bookbashuk Chapter 25 Wind Transformation Technique
Chapter 25 Wind Transformation Technique
Upon entering the core area of the Tianfeng Sea, Wang Tianlong and Qingmu Shangren immediately slowed down.
The storm here is beyond description with the word "violent." The gale-force winds are like tangible swords, frantically cutting everything in their path, distorting and groaning the space beneath their weight. Most terrifying of all are the celestial gales, which no longer appear sporadically, but erupt in large swathes and regions. Wherever the silvery-white wind blades pass, even light is swallowed up, leaving behind spatial rifts that can never be healed.
Following the route recorded by Master Aoki, the two struggled through the devastating gaps in the wind belt, as if walking on thin ice.
However, this route was not entirely safe. In just over ten days, they encountered several dangerous situations:
On one occasion, a large area ahead was completely blocked by dense Nine Heavens Gale Winds, leaving no way out. Wang Tianlong had no choice but to fully activate his Sky-Stepping Boots and use "Heavenly Gap Flowing Light" to forcibly tear a brief gap in the wind wall, allowing him and Qingmu Shangren to barely make it through. Qingmu Shangren exhausted three of his treasured high-level defensive talismans in the process.
On another occasion, they stumbled into an extremely unstable spatial region, where spatial rifts appeared and disappeared intermittently, making them impossible to defend against. The Xuan Turtle Shield and Heart-Protecting Mirror that Master Qingmu had summoned were swallowed and shattered one after another by the silently appearing spatial rifts, causing him great distress. Wang Tianlong, relying on the extreme speed and keen senses of his Sky-Stepping Boots, also managed to avoid deadly dangers several times at the last minute.
After many twists and turns and more than ten days of effort, the two finally arrived at their destination safely.
Ahead lay a suffocating sight: countless thick, dragon-like gales, radiating an aura of destruction, formed a gigantic cage, enveloping the central area layer by layer and swirling wildly, creating a deathly wind belt approximately a thousand miles in diameter. Within this wind belt, violent energy tore everything apart, impenetrable even by sight and divine sense.
At the very center of that wind belt, through the occasional gaps in the wind walls, one could vaguely see a relatively calm void, and the indistinct outline of a solitary island, only a few miles in circumference, suspended in the void.
"That's it!" Master Aoki pointed to the small island isolated by the fierce winds, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.
Wang Tianlong stood outside the raging gale, his gaze like lightning, piercing through the terrifying barrier of the Nine Heavens Gale. The gale spun and tore wildly, distorting and devouring light and divine sense, but miraculously, a relatively stable core area remained intact within that destructive torrent.
He focused intently, and with his divine sense far surpassing that of his peers and his keen perception of wind elemental fluctuations, he vaguely caught a glimpse of the scene inside the eye of the storm. He saw a solitary, greyish-black island suspended in the calm void surrounded by raging energy. The island's terrain was rugged, and atop its steepest, almost vertical cliff, a patch of exceptionally lush, vibrant green stubbornly clung to life.
It was a strange tree, not very tall, but with an ancient and unusual shape, as if it were rooted in the void itself. Its trunk was like green jade, and a faint spiritual light flowed among its branches and leaves. Its shape was exactly the same as the description of the Azure Mist Fruit Tree in ancient books! Although he could not see whether it had already borne fruit, he could still clearly sense its unique wind spirit charm even through such a terrifying gale barrier.
"Fellow Daoist Qingmu," Wang Tianlong withdrew his gaze, turned to Qingmu Shangren beside him whose expression was equally solemn, and asked in a deep voice to confirm, "Is that the Qinglan Fruit Tree you mentioned on that cliff? We... haven't come to the wrong place?"
Master Qingmu took a deep breath, suppressing the lingering fear from traversing the perilous place and the excitement he felt at that moment. He nodded vigorously, his gaze fixed on the verdant spot in the eye of the storm: "That's right! Fellow Daoist Wang, this is the place! At the top of that cliff is the location of that ten-thousand-year-old Azure Mist Fruit Tree! This is exactly the scene I saw from afar back then!"
Master Qingmu's finger trembled slightly as he pointed to the destructive gale-force winds encircling the island. His voice carried a hint of lingering fear and solemnity: "Fellow Daoist Wang, look! Those gales aren't just pure storms... there are also many spatial rifts hidden within them! They appear and disappear with the flow of the winds, making them extremely difficult to detect. I suffered from this back then; a protective magic treasure was silently swallowed up by a suddenly appearing rift!"
