Devil Island, Lone Reef in the Ink Sea

Yun Jingheng held the tea cup and did not rush to drink it. He turned his fingers around the rim of the cup and his eyes fell on the wisp of heat floating on the surface of the cup.

Yun Ming didn't speak again, just picked up the tea cup again, took a sip slowly, and waited for him to digest it.

The yard was quiet for a while, except for the wind chimes on the porch that occasionally made a thin sound caused by the wind.

Yun Jingheng finished the tea, put the cup back on the table, raised his eyes to look at his father, and said with a calm tone of acceptance, "Devil Island Where exactly is this place? I found a few words in the college records, but they are not clear."

Yun Ming looked at his son.

He was only fourteen years old, and his figure had grown rapidly. When he sat opposite him, the lines of his shoulders had already revealed the outline of an adult.

But his eyes still retain the usual clarity and sharpness of young people, like a piece of jade that has just been opened and has not been truly polished.

"Devil Island is not on any chart."

Yun Ming put down the teacup and said in a calm voice, "It is an isolated island with Soul Power field chaos. The energy of heaven and earth on the island is five to seven times stronger than on the mainland, but it is extremely unstable."

"One day of practicing there is worth three days here, but the price is that every moment you spend there, your body and mind are under pressure that far exceeds normal limits."

"The words you heard, that less than half of the ten people came back, are not all nonsense."

Yun Ming's tone did not change when he said this, "However, most of those who did not come back were not dead, but suffered mental breakdown and were teleported away from the island."

"Devil Island has its own protection mechanism. When you can't bear it, you will be forcibly ejected, but the person who is ejected will be left with permanent damage."

"So the real bet is not life or death, but whether you can hold on or not."

Yun Jingheng didn't answer the call.

He lowered his head and looked at the bottom of the empty tea cup. The small dried tea stain glowed with a light brown luster in the sunlight.

After a few breaths, he nodded. "I understand."

Yun Ming looked at him for a long time, then took a palm-sized wooden box from the short table in the corridor and pushed it to the middle of the table.

"I'll give this to you when you leave."

Yun Jingheng reached out to take it and weighed it. It was not heavy and the contents inside shook a bit.

He raised his head to ask, but when he saw that his father had picked up the tea cup again and turned his head to look at the flower vines in the yard, he swallowed his words and put the wooden box down.

Three days passed faster than imagined.

Early on the morning of the third day, Yun Jingheng carried a small suitcase on his back and went out. Before leaving, Yun Ming forced him to put a Storage Soul Tool on his wrist.

He also pretended to be mysterious and said, "You will be grateful to me."

Yun Jingheng just rolled his eyes slightly.

There was a pair of new shoes on the stone steps at the entrance of the courtyard. He looked down and recognized that they were his mother's handiwork. There was a very thin layer of Silver Silk Soft Armor sewn on the inside of the shoes. They were not heavy, but the protective power should be good.

Without saying anything else, he bent down and put it on, stepped on it twice to find it fit, and walked towards the agreed place.

When he arrived, they all arrived.

Xie Xie was squatting on a stone pillar, eating steamed buns. When he saw him coming from a distance, he raised the steamed buns in his hand to say hello.

Tang Wulin is leaning on a boat peg to adjust the protective gear tied to his wrist.

Ye Xinglan stood at the very edge, his body as straight as a pine tree, with a long sword wrapped in a cloth pouch slanted behind his back.

Xu Xiaoyan huddled behind her and yawned. Yuanen Yehui squatted on the shore and probed the temperature of the water with his fingertips.

Gu Yue was a little far away from the crowd, standing motionless facing the sea, as if listening to some distant sound.

Yun Jingheng counted around and there were no shortage of people.

Xie Xie stuffed the last bite of steamed bun into his mouth, patted the crumbs, stood up and walked over. "Jing Heng, what did your dad say? Who is Devil Island?"

"I went back yesterday and called my dad to ask. He was silent for a long time after listening, and finally said, 'Come back early for New Year's Eve dinner.' Is this just perfunctory, or does he really think I won't come back?"

"Both." Yun Jingheng said.

Xie Xie choked.

A dark boat on the water approached silently.

The hull of the boat is not long, about six or seven meters. It has no sails or oars, and it seems to be pulled by some force to glide.

Standing on the bow of the boat was an old man wearing a gray robe. He was so thin that his cheekbones were high and his eyes were sunken in their sockets but unusually bright.

His eyes swept across the faces of the seven people one by one. Without asking any more questions, he just tilted his chin and said, "Get on the boat."

Seven people got on the boat.

Yun Jingheng noticed that the inside of the ship's side was covered with fine runes, and the peeling paint revealed dark red shading, like some kind of extremely ancient formation.

Just as he was about to take a closer look, the ship shook and the dock quickly retreated away.

The speed of the boat was much higher than expected.

The sea split into two snow-white waves on both sides of the ship, and the wind blew through my ears with a sharp whistle.

The old man in gray robe sat at the stern of the boat and didn't say a word from beginning to end. He only occasionally raised his eyes to look at the cloud patterns in the sky, and then slightly adjusted the direction of the boat's bow.

About two hours later, a dark shadow appeared on the sea.

It was a whole group of gray-black rocks, like the back of a giant beast sticking out of the sea.

There are no trees or grass on the island, only rugged rocks stacked on top of each other to form a spire.

The closer the boat gets, the turbid the water becomes, and the color changes from blue to gray-green to ink. Finally, the waves hitting the rocks have a faint purple shimmer, which is the natural phenomenon of Soul Power overflow.

There was no pier when the ship docked, only a natural stone step washed by the waves and made as smooth as a mirror.

The old man in gray robe stood up and finally said the second sentence, "Go up, someone is waiting for you."

Then he sailed away without looking back.

Black, everywhere you look is black, sea water, land, rocks, plants...

Tang Wulin His eyes were slightly narrowed, his spirit Divine Power was released, feeling the surrounding atmosphere.

He found that although everything here was black, it did not have an overly strong aura of dark elements. Everything was normal, not much different from a normal forest.

"Jing Heng, is this place really right? How do I feel..." Tang Wulin looked at Yun Jingheng who was looking around.

Yun Jingheng looked uncomfortable, "Something's not right. There is no heaven and earth energy here, and my Soul Power can no longer be used. What about you?"

Gu Yue frowned slightly, "Me too, here... I can't even feel the elements."

Tang Wulin frowned, purple light flashed in his eyes, Purple Demon Eye was released, and he searched the surroundings carefully, and then he quietly spread his Blue Silver Grass outward, feeling the breath of life on this island.

However, he did not feel any breath of life.

But there are obviously plants here.

"These don't seem to be living plants anymore, they seem... carbonized?" Yuanen Yehui observed a low bush at her feet.

Xu Xiaoyan asked, "Without the power of heaven and earth, in addition to affecting our Soul Power, will it also affect our vitality? Or, will it affect our Bloodline Power?"

Tang Wulin smiled bitterly and said, "Yes. Any living thing relies on the power of heaven and earth to survive. There is no doubt about this."

"Water and sunlight are Life Origin. The momentum they bring is a sublimation of life energy. Where there is no life energy, our own life breath will continue to be consumed."

"Nothing will happen in a short period of time, but as time goes by, we may turn into mummies here, or carbonize like those plants."

Xie Xie looked at Yun Jingheng silently. "So why does Teacher Cai want us to come here for training?"

Yun Jingheng rolled his eyes silently, "I don't know."