As the somber clouds cloaked the great Gobi Desert, lifelessness reigned the entire place. The vast red earth stretched for thousands of kilometres and the atmosphere was densely shrouded by a horrific dark haze. After endless days and nights of dead silence, the sound of explosions disseminated from the sky. The m.u.f.fled thunders and plumes of vermillion smoke breaking through the clouds, was the prelude to 'War'.

It was a fierce combat that would rewrite history.

The Air Force and the Marine aviation embattled the empyreal; the tanks from the Ground Forces ran unhindered across the mighty desert; the Artillery unit's guided missile launchers were aimed high into the blue skies… From all over the nation, elites from different armed forces congregated in the desert and staged a magnificent theatrical drama of the modern era: 'War'.

Bai Luo Yin was unsure of where all those soldiers had encamped in the past few days, but what he was quite sure of, was the price he had had to pay in order to make it to where he was.

He was fortunate. At least, he had made it to the battlefield, unlike the thousands of men left behind. Standing in the snow, they were holding back their tears as they raised their blistered and wounded hands in salute to see off the comrades that had been chosen.

After only ten short days of training, all of them appeared to have been remolded and become new men.

When Bai Luo Yin spoke of his subordinates, he no longer displayed the exasperated expression that was usually evoked by them failing to meet his expectations. He had already made up his mind that when they would return to the base, he would solemnly declare this to each and every one of them: "You are all outstanding!"

Before Bai Luo Yin climbed into his fighter jet, he secretly said to Gu Hai: "You have to bless and protect me. Bless me so that I can win this battle! I want to show my strength to that psychotic Lao Zhou and also make Gu Laoye[1] see me in a whole new light!"

All division commanders from the partic.i.p.ating armed forces had gathered in the supervisory control room. The top Shouzhang, who was throning in the centre of the room, was Gu Wei Ting, who had taken time out of his busy schedule to witness the battle.

At that place, thousands of kilometres outside central China, the air combat commenced as two fighter jets staged an intense and ferocious battle in the sky and carried out a series of attacks. The deluge of smoke from the ammunition had yet to disperse, when bombers[2] took off to join the battle. As they traversed the war zone, their whistling sounds resonated throughout the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, in the depth of the great Gobi Desert, the opponents were in position to sabotage. The Electronic Warfare Division[3] had discharged its full electromagnetic spectrum for interception. Radar Units had uncoiled a net of infrared interference in the sky. Ground-to-air Force[4] had aimed their missiles and were ready to launch.

Zhou Ling Yun sat in the control room, anxiously staring at the large screen, his stone-cold expression long since removed. Before his eyes, the stream of data transmitted from the nine skies[5] turned into series of dazzling characters that poured over the screen like a waterfall, forming tables and charts.

Bai Luo Yin's fighter jet was like a fire-breathing dragon piercing straight through the vault of heaven, hauling a silvery white plume of smoke. In the blink of an eye, the 'fiery dragon' turned into a blazing shooting star as it soared scorching across the skies, viciously roaring as it charged toward the enemies that had been surrept.i.tiously veiled by the gloomy clouds. As he aimed and vigorously shot at his opponents, one by one, they plummeted to their destruction…

Witnessing this epic fight, a burst of cheer reverberated through the control room.

"Who is this guy?" A Chief of Staff blurted out.

Complacency emerged in Zhou Ling Yun's eyes.

"My subordinate, Bai Luo Yin!"

"How old is he this year?" The Chief asked again.

Zhou Ling Yun made gestures with his fingers, stating twenty-six.

The Chief exclaimed in astonishment, "His future has no limits!"

Gu Wei Ting's gaze turned toward the large screen. Unconsciously, the corners of his lips perked up.

All the enemy fighter jets were defeated by the skilled pilots keeping a precise flight formation under Bai Luo Yin's leaders.h.i.+p and command. They achieved an overwhelming victory in the first round of battle.

Tens of thousands of meters high up in the sky, Bai Luo Yin suddenly had the urge of wanting to wave his arms and scream out, "Dad, are you seeing this? Our family’s fortune is changing for the better!"

Right at that moment, disaster struck.

Bai Luo Yin's c.o.c.kpit canopy suddenly exploded and a strong gust of turbulence rigidly crushed him down on the ejection seat. Without the protection of the gla.s.s s.h.i.+eld, he was instantly engulfed by the violent air flows of the high alt.i.tude. In the midst of a bone piercing turmoil and exposed to a temperature that crept below minus 40 degrees Celsius, his hands froze in mere seconds.

Zhou Ling Yun's face abruptly changed color, while he fiercely watched the large screen with bloodshot eyes.

Kid! Nothing must happen to you!

An instructor got into contact with Bai Luo Yin via the radio frequency channel, then repeatedly commanded him to evacuate by parachute dive.

