Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 453 - Chapter 453 Chapter 454 Information Flow

Chapter 453: Chapter 454 Information Flow Chapter 453: Chapter 454 Information Flow A faint green firelight rose in the captain’s quarters, engulfing a skeletal bird wrapped in Spiritual Fire as it flew out from the flames. Behind it, the spinning flames formed a swirling door, through which Fenna, Alice, and Morris stepped into the cabin.

The disorientation from the shifting lights had barely faded when they turned toward the nearby navigation table and bowed to Duncan, who sat studying navigational charts, “Captain.”

“First, find a place to sit and rest. It’s easy to trip after teleportation,” Duncan said without looking up. After pinpointing a few locations on the map, he exhaled softly and, straightening up, looked at Morris, “Did you bring the book?”

“Yes,” Morris hastily nodded, then pulled out the unmarked, pitch-black “Book of Desecration” from his cloak and stood up to hand it to Duncan, “Here it is.”

Duncan took the book, while Fenna couldn’t help but speak up, “Now that Morris, Alice, and I are back on the ship and only your avatar remains at the City-State… is that okay?”

“There shouldn’t be any more troubles in the city. Moreover, Terrian will become the new Governor of Frost, and with him and Agatha maintaining the order of Frost City-State, there’s nothing to worry about,” Duncan said with a smile, “As far as you are concerned, your work in Frost City-State is done. Any remaining loose ends can be handled by my avatar.”

As he spoke, Duncan sat back down at the navigation table with the thick black book, his expression turning serious as he placed it beside the chart.

This was the “Book of Desecration” that Morris and Fenna had acquired from a minor Heretic leader, which contained information regarding the enigmatic Saint and hinted at some secrets predating the Creation of the gods and the Great Obliteration.

At first glance, apart from its black, unmarked cover, the book seemed ordinary and emitted no Transcendent aura.

Fenna, Morris, and Alice had already gathered curiously, except that the carefree Alice, unlike the others, maintained a safe distance, not daring to look directly at the book.

The goat-headed wood carving at the edge of the navigation table squeaked and turned its head curiously towards the book in front of Duncan. After a long observation, it finally couldn’t resist asking, “What is this? A book? Worthy of such solemnity?”

“In theory, it’s the Heretics’ missionary manuscript,” Duncan said casually, “It seems to contain something about the gods’ Creation, though it’s just those mad cultists’ insane theories. Yet, there’s a part… that concerns me.”

“Records of the gods’ Creation?” The goat head was momentarily stunned, then its tone subtly shifted, “That crazy ‘Genesis of the Saint’ by those lunatics? Forgive my bluntness, but I find their theories completely unreliable–any drunken playwright could concoct a creation myth without any solid evidence or reasoning. There’s even an absurd play claiming our world was stewed from a mishmash pot…”

“But Morris encountered mental contamination while reading this book, even drawing the attention of the Four Gods,” Duncan lifted his eyelids leisurely, “You should know what that implies.”

A snapping sound came from beneath the goat’s neck, and it was silent for a while.

After an indeterminate time, it managed to say, “The closer to the truth, the further from sanity…”

“Yes, the first rule of anomalies and phenomena–The closer to the truth, the further from sanity,” Morris nodded seriously, “The more likely to cause severe mental contamination the items are, the more likely they have recorded the true nature of the world. Thus, sometimes scholars even measure the credibility of ancient texts by the degree of mental damage they incurred after reading them.”

The goat head swayed its head in place, pondering for a long while before it couldn’t resist saying, “However, great distortion and pure upper Transcendent forces can also cause mental contamination. In such cases, the opposite is often true–the more the sanity is damaged, the more deceived one is.”

Pausing, it then added, “I mean it, Morris. There are many unfortunate souls in your line of work who have died over this, and those who didn’t die at the Madness Threshold thought they knew the truth. Now, most are listed in the heresy warrants of the major churches–of course, now that you’re on this ship, you’d technically be on that warrant list too…”

The goat head’s style was eccentric, but clearly, after spending so much time together, it did care about the ship’s crew. This understanding alleviated any drive to take offense, and so, Morris earnestly said, “Thank you for your concern. You’re right, this world excels at fooling mortals, and curiosity often leads us in the opposite direction–hence, we now need the Captain for the final control.”

