Chapter 1705: Islands Following the Storm

After traveling for another four hours, and with the sun already setting obliquely, the storm had only grown slightly larger in everyone's view. If they had listened to the captain earlier, it would have taken ages to get close to it.

Even then, everyone was still continuously amazed. The captain had described it aptly: a storm… wall! This wasn't a tornado; it was a storm wall about to fill everyone's entire field of vision—tall, thick, and impenetrable! It was also accompanied by vast amounts of smoke, clouds, mist, and dust. Amidst the swirling winds, lightning flashed and thunder roared.

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

Bai Ziqi was unmoved. "Don't worry," he said, "if I say it's fine, it's fine." The Green Guards remained silent. If Commissioner Bai said it was fine, then it was fine; they had no need to doubt.

The closer the ship sailed, the more everyone realized the storm wall's boundless magnitude; its sides seemed to have no end. The large ship, carefully chosen by Bai Shiqi, was like a dozen sesame seeds next to a hundred-pound giant melon when compared to the sheer volume of this super storm. The power of heaven and earth was displayed to its fullest at this moment. Any words to describe it seemed pale in comparison.

Moreover, the storm was heading directly towards the large ship. Judging by its speed, it would collide head-on with Bai Ziqi's ship by tomorrow at the latest! Under such circumstances, he remained as calm as ever.

"Sail straight towards it," he said, "the timing is just right."

"Timing?" The captain was almost driven mad with fear. "What timing?" If he had known these people were all insane, he would never have taken their money!

That night, no one dared to sleep. The brilliant starry sky was gone, replaced by an oppressive expanse of black.

The next morning, the captain and his crew were all bruised and swollen, and their gazes darted away when looking at the White Guards. As both moved towards each other, the storm wall became incredibly magnificent in everyone's view. It was fortunate that all of Bai Ziqi's companions were strong-willed; any ordinary travelers would have long since been crying, making a fuss, or even threatening suicide.

By this time, the sea wind had become impossibly violent. Bai Ziqi ordered everyone to take out their lamp spirits and form a stabilizing array, which prevented the ship from sinking. The captain and the sailors had already been disciplined once, leaving them bruised and swollen, so they dared not cause any trouble now. They steered the ship obediently straight into the storm.

"If I haven't miscalculated..." Bai Ziqi muttered to himself. "No, I couldn't have miscalculated!"

Soon, the ship entered the storm's peripheral current circle. Even with the wind-calming array, it was tossed violently, and several times the sails nearly touched the sea surface. As the storm sucked water upwards, the sea currents would pull everything around them and transport it into mid-air. Once in the current, the ship was swept 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 view, and even seeing the water sucked skyward writhing like living dragons on the storm wall, the captain closed his eyes in despair, muttering, "It's over." The seawater was sucked up by the waterspout and turned into an icy mist, which then lashed his face fiercely, chilling him to the bone.

However, just as he hung his head, expecting death, the wind force seemed to lessen instantly. It no longer fiercely whipped his face as before, the water vapor hitting his face also lightened, and he heard cheers from others: "They're ascending! The water dragons are ascending!"

The captain opened his eyes and, to his surprise, saw the immense storm wall in front of him disintegrating. Iron-gray smoke and clouds ascended into the sky, as if being absorbed into the clouds by something. Only a few rising streams of water remained, like flying dragons ascending into the sky and disappearing into the clouds, never to be seen again.

In less than half an hour, the sea surface returned to calm. Only a light drizzle fell from the sky, and the captain subconsciously licked his lips; it was salty. This was the last of the seawater that had been sucked into the sky, now turning into rain and returning to the sea.

Then, fish of all kinds started splashing down from the sky like hail. The captain's crew initially cheered, feeling that they had narrowly escaped death, but then a twenty-foot long shark dropped from mid-air, directly knocking several of them unconscious, and thrashing about on the deck with its gaping, bloody maw. The sailors scrambled to get out of its way in fright. Just then, something emerged from the ship's cabin and, taking advantage of the giant shark's thrashing, instantly knocked it back into the sea. The sailors' view was blocked by the giant shark, so they didn't see what it was. They seemed to only glimpse a gray shadow before the giant shark was kicked into the water and the shadow disappeared.

"Wow! That shark must have weighed several tons, right?"

The ship continued to sway as Bai Ziqi ordered, "Continue forward."

In another quarter of an hour, the black clouds that had almost pressed down on the sea surface vanished into thin air. This was a living example of 'unforeseen circumstances.'

With the storm gone, before them were surprisingly over ten islands of various sizes, with layered peaks and lush green trees, looking no different from ordinary sea islands.

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

"The storm brought them," Bai Ziqi said, also gazing at the islands. "These are the legendary Silver Pearl Islands!"

The Silver Pearl Islands, hidden deep within the storm's center. He had timed his arrival perfectly; that magnificent storm wall was guaranteed to dissipate by early afternoon today! As long as they seized the right moment, the storm would not cause them serious harm.

The fleet continued forward, the distant Silver Pearl Islands growing larger in their view. But the wind on the sea surface suddenly shifted, blowing from the islands towards them. Dense mist, drifting from unknown origins, rolled and surged towards them!

The rings on the hands of Bai Ziqi, Bai Shiqi, and others suddenly emitted a red glow from their surfaces.

"The mist is poisonous, activate the barriers!"