The chilly wind had stiffened every inch of Bai Luo Yin's body and even though it was hard to withstand, he persistently continued to navigate the aircraft. He had poured his heart and soul into modifying the new model fighter—as if it was his child. Therefore, no matter what, it was vital that he brought it back to the ground safely.

With this in mind, Bai Luo Yin pulled back on the throttle and adjusted the ejection seat lower to reduce the turbulence invasion. Then he took off his pilot goggles and changed the radio frequency channel in an orderly manner…

Right then, Bai Luo Yin suddenly felt an inexplicable grat.i.tude toward Zhou Ling Yun. If it had not been for his harsh training, he wouldn't stand a chance—even if the temperature had been 20 below zero, rather than 40.

Officers and instructors in the supervisory control room all broke into cold sweat over Bai Luo Yin's predicament. At that stage, Gu Wei Jing was already standing up, his eyes revealing ceaseless anxiety and worry.

10.000 meters…5.000 meters…2.000 meters…

By then, Bai Luo Yin was able to clearly see the ground.

In the control room, Zhou Ling Yun held his breath while watching the events unfold on the screen—but in the end, Bai Luo Yin managed to steadily land his fighter jet on the ground.

As soon as Bai Luo Yin walked out of the c.o.c.kpit, he was surrounded by a bunch of soldiers. Zhou Ling Yun was walking toward him with a huge smile on his face, beaming with joy. It was an expression that Bai Luo Yin had never seen before. During the few seconds when he was still dumbfounded, his feet were suddenly swept off the ground and his body thrown up into the air—before falling back down into a certain someone's embrace.

"Hahaha…" Zhou Ling Yun allowed a loud laughter to freely escape his vocal cords, his eyes were overflowing with endless pride.

It was only when the short celebration had ended, that Bai Luo Yin realized he had no strength left in his leg. When he looked down he found that his pants were covered in blood, and when he tried to take a step, a gust of sharp pain invaded him.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Ling Yun asked as he tensed up.

Bai Luo Yin waved his hand, "It's nothing. I seem to have gotten some minor injuries."

Zhou Ling Yun lowered his head to take a look and his thick brows instantly knitted together.

"You call these minor injuries? Let's go, I'll take you to the hospital."

Even in his current condition, Bai Luo Yin didn't forget to mock Zhou Ling Yun. "Is it necessary to go to the hospital for such minor injuries?"

"That mouth of yours, does it not hurt anymore?"

After threatening him, Zhou Ling Yun immediately threw him over his shoulder and carried him toward a helicopter.

Since Bai Luo Yin got injured during an act of valor, he had the pleasure to experience special treatment. He was able to return to Beijing ahead of schedule and had been arranged to stay at the Air Force General Hospital to receive medical treatment. It was indeed a blessing in disguise for Bai Luo Yin.

What made him extremely happy was not his meritorious achievement, nor the glory he received. But rather, it was because Zhou Ling Yun had informed him that he would be away for the next six days, attending several meetings. It was mainly to discuss all the issues found during this battle campaign.

Which in turn meant that Bai Luo Yin would have six days of freedom. He could finally do as he pleased and contact Gu Hai. With this in mind, his heart blossomed with beautiful emotions.

Bai Luo Yin decided that once all the visitors had taken their leave, he would immediately give Gu Hai a call.

To his surprise, there was an endless sea of people coming and going to his room from the moment he was admitted into the hospital in the afternoon, until nightfall.

Gu Wei Ting was the first to pay him a visit. Oddly enough, he even said some very rare words of concern—and to make things slightly more awkward, he also lightly touched Bai Luo Yin's ankle.

"Does it hurt?"

Bai Luo Yin shook his head and smiled, "These are only minor injuries, it's not a big deal."

Gu Wei Ting smiled as well. "You're all grown up now!"

Once he saw Gu Wei Ting's figure disappear out the door, Bai Luo Yin was about to pick up the phone, but then a few Regimental Commanders and Battalion Commanders arrived.

"How are you? What did the doctor say? There aren’t any major injuries to your leg, right? Will it hinder your flying later?" The Commanders enquired, scrambling over each other when rus.h.i.+ng to the fore.

Bai Luo Yin had never received such extreme attention before. Seeing each and every one of them panicking like this, he hastily went on to appease their hearts.

"My ankle only suffered a minor bone fracture and some scratches. It may look nasty, but it's really nothing!"

After the Commanders had left, Bai Luo Yin didn't have the chance to pick up the phone before there was a knocking sound yet again.

With his eyes red, Liu Chong hobbled into the room and looked attentively at Bai Luo Ying for a good while. Although his lips were moving, the words he wanted to say remained stuck in his throat. No longer able to hold back the sobs that were threatening to burst out, he rested his head on the side of Bai Luo Yin's bed and wailed.

s.h.i.+t! This kid is even harder to get rid of.

