44: Xuanlei Island

The Moon Shuttle, like a silver fish scarred from traversing a storm, struggled to navigate through the death net woven by violent lightning.

Lin Feng was fully concentrated, his spiritual sense taut, meticulously controlling the flying boat to shuttle through the gaps of the raging lightning snakes, precisely following the trajectory of the Life Gate deduced from Formation Madman Hermit's Jade Slip.

Each perilous evasion was accompanied by the dramatic flickering of the boat's protective shield's spiritual light and a teeth-grinding groan. Finally, when the last pale white lightning bolt, thick as a bucket and exuding destructive aura, exploded with a roar, grazing the stern rudder and stirring up monstrous waves, the scene ahead suddenly opened up!

The raging lightning and roaring storm were instantly left behind, as if passing through an invisible barrier. Before his eyes was a relatively calm sea, and although the sky was still overcast, there were no longer the terrifying electric flashes that tore through the sky.

The outline of a massive island, like a sleeping ancient beast, lay quietly across the dark green sea.

"Finally... I'm back!" Lin Feng let out a long breath, his back soaked with cold sweat. He controlled the significantly damaged Moon Shuttle, slowly lowering its altitude, heading towards the relatively gentle black reef beach he remembered.

The Moon Shuttle finally landed steadily on a relatively open black reef beach at the southwest corner of the island.

The reefs here were not the common grayish-white coral reefs found on Azure Wave Island, but pure basalt, as if repeatedly tempered by heavenly lightning, entirely black, incredibly hard, and covered with honeycomb-like holes and grotesque cracks.

Waves crashed upon them, emitting dull roars and splashing turbid white foam. There was very little beach, mostly gravel and coarse black sand.

A few tenacious low shrubs rooted in the rock crevices had sickly yellowish leaves, but their edges had an eerie metallic sheen.

The area of this island far exceeded Azure Wave Island, roughly estimated to be at least five times its size.

The island was an irregular oval shape, longer in the east-west direction. In the center of the island were continuous black mountain ranges, with the highest Peak hidden in the low-hanging leaden clouds. The mountains were steep and rugged, with exposed strange rocks, as if repeatedly hammered by immense force.

At the foot of the mountains were rolling hills and relatively flat valleys. The island's vegetation was exceptionally lush, but unlike the temperate forests of Azure Wave Island, most of the trees here were deep green, dark green, or even dark purple, with narrow or spiky leaves, their surfaces appearing waxed, shimmering with a metallic, cold, hard luster under the dim sky.

The air was filled with a faint, lingering scent of sulfur, mixed with the moist sea breeze, decaying fallen leaves, and... a faint trace of pure lightning-attributed Spiritual Qi.

Lin Feng stepped onto the cold, slippery reef, feeling a solid and coarse texture underfoot.

He looked around, feeling the deep, heavy pulse of the island beneath his feet, and the unique, invigorating lightning Spiritual Qi in the air. An indescribable sense of belonging and ambition arose spontaneously.

"A natural lightning Formation as a screen, isolating inside from outside, and spiritual springs as a source, nurturing all things. This place is the foundation for my Lin Feng's rise, bestowed by heaven!"

His gaze was sharp as he swept over the rugged black coastline, the strange dark green forest in the distance, and the cloud-shrouded black mountains. His voice was low but carried an undeniable determination, "From now on, this island shall be named—Xuanlei Island!"

...

Although the terrifying and unparalleled natural lightning storm Formation protected the outer perimeter, making it difficult for those not skilled in its patterns or without the opening of a Life Gate to enter, Lin Feng knew that the Immortal Realm was full of extraordinary individuals, and fortuitous Opportunities were not uncommon.

Caution was the foremost principle for a long life in the Dao of survival. He did not relax his vigilance upon returning "home," nor did he immediately delve into the island's core to embrace the alluring spiritual spring. Instead, he began meticulous arrangements around the periphery of the reef beach where he landed.

He first quickly surveyed the coastline, selecting several key points with good visibility and easy control of entry and exit.

Next, he took out Formation Flags, a Formation Plate, and the batch of tough "Ironthread Vine" seeds purchased from Huangsha Market from his Storage Pouch.

His hands moved swiftly, spiritual power like a precise carving knife, injected into each Formation Flag adorned with complex mist runes.

Lin Feng moved like lightning, deeply inserting the Formation Flags into selected reef crevices or earth vein nodes. As the last main flag was inserted into the Formation Plate's groove, spiritual power was activated—

"Buzz—!"

