The Prodigal Son

After waiting for a while, the person in the hot air balloon was the first to be pulled out.

The remaining people are working hard to retrieve the hot air balloon.

As the man was brought ashore, the crowd gathered around him.

Only then did Qin Yu get a clear look at the appearance of this great master.

This was a young man who was as thin as a stick, and looked malnourished.

The man choked on water and passed out. When someone pressed on his chest, water started gushing out.

It's good that he's not dead!

Qin Yu felt much relieved, then turned to Zeng Guan and the others and said, "Once he wakes up, you can ask him yourselves!"

The men looked at him with some skepticism, then urged the soldiers to wake him up quickly.

"Cough cough..."

After some commotion, the gaunt man, who coughed up two mouthfuls of water, finally woke up slowly.

Seeing the scene before him, the gaunt man trembled in fear, his lips shaking like a vibrating sieve.

Zeng Guan squatted down, pointed at Qin Yuchong's gaunt, dark face, and demanded, "Do you know him?"

The gaunt man, feeling extremely guilty, stammered, "I...I'm a..."

He said he knows you!

Zeng Guan turned to look at Qin Yu, a half-smile on his face, and said, "Still saying it has nothing to do with you?"

Qin Yu's lips twitched. "Boss Zeng, stop messing around!"

Isn't this just messing around?

"I...don't know him."

The gaunt man finally finished speaking.

"What's your name?"

Zeng Guan asked again.

The gaunt man dared not meet Zeng Guan's gaze and stammered, "Wang Dou... Dou."

"Explain yourself!" Zeng Guan's voice suddenly turned cold: "Is it Wang Dou, or Wang Doudou?"

Wang Dou suddenly jolted awake, and answered in a trembling voice, "Wang Dou!"

"Who sent you? What is your purpose?"

Zeng Guan used the standard procedure for interrogating prisoners: "Confess honestly, or I'll make you wish you were dead!"

Wang Dou was already terrified, and upon hearing Zeng Guan's words, he was almost scared to death. He hurriedly cast a pleading look at Qin Yu.

He vaguely remembered that this was what stopped the soldiers from shooting arrows at him.

Faced with this group of ravenous people, he had no choice but to ask the kind-hearted Qin Yu for help.

"What are you looking at me for?!"

Qin Yu's face darkened. "Hurry up and tell me where you came from, and what's with that hot... thing you're making? Don't worry, he's just kidding. As long as you tell the truth, I guarantee you'll be fine!"

With Qin Yu's assurance, Wang Dou finally calmed down a bit.

After catching his breath, Wang Dou finally confessed.

He was from Fangzhou, and he brought the "divine bird" that they had spent three years making to the capital to participate in the Hundred Flowers Festival.

They didn't actually intend to fly today.

They were afraid of something going wrong during the Hundred Flowers Festival, so they wanted to test their divine bird beforehand.

During the test, there was a rope tied to a stone on the ground below the basket.

For some reason, the rope suddenly broke.

At that time, he was working hard in the basket, pumping the bellows, when the rope broke and he was forced to "ascend to heaven".

He dared not go up, nor could he get down; he was terrified out of his wits.

When he saw those people drawing their bows and nocking their arrows, he quickly made the divine bird fly high.

As a result, the divine bird flew high, and a gust of wind blew, causing it to drift this way.

It wasn't until he saw the Mirror Lake below that he devised a way to make the divine bird descend, and it eventually fell into the Mirror Lake.

"So, you have accomplices?"

Zeng Guan astutely captured the key information.

"Yes……"

Wang Dou answered instinctively, but then hurriedly protested, "No... he's not an accomplice! He's just one of my cousins."

Where is he?

Qin Yu immediately pressed for details, secretly curious in his heart.

The two of them then built the hot air balloon.

Holy crap!

That's fucking genius!

Wang Dou replied, "We were originally staying at the Sihai Inn, but today we went to Xiaotangshan to test the divine bird, and I don't know where it is now..."

Just as Qin Yu was about to take Wang Dou aside and ask them how they made the hot air balloon, a voice suddenly came from behind him.

"His Majesty has arrived!"

Upon hearing that voice, Wang Dou nearly fainted from fright.

