Chapter 456: Storm Turbulence, the Collision Between Islands

Ji Wen's disappearance quickly drew the attention of the Wind King Palace.

If he had simply died in battle, it certainly wouldn't have been this much trouble. But now, he had vanished without a trace.

That made the problem much bigger. At the very least, the Wind King Palace needed to find the person.

If he were dead, there certainly wouldn't be a body. They all decomposed into Wind Spirits, so where would a corpse come from?

However, the investigation yielded no results. Ji Wen, the Windwalker, seemed to have simply vanished into thin air, leaving no clues behind.

In the end, they could only let the matter drop and treat it as a minor issue.

The incident naturally died down afterward, and it was written off as him being swept away by the wind.

The Wind King Palace in Flying Fish Town had a considerable number of Windwalkers, so they naturally wouldn't make a huge fuss over just one of them.

After all, every Windwalker was very busy. Who had the spare time to deal with it?

Qi Suian wasn't surprised by this. The news had circulated around Flying Fish Town for nearly a week.

The buzz was highest on the first day, then it gradually faded. By now, it was basically forgotten.

Aside from Ji Wen's family and friends, everyone else had probably already put the matter behind them. After all, everyone had their own lives to live.

Qi Suian, on the other hand, was living quite comfortably. After finishing his research on Ji Wen, he started studying the Archer Wind Spirit that had been born from him.

The process went very smoothly. He quickly extracted the nascent spiritual communication talent from the Wind Spirit and fashioned it into a reader.

The object of this reader was, of course, the World Core.

In fact, Qi Suian could have also made it into something like an artificial talent. That way, he too could have acquired the Windwalker Extraordinary system.

However, Qi Suian didn't care about that at all. For him, there was no need to diversify his efforts.

The World Core should be the priority.

He could still distinguish between what was important and what wasn't.

With this reader, Qi Suian could better acquire the data on the rules within the World Core. This sent him sprinting down the path of learning, never looking back.

'But, the problem now is... the World Core is dead?' Qi Suian stared gravely at the World Core in his hand.

The reader's main function was to read, but its essence was still a tool made from the spiritual communication talent, so it retained the ability to communicate.

He had tried to communicate with the World Core, but the feedback he received was a dead silence.

It wasn't the kind of rejection you get from someone unwilling to talk, but the silence of a corpse—of death itself.

This inevitably made Qi Suian think of the Blood Race. The essence of the Blood Race was also corpses, just ones that could move because of dark power.

So, this World Core was likely in a similar situation.

As for why it had entered this deathly state, Qi Suian suspected it had something to do with the large, silver-white serpent on the apple tree that called itself Satan.

'This is good news, in a way. Being dead means it won't resist.' Qi Suian lowered his gaze. 'Although I don't know what consequences this will bring, at least I don't have to worry about any immediate backlash.'

'At my current level, I still can't handle the process of becoming a world through the World Core.'

'At the very least, my virus talent needs to reach SSS-class so I can construct a simple, natural biosphere.'

'Only with that as a foundation can I completely absorb the World Core as my own nourishment.'

Qi Suian didn't want to seize control of it; he wanted to use the World Core to evolve into a world himself.

Neither possession nor fusion was what Qi Suian wanted.

He had previously met the world will of the Ghost World, which was bound by many restrictions and even struggled to patch up its own flaws.

Of course, there might have been other reasons for that, but Qi Suian didn't want to fix problems later on. He had to build a solid foundation from the very beginning.

'Everything really is interconnected. A world contains all things.' Qi Suian had never thought he would get stuck on his virus-series talent.

'Fortunately, my progress isn't slow. The protagonist's halo has been a huge help.'

Qi Suian was certain that the protagonist's halo was definitely aiding his progress in advancing his virus talent.

Otherwise, given the sheer volume of data within the World Core, there was no way he could have made this much progress. The knowledge and rule-data he obtained should have been random.

But the protagonist's halo, through its luck boost, ensured that all the random knowledge Qi Suian acquired was systematic rather than a chaotic mess.

'I can shift my focus slightly. If all goes well, I should be able to complete the research for the SSS-class virus talent within ten days.' Qi Suian concluded after a moment of thought.

That was the longest time he estimated. The shortest could be as little as an hour, but that would require a major boost from his protagonist's halo.

After all, experimental research was heavily dependent on luck. Just having enough knowledge wasn't sufficient.

Knowledge could indeed be omnipotent, but only if you possessed the right knowledge. Qi Suian had some, just not enough.

So, he had to set it aside for now.

'Well, since it's come to this, I'll just keep reading the rules from the World Core.' Qi Suian decided to continue "recharging" himself.

There was nothing else to do anyway. The most important thing for him right now was to supplement his knowledge and improve himself.

'Why is Mi Yun here again? Has he brought me some good news?'

