A wry smile appeared on Tang Wulin's face. "In that case, this place most likely really is a taboo zone; I can't sense any life force energy from the plants on this island."
They were situated on a patch of flat ground, and not far away from them was an inky-black forest. Tang Wulin quickly made his way over to the forest before pressing his hand against one of the trees. The surface of the tree was icy cold to the touch, and not only was there no life force energy within the tree, it was releasing a powerful burst of deathly aura. If it weren't for Tang Wulin's immense life force and blood essence fluctuations, his body would've been harmed to a certain extent by this deathly energy.
"These trees are all fake. There's no life force energy within them, and they're all as hard as rocks, as if they've been carbonized," Tang Wulin said as his brows furrowed tightly.
Without the presence of natural energies, there was no point in cultivating, so everyone stood up and gathered around Tang Wulin.
Xu Xiaoyan asked, "Captain, if there are no natural energies here, won't our life force also be affected along with our soul power? In other words, will this place affect our blood essence power?"
Tang Wulin replied with a wry smile, "It will. All living things require natural energies to survive. Water and sunlight are the key elements for sustaining life, but they can only sustain life where there is life to begin with. This is a place without any life force energy, so our own life force will constantly dwindle here. We'll be fine if we only stay here for a short time, but if we stay here for too long, we'll be reduced to dried corpses or become carbonized just like those plants."
Everyone's expressions changed drastically upon hearing this.
"What do we do then?" Xie Xie asked in an urgent manner.
Tang Wulin took a deep breath, and said, "The academy has sent us here to undertake military training, not to kill us, so there must be a way to survive here. On top of that, we still don't know where exactly our military training will take place. Looking down from above, this entire cluster of islands is completely black in color, and so is the surrounding seawater. However, the seawater around 300 meters away from the cluster of islands turns back into a normal color. From that, we can deduce that natural energies should exist in the regions of the sea where the seawater is blue, which means we can go to those areas of the sea to absorb natural energies in order to replenish ourselves."
Ye Xinglan smiled, and said, "You're always so calm; it's very impressive. The situation should be roughly what you deduce it to be."
Tang Wulin replied with a smile, "I'm actually worried as well, but that won't help our cause; we have to remain calm and face the situation we're in. Seeing as we can't absorb natural energies to replenish ourselves here, let's go to the seashore. We've already reached our destination within the designated time frame, so we should've already passed the first test. Once we get to the shore, Zhengyu and Yuanen can fly out to verify my hypothesis."
This entirely black island struck one with an indescribable sense of oppressive pressure, and at the very least, they had no idea what was going on right now. As such, it was important to find a path for retreat first before exploring the island.
The place that they had landed was on the outskirts of the island, so after ascertaining the direction they had to head toward, it didn't take them long before the sea appeared in their field of view.
Looking at the black seawater from the air and from land were two completely different experiences, and the fact that they were situated in this pitch-black world was a very daunting notion. Waves of seawater lapped against the shore, and the inky black seawater was like a terrifying abyss that would engulf anyone who dared to enter it.
Tang Wulin released a Bluesilver Emperor vine into the sea, and as soon as it came into contact with the seawater, he immediately shuddered as a burst of terrifying suction power erupted from the ocean.
His soul power and blood essence power then surged forth in a frenzy along the Bluesilver Emperor vine, and he hurriedly withdrew it from the water. However, even though it had only been in contact with the seawater for a split second, the tip of the vine had already turned a greyish-white color.
"Avoid touching this seawater at all costs; it's extremely potent in devouring natural energies."
Tang Wulin was feeling very fortunate that they hadn't landed in the black seawater. Otherwise, their soul power expenditure would've increased significantly before they could reach the island.
Yuanen Yehui said, "Let me go and test things out."
Tang Wulin nodded in response. "Be careful; if you feel like something's wrong, come back right away."
"Alright." Yuanen Yehui nodded before spreading open her Fallen Angel wings, then flapping them to rise up into the air above the black seawater.
She had only just appeared above the surface of the ocean when black mist began to emanate from her body, and she hurriedly flapped her wings more vigorously so she could rise up to a higher altitude. Only then did the black mist around her body lessen, and she continued to fly into the distance.
She quickly covered a distance of 300 meters, and due to the fact that the islands in this cluster were situated quite far away from one another, there were still some patches of blue seawater between them. After flying out for 300 meters, Yuanen Yehui abruptly vanished.
"Where did she go? Yuanen!" Xie Xie yelled in an urgent manner.
Tang Wulin laid a hand on his shoulder, and said, "Don't panic, keep observing the situation for now."
But how could Xie Xie not panic in this situation? He was just about to say something when Yuanen Yehui abruptly reappeared in the distance, then flapped her wings and vigorously and quickly returned to the island.
Only then did Xie Xie heave a sigh of relief, and he hurried over to her as he asked, "Yuanen, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Yuanen shook her head, and said, "The situation is exactly as you predicted, Captain; after flying out for 300 meters and arriving above a region with normal seawater, I immediately discovered the presence of natural energies in the air. However, there are extremely ferocious sea soul beasts on the other side. I felt as if I'd passed through some kind of invisible barrier, as if I'd emerged in another world, and as soon as I appeared on the other side, a massive sea soul beast came pouncing at me. It had an extremely powerful aura, so I immediately hurried back. Despite how powerful those sea soul beasts are, they don't dare to come into this black seawater. However, it won't be easy for us to get out of here, either."
Tang Wulin's brows furrowed slightly as he speculated, "Do you guys get the feeling that this place is like a cage that's keeping something locked up within it?"
There were no natural energies in here, and the sea outside of this place was filled with ferocious sea soul beasts. Furthermore, all of them had clearly sensed that they'd passed through some kind of enchantment when entering the island.
"That does indeed seem to be the case," Yue Zhengyu nodded as he said, "In any case, this place makes me feel very uncomfortable, and I'm assuming all of you feel the same. There are no natural energies here, and everything is filled with deathly energy. It's like living beings like us shouldn't even be here! Should we go deeper into the island?"
Tang Wulin shook his head, and replied, "There's no hurry to explore the island; we should devise a viable path of retreat first. The main hazard outside stems from the sea soul beasts, but those beasts don't dare to enter these regions with black seawater. Yuanen, try and fly out of here at a higher altitude this time and see if you still get attacked by sea soul beasts."
"Alright." Yuanen Yehui nodded before flapping her wings to fly up to the higher altitude. However, after reaching an altitude of only around 100 meters, her body abruptly plummeted from the sky, and only after flapping her wings with all her might did she manage to arrest her downward momentum at an altitude of around 50 meters.
"There's a flight restriction up there!" Yuanen exclaimed, "There seems to be an invisible energy barrier up there, and I could only fly up around 100 meters before I felt like I was swatted down by a massive hand! It's a good thing I managed to react quickly."
This place was most definitely a cage! The same thought occurred to everyone at once.
There was no way to rise up into the air, nor any way to travel out to sea. Living beings could only enter, yet not exit, and there were no natural energies here. Were they just supposed to resign themselves to an inescapable fate of death here?
Tang Wulin immediately made up his mind. "Let's go deeper into the island."
He firmly believed that the academy wouldn't send them on a suicide mission. Seeing as they were supposed to undergo their military training here, there had to be a way to survive.
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