Chapter 458: The So-called Wind King Is a Pillar of the World

Jia Feng returned to Red Bay Town, his face grim.

He was the mayor of Red Bay Town, the Grand Elder of its Wind King Palace, and the leader of the Red Bay Wind Thieves.

He ripped off his eyepatch, revealing a left eye made entirely of wind.

"Go slaughter that Eight-Clawed Beast! Fucking useless!" Jia Feng cursed.

The Wind Power he had awakened, called the Heart Wind Eye, allowed him to control a Hurricane Beast. As the ability grew, it wouldn't be limited to just Hurricane Beasts—he would even be able to twist the minds of men.

That was how he controlled all of Red Bay Town, from top to bottom. Ordinary people and Windwalkers alike were nothing more than his puppets.

With this as his foundation, he had set out on the path of the Wind Thieves.

A gradual, steady development was just too slow. Nothing was faster than plunder.

After venting his anger, he began to ponder how to conquer the opposing Flying Fish Town.

'My losses were too great, and I don't have enough men. If I can't replenish my forces with enough slaves from that island, the next raid will be even more difficult.'

Jia Feng was no rookie Windwalker on his first raid; he was a seasoned veteran.

But every raid came with risks. A clean success meant catching the enemy completely by surprise.

An enemy on guard meant a hard-fought battle. Victory was impossible without paying a steep price.

'I have to find a way. I need to…' As Jia Feng was pondering, a voice suddenly interjected.

"I can help with that," Qi Suian said, leaning in close to Jia Feng.

This gave Jia Feng a terrible fright. He retaliated instantly, the wind power in his left eye converging into a swirling vortex.

But in the next moment, Qi Suian shattered the vortex with his bare hand.

"Just give me your position as leader. Then you won't have to worry about any more trouble."

"Besides, look at those dark circles under your eyes. Haven't been sleeping well, have you? How about an eternal slumber to fix that—the kind you don't wake up from."

As he spoke, Qi Suian jabbed two fingers straight into Jia Feng's eyes.

His right eye became a bloody mess, while wind power erupted from his left.

Then, with a wrenching pull, Qi Suian ripped the left eye out.

Jia Feng's right eye was useless, but his left eye was the source of his power.

But since the Heart Wind Eye did not belong to Qi Suian, it began to backlash the moment it was torn out.

Only to be crushed tightly in Qi Suian's grip.

"Who the hell are you!?" Jia Feng screamed. He hadn't even seen his attacker, and he was already blind.

'With that kind of power, killing me would be easy.'

"Don't bother with pointless questions. I'm the one asking them now. I hope you'll answer truthfully after a bit of… interrogation," Qi Suian said, pulling out a set of torture implements.

Asking nicely was out of the question; he'd never talk. And even if he did, his answers would be full of lies.

That's why Qi Suian's policy was to torture first and ask questions later.

The intelligence he gathered that way was far more reliable.

"Wait! I'll talk! I'll talk!" Jia Feng panicked the moment he heard the word "interrogation."

'Torturing me before even asking a single question? This guy is more ruthless than I am, and I'm a Wind Thief!'

But Qi Suian completely ignored him, tying Jia Feng up and stringing him from the ceiling.

"AAAAHHH!!!"

Qi Suian began the torture, his skillful technique causing Jia Feng's screams of agony to grow louder and louder.

Ordinarily, the sound would have carried, and someone would have come to investigate long ago. But Qi Suian had a silencing module that muted the entire area.

So no matter how loudly Jia Feng screamed, no one would hear him.

"Are you going to talk? Still playing tough, I see," Qi Suian recited as if from a script, all while continuing the torture.

"Then ask me something! Just ask!" Jia Feng howled in frustration. 'You keep torturing me without asking a single question! What kind of interrogation is this?'

About an hour later, with Jia Feng tortured to within an inch of his life, Qi Suian finally stopped.

"You've got a weak constitution, you know that?" Qi Suian remarked with a sigh. "Now, tell me. How are you able to pinpoint the location of other islands?"

Jia Feng twitched a couple of times before managing to speak. "The… Wind King's… scale."

His speech was broken and halting; the torture had clearly left him barely able to speak.

Qi Suian was always precise in his work. He never damaged the brain, lungs, or vocal cords, lest his subject be unable to speak.

"Where is it? What is it?" Qi Suian pressed on. "And what is a Wind King?"

"My Second Elder has it. It is a blessing from the wind."

"The Wind King is… the Wind King. He is the source of all wind, the very support of the world."

Jia Feng said weakly. He was confused. 'With power like his, how could he not know these things?'

'The support of the world? Interesting.' Qi Suian continued his questioning as he took the Wind King's scale from Fei, who had carried it over in its mouth.

It looked like a giant fish scale and displayed the locations of the surrounding islands.

Like a living map.

And so, from Jia Feng the Wind Thief, Qi Suian learned more.

The Wind King in whose domain they resided was a colossal fish. Each island was one of Its bones.

