The Demon Island Can't Be Escaped

"What? You want to build a raft and leave this place?" Joanna frowned, eyeing Du Wei suspiciously. "This is your brilliant idea? You plan to sail across the ocean on a little raft and take us back to the mainland? You must be insane!"

Du Wei smiled and slowly explained his guess.

"I think it has a good chance of working. You and Vivian are both powerful mages. With any tool or mount, you can fly very far! Am I wrong? If your magic were still intact, you'd have used a wind-element flying spell to leave this damned island long ago, wouldn't you?"

"Of course," Joanna said coldly. "If I could still fly, I would have left long ago."

"That's exactly the point." Du Wei smiled. "You've lost your magic. But according to my guess, the cause isn't you—it's this island! I suspect there's something here that suppresses magic, something like a barrier or an anti-magic field... It's probably connected to that terrifying giant monster you saw. So... how large can the range of this magic-suppressing barrier be? Does it only cover this island, or perhaps a small stretch of sea around it as well? But I think one thing is certain: its range can't be too large."

Joanna finally understood. Without waiting for Du Wei to continue, she picked up the thread herself. "So you're not planning to use a little raft to sail us across the ocean back to the mainland. You only need to row this raft out of the anti-magic barrier. Once Vivian and I recover our magic, we can fly back to the mainland without the raft. Right?"

"Exactly." Du Wei nodded.

"But what if it doesn't work?" Joanna frowned. "What if your guess is wrong? I mean, perhaps Vivian and I have been affected by some kind of magic, and our power won't recover even after we leave this island? Or perhaps it will take days, even months, to return? Then what? Even if we row out of here, we still won't be able to fly. With nothing but this little raft, we'll definitely die in the boundless sea."

"Then it's only a different way of dying." Du Wei raised an eyebrow. "I can tell you very clearly... if we don't leave this place, we'll starve to death in two or three days at most. There are plenty of trees on this island, but very few plants with edible roots and stems. I noticed that while looking for food. I can't guarantee that I'll find anything to eat tomorrow."

"We can fish!"

"Haha!" Du Wei laughed. "Fish? Go ahead and try! Heavens... the huge waves caused by that monster's water magic yesterday, along with that earthquake-like upheaval... with such a tremendous disturbance, any schools of fish around this island would have been scared away long ago!"

Although the idea sounded rather risky, Joanna thought it over carefully and felt that Du Wei had a point.

Staying meant starving to death. Better to go out and make a desperate gamble.

The next question was how to build the raft.

What troubled them was... they had no tools!

Even if they wanted to chop down trees for a raft... they needed an axe, didn't they?

Even without an axe, a knife would barely do!

But Du Wei's group didn't just lack knives—they did not even have a dagger!

Although Joanna was also a warrior, unfortunately, the weapon she used was a flute!

Without tools, chop down trees bare-handed? Du Wei and the others were hardly capable of that.

Even Joanna, a swordswoman, did not possess the divine skill to snap a large tree with one palm strike.

At first, Du Wei set his sights on Joanna's armor. Armor was metal, after all. If they could get a piece of iron and grind an edge onto it, it could barely serve as a knife.

Unfortunately, Du Wei was quickly disappointed.

Joanna was not stingy with her magically enchanted armor, but it was covered in openwork patterns. There was not even a single intact piece of iron as large as a palm!

But after considering it again and again, Du Wei still found a solution!

Dragon scales!

No matter how much it pained her to hurt her pet, Vivian obediently agreed to let Du Wei peel off several dragon scales.

Dragon scales were extremely tough and hard. In ancient times, some legendary heroes had even used dragon scales to make sturdy shields.

Vivian used the tiny bit of magic she had left to soothe her flame dragon, while Du Wei boldly pried off two dragon scales.

After spending another day by the shore searching for a large rock, they ground the two palm-sized dragon scales into makeshift blades that were at least somewhat sharp.

The two women and one man then spent another two days working.

Du Wei and Joanna chopped down several large trees, while Vivian was responsible for binding the logs together with vines.

Du Wei even made several paddles from branches. Then he went out and brought back some large things that looked like gourds. Not only could they carry fresh water, they could also be tied to the raft to increase its buoyancy.

Finally, Joanna donated her white cloak to make a sail.

When all the work was nearly finished, Vivian suddenly remembered a very important problem!

