Chapter 144: American Cousin

What does it feel like to fly at three times the speed of sound?

First, you would feel silence.

No sound can catch up with you, and all the noise from the outside world cannot reach your ears.

Once the outside world fades away, you gradually start to hear your own body's sounds: first, the beating of your veins, then your breathing, and gradually, you feel as if you can sense the movement of your organs and the contraction of your muscles.

Second, you would completely lose your sense of distance.

You soar high above, with the vast land fully in view, with no reference for distance below, only the clouds passing by to show how fast you're actually flying.

Third, you would feel an urge to scream out of excitement.

The ultimate speed always exhilarates the blood.

But Murphy didn't scream; he was a raven at the moment, and moreover, his beak was encased in a titanium shell, unable to open at all. He could only choose to look at the scenery to ease his excited heart.

Through the tiny goggles, his gaze casually swept across the ground below. His vision, even from thousands of meters in the air, allowed him to see the people on the ground clearly.

However, soon the joy of observation faded as he flew out of San Francisco, and the land below turned into a mix of forests and farmland.

Then he saw another city, but half a minute later, it too was left behind. He saw a small lake, then city, forest, city, forest, in a repeating cycle, until he saw a canyon.

A thousand kilometers, and it took him only about fifteen minutes to reach his destination.

He was just about to slow down when a storm cloud appeared in front of him out of nowhere.

Flying at high speed, he couldn't turn in time and plunged into it, several bright flashes of lightning passing before his eyes. He seemed to see a huge silhouette, then with a bang, felt a momentary resistance as if he had pierced through something, then burst out of the storm cloud.

What was that?

He immediately slowed down, finally braking to below the speed of sound, only to hear a piercing bird cry from the storm cloud behind him.

Perhaps because he was also a bird, he could hear pain and anger in that cry.

Then, whoosh, the storm cloud suddenly opened a gap, and a golden bird that looked as splendid as the sun burst out.

It was a beautiful bird, with a head like an eagle's and a body as big as a truck, and even had three pairs of wings, the largest of which had a wingspan of more than ten meters.

However, at the moment, its right second wing had a huge hole in it, almost split in two, hanging by a thread of flesh and continuously leaking blood that sparkled with electricity.

Uh...

That was obviously his doing.

At a speed of Mach 3, his raven form was essentially a bullet, and with his titanium helmet, it was upgraded to an armor-piercing shell, something no flesh and blood could withstand.

The thunderbird could stir the wind and thunder, clearly just unfortunate enough to be directly in his flight path.

Suddenly, the thunderbird screamed loudly, its golden eyes fixed on him. Murphy understood that look, "It was you who hurt me! I'm going to get you!"

Big brother, if I said it wasn't on purpose, would you believe me?

The thunderbird flapped its largest pair of wings and charged straight at him, but its movements were obviously uncoordinated, clearly due to the broken small wing, causing it to lose balance.

Seeing the situation was bad, Murphy sped up to escape, but the thunderbird let out another angry cry, gathering wind and thunder, and a storm cloud appeared out of nowhere in front of Murphy. Then, crack, a lightning bolt struck Murphy, causing his vision to black out, and he plummeted from the sky.

After falling several hundred meters, Murphy suddenly snapped awake, just in time to see a large mouth about to swallow him.

In the nick of time, he accelerated, dodging the thunderbird's attack, but was blown off balance by the huge wind pressure from its approach. His titanium helmet was blown away, and Murphy spun around, instinctively biting down on something that flew past his eyes, which seemed to be the edge of a small wing.

With a tear, Murphy heard another painful cry and shockingly found himself biting the already injured small wing, tearing it off during the thunderbird's painful roll.

Immediately, pale golden blood showered over Murphy, the electric sparks making his body tingle.

The thunderbird was now completely enraged, screaming furiously, and lightning scattered from its body in all directions, filling the air with the smell of ozone.

That's it, he had completely angered it.

Murphy didn't dare to stay any longer, immediately transforming into a human, drew his wand, and vanished on the spot with a Displacement Illusion, hiding behind a severely eroded rock. After several more uses of the Displacement Illusion, he finally lost sight of the pitiful thunderbird, but its angry cries still came from afar, endlessly sad.

Sorry, brother, I really didn't mean it.

Once he was sure the thunderbird could no longer see him, Murphy transformed back into a raven and flew into the sky, but this time he dared not fly so fast, only cruising at subsonic speeds in the air, searching for traces of the petrified lizard.

However, after searching for over two hours, nearly straining his eyes, he still hadn't found the petrified lizard's location.

He landed on a bare tree, wondering if the explorer was bluffing, maybe he had never seen any petrified lizard at all.

Then, suddenly, a crow landed next to him.

It was a North American crow, smaller than Murphy's current raven form, its feathers displaying a bluish-purple metallic luster in Murphy's tetrachromatic vision, very... beautiful.

"Ka-ka," the crow suddenly called out to him twice.

Somehow, Murphy understood, roughly meaning, "You're very strong."

Murphy: "Caw."

Meaning: "Oh."

"Ku-ku" (Can you dance for me?) Murphy: "Caw? Caw caw!"

What kind of thing just dances for you, go away.

The crow moved to the side, but soon came back closer, "Ko-ko-ku-" (My home is very big, do you want to come and see?)

Murphy: "!!"

Help!

This bird wants me!

He finally realized, this female crow was courting him!

It was spring, a season when all things thrive, and it was normal for birds to be in heat, but... I'm a wizard, okay! What's the mistake!

Oh, well, right now I am indeed a bird.

Just as Murphy was about to fly away, ending this forbidden love, his mind suddenly changed, and he stopped.

"Ka-ka... ka?"

"Do you know where there's a big reptile nearby that can turn animals into immovable stone?"

The Grand Canyon was so vast, he was unfamiliar with the area, where to start searching, might as well ask these American cousins.

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