Northern Shore of the Conquest Sea, Telva. Late at night, inside a suite at a luxury hotel, Dorothy was sitting on the sofa, eyes closed in repose. Through Vania in the distant Summer Tree, she was ravenously absorbing knowledge—bathing her mind in the countless sacred texts preserved by the Summer Tree people. After learning about the Tide Immersion Method, Summer Tree’s way of accumulating Chalice spirituality, Dorothy continued reading documents related to their mystical abilities. Knowing that the Tide Path was a branch path of Chalice with Lantern as its auxiliary, she quickly discovered another method of spiritual accumulation called the Faith Gathering Method. As the name suggests, the Faith Gathering Method involves accumulating spirituality by amassing reverence. Summer Tree society, known for its bold and combative customs, holds great respect for warriors. Each year, they hosted numerous public competitions that attracted large crowds—barehanded combat, swimming races, weightlifting challenges... Warriors showcased their strength before the people in these contests, winning applause with spectacular displays. Those who placed highly were given divine titles like Chosen of the Sea God, Warrior of the Ocean, or even Incarnation of the Wave Strider. With glory, titles, and recognition from the priests, those warriors earned elevated status and were worshipped by the populace. It was within this collective reverence that Lantern spirituality was born. … “Faith Gathering Method—so that’s how Summer Tree accumulates Lantern. It’s similar to Adele’s Desire Dance and the Eight-Spired Nest’s Terror Discipline. All three derive spirituality from emotional projection: desire, fear, reverence. These match the spiritual expressions of Chalice, Shadow, and Lantern—fleshly desire, fear, and reverence, respectively.” “If I recall correctly, in the New Continent, Uta required Kapak to maintain an air of divine authority within his tribe—to be unquestionable, like a divine. That too is a variant of the Faith Gathering Method. So far, it seems Lantern lacks any physical-type accumulation methods. Usually, to acquire its spirituality, you need some kind of public foundation… of course, my Reading Method is an exception.” Relaxing into the sofa, Dorothy evaluated Summer Tree’s spiritual systems. In her view, the Faith Gathering Method was mental and symbolic, whereas the Tide Immersion Method was material. “Tide Immersion is basically diving into ‘spiritual hotspots’ in the sea to absorb the ocean’s innate power. That’s quite physical—akin to the Spirit Sculpting Method or the Blood Feast Method. Of course, due to the perils of deep-sea diving, Tide Immersion is far more dangerous than most accumulation techniques.” Dorothy shifted her focus to other fascinating parts of the documents. According to Summer Tree mythology, they referred to themselves as the “Broken People” or “Flawed People.” Legend said that long ago, their race was afflicted by a mysterious “Flaw” during a natural disaster—an affliction passed to all their kin. It was only the blessing of the Goddess of Abundance that suppressed this curse. Should her favor be lost, the curse would return, and their people would face catastrophe. The island’s towering central tree was considered the material embodiment of the goddess’s blessing—a spiritual anchor that ensured the tribe’s stability and health. Of course, this belief lacked hard evidence and existed more as an orally transmitted myth. Still, nearly every Summer Tree islander held it as sacred truth, a pillar of why their faith in the goddess could never be abandoned. Among everything she had read, Dorothy found the most valuable insights—aside from the two spiritual methods and the Tide Path details—to be new information on the Goddess of Abundance herself. Until now, of the three goddess archetypes tied to “motherhood,” Abundance had remained the most elusive. This time, she finally filled in the gap. “The Mother of Chalice, the Holy Mother, the Goddess of Abundance... That makes three maternal goddesses connected to Chalice. Isn’t that a bit much? But if I think about it carefully, each of them, despite overlap, plays a different role.” “The Goddess of Abundance is the traditional fertility and nurture goddess—linked to nature and forests. Her maternal traits are normal: people revere her for harvests and fertility.” “The Mother of Chalice’s worship is... twisted. She embodies blood, flesh, and sacrifice—mother to men, gods, even monsters. Her followers see her as their literal birth-mother.” “The Holy Mother has maternal traits but barely emphasizes them. She’s more of a savior deity. Among the three, her motherhood is the least prominent.” Reflecting on these distinctions, Dorothy noted a simple ranking: Mother of Chalice > Goddess of Abundance > Holy Mother in terms of maternal identity—a curious but significant pattern. With Vania tirelessly flipping through scrolls and books, Dorothy finally finished reading all the materials that Priest Anman had offered. Now it was time to harvest. The rituals of the Goddess of Abundance and the Wave Strider, the full details on the Tide Path’s Black Earth and White Ash-rank stages, the Tide Immersion Method and Faith Gathering