Chapter 1

As the Sacred Hammer slowly flew through the high sky, the old magic ape Gelugelu was gripping the rope tightly, trying to suppress the trembling of his muscles while watching the vines and bamboo sticks above his head.

He could swear to the entire forest, to every one of his ancestors, to anything he could find, that he had never imagined he would actually fly into the sky one day!

This strange device called a "hot air balloon," this heavy and large contraption assembled from blue magic whale skin, vines, wood, and bamboo sticks, actually flew! Just like the Head Wolf said, it flew!

He vaguely remembered something else the Head Wolf had said, something about the hot air balloon being a bit beyond expectations, and the final product should actually be called an airship, and something about building a fleet... In short, the things the Head Wolf said were always full of wisdom, filled with incomprehensible new ideas. The old magic ape had always considered himself the tribe's wise man, but after the Head Wolf arrived, he no longer dared to mention that title, especially now, after flying into the sky in a basket hanging from a balloon, he dared not doubt anything the Head Wolf said.

The cold wind blew into the crew compartment through the gaps between the rattan boxes. The old magic ape heard some structures on the hot air balloon (or rather, the airship) making creaking sounds. These sounds made his hair stand on end, making him feel like the big thing might fall apart at any moment, but he tried not to show too much cowardice, because he wasn't the only one in the crew compartment: many young magic apes and a small group of screaming goblin runts were squeezed into this large rattan box. In front of these young fellows, Gelugelu felt it necessary to maintain sufficient dignity. He grabbed the rope beside him, peering out at the sky through the gaps in the rattan box, and pretended to be calm: "Don't worry, the Head Wolf said it's normal for the hot air balloon to shake!"

The Head Wolf might have said that, or maybe not, who knows. Anyway, most of the stupid kids were shaking like leaves, and no one was paying attention to old Gelugelu's movements.

A young magic ape crawled out of the corner of the rattan box, holding a soft grass mat in his hand. He stuffed the mat behind Gelugelu, blocking the cold wind blowing in from the gaps in the rattan box—although more cold wind still blew in from other gaps, the old magic ape felt much more comfortable. He patted the young magic ape's shoulder with satisfaction: "You are good."

"Chieftain," the young magic ape nodded respectfully, "when will we land?"

Gelugelu thought for a moment and replied: "Listen to the Head Wolf."

And what was the Head Wolf doing at this time?

She was sitting in the "captain's room" on the upper level of the rattan box, observing the outside through the open skylight.

Silver hair, a pair of energetic triangular ears, a fluffy big tail, strange clothes—the Head Wolf's appearance was three parts wolf, seven parts human. When she first came to the beast horde, most of the forest beasts treated her as an invading human. The first to question and challenge her was the leader of the forest magic wolves—strictly speaking, the former leader. This leader quickly paid the price for his challenge, in fact, it only took three minutes, and then the silver-haired, golden-eyed girl naturally became the "Head Wolf" of the beast horde.

Lily was squatting on her cushion, her face dirty from helping to solve a small problem with the hot air balloon. Her clothes were already torn in many places, but to compensate, a thick fur cloak was draped over her body—this fur cloak was a complete forest magic wolf skin, and the wolf skin's head and teeth were still intact. After a little processing, the large wolf head became the cloak's hood. Lily was very satisfied with wearing it on her head, which made her look like a wild forest hunter: this was the survival rule of the wolf pack on the Floating Island. The new leader who rose to power through duels draped the loser's fur on her body to show her supreme status in the pack.

However, the "werewolf" girl's biggest comment on this new piece of clothing was that it was quite warm, except for the strong smell.

After confirming the current altitude and the hot air balloon's working status, Lily waved to the two gnolls at the door: "Tell the fire foxes to reduce the fire a little. The altitude is already good. Just maintain the current temperature."

The two gnolls at the door immediately made loud nasal sounds. These two pointed-mouthed, monkey-cheeked fellows, who were fortunate enough to be chosen as "guards" by the Head Wolf, immediately climbed up the cables to the uppermost hanging basket with their hands and feet, and then climbed to the two parallel air bladders: under each air bladder was a large basket made of non-combustible "black thorn wood." Several fire foxes were趴 in these large baskets, stretching their tails into the opening of the hot air balloon to ignite elemental fire—fire foxes were not powerful guys in the forest. They could only be considered slightly more advanced beasts, not even sub-races. Their only power to ignite elemental fire could only bully ordinary animals that didn't know magic at all, but here, they became the most important source of power for the hot air balloon.

