A cook, vice-captain of the Rocks Pirates?

Joz asked curiously.

"almost."

Ryan calmly replied, "They're just fireworks for the Navy."

He pressed the detonator in his hand.

shhhhhh!

Dozens of dazzling, chili-scented, rainbow-colored beams shot into the sky, exploding in the night sky to form a huge, comical pattern composed of the number 66, which lingered for a long time.

The light was so dazzling that it could be clearly seen by naval patrol fleets hundreds of nautical miles away.

"Alright, the flies have been attracted."

Ryan clapped his hands, turned and walked back to the kitchen: "Now we can prepare our dinner in peace."

Everyone: "..."

Looking at their head chef's nonchalant demeanor, and then at the faint black dots of the naval fleet that were rapidly approaching them on the distant horizon, they suddenly felt that this world was becoming increasingly incomprehensible.

The arrival of the navy did not cause any trouble for the new Moby Dick.

When they arrived in a frenzy, all they saw was a devastated battlefield and the Germa flagship, tightly bound by seastone chains, with a white flag flying at its bow that read "Naval Only, Do Not Touch."

As for the Whitebeard Pirates, they have long since vanished without a trace.

This incident later became a widely circulated joke within the Navy.

At this moment, the Whitebeard Pirates, sailing with the progenitor giant tortoise, arrived at a calm sea.

On the deck, everyone enjoyed the rare tranquility after the great battle.

Meanwhile, Raine stood alone under the sapling that had grown from the seed of the Heart of the World.

After this period of growth, nourished by the immense life energy of the ancestral giant tortoise, the tree has grown to nearly thirty meters tall.

The iridescent light flowing across the tree trunk became increasingly solid, radiating a pure yet powerful life energy.

Renn could clearly sense that some kind of wondrous transformation was taking place inside the tree.

It no longer simply absorbs energy, but begins to try to understand, analyze, and reconstruct this energy.

It was like a child who had just learned to read, greedily reading the life code contained in every ingredient that Ryan fed it.

"Perhaps, it's time."

Renn muttered to himself.

He remembered the first Fruit of Origin that he had carefully stored in the incubator.

That fruit contains a trace of the creative power of the world's origin; it is the seed for building a complete ecological world.

Previously, Renn felt that the time was not right and that the most suitable place to plant seeds had not yet been found.

But now, he looked at the giant tortoise at his feet, a primordial ecosystem that had lived for countless years, and then at the divine tree in front of him, which had grown from the heart of the world and was full of infinite possibilities.

He knew that he had found the most unique and perfect cradle in the world.

Without further hesitation, he turned back to the kitchen and carefully took out the special container made of sea stone.

When the radiant Fruit of Origin reappeared on the deck, the air on the entire ship seemed to become a little fresher.

Chapter 266 Crying Reed Island

"Raine, what big move are you up to now?"

Newgate had somehow appeared behind him, looking at the fruit with curiosity in his eyes.

Raine didn't answer. He simply walked to the World Tree and, in the center of the soft, fertile vegetable garden that Gatz and Joz had just cultivated, solemnly dug a shallow pit.

He gently placed the Fruit of Origin inside and then covered it with soil.

After doing all this, Ryan sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

An invisible sense of the meaning of food, which only he could perceive, slowly emanated from his body.

Like a gentle net brimming with life and creative will, it tightly connects the Fruit of Origin, the World Tree, and the ancient ancestral tortoise beneath our feet.

He wanted to use his will as a bridge to guide these three forces, representing different levels of the origin of life, to complete an unprecedented fusion.

"Hahaha! Is the head chef farming? Let me help you water the plants!"

Gatz charged forward carrying a huge barrel of wine, but before he could get close, he was bounced back by an invisible force.

"Don't bother him."

Newgate's voice was deep and powerful.

He is...creating a world.

Just as everyone was getting impatient and thought the head chef was dozing off, something unexpected happened.

In the center of that land shrouded in the righteousness of food, the Fruit of Origin buried underground suddenly shone brightly!

A soft, rainbow-colored halo pierced through the soil and shot into the sky, dyeing the surrounding sky a magnificent rainbow of colors.

Immediately afterwards, a tender green shoot, as if carved from the purest jade, broke through the soil at a speed visible to the naked eye!

The tender buds grew against the wind, quickly sprouting branches and spreading leaves. In just a few breaths, they grew into a peculiar little tree that was ten meters tall, with a canopy like a canopy and radiating a soft light.

Even more miraculously, this sapling, which grew from the Fruit of Origin, intertwined and merged with the branches of the World Tree next to it.

Ultimately, this resulted in a much larger and more mystical twin divine tree, seemingly constructed from two different laws of power!

The tree neither blossomed nor bore fruit.

But each of its leaves displays a different color, and with each sway, pure life energy emanates from it, nourishing the surrounding land.

Its roots, like living tentacles, burrowed deep into the back of the ancestral giant tortoise, establishing a deeper, almost symbiotic energy link with this ancient life form.

The ancestral giant tortoise seemed to sense this new, creative energy as well, letting out a long, joyful cry, and its speed seemed to lighten.

"Oh my god..."

The members of the Whitebeard Pirates were speechless with astonishment at the miraculous scene before them.

"All right."

Raine stood up, dusted himself off, as if he had only done a trivial thing.

"The seed has been planted; all that's left is to feed it with good enough nutrients."

