Cathay and Rome, two ancient empires united in the distant past and ruled the world unstoppably.
This is the beginning of the nightmare.
Vesna was sitting on a hill in the Caucasus with her schoolbag on her back. The wind from the Caspian Sea blew by, bringing with it the pungent smell of the Baku refinery. Vesna, who has lived here since birth, has become accustomed to this, but the traveler next to her is not too used to it.
Wearing a knitted hat with a pullover, Lin hid her ears. By the way, she also covered her mouth and nose with a scarf and shielded her eyes with goggles. But the pungent smell still stung her exposed cheeks. She had spent her entire life in the royal court, and she was not used to the poor air quality yet.
"By the way. Not to mention Cathay. Sister Lin, have you really been to Rome?"
"As you said, I am a Roman."
"Ah Rome, so far away. It feels like I'm on the other side of the world."
"The straight-line distance between your place and Constantinople is less than 2,000 kilometers. It only takes two or three days to drive."
"Is the city of Rome so close? But it always feels so far away. Sister Lin, how long do you want to live here?"
"Stay here for a while. If I can't find the person I'm looking for, I'll go to the next place."
"Oh, it seems you are different from Mr. Aulus."
"Who is that?"
"The tax collector of this region. He wears a very long robe, and the robe is shiny. He will only come when he collects the tithe, and he will carry a golden staff in his hand."
"With a golden staff? What is it for?"
"He would ask the people in the village to drive the sheep over one by one, and then count them. Regardless of whether they were good or bad, the tenth cow or sheep that passed under the battle would be sacrificed to the city of Rome. You said, the Roman Emperor is He’s not very fat, why does he eat so many sheep?”
"Wesna." Lin turned around, "Do you hate Rome?"
"Hate Rome? Ah...what a strange question."
"Don't you hate it?"
"It's hard to say that I don't hate it." She grabbed the strap of her schoolbag and dangled her dangling feet on the rocks. "How can I put it this way? Just like I don't hate the sun, the sea and the mountains. The sun rises on time, Rome. People come and collect taxes on time. That’s how we’ve lived since my grandfather’s grandfather, my grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather.”
"Yes." Lin nodded. She understood this mentality: in the eyes of many people, Rome is part of the world order. It has dominated the entire world since ancient times that are beyond recognition. People can't even tell which came first. The sun still comes first to Rome. As for Cathay on the other side of the world, it is a place that only exists in legends.
"Hey~~Sister Lin, have you heard of the Immortals of Cathay?"
"Not only have I heard of it, I have also seen it."
"Ah! Can the immortals of Cathay really live hundreds of years? Can they really fly? Can they breathe fire?"
"Why do you suddenly ask this?"
"Look, look, this is last night's newspaper."
Vesna opened her schoolbag and took out a crumpled newspaper: On the front page, the Roman Emperor Victoria III was standing at the window announcing something to the people. A Cathay man with white hair, black clothes and a ribbon was standing there. On his side, his expression is serious. The content is equally shocking: "The Empire Changes!" The Emperor has ordered the Thirteenth Legion, the "Gemini Legion", to withdraw to Hadrian's Wall. The British Auxiliaries were changing defense. 》
"The adults in the family said that the white-haired brother next to me is the immortal from Cathay. Oh, he is even more beautiful than my sister. Can he breathe fire? If he can breathe fire, does he breathe fire from his mouth or from his nose? "
"Ah, he doesn't seem to have this attribute. But has he been promoted to heaven so quickly?"
"Eh? Sister Lin, do you know him?" For some reason, Vesna's intuition was extremely sharp. Although she still hasn't recognized the girl in the newspaper as the emperor, she can capture a lot of subtle information in the conversation.
"Uh" Lin didn't know how to answer for a moment. She came here to get information and didn't want to hand over her information directly.
"By the way, Sister Lin, I have a fairy's treasure here. It fell from the sky."
"Treasure? What treasure?" Lin's trip was not for tourism. She was looking for the target she had been tracking: the power of the Wild Hunt. If it really is a treasure.
"Look, this is it!" Vesna took out an iron piece. There is a string of flowery characters on it. I can’t tell what it is, but it is probably just a fragment of the shell of something. The surrounding area of the iron piece was polished and smooth, as if it was being used as a knife. But it didn't seem to have cut anything, it was just a toy knife.
"This is a treasure that fell from the sky. Every week, the Sinian Immortal will fly over our heads with a golden crow. It is definitely not a plane. My grandfather said that only angels can fly. So fast. But I knew it was not an angel, because once, I saw a golden crow with three legs stretched out, so it must be the three-legged golden crow of the god, and it must be used to pull the sun chariot! Then the treasure hit the mountain in front with a bang."
"But why a crow?"
"Because the sound is so noisy, it must be a crow?"
Suddenly, Vesna stopped. She pointed to the western sky: "Golden crow! Golden crow! They used to come on Thursday and Friday, but they came so early this week!
Lin looked in the direction she pointed:
In the deep blue sky, a shining bright spot was crossing the sky. It seemed to be at least in the upper atmosphere. At that altitude, the speed of the aircraft was incredibly fast, flying directly above their heads in a few breaths. And there are already birds flying in the mountains in the distance.
Suddenly, without warning, a thunder "rumbling" exploded from the sky——
"Reach twice the speed of sound and continue climbing." Captain Lin's hand was always on the handle of the throttle valve. Although it has exceeded the speed of daily operation, Ninghe can continue to accelerate this time.
Shangluo, who was sitting in the back, was looking down at the newspaper. This time he was much more calm than before, and he could remain normal without wearing a pressurized suit - but that was also because the cabin was not shaking as much as before.
"Oh, that's right, Shangluo." Captain Lin suddenly said, "What are you trying to transport this time?"
"It's a secret." Shangluo didn't look up, "By the way, why don't you tremble this time?"
"It's a secret." Captain Lin imitated him.
"Don't imitate me, you guys who are decades old... Well, let me tell the truth. It's not a secret anyway. This was after Daozu asked me to come to Rome to talk about things. I thought it would be easier for me to bring this thing back to explain the situation. That's A black stone is a sacred object of the goddess Cybele. Because I can't take it back alone, I asked you to come. So why doesn't Ninghe stop shaking? "
"Because it was replaced with Jusu fuel, it can stop shaking. In the early experiments on the Shuilong, the Jusu fuel performed very well. So Guoxing went to Shenyang, North Zhili, to purchase some, and let us try it too. The effect. It is indeed very good, and the adaptability of this pulse detonation engine to new fuels is also very good.”
"Oh~~ Will it be able to carry passengers soon?"
"The fuel cost is 9.4 times higher than before." Captain Lin replied. Even he, who didn't have to pay for it, felt a little hurt by these words. I was already burning money, but this time I doubled my money.
".Forget it then. By the way, when will we arrive?"
"Five o'clock in the afternoon, the same time. What, do you have plans?"
"Waiting for me to go back to the meeting over there. Well, if everything goes well, Captain Lin, please pay attention to Fetion's upgrade push in the past two days. I have made a fun function for everyone, called 'Forum'."
(End of chapter)
