I will eventually become a god through sheer hard work.

The last of the four was a large, robust man who looked to be around thirty years old.

He had a square face and a calm and collected expression. A purple rhomboid crystal was embedded in his spine, protruding from his bodysuit.

"That's right, we have Brother Zhong!"

The long-haired man's eyes lit up as if he had found a powerful reason.

"Brother Zhong, what do you think?"

The burly man, named Zhong Ge, crossed his arms, tapped his right index finger twice on his arm, and said succinctly, "Rob it."

The woman frowned and sighed, "...If anything goes wrong, I'll be the first to run away, and I won't care about you."

The long-haired man chuckled, "It's none of your business. With Brother Zhong around, stealing a plane is a piece of cake."

……

"By the way, Captain Xuren, I saw in the information you sent that this pure-blooded dragon in Roaring Falls is a 'core creature'? What does that mean?"

Inside the cabin, Xue Jing asked a question.

“Hmm…” Xu Ren leaned against the wall, pondered for a moment, and said:

"Just as creatures in border areas possess 'core organs,' each border area itself also has its own 'core.'"

"This 'core' could be a living organism, a plant, or something else entirely."

"To explain this, you first need to understand that the border area actually has a concept similar to 'life and death'."

Xue Jing asked in confusion, "Life or death?"

Xu Ren nodded: "That's right, life and death."

“The border area where the core still exists is ‘alive’.”

“The living boundary will constantly undergo various changes, such as the expansion of the boundary, which is one of the changes. It will cause the boundary area to expand continuously and erode the existing area.”

"That's why we need to place 'monitors' in the border areas. We must observe the border areas at all times to deal with any changes that may occur... Otherwise, for example, the Roaring Waterfall you're going to might suddenly experience a time acceleration or a time jump. The pure-blooded dragon inside might be a juvenile now, but it could be an adult tomorrow."

"If we don't detect a fully grown purebred dragon in time, and it manages to escape into the real world and invade the urban area... that would be a terrible disaster."

Xue Jing thought for a moment and asked, "Then what about 'death'? Does death at the border mean you disappear?"

Xu Ren shook his head: "Once a border appears, it will never disappear... at least for now, no borders have been found to have disappeared."

"The so-called death of the border area refers to the destruction of the core of the border area."

"Once the core is destroyed, the border area will die, and there will be no more such sudden changes..."

Xue Jing raised an eyebrow: "So, if I kill that pure-blooded dragon that should be a core creature, Roaring Waterfall will be 'dead,' and we won't need the monitoring device anymore?"

Xu Ren let out a soft "...That's true."

"However, I suggest you don't have that kind of idea."

Xu Ren said tactfully.

“Pureblood dragons…even in their juvenile stage, their danger level is at least level 6 or higher, and depending on the abilities of their core organs, it could even be level 7.”

Xue Jing waved his hand: "Hey, I was just saying it casually, just joking. How could I actually do such a thing? I don't want to die."

Xu Ren nodded: "It's good that you understand."

The mandrill next to him felt something was off and was about to say something.

Just then, an announcement suddenly came over the loudspeaker in the cabin.

"Captain! The radar shows something is approaching the aircraft at high speed!"

"There's a dragon-like bio-field reaction; it seems to be... someone who has had a 'dragon wing device' implanted!"

Upon hearing this, Xu Ren and Shan Xiao's expressions changed.

"Approaching so quickly without warning, they're up to no good," the mandrill remarked, stroking its chin.

Xue Jing's eyes flickered: "The person who implanted the dragon wing device... could it be the Sky Pirates?"

The mandrill frowned: "Sky pirate crew? There's a sky pirate crew around here on the outer ring? And we ran into them? What are they up to?"

After a moment's thought, Xu Ren said, "They're probably here to rob us."

The mandrill asked doubtfully, "Robbery? There's nothing valuable in the plane, is there?"

Xu Ren said calmly, "They're not targeting what's inside the plane, they're targeting the plane itself."

As she spoke, she suddenly thought of something and gave Xue Jing a rather strange look.

Xue Jing felt extremely uncomfortable under their gaze: "Captain Xu Ren, why are you looking at me like that?"

Xu Ren's expression was strange as he said, "Nothing... I was just thinking that we didn't encounter any sky pirate groups when we came here."

Xue Jing's lips twitched.

