All of them stepped on the island to scout out the surroundings. The ship was safely parked in deep water, but there were complications. Originally, the captain wanted to immediately depart, but the equipment was constantly malfunctioning. He could not determine where they were and there was a risk of accidentally wandering into a soul beast territory from the island.
The adults were leading. An uncharted island could be extremely dangerous, but it could also just be a normal island. Since they cannot leave just willy nilly, they had to scout the surroundings.
"Its vitality on the island is rich." Ta Siyu breathed in the fresh air.
Everyone nodded. The only one who couldn't really tell the difference was Jianyu, but he pretended to know what they were talking about.
The vitality of the island resembled that of the Star Duo Forest inside the Spirit Ascension Platform. And they haven't even entered the actual leafage in front of them. They were still on the beach.
"Yet thankfully, I don't sense any danger." Wu Jianguo was relieved.
Such places would usually hide something dangerous, but they've been walking for a while, and there didn't seem to be much to this island outside of the rich energy of life.
"Based on how long we've been walking. I'd say it would take us about 4 hours to circle the entire island by foot." Wan Chaoxiang was calculating in his mind. He was a sailor. He had to have a good perception of such things to be a good captain.
"Let's go back. The kids can stay on the nearby beach, while we check for any potential hidden danger." Wu Jianguo ordered.
The children didn't complain. Even if they were on the precipice of the power of a Soul Ancestor, there were many powerful existences on the planet. Especially on such an island, the potential of a powerful soul beast appearing wasn't small.
Karni, Siduo and Jianyu stayed close to the ship on the beach. They decided to grab their swimwear and go into the sea. The island had quite a long, but not deep, beach. The water was clear and one could freely play in the sand even in the ocean.
The only odd thing was that no small fish or weird tiny soul beasts were on the beach. Only plantlife grew on it. Nothing else. This definitely didn't function like a normal island that had its own tiny ecosystem.
While Jianyu played in the water, the two convinced him to play farther out, to check out how far out the water would stay shallow.
"Kiki. Do you think it's from…"
Karni nodded. "It's similar to it, yeah. Though there's no light or the breathing feel."
They went a good 300 metres into the water, but it still only reached up to their thighs. No higher. At some point though, the water about 50 metres ahead was darker. It was there that the deep part of the ocean began.
Jianyu didn't notice such details. He continued to happily splash around in the water. Even trying out his martial soul to speed along with it.
"Woah there adventurer." Siduo stopped Jianyu from going further.
The boy was at the edge of darkness. It seemed like a cliff. At some point, the ground was there, at another, it was just gone. Jianyu was surprised, but only gave a simple apology, not really comprehending the danger.
Karni activated his first soul ring and put his head underwater to sense what was going on. There, he also activated his Purple Demon Eyes. He was laying on the ground underwater, while his head peeked over the cliff.
His eyes wide. He resurfaced and Siduo noticed the look. "There… There's no ground. It looks like the island is floating on the water." He looked towards Siduo.
She stayed quiet before deciding. "Let's go back. This definitely isn't normal, and it's too dangerous for us to go anywhere alone."
The only one oblivious to everything was Jianyu. The two were whispering so as to not make the boy panic.
They returned to the ship. If Wan Chaoxiang was accurate, then it would take about 4 hours, maybe less if they were fast, for them to come back. Until then, they were alone.
But only an hour passed, and Jianyu was already getting bored. Jianyu had all of his toys and games on the ship, but Karni and Siduo refused to go there at the moment. It was parked in deeper waters, and after what they just found out, they were unwilling to take unnecessary risks.
Right now, Jianyu would even be happy to do some Mecha Research, but they didn't bring it with them. There was no reason to. Then the boy's eyes shined, finally thinking of something.
"Let's play hide and seek!" Jianyu proclaimed in a superhero pose, resembling superman.
Karni chuckled. "How? There's only the beach. Not many places to hide." There were practically no rocks on the beach either.
"That's the challenge." The boy was proud of his idea.
Karni looked at Siduo, who shrugged. "Fine." He said. "I'll seek first then."
"Ah! No powers allowed!" Siduo quickly caught onto Karni's plan.
"Damn." Karni slapped his thigh. "Well, I'll still find you."
Siduo went to hide. So did Jianyu. At the start, he followed Siduo around, to see what she would do. Karni started counting with his eyes closed.
She went into the water and layed down. She put sand over herself. She looked at Jianyu. "Want me to help you?" She whispered.
The boy shook his head and showed thumbs up. He's had it covered.
Karni was nearing the final count. He counted up to a hundred.
He opened his eyes and looked around. There was no one there.
He went near the water. Still no one there. The two hid surprisingly well. They even swiped the footprints off the sand.