Bai Luo Yin patted Liu Chong's back. "Are you a man or not? If you're a man, then get up, wipe your tears and speak properly!"

Hearing that, Liu Chong forcefully held back his tears, then stood up straight and stiff as a statue.

Bai Luo Yin felt a bit bad seeing him like that, so he slightly softened the tone of his voice.

"Just a moment ago, Wing commander Zhou said that you have great potential and told me to train you well."

"Really?" Liu Chong's eyes shone with excitement.

Bai Luo Yin nodded.

Liu Chong's expression, that had only just gotten lighter, suddenly became intricate again. "If it weren't for you, I probably would have been abandoned."

Bai Luo Yin's brows knitted together as he spoke, "It's okay, stop being so sentimental. Even if your leader had been someone else—he, too, would show solicitude for his soldiers!"

"I know…" Warm tears welled up in Liu Chong's eyes. "Major, you took care of me the entire time I was injured. Now that you are injured, I cannot abandon you. I am going to look after you 24 hours a day, too!"

Bai Luo Yin, "…"

I don't know what to say anymore, how come this kid is so… lacking in judgement?

"Here, look at it!" Bai Luo Yin stretched out his injured leg and swayed it from side to side in front of Liu Chong. His movement was very natural and unrestrained. "See? The severity of my injury is much lighter compared to yours. I don't need anyone to look after me."

"But…"

"But what?" Bai Luo Yin interrupted Liu Chong and questioned him overbearingly, "Are you looking down on your Major?"

Liu Chong hastily shook his head.

"Then, hurry up and leave, I'm going to sleep!"

Bai Luo Yin immediately reached for the phone as soon as Liu Chong left.

"h.e.l.lo?" Gu Hai's voice sailed through the phone.

Bai Luo Yin remained silent for a while before he started speaking. His voice, that just a moment ago had been bold and loud, suddenly turned hoa.r.s.e.

"Da Hai, I might be dying."

"What?" Gu Hai was clearly taken aback by those words. "Yin Zi, is that you? What happened to you?"

BLY deliberately weakened his grip and allowed the phone to fall onto the floor. The only sound remaining was of Gu Hai anxiously calling out to him.

Translator's Notes:

[1] 老爺: lǎoyé - A t.i.tle to address an elderly person or the man of the house.

[2] 轟炸機: Bomber: A bomber is a combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping bombs … aircraft categories: light bombers, medium bombers, dive bombers, interdictors, fighter-bombers, attack aircraft, multirole combat aircraft, and others. Since the novel didn't specify which sort it is, I've just included a couple of the pictures as examples.

The below is apparently the newest design of some sort of bomber. Can you just imagining our BLY (ZZ) flying this thing? <>

[3] 電子對抗部隊 – Electronic warfare division: is responsible for electronic counter reconnaissance and electronic interference tasks, revolving mainly around the electromagnetic spectrum. Through search and interception of the enemy’s electronic equipment signal, the relevant technical parameters are identified. This enables deployment of interference with the normal functions of the enemy's equipment, so that its command system fails, weapons go out of control, and so on.

[4] Ground to Air Missile

[5] Groups of data/records: CJD is talking about the "black box" from planes. However, the term “black box” is almost never used within the flight safety industry or aviation. The preferred term is “flight recorder”. The recorders are not permitted to be black in color, and must be bright orange, as they are intended to be spotted and recovered after incidents. The flight recorder is made up of two separate pieces of equipment: the flight data recorder (FDR) and a c.o.c.kpit voice recorder (CVR).

九天: Lit Trans Nine Skies/Days: it’s a Chinese myth and legend concept of heaven, there are nine levels of heaven with nine been the highest level. On the highest level, you will find The Grand Supreme Elderly Lord. (Taishang Laojun 太上老君)

Speaking of other things, nine skies is 九霄 in Chinese. If one traces the character 霄 ( xiao) to its origin, one finds the meaning of clouds. The top part of the character is the character for rain 雨, and is used in almost all words related to the weather like snow 雪, hail 雹, fog 霧 and frost 霜.

Therefore one can translate it as nine kinds of weather or nine kinds of clouds. The inner meaning relates to nine different kinds of moods or pa.s.sions that veil the original spirit, like the clouds blocking out suns.h.i.+ne.

Nine is also the largest figure in the singular number, so it means “limitless”. So, this refers to Nine skies, as they are limitlessly and extremely high.

Nancy: I really wanted to use "Nine Realms" instead of Nine Skies, but it refers to Norse mythology (not quite Chinese lol).

Bambi: I'm the Nordic one, I'll keep the Norse stuff, you can use the Chinese ;D (Nancy has watched "Thor" too much!)

Nancy: I love Thor! ^^

Sae: I need to sleep.