The rings on their hands reacted to spiritual powers or poisonous substances. These were special magical artifacts prepared by Bai Ziqi. After all, their opponent was an Illusion Immortal, and who knew when they might fall victim?

In an instant, the mist enveloped them, but over ten large ships had already deployed their barriers. Pale green light shields kept the dense mist at bay. Ordinary sea mist was milky white, but this mist was white with a hint of pinkish-red, making its color strikingly beautiful. A mystic under Bai Ziqi said, "This is a miasma; it causes confusion."

The dense mist quickly became so thick they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces. Everyone saw only a vast expanse of white, unable to even see friendly ships a few dozen feet away. Without Bai Ziqi needing to give orders, everyone heightened their vigilance against surprise attacks.

From where would the first attack come?

However, there was no answer to this question, as the sea wind continued to blow fiercely and soon blew the dense mist away. The sea surface opened up again. Although there was still a slight haze in the air, visibility was at least clear, and everything seemed no different from before. That dense mist just now was probably a defensive spiritual power triggered by an external ship entering the storm circle.

With the sea calm, Bai Ziqi, on the contrary, ordered the fleet to stop advancing. Upon reaching the island, they would be in the territory of True Immortal Qianhuan. They needed to maintain at least a modicum of reverence for the power of this ancient True Immortal. He was more cautious than usual, even maintaining a sea distance of several miles. Then he dispatched three brown-backed hawks to fly towards the Silver Pearl Islands on the wind. They were to conduct a reconnaissance first. These three hawks shared their vision with their respective masters; whatever they saw, their masters could also see.

From a high-altitude vantage point, the islands looked like pearls on the sea, with picturesque and enchanting scenery. White birds circled in flocks and scattered in panic upon seeing the hawks. In the eastern part of the largest island, mountains soared into the clouds, enveloped in white mist. This was truly an immortal mountain on the sea. The island also had farmlands, buildings, dams, and various traces of human activity. When the hawks flew a little lower, they could see that human towns and villages were most numerous and densely populated on the main island, while the islands further away had fewer human traces. If it weren't for the Silver Pearl Islands being in the very center of the storm circle, one couldn't tell any difference between them and ordinary sea islands just from the hawks' view.

Bai Shiqi was somewhat surprised. "Judging by the density of dwellings," he remarked, "the Silver Pearl Islands must have at least tens of thousands of residents!" Such a storm-bound archipelago, inaccessible by land, could actually support tens of thousands of people living and multiplying here? Moreover, this was the True Immortal Qianhuan's cave dwelling! Would an ancient Grand Immortal live among mortals? Bai Shiqi found it hard to imagine; it felt as unreal as Myochan Heaven living next door to him.

"Making a fuss over nothing," Bai Ziqi murmured as he observed the distant main Silver Pearl Island. A sand table lay on the table in front of him. Wherever the hawks flew and whatever they saw, the terrain would automatically be outlined on the sand table, scaled down proportionally. Even the island's buildings, rivers, and rocks would appear in sequence on the sand table, remarkably lifelike. After a dozen or so more circuits, they could complete the map of the entire Silver Pearl Islands.

The Silver Pearl Islands were very mysterious. No outsider had ever performed such surveying, and not even the Myochan Heaven Temple had been able to collect relatively complete information. However, a detailed, meticulous, and reliable map was extremely important for Bai Ziqi's operations and command.

"Immortals, like celestial gods, need to be worshipped and offered tribute," Bai Ziqi said, with a faint hint of sarcasm. "In ancient times, commoners lived on the ground, looking up at the immortals on the spirit mountains, and regularly offered them tributes, also known as 'immortal taxes' or 'immortal tributes.' An immortal sect, from top to bottom, could easily number tens of thousands. The Grand Reversal Sect, which originally occupied Mount Xu, even had sixty thousand disciples. Aside from immortals who abstained from eating grain, the living expenses of the sect disciples had to be borne by the commoners in their territory. On average, thirty commoners were needed to support one sect disciple. Therefore, this 'immortal tax' was very heavy. If the harvest was poor or the tribute was lacking, the high immortals didn't care what difficulties you faced; they would immediately send down punishment, letting these 'ants' know what thunderous wrath felt like."

"Immortal sects also had immortal fields, medicinal gardens, and pastures, requiring a large amount of labor and miscellaneous workers," he continued. "These also had to be drawn from the commoners. You see, how could the lives of high immortals be without the devotion of mortals?" Bai Ziqi pointed towards the Silver Pearl Islands. "Since this is True Immortal Qianhuan's cave dwelling, it's not surprising for this model to continue."

During the ancient and medieval periods, immortals and immortal sects lived this way. He took a deep breath. "However," he remarked, "the spiritual energy here is not as abundant as expected."

Only a few dozen days had passed since the great eruption of Emperor's Dew. The spiritual energy outside was very dense, so much so that ordinary creatures initially found it difficult to adapt, even feeling a bit 'energy drunk.' In contrast, the spiritual energy in the center of this storm, in the sea area of the Silver Pearl Islands, was not as abundant as imagined. One must understand that the reason immortal dwellings are called 'grotto-heavens and blessed lands' is because the concentration of spiritual energy within them must be ten or even dozens of times greater than the outside. Otherwise, immortals here wouldn't be cultivating in seclusion, but effectively wasting away.