Chapter 714: Chapter 47: The Current State of Penglai Island

"Of course, it is I..."

Gu Mo calmly replied, while gradually reining in the formidable power of his body.

He was attempting to switch the second form of "Dragon Transformation" back to the first form of "Human Form," based on experiences from other worlds.

With a dragon’s body that matched the appearance of winding mountain ranges, it undoubtedly possessed the highest level of muscle strength. A slight twist of the body could cause large-scale terrain changes, snap mountain peaks, and crack the earth into deep ravines... Feeling the overwhelming monster strength of this massive body, a sudden doubt crept into his mind.

—Although Tima is a ready-made and the only point of reference, but...

—Is it really suitable to directly align with it?

Tima’s true form is the Indian Ocean, and upon fully manifesting, it could even seize the oceans of the whole world, recreating the Earth’s original oceanic grandeur. The basic scale of Gu Mo is two times the size of Earth’s oceans... Does this massive volume bring overwhelming benefits as well?

Just like his current dragon body, it probably surpasses Tima’s demon dragon form in size, and this isn’t even the true form.

"This, this..."

Elder Joseph trembled, clutching his chest and gasping heavily, his tone becoming more fervent, almost like a wobbly prayer, which made his speech come out stammered: "Truly incredible! You are so great... Can I... Can I..."

"I already know the reason for your visit..."

The dragon, a being beyond human intelligence, so vast that trying to capture its entirety with the eyes seemed unrealistic, quietly looked down from the sky at the enormous luxury cruise ship. Without any noticeable movement or speech, the golden, majestic pupils were ice-cold and indifferent.

Only the soul-shaking roar reverberated in people’s minds, the mighty voice seemed to come from distant skies, yet also echoed in their ears.

"As I said before, you are indeed fated ones in this instance, so according to the age-old island rules, you may choose to stay or leave."

Leaving behind these words, Gu Mo gently lifted his gigantic dragon head, spiraling upwards to a height that seemed high enough to overlook the clouds. The serpentine body moving through the mountain ranges did not erase the earth, turning mountains into dust; in the short time of conversation, he had already meticulously accustomed and mastered this colossal body.

Benefiting from the God-like computational power brought by the Human Intelligence Integration Technique, he faced no challenges in this regard. After adjusting, sorting, and optimizing, everything became natural once again.

The only troubling thing was how much commotion this time caused...

But no matter, let them worry about it.

After all, the storm and thunder that were stirred up caused no real harm, erased by his power before impacting the Human World, and his appearance over the ocean was seen only by satellites and this cruise in the vicinity of the incident site.

Gu Mo had utter faith in their ability to deny or fabricate, simply controlling the information, sealing key details, then letting some so-called authoritative experts, whom no one has heard of but sound intimidating, rattle off bizarre theories...

Even if some do not believe the official explanation, clinging to conspiracy theories, as long as internet trolls are hired to stir fake and real news together, throwing out even more extreme conspiracy theories to muddy the waters, naturally, the objective of obscuring and blocking the truth can be achieved. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Choose to stay or leave as you will, the village is inland on the island, you can rest if you like..."

After taking one last look at the scene on the cruise ship, he said no more.

He’s not a nanny needing to carefully serve this group, thoughtfully answering every question, and meticulously organizing everything... He just needs to plainly express his opinion and allow them to stay. Saying too much could damage his current persona.

The dragon form, as enormous as winding mountains, quickly faded, seemingly transforming into a stream of light, disappearing silently into the air.

"..."

"..."

Deathly silence.

The cruise ship remained in silence, many clutching their chests, breathing heavily, hearts pounding wildly. Everything that just happened was short yet so shocking, leaving them dazed as though in a dream, but the intense unreality didn’t diminish the soul-fleeting impact.

Some instinctively looked toward the direction of the top deck, both fearful and angry.

But others had a burning excitement in their eyes, as if clutching the last straw while drowning—

Even though Joseph’s dialogue with that unimaginably powerful being was very brief, they vaguely realized something. It seemed the cruise itself was indeed meant for this, not as innocent as they thought... And that was indeed the case.

The cruise departure was merely a guise, as the authorities did not want the initial situation to continue and have adverse effects.

It had always been managed with downplaying tactics, so how could they allow some crazy speculators to hunt back and forth in these waters for three, five, even eight to ten years? Naturally, a reasonable explanation was needed on the surface, and even for a cruise, there were many layers of negotiations and exchange of interests involved.

