The branch that they had arrived at was near a place called the Sky Islands, which was where Lin Fan had to go next.
This was where Qing Ao's other ally lived.
As for why they were called the Sky Islands, it was because they were literal islands in the sky.
But they weren't islands in the traditional sense, but rather they were islands that were formed of clouds that people could walk on.
These cloud islands weren't made up of normal clouds, but rather a very dense cloud called the Gigacumulonimbus. This was a special cloud that was countless times denser than normal cumulonimbus clouds, making it more like a block of ice than a cloud.
There were beasts that settled and plant seeds that adapted, creating a proper environment on these Gigacumulonimbus clouds.
There was even a human city that had been built on one of these Sky Islands, but it was a special place that was ruled by one family that was free from the influence of the twelve great factions.
So there wasn't a direct transport gate to these islands, but as cultivators, they were able to fly up to these islands with tamed pets.
Lin Fan bought some of the special pets used as transport to bring them up to the Sky Islands.
Lin Fan could have had his pets bring him up there, but he didn't want to expose himself, so he chose to use these commercial pets instead.
The pets were quite fast, but of course they couldn't be as fast as Lin Fan's pets.
Still, it only took them around an hour to get to the Sky Islands that they needed to go.
As soon as they arrived, they found a lush forest spread out in front of them, which was certainly surprising since it was growing atop a cloud. However, that wasn't what attracted their attention since they had another destination.
In the center of this forest, in the center of this cloud, there was a mountain that was completely made of clouds.
Unlike the white clouds that made up the ground of this Sky Island, the clouds that made up this mountain were completely black. Not only that, there were traces of black lightning that kept flashing under the black surface of this mountain.
That was what gave this mountain the name Tempest Peak since there was a tempest brewing inside of this mountain almost constantly.
Lin Fan's group quickly made their way through the forest since no beast was willing to attack them with the aura they released.
It didn't take long before they reached the foot of Tempest Mountain.
Now that they were at the foot, looking up at this pitch black mountain, it seemed even more imposing.
However, they didn't have a choice since Qing Ao's other ally lived at the peak of this mountain. So they could only brace themselves and make the slow trek up the mountain.
They could have had the beasts that they bought fly up the mountain, but that would mean getting hit by the lightning that came out of the mountain from time to time. Instead of wasting their energy blocking all of these bolts of lightning, it was better to go slowly on the ground and only block the occasional bolts of lightning that fell, instead of the lightning storm.
But even if they went on the ground, they weren't slow since they were high level cultivators.
It took them around half an hour to climb up the mountain and reach the peak.
But the peak was where things became even more intense.
All of the thunder and storm clouds that made up the mountain gathered at the peak, so instead of rain, it was a never ending falling of bolts of lightning at the peak of this mountain.
To combat this, Lin Fan had no choice but to form a barrier with his life energy as he moved across the peak, looking for Qing Ao's ally.
Not only did he have to expend his life energy to form the barrier, he also had to strengthen it to protect the kids that were underneath it. After all, he needed Qing Bao Lan and Feng Yu to help him when he met Qing Ao's ally, but it really did take quite a bit of energy protecting the two of them.
Well, not just the two of them…
They wouldn't come out unless Xiao Feng and Xiao Huo were brought out along with them…
It was just a good thing that like before, it didn't take long before Qing Bao's ally appeared.
There was a giant flash of purple lightning in front of them before there was a beast made of lightning that had appeared.
This time, it was very easy to recognize what kind of beast this was because it had a very distinct form.
It was a qilin.
There were no other beasts that really had the same appearance as the qilin, so it was hard to mistake it for something else.
But just like last time, as soon as the qilin appeared…
"Human, who are you to trespass on my land!"
Then when the qilin saw Qing Bao Lan and Feng Yu…
"Lan Lan, Yu Yu? Why are you here?" After a pause, the qilin of lightning glared at Lin Fan and said, "Did you kidnap these two?"
But before it could start shooting out lightning at Lin Fan, Feng Yu was the one who spoke up this time, "Auntie Lei, we're here because our parents sent us here with this man. They have something that they want to talk to you about."
Qing Bao Lan quickly followed up by saying, "Auntie Lei, it's very important!"
The qilin of lightning was taken aback by the daughters of her two best friends speaking up for this human, but she still chose to give the human a chance since she knew that with her power, it wasn't hard for her to take care of him if the human did try to do something.
Lin Fan was surprised to see this. It seemed like this qilin's temper wasn't as bad as Feng Ling from before.
Of course, he also didn't panic because he had another trump card that he could use.
He had seen Hong Long and Feng Ling discussing this qilin before, so he knew that Hong Long also knew this qilin.
In fact, Hong Long had been watching and had been prepared to come out, but Lin Fan had stopped him since he didn't want to overwhelm this qilin right away.
After choosing to talk, the qilin of lightning suddenly shrank until she took human form. The form that appeared in front of Lin Fan was a beautiful woman with piercing purple hair and purple eyes.
After introducing herself as Lei Ting, she led their group a bit further up the mountain until they came to a cave and then brought them in to lead them to a palace that was inside of the mountain.
Lin Fan couldn't help revealing a bitter smile when he saw this.
It seemed like all these beasts liked having large palaces for some reason…
However, before they could reach the living room this time, there was a small qilin that suddenly dropped down from the roof, landing in front of the four kids. She ignored the two girls and went over to the two boys, sniffing their bodies before slightly knitting her brows.
As she stood there sniffing, she said, "No, this isn't right. I can smell a faint scent coming from the two of you, but you two aren't the ones that I'm looking for."
Everyone looked at this small qilin who had suddenly dropped with a shocked look, not understanding what was happening.
Only Lei Ting, who had been just as surprised by this small qilin falling down, shook her head with a bitter smile on her face.
She might have been a bit too free with her teachings as a parent…
The small qilin finally finished sizing up the group and turned its gaze to Lin Fan as it said, "Human, do you have any other pets that you're hiding? Bring them out now for me!"
Lin Fan was taken aback by how this small qilin talked to him, but he could already guess what was happening since he had already seen it twice. In fact, he was quite surprised by how sharp this small qilin's nose was.
But since there was no stopping this, Lin Fan decided to call out Xiao Lei as well.
As soon as Xiao Lei appeared, there was only a slight moment of delay before he was tackled by the small qilin.
Xiao Lei was completely caught off guard and just laid there on the ground, not understanding what was happening as he looked up at the small qilin atop him.
The small qilin seemed to have realized something and quickly took human form before picking Xiao Lei off the ground. The qilin who had transformed into a cute little girl with purple hair ran with Xiao Lei in her arms over to Lei Ting and said, "He's mine! Mommy, I want him!"
Lei Ting was about to say something, but when she looked at Xiao Lei, she suddenly narrowed her eyes.
She swallowed her words and released her spiritual senses, scanning Xiao Lei with them. As she did, her eyes filled with more and more shock.
In the end, she didn't answer the small qilin's request, but she looked at Lin Fan with a shocked gaze that also had a bit of inquiry in them.