Reminded by him, Wang Tianlong immediately focused his attention and observed carefully. Sure enough! In that raging torrent of celestial gales that could almost tear everything apart, besides the visible silver-white wind blades, there were also countless hair-thin, pitch-black cracks with dangerous spatial fluctuations at their edges! These cracks resonated with the gales, opening and closing with the surge of the wind, their positions constantly changing, like venomous snakes lurking in the torrent, even more deadly than the gales themselves! If one did not observe carefully, they would easily miss them even when scanned with divine sense.
He then turned his gaze to other directions of the island and found that the entire island was completely enveloped by the Nine Heavens Gale Belt, which was mixed with countless spatial cracks, leaving no safe "entrance" or weak point.
"I see..." Wang Tianlong's expression became even more solemn. "The gale itself is already extremely difficult to deal with, and with these spatial rifts that could appear at any time... no wonder Fellow Daoist Qingmu couldn't get close back then."
Master Qingmu nodded with a wry smile, his eyes filled with hope as he looked at Wang Tianlong: "Yes, last time I couldn't even penetrate a hundred feet before retreating in a sorry state. Whether I can take this final step and reach that island to obtain the Azure Mist Fruit depends entirely on your supernatural abilities, Fellow Daoist Wang!"
He placed all his hopes on Wang Tianlong's unparalleled mastery of wind magic and his Sky-Treading Boots. If even the "Divine Wind Master" couldn't break through this barrier, then probably very few people in the human world could.
Wang Tianlong did not answer immediately. He closed his eyes slightly, pushing his divine sense and wind perception to the limit, carefully sensing the energy flow, the trajectory of the gale, and the patterns of the appearance and disappearance of spatial rifts in the death zone ahead.
A moment later, he opened his eyes again, a look of determination and caution flashing in them.
Wang Tianlong instructed Master Qingmu to stay put and keep watch, while he himself would try to break through this final barrier of death on his own.
He took a deep breath, and the "Wind-Riding Technique" rapidly circulated within his body: "Wind Control Chapter - Body Transforms into the Wind!"
In an instant, Wang Tianlong's figure became blurry and transparent, as if he had transformed from a physical entity into an intangible wind spirit! His aura instantly merged with the surrounding raging Nine Heavens Gale, no longer an abrupt outsider, but becoming part of this destructive storm.
With a thought, the pale blue wind spirit he transformed into glided gently and swiftly into that terrifying zone filled with gales and spatial rifts, like a swimming fish.
Upon entering, Wang Tianlong felt unprecedented pressure. Although he had transformed into a wind spirit, sharing the same origin as the gale, the violent energy turbulence continued to assault his core consciousness. Even more terrifying were the intermittent spatial rifts! They were like invisible blades hidden in a torrent, completely unpredictable.
In his Wind Spirit form, Wang Tianlong's perception and reflexes reached their peak. He danced on the edge of a knife, deftly avoiding the deadly rifts that tore through space. However, there were simply too many spatial rifts, too densely packed, and they appeared and disappeared without warning. Even with his Nascent Soul cultivation and the profound mysteries of his Wind Spirit body, he still couldn't completely avoid them.
"laugh--!"
A tiny spatial rift appeared silently in the path of his Wind Spirit Body. Although he tried his best to deflect it, the edge was still grazed. Instantly, a sharp pain from the depths of his soul surged through him. He felt as if a small part of his Wind Spirit Body had been forcibly "cut off," along with the divine consciousness and magical power it carried.
Then came the second, the third… Even though Wang Tianlong pushed his speed and spiritual senses to the limit, in this chaotic area, his wind spirit bodies were still constantly being scratched and cut by the spatial rifts. Each cut felt like a part of his body was being peeled away, resulting in excruciating pain and a rapid depletion of his magical power.
Finally, when most of the wind spirits passed through the last raging gale wall and successfully reached the sky above the calm island surrounded by the storm, Wang Tianlong immediately deactivated his "body transformed into wind" state and reformed into human form.
"puff!"
As soon as he landed, Wang Tianlong couldn't help but spit out a small mouthful of blood. His face was as pale as paper, and his aura had weakened considerably. Although his green robe was intact, his spirit and energy were as if he had just survived a fierce battle, suffering immense depletion. Forcibly transforming into "wind" to traverse that desolate land, especially with his wind spirit body being repeatedly severed by spatial rifts, had caused considerable damage and backlash to his consciousness and physical body.
He quickly took out two pills to restore his mana and heal his soul, barely suppressing his injuries. Only then did he raise his eyes to look at the cliff peak not far away—the Azure Mist Fruit Tree, exuding an alluring fragrance, stood quietly amidst the swirling gales.