The islands in the Carefree Cloud Sea came in two kinds: rooted and rootless. Luo Qian had once run the Torch Dragon Boat aground on a rootless little island. When he woke the next day, the Astral Winds had carried it hundreds of miles away. It took him an entire day with the Eight-Treasure Compass to get back on course. If he stopped on a rootless island during a storm, the storm might overturn it. Far from finding shelter, he would suffer an even greater loss.
So Luo Qian could not afford to be careless with the bun-shaped island before him. He watched it for a long while, first making sure it was not the back or skull of some giant sea monster, then confirming that it was not drifting. Only then did he lift the Torch Dragon Boat out of the water and run it aground on the island.
Luo Qian had judged correctly. Not long after he landed, a faint Red Tide swept across the sea from the southeast. The waters, once veiled in white mist, turned rouge-red in an instant, like the world seen through eyes clouded with blood. The island beneath his feet trembled. Tens of thousands of meters away, a white line of water raced toward him, waves galloping like horses and rising hundreds of meters high!
A towering wave struck the island head-on. With a crash, it submerged half of it. Seawater poured from top to bottom, front to back, drenching the entire island. A second wave followed hard on the first, then a third. After the three waves passed, all that remained above the sea was a rounded peak like a reef.
Luo Qian hid on the side of the island away from the waves, secretly thankful there had only been three. Any