While I was chanting a curse, the system said I was Xiao Yan?

Chapter 175 The Real Plan

A military base in the desert of America.

On the tarmac, before the morning light had fully spread, ten B-2 "Spirit" bombers were conducting their final pre-flight checks under the grey-blue sky.

Ground crew moved about under the wings; some tapped on the hydraulic lines of the landing gear, others checked the interfaces of the bomb bay, and the mechanic lay on the side of the fuselage, shining a flashlight into the weapons bay to confirm that each cruise missile was securely in place.

The outlines of those bombers appeared exceptionally large in the morning light, their wingspans resembling those of black bats spreading their wings, silently lying on the ground.

Their magazines contained enough weapons to wipe several cities off the map—one of the most powerful weapons ever created by mankind—which were now neatly arranged like merchandise on a shelf.

Inside the base command center, a huge screen displays a map of the entire territory of Japan.

That was a live satellite image; twelve cities were marked with red circles, and the edge of each circle was pulsating slowly, like some kind of breathing organism.

The circles vary in size, but their distribution is very regular, stretching from Tokyo to Fukuoka, from Sapporo to Naha, covering almost all the major population centers of the Japanese archipelago.

Shuang Suo stood in front of the screen, her hands behind her back, her gaze slowly sweeping over the red circles.

A faint smile played on his lips, as if he were admiring a newly completed painting. Half a step behind him, Zhang Xiang stood there with an indifferent expression, his gaze also fixed on the screen. However, his gaze did not linger on the red circles, but rather on Shuang Suo's profile.

Zhang Xiang spoke, his voice steady, with a hint of tentative curiosity in his tone: "What were you laughing at just now?"

Shuang Suo didn't turn her head; her gaze remained fixed on the screen, her voice carrying an barely suppressed pleasure: "The backdoor... has been triggered."

His brow twitched slightly: "The back door?"

"I left a small backup plan in the barrier in Osaka, which will only be activated under specific conditions."

Shuang Suo finally turned around, looked at Zhang Xiang, and his smile widened: "Just now, that vulnerability was activated."

He paused, as if savoring the effect of his words, before continuing, "In other words, the entire barrier across Japan has now automatically connected, and other cities that haven't activated the Death Retreat have been forcibly activated!"

He looked away and back at the screen. The red circles were expanding slowly, and the pulsation at their edges was gradually increasing. "This is going even better than I expected. The sorcerers at the college have really been a great help."

The door to the command center was pushed open.

A middle-aged man in military uniform walked in. It was General Ross, with gray hair, a stern face, and wrinkles that looked as if they had been carved by a knife. His uniform was crisp, and the stars on his shoulders gleamed under the lights. Every step he took carried the composure and imposing presence unique to someone who had spent most of his life in the military.

His gaze lingered on Shuang Su for a moment before he spoke, his voice hoarse and low, carrying an undisguised scrutiny and wariness: "You said you've been to this place many times. I want to know, what exactly are you looking for?"

Shuang Suo turned to look at him, her smile unchanged, but a hint of amusement in her eyes: "Alien."

General Ross's lips twitched: "...What?"

"I said, aliens."

Frostsoo repeated himself, speaking as if it were nothing out of the ordinary: "This place is one of the extension facilities of District 51. I thought I could find something interesting here, but I'm always disappointed. There's nothing here, just some... outdated weapons."

General Ross remained silent for a moment, looking at Frostleaf's expression as if trying to determine if he was joking, but Frostleaf's expression was flawless, and his eyes showed only disappointment.

General Ross finally spoke: "You think there really are aliens? That's just a propaganda war!"

Qi Suo chuckled, a laugh that carried a tone that was hard to decipher as either serious or sarcastic: "Well, you still need to have a bit of imagination. I've seen things stranger than aliens before—cursed spirits, possessed bodies, spells... Compared to that, aliens seem quite ordinary."

Before he could finish speaking, the alarm in the command center suddenly went off!

Sharp, rapid, and piercing, like someone repeatedly scratching glass with their fingernails, red lights flickered alternately on the walls, enveloping the entire room in a constantly shifting dark red glow.

General Ross's expression changed instantly. He strode to the control panel, placed his hands on the table, and spoke in a low voice, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth: "What's going on?!"