His Majesty?

This...this has alarmed His Majesty?

Qin Yu and the others hurried outside to prepare to receive the emperor.

"Qin Yu, get out here right now!"

The familiar roar of the evil dragon rang out once again.

Zhao Luan stormed up to them, her eyes blazing as she stared at Qin Yu.

He looked like he wanted to skin Qin Yu alive.

"Your Majesty, it's a misunderstanding!"

Qin Yu guessed that the female demon must have received an incorrect message from the city guards, and quickly explained, "This matter really has nothing to do with me!"

But Zhao Luan clearly did not believe Qin Yu's words.

"Your Majesty, this is indeed a misunderstanding, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Qin Yu."

Zeng Guan bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I have already interrogated the people above the demon. It was all Wang Dou and his cousin who orchestrated this..."

Then, Zeng Guan briefly explained the situation to Zhao Luan.

Without Zhao Luan's permission, the Golden Armored Imperial Guards directly brought Wang Doudou to Zhao Luan.

Before Zhao Luan could even speak, Wang Dou collapsed to the ground in terror, crying out, "Your Majesty, spare my life!"

"Take him away! Put him in jail!"

Zhao Luan waved her hand and coldly ordered Zeng Guan, "Immediately apprehend his accomplices and bring them to justice as quickly as possible!"

Upon hearing this, Qin Yu exclaimed, "This is outrageous!"

This guy is a genius!

Where can he be imprisoned?

"His Majesty!"

Qin Yu quickly spoke up, "Your Majesty, I believe that the items made by this person will be of great use to the court. I request that Your Majesty hand over this person and his cousin to me, as I wish to learn in detail about the manufacturing process and perhaps even improve upon it for use in military campaigns!"

Ok?

Zhao Luan frowned: "What use is this thing besides scaring people?"

"..."

Qin Yu was speechless, then quickly said, "In a battle between two armies, if we can use this to detect the enemy's deployment, we can definitely gain the upper hand!"

Zhao Luan lowered her head and pondered for a moment, then asked Wang Dou sternly, "How high can this thing fly?"

Wang Dou answered, trembling all over, "The highest it flew was about thirty feet."

Zhao Luan then looked up at Xu Kui: "How far can you shoot an arrow when you draw your bow?"

Xu Kui bowed and replied, "Within fifty zhang, I never miss! Beyond fifty zhang, it's hard to say."

He was, after all, a seventh-level expert.

Although he wasn't as naturally strong as Qi Dachui, who could draw an eight-stone bow, he could still draw a five-stone bow without any problem.

If we disregard accuracy and lethality, he could easily shoot sixty feet or even further.

An anomaly like Qi Dachui, disregarding accuracy and lethality, could easily shoot eighty zhang (approximately 40 meters) with ease.

"Did you hear that?"

Zhao Luan's gaze fell on Qin Yu again. "This thing can only fly a maximum of thirty zhang. Do you think there's no one in the enemy army who can shoot farther than Xu Kui? And that he has the upper hand? Once this thing takes to the air, it'll be a sitting duck!"

Qin Yu secretly curled his lip, then said, "After the improvements, it will definitely be able to fly even higher."

"No, no!"

Wang Dou shook his head repeatedly, "Once the divine bird takes flight, it can't control its direction. It absolutely cannot fly too high. The higher it goes, the stronger the wind becomes, and then it won't be able to come down. Falling from that height will kill people..."

"I……"

Qin Yu's face darkened.

Are you out of your mind?!

I'm trying to help you, okay?

Are you trying to sabotage things yourself?

Why don't you just brag a little and say that your thing can fly hundreds of feet?

Or they could just brag and say that this thing could carry Zhao Luan to the sky and make her stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun.

Modern hot air balloons are not very stable, and those experts can launch them seventy or eighty feet high, so he certainly didn't expect this guy's hot air balloon to be of much use.

What he values ​​is this guy's hands-on ability!

The difficulty of hand-building a hot air balloon in Ningguo is definitely higher than the difficulty of hand-building a drone in my previous life!

Zhao Luan's face fell, and she demanded sharply of Qin Yu, "Tell me honestly, why do you want both of them?"