"Get back to a safe spot!" Zhou Yi yelled into the damaged cabin, watching the disgusting mass of the flesh-and-blood monster preparing to gush out.
Zhou Yi adjusted his strategy. Since the monster wanted out, he would let it escape. The environment outside was infinitely preferable; it offered fewer constraints on his abilities and removed the immediate danger to the passengers inside. His only hope was that the Pilot in Command could hold the line for a little longer. If the plane could survive until he eliminated this abomination, the safety of the flight would be secured.
The monster had fully extricated itself from the cabin. Watching fragments of the creature fly out of the breach, Zhou Yi quickly used telekinesis to manipulate heavy objects to seal the opening, preventing any passengers from being sucked out. Then, he leaped into the turbulent air. Outside was his battleground, the place where he would destroy this thing.
The monster, now outside, firmly coiled its body onto the aircraft. It sensed something was fundamentally wrong. The cluster's instinct was to retreat, but the vast, cold expanse of the high-altitude clouds offered no sanctuary.
It could only use its tentacles to anchor itself to the plane, moving inch by inch toward the tail. In its completely illogical cluster mind, only by exploring further could it grasp its situation.
Zhou Yi immediately recognized the monster's predicament. This was predictable; a creature without a brain, no matter its power, could not overcome its fatal lack of strategy. If Giant's mind still existed, he would never have run outside, effectively abandoning his leverage over Zhou Yi. The flesh-and-blood monster, a collective of single-celled thoughts, couldn't comprehend strategy.
Watching the mass of gore slowly drag itself across the fuselage, Zhou Yi flew directly toward it. A large ball of brilliant cyan-blue fire—burning between $6,000$ and $7,000^{\circ}\text{C}$—coated his spear. The sharp blade immediately severed one of the monster's anchoring tentacles.
This extreme heat could penetrate the creature's psychic shield, but it was so intense that it posed a risk to the plane itself. Even the cold counter-airflow couldn't completely prevent damage to the fuselage.
Zhou Yi had no time for hesitation. The plane was already damaged; a little more damage wouldn't change the immediate crisis. The priority was the swift elimination of the monster.
Confronted by fire that breached its psychic defenses, the flesh-and-blood monster finally understood fear. The Mental Energy scream that echoed through the clouds was the collective terror of every tissue making up its form.
Under the threat of the flames, it didn't dare reabsorb the severed tentacle limb, which was already contaminated. Its massive body was violently yanked away by other tentacles, allowing the severed part to turn to ash. This was the cluster's first act of 'surgical' abandonment, confirming that this type of damage was indeed fatal.
After the cyan-blue fire consumed the severed limb and burned a small section of the plane's outer wall, Zhou Yi released control of the flame, driving it to pursue the monster. The escaping heat was unavoidable, but he had no choice. He could generate and control the fire, but he couldn't precisely control its temperature output. He could only act quickly to minimize collateral damage.
The fleeing monster clearly felt the heat pursuing it. After its body tissues had just signaled a death sentence, this perception was acutely magnified. To protect the main mass, a tentacle lashed out, striking the ball of fire.
The cyan-blue fire scattered, but the tiny, controlled flames instantly ignited the striking tentacle. This wasn't ordinary fire; it was manipulated.
The fire burned wildly, extending toward the main body. The collective will, prioritizing survival, enacted a second, brutal choice: the burning tentacle was violently flung into the sky, and the main mass actively severed the connection at the base. The section of tentacle tumbled away like a blazing serpent, quickly vanishing into the clouds.
Zhou Yi didn't worry about the detached fire; once his command—burn this tentacle to ashes—was fulfilled, the fire would become ordinary, naturally dissipating flames with no unexpected impact.
His focus was entirely on the monster. This desperate act of 'breaking the wrist' showed a creature pushed to the brink. He feared the level of destruction it might unleash before its demise.
His worries were immediately realized. The plane began shaking violently, its altitude rapidly dropping. Though the Pilot fought to maintain a stable posture, the damage was overwhelming.
Zhou Yi generated fire again, his spear waving. Two crescent-shaped fire blades flew toward the fleeing monster. The creature was more proactive this time, throwing two flat sections of tissue to intercept the blades.
Zhou Yi let the fire blades strike the sacrificed tissue. The monster's tenacious vitality and devouring ability meant that it had to be utterly destroyed, leaving nothing behind.
The two burning organic sacrifices vanished into the clouds. Zhou Yi continued to swing his spear, sending more fire blades after the main body. Each strike diminished the monster's power, pushing it closer to a dead end where its collective will might no longer be able to neutralize his Mental Energy.
The massive body was visibly shrinking. Under the cluster consciousness, it had sacrificed too many tissues. Although it lacked a clear mind to quantify its loss, the continuous weakening of the collective will signaled that it had to stop. The cluster could not be reduced further, or it would lose the ability to operate.
Realizing this, the flesh-and-blood monster suddenly accelerated. It converted almost all its tissues into thick, powerful tentacles. These appendages pulled and sprang across the fuselage, moving the mass with astonishing speed, almost as if it were flying.
They were clearly searching for a place to hide.
Creatures with primitive minds, like insects and invertebrates, often seek enclosed, hidden, and dark corners for safety. The flesh-and-blood monster, a collective of primitive consciousnesses, followed a similar instinct.
It had no external sensory organs; its perception relied solely on Mental Energy fluctuations and tissue sensors. In its fear-driven state, only one place on the vast, damaged plane met its need for a safe, enclosed space.
The flesh-and-blood monster, seized by the urge to hide from the lethal fire, rushed toward the plane's engine.
Zhou Yi was stunned. No sane creature would choose a jet engine as a hiding place. The ultra-high-speed rotating turbines and violent airflow should make the idea instantly suicidal. But the monster was not sane; it was a product of instinctive, collective will.
In that moment of shock, the monster threw its entire mass into the engine intake.
The furiously rotating turbines shredded every piece of flesh and mixed tissue. The strong vortex plastered the resulting mixture into every crevice of the engine. The engine was instantly, irreparably damaged. Internal twisting, circuit failures, and minor explosions erupted.
Thick black smoke and flames spewed from the crippled engine. Worse, the flesh-and-blood monster had not died. It had changed its form, surviving inside the engine as a resilient, tenacious carpet of tissue.
The plane immediately spiraled out of control. Lacking the symmetrical thrust, the already battered aircraft could not be stabilized. Even the most skilled pilot could not maintain a steady flight.
The plane began to tumble through the clouds. The violent, erratic movements subjected the fuselage to extreme G-forces. Inside, the panicked cries of the hundreds of passengers echoed through the cabin. No one could maintain peace while being tossed like a rubber ball ten thousand feet in the air.
Zhou Yi had to act. He plunged to the underside of the plane, desperately trying to push it upward. He had to stabilize the aircraft immediately.
He had to save them.