His gaze swept over the crowd, finally settling on the star map he had obtained from Germa.

"Our next destination has been decided."

Guided by Germa's incomplete star map and Raine's unique analysis of the ocean currents, the Primordial Giant Turtle, carrying a group of monsters, embarked on a new voyage towards an unknown sea area in the South China Sea that had never been marked by any nautical chart.

The days at sea were monotonous, but thanks to the newly grown twin sacred trees, life on board was made more interesting by some unique pleasures.

The tree seemed to possess its own consciousness; it would emit different scents depending on the emotions of the people on the boat.

When Gatz and Joz were fighting fiercely on the deck, it emitted a spicy, gunpowder-like aroma, as if cheering them on.

When Dorum laments the new damage to the hull, it emits a calming scent with a hint of mint.

Raine even discovered that brewing tea with the leaves of this tree could significantly increase the speed at which a person's domineering aura recovered.

This made that small vegetable garden the most popular and sacred place.

And so, in a somewhat mundane yet comforting atmosphere among family members, they sailed for nearly a month.

On this day, when the ancestral giant tortoise slowly sailed into a brand new sea area, everyone was stunned by the sight before them.

The seawater in this area is no longer azure, but a deep, inky black, as if it had been dyed with ink.

The sky was shrouded in a perpetual, veil-like gray mist, and the sunlight, penetrating through the mist, became hazy and bleak.

Most peculiarly, a faint, persistent sobbing sound, like countless people weeping in hushed tones, echoed in the air.

The sound was neither like the wind nor like the waves, but more like... a lament from the depths of the soul.

"My goodness... why is this place so creepy?"

Gatz, carrying the anchor, looked around warily, feeling the hairs on his body stand on end.

"Both the record pointer and the permanent pointer are spinning wildly like they're drunk; it's like we've stumbled into a forbidden zone that doesn't exist on the nautical chart!"

Dorum gripped the helm tightly, his voice trembling slightly.

Just then, the outline of a huge island slowly emerged from the thick fog ahead.

It was a completely black island, devoid of any trees, except for an endless expanse of strange plants resembling reeds.

The plants were crystal clear, like frozen teardrops, reflecting a faint glow in the pale sunlight.

And those unsettling sobs were the sound of the sea breeze blowing through the reeds.

"The Weeping Reed Island..."

Looking at the island, Raine calmly uttered a name.

"According to Germa's records, this island is special. It records the sad memories of all creatures that come near it and transforms them into a special crystal called Tears of Resonance. That thing is a key material for studying the relationship between the soul and life energy."

"An island that records sorrow?"

The group exchanged bewildered glances, feeling that this premise was more chilling than any horror story.

The ancestral giant tortoise slowly came to rest on the shore of the island.

As soon as they stepped onto this dark land, they felt a cold, sorrowful energy wash over them.

The image of himself as a child being shunned by the villagers for eating too much, and crying from hunger uncontrollably flashed through Gatz's mind. A few tears of grievance actually squeezed out from his huge face.

"Waaaaah... my barbecue... they won't give me any barbecue..."

"Shut up, Gatz."

Although Dorum said this, his own eyes were a little red. He remembered the heartbreak he felt when his first wooden boat, which he had built by hand, sank due to a design flaw when he was young.

This land can truly evoke the deepest sorrow in people's hearts.

Chapter 267 Culinary Skills: A Symphony of the Soul

"interesting."

Raine's sense of righteousness regarding food acts like an impregnable barrier, completely shutting out that negative energy.

He could clearly smell a unique scent in the air of the island, a scent that belonged to memories.

"Everyone, stay close to me."

Rein walked at the front, his Observation Haki forming an invisible net that enveloped everyone.

They walked through the wailing reeds toward the center of the island.

The deeper you go, the stronger the atmosphere of sorrow becomes, and the color of the reeds changes from their initial crystal clear appearance to a deep, dark red, like congealed blood.

Finally, after traveling for half a day, they arrived at the center of the island.

It was a vast open space made of black crystal, and in the center of the open space stood a huge crystal flower, blooming like a lotus flower...

The flower was composed entirely of the purest crystals, containing immense sorrowful energy. Each petal seemed to reflect countless fragments of broken memories, filled with regret and pain.

In the center of the flower's stamen, a fist-sized, tear-like crystal radiates a soft yet heartbreaking light.

That is the goal of Raine's trip—the Heart of Resonance.

However, obtaining it is far from as simple as it seems.

Just as everyone was about to step forward, the ground around the giant crystal flower suddenly cracked open, and a huge guardian beast composed entirely of black crystal and countless wailing phantoms of souls slowly crawled out from the ground.

It has no fixed form; its body is constantly twisting and changing, and each change emits a massive amount of negative energy that could instantly cause an ordinary person to have a mental breakdown.

It had no eyes, but everyone could clearly feel a cold gaze, filled with a will to protect and reject, locking them firmly in place.

The guardian beast, composed of black crystal and phantom souls, stood silently before the Heart of Resonance. It did not roar, but the immense, silent negative energy that could freeze the soul was more oppressive than any threat.

【Ingredient Name: Sadness Aggregate (Guardian Form)】

[Attribute: Conceptual type - Spiritual life form, a guardian formed from all the negative emotions and memories absorbed by the Crying Reed Island over thousands of years.]

[Capture Level: Unquantifiable (This creature is immune to all forms of physical and energy attacks; its very existence constitutes an absolute mental defense.)]