Chapter 1715: The Archipelago Following the Storm

After traveling for another four hours, the sun began to slant, yet the storm had only grown slightly larger in everyone's field of vision. If they had listened to the captain earlier, who knew how long it would have taken to get this close.

But even so, everyone was exclaiming in shock.

The captain had described it well: a storm... wall!

This wasn't a tornado; it was a storm wall about to fill everyone's field of vision—tall, thick, and obstructive! It was also accompanied by massive amounts of smoke, clouds, fog, and dust.

Within the cyclone, lightning and thunder were intertwined.

The captain's face turned pale, and he pleaded with Bai Ziqi, "My lord, sailing straight into this is certain death!"

Bai Ziqi remained unmoved. "Rest assured, I said it would be fine, so it will be fine."

The Azure Guards said nothing. If Commandant Bai said it was fine, then it was fine; they had no need to doubt.

The closer the ship sailed, the more everyone felt that this storm wall was unimaginably vast, with no end in sight on either side.

The large ship Bai Seventeen had carefully selected was like a dozen sesame seeds placed beside a hundred-jin giant melon when compared to the volume of this superstorm.

The might of heaven and earth was displayed to the fullest at this moment. Any words used to describe it felt pale.

Furthermore, the storm was heading in the direction of the ship.

Judging by its speed, it would collide head-on with Bai Ziqi's ship by tomorrow at the latest! Under these circumstances, he remained as calm as ever.

"Sail straight toward it; the timing is just right."

Timing? The captain was nearly frightened out of his wits. What timing? Had he known these people were all lunatics, he never would have taken their money! That night, no one dared to sleep.

The brilliant starry river in the night sky had vanished, replaced only by a heavy, oppressive blackness.

The next morning, the captain and his crew were all bruised and battered, their gazes flickering as they looked toward the White Guards.

Because they were rushing toward each other, the storm wall appeared extremely spectacular in everyone's field of vision.

It was fortunate that the people Bai Ziqi brought with him were all firm of will; had they been ordinary travelers, they would have been crying, causing a scene, and threatening suicide long ago.

By now, the sea wind had become impossibly violent. Bai Ziqi ordered everyone to take out their Lamp Spirits to form a stabilization array, or the ship would have sunk to the bottom of the sea.

The captain and the sailors had already been disciplined once and were bruised and swollen; they dared not cause trouble now and steered the ship obediently toward the storm.

"If I haven't calculated wrong..." Bai Ziqi muttered to himself, "No, it's impossible to have calculated wrong!"

Soon, the ship entered the current circle surrounding the storm. Even with the wind-calming array, it was tossed and turned, and several times the sails nearly touched the sea surface.

Because the storm sucked water upward, the currents would draw in everything nearby and transport it into mid-air.

Once they entered the currents, the ship was carried along automatically. No matter how skilled the captain was, it was impossible to pull the ship out of the current.

Watching the storm grow larger and larger in his field of vision, with water currents sucked into the sky winding like living dragons along the storm wall, the captain closed his eyes in despair. "It's over."

The seawater sucked up by the waterspout was beaten into ice mist, then slammed fiercely against his face, seeping into his heart.

However, just as he hung his head, waiting for death, the wind force seemed to diminish suddenly, no longer lashing his face as violently as before. The water vapor hitting his face also lightened, and cheers from others reached his ears:

"It's going up to the sky, the water dragon is going up to the sky!"

The captain opened his eyes and was shocked to see the massive storm wall before him disintegrating. Iron-gray smoke and clouds were flying up into the sky, as if being sucked into the cloud layer by something.

Only a few wisps of rising water currents remained, like flying dragons ascending to the sky, drilling into the clouds before vanishing from sight.

In less than two quarters of an hour, the sea returned to calm, with only a light rain falling from the sky. The captain subconsciously licked his lips—it was salty.

This was the last bit of seawater sucked into the sky, turning into rain and returning to the sea.

Then, fish began to fall from the sky, pitter-patter, of every variety, like hailstones.

The captain's crew had just begun to cheer, feeling they had survived a disaster, when a two-zhang-long giant shark fell from mid-air, knocking several of them unconscious instantly, while still thrashing about on the deck with its bloody maw wide open.

The sailors were terrified and scrambled to avoid it. Just then, an object poked out from the cabin and, taking advantage of the giant shark's twisting, kicked it off the ship into the sea in one go.

The boatmen's view was blocked by the giant shark, and they didn't see what it was; it seemed they only saw a gray shadow, and the giant shark was kicked into the water, the shadow vanishing as well.

Whoa! That shark must have weighed several thousand jin, right?

The ship rocked incessantly. Bai Ziqi ordered, "Continue forward."

Another quarter of an hour later, the black clouds that had been about to press down onto the sea surface vanished into thin air in an instant.

What is meant by "heaven has unpredictable winds and clouds"? This was a living example.

As the storm dispersed, there were actually more than a dozen islands of various sizes ahead, with overlapping peaks and lush green trees, no different from ordinary islands.

"This, this...?" The captain rubbed his eyes. "There are no islands in this sea area at all. Where did they pop out from!"

"Brought by the storm." Bai Ziqi was also gazing at these islands. "This is the legendary Silver Pearl Island!"

Silver Pearl Island, hidden deep in the center of the storm.

He had calculated the time perfectly; such a magnificent storm wall was bound to dissipate by the second quarter of noon today!

As long as the timing was precise, the storm would not cause them serious harm.

The fleet continued forward, and the distant Silver Pearl Island grew larger in their field of vision.

