The branch that they had arrived at was near a place called the Sky Islands, which was where Lin Fan had to go next.
This was where Qing Ao's other ally lived.
As for why they were called the Sky Islands, it was because they were literal islands in the sky.
But they weren't islands in the traditional sense, but rather they were islands that were formed of clouds that people could walk on.
These cloud islands weren't made up of normal clouds, but rather a very dense cloud called the Gigacumulonimbus. This was a special cloud that was countless times denser than normal cumulonimbus clouds, making it more like a block of ice than a cloud.
There were beasts that settled and plant seeds that adapted, creating a proper environment on these Gigacumulonimbus clouds.