The wind was the Wind King's flowing blood, and the Hurricane Beasts were Its flesh.

There wasn't just one Wind King in the entire world. Many existed, all differing in form, appearance, temperament, size, and shape.

But the one thing they all had in common was war.

When two Wind Kings met, it was a fight to the death.

The world was too small, so many Wind Kings were crammed together, locked in brutal combat.

This combat involved not only islands crashing into each other and Hurricane Beasts hunting their prey, but also battles between Wind Spirits.

As for humanity, it was just as Qi Suian had surmised: they were little more than factories for biological weapons.

From Jia Feng's account, Qi Suian gathered that their region was located inside this particular Wind King, primarily serving as an area for manufacturing Wind Spirits.

Therefore, they knew little about the outside world.

Jia Feng, however, came from the Wind King's periphery. He had seen and experienced more, so he knew more. He had even delved deep into the front lines of a Wind King battlefield and made it out alive.

Later, after obtaining the Wind King's scale, he chose to flee the war zone and retreat to the comparative safety of the internal regions to lay low.

And strengthen his own island through plunder.

"So you're saying a Windwalker can obtain ownership of an island, which allows them to avoid becoming a Wind Spirit after death and instead continue to exist as a free entity?" Qi Suian pressed.

"Yes. It's said the secret to gaining ownership of an island is hidden within the Wind King's scale," Jia Feng confessed.

Qi Suian remained silent. 'That's tantamount to carving off a piece of the Wind King for oneself.'

"Keep talking," Qi Suian said, stroking the so-called Wind King's scale as his mind raced.

'Could the Wind King's structure be of some use to me?'

'After all, it's a living being, and so am I.'

'It is one of the pillars supporting the world, and I want to make the World Core my own source of power.'

'In some respects, we have something in common.'

'Moreover, gaining ownership of an island would likely allow me to better construct my viral ecosystem and upgrade my virus talent to the SSS-rank.'

Jia Feng, for his part, held nothing back, telling Qi Suian everything he knew.

He spilled it all out in a single, desperate torrent.

Clearly, Qi Suian's torture had been highly effective, especially since Jia Feng was no tough guy.

"I… I've told you everything. Do you think… you could let me live?" Jia Feng asked tentatively.

Hearing this, Qi Suian broke into a smile. "Of course. All you have to do is survive a trip through my Melting Furnace."

With that, he grabbed Jia Feng and shoved him into the Melting Furnace.

'The Wind King of this region is a giant fish, and the place I arrived at is called Flying Fish Town.'

'Could this Sky Island be the Wind King's heart?'

'Even if it's not, it must be some kind of core. Otherwise, there's no reason I would have been dropped right here in Flying Fish Town.'

Qi Suian's eyes narrowed as he considered the possibilities.

It was all too coincidental. That, coupled with what felt like a 'protagonist's halo,' forced Qi Suian to consider the possibility.

'Jia Feng was able to control the Red Bay Town Island to a degree. He used the Wind King's scale, but ownership had clearly begun to shift.'

'But it was a passive transfer. Otherwise, even with the scale, he wouldn't have been able to make the Red Bay Town Island change direction and approach other islands.'

'And it would have been impossible for him to flee from the periphery to the interior.'

'So the little bastard held back. He's full of petty schemes,' Qi Suian thought with a cold sneer.

He then used the Wind King's scale to adjust the position of the Red Bay Town Island, moving it away from the Flying Fish Town Island.

He had no intention of abandoning the Flying Fish Town Island; after all, it still held secrets.

But now wasn't the time to explore them. Qi Suian needed to be fully prepared before he made his move.

He could use the Wind King's scale to remotely control the Red Bay Town Island, having it follow the Flying Fish Town Island from a safe distance.

Once he had completely squeezed every last drop of value from the Red Bay Town Island, he would return to the Flying Fish Town Island to continue his exploration.

This way, he wouldn't abandon this opportunity, and he'd also be steering clear of trouble.

Killing multiple birds with one stone, indeed.

'Jia Feng is dead. The people he controlled in Red Bay Town should be coming to their senses.'

'A troublesome bunch. I'll need to lock them all in the basement to prevent any accidents.'

These people were all his precious test subjects. Worried that some accident might befall them, Qi Suian very kindly decided to let them stay in a secure basement.

"Zhineng, Fei, I'm leaving this to you. Kill a group of them to make an example."

"Just so they don't get the idea that I'm a pushover," Qi Suian offered as a very "constructive" piece of advice.

He always believed in killing the chicken to scare the monkey. The number of people killed didn't matter; what mattered was killing until the rest were terrified.

This would certainly reduce his number of test subjects, but to Qi Suian, test subjects were plentiful. Especially now that he had the Wind King's scale, he could just go to other islands and capture more.

It would cost him time and effort at most, but for Qi Suian, those were his cheapest resources—after all, it was just his own labor.

Any other cost would be higher.

"Oh, and keep an eye out for anyone special. You don't have to kill them. Just capture them and bring them to me as the 'monkey'," Qi Suian added.