The fire foxes received the order and made a series of chattering sounds, and then gradually reduced their respective heating power according to the previously trained cooperation method—they completed it very smoothly, but Lily had put in a lot of effort before to teach these stupid guys how to stably heat the hot air balloon.

Feeling that the "hot air balloon airship" had returned to stability, Lily nodded with satisfaction, and then looked expectantly towards the distant continental border.

She was quite satisfied with the aircraft she designed, and even more surprisingly satisfied with the work efficiency of the sub-races—although those guys were a bit stupid, their speed in building hot air balloons was not slow at all!

Originally, she thought it would take at least a month to leave that desolate ghost place, but she didn't expect the local primitive races to each have their own magical abilities. Some were incredibly strong, some were born able to communicate with plants, some could use flames, and some could create adhesives that were stronger than steel. With the help of these sub-races with innate magical abilities, most of the time-consuming projects for the hot air balloon were actually completed in a very short time, so she simply built six airships in one go, and she also improved her initial design blueprint, upgrading the previously conceived simple balloon into something similar to an airship.

With these things, she felt that her plan to go to that continent was foolproof.

According to what the old magic ape said, there were human kingdoms on the continent. If she wanted to find the Landlord, the best choice was of course to go to the human kingdoms—the Landlord was a pain in the ass, and the places where things were most likely to happen were usually crowds of people, so to find the Landlord, she had to find crowds of people. The husky girl Lily thought her logic was completely correct.

After reaching a certain altitude, the airship began to accelerate slowly. Lily leaned out of the cabin and saw the wooden paddles on both sides of the gondola spinning rapidly. These paddles were connected together with some thick wooden cranks, and the power source was the bear monsters in the lower gondola. Those big guys with super strength could continuously shake the axles for a day and a night without resting, making them the most ideal laborers.

Lily moved a little, changed her posture, and leaned comfortably on the seat covered with grass mats and animal skins. She stretched her limbs and yawned without any ladylike demeanor, while pondering what to eat for the next meal and looking at the clouds through the skylight directly above. The ropes and supports used to connect the two air bladders crisscrossed in her vision, forming a grid, as if dividing the sky into many fragmented pieces, and between these fragments, all kinds of strangely shaped clouds slowly receded like a revolving lantern.

A cloud split open, and a white, strange thing emerged from behind the clouds.

Lily was about to fall asleep at this time, but the moment the white, strange thing appeared, she woke up. She blinked, her ears twitched, and she realized it was a huge man-made aircraft.

It was not in the same league as the airship she was riding: it was a real big ship, a beautiful airship that was sophisticated and advanced!

Lily jumped up from her cushion. She looked up at the magic-guided warship that was gradually emerging from the clouds. Her golden eyes reflected the latter's streamlined hull and the spectacular goddess statue on the stern. Her mind didn't know what she was thinking. The expression on her face was a little nervous for a while, and then relaxed again. The magic-guided warship quickly and easily overtook the airship. After leaving two heat trails in the clouds, it drew an arc and gradually approached "Luniere," the airport city in the southern Ansu continent.

Just then, a violent shaking suddenly came from beneath Lily's feet.

"What's going on?!" she immediately asked a gnoll who was on duty nearby, "Is the heat in the two air bladders different?"

The gnoll ran out in a panic, and Lily followed him out of the room: she was planning to check the condition of the airship.

But what she saw was something else:

The distant sky was already dark at some unknown time, and the heavy shadow was still surging towards here. Large masses of mist and shadow rolled up the edge cliffs of the Ansu continent like mud pouring out of the abyss. The black clouds were wrapped in shrill, strange noises. Behind the airship, the Floating Island that had been left behind was also ravaged by some terrifying force. Lily watched as the entire island began to tremble violently. A huge cloud of black smoke appeared out of thin air from the endless void below the island. When the black smoke rose, it directly impacted the base of the Floating Island. Accompanied by a distant and terrifying roar, the ancient volcano in the center of the Floating Island slowly emitted thick smoke, and then a fiery pillar of fire erupted from the top of the mountain.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the entire island was engulfed in a sea of fire.

The most terrifying Chaos Tide in the Kolo world had begun.