Chapter 236: Flying on the Volcano

The dark reefs were covered in moss, and the seawater was clear and transparent.

Ning Qing wore shorts and stepped barefoot into the seawater; her pair of feet were clean and fair, even more so when soaked in the water. In fact, her feet were born extremely beautiful, with a beauty that came from the bone structure, from the inside out. Her soles were delicate and her toe bones were slender; they would likely be very pleasing to medical students.

The basket in her hand was nearly full.

Ning Qing looked back; the designer Chen in the distance was still focused on planning the future of this island, so she lowered her head again and continued to walk forward slowly.

Let's find a little more.

About ten minutes passed.

Ning Qing walked back to the original spot, stepping on the sand. Following Chen Shu's instructions, she made the abalone spit out sand. On the way, she had also happened to pick up a large octopus, which she brought back as well; it could add one more dish to today's lunch.

Immediately, she found a clean reef, sat down cross-legged, faced the sea, closed her eyes, and continued to practice the Taixin Dao.

Now, she was a swimming fish.

……

Chen Shu had finished building two living quarters, one kitchen, two restrooms, and one washroom.

The living quarters were right next to each other, and neither had much space. Due to the convenience of Spells, Chen Shu had furnished each living quarter with an earthen bed and a table, without much effort. The living quarters had an entrance facing the sea and a window in the same direction; for the time being, he had not made doors or windows.

The kitchen was on the left, with a stove.

The restroom was on the right, a bit further away.

For the washroom, he had only dug a pit and built a frame for a shed for now. It was over a kilometer away from the nearest lake, and Chen Shu planned to see in the afternoon if he could get groundwater or dig a trench to lead water over from that lake; in any case, using Earth Movement spells, it was all very convenient.

The Travel Living Technique would directly dry out the soil, so it could be used as soon as it was built.

It was just that the conditions were still very rudimentary right now.

That was enough for this morning.

The rest would be prepared slowly.

This feeling of building a primitive house with one's own hands and preparing a place to shelter from the wind and rain on a deserted island was great.

It was a pity that as a Fifth-tier Practitioner, one was no longer afraid of any wild beasts, and the strange beasts that could rival practitioners were friendly to humans; there was no threat here, so one could not enjoy the satisfaction of a self-made safe shelter.

Chen Shu went to check on Secretary Ning's harvest.

The abalones Secretary Ning had picked were all very large, and there were a great many of them. That poor octopus was also very large; combined with the abalones, it was enough for at least two meals. Secretary Ning had also cooked rice on the side; a Spirit Power rice cooker sat on the sand nearby, emitting a thin wisp of white smoke.

Chen Shu rolled up his sleeves.

The abalones would be made fish-fragrant style.

The octopus would be stir-fried with pickled peppers.

The kitchen that had just been prepared was now being put to use.

It was just that the stove and washstand made of pure mud were easily dirtied when they touched water. Chen Shu mused that later, he would have to find stone slabs or suitable rocks and small pebbles to pave them.

The two dishes were soon finished.

Chen Shu walked out of the kitchen and looked up into the distance.

The sun was in the middle of the sky, and the distant sea was vast and calm, sparkling with light. Only a few seabirds were flying, and not a single ship could be seen. Qingqing had moved from the reef to under a coconut tree and was still sitting cross-legged, her thighs white and dazzling.

Chen Shu picked up a random stone and threw it toward the sea.

"Plop..."

A slight splash.

Just as he turned his head to call Qingqing to eat, he saw her open her eyes and turn to look at him, her eyes devoid of any emotion.

Ning Qing got up and walked over, saying to him, "You almost smashed me to death."

"... Next time I'll dig you a trench from the seaside to the kitchen. You can turn into a fish again, and after you transform, you can just swim over, saving me the trouble of catching you."

Ning Qing gave him a straight punch.

The two sat outside and began to eat.

It was still two dishes and two bowls of rice, along with two cups of juice made from compressed juice tablets. The two sat side by side at the long table, facing the sea. The sea breeze carried warmth, and except for the sun being a bit intense, everything was great.

"How is it?"

