Li picked up an empty seashell and tossed it into the ocean; it sank without creating a ripple, swallowed by the waves.

"The sea is beautiful, but the people on the island are all landlubbers, and they dissolve upon entering the water.

"So, as the tide rises, we can only keep migrating inland; sometimes, if we can foresee the coming waves, we remain unharmed.

"But sometimes, if we're too late, we pay the price," Li said as she led Zhang Ze towards the center of the island.

"The sea is infinite, but the island is finite, and as the water level rises, the space we can move in becomes smaller and smaller.

"Eventually, we have nowhere left to flee."

Li was now riding on Zhang Ze's shoulders, and the two reached the mountain peak, where the island had been swallowed by the sea, leaving only a small patch of the summit to stand on.

"Yet somehow, we managed to survive, as evidenced by the Four Continents. What miracle happened later?" Zhang Ze asked while stroking Li's small tail.

"There was no miracle, just life finding its way," Li replied.

"Through our escape, after paying many costs, we gradually started adapting to the Earth Sea; we were also passively changing."

"Many technologies were forgotten, and many started to go off course."

"Like those amber crystals, they actually came from an accident.

"In an accident, although we gained the method to produce these crystals, we lost half of our fleet."

Li conjured a piece of amber crystal and held it in her hand.

"It can temporarily halt the erosion by the Earth Sea.

"In the late-period of our exile, many times we found ourselves in a situation with no way out.

"The safe universe was segregated by the Earth Sea, and to escape, we could only rely on the protection of these crystals, traversing the fragments that were corroded by the Earth Sea but not yet assimilated.

"Thanks to the amber crystals' protection, the fleet could remain safe most of the time.

"But everything comes at a cost."

Li patted her small belly and sighed.

"Due to frequently probing the dangers, our form of life began to change."

"You see, originally we were all elongated."

Li stated this seriously and earnestly.

"But to maintain protection for the fleet, we abandoned physical forms, becoming shapeless, capable of changing and merging with starships and various machinery.

"This kind of mutation happened to every species in the exile fleet.

"Some were beneficial, like us, after the transformation, we could produce more amber crystals.

"If a part of the fleet broke, we could transform to act directly as a part and repair it, or perhaps remain eternally as part of the starship."

"But some mutations were harmful, nearly bringing complete destruction to the fleet."

"Yet regardless, to survive, eventually, we became unrecognizable to ourselves."

Li waved her hand, and the conference room disappeared, revealing the stars once more.

Zhang Ze saw a fleet approaching.

Compared to the initial golden fleet, it was much smaller and had become somewhat eerie and terrifying.

Aside from a few that still maintained their original appearance, most were covered in golden amber.

Beneath the amber was inorganic rock-like material, the rocks fused with giant, biochemized flesh, punctuated with occasional metallic specks resembling glitter.

Ugly in countless bizarre ways, each distinct.

Now, the fleet was less like a fleet and more like a colony of migrating creatures in the stellar seas.

Zhang Ze tilted his head, observing the fleet before him, feeling that some lumps looked familiar.

Soon, he figured it out.

"These... Could they be the Innate Gods of the Primordial Era?"

"Yes." Li nodded. "Those gods are the civilization itself."

Zhang Ze, "But how could that be? You persisted through countless years of exile, why did they become like that in the Primordial Era?"

Li scratched her head, "That's the second story. And to tell it, we have to start from the Four Continents."

Switching back from the cosmos to the conference room, Li sat cross-legged on the table, swaying back and forth, looking into Zhang Ze's eyes, and asked another question.

"By the way, Zhang Ze, do you know where the Four Continents are?"

Zhang Ze shook his head, "I can't guess."

Li, "The Four Continents are actually your home."

Zhang Ze, "My... My, huh? My home was bombed too, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was bombed, but the Four Continents are your home."

Li asserted firmly.