Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 730 - Chapter 730 Chapter 727 Uncertain Discontinuous

Chapter 730: Chapter 727: Uncertain, Discontinuous Chapter 730: Chapter 727: Uncertain, Discontinuous Amidst a series of bone morphing sounds and rising black dust, twelve symmetrical black limbs once again spread and grew. Sherry’s body was gradually covered by dark bone armor, and her sharp, blade-like bone spines flashed a bloody, cold light–Sherry had once again transformed into the form of the Profound Demons.

She was adapting at an amazing speed to how she could control her two forms, becoming more and more proficient in handling this body. The whole process felt less like “learning” from scratch, but rather like “remembering” knowledge that had long been ingrained deep in her brain and limbs.

She slightly moved the limbs on her back that aided in walking and rotated her hands and feet. Satisfied, Sherry nodded, “In such a godforsaken place, this form does provide some comfort.”

A’Dog then raised its head, glanced at Sherry who was now much taller, and then its body suddenly wrapped in a swirl of dust, melting as it shrank and merged into the shadow beside Sherry.

Duncan stood silently watching this scene, and when Sherry’s form stabilized, he approached and said, “I thought you might resist your demon form–such intense transformations are quite… challenging to one’s worldview for ordinary people.”

“Are we really worried about looks when we’re in the Mysterious Deep Sea?” Sherry poked at the stones on the ground with the limbs behind her, unconcerned, “I am a… what’s the word, oh, a ‘pragmatist’–first make sure I can stay alive, then worry about living well. In my eyes, there’s nothing wrong with this demon body, it’s tough and resistant, very useful in the Mysterious Deep Sea, and if there had to be a downside, it would be that it uncontrollably absorbs the remnants of dead demons…ugh, just thinking about it makes me feel a bit sick…”

No sooner had she finished speaking than a dog’s head popped out from the shadow at her feet, “Actually, I think it tastes quite good–Sherry, are you sure you don’t want to try that bone I brought you?”

Sherry did not hesitate for a second, “No, it’s disgusting!”

Duncan silently watched this interplay, a smile gradually forming on his face.

“Then the only thing left for us to do is find ‘The Saint,'” he said, bringing the conversation back to the main topic, “There are countless floating islands here, and the scale of this entire space far exceeds our initial expectations–A’Dog, can you determine exactly where we are?”

A’Dog’s head emerged again from the shadow, looking around seriously, then nodded slightly to the captain, “This should be the upper layer of the Barren Belt–closest to ‘Interstellar Space’. If I’m not mistaken, we need to go ‘down.'”

Duncan curiously asked, “Down?”

A’Dog nodded then shared a brief exchange with Sherry before heading to the edge of the shattered wasteland, peering into the boundless chaotic darkness below.

In the vast emptiness beneath the floating islands, the dim and murky starlight grew fainter, and more floating islands could vaguely be seen chaotically drifting in the darkness. However, at the very bottom of all this darkness, there appeared to be something else… twinkling weakly.

At first, Duncan thought it was another section of “Interstellar Space” hanging at the bottom of the Mysterious Deep Sea, but he quickly realized that those faint points of light were the slight flickering of lights on the surface of some incredible structure.

Those dimly lit points, enshrouded in darkness, were arranged far off in the distance, sketching out twisting branches and a “main trunk” at the center of all the branches. The lights on the trunk were a bit denser and seemed to move slowly like a living creature.

Duncan stood on the edge of the shattered land, quietly observing these dim but dense lights. He could not determine how far it was from here to below, nor could he assess the scale of the “entity” behind those lights, but even this rough observation allowed him to imagine the colossal nature of what lay below.

“That is the ‘The Saint’ of the Profound Demons–all demons’ ‘mother,’ as well as their final resting place after death,” A’Dog said from the shadows, a hint of unexplained emotion in its voice, “At the very bottom of all the shattered islands, its limbs stretch to the ends of the entire Mysterious Deep Sea. Just its visible part is equivalent to dozens, even hundreds of City-States, and its invisible parts–those tentacle tips–they pierce through the ‘bottom’ of the Mysterious Deep Sea and extend into the Subspace, immeasurable by any mathematical logic.

“Every moment, the dark abyss breeds countless demon matrices–they float like wisps of smoke, carried by irregular and invisible winds from the ‘bottom,’ and through a series of discontinuous spatial layers to these floating islands above. They devour each other, transform into various entities in this process, and then endlessly fight and battle. The dead demons then turn back into dust and mud, wandering briefly or for long periods before returning below to the abyss, absorbed by The Saint, endlessly cycling through the same pattern.

“I have already escaped from this cycle… But that has negligible influence on the entire Mysterious Deep Sea, the devouring cycle among the demons will not stop, nor will ‘The Saint’s’ ‘operation’ ever end.”

Duncan listened quietly to A’Dog’s explanation, not interrupting until it finished, then he nodded slightly, “So we just need to go down?”

“That’s the problem, ‘going down’ is not an easy task here,” A’Dog raised its head from the shadow, looking into Duncan’s eyes, “Do you remember that very peculiar and troublesome ‘Trait’ in the Mysterious Deep Sea?”

“Are you talking about the discontinuity of space?” Duncan considered, “I remember we discussed this, in the Mysterious Deep Sea, moving from one place to ‘arrive’ at another is a very uncertain matter, direction and distance here are completely random–but we haven’t felt this issue during our previous journey.”

“This is because we are on the island, within the singular range of the floating island, where space still follows the continuous structure we are familiar with, but if we leave these islands…”

A-Gou said this, stepping out from the shadows. It picked up a fragment of stone nearby, bit it, and then hurled it far into the vast darkness beyond the range of the floating islands.

The fragment of stone vanished in the blink of an eye–just two or three meters from the vicinity of the floating island, it simply disappeared into thin air.

Alice’s eyes widened as she watched the direction in which the stone had vanished, and after several seconds she couldn’t help but ask, “Where did the stone go?”

“I don’t know, but it’s very unlikely that it ‘fell down’,” A-Gou shook its head, “Up, down, left, right, forward, back, any direction, any distance, any landing spot, all are possible. It might be falling from Interstellar Space, or it might have already hit some unfortunate demon on the head, and of course–it might have landed directly on The Saint himself. That’s how completely random movement of matter is in the ‘void’ between the floating islands.”

Duncan frowned, “…so the ‘cycles’ you just mentioned, the ‘cycles’ among the floating islands and The Saint, are they just as random?”

“Yes,” A-Gou nodded, “everything is built on uncertainty–a demon spawned from The Saint might take hundreds of years to gain a corporeal form on some floating island, while the remains of a demon killed by its own kind and thrown into the void might