The radar operator's voice was visibly tense, his fingers tapping rapidly on the control panel. The fluctuating data points on the screen made his speech increasingly rapid: "An unidentified flying object is rapidly approaching! Extremely fast, and its direction... is directly towards us! It's less than eighty kilometers away!"

General Ross's brow furrowed even more as he stared at the rapidly moving dot on the screen: "Fighter jet or drone?"

The operator shook his head: "None of those! There's only one target! And it's...very small!"

General Ross turned sharply to look at Lu Suo: "You're one of your men?!"

Shuang Suo slowly pulled a palm-sized device from his pocket. The screen was lit up, displaying a rapidly moving dot of light.

He glanced down, then smiled, a knowing smile that said, "Ah...it's Jay, he's here."

General Ross frowned. As a general, he keenly observed the strange smile on Frostleaf's face: "One of our own?"

Shuang Suo: "In a way, yes."

"Should we cancel the anti-aircraft missile interception?"

Shuang Su shook her head, a mischievous smile playing on her lips: "No need."

His gaze passed through the glass windows of the command center, landing on the bombers in the distance that were already preparing for takeoff and the soldiers busy on the tarmac: "Before we go all out with the big fireworks, we need to set off a few small ones first to warm things up."

He withdrew his gaze and looked at General Ross: "Moreover, I also want to see... just how much damage modern firearms can do to top-tier sorcerers."

General Ross looked at him, remained silent for two seconds, and a complex emotion flashed in his sharp eyes, which had become sharp from being in a command position for a long time.

He didn't press further, but turned to the control panel and ordered in a deep voice: "Anti-aircraft missiles ready! Target locked! Fire!"

The operator's fingers flew across the control panel, the sound of several buttons being pressed echoing throughout the command center, like a precise ensemble.

The next second, white plumes of smoke suddenly shot out from the launch tubes of several missile launchers on the outer side of the tarmac. More than a dozen plumes of smoke rose from the ground almost simultaneously, like white arrows shooting into the sky.

The trails of smoke drew arcs in the air, accompanied by sharp whooshing sounds, all converging in the same direction, where a figure was flying at high speed from afar.

Xia Youjie stood on the back of a giant bird-like spirit, his black, shoulder-length hair flying backward in the high-altitude airflow, the hem of his cassock fluttering in the wind like a flag being blown by the wind.

His expression was calm, his gaze fixed on the white dots flying in the distance. Tong Kong slightly tensed up, his voice swallowed by the wind, as if he were talking to himself: "...Anti-aircraft missiles? It seems they've already spotted me."

When the first missile approached to within about 300 meters of him, the bird spirit under Xia Youjie's feet suddenly tilted to the side, drawing an almost vertical arc in the air. The missile grazed the spirit's wing, leaving a scorching heat wave in the air, which caused the feathers at the edge of the spirit's wing to curl slightly.

But after passing him, the missile quickly changed direction, its flight path drawing an arc in the air before pointing back towards Xia Youjie.

Xia Youjie raised an eyebrow: "A tracking type, huh...you've come prepared."

He remained calm, raised his right hand, palm facing up, and black mist surged from his palm, rapidly condensing in the air.

A shimmering white Eastern dragon burst forth from the black mist, its entire body covered in fine scales that shimmered with rainbow light in the sunlight. It was smaller than the previous rainbow dragon, but more agile. As it passed in front of Xia Youjie, it crashed directly into the missile that was turning.

"boom!!!"

The explosion burst into the sky, and the shockwave churned the surrounding air. The Rainbow Dragon emerged from the flames, its scales blackened in several places, but it suffered almost no real damage.

Its body unfolded in front of Xia Youjie, like a moving city wall, blocking all subsequent missiles, including the second one.

The third, the fourth... missiles struck the Rainbow Dragon's body one after another, and the explosions created a continuous burst of light in the sky, like a grand fireworks display.

The crimson flames and the thick, gray-black smoke intertwined, turning the sky into a chaotic oil painting. The Rainbow Dragon remained motionless amidst the explosion, the black marks on its scales rapidly fading, as if being repaired from within by some force.

