Chapter 26: Running into a Ghost in Broad Daylight?

Ji Ling immediately scooped Nangong Lingyue up and soared high into the sky. The thin, scattered black mist could no longer obstruct the gentle, penetrating moonlight, which draped over the pair like a veil of flowing water.

The light-formed wings behind Ji Ling beat slowly and rhythmically, carrying them toward the direction Nangong Lingyue indicated. It was her first time experiencing flight; her initial shyness and fear had vanished completely, leaving only exhilaration. Although her arms remained tightly wrapped around Ji Ling’s neck, her legs, dangling in mid-air, began to kick with excitement.

"Whoa! This is so thrilling! Hahahaha!" Nangong Lingyue shouted joyfully.

Ji Ling chuckled, looking down as he said, "Don't just get carried away. I’ll fly a bit lower; keep an eye out for the markers you left behind."

"Oh, right! I almost forgot, hahaha!" Nangong Lingyue gave a sheepish laugh, then pulled a pair of sunglasses from her pocket and handed them to Ji Ling.

"What for? Why wear sunglasses in the middle of the night?" Ji Ling asked, puzzled.

"Oh, just put them on!" Nangong Lingyue pouted. Ignoring his hesitation, she reached out and placed the glasses over his eyes.

The moment he put them on, Ji Ling saw a trail of glowing, eerie red dots extending from near to far across the ground. Startled, he took off the glasses and put them back on, confirming he hadn't seen wrong.

Nangong Lingyue grinned at him. "Fun, right? These are special markers made by the Qingyun Terrace, crafted from the blood of a strange creature captured in the southeast coastal region. Our war correspondents carry a bottle of this liquid on every mission."

"You can't see the markings normally, but with these special lenses, they become perfectly clear."

"So, is that how you found your way back to the main troop during the Southwest Campaign?" Ji Ling immediately voiced his curiosity.

Nangong Lingyue nodded. "Exactly. Most of us reporters are just ordinary people. Unlike you soldiers, we don't have specialized training for navigation. We have to rely on this to ensure we don't get left behind."

"Besides, the battlefield changes in an instant. If we lose contact, the Qingyun Terrace uses these markers to track us down and rescue us. After all, out in the wild, we don't have the survival skills you do."

"That’s not entirely true," Ji Ling said with a smile. "You saved me last time. Without you, I probably would have died in the mountains."

Nangong Lingyue pursed her lips and smiled. "That was different. You’d been buried in the snow for too long—you were suffering from severe hypothermia."

Ji Ling nodded, choosing not to press the matter further, as they had arrived at their destination.

After landing, Nangong Lingyue held her hands out in front of her, groping forward step by step. Ji Ling followed suit, moving cautiously while keeping a wary eye on their surroundings.

Yet, after searching under the moonlight for over half an hour, they found no sign of the "air wall" Nangong Lingyue had described.

Frustrated, she stamped her foot. "How can it be gone? That wall was right here during the day!" She gestured toward a diamond-shaped reef. "This reef! It was right behind that wall during the day; I couldn't get past it! But now, we can touch it just fine."

"Could you have remembered wrong?" Ji Ling asked, brow furrowed. "Maybe your sense of direction and perception were dulled because it's night?"

"Impossible!" Nangong Lingyue pointed to another irregular reef about five meters in front of the diamond one. "I left my marker right here! Look, isn't the marker in that exact spot?"

Ji Ling looked where she pointed and nodded slightly. "Yes, it is. I can see the red glow of your marker through the lenses."

"Then this is definitely the place!" she insisted. "Besides, this diamond-shaped reef is so unique; you won't find another one along this whole coast! I couldn't have misremembered."

Ji Ling scanned the coastline and nodded again. She was right. There was no other reef with such a peculiar shape in sight.

It was a distinct landmark. The chance of a mistake was slim, especially with her markers present.

"Then there are only two possibilities," Ji Ling muttered. "Either you were seeing ghosts during the day—which is highly unlikely."

"You show me a ghost in broad daylight then, if you're so smart!" she retorted, glaring at him.

Ji Ling gave a helpless smile. "That’s why I said it’s unlikely. The only other possibility is that the wall does exist, but it has moved."

"Moved? A wall moved?" Nangong Lingyue found the suggestion hard to believe.

Ji Ling stared intently at the coastline. "It’s unlikely for a wall to move. Perhaps it isn't a wall at all, but rather... a massive, strange creature capable of camouflage or rendering itself transparent."

Hearing this, Nangong Lingyue gasped, a wave of nausea hitting her. She bent over, dry-heaving.

"What's wrong?" Ji Ling asked, frowning as he hurried to support her.

She coughed and waved a hand. "Nothing, nothing... I just suddenly realized... if that's true, then I was touching a creature?"

"So what if you were?" Ji Ling shrugged.

Nangong Lingyue recalled the sensation, her brow furrowing deeply. She held up her hand, staring at her palm and flexing her fingers in the air. "Now that you mention it, when I touched the wall during the day, it was... um, how do I put it? A bit... bouncy?"

"Bouncy?" Ji Ling was stunned by her choice of words and couldn't help but laugh, though he quickly nodded. "If your memory is accurate, then that 'bouncy' texture was indeed the body of a strange creature."