High-level martial arts: Starting with a heart of steel, stats crush everything.

"Wait a minute, what do you mean?"

Chen Mo pulled his foot back, looking at Geng Lianhu with a bewildered expression.

"Dean Geng, can't you just fly up there with me?"

Geng Lianhu glared at Chen Mo with annoyance and dragged him onto the helicopter.

"Fly, fly, fly, what are you flying for?"

"They really think the old man is a level 14 martial artist. Only a martial artist can reach that level."

"I couldn't do it even if you worked myself to death."

"Tsk, really bad..." Chen Mo muttered under his breath, then his expression changed, and he sat down in his seat, clutching his back.

Geng Lianhu delivered a devastating punch to Chen Mo's stomach, a wicked grin on his face.

"You'd better watch your mouth, kid. You're no match for this old man."

"Just wait, when I'm stronger than you, I'll definitely blow your liver out of the water..." Chen Mo's face was pale, the power of the Liver-Burning Fist was extraordinary.

Even with his current defense of over five million, he still couldn't withstand this punch.

My health points haven't dropped much, but it still hurts.

"I'm looking forward to that day." Geng Lianhu patted Chen Mo's head, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes to rest.

"Speaking of which, isn't the sky the territory of the Celestial Race? Would they allow us to launch rockets there?"

After calming down, Chen Mo asked the question that had been bothering him.

"As long as it's not a human trying to escape the atmosphere, there won't be a problem, provided we're lucky enough not to encounter any Void Demons."

Geng Lianhu was quite familiar with these matters and gave a brief explanation.

"What the hell is this 'Sky Demon'?" A question mark rose above Chen Mo's head. Could it be a demon in the sky?

That's way too damn blunt!

"This name was given by the Celestials; it means 'demon in the sky.'"

Geng Lianhu's answer perfectly matched Chen Mo's guess; truly, the Celestial Race is as good as a human-machine hybrid...

"Those things are actually not much of a threat; their intelligence is even inferior to that of the Abyss Beasts."

"They are incredibly powerful fighters, and they will attack anything that they see as prey."

"Hey, those monsters are a good match for the Celestials; they're all emotionless killing machines."

Geng Lianhu chuckled lightly, while Chen Mo seemed to be deep in thought.

......

The helicopter transported Chen Mo and Geng Lianhu to the military airfield of the Southwest Military Region, and the two were then transferred from the helicopter to a transport plane.

Touching the familiar steel plate beneath his buttocks, a strange sense of security spread throughout Chen Mo's body.

The Southwest Military Headquarters is not far from the Northwest Rocket Launch Center. If Geng Lianhu hadn't been lazy, the two of them could have arrived in about an hour.

Unfortunately, now we can only go by plane, which greatly reduces the speed.

Nearly three hours later, Chen Mo, who was fast asleep, was woken up by a punch.

"What's up?"

Chen Mo rubbed his head; Geng Lianhu had used considerable force in that punch.

"I've called you four times, but you haven't moved an inch."

Geng Lianhu's eye twitched. How come this kid is sleeping like a dead pig?

"If you weren't still breathing, I would have thought you'd suddenly died!"

"The plane has already landed, couldn't such a loud noise wake you up?"

"..." Chen Mo glanced at the already opened hatch and the logistics department outside staring expectantly, and coughed awkwardly.

"I'm just tired. I've been busy strengthening my internal organs these past two days."

"Let's hurry up and go. I've applied for an intercontinental ballistic missile from above. We'll ride it up there."

Geng Lianhu grabbed Chen Mo's wrist and dragged him toward the launch center.

"Wait a minute!?"

Chen Mo grabbed Geng Lianhu's wrist with his backhand and pushed off the ground with both feet, but he just couldn't break free from Geng Lianhu's iron grip.

"What the hell, riding a missile?"

"I'm still a virgin! I can't lose my little Chen Mo!"

"Don't worry, we're not carrying any warheads. Once we get to our position, we'll just jump."

Geng Lianhu gave Chen Mo a thumbs up, believing that he and Chen Mo would not be killed in the explosion.

"Besides, we're not riding outside. We're standing where the warheads were installed. We'll be launched separately."

Hearing this, Chen Mo became even more resistant.

Isn't this the kind of plot that only appears in those ridiculous dramas from my past life?

How come it really happened to him?

"No no no no no no no no!"

No matter how much Chen Mo struggled, Geng Lianhu wouldn't let go.

Geng Lianhu dragged Chen Mo into the magazine, with a thick explosion-proof steel plate placed under their buttocks.

"You weren't scared when you fought a grandmaster, so why are you chickening out when you're riding a missile?"

Geng Lianhu was a little puzzled. Wasn't this kid supposed to be very bold?

"How should I put it..."

Chen Mo had come to accept reality. After all, the martial artists in this world were all incredibly strong physically, so it was understandable that their modes of transportation were a bit unusual.

As for why Chen Mo was so resistant, it probably stemmed from the deterrent effect of firearms in his previous life.

As the saying goes, any carbon-based life form can be killed by thermal weapons.

As for those martial arts masters above the Grandmaster level, specifically Earth Martial and Heaven Martial experts, whether they can be considered living beings is debatable...

"I understand, everyone gets nervous the first time."

Geng Lianhu patted Chen Mo on the shoulder, intending to give him some advice.

"But there's no other way; missile propulsion is the most cost-effective option."

"If your personal matters led to your approval for a manned rocket launch..."

"It's not impossible, but it will take a very long time, at least eight months or more."

I glanced at the time; there were two minutes left until launch.

"Remember those little black dots you saw on the plane last time?"

Geng Lianhu planned to change the subject to make Chen Mo less nervous.

"Yes, didn't you say that was the Sky Island of the Celestial Race?"

Chen Mo nodded; he still remembered the general outline of that small black dot.

It is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, resembling an inverted cone.

"You should know the structure of the atmosphere, right? It's covered in junior high and even elementary school natural science classes."

"All of the Celestial Race's sky islands are located in the middle of the thermosphere, more than 800 kilometers above the ground."

"Their positions are relatively fixed and will not change with the rotation of Earth, but they will move along with its revolution around the sun."

"That place is still very beautiful, you can see the aurora every day, it's just a bit hot."

Geng Lianhu gestured back and forth with his hands, but unfortunately Chen Mo only understood a small part of it.

He did have natural science classes in elementary and middle school, but unfortunately, they were all taken over by his math teacher.

"So... how hot is 'a bit'?"

Chen Mo swallowed hard. He had a feeling that if Geng Lianhu felt hot, the temperature in that place probably couldn't be low.

"It's alright, around 1200 degrees Celsius."

After recalling for a moment, Geng Lianhu gave an accurate answer.

"But you don't need to worry, the Celestial Race's sky islands have some kind of protection, and the internal temperature is still very suitable for living."

"These are all recorded in the college's archives. Haven't you looked at them?"

"That's true, you're even busier than me, you don't have time to learn about these things."

Geng Lianhu nodded at Chen Mo, who looked completely bewildered. This kid was a very busy man; he didn't have time to learn these things.