace with the idiot beside her.

He's just as carefree as him. I swear if you become as lazy as that Chu Qing, I'll make you regret it!

Such a thought quickly disappeared as his face became determined, spotting the break in the fog layer. She was a little mesmerised by the look he wore on his face and stared at it fondly. She hadn't seen him with such an expression, so it was nice to see he could have such a look on his features. All she had seen from him were laid back and relaxed expressions whenever near.

As they made it through the fog layer, the town was clear in their vision, sitting just on the horizon. It was almost like the distance from the town represented the difficulty of the task they were about to take on, but in reality, they had just stayed on the airship for a little too long. Qingchan didn't seem to hold any emotion toward the matter, she was too busy taking in the glory of the view they now had.

Orange light beamed through the clouds, cutting out a small portion of the darkness enveloping the land. It was befitting of a late afternoon, even if it was nearly the middle of the day. If anything, this light represented hope, hope that the darkness would not overturn the light - more specifically that Julong and Qingchan would not fail their mission to the Sacred Palace.

Both summoning their Genesis Qi, they took control of the displacement around them and hovered in place. Qingchan continued staring at the light spectacle before looking toward Julong where her gaze lingered for a little too long, something he quickly took notice of. Julong had no idea why, perhaps she thought it was his fault they had landed so far away?

"Look, you seriously cannot blame me for this, can you? We both got off as soon as possible."

She then tilted her head, realising she was staring at him. Her heart skipped a beat out of nervousness. Thank god he had thought it was about something else, even so, his response in itself made her annoyed, prompting her to childishly clench her fist.

"Whatever!"

Julong looked at her, stricken with a quizzical expression. He shrugged it off after not very long though. Qingchan had been like this as long as he had known her after all.

"Come on, there's no point in us just sitting here. Let's get on our way."

Qingchan nodded, saying no words to him due to the combination of emotions that had arisen inside her. It was like a storm of confusion. She was annoyed, incredibly overjoyed, sad and fond all at the same time, and it seemed to all stem from Julong. It was the first time she had felt such a complex mixture, but she would figure it out later. From now on they would need to waste no time in procuring information before the Sacred Palace arrived.

They both took off in streams of Genesis Qi, shooting toward the town. Hopefully, she would calm down soon.

Hopefully...