“Captain to…” The goat head paused, only then noticing that Duncan’s hand was already on the cover of the black book, appearing ready to fling it open, “Ah? Are you sure you want to look at it?”

“And why not?” Duncan lifted his head, “Did you think I had Morris bring this thing aboard to use as your pedestal?”

The goat head blinked, its head swaying slightly left and right, “Well, not necessarily…”

Duncan didn’t pay any mind to its obviously playful antics; he had made up his mind, took a deep breath to focus his mind.

A hushed green flame rose from within, transforming his body into a Spectral Form. Once he felt the Transformation was complete, Duncan opened the first page of the black book.

At first glance, there were no words on the page.

At second glance, boundless darkness suddenly gathered from all directions.

In an instant, as lights and shadows shifted, everything happened too swiftly for reaction–just like the first time using the Spirit Realm Compass, Duncan’s consciousness suddenly “plunged” into an endless darkness.

He looked up in astonishment, finding that everything familiar in the captain’s quarters had vanished, along with the goat head, Morris, and the others, even the black book he had been looking at a second ago had disappeared.

He stood in the darkness, frowning and thinking for a few seconds.

Something was wrong–this was different from what Morris had described.

After he had opened the book, it had caused a completely different reaction from when Morris had opened it!

And at that moment, something suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision.

Zhou Ming instinctively looked over and saw a small white shadow emerging not far from him in midair. He concentrated and finally realized… it was text.

The text became clear–

“After he opened the book, a completely different change occurred than when Morris had opened it.”

Zhou Ming suddenly froze.

He stood there motionless, quietly watching the line of text floating in midair, forgetting to breathe and even to think for a moment.

After who knows how long, he suddenly remembered something.

He remembered, he had seen a similar place, he had visited a darkness just like this, and in the darkness, he saw text–it was in the Subspace…

“It was in the Subspace, aboard the battered Homeloss, pushing open the door to the captain’s cabin, a dark place where text emerged in the darkness, depicting…”

The pale text rapidly appeared in midair, but quickly began to fade.

Zhou Ming suddenly stopped–he controlled himself, trying hard not to let his thoughts wander wildly, which was very difficult, but after filling his mind with a messy collection of numbers, words, and meaningless scenery, the text that had emerged in the darkness really disappeared.

Then, with great effort, he restrained his thoughts while allowing his pounding heart to calm.

What exactly was happening? What was this darkness? What were these texts that emerged from the darkness?

They seemed to be describing “himself”… Were they really describing “himself”? What did this “description” mean?

Was this some kind of mind-reading process? Or some kind of spiritual “projection” phenomenon? The last time he encountered a similar dark space was on the battered Homeloss in the Subspace, but this time it was after opening that book–why did that book possess such “power”?

His mind again couldn’t help but be filled with various thoughts, and almost at the same moment, new text emerged in the darkness.

But this time, the text was not describing “himself,” but rather a few disjointed words–

“Manifesting… turning into reality… the real…”

Zhou Ming frowned, unconsciously moved closer to the new line of text, and reached out a finger to try and touch it.

His finger passed through those apparitions, with only a slight ripple forming in the darkness.

And in the trembling ripples, he vaguely saw that there seemed to be other texts hidden behind those words!

He hesitated only a second, then reached out his hand again, continuing to stir those reflections in the water-like script, causing the ripples to expand, revealing their true form, and allowing other hidden messages deep in the darkness to emerge into his view–

Suddenly, he saw it, several lines of intermittent text emerging in the darkness, trembling and moving downwards.

“Source of transmission–Leviathan Queen–Situation… not optimistic, critical state is accelerating…”

“Source of transmission–King of Fire–Are there new records?”

“Source of transmission–Bartok–Bad news… node feedback is ambiguous… suspecting the cluster controller has begun replicating itself… or has completely lost control…”

“…source–LH02–Have relevant intelligence.”

“…Details?”

“…LH-02–Observed an individual carrying traits of the cluster controller approaching, suspected mental mutation, suspected capable of communication with me.”

“Source of transmission–Leviathan Queen–Astonishing intelligence! What follows?”

“Source of transmission–LH-02–No follow-up.”

“Source of transmission–Bartok–?”

“Source of transmission–LH-02–That suspicious individual sent a dog emoji and left.”