Cangqiong had just entered when it collided head-on with a space gale that surged out from a massive spatial rift on the side.

The space gale had a diameter of nearly ten thousand meters, with the might it carried nearing the Fifth Rank.

"Warning ahead at XXXX coordinates, detected strong spatial energy fluctuations, suspected signs of a space gale eruption, please evade."

Fortunately, the Dome Sky Wisdom Brain's alert was swift, and Song Chi almost simultaneously increased the thrust of both the engine and the thrusters, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with the nearly ten-thousand-meter gale.

Even so, Cangqiong was swept into the gravitational circle of the space gale, and it was only due to the warship's sufficient spatial resistance that no significant damage was caused.

However, under the tearing force of the space gale's gravitational field, the Mirage Transformation Pearl of Mirage Dragon, by default, registered the attack, forcing Cangqiong to exit from its Mirage Shadow state.

But at present, being located within this spatial fragmentation zone, the warship's appearance didn't matter much as it wasn't detectable from the outside.

After the threat of the space gale was over, the warship soon plunged into a collapsing spatial zone.

Crack, crack, crack!

In this intensely compressed and collapsing region, Cangqiong's hull immediately faced unimaginable pressure, and Song Chi could clearly hear the faint cracking noises coming from various parts of the warship.

Nonetheless, this was still manageable for two reasons. First, the region of collapsing space was not very large and was quickly traversed. Second, the warship's hull had the additional strength amplification of the Heart of Behemoth component, easily handling what would be only a minor collapse even for a regular warship.

Song Chi carefully calculated that the span of the spatial fragmentation belt, covering over ten thousand kilometers outside of the Floating Land Shield, took nearly ten days for Cangqiong, a warship with its own considerable spatial resistance, to fully cross.

But don't think this speed was slow. This wasn't the kind of starry space where one could freely cruise at lightspeed. In this kind of spatial fragmentation belt, one had to tread cautiously every hundred meters, let alone ten thousand kilometers.

Before reaching the end of the spatial fragmentation belt, that is, before the Floating Land Shield of the 5th Rank Floating Land below, Cangqiong experienced a minor incident.

A sudden Fifth Rank Level space gale engulfed Cangqiong entirely. Even though the ship's significant spatial resistance prevented any serious damage in the short term, the storm's Fifth Rank Level gravitational force was indeed frightening, and it took the warship half a day to break free.

Eventually, it was by simultaneously activating the feature "Light Energy Aggregation" from the Light Energy Aggregation Engine and "Phantom Trace" from the Phantom Thruster that Cangqiong managed to escape the Fifth Rank space storm.

At the end of the spatial fragmentation belt, looking down at the riddled Floating Land Shield below, a light of realization flicked across Song Chi's eyes.

He had guessed before that the 5th Rank Floating Land's Shield was likely eroded beyond recognition by the continuous spatial rifts or space gales. It seemed he was right.

The Floating Land Shield of the 5th Rank Floating Land was certainly formidable, capable of withstanding Sixth Rank Level attacks for quite some time, but space gales were different; the gales blowing from the depths of the void rifts could sometimes reach the might of the Sixth or even Seventh Rank or higher.

Peering through the cracks in the Floating Land Shield, Song Chi looked towards the interior of the Floating Land.

"There are quite a few signs of life activity; is it a life-form Floating Land..."

He frowned slightly, as he would have preferred it to be a resource-type Floating Land.

But there was no choice now; having come all this way, it obviously wasn't possible to just leave.

Before controlling Cangqiong to enter the interior of this Floating Land, Song Chi activated the feature "Zen Seal: Inner Speed," allowing the "Mirage Shadow" feature to complete its cooldown. Immediately afterward, he reactivated "Mirage Shadow."

At thirteen hundred meters, Cangqiong, if charging directly in, couldn't possibly be concealed by a mere Void Membrane; the Mirage Shadow was still necessary.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

The engines roared as the warship moved slowly toward a nearly ten-thousand-meter-wide rift in front.