A thin layer of grayish-white mist, enough to distort light and confuse perception, rose like a living entity from the ground and reef crevices, rapidly spreading and intertwining, enveloping the entire landing point and several hundred meters of the nearby coastline.

Within the mist, the sense of direction became blurred, vision was obstructed, and even spiritual sense probing was significantly interfered with—a first-tier Mist Illusion Formation, complete!

But this was not enough. Lin Feng immediately activated his spiritual power, precisely scattering the iron-hard Ironthread Vine seeds, like scattering beans, along the key paths, rocky slopes, and potential climbing points on the outer perimeter of the mist Formation.

Combined with specificThe secret to inducing labor (catalytic cultivation techniques) and the dense lightning Spiritual Qi of this place, dark brown vines covered with tiny barbs burst forth from the ground at an astonishing speed!

They grew, coiled, and intertwined wildly like hungry pythons, quickly forming a not-small, thorny, death-trap-filled vine jungle covering the outer perimeter of the mist Formation.

The vines were exceptionally tough, difficult to damage with ordinary swords, and their barbs contained a faint paralyzing toxin. Lin Feng also cleverly buried trigger-type simple enemy-trapping Talismans at several hidden vine net nodes—the Vine Wood Thorn Formation, deployed!

Looking at the mist-shrouded, thorn-infested coastal defense line before him, Lin Feng's taut nerves finally relaxed slightly. "With these two Formations on the outer perimeter for vigilance, confusion, and trapping enemies, even if there's that one-in-a-million lucky person who can cross the lightning storm chasm and set foot on this island, they'll first have to brave this thorny mist, giving me enough time to detect them beforehand and react."

After setting up the outer defenses, Lin Feng put away his damaged Moon Shuttle. He did not immediately head to the core spiritual spring but decided to first conduct a preliminary exploration of the island, familiarize himself with the environment, and confirm any other potential dangers or resources.

He reined in his aura, like a ghost blending into the environment, and stealthily moved along the rugged coastline towards the northeast.

His Body Refining cultivation at the seventh-tier Peak allowed him to move across the slippery, sharp reefs as if on flat ground.

His spiritual sense, like invisible tentacles, cautiously scanned everything around him.

The coastline was winding and varied; besides the black basalt reef beaches, he also discovered several small coves embraced by huge reefs. The water within the coves was relatively calm, and the beaches were of dark gray fine sand, mixed with black pebbles smoothed by the waves.

In one of the larger coves, Lin Feng even found a peculiar "lightning-struck wood" forest—dozens of trees, completely charred and grotesquely twisted, like desperate arms pointing to the sky. Their branches bore traces of being scorched by terrifying currents, emitting a faint burnt smell and a weak, violent lightning aura.

These lightning-struck woods themselves contained a certain amount of lightning spirit power and were Materials for making specific lightning-attributed Talismans or low-level Magical Artifacts. Lin Feng silently noted their location.

Leaving the coast, he cautiously stepped into the island's edge jungle. The trees here were tall and strange, with dark green bark rough like scales, and leaves long and narrow like swords, with fine serrated edges.

The forest floor was covered with a thick layer of dark-colored humus, soft to the touch, and the sulfur smell in the air was stronger.

He discovered many unusual plants: small purple grasses with faint electric arcs flickering on their leaf edges—Lightning Pattern Grass, and low shrubs bearing black berries that emitted a faint paralyzing aura.

There were also large patches of moss covering damp rocks and tree trunks, displaying an unhealthy grayish-green color.

Upon reaching a lower-lying valley, embraced by several small black mountains, a warm vapor mixed with a stronger sulfur smell wafted towards him. Lin Feng pushed aside the dense, metallic-sheened ferns, and his vision suddenly opened up—a small hot spring pool appeared before his eyes!

The pool water was turbid milky white, bubbling with tiny air bubbles, and exuded a scorching heat. Along the pool's edge grew several strangely shaped reddish ferns with thick leaves, as if absorbing the geothermal energy from the hot spring.

What surprised Lin Feng even more was that he found several stones in the mud at the edge of the hot spring pool, shimmering with faint yellowish spiritual light and having a warm, moist texture—raw Warm Sun Jade! Although not of high quality, their advantage lay in their continuous extractability, making them perfect for setting up small warming Formations or crafting small items.

"The resources here are indeed exceptionally abundant, far exceeding Black Reef Island!" Lin Feng's heart was invigorated.