The elder didn’t care about those looks, took a few trembling breaths, and quickly descended from the top deck, loudly saying, "Victor, we’re leaving!"

The middle-aged man quickly came to his senses, gritting his teeth hard, and directly followed down.

The elegantly dressed woman by the pool on the lower deck, her eyes flickered once, also covered her swollen forehead, preparing to take action together. They had reached this point, there was absolutely no reason to give up. She squeezed through the crowd, carefully stepping over someone sitting on the ground, and keenly noticed that others were also starting to move.

Their gazes briefly met and then parted again, without saying anything.

Some were agents from other countries, while others were well-prepared, even coming for the same target as these prominent families. As they all started moving, naturally causing commotion within the crowd, others looked at each other in dismay, eventually gritting their teeth and following as well.

The crowd was like a flock of sheep, susceptible to herd behavior. In a situation where most people were bewildered and terrified, lost in panic, once someone started acting decisively, the others would naturally follow suit.

However, not everyone followed blindly, and angry shouts and screams began to erupt. Since the chaos began before, a lot of fear, dread, despair, and other negative emotions had accumulated, and some people had reached their limit.

Moreover, at this moment, they subconsciously felt they had discovered this was all a conspiracy, and some extremists even believed everyone on board was a sacrifice, a sincere offering to a devil by some mastermind. Realizing this, they became hysterical, struggling and resisting frantically.

Screams, curses, and hexes.

The commotion spread among the crowd, and some, seeing red, directly charged forward, ready to start a fight.

......

...

Penglai Island’s area is vast, with a series of towering and rugged mountains.

However, traversing through it was not too difficult. After briefly resolving conflicts, the company of people with bruised faces formed a large group. They cautiously crossed forests, walked along mountain paths, entered caves... and were confident they wouldn’t get lost—

Not only because there was someone who had been here before to lead the way, but also because there was only one road from the beach to the inland island leading straight to the lakeside village, and it was very obvious.

Wooden bridges, paths...

Stone statues, shrines...

These signs were very clear along the way, natural yet quaint, despite being aged. The signs of wear were apparent, with decaying and aging wood, moss-covered stone bases, but at least it showed that the artificially maintained road’s direction was correct, somewhat reassuring them.

But only just a little bit.

Walking through this overly well-preserved natural environment, they couldn’t help but be skeptical. However, with the large number of people, numbering hundreds... in fact, most people were hiding on the cruise ship, unwilling to come down, distinctly forming two factions.

Otherwise, the marching formation would have been even larger.

After crossing the last mountain, the view ahead suddenly opened up, with a mirror-like lake surrounded by mountains. The lakeside village’s houses stretched endlessly, resembling an ink wash painting, full of ancient charm, with picturesque scenery, though only a portion of people could appreciate this mood.

"We... arrived..."

The middle-aged man Victor took a deep breath of air and fervently remarked.

He had no doubt that there was some special substance in the atmosphere of this island, making him feel invigorated throughout the journey, even the physical pain and injuries seemed to have mostly healed, allowing him to walk with brisk energy.

Truly an Immortal Paradise! Indeed, a Grotto Heaven Blessed Land!

——It must be said that over these years, besides mastering fluent Chinese, he also delved into many related mysterious legends and materials.

At this point, he suddenly felt a surge of spirit, because he saw that familiar Immortal standing on the outskirts of the village, wearing a moon-white Daoist robe, seemingly pondering as he surveyed the village.

Gu Mo was observing the village before him, thinking it was time to properly adjust the time barrier.

Thanks to the situation of this barrier, time on Penglai Island had indeed been moving very, very slowly—

Even in the Nioh World over there, he had already unified the Japanese Archipelago and was preparing to rename it as Fusang Province. Floating islands and cloud cities had all entered the plan, ready to give Western colonists a grand gift when the Age of Exploration opened fully...

And in that dimension where the time flow was the fastest and also the most unique with conceptual abilities everywhere, everything moved at an absurd speed. Exaggeratedly speaking, even a brief nap would see years pass by. If he hadn’t already developed an Immortal’s perspective and spirit, he wouldn’t have managed, and would certainly have gone insane.

Only Penglai Island progressed slowly—

When almost all of the Moon’s interior had been replaced by stratified mechanical structures, and even all of Jupiter’s Moon Europa evolved a complete ecosystem, not much time had passed here, just enough to restore the once-dilapidated village...

It was akin to Miss Naoki, who was concerned and asking him, instinctively thinking that the others had only been gone for a few days, which was somewhat ridiculous.