"W-w-what about my dragon?" Poor little Vivian suddenly remembered this absolutely crucial matter!

The raft could not possibly hold a dragon!

In truth, Du Wei and Joanna had thought of this problem long ago. They had simply found it difficult to bring it up to Vivian.

When Vivian's magic was functioning normally, she could use a sealing spell to seal up her pet dragon and carry it around with her, then summon it whenever she needed it.

Unfortunately, she no longer had any magic. She could not seal the dragon and take it with them.

Du Wei and Joanna exchanged a glance. Faced with Vivian's pitiful question, neither of them knew how to answer.

Vivian understood at once. The silly little girl began to cry. "No! No! I-I-I won't l-l-leave my Blazing Sun behind!! My Blazing Sun!!"

Crying, she ran over and threw herself onto the sleeping dragon, clutching it tightly and refusing to let go.

Du Wei sighed. Looking at this innocent little girl, he felt a little guilty as well.

But what else could they do?

They had no way to take such a huge dragon with them!

Besides, deep in Du Wei's heart... he was not like the people of this world, who regarded a dragon as some powerful, great, superior creature.

In Du Wei's habitual way of thinking, people were the most important. Dragons, snakes... they all belonged to the category of "animals."

Human lives were what mattered most. To sacrifice human lives for an "animal" was, in Du Wei's eyes, an utterly incomprehensible kind of stupidity.

And on a deeper level... Hmph. If it hadn't been for Vivian's sake, he might even have butchered that big "animal" and turned its meat into rations.

But if he did that, Vivian would probably cry herself to death on the spot.

Though Vivian stubbornly refused to leave her precious dragon no matter what, Du Wei and Joanna still forcibly brought her along.

What slightly surprised Du Wei was that this vicious woman showed an unusual tenderness toward her younger sister this time.

"Don't be surprised." Joanna had already grown somewhat familiar with Du Wei. One look at his expression told her what was on his mind. "I just lost my dragon too. I understand how heartbroken this little one is."

Du Wei could see a trace of deep sorrow in Joanna's eyes as well.

The two girls sat on the raft while Du Wei pushed it forcefully out into the sea from behind. Then he flipped himself aboard. Joanna took control of the sail, while Du Wei picked up a wooden oar and began rowing with all his strength.

Only poor little Vivian had been forcibly brought onto the raft, sitting there silently shedding tears as she looked back at the island behind them... Her pet dragon was still there.

The waves were small, which was fortunate.

Yet Du Wei and Joanna both looked extremely tense.

Because they were both praying...

They only hoped that they would not run into that monster as they traveled onward! That monster could lurk beneath the sea and attack a dragon... If it set its sights on them, overturning this little raft would be as easy as turning a hand.

Du Wei only hoped that they could quietly put some distance between themselves and the island, then rely on the two mages to take flight.

"Almighty God, bless us..." Joanna murmured.

Rowing with all his strength was truly too exhausting for a frail youth like Du Wei. But driven by the desire to escape and survive, he persevered desperately. Though his arms had begun to ache and weaken, Du Wei still clenched his teeth and kept going.

By visual estimate, they were already at least two hundred meters from the shore.

"How do you feel?" Du Wei shouted to Joanna.

"No, still no." Joanna tried to summon wind magic to strengthen the sail, but it still did not work.

"Keep trying," Du Wei said through gritted teeth.

But it seemed the gods of this world were fated not to bless a heretic like Du Wei.

Just as the little raft had moved forward another hundred meters or so...

Suddenly, enormous waves surged up from the sea! In an instant, that terrifying roar that had once made their hearts pound in dread rang out again!

Then, before the horrified eyes of the three, a towering wave four or five meters high abruptly rose from the tranquil sea, howling as it swept toward the little raft!

With a boom, the vines binding the raft snapped under the crashing wave. The raft broke apart into pieces, and all three fell into the water almost at the same time...

The instant Du Wei plunged into the seawater, he felt as though some force within the sea had bound him!

His entire body was unable to move. The moment he opened his mouth, huge mouthfuls of seawater rushed in. Du Wei thought he was about to die. Darkness clouded his vision, while beneath the water, a whirlpool seized him and dragged him rapidly downward...

Du Wei felt as though he had been sinking... sinking without end...