Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2212: Chapter 2213: Silver White Flying Fish

At first, traveling against the wind, the speed of the gondola wasn’t affected.

But as they ventured deeper into the cloud sea, the wind grew stronger and increasingly violent. Even though Angel activated the gondola’s anti-wind mode, it was still slowed by the raging winds.

Fortunately, although the speed decreased, the stability remained.

Silently, the gondola moved against the wind, as if the turbulent winds around it could hardly shake its steadiness.

This made Jack, who was hanging on the drapery, once again appreciate its choice as correct. If it were him, not to mention flying steadily, the mere presence of fierce winds would be an insurmountable obstacle; with its slender bean vine body, penetrating the cloud sea would be impossible.

Half an hour later, as the sky gradually darkened, the wind showed no signs of subsiding.

In this dark cloud sea, the wind seemed to shift from being invisible to visible, everywhere were scattered strands of cloud vapors, like clawed tentacles, encircling the gondola layer by layer.

Originally sitting beside the sandy cage, Dangross shivered at this time, quietly moving to Angel’s side. Although the interior of the gondola was unaffected by the wind, the wailing cries of wind outside paired with the pitch-black sky and swirling fog made Dangross fearful.

But the little whirlwind Arnott felt nothing, even enjoying the howling winds, the moisture at his eye corners disappearing completely.

”Does everyone face such strong winds when going to Wind Island?” Dangross curiously asked.

Arnott thought for a moment: ”Yes, the entirety of the white cloud sea contains many hurricanes, and Wind Island is the eye of the storm. Once we reach Wind Island, it will be much better.”

”So, when will we arrive at Wind Island?”

Arnott lifted his head, looking through the sandy cage at the aggressive and shapeless wind outside: ”The wind here is actually quite small; when we reach an area where the wind is ten times stronger and pass through it, we will see Wind Island.”

Ten times stronger wind? Dangross shivered again; with the current terrifying wind, if it increased tenfold, would the gondola still hold?

Angel, gazing forward, suddenly felt his fingers wrapped in a heatwave. Looking back, he found Dangross staring at him with fearful eyes.

Though Dangross said nothing, Angel understood its meaning, having overheard their conversation.

”As it stands, the gondola can barely maintain balance. If the wind grows just two or three times stronger, maintaining its current state will likely become difficult.” Seeing Dangross’s eyes grow even more fearful, Angel thought a moment and added, ”However, you don’t need to worry too much; we’ll figure something out when the time comes.”

Before Dangross could inquire further, the gondola suddenly jolted, frightening Dangross as it scampered up Angel’s arm to the blood-red protection.

Angel remained calm; the gondola had only jolted because the external wind intensified, needing an adjustment in wind-reception mode.

Now, the gondola had returned to stability.

But Angel also knew this stability wouldn’t last long.

According to Arnott, the wind would only grow stronger, not weaken, meaning at most with another two or three levels of energy, maintaining such stability on the gondola would be challenging.

After another ten minutes of flight, the howling wind intensified, sounding like the screeching clash of metal, ringing incessantly around them.

It was then Angel saw the first wind creature in this ”Stormy Cloud Sea.”

It was a silver white flying fish ’swimming’ in the hurricane.

The swirling suction of the hurricane didn’t appear as an obstacle to the silver white flying fish; instead, it became its joyful paradise, swimming excitedly around it.

Due to the intimidating exterior wind, Angel hadn’t initially noticed it; it was only as the hurricane began approaching the flying boat that Angel recognized its presence.

Frowning slightly at the silver white flying fish’s approach, Angel pondered.

The silver white flying fish wasn’t the problem, as it was obviously an elemental sprite. Angel was concerned because it seemed capable of manipulating the hurricane’s movement.

Though the silver white flying fish likely meant no harm to the gondola, merely drawn by curiosity, its approach brought the terrifying hurricane closer, subjecting the gondola to the strongest storm since entering the cloud sea.

Now, the gondola was unable to maintain stability, starting to jolt and tremble continuously.

