Chapter 128: First Arrival at Peerless Island

On Peerless Island, Leng Feng tapped his finger twice against the light screen before him. Watching two points of light flicker and vanish from their original positions, only to reappear elsewhere, he couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.

...

Before his eyes, a flash occurred. One moment he was looking at Song Hai, and in the next, before he could even utter a word, the world around him had shifted.

Zhou Yi blinked, his muscles tensing instinctively. He divided his focus: one part searching his body for the object that had emitted the light, the other assessing his strange new surroundings.

It didn't take long for him to realize the source of the glow—it was simple enough.

The Peerless Island Token!

"So, I'm on Peerless Island, then?" Upon realizing that it was the token given to him by Leng Feng that had triggered the transition, clarity dawned on Zhou Yi.

"What is this?" Once he understood his location, his heart calmed slightly, and the focus he had set on his surroundings began to relay information.

A group of people sat atop gourds, arranged in a circle. In the center sat an individual with eyes tightly shut, looking as if they were on the verge of death. Before this person, a mass of black mist floated in the air.

"Hello there?" Being a newcomer, Zhou Yi felt it best not to stir up trouble. It seemed only logical to greet them, find a local, and ask for directions.

*Swish!*

The moment his voice landed, the gourd-riders turned in unison, their eyes fixed on him with eerie calm.

"W-what’s wrong?" Startled by the synchronized movement of the group, Zhou Yi quickly asked.

As he looked at them, a strange feeling nagged at him. They seemed normal enough, yet the longer he observed them, the more he felt an inexplicable sense of wrongness.

*Boom!*

Without a word, the gourd-riders raised their hands in unison. With a wave, the black mist that had been floating in the air disintegrated instantly, transforming into streaks of black smoke that hissed like serpents, darting toward Zhou Yi with lightning speed.

Only then did Zhou Yi realize this wasn't a cloud at all; it was composed of individual wisps of smoke, gathered together. Their uniform color had tricked him into thinking it was a solid mist.

He had been wondering earlier if this truly was Peerless Island, given that they could even pull clouds down from the sky.

With no time for idle thoughts, Zhou Yi braced himself. Though he didn't know the properties of the smoke, he knew it couldn't be anything simple. He steadied his mind and prepared to defend.

*Swish!*

Almost simultaneously, the streaks of black smoke arrived before him. They bowed forward, accelerating as they aimed to strike him.

*Boom!*

But just an inch from his body, they halted as if hitting an invisible wall. The elongated wisps of smoke bunched up under the force of their own momentum. Before Zhou Yi could even unleash the blade energy he had been charging in his palm, he heard a hundred voices merge into one, ringing in his ears.

*Snap!*

To Zhou Yi’s astonishment, the aggressive smoke collapsed into a pile and dropped to the ground.

"What the hell?" Zhou Yi looked down at the black heap at his feet, then back at the gourd-riders, whose expressions remained perfectly placid. He was completely baffled.

What was going on?

The gourd-riders offered no explanation, nor did they give him time to ponder. After the failure of their first attack, they showed no sign of discouragement. With another wave of their arms, the fallen smoke rose back into the air.

*Boom!*

They crossed their arms, weaving intricate seals. The black smoke coalesced and shifted, forming a giant black gourd that tilted its nozzle directly at Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi’s body swayed. As the nozzle pointed at him, he felt a massive suction force appear out of thin air, attempting to pull him inside. Yet, the force lasted only for a fleeting moment before vanishing entirely.

"Hm?" Zhou Yi suddenly grasped the situation. He shifted his focus inward to his Dantian space, watching the heavy mountain sitting in the void, and realization struck.

The Art of the Heavy Mountain, once mastered, rendered one immune to all techniques. Until an opposing force reached a sufficient threshold, everything beneath that level was useless against him.

The gourd-riders' actions had not been in vain. The black smoke was no ordinary substance; it was "Blackwater Poison Smoke." Even on Peerless Island, it was a formidable object of terrifying power—a single touch was usually a death sentence, even for those with superior strength.

However, the smoke had the misfortune of encountering Zhou Yi. After he mastered the Art of the Heavy Mountain, a "Heavy Mountain Field" had naturally formed around him, extending an inch from his body. It was usually invisible, only manifesting when he was under attack.

Though the Blackwater Poison Smoke was lethal, upon hitting the Heavy Mountain Field, its weight—which had been as light as nothing—instantly became as heavy as Mount Tai. What could easily fly was now grounded, forcing it to fall.

It was fortunate for his opponents that Zhou Yi had just mastered the technique and had not yet learned to control it; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to summon the smoke at all. Had he understood this, he could have covered the smoke with his field, rendering it completely useless.

*Oh!* With his thoughts racing, Zhou Yi finally understood the key to the situation. Looking at the gourd-riders again, he suddenly identified the source of the "strangeness" he had felt earlier.

"Vitality." Looking at the group and ignoring the giant black gourd floating before him, Zhou Yi observed them closely, and the word flashed through his mind.

They looked like normal people, but in reality, they lacked vitality and feeling. They were too monotonous, too uniform. To Zhou Yi, they felt like... robots.

A chill crept up his spine. Robots were a massive concept. If they appeared in a modern society, it would make sense—the foundation for such technology existed. But here? These were clearly flesh-and-blood people—living, breathing humans.

A living human turned into a robot.

The implications were chilling. Zhou Yi’s perception of Peerless Island deepened. What kind of place was this, that it could turn people into machines?

Thoughts aside, he didn't stop moving. Since they had become machines, there was no point in trying to reason with them. Zhou Yi stopped overthinking, swung his fist, and struck out with the power of the Heavy Mountain Art.

*Boom!*