He had just taken out the reader and was about to start when he noticed Mi Yun heading toward his house.

Seeing this, Qi Suian had no choice but to put away the World Core and go back down to the first floor to wait.

Not two minutes later, Mi Yun's knock was accompanied by his voice.

"Mister, are you home?"

Qi Suian opened the door. "What news have you brought me this time?"

As he spoke, Qi Suian tossed another piece of exquisite candy to the boy.

"There's storm turbulence north of Flying Fish Town! The Windwalkers from the Wind King Palace say it's a precursor to connecting with another island."

"So they're telling everyone to be on guard, in case the other island tries something," Mi Yun told Qi Suian.

Qi Suian, meanwhile, activated a satellite to view the northernmost region of the island. The hurricane surrounding it was indeed showing signs of irregular chaos.

'AI, pull up the meteorological data,' Qi Suian instructed his AI directly.

Although he was always monitoring events in Flying Fish Town, he rarely paid them much mind, and the AI wouldn't notify him over such minor matters.

Storm turbulence wasn't a big deal; Qi Suian could quell it with his physical body alone.

He wouldn't even have to exert much effort.

As for the two islands connecting, that also had nothing to do with Qi Suian.

After the meteorological data was displayed, Qi Suian glanced at it. It was indeed nothing major, which was why the AI had canceled the notification about this change.

"Tell me more. I've never experienced this before," Qi Suian asked.

"I'm not too clear on it myself. The Windwalkers say that the island we live on is actually always drifting with the wind."

"But because the world is so big, collisions rarely happen."

"The last time two islands collided was over a hundred years ago. My parents hadn't even been born yet."

"The Windwalkers only found out a few details after checking the old records," Mi Yun replied to Qi Suian.

Qi Suian paid no mind to where Mi Yun had heard this. Instead, he was thinking that perhaps this opportunity would allow him to see some of the truth behind the Sky Islands.

Since arriving in the Sky Island World, he hadn't done any active exploration.

At most, he would occasionally check the number of survivors. Now, only about a million were left.

Clearly, the Sky Island World was not a safe place. Some kind of apocalypse was approaching.

As for what kind of apocalypse, Qi Suian wasn't very clear on that.

As long as he was powerful and didn't go actively digging for trouble, the Sky Island World was still extremely safe for Qi Suian.

But Qi Suian was also pondering something: could the sudden contact between two Sky Islands be due to his protagonist's halo?

The previous Hurricane Beast attack could be considered an accident, since the storms were seasonal.

But this was different. He had only been here a short while, and already Flying Fish Town was about to encounter another Sky Island. The last time that happened was over a hundred years ago.

"So what preparations should we make?" Qi Suian asked casually.

"The Windwalkers said it's best to hide in the basement and not come out."

"The storm turbulence from the two islands colliding might cause the hurricane to sweep into the island itself, which increases the chance of a Hurricane Beast wandering in by mistake."

"Also, we don't know what the other Sky Island is like. People who've been blown here by the wind have said that not all islands are as peaceful as Flying Fish Town."

"There are many islands with very bad reputations, full of all kinds of villains."

"So if the people on the other island have bad intentions, we'll need to resist," Mi Yun said, spilling out all the information he had gathered in one go.

Hearing this, Qi Suian looked Mi Yun up and down. "How did you find out so much today, kid?"

"Hehe, Er Niu from next door, he managed to communicate with the wind. He's a Windwalker-in-training now," Mi Yun didn't hide it.

As a Windwalker-in-training, he had access to more information, and Mi Yun used this channel to get the news early and trade it for candy from Qi Suian.

"Not bad. Here's another piece for you."

"If you have news like this next time, I'll definitely reward you," Qi Suian said, tossing him another one.

"Hehe, thanks, Mister." Mi Yun accepted them with a grin, then asked curiously, "Mister, why do you like hearing all these rumors so much?"

"Because it's interesting," Qi Suian replied perfunctorily. He couldn't just say he was casting a wide net.

"Okay, well, I'll head back now. I'll come again if I hear any more rumors." Mi Yun didn't mind Qi Suian's attitude and happily trotted back with his candy.

If he sold these two pieces of candy, he could definitely get three days' worth of rations.

'Storm turbulence, a Hurricane Beast invasion, and islands making contact.' Qi Suian thought it all sounded a bit familiar.

Thinking about it carefully, wasn't this a bit like two ships accidentally colliding?

Qi Suian had a strange sense of déjà vu.

If the hurricane was the sea and the islands were ships, it seemed to make perfect sense.

The storm turbulence was the waves created by the ships' passage, and the turbulence was caused by the waves from the two approaching ships colliding.

And the Hurricane Beast invasion was like seawater flooding the cabins after a collision, with sea creatures coming in along with it.

'You know, it really is quite similar.'