Chapter 807: Hatching a Plan

"Alright, let's do this." Tang Wulin's golden dragon claws made short work of the air vent, and one of Xie Xie's soul rings flashed to conjure up a Shadow Dragon Clone holding his Shadow Dragon Dagger. The clone entered the air vent in a completely soundless manner, and under Xie Xie's control, the clone's body contracted before squirming through the air vent, and it wasn't long before it reached the other side.

The clone appeared in a corridor with detention chambers on both sides. Xie Xie appraised his surroundings to find that there was no one around.

He carefully strode forward with his body pressed tightly up against a wall, diligently surveying his surroundings with every step that he took.

This was a clone that Xie Xie could will out of existence at any moment, so he wasn't afraid of being discovered, but if he did get discovered, he had to make sure that he was further away from these detention chambers. Otherwise, the people in the Northsea Legion base would suspect that they had escaped.

Thankfully, there were no energy analysis devices here. The detention chambers only existed to detain soldiers who had broken military rules, so this area wasn't exactly a confidential zone.

There weren't even any password activated doors or anything of that nature that separated this area from the rest of the base, so Xie Xie was able to make it out very smoothly.

At this point, night had already fallen, but the Northsea Legion base was still brightly lit, and soldiers were running through the area from time to time.

Xie Xie hid in a dark corner and silently observed the scenes unfolding before his eyes. At his current cultivation rank, the furthest sustainable distance his clones could stray away from him was around one kilometer. If they were to stray out of this range, then it would take several times more soul power and spiritual power to control them.

This place was simply far too massive, and Xie Xie had no way of ascertaining his current location. Thankfully, he caught sight of a plane very quickly.

Not far away from the detention chambers, a warehouse gate slowly opened, and a plane that had just returned from a flight slowly descended before parking itself in the warehouse.

What was even more encouraging to Xie Xie was that there were only two walls that separated this warehouse from their detention chamber.

Xie Xie quickly rushed into the warehouse just in time to see the aircraft canopy slowly opening, following which four pilots disembarked from the plane.

Xie Xie leaped onto the plane and craned his neck for a better view. In doing so, he discovered that this was a four-seater fighter aircraft that wasn't all that spacious. 

The devices and apparatus in the plane were quite complex, and all of the lights on the pilot panel were gradually being switched off. The four pilots seemed to be engaged in a pleasant conversation as they got off the plane. The aircraft's canopy slowly sealed shut again, and Xie Xie turned to discover that there was another plane of the same model in the warehouse.

Xie Xie's eyes narrowed as he silently jumped off the plane before quickly returning to the detention chamber.

After listening to Xie Xie's recount of what he'd seen, Tang Wulin contemplated their options for a moment before musing, "This is indeed a good opportunity, but I don't think it'll be that easy for us to fly the planes out of this base. It would be best for us to wait until these planes are scheduled to fly out for missions, so the warehouse will be open and the people in the base won't suspect anything. However, the problem there is that in order for this to work, we can't just kidnap a pilot right away as that would immediately blow our covers, but the insides of the planes are too small for us to hide in."

Xie Xie said, "After those pilots disembarked, specialized maintenance staff came into the warehouse to examine the condition of the plane. I'd assume that the maintenance personnel will be back again to check the planes prior to their next flight."

Yue Zhengyu said, "The main advantage in using fighter aircrafts lies in how fast they are. At full speed, they can cover 30 kilometers in an instant. However, the problems with fighter aircrafts are that there's too little space in them, and we need professional pilots to fly them. There's not enough space for all of us in one fighter aircraft, and the chances that both planes will be flown at the same time are too slim. Helicopters or cargo planes will have enough space for all of us, but it takes too long for them to get off the ground, and we'll most likely be detained before we can even leave the base."

Tang Wulin asked, "Xie Xie, if we exclude a pilot from our plans, do you think it's possible that we'll all be able to fit in one fighter aircraft?"

A peculiar look appeared on Xie Xie's face. "It'll be very difficult. There are only four seats and seven of us; Lizhi will most likely have to take up more than one seat by himself, so I don't think there's any chance we can all fit in there."

Tang Wulin's eyes narrowed slightly as he said, "If they're four-seater planes, then this might still work, but the prerequisite for that is that we have to be able to fly the planes ourselves."

"Fly the planes ourselves?"