Not finding anyone, he thought of a trick. "Oh Sisi. That's just sad." He shook his head at nothing.
He heard from about 10 metres left of him. "You bastard! How'd you see me, did you use your-" She stopped herself, seeing that Karni turned his head, but his body faced a different direction.
She facepalmed and hid her face. She was blushing red. She actually fell for it. She revealed herself when he hadn't even found her.
"Didn't take you for someone to fall for this so easily."
"Shut uuuuuuuuup." She wanted to cry.
Karni laughed in triumph. "Now then. To find little Jianyu." He put his hands together in a villainous manner. Hoping that the little brother would see him and start panicking.
But he didn't find him no matter how hard or what tricks he used. Even Siduo started to help.
"Fine. Even if I lose. I'm going to find where he is." Karni used his Purple Demon Eyes and first soul ring.
He looked around. Not finding anything. But there was something. Footprints. Footprints that led into the forest of the island.
"He… he didn't." Karni looked wide eyed.
Siduo looked at him weirdly. Karni told her the truth. "The footprints that were there lead into the forest of the island."
Siduo panicked. "We have to go!"
Karni nodded. They didn't have the time to wait for her parents to return. Who knows what the small child might encounter.
"I get he was oblivious, but we still warned him not to go there before!" Siduo was frustrated, furious, worried and hopeful all at once.
On the outside, the forest seemed normal, but the two quickly discovered how unnatural it felt. They've been around the Star Dou Forest for so long that they were familiar with many plantlife, but there was nothing here that they truly recognised. Could it be the different climate?
The two were running around, looking for any footprints, but they found nothing. The ground here was extremely solid and rugged. It was weird that plants even grew out of it. It felt like they were growing out of rocks.
The two ran deeper inside, before Siduo suddenly slipped, her body falling, and then stopping immediately. Her torso was out, but her legs seemed to be inside something.
Karni was about to help her and get her out, but she simply pulled herself out with ease.
The two looked inside. It was a wide, crack-like thing, though it looked too smooth to be an actual crack. It was about 30 cm wide and 1 metre deep. As for its length, they didn't really see the end of it.
Well, it was more like instead of the end, it seemed like the crack joined into another crack and that one joined into another. The cracks connected almost in a circle. Resembling a warped hexagon or pentagon, depending on how one looked at it.
"What the fuck?"
The path seemed to be going uphill, yet the plant life didn't change. The cracks seemed to all connect into giant hexagons. The opposite sides were apart by at least 3 metres. Did Jianyu fall into one of these?
But none of the cracks appeared thin enough for one to actually get stuck inside it. Jianyu least of all. Even if Jianyu was a six year old, he didn't need to be a soul master to climb out of it. A normal six year old would do just fine.
Suddenly the cracks lit up gold for a split second, before disappearing. The two looked in amazement. Just what were those cracks?
The two continued uphill. On 10 minute intervals, the cracks alway lit up. This has likely been going on from the start, it's just that one can't really see it unless one looks at the cracks. The gold colour didn't stand out in this lush vegetation. It was partly covered.
It felt like the whole island was breathing through the cracks. Could it be connected to why the island was floating?
The island was becoming closer to the vision that Karni had now. The island lit up in that scene. The only difference was that right now, only the cracks were slightly lit every now and then.
The two went further uphill. Just when would the island stop going up. The hill felt quite steep. The cracks still looked the same as before. They weren't smaller, nor were they bigger. There also didn't appear to be a centre to these cracks. They all felt equal in size all up until now.
Then they heard a small voice. A scream from the very top of the hill. And it sounded familiar.
Without saying anything the both of them sped up. They really hoped that the adults would've heard it as well, but based on how quiet the scream was, the voice had trouble travelling far in the thick vegetation.
They arrived at the top. There was no clearing, the vegetation was just as thick, the cracks were still there and there wasn't even a centre hexagon. Not that they were focused on such details. They couldn't be. Their eyes had terror in them.
Two Soul Beasts. A tiger of orange colour and yellow, glowing stripes. The other soul beast was a crow, the size of a, well, a crow. It wasn't big at all. Its colour was metallic grey and it constantly seemed to be hopping around. Disappearing and reappearing in another place.
In the middle of the two was a boy, and the two soul beasts seemed to be playing with him while the child was running around, screaming and crying. Meanwhile the beasts were cackling. It wasn't normal play. It was the kind of play that the hunter would have with its prey before devouring it.
Karni and Siduo didn't hesitate, even though they could immediately feel they were going into a losing battle. These two beasts both resembled the strength of the Raging Buffalo Duke when he was charged up! Based on this, there was only one assumption. They were ten thousand year soul beasts!