Method—all these cognitive poison-rich texts yielded a spiritual bounty of 30 Chalice, 2 Lantern, 1 Stone, and 20 Revelation. After deducting the 3 Chalice she had spent controlling Vania and the three living marionettes, her current spirituality tally was at 32 Chalice, 5 Stone, 20 Shadow, 4 Lantern, 14 Silence and 34 Revelation. This was a tremendous windfall in the realm of Chalice spirituality. “Thirty-plus points of Chalice... damn. I’ve never had such a surplus. As expected of priestly archives—just by reading through them, I raked in a whole treasure trove.” Gazing at her rich Chalice stats, Dorothy couldn’t help but grin with satisfaction. Helping Summer Tree had certainly paid off—she’d gone from spiritual poverty to abundance in one stroke. Previously, she’d spent 3 out of her last 5 Chalice points controlling the three warriors and making Vania dance. She was running on fumes… until the literature came in and gave her a full recharge—now sitting comfortably at 30+ points. Beaming at her spiritual wealth, Dorothy’s smile lingered… until something curious caught her eye. She had gained one point of “Stone.” Dorothy’s Reading Method involved accumulating spirituality related to the content of mystical texts. From the Summer Tree documents, she had gained four types of spirituality: Chalice, Lantern, Revelation, and Stone. Chalice was obvious—the Goddess of Abundance was a Chalice-aligned deity, and all knowledge pertaining to her, the Wave Strider, and the Tide Immersion Method was imbued with Chalice. Lantern came from the Faith Gathering Method. Revelation was inherent in the acquisition of knowledge. But… where did this Stone come from? Dorothy was certain that none of the texts she had read contained content directly related to the Stone domain. So how had she acquired one point of Stone spirituality? Faced with this anomaly, she carefully pondered the issue, then recalled something peculiar she had come across—a possible source of that single point of “Stone.” It was buried in a particularly ancient hide-scroll in which the Summer Tree people recorded various titles for the Goddess of Abundance. Among the expected epithets—Goddess of Abundance, Goddess of the Forest, Mother of All, Goddess of the Fields—there was one more: Earth Mother. That title seemed to carry implications tied to earth itself. “How odd… The title ‘Earth Mother’ shows up among the goddess’s names, but doesn’t the earth fall under the domain of ‘Stone’? Strictly speaking, the Earth Deity should be the Stone Prince, which makes this a domain that stands in opposition to Chalice.” “Feels like the Summer Tree folk, lacking mystical common sense, just added that name out of religious intuition. But even so… would that alone produce a cognitive poison reaction? What exactly is the mechanism behind poison generation in mystical knowledge? Hah… it’s all so baffling.” Clutching her hair, Dorothy frowned in silent frustration. Unable to draw a solid conclusion, she decided to shelve the question for now and focus back on the task at hand. “Alright~ The Summer Tree texts have all been read, the spirituality extracted—now that I’ve been paid in advance, it’s time to actually do the work~” Stretching lazily, Dorothy mumbled aloud. She had received access to the documents by promising to help Summer Tree craft a faith-disguise plan, and now that she’d finished reading and gotten her spiritual “fee,” it was only fair to deliver. The Summer Tree folks were waiting. This kind of masquerade-faith plan touched on countless areas. For a normal person, not something you could whip up in one night—even with reference material. But Dorothy was no ordinary person: she was a White Ash–rank Revelation-path Beyonder, an Arcane Professor. With full focus, her information processing ability far exceeded normal humans. “Still… before drafting their plan, there’s one more thing I need to sort out first.” With that thought, Dorothy closed her eyes again and reached out to contact Vania. … Summer Tree Main Island, Nightfall. Inside the longhouse of the Bountiful Tree Priest, Vania was sitting cross-legged on the floor, solemnly flipping through the less meaningful Summer Tree texts atop a ritual circle. The valuable ones had already been read; now she was thumbing through farming and fishing manuals that held little value for Dorothy. Just then, Vania received a new message from Dorothy. She paused, stopped her page-flipping, and rose to her feet. Seeing this, Anman—the Bountiful Tree Priest—spoke up. “Miss Vania, have you finished transmitting everything?” “Just about,” Vania replied calmly. “Our priest has received the documents and is working overnight on some preliminary proposals. I’ll let you know once she’s done.” Anman let out a long sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear... Please extend my thanks to your priest. If Summer Tree truly survives this crisis, your people will have done us an immeasurable kindness. We will repay it, to the best of our ability, should you ever need.” 