The Southern Continent and the western coast of the Old Continent both faced the "Stormy Ocean," an expanse no one had conquered to this day.

This vast ocean featured extremely complex meteorological conditions and was recognized by naturalists as a more expansive and dangerous territory than the Sea of Echidna Monsters.

Some distance into the Stormy Ocean, about several hundred kilometers from the western coast of the Southern Continent, a massive archipelago loomed. It had suddenly emerged from the sea.

The main body consisted of 13 islands and 19 reefs, with a total area exceeding 7,500 square kilometers.

It appeared to have formed from an underwater volcanic eruption. Countless years must have passed, as the numerous volcanic vents on the islands had all transformed into crystal-clear volcanic lakes of varying sizes, presenting newcomers with a slice of marvelous natural scenery rarely seen elsewhere.

At the southeastern corner of the archipelago, near a small island, two adventurer ships were anchored. One was the Cold Raven, easily recognizable by its fiery red sails.

The other had a luminous hound figurehead beneath its bowsprit—the very protagonist of this unexpected incident, the Little Hound!

Hawkeye James had given Byron a rough explanation of the situation and then ended the communication.

He turned to look at the man beside him, a middle-aged Black Witch wearing a black robe and crown, his slender body resembling a large, black-feathered mynah.

"Mr. No, my ability, Concealment Aura, has a limited range. To maintain it for long, I can at most cover only my Cold Raven. Are you sure this can really conceal the entire small island and evade enemy detection?"

A few days ago, when the first colonization war started, the Pirate King assigned three warships as scouts to approach and detect Luanyun City. However, due to an unfortunate mix-up, they became the members of the entire Colonial Fleet with the fewest losses.

After the battle, they didn’t go to the Centaur Archipelago to meet the others. Instead, they immediately disbanded. Each headed towards the New Continent, initiating the first round of land-grabbing.

Whale oil technology represented the future, but solid, fertile land represented the present.

The Cold Raven’s luck wasn’t very good.

While exploring the ruins of Luanyun City, they were swept up by a sudden Blue Hole and unexpectedly arrived at the West Coast, where they coincidentally encountered the fleeing Little Hound.

They were also affected and had to gather together to flee for their lives.

The pursuers were too strong. Even together, they couldn’t overcome them and had no choice but to hide temporarily in this archipelago with its relatively complex terrain.

The Third-order Grand Wizard, Mr. No (Louis Williams), immediately showed James an impressive trick, using a ritual Black Sorcery from the Forbidden Book called Gestalt:

"Say in front of a mirror every day, ’Who are you?’ for a month, and your personality will be completely reformatted.

From then on, as long as you activate the Word Spirit, you can conceptually reshape yourself into any form you desire.

Whatever you think you are, you become, and you gain the corresponding functions.

It’s a powerful Word Spirit witchcraft, also known as ’Real Delusional Disorder.’

For instance, becoming a chatty mynah, a pink caterpillar, or a huge cloak of invisibility that could cover an entire island..."

This potent ability had also turned Mr. No (Louis) into a highly adaptable jack-of-all-trades.

The price was that he had to be an ultimate contrarian. Whatever someone else said, he had to argue against it to feel comfortable.

Hearing James’s question, he decisively shook his head.

"No, no, no, I’m not Mr. No. I am now an invisible cloak. Would an invisible cloak have a mouth? Don’t talk to me."

"Uh..."

Already accustomed to his contrarian nature, James had no choice but to keep silent.

The other’s Black Sorcery was somewhat similar to his Fantasia Armory. It was more adaptable but clearly made one more insane.

If you weren’t careful and confused your own perception, truly thinking of yourself as something else, you might never be able to change back.

Becoming an invisible cloak was still okay; at most, it prevented others on the outside from discovering you.

But if you truly believed you were a stone, a clump of weeds, or even a... toilet brush, then living or dying as you wished would become impossible.

Hawkeye James shook his head, completely abandoning the idea of communicating with this First Mate.

He was about to find the captain of the Little Hound, the Naturalist Charles, to tell him he had found reinforcements.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Make way, make way!"

A ragged and wild-looking man, like a savage, riding a giant ground sparrow taller than a person, burst out from the nearby woods.

Behind him, a swarm of giant dragonflies and mosquitoes, larger than eagles, relentlessly pursued.

"Wow, such big bugs! Such big birds!" Byron, who had just completed the synesthesia, was startled.