But the sea wind suddenly shifted, blowing from the islands toward them, and a thick fog, from who knew where, came rolling toward them!

The rings on the hands of Bai Ziqi, Bai Seventeen, and the others suddenly emitted a red light.

"There is poison in the fog, raise the barrier!"

The rings on their hands reacted to both divine abilities and poisons.

This was a magic treasure specially prepared by Bai Ziqi; after all, their opponent was a Mirage Immortal, and who knew when they might fall into a trap? In the blink of an eye, the mist arrived, but the dozen large ships all raised their barriers, and pale cyan light shields blocked the thick fog outside.

Ordinary sea fog was milky white, but this fog was white with a hint of pink, a truly beautiful color.

A sorcerer under Bai Ziqi said, "This is miasma; it causes confusion."

The thick fog soon made it impossible to see one's own fingers. Everyone saw only a vast whiteness, unable to even see the friendly ships a few zhang away.

Without needing Bai Ziqi to give instructions, everyone heightened their vigilance to prevent a sneak attack.

From where would the first attack come?

However, there was no answer to this question, because the sea wind was still blowing, and in a short while, it blew the thick fog away.

The sea surface opened up again. Although there was still some haze in the air, the view was at least clear, and everything seemed no different from before.

Was that thick fog just now triggered by the outer ships entering the storm circle, thereby activating a defensive divine ability? With the sea surface calm, Bai Ziqi instead ordered the fleet to stop advancing.

Once on the island, they would be in the territory of True Person Qianhuan. One must maintain at least a minimum level of awe for the strength of this ancient true immortal.

He was more cautious than usual, even maintaining a distance of more than ten li at sea, and then dispatched three brown-backed kites to fly toward Silver Pearl Island with the wind.

They were to conduct a reconnaissance first.

These three kites shared their vision with their respective masters; whatever they saw, their masters could see as well.

Looking down from high altitude, the archipelago was like a pearl on the sea, with beautiful and enchanting scenery. Flocks of white birds circled, and they all fled in panic upon seeing the kites.

In the eastern part of the largest island, mountains towered into the clouds, wreathed in white mist.

There are immortal mountains on the sea, and this was no exception.

On the island, there were also farmland, buildings, dams, and various traces of human activity.

As the kites flew lower, they could see that human towns and villages were most numerous and dense on the main island, while the further away from it the islands were, the fewer traces of humans there were.

If not for the fact that Silver Pearl Island was located in the very center of the storm circle, one could not tell it apart from an ordinary island just by looking through the eyes of the kites.

Bai Seventeen was somewhat surprised. "Judging by the density of the houses, the population of the Silver Pearl Archipelago must be at least several tens of thousands!"

Such a storm-bound archipelago that couldn't touch land actually had tens of thousands of people living and multiplying here? And, this was the cave dwelling of True Person Qianhuan!

"Could an ancient immortal really live together with mortals?" Bai Shiqi found it hard to imagine. It felt just like having Miao Zhantian living next door—it was incredibly unreal.

"Making a mountain out of a molehill." Bai Ziqi was observing the distant Silver Pearl main island, with a sand table placed on the table in front of him.

Wherever the kites flew and whatever they saw, the sand table would automatically outline the terrain, and it was scaled down proportionally.

Even the buildings, rivers, and rocks on the island would appear on the sand table in sequence, vivid and lifelike.

If they flew a dozen more laps, they could construct a map of the entire Silver Pearl Island.

Silver Pearl Island was very mysterious; no outsider had ever done such surveying, and even the Miaozhantian Temple had failed to collect relatively complete data. And a detailed, meticulous, and reliable map was extremely important for Bai Ziqi's actions and command.

"Immortals, like heavenly gods, need to be worshipped. In ancient times, commoners lived on the ground, looking up at the immortals on the spirit mountains, and had to pay tribute and homage regularly, also known as 'Immortal Tax' or 'Immortal Tribute'." Bai Ziqi's words carried a faint irony. "An immortal sect from top to bottom easily had tens of thousands of people; the Great Return Sect that originally occupied Mangshan even had sixty thousand disciples. Apart from the immortals who practiced fasting, the food and expenses of the sect disciples all had to be borne by the commoners within the territory; on average, thirty commoners were needed to support one immortal sect disciple. Therefore, this kind of 'Immortal Tax' was very heavy. If the harvest was poor and the tribute was less, the immortals wouldn't care what difficulties you had; they would immediately bring down punishment, letting these ants know what is meant by the 'wrath of thunder'."

"Within the immortal sects, there were also immortal fields, medicine gardens, and pastures, requiring a large amount of labor and handymen, which also had to be drawn from the commoners. Look, how could the life of an immortal be without the dedication of mortals?" Bai Ziqi pointed to Silver Pearl Island. "Since it is the cave dwelling of True Person Qianhuan, it is not strange at all to continue this model."

In the ancient and medieval periods, immortals and immortal sects all lived like this.

He took a deep breath. "However, the spiritual energy here is not as expected."

It had only been a few dozen days since the great eruption of Emperor Flowing Pulp, and the spiritual energy in the outside world was very dense, so dense that ordinary creatures were not used to it at the beginning, and even felt a bit oxygen-drunk; by comparison, the spiritual energy in this storm center, the Silver Pearl Island sea area, was not as abundant as imagined.

You must know, the reason why the dwelling of an immortal is called a "Cave Heaven and Blessed Land" is that the concentration of spiritual energy there must be more than ten times, or dozens of times, that of the outside world; otherwise, the immortal here is not in seclusion, but sitting in a death row prison. ===== CHAPTER 1716 =====