Ian Calvin

A solid cast iron cannonball, with a piercing shriek, crossed hundreds of meters of sea and slammed into the waterline hull of the Windbreaker.

"Boom--"

Chen Old's oak hull shattered with a roar, and a wave of razor-sharp wooden splinters swept through the cabin. The cannonball, with its residual kinetic energy, bounced around inside.

"Ahhhhhh---"

The slaves crammed into the lower decks had nowhere to hide in their panic. They were mowed down by the debris and the cannonball, a scene of blood and dismembered limbs.

Wails and screams rose in a cacophony, filling the cabin with fear and despair.

Lin Yuan "felt" a heavy object bouncing towards his back.

"Dodge," he instinctively rolled, evading the "attack."

But then he was splashed in the face with a stream of scalding liquid, his lips and teeth filling with the taste of rust.

Lin Yuan suddenly sat up from the ground, his eyes snapping open to a gruesome sight: a mangled body with a gaping hole in its chest, blood spurting out like a fountain.

The sheer impact of the scene before him made him forget to ponder the strangeness of his dream-like evasion.

"I'm not dead, I..."

He looked around, finding the scene vastly different from what he'd imagined.

The crowded cabin was breached by a large hole, the only source of light. It was at the waterline, and as the ship pitched, seawater poured into the cabin.

The cabin was packed with people, disheveled, strangely dressed, with blood splattered everywhere, broken limbs, and agonizing cries.

The pungent smell of fermented feces, blood, organs, and seawater mixed together, assaulting his senses in waves.

"I'm really not dead? But, where am I?"

He remembered being in a car accident on his way home from work.

While waiting at a red light, a truck, swerving to avoid an electric scooter, lost control and barreled towards him. He had been engrossed in his phone, only realizing the danger when passersby shouted. It was too late; his head made intimate contact with steel.

"I shouldn't have been on my phone. If I'd noticed earlier, maybe I could have dodged."

"Wear a helmet, stay happy. How could I forget my helmet? If I had worn one, maybe it would have saved my life."

Lin Yuan tried to recall details while shuffling to a spot against the cabin wall, away from the hole, using the hull to steady himself.

"This isn't my body," Lin Yuan looked down to check his physical condition. He found several wounds, some pale and clearly old, but thankfully none were severe.

Besides that, the body felt fine. His movements earlier had been agile, his coordination excellent, and his muscles well-defined and strong.

His original self, due to long hours of coding and overtime, had been in a sub-healthy state. This was definitely not his body!

Transmigration?

"Who am I? What do I do?"

He admitted he was a little panicked right now.

Lin Yuan took deep breaths, squatting against the wall, trying to calm himself.

In a daze, he seemed to enter another world. As soon as he did, a flood of unfamiliar yet familiar memories surged forth.

His name was Ian·Calvender, the 17-year-old son of Baron Arnold Calvender, the lord of Storm Cape at the southernmost tip of the Poldoria Kingdom.

This world was called Aiolanga, a world with the Extraordinary Sequence and numerous intelligent races. Humans were the masters of the Aiolanga continent, ruling for thousands of years since the dawn of recorded history, the Ice Age.

The continent was divided into the East and West. The Western Continent was shaped like an inverted T and lay thousands of miles across the Storm Sea.

The Eastern Continent was long and narrow, only one-third the size of the Western Continent, stretching northwest to southeast, like a curved blade piercing the Sea of Death.

The Poldoria Kingdom was the largest kingdom on the Eastern Continent, occupying its southern end.

For the first two thousand six hundred years of the Fifth Epoch, most of the continent was surrounded by an endless mist. This mist contained extraordinary powers; entering it meant losing one's senses and eventually dying at sea, hence the mist-shrouded ocean was called the Sea of Death.

However, thirty-three years ago, in the year 2602 of the Fifth Epoch, the Mana Tide gradually dispersed the ocean mists. Adventurers discovered islands in the distant oceans and brought back immense wealth. Humanity fell into a frenzy, and the Age of Exploration began.

Some gained immense wealth, while others, by this opportunity, stepped into the Extraordinary Sequence. The Sea of Death became the Sea of Miracles.

Storm Cape was originally just a protruding corner at the southernmost tip of the Eastern Continent. Its territory was not small, but it had little arable land and was barren, relying on fishing for its livelihood.

Because the territory experienced frequent storms and rough seas, it was named Storm Cape.

However, it possessed a natural deep-water harbor and served as a bridgehead for exploring the southern Sea of Miracles. Thus, the lord of Storm Cape became one of the first beneficiaries of the great voyages.

But just a few nights ago, a large pirate fleet suddenly attacked Storm Cape. Among them was Blackbeard, one of the three major pirate groups of the Storm Sea.

The attack was sudden. The castle, built on a sheltered cliff by the sea, was breached, and pirates swarmed in, including more than a dozen extraordinary individuals.

The family castle had six or seven extraordinary professionals, including his father, a Sequence 8 Tide Hunter, and himself, Ian, a Sequence 9 Alchemist, as well as the captain of the guard, the steward, and several other extraordinary individuals.

But caught off guard, they were no match for these pirates who had fought through blood and fire.

In the critical moment, his father pushed him off the castle, holding back the pirates with his brother and the guards.

Ian fell into the turbulent Storm Sea. His father's contracted sea beast, a Deep Sea Swordfish, had already received the order and brought him to break through the sea.

During the breakout, Ian and the swordfish were hit by an unknown Incantation. After evading the pursuers, the swordfish took him to a reef and collapsed from exhaustion.

Hit by the Incantation, Ian was disoriented and struggled to stay conscious. His last memory was of a passing merchant ship "rescuing" him while he was groggy.

In the chaos, he experienced Ian's brief life, absorbing his experiences and emotions. It was hazier than a personal experience, yet more profound than watching a movie.

"It seems you couldn't make it in the end."

Lin Yuan calmed his complex emotions. Since he had transmigrated, he would henceforth be Ian Kalvender.

Snapping back to reality, Ian found himself in a hazy space, his body feeling like nothingness, drifting wherever his will took him.

The "sky" was covered by an endless curtain of void, like a deep, clean expanse devoid of stars.

Two "celestial bodies" hung high in the void.

In the center was a golden "sun," emitting a gentle, soft radiance that filled the entire space.

Beside it was a small "star," emitting a faint red glow.

"Beneath his feet" was a small, thin, shimmering lake. The lake didn't feel large and was nearly dry.

The most striking feature in the space was a tree, like a newborn, standing in the middle of the small lake. It was about a person's height, with a straight trunk, neither dense nor leafy branches.

Only its roots were massive, like a vast neural network, deeply embedded in the "lakebed" to an unknown depth. The exposed parts of the main and lateral roots, intertwined, even formed a "small island."

"This should be the Spirituality world. And this tree is the core of my transcendent profession, the Original Tree!"