Karni activated his second ring on Siduo and himself, then ran out and first tried to apply it on the tiger with his Purple Demon Eyes. It was a mistake. It was like his head hit a wall charging into it.
It didn't matter. He managed to keep his balance. His mind was concentrated. He immediately gathered his sound.
Meanwhile, Siduo did a similar thing. She immediately unleashed her self-fusion. Her soul bone was activated as well. Her Hell White Tiger was of a bloody colour with buffalo horns.
They needed to grab Jianyu and run. This had to be fast, there was no time to test the powers of their adversary.
The tiger was clearly affected. Siduo slashed at it, pushing it away, but her attack didn't go deep. She grabbed Jianyu in her tiger mouth and started running.
Meanwhile Karni sent all of his power of sound towards the crow. He turned around and ran as fast as he could with the Drunken Ghost Dance.
But the two were taken aback. The crow was already in front of them, blocking their way. Siduo swiped, but the crow disappeared before she could hit it.
Suddenly, the side of her face was cut through. Karni saw that the crow just appeared there, spreading its wings and cutting into Siduo like butter. Due to pain, Siduo dropped her brother. This cutting force didn't seem normal at all.
Karni was about to grab the falling Jianyu, but the boy disappeared and Karni heard a soft thud behind him instead. What just happened? The boy took the full damage of the fall. One of his arms seemed particularly badly bent.
Karni quickly grabbed him and tried to run. He only took two steps before falling without even tripping on anything. His body fell freely. He just lost control of his motor functions. It was like his nervous system stopped working altogether.
Cackling was heard from the crow. It seemed to be enjoying this.
Siduo, still in her Hell White Tiger form charged, picking both Karni and Jianyu in her mouth. She didn't have long left. Before she could continue, a wall of light appeared in front of her, blocking her body. She crashed into it.
It shattered into many small stripes of light. Yet they still felt uniform, working together.
They flew into her, slashing her legs. Her soul bone truly showed its power here. The Buffalo Duke's Rage had a great restorative power.
But there were at least a hundred of these stripes. They all slashed the same points, her legs gave, her tendons cut, the healing factor couldn't keep up.
She couldn't keep her fusion going either, she was forced to turn back into a human. Her White Tiger was shining. She roared as loud as she could with her two strengthening skills, hoping that someone might hear it. Her Buffalo Duke's Rage was about to run out too.
Unfortunately, even she could tell it didn't travel far. Unless her parents were deep in the forest, there was no way they would hear them.
"I'm sorry." Jianyu muttered, crying.
Siduo just stood in front of him with difficulty. An ugly expression on her face, but also a stubborn one.
"Don't worry. We'll get out of here."
At that moment another soundwave was sent from Karni at the charging tiger that looked hungry. The tiger grew bigger, its orange fur looked menacing and its stripes were truly glowing in a mighty light.
Its glowing stripes suddenly started burning as it felt like a running fireball was charging through the sound without it even affecting a thing. It charged directly towards Siduo.
Karni tried to apply his second soul ring, but before he could, he noticed the crow. A third eye opened and Karni could tell thanks to his predictive abilities that a spiritual beam was about to hit him, but what could he do? It was way too fast to dodge!
Siduo was hit and thrown through two trees before stopping. Her body felt completely broken. She couldn't keep her soul bone ability up either. The combination of the two made her completely helpless.
Meanwhile Karni lost his sense of body yet again. The same as it happened before. He could tell now. That spiritual ray had spiritual power high above his own. He couldn't even comprehend the realm. The crow was likely on the level of Spirit Abyss.
The two beasts didn't seem amused anymore. The child was fun as it couldn't do much, but these two were stubborn and fought back. Now they looked at them solely as prey.
The two beasts seemed to converse for a second, before they both charged.
Karni was angry at himself. He saw the vision of the island, he should've guessed something was wrong with it. But it was just so different. There was no fight in the vision, only the beautiful scenery. Why was this happening?
The island suddenly glowed. First through the cracks, then the gold light came out of them. The rock-like ground began shining. In the next moment, even the vegetation shone in a golden lustre.
The two beasts stopped immediately, looking around in excitement. They made a bowing motion.
A waking breath was heard from… everywhere, the very air breathed. The island seemed to move up and back down for a second.
Karni and Siduo glanced at each other from a distance. The golden light enveloped them as well. Their injuries, both mental and physical, were healing at lightning speed.
There was a presence here. A presence that affected this whole island, but they couldn't see it. They only sensed it. Even Jianyu calmed down, clearly feeling someone all around them.
The breathing could be felt again. The rocks rose and fell again.
Karni's mind went into overload. Was the island… breathing?
A deep voice that resembled the breathing was heard then. "Hmmmmmmmmmm. A child lost through time… and a child played by time… How peculiar."