He knew that Xu Ren wasn't implying that he was colluding with the Sky Pirates.

Instead, he was subtly referring to his "troublesome nature".

"Honestly, you should officially join our Sixth Agency. You're perfect for this line of work."

"I can't help but say," Xu Ren said.

The mandrill said helplessly from the side, "Big brother and sister, we are in a critical moment right now, can we stop chatting so leisurely?"

Xu Ren thought for a moment, walked to the wall, picked up the walkie-talkie hanging there, and calmly said, "Xiao Jing, stop the plane and then open the cabin door."

He then hung up the walkie-talkie and said to the mandrill and Xue Jing, "You two don't have the ability to fly, and the restrictions at high altitudes are too great. Just stay in the cabin. I'll go outside and talk to the air pirates to see if we can resolve this through conversation. If not..."

The mandrill nodded, rummaging through the large backpack on the seat next to it, and took out a sniper rifle of unknown model, but which was obviously of a large caliber.

"Don't worry, Captain, I understand."

The plane gradually came to a stop, hovering in the air. The embedded cabin door opened with a hiss, and the strong winds from 10,000 meters above the ground immediately rushed into the cabin. Xue Jing's hair was blown back into a slicked-back style, and even the skin on his face was shaken by the wind.

Xu Ren leaped out of the hatch.

The mandrill raised his hand to shield his eyes from the strong wind, and was about to go over and close the cabin door when Xue Jing suddenly raised his hand to stop him.

"What's wrong?" the mandrill asked, puzzled.

Xue Jing smiled and said, "It seems they can't reach an agreement, but I'll go help anyway."

Amidst the howling wind, it was difficult to hear voices clearly, so the mandrill shouted at a great volume, "No, no matter how skilled you are, you're still just a martial artist. In this high-altitude environment, you could easily fall and freefall. How can you help?"

"I'll give you a gun, we can just shoot inside the cabin."

Xue Jing shook his head: "I have already graduated from the Pure Martial Arts School."

The mandrill didn't hear the sound of the wind clearly, so he shouted, "Huh? What did you say?"

But no one answered him anymore.

Xue Jing grabbed the door frame, flipped over, and leaped onto the back of the plane with remarkable agility.

……

The illusory blade stood in the air, hovering beside the plane, watching the four figures flying towards them at high speed.

The four people clearly saw the plane stop and people get out, but the plane did not slow down at all.

Seeing this, Xu Ren immediately understood that the other party had no intention of talking.

She reached out and pulled out two sharp blades from her left thigh and right waist, holding them in reverse.

"This is troublesome; one of them is not someone to be trifled with."

Xu Ren frowned, thinking to himself.

People who constantly walk on the edge of life and death have a much sharper intuition and a greater sense of danger than ordinary people.

At this moment, every nerve in her body was reminding her that the muscular man flying in front of the four air pirates was very dangerous.

"Our current combat strength is insufficient... Although Xue Jing is very strong, he is probably not of much use in this environment."

"If all else fails... we'll have to abandon this Dragon Core machine and figure things out later."

As the four sky pirates moved forward rapidly, the distance between the two sides grew closer and closer.

"Ha, only one person came out; they want to negotiate!"

The long-haired man said excitedly.

"Their response was so weak; it seems we've really gotten lucky!"

"Woman, what else do you have to say!"

The gaunt woman pursed her lips, about to speak, when she noticed another figure appear on the back of the plane.

"That is?"

Before the four could react, suddenly, black energy began to emerge from the figure's entire body.

The black currents of air ignited, transforming into translucent black shadows.

The shadows coiled and shifted around his body, eventually gathering together to form a skeleton.

Immediately afterwards, flesh and blood covered the bones, transforming them into a robust body, which was then clad in magnificent black armor.

Ultimately, it resulted in a black, semi-transparent armored giant with only an upper body.

The giant wore a helmet that covered his face, revealing only a pair of empty white eyes.

Then, the giant drew his bow.

"call out--"

A massive black arrow was shot out like a meteor, tearing through the air and leaving a trail of slowly spreading white waves in its wake.

Before anyone at the scene could react, the arrow pierced the long-haired man's abdomen, slicing him in two at the waist.

On his deathbed, a sentence unconsciously surfaced in the long-haired man's mind.

—This strike pierced through the stars.

……