Dangross, hanging on the blood-red protection, grew even more fearful, internally worried: Could this mean the gondola will capsize soon?

Watching items on the gondola begin to tumble, even the sandy cage and the white pigeon struggled to stand, Angel softly called: ”Earl Mi.”

Upon hearing, a blue lantern flower appeared at the prow, emitting a bubble. The bubble transformed into a cyan light shield, enveloping the entire gondola.

Though the hurricane continued to rage outside the light shield, tranquility was restored within.

”Is this the power of the wind?” Arnott’s voice emanated, perceiving the stable wind force field surrounding the gondola, eyes flashing with confusion. Such power, which Arnott only sensed from mature wind creatures, unexpectedly appeared here? Could there be other wind creatures nearby?

While Arnott pondered in confusion, Angel lightly stepped out of the gondola.

Though Earl Mi had stabilized the gondola, the external silver white flying fish still needed addressing, as its intense curiosity kept it lingering near the gondola. The hurricane power surrounding it wasn’t yet significant, but as they continued deeper, should it continue to follow along, it would soon become the hurricane’s focal point, posing a threat to the gondola.

Earl Mi was currently stabilizing the gondola, thus leaving Angel to deal with the silver white flying fish.

Exiting the wind force field, the external storm immediately surged; even without the silver white flying fish directing the hurricane to attack, the fierce winds already struck like wind blades towards Angel.

Though the gusts weren’t severely harmful, Angel decided against lingering outside.

A flash of light beneath his feet, his figure appeared near the silver white flying fish.

Before the silver white flying fish could react, Angel trapped it with the illusion node woven into an illusionary realm net from his fingertips.

The silver white flying fish was merely an elemental sprite, oblivious and powerless against illusions, easily captured by Angel.

Returning to the gondola, Angel casually placed the silver white flying fish beside the white pigeon; these two elemental sprites were unstable elements, intending them to rest in the illusionary realm. Once at Wind Island, they would be handed over to other wind creatures.

The gondola resumed its journey, now under Earl Mi’s protection, and the speed steadied, accelerating.

Feeling the gondola regain calm, Dangross nervously jumped onto the table, calming its tense emotions, then walked to the silver white flying fish’s side.

It had watched as this small flying fish could manipulate such powerful hurricanes.

Its eyes glowed slightly, contemplating whether to secretly inject some of its own fire while it was unable to resist.

However, Dangross recalled Angel’s previous teaching that using your own strength to win others over is more fulfilling than forcing them to become your subordinates. In the end, it restrained its thoughts of gathering followers.

Forcing itself to turn away, Dangross returned to Angel’s side.

While passing by the yellow sand prison, it noticed that Arnott was also scrutinizing the silver white flying fish, his gaze never wavering, seemingly very curious about it.

”You seem to know it?”

Arnott shook his head, ”I don’t know it. I’ve never seen it, it’s just...”

Arnott suddenly paused and turned to Angel, ”Can I take a closer look at it?”

Angel nodded, placing the silver white flying fish directly beside the yellow sand prison.

Arnott carefully observed this silver white flying fish, remaining silent for a long time.

”Is there something wrong with it?” Angel also looked at the silver white flying fish. In his eyes, this flying fish had no significant difference compared to the white dove next to it and Arnott. All were composed of wind elements, though there might be subtle internal structural differences.

Arnott pondered for a moment, ultimately shaking his head.

Angel didn’t know what Arnott was thinking, but since it was unwilling to speak, he didn’t press further.

The Gondola continued through, and with time, the surrounding wind grew stronger. But under the protection of Earl Mi’s wind force field, the Gondola remained stable.

During this time, Angel encountered several more wind spirits. They varied in form and flew quite freely amidst the storm.

Some wind spirits would voluntarily distance themselves upon seeing the Gondola, while others would curiously approach. For the wind spirits that came close, he captured them into the Gondola and controlled them with the illusionary realm; as for those that kept their distance, Angel left them alone, knowing that they were nearing Wind Island and once its situation was resolved, these wind spirits would naturally receive protection from the returning wind elemental creatures.

