Chapter 284: Assigning Tasks

284. Chapter 284: Assigning Tasks

In the distance, aboard the Black Dragon Ship.

"Captain... our people have been completely wiped out," the bald man walked over to Black Dragon's side and said with a gloomy expression.

Black Dragon clenched his fists, turned to look at him, and his eyes revealed an expression of disbelief.

"How is this possible? Three Spirit Sea Stage Gu Cultivators whose cultivation realms had dropped should have been absolutely certain to succeed; what exactly happened?" Black Dragon asked with an ugly expression.

"The last message Scar transmitted was that that person offered a bounty of over a thousand Gathering Sea Pills on them, so they were besieged by everyone on the island."

"He only had time to say that one sentence; I estimate his chances of survival are now slim," the bald man sighed.

"Offering a bounty of over a thousand Gathering Sea Pills—did I hear that wrong? Who could produce so many Gathering Sea Pills? How did that crowd believe such an absurd lie?" Black Dragon frowned, speaking in disbelief.

"I don't know why the people on the island believed he could produce so many Gathering Sea Pills; Scar didn't have time to transmit much information."

"But there are no fools in this world; since everyone on the island believed it, he must definitely be able to produce that many Gathering Sea Pills, and somehow made everyone believe it without a doubt."

The bald man heaved a heavy sigh; after this battle, the Black Dragon Pirate Group was left with only one ship, completely ruined.

To recover their strength, they would have to start from zero; no one knew how long it would take for the Black Dragon Pirate Group to return to its former scale.

"Damn it! Ever since encountering that ship, everything has gone wrong for me."

Black Dragon cursed angrily, slapping his palm heavily against the railing; suddenly, his gaze condensed as if he had thought of something, and narrowing his eyes slightly, he said, "Are his Mirror Breaking Pills unimaginably numerous? I finally understand why so many Gu Kings suddenly appeared on Big Solitary Island."

"This youth harbors great secrets."

"Have that Diviner perform a divination at any cost; I want to know where that person will go next."

"This time, I will act personally! I refuse to believe he can escape my hands!"

Ten days passed in a flash; the Sky Island Ruins were about to emerge, and all the Gu Cultivators on the island excitedly ran back to their ships, vessel after vessel departing from the shore and setting sail into the distance.

The Candlelight Ship, Shocking Waves Ship, Red Demon Ship, Money Ship, and Gold Treasure Ship—these five shocking great ships also departed from the shore one after another, leading the fleet.

Long Xuan's Divine Dragon Ship trailed far behind the Gold Treasure Ship; wherever that ship went, he followed.

Prior to this, all the Gu Cultivators on the island had held a large meeting, which ultimately decided that the Gold Treasure Ship and the Money Ship would enter the island from the east side.

The Candlelight Ship would enter from the north side, and the Shocking Waves Ship from the west side.

Finally, the Red Demon Ship would enter from the south side.

The remaining ships evenly chose a direction to enter the island, thereby minimizing conflicts over treasures as much as possible.

After everyone had scavenged the resources on the island, they would gather at the Divine Mechanism City in the center of the island.

The most valuable treasures of Sky Island were all concentrated in Divine Mechanism City; every building within Divine Mechanism City hid various treasures, even including items like Face-Keeping Fruits and Longevity Fruits, with countless maddening treasures beyond number.

Outside Divine Mechanism City, the treasures available were basically only Spirit Medicine, and while Spirit Medicine was everywhere, their value was far inferior to the treasures inside the city.

There was basically no danger outside Divine Mechanism City; all danger came from within the city.

The walls of Divine Mechanism City were equipped with many Divine Mechanism Cannons of astonishing power, and the variety of city-defense mechanisms was countless.

Furthermore, the city was guarded by a vast number of Puppets; each time the Sky Island Ruins opened, the number of Puppets increased.

As the number of Puppets inside Divine Mechanism City grew, the Gu Cultivators landing on the island had to suffer greater casualties each time to capture Divine Mechanism City.

Therefore, before breaking into Divine Mechanism City, the Gu Cultivators from all factions had to unite and attack the city together; only by working heart and soul could they capture this city, and if everyone harbored ulterior motives and preserved their own strength, no one would ever enter Divine Mechanism City.

Under these circumstances, selecting an Alliance Leader was an inevitable outcome; without an Alliance Leader, no matter how many Gu Cultivators were here, they would be nothing but loose sand, with no hope of breaking into Divine Mechanism City.

The final meeting selected five Alliance Leaders, under whose leadership all four city walls would be attacked.

Zhu Yue, Captain of the Candlelight Ship, led one-quarter of the personnel to attack the north gate of Divine Mechanism City.

Shui Juanyun, Captain of the Shocking Waves Ship, led one-quarter of the personnel to attack the west gate of Divine Mechanism City.

Qin Kai, Captain of the Red Demon Ship, led one-quarter of the personnel to attack the south gate of Divine Mechanism City.

Meanwhile, Cai Shao, Captain of the Gold Treasure Ship, and Young Master Nine, Captain of the Money Ship, jointly led one-quarter of the personnel to attack the east gate of Divine Mechanism City.

These two families bore a deep grudge; under no circumstances would either submit to the other, which was why two Alliance Leaders were chosen for the task of attacking the east gate.

During the assault on Divine Mechanism City, everyone had to obey the commands of these five Alliance Leaders, and no one was permitted to disobey.

Once Divine Mechanism City was captured, everyone would be free to act as they pleased, and the authority of these five Alliance Leaders would automatically be revoked.