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺 Hearing this, Vania couldn’t help but mutter internally. “You guys don’t even realize it, but all that spirituality from those documents is already an enormous reward for Miss Dorothea… not to mention the favor debt. You’re kind of getting scammed.” “Still… Miss Dorothea really did score big this time. With all that spiritual gain and a tribe that now owes her one… Honestly, I kinda feel bad for the Summer Tree folks…” Shaking the thought off, she turned serious once more and spoke. “Right… There’s one more thing I’d like to ask, Priest Anman. How exactly did you learn about the route and itinerary of the pilgrimage fleet I was on? Did you know in advance that our ship had little protection?” At her question, Anman hesitated for a moment, fell silent in thought, then finally opened his mouth to speak. “We indeed knew that a lightly guarded pilgrimage fleet from the Church would be passing through that route, which is why we decided to carry out the ambush—hoping to capture Radiance’s pilgrims and use them as leverage to prevent Radiance from acting rashly against us. This crucial information was provided by one of our merchants who frequently trades abroad.” “His name is Obiye, the captain of a large merchant vessel from Summer Tree. Because of his trading routes, we often gather all kinds of news from him. He will also be attending tomorrow’s council…” Anman explained to Vania. Upon hearing this, Vania softly murmured. “Obiye, huh…” … Soon after, the moon set and the sun rose—a new day dawned upon the Summer Tree Archipelago. As the first rays of morning sunlight spilled over the eastern sea, Anman, using his authority as the Summer Tree’s chief priest, urgently summoned the island’s key elders and figures for a council meeting. As the elders arrived, puzzled by the sudden call, Anman announced a shocking plan. Anman proclaimed that he had received a revelation from the ancestors the previous night. In this revelation, the ancestors conveyed the goddess’s will: the Goddess of Abundance, compassionate and life-giving, could not bear to see Summer Tree slaughtered for the sake of loyalty to her faith. She did not wish to see such a tragic loss of life on this land. Thus, the ancestors urged Summer Tree to release the hostages and convert to Radiance, in order to avert catastrophe. As soon as Anman’s words were spoken, a wave of shock rippled through the gathered elders. Some, already fearing Radiance’s military might and the looming threat of annihilation, immediately welcomed the divine wisdom of the ancestors and expressed their support. But a larger group rose in vocal opposition—these hardliners and devout believers outright rejected Anman’s vision. They declared that the ancestors would never ask them to abandon the faith that had endured for a thousand years. They vowed to stand by the goddess, even unto death. After briefly calming the room and restoring order, Anman dropped yet another bombshell: the ancestors did not mean for them to truly forsake the goddess, but rather to hide their faith—to worship the Goddess of Abundance in secret, while outwardly venerating Radiance’s Holy Mother. He explained that in the face of Radiance’s overwhelming strength, they needed to preserve the fire of faith until the time was right. Faith survives through its people. As long as Summer Tree’s people remain, the faith can endure. But if Summer Tree were to be destroyed, so too would their goddess’s legacy vanish. This concept stunned the elders. Never before had they heard of such a method: to turn faith from open to hidden, to worship a foreign goddess while secretly directing that reverence to their own. A flood of doubts and protests followed—was such a plan even feasible? But Anman was fully prepared. He claimed the ancestors had already revealed concrete methods for implementing this disguised conversion. He then proceeded to outline several detailed schemes right there in the meeting. These plans left the elders speechless. Each one was meticulously crafted, transforming every aspect of Summer Tree’s religious practice—from daily prayers to communal festivals, from ritual offerings to symbolic crafts. The methods made these practices appear aligned with Radiance’s teachings on the surface, while still retaining the core of their goddess’s faith, subtly embedded and well-hidden. For example, the phrases invoking the goddess were woven into common greetings through coded language, the prayers to the Holy Mother were designed with ambiguous phonetics that could just as easily apply to the Goddess of Abundance, and Radiance’s baptism ritual was cleverly masked as a version of their traditional Water Offering to the Tide Strider. Anman’s plans were not only detailed and systematic, they were steeped in theory—this was a full-fledged doctrine of religious disguise. The elders couldn’t help but marvel at it, declaring it could well be an academic discipline: “The Study of Faith Concealment.” Faced with such a complete system, the arguments ceased. No one could believe Anman had come up with this all in one night—unless it was, indeed, divine revelation. Anman’s credibility soared. And so, the once-fractious elder council slowly reached consensus. The meeting calmed. Agreement began to form. Faith concealment was to be implemented across Summer Tree. But amid this unified front, one man wore a dark and brooding expression—the merchant Obiye.