"Hm?"

In the instant he passed through the crack in the Floating Land Shield, Song Chi instinctively perceived something. He turned his gaze to the deep Floating Land Firmament on the side and the surrounding battered Floating Land Shield. He felt he had just caught a trace of a strange presence.

The breath within held an extreme, disquieting chill, which Song Chi found difficult to articulate with words.

However, as fleeting as this sensation was, it vanished just as quickly once the Cang Qiong fully entered the depths of the Floating Land, as if it had been but a mere illusion.

Song Chi shook his head, making a point to inspect the "Abnormal Status Purifier" component meticulously, ensuring that nothing alien had tainted the warship. He chose not to dwell on it and refocused his attention on the vast expanse of the Floating Land below, even more enormous than the Dragon Spine Continent.

It was a typical life-bearing Floating Land, with mountains and water, rich in energy factors, showcasing extraordinary manifestations.

In regard to this, Song Chi felt intensely wary yet was simultaneously intrigued by the Floating Land.

With the help of Mirage Shadow, Cang Qiong successfully descended to the Floating Land's surface, and once it had landed, the rest became much easier.

Days later, with the aid of the Void Demon, Song Chi had come to understand some basic facts about the Floating Land.

Firstly, this Floating Land was called the Holy Dragon Continent, home to thousands of various kingdoms, empires, churches, and the like, with the strongest amongst them being the Holy Dragon Central Empire, a human realm backed by the Church of Light.

Next, there were nations established by races such as the beastmen, elves, and dwarfs.

In sum, it resembled the types of Floating Lands described in the fantasy novels of Song Chi's past life, where races eternally battled each other, where hidden Evil God Churches lurked, and Righteous God Churches each controlled one or multiple kingdoms to proclaim their legitimacy.

Upon hearing the terms Evil God and Righteous God, Song Chi's first instinct was dread.

Gods?

In the Shattered Starry Sea, beings that dared call themselves gods and actively spread their faith were at least of Dominator Rank, and if he had unwittingly entered the pastures of such mighty entities, the threat would be unimaginably great.

However, he then reasoned that if they truly were beings of such grand stature, how could they all flock to a mere Fifth Rank Floating Land?

With this in mind, Song Chi quickly realized that those so-called divine spirits of the Holy Dragon Continent were likely the self-aggrandizing kind, and their position would not surpass Fifth Rank.

Upon deducing this, Song Chi involuntarily recalled the strange breath he had sensed upon entering the Floating Land.

It seemed that the chilling breath he had perceived was likely from one of those so-called "Evil Gods."

As he spoke to himself, the Dome Sky Wisdom Brain immediately lined up a series of conjectures.

[Conjecture one: Sensory error, no special breath exists, probability 1.02%.]

[Conjecture two: A special spiritual entity from the starry space, after devouring parts of the Holy Dragon Continent's Floating Land Origin Rule, transformed into an indescribable divine presence, probability 10.97%.]

[Conjecture three: Holy Dragon Continent's native creatures, upon reaching the pinnacle of the Supernatural System, merged with the Floating Land Origin, becoming akin to Floating Land consciousness, probability 88%.]

[Conjecture four: Other possibilities, probability 0.01%.]

...

Clearly, the Dome Sky Wisdom Brain inclined toward the conclusion that the so-called gods were actually native creatures of the Holy Dragon Continent, and as for the reason –

That space fragmentation belt outside of the Holy Dragon Continent effectively prevented most special spiritual entities from the starry space from entering.

Aside from that, the only explanation remaining was that the gods belonged to the Continent's natives themselves, certainly not the work of foreign Dominators grazing their flocks.

Holy Dragon Continent, Zijing Flower Kingdom, the capital city "Zijing City."

As the largest city in the Zijing Flower Kingdom, Zijing City had a permanent population of over a million. Compared to the chaos-ridden slums, the affluent district was synonymous with prosperity and order.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read