The others, however, were already accustomed to such a sight.

On this island—no, it should be said that the characteristic of all creatures on the entire Southern Continent was one word: BIG!

Everything’s size was enormous, be it plants, insects, animals, or mushrooms. Dragonflies with a three-meter wingspan, ground sparrows taller than ostriches, millipedes larger than four or five carriages strung together, and brown bears the size of small hills—it was as if they had entered the Kingdom of Giants.

They finally understood why, in the Mythological Era, it was called the "Hundred Beasts Paradise."

"Musketeers, fire!"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The sailors on both ships immediately lined up and opened fire. They repelled the dragonflies and mosquitoes, rescuing the Third-order Naturalist Charles, who had stealthily gone off to conduct research on his own.

The latter, however, was still clutching the neck of the ground sparrow, running wildly while cheering, "Gentlemen, you’d never guess what a significant discovery I’ve made this time! This area is clearly a cluster of islands not far from each other, yet on the different islands, there are a full fourteen types of giant ground sparrows with clear differences in appearance and size.

But, they all share a common ancestor!

I believe this is the result of geographical isolation between islands and ecological niche differentiation caused by different environments on each island.

That is to say, creatures around the world may not have been made by the Creator, as the Church preaches, and then remained unchanged forever.

Instead, as time goes on, to adapt to the environment and different prey, they undergo diverse adaptive changes. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

I think if we could extract the secrets of these ground sparrows, we would have a revolutionary discovery that would overturn everyone’s understanding!"

As he spoke, a dazzling Spiritual Radiance shone from him, and his Spirituality climbed steadily.

At Second Order, Naturalists acquire the core ability Exploration Discovery. The more unknowns they explore, the higher their Spirituality.

Simultaneously, the rarer the items they are first to discover in an unknown world, and the fewer people who have found them, the stronger the abilities they gain from these discoveries.

At Third Order, they write their own Naturalist’s Compendium. They can use their knowledge to summon the projections or transcendent abilities of various known entities. The deeper their understanding of these entities, the stronger they become.

At Fourth Order, they discover and understand the world, extract Truths, research their own original theories, and then publish them for wider acceptance. The closer this pioneering knowledge comes to Truth, and the larger the audience it reaches, the stronger the Naturalist’s abilities become. Upon reaching a critical point, they can complete their Fourth-order promotion.

This Third-order Naturalist, Charles, was clearly fortunate in his misfortune. He had stumbled upon a tremendous discovery here while fleeing for his life and immediately received a bounty from the collective unconscious sea of humanity.

An epoch-making theory seemed to be on the verge of emerging.

The sky above seemed to resonate, issuing a series of distant, muted thunderclaps.

"The Little Hound is full of weirdos!" James merely thought the entire adventure team was strange.

But Byron, experiencing synesthesia with James, looked at the Naturalist as if he had seen a priceless treasure.

Even the Sun Crown, which Edward IV had specifically requested to be brought back, paled in comparison to him.

I have a feeling this gentleman is about to shatter the very foundations of the Creator Church.

He was about to use James’s body to communicate with him but noticed that the distant thunder was growing louder. He couldn’t help but look up with the others.

They saw several golden Sun Chariots blazing from the direction of the continent’s West Coast. They were pulled by what appeared to be some kind of large, flaming birds, visible only as a vague outline, which made one feel an overwhelming heat just by looking.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Several Sun Chariots racing across the sky were like meteors, hurtling down with a ferocity that was utterly terrifying.

"Not good, it’s the Transcendents from the Sun Empire coming after us!"

Once the identities of the newcomers were clear, the sailors, who had suffered considerable losses at their hands, were thrown into tumult.

At this moment, they were unsure if the usually unreliable Mr. No, in his current form as an invisibility cloak, could shield them from the pursuers’ sight.

Just as they were gripping their weapons, ready to fight desperately if things turned south, the sharp-eyed Hawkeye suddenly noticed another adventure ship of Old Continent design appearing on the sea ahead.

But it wasn’t the expected reinforcements, the Golden Deer; it was:

"I recognize them! That’s the Fourth-order adventure captain of the Kingdom of Castilia, the Plunderer Francisco Pizarro, and his adventure ship, the Thirteen Braves! Huh? Could it be that they’ve also stolen something from the Sun Empire and are now being chased by them?"