Two fighter jets approached at high speed from the direction of the base, the roar of their engines deeper and heavier than the sound of missiles tearing through the air, as if something enormous was ripping the air apart.

They were faster than missiles, entering attack range almost simultaneously with the Rainbow Dragon deflecting the last missile. Inside the cockpit, the pilot locked onto Xia Youjie's position, thumb hovering over the launch button: "Target locked...fire!"

Two air-to-air missiles detached from the wings, trailing white smoke as they shot toward Xia Youjie. At the same time, the machine gun began to strafing, with bullets leaving visible trails in the sky.

Xia Youjie didn't even look at the missiles and bullets. He waved his right hand lightly in the air, and two black shadows shot out from the black mist at great speed, leaving only two blurry afterimages in the sky.

The two squid-like cursed spirits stretched out in mid-air, each nearly three meters long, with semi-transparent bodies. Their tentacles swayed gently in the air, like jellyfish floating in water. Their movement was so fast that it was almost impossible to catch with the naked eye, like gliding or teleporting.

The first squid cursed spirit collided with the wing of the fighter jet on the left. Its body hardened like iron the moment it made contact, and the wing was broken off at the root. The sound of metal breaking echoed in the high sky with a short, loud bang. The fighter jet lost its balance and began to spin in the air. The fuselage disintegrated in the high-speed spin, and the fragments flew in all directions like scattered petals.

The second squid spirit pierced the cockpit of the fighter jet on the right. Its translucent body entered from one side of the cockpit and exited from the other, bringing with it a spray of broken glass and metal fragments. The pilot's helmet detached from the cockpit during the impact and tumbled through the air like a thrown stone.

The two fighter jets disintegrated in mid-air almost simultaneously, their wreckage trailing thick smoke as they crashed into the sea below, splashing up two huge white sprays of water on the surface.

The debris and fuel burned on the sea surface for a while before being swallowed by the waves, leaving only wisps of black smoke drifting slowly in the sea breeze.

Xia Youjie stood on the back of the bird-like spirit, his posture showing no sign of tension: "...This is never going to end."

The bird-like spirit landed on the plaza in front of the base command center. As its enormous wings folded, they created a gust of wind that scattered dust and fine sand from the ground.

Xia Youjie leaped off the back of the cursed spirit and landed on the ground with light and steady movements. The hem of his cassock brushed against the gray concrete floor, making a soft friction sound.

He stood there, his black, shoulder-length hair fluttering slightly in the wind, a few strands brushing his forehead, the hem of his robe trailing on the ground, casting a long, thin shadow in the morning light.

His expression was calm as his gaze passed over the busy ground staff and parked vehicles in the square and landed on the figure standing at the entrance of the command center.

Then he spoke, his voice exceptionally clear on the empty tarmac: "What a unique welcoming ceremony."

Qi Suo stood at the entrance of the command center, his hands in his trench coat pockets, his short, graying hair slightly disheveled by the wind, but he was very composed, with a faint smile on his lips, as if he were welcoming an old friend.

"You arrived faster than I expected."

Qi Suo said, his voice carrying a calm and unhurried tone: "It would take quite a while to get here from Osaka, even with a flying spirit. You probably didn't stop along the way."

"As expected, you had tracked my movements."

Xia Youjie took a few steps forward and stopped about five meters away from Shuang Suo: "It's quite difficult to find you hiding here."

Lu Su grinned: "As expected, you've also tracked my movements. You've grown quite a bit."

Xia Youjie ignored the tone that sounded like he was speaking to a disciple. His gaze went over Shuang Suo's shoulder and landed on the bombers preparing for takeoff on the tarmac behind him. The outlines of the wings of the ten B-2 "Spirit" were particularly conspicuous in the morning light, and the hum of the engines had merged into a continuous, low sound wave. Ground crew were removing the last batch of ground equipment from under the wings.

His gaze lingered for a moment on the bomb bay of one of the bombers before returning to Frostsock's face: "...Looks like I've arrived at just the right time."

Shuang Suo didn't speak, she just looked at him.

Xia Youjie's voice was calm: "What are you planning to do here?"

Shuang Suo pulled her hands out of her pockets and spread them out as if to demonstrate something perfectly natural.

"As you can see, prepare to drop nuclear bombs on Japan!"

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