"The abalone is delicious."

"Try the octopus."

"I feel the meat quality isn't as good as that small octopus."

"Indeed..."

"But it's still tasty."

"At night, let's catch a fish to grill, and get some oysters to grill too. It's a pity there's no garlic, so we can only make it chopped-pepper style. The chopped peppers also have minced garlic and ginger, which should be able to remove the fishy smell." Chen Shu chatted with her in a low voice while eating, just like in the small courtyard in Yujing. "In the afternoon, I plan to go up the volcano to take a look, and by the way, find some other food on the way. Although seafood is delicious, just eating seafood won't do."

"Okay."

Chen Shu looked up at the volcano again.

The sky over the island was so quiet today, quiet to the point of being abnormal; clearly, he had seen flying strange beasts yesterday.

In the afternoon.

The two climbed rapidly up this volcano.

This volcano was large and tall. The lower half was covered by dense forest, while the upper half had only low-lying plants. The higher they went, the fewer and shorter the plants became. In addition, the most obvious sensation was the drop in temperature and the increasingly strong sea breeze.

For a Cultivator, without trees to block the way, the path became easier to walk the higher they went, with each step jumping over ten meters.

"Hoo..."

Chen Shu stood on the edge of the crater and looked inward.

The wind at the summit was so strong.

Before his eyes was a huge circular volcanic crater. Its shape was almost perfect, like a concave hemisphere, and its diameter must have exceeded one kilometer. But the crater had been completely blocked off; in the very center was a small lake, and the edges were gentle slopes, with many low-lying plants painting it a greenish color.

Chen Shu scanned the area with his gaze.

On the hillside diagonally opposite, he saw a huge nest, which should belong to some flying strange beast.

I don't know if it's the same one from yesterday.

But the nest is empty now.

I also don't know where it went.

Chen Shu turned his head to look at his surroundings.

Today the sky was clear for ten thousand miles, the visibility was excellent, and the eastern, western, and southern edges of Changdao were all in view; relying on a Cultivator's eyesight, even the northernmost tip of Changdao, furthest from the volcanic crater, could be faintly seen; the view was vast, and accompanied by the sea breeze, there was a sense of freedom and comfort.

The sea in the distance still had no visible boundary.

A large area to the southeast was shrouded in thick thunderclouds, gloomy and dark; there was likely a big storm brewing.

I hope it doesn't spread this way.

Chen Shu frowned.

He didn't see any traces of flying beasts at all.

He also didn't really find any other beasts.

Although a beast's strength is not judged by its size, beasts are generally quite large, so they are not easy to hide.

Chen Shu recalled the Sword Pig he saw this morning.

As a beast with a Beast Bloodline, Yiguo has recorded the changes in the Sword Pig over thousands of years—originally, the Sword Pig was not called a Sword Pig; in ancient times, what was on the Sword Pig's back were not bone swords but bone spurs, and it was over these thousands of years that they evolved into bone swords.

The Sword Pigs on this island are the same as those in Qingshan Ridge.

If this island were not connected to the outside world, it would confirm the biologists' hypothesis that "the evolutionary process of the Sword Pig is determined by the Beast Bloodline within its body."

Because beast evolution is very fast.

Chen Shu was more inclined toward the latter.

But the suspicious point is not here, but rather—

There are not many Sword Pigs on this island.

The Sword Pig has extremely tenacious vitality and a very broad diet; grass, meat, tree bark, tree trunks, bamboo, it can eat anything, and can even eat poisonous things. Furthermore, like a wild boar, it can reproduce, but unlike a wild boar, the Sword Pig rarely has natural predators; apart from humans and demons, only carnivorous beasts can hunt and kill Sword Pigs, as ordinary fierce beasts simply cannot beat a Sword Pig. Therefore, if they are placed in a suitable environment without natural predators, they will quickly become overpopulated, just like in Qingshan Ridge, until they eat all the food, at which point they will die off in a wave; afterwards, as long as they haven't gone extinct, once the ecology recovers, they will quickly become overpopulated again, repeating the cycle over and over.

Yet there are no signs of an ecological disaster on this island.