This was the arrangement made at that large meeting, and Long Xuan and the hundred-plus others were assigned under Cai Shao and Young Master Nine, needing to enter the island from the east side and responsible for attacking the east gate of Divine Mechanism City.

After the massive fleet sailed for approximately one day, it finally stopped above a certain bottomless Sea Trench.

No one knew how deep this Sea Trench truly was, nor how many unknown mysteries lay beneath; they only knew this was the deepest place in the Endless Sea Region, deep as an abyss.

Furthermore, this was the place with the strongest gravity in the Endless Sea Region; no one could fly here, and any ship arriving here would instantly sink.

All ships could only stop at the edge of the Sea Trench and absolutely could not travel directly above it.

The shape of Sky Island matched the shape of the Sea Trench; in other words, Sky Island's form fit the Sea Trench perfectly, able to fill this space completely.

In a few days, this Sky Island would rise from the depths of the Sea Trench, ascending until it reached the height of the clouds in the sky.

The reason Sky Island was called Sky Island was that, for unknown reasons, this island would float in the air, only falling back into the deep ocean abyss after one month.

No one knew why this island could float in the air; this remained an unsolved mystery of the world.

As for how to reach Sky Island in this no-flight zone, there was only one method: climbing up via the waterfalls cascading down from Sky Island.

Sky Island would cascade four massive waterfalls in the east, south, west, and north directions; the waterfalls were turbulent, and only ships with very high performance could climb up along them.

Moreover, this process was extremely perilous; Sky Island was truly too high, piercing straight into the clouds, and if a ship's hull lost contact with the waterfall's surface midway and fell from the sky, the consequences were imaginable.

In this region of immense gravity, the falling speed would be faster, and the impact force greater.

Once a giant ship fell from the sky, it would inevitably shatter into pieces; destruction of the ship and death of the crew were certain outcomes.

If one landed outside the Sea Trench, survival was still possible, but if unlucky enough to fall onto the Sea Trench itself, the mortality rate would be one hundred percent; no one could survive under such circumstances, no matter how much of a Heavenly Pride they were.

Therefore, piloting a ship on the waterfall tested one's sailing skills to the extreme and also tested the ship's performance; if the power was insufficient, there was no hope of driving the ship vertically up into the sky.

It was no exaggeration to say that these four waterfalls might filter out half of the Gu Cultivators.

Countless Gu Cultivators would die on these four waterfalls before even managing to set foot on Sky Island.

This Sea Trench was vast, and the Sky Island that fit it perfectly was equally huge; for a Gu Cultivator landing from the edge, it basically took three days to walk to the Divine Mechanism City at the center.

After the fleet arrived here, it split into four, each heading to a different location.

As Long Xuan's Divine Dragon Ship planned to enter the Sky Island from its eastern side, it followed the fleet to a position slightly east of the Sea Trench, waiting patiently there alongside numerous other vessels.

A few days later, movement finally stirred from the depths of the Sea Trench.

The sea surface first began to bubble as if boiling, then the waves started growing larger, massive swells pushing against the various ships and rocking them unsteadily.

Before long, a huge island emerged from the water, seawater on the island cascading wildly downward, the falling water crashing onto the surface with deafening roars.

The sudden emergence of the Sky Island from the water made the waves even greater; countless tens of zhang-high swells rose across the entire sea, the surface heaving up and down.

Long Xuan stared in shock at this scene; although the Sky Island rose with incredible speed, ascending into the sky in the blink of an eye and now climbing upward at an astonishing pace, nearly touching the clouds.

Yet with just a hurried glance, he had already seen much of what lay upon the island.

The island was enormous, its ends beyond sight, yet the seawater had not submerged this massive landmass; the soil upon it was clearly dry, and it teemed with abundant Spirit Medicine.

There must be some mysterious power on the island capable of repelling seawater, a power that also filtered out those of higher Cultivation Realms, allowing only Gu Cultivators at the Cultivation Stage: Essence Refining to enter.

Just as he stood stunned, this colossal island had already plunged into the cloud layer.

After bursting into the clouds, the Sky Island finally came to a halt; surrounded by clouds, it resembled a celestial palace in a fairyland.

From the moment the Sky Island emerged from the sea, water had been flowing downward incessantly, and even now it had not yet ceased.

At this moment, only four streams of water continued to cascade down, each immensely wide and extremely turbulent, crashing onto the sea surface and raising vast patches of white foam, the waves churning violently.

These must be the four great waterfalls left behind by the Sky Island; those wishing to reach it could only sail up through these four waterfalls, a method exceedingly perilous, where a single misstep would mean falling from the falls, the ship destroyed and all aboard perishing.

"Nie Qingcheng, my Divine Dragon Ship certainly has enough power; it all depends on whether your ship-handling skills are up to the task. Do you have a hundred percent confidence in sailing up this turbulent waterfall?"

After gazing at that wide waterfall, Long Xuan turned to look at Nie Qingcheng beside him, his expression grave.

At the same time, he secretly opened a small slit in his Insect Breeding Bag, letting the Honesty Gu inside catch some air.

But how could Nie Qingcheng fail to notice his little trick; instantly, black lines filled her forehead.

She could not help but sigh that serving under a Captain who possessed an Honesty Gu was truly too difficult.

"Just put your mind at ease; my ship-handling skills are absolutely first-rate in this age. Is sailing up a waterfall really so hard? For me, it's simplicity itself. Today, I'll show you!"

Nie Qingcheng rolled up her sleeves, her eyes shining with determination, brimming with energy.

Sailing up a waterfall was indeed a novel experience; her interest was fully aroused, and she could hardly wait. (End of chapter)