Tang Wulin said, "Piloting a plane will definitely be more complex than driving a soul car, but it may not be much more complex than piloting a mecha; in fact, it could even be slightly easier. Kidnapping a pilot is far too unpredictable a course of action for us to take. We'll only get one chance, so what if we encounter a pilot that would rather die than surrender? Hence, I have an idea..."

"Are you proposing that we fly the planes ourselves? But who's going to fly them?" Ye Xinglan asked.

Tang Wulin turned to Xie Xie, and said, "We still have nine days, and I'm sure the planes in that warehouse will be flown again at some point during the next nine days. Go and observe the pilots as they take off, and carefully learn what they're doing. You don't need to learn everything; all we need is to be able to get the planes to take off, accelerate, and change directions. We only need to fly for 30 kilometers."

Xie Xie's eyes widened as he stared at Tang Wulin. "Boss, aren't you afraid that we'll crash and die? Do you have that much trust in me?"

Tang Wulin shrugged in response. "We might crash, but with Zhengyu and Yuanen's flying abilities, I'm sure we won't die. However, if we fail, then we won't be able to make it to the military training venue on time, so it's all on your shoulders."

Xie Xie gulped nervously. "No pressure, right?"

Tang Wulin said, "We still have some time, so we have to make this plan as airtight as possible. We'll need you to work hard for the next few days, Xie Xie. Observe the pilots and make sure to take in every single detail."

During the next few days, people from the Northsea Legion would come over to the detection chambers every day to check that Tang Wulin and the others were still being detained, and during those times, everyone would put on their damaged helmets and handcuffs again to put on an act.

The detention chambers were extremely short, so it wasn't like the soldiers could walk in and carefully inspect their condition. The patrolling soldiers would only take a cursory glance at them to make sure that they were still present and lying down in silence before departing.

Seven days passed by, and on this day, Xie Xie silently returned again.

"What's the situation like?" Tang Wulin asked in a quiet voice.

Xie Xie replied, "I can confirm that the two planes in the warehouse fly out every day once in the morning and once at night to complete recon missions. I've already memorized the procedures required to get the planes off the ground, and to reach full acceleration. When do we implement our plan?"

Tang Wulin took a deep breath. "We've perfected this plan as much as we could during the limited time afforded to us, and all that's left is the execution. This is indeed quite a perilous undertaking, but we're Shrek’s Seven Monsters; we can't just scurry back with our tails between our legs. We put the plan into motion tomorrow at dawn. Dawn should be a better time to act than at night as that's when the soldiers on guard duty will be at their most weary."

The next morning.

As the captain of the aviation team, Lu Fu was the first to arrive at the warehouse. He greeted the maintenance staff, who had just finished examining the planes in the warehouse, and he stood below his own plane, looking up at it with a blissful expression.

He had always loved planes and the feeling of soaring through the sky ever since he was a small child. He was only a normal person, so in order to become a qualified pilot, he had to endure a lot of arduous training. Through his tireless efforts, he finally became a pilot five years ago.

In the beginning, he was only a student pilot, and now, he was the captain of the aviation team. Throughout this process, he had put in countless hours of effort, and he truly loved aviation.

The plane before him was the newest model aircraft from the federation, the Skyglide 17. It was among the 17th generation of battle aircrafts. The plane had a turbojet engine that could allow it to break the sound barrier within 26 seconds at maximum acceleration. It also came with four soul-vanquishing cannons that could unleash a continuous barrage of attacks, and it can also hold eight soul missiles that could unleash devastating assaults from long range. This was the newest generation of fighter aircraft, and it could attack targets in the air and on land, as well as at sea. After all of the fighter aircrafts in the legion had been replaced by this newest model six years before, they had been performing very consistently and were renowned for their extremely impressive speed and offensive power. They were most suited to assisting mechas in unleashing prolonged assaults, and to providing artillery support to the military mecha teams.

Each Skyglide 17 battle aircraft was 36 meters long with a 29-meter wingspan. Equipped with a turbojet engine, they had to glide for 900 meters before being able to take off.

These figures had been cemented into Lu Fu's mind long ago as he truly loved his battle aircraft, and he was familiar with every single one of its minute details.

A complete aviation team consisted of four people, which undertook the roles of captain, vice-captain, cannon shooter, and missile shooter. 

The captain was mainly responsible for flying the plane, while the vice-captain was responsible for providing directions, contacting the base, and controlling the radars.

As for the cannon and missile shooters, their roles were quite self-explanatory. This was why each Skyglide 17 aircraft had to have four pilots.