Short, Light, Free

“Where are the rest? I think I’m okay now,” I told Xiaoai.

“They went to Tai Mountain, so I’m left here to take care of you,” she explained.

“They’re all there?”

“Yes. Chaos is expecting the virgins in 4 hours,” Xiaoai added.

“Four hours? It’s already evening?” I looked out of the window and saw that the sun had set.

“Chaos broadcasted the news at 10 last night and gave us 24 hours. It’s already 6 in the evening now. My dad mentioned that you’ll only wake up in a few days, so they told me to guard you and even bury you if you were to stop breathing,” she continued, crying.

“I’m fine now, it’s alright. I’m here, aren’t I? Alive and well?” I assured her.

“Do you want to try moving about? We can head over to Tai Mountain if you’re feeling up to it. I’m quite worried about Father. He can’t really fight, but he still wanted to join them,” she told me, wiping her eyes.

Still on the bed, I tried shifting my leg. It hurt, but I managed to lift it. I could feel the blood slowly flowing back to my legs.

I sat upright and started applying a little force to get off the table. However, I ended up shooting upward and raised my hands to stop myself from smashing the ceiling.

Landing back firmly on the ground, I could feel the lightness of my body. I couldn’t believe what I had just done.

“What was that, Brother Gou? You jumped so high,” Xiaoai exclaimed in shock.

Looking at my own hands and legs I said, “I have no idea, but we have to hurry. I wonder what’s happening over at Tai Mountain.”

“Alright. Give me a moment, Brother Gou,” Xiaoai said before following behind me.

When we reached the door, I asked, “How do we go there?”

“We’ll fly. I have a map, and it’s nighttime, anyway. I’ll get a cloud for us,” she said casually as she pulled me up into the air.

She opened the map on her mobile phone and turned to me, looking confused. “You feel really light. Like cotton.”

There were no visible changes to my body, but I felt as though I was soaking in a bath. “Wait. Let me go for a bit.”

“But you’ll fall!” Xiaoai protested.

“I don’t think so. I feel different from before,” I replied.

“Is it possible that maybe you have absorbed the powers of the nine sons?” she suggested.

“I’m not sure. You said I feel light, right? I feel strange right now as if I’m floating,” I shared.

“I’ll let go then. Shout if you need help, and I’ll come and get you,” Xiaoai instructed before letting go.

Instead of falling, I floated.

Looking down, I saw that I was at least a hundred meters above the ground.

I tried pushing my chest forward and immediately surged forward a few meters.

“I think I can fly, Xiaoai,” I exclaimed.

“Yeah but you look weird doing it,” she commented, giggling.

“I don’t look good?” I asked self-consciously.

“You look like a… frog,”

Well, I supposed that could be true. The frog-style was the only swimming method I had learned.

“The important thing is I can fly fast and effortlessly. Your stamina isn’t as powerful, is it? Just cover us with your cloud, and I’ll bring you there. Just direct me,” I proposed.

Xiaoai nodded. “Sure, but how will you go about in carrying me?”

I experimented with different positions with her until we found the most comfortable one, where she sat on my back.

I kicked with tremendous strength and sped forward in a daze.

At this point, Xiaoai looked like a frog trainer, but we made do and headed toward our destination.

It wasn’t tiring at all, and I felt even more at ease than when I was in the water.

I held no resistance and kicking could propel me very far forward.

We were out of the city in no time.

Looking down, I could vaguely see the highway and realized that I was moving significantly faster than the cars below. The best thing was that I didn’t feel restricted, and I could fly in any direction.

Half an hour later, Xiaoai pointed into the distance and yelled, “The tallest one among those is Tai Mountain.”

I looked down and saw a sealed road.

The whole place was covered in yellow reflective warning strips. The roads that they had not blocked yet were crowded with flashing police cars.

There was a bunch of fully equipped policemen and a group of curious individuals.

Thankfully, we were still in the air, or they would have trapped us.

It wasn’t exactly safe up there since over ten helicopters were patrolling overhead.

One of them even spotted us heading towards them.

“Have they have spotted us?” I asked, a bit panicked. It was only then that I realized that I had no ability to sense them.

“Seems like it. Shall we go faster?”

I readjusted our direction and was about to leave when the helicopter stirred our cloud cover away.

Their action immediately exposed our cover.

“What should we do?” I asked Xiaoai.

“I have no idea. I’ve never been in this situation before,” she replied.

Holding a megaphone up, a fully armed man in the helicopter shouted, “Are you guys part of the military-formed special forces? Looks like gods really exist. How amazing!”

What we heard completely baffled us.