During this time, the highway was sparsely populated with vehicles. Every so often, a car would whiz by, paying little
heed to the woman who had parked her vehicle in the emergency lane.
While parking on the emergency lane was a theoretical no-no, the mountain expressways saw less scrutiny. With
light traffic and breathtaking scenery, fatigued drivers often opted for a picturesque pit stop. No one batted an eye
as they gazed upon the passing vehicles.
The passing motorists showed no surprise at the sight of Morgana. However, she was vexed by the towering 100-
meter bridge that spanned two mountains, connecting two tunnels. This was the closest point on the entire highway
to her Master’s retreat.
Unfortunately, there were no highway exits within dozens of kilometers in either direction since scarcely anyone
lived in this area. To reach her destination swiftly, her only option was to take the leap from here. Otherwise, she’d
have to exit at a distant highway ramp and embark on a day or two of mountainous trekking.
For Morgana, the leap was a trivial feat. But leaving the car here after her departure would lead to unnecessary
complications. Any concerned driver stumbling upon an empty car at the edge of a bridge might conclude it was a
suicide attempt. A call to the police would inevitably follow, leading them to the scene in haste.
They’d first seek signs of a fall or worse beneath the bridge. There would be no disguising the leap from this
dizzying height. Once the police unraveled that someone had jumped, miraculously surviving and disappearing
without a trace, they’d spare no effort to uncover the truth.
They’d employ the highway’s surveillance footage to identify the driver and meticulously trace back through the
evidence. Morgana understood well that despite her extraordinary abilities, she couldn’t elude modern society’s
ubiquitous surveillance systems. Leaving an image record wouldn’t be perilous in
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇta nation of over a billion people, as long as she didn’t attract undue attention from the police or higher- ups.
Her current objective was to vanish from this bridge with her vehicle. She was well-acquainted with the car; her
years on the Antarctic island had seen her mastering various vehicles. Her extended isolation hadn’t dimmed her
knowledge of this world’s technology.
Given her expertise with cars, Morgana swiftly devised a plan. She closed her eyes slightly, channeling a surge of
potent reiki from her body into the off-road vehicle. Then, she extended her spiritual awareness to survey her
surroundings, patiently awaiting the opportune moment.
Only when no other vehicles or people entered her consciousness’s reach did she snap her eyes open.
She pushed the off-road vehicle with empty hands and commanded, “Rise!”
As her words left her lips, it was as if the vehicle had caught a gust of wind. It rolled and ascended into the sky, a
bizarre spectacle unfolding before her.
Inexplicably, the over two-ton vehicle seemed to transmute into paper at that moment, tumbling gracefully through
the air. Morgana’s reiki enveloped it, allowing for a slow descent. Yet, maintaining such control over an object of
such mass in the air consumed her reiki rapidly.
As the off-road vehicle approached the bridge deck, she refocused her aura to enshroud only the fuel tank and
battery. The descent accelerated suddenly, concluding with a resounding impact that shattered branches along the
way.
Fortunately, the reiki protection spared the car from igniting into a blaze; it remained unexploded, deformed but
intact. After the crash, tranquility reclaimed the valley. Morgana sprang to her feet, lightly touching down on the
ground.
The valley was densely populated with various trees, and the off-road vehicle had plowed a path through the thick
woods. Morgana’s thoughts directed her reiki to gather the shattered branches, concealing the vehicle. She
straightened her attire and strode deeper into the mountains, without a backward glance.
***
Meanwhile, elsewhere,
All surveillance footage from that region had been swiftly transferred to a secure cloud server by Keagan Myers’
underlings. Providing Maria with the server’s address and key, Keagan watched the surveillance videos with Jagoan
in her boudoir.
Though there were no cameras in Shiwan Mountain, Maria pinpointed Morgana’s figure using the time she
ascended the mountain. They retraced Morgana’s journey from this surveillance point to the old town, all within the
camera’s gaze.
Tracking Morgana’s route became an effortless task. In China, evading personal surveillance might be possible, but
cars left a digital trail nearly impossible to erase. Any road accessible to cars had its entrances and exits under
constant monitoring, complete with license plate recognition.
This massive volume of video and image data was cataloged with license plate labels, allowing for rapid retrieval.
They input Morgana’s license plate number and accessed footage of her on various roadways.
Morgana hadn’t foreseen anyone predicting her journey south, let alone Maria daring to act under her nose. She
had never expected someone to tail her at this juncture and start tracing her steps.
Within minutes, Jagoan and Maria had acquired comprehensive data, including the times and locations where
Morgana’s car appeared in all traffic monitoring systems. Jagoan focused on the most recent data, which revealed
that half an hour prior, her car had sped through the highway to Shiwanda Mountain in the southern province,
reaching a service area at 120 kilometers per hour.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe surveillance that captured this data lay just outside the service area, between the entrance and exit. In other
words, her car had bypassed a service area, continuing along the main road.
Jagoan studied earlier monitoring nodes, finding it strange that the car had been recorded at roughly 5- minute
intervals, covering about ten kilometers each time.
Thirty minutes ago, Morgana had passed the last recorded point, indicating she had traveled sixty kilometers since
then. However, there were no new entries in the system, suggesting a change in her driving status. Jagoan checked
the next monitoring location within the service area, finding it twenty-two kilometers ahead.
At her speed, Morgana should have reached this area ten or twenty minutes ago if she maintained 120 kilometers
per hour. Yet, her vehicle was nowhere to be found here. Either she had drastically reduced her speed to below 50
kilometers per hour or had parked somewhere along these twenty-two kilometers.
Jagoan took a screenshot of this section on a satellite map and said to Maria, “We’ll wait and see. If Morgana
doesn’t appear at the next monitoring point, she’s likely left the expressway within this stretch.”
Maria concurred, “There are no service areas or exits along this twenty-two-kilometer stretch. If she’s left, it’s
probably on foot.”
Jagoan nodded, adding, “This stretch primarily consists of viaducts and tunnels. To leave, she’d have to leap directly
from a viaduct.”
Maria agreed, “It’s improbable that the expressway conveniently reaches Jagoan Bazin’s retreat location. Morgana
would have identified the nearest exit on the expressway and continued on foot after abandoning her car.”
Jagoan pondered the situation, then said, “Our most passionate course would be to confront her and extract
information, but practically speaking, I’m no match for her, and she’s already aware of our
presence. Showing up would raise suspicion. My suggestion is to wait. If Morgana ditches her car here, we won’t be
able to track it. We’ll wait in Aurous Hill for Morgana to re-enter our field of vision.”
Update of The Charismatic Charlie Wade by Lord Leaf