So there must be a creature here that limits them.

Then where did they go?

Chen Shu turned his head to look at Qingqing, then stepped forward, downward, and walked into the volcanic crater.

No abnormalities.

No abnormalities at all.

Even when he walked to the small lake at the very center, he didn't discover any abnormalities.

Chen Shu even went to visit the nest diagonally across; the nest was clean, with no feces, only a few tiny tufts of fur; if Chen Shu hadn't found a few quite fresh Sword Pig leg bones not far away, he would have even thought it was an empty nest.

This beast is quite clean.

Chen Shu left helplessly, planning to come again next time.

Going down the mountain is much faster than going up.

Chen Shu stood at the edge of the volcanic crater, holding Qingqing's hand, facing the breeze; both of them used the Spirit Repulsion Technique to cancel out gravity, then jumped down with all their might.

They floated up into the wind.

This feeling was not thrilling; on the contrary, it was unexpectedly quiet, like the feeling of flying in a dream, or like floating and gliding—relying on Spirit Power and the wind direction, occasionally adjusting their gliding direction, the two flew away from the volcano, flew over the dense forest below, and landed all the way on the beach.

"Fun."

Chen Shu couldn't help but say.

It's a pity that the Spirit Repulsion Technique has very high requirements for Spirit Power Quality; using the Spirit Repulsion Technique with a Fifth Stage Spirit Sea is too strenuous, forcing one to use a massive amount of Spirit Power to compensate for the lack of quality; plus, the Spirit Repulsion Technique, which purely borrows the Ling Chi Principle, is too primitive and the Spell structure is not excellent enough; combined, the consumption of Spirit Power is frighteningly large, and in just these few minutes, it consumed more than half of Chen Shu's Spirit Power.

As a Fifth Stage peak Cultivator, Qingqing also exhausted her Spirit Power reserves to the red line; fortunately, Chen Shu held her at the critical moment.

This highlights the importance of external objects.

To be more traditional, like Zhang Suannai, having a Divine Sword allows one to fly at the Fifth Stage. To be more modern, if one has a set of paragliding gear, flight wings, or other equipment, it is also very easy to help Fifth or Sixth Stage Cultivators achieve flight.

"..."

Qingqing pushed Chen Shu away indifferently and asked, "Do you have anything to do this afternoon?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Cultivate."

"Cultivate the Taixin Dao or the Spirit Sea?"

"Spirit Sea."

"No, you cultivate the Taixin Dao," Chen Shu said. "After we finish dinner, we will cultivate the Spirit Sea together."

"What about you?"

"I have plenty of things to be busy with," Chen Shu frowned. "I need to get some suitable stone slabs first to use as a stove and a vegetable washing station. Then I'll go over there to cut some bamboo and trees to make doors and windows, and find some banana trees and other suitable leaves to use for the roof, for waterproofing. I also need to build a pavilion here so we can eat in the pavilion at noon later; it can provide shade. By the way, I also have to get a stone table and stone stools; things made of mud are always lacking. Tomorrow, once my Spirit Power has fully recovered, I'll go draw water from the small lake and divide it into several portions, to be used for bathing, washing dishes, and so on."

As he spoke, he couldn't help but sigh:

"I am truly too busy."

"Do you want me to play with you?"

"That's not necessary, you just focus on your cultivation."

"Have fun."

Ning Qing gave an indifferent reply as usual, then ignored him, walked to a coconut tree on her own, sat cross-legged, and closed her eyes.

The world turned dark.

Yet in the darkness, there were countless lights.

All living things within a thousand meters around appeared at this moment, turning into little lights, dotting the night sky like stars; among them, the light closest to her was the most dazzling, like the sun.

Ning Qing's consciousness touched a small dot directly in front of her.

A small azure dragon huddled under a stone slab, silently watching the distance.

The seawater sloshed incessantly.

It had arrived here during last night's high tide; after the tide receded, the spot where it was located became a small puddle, far from the sea. It was somewhat afraid now, not knowing where to go, but what supported it in hiding here was, more than anything, the instinct to conceal itself under dangerous conditions.