The number of wind spirits on the Gondola had now reached six, but Angel noticed that Arnott paid little attention to the other wind elemental spirits. Only the silver white flying fish occasionally caught its glance, revealing its inner concern.

After about half an hour.

Arnott suddenly said, ”We are very close to Wind Island now... Also, I can feel extremely active wind elemental energy around us.”

Since they entered the Cloud Sea, the wind’s force had always been very lively. Arnott emphasizing it now was not to indicate that the surrounding wind had strengthened but to inform them that wind elemental creatures were here.

Arnott certainly wouldn’t intentionally remind them about ordinary wind spirits. Therefore, only mature wind elemental creatures could be nearby.

As Angel contemplated this, a massive shadowy outline suddenly manifested within a dark cloud ahead.

Being thousands of meters above the ground, Angel hadn’t heard of any such tall mountains on the Green Plains. So upon seeing this huge outline, he immediately realized that it was likely the wind elemental creature Arnott was referring to.

Angel controlled the Gondola to come to a halt.

Although he had Arnott as a ”command baton” and had heard that the gentle breeze Urano was a mild monarch, he was still unaware of what might have happened at Wind Island. To avoid any unexpected occurrences or conflicts, he chose to pause and assess the situation, hoping to engage with the entity if possible.

The Gondola stopped, but the murky shadowy silhouette in the mist grew larger, indicating that the other party was approaching them.

Seconds later, the massive shadowy outline burst out of the cloud.

Its form was so colossal that even after emerging from the mist, it was difficult to discern exactly what it was. However, Angel saw its eyes.

Azure pupils, resembling large bronze bells.

A tremendous oppressive force accompanied its opened eyes.

Under this oppressive force, almost all the elemental sprites on the Gondola showed discomfort, especially the wind elemental spirits, including Arnott, and even the few elemental sprites trapped in the illusionary realm were slightly trembling.

Angel frowned slightly, gently tapping his fingers on the table. An imperceptible ripple instantly enveloped the Gondola, dissipating the oppressive sensation from the other elemental spirits.

Earl Mi, hanging on the drapery, after catching his breath, said to Angel, ”This wind elemental creature is a bit strange.”

Angel didn’t reply, his gaze fixed on the large black shadow in the distance. From the moment the other party released its oppressive force, he sensed something was amiss.

To Angel, directly releasing pressure was already considered a hostile signal.

Before this, whether in the Wild Stone Wasteland or the Baya Desert, the initial encounters with those Keepers never involved an intentional release of oppression.

Yet upon arriving at the reputedly most gentle Wind Island, such a situation emerged.

Angel didn’t understand the other party’s intention, but as he sought an audience with the gentle breeze Urano, even despite the adversary’s hostile signal, he decided to initially attempt a conciliatory approach.

He reached out his index finger and tapped the air, causing a ball of light to manifest before him and gently drift towards the distance. The light ball was extremely soft, containing his greetings.

This was Angel’s communication signal sent to the shadow.

However, just as the light ball neared that mountainous shadow, the adversary suddenly projected a cyan hurricane from its mouth, tearing the light ball into fragments of light.

Simultaneously, it opened its mouth again, a terrorizing wind pressure rapidly forming. A gleam of brutal intent flickered in its azure pupils.

”Be careful! Something is very wrong with the wind inside it!” Arnott in the yellow sand prison seemed to sense something and shouted to Angel.

As the words fell, a tiny whirlwind emerged from the shadow’s mouth.

The whirlwind was small, but its contained energy was terrifyingly immense. Once it appeared, it swept up the surrounding clouds, absorbing all wind force within dozens of miles into itself.

In the blink of an eye, the whirlwind transformed into a massive tornado, enough to blot out the sky and obscure the sun.

Countless wind blades sliced outward from the whirlwind.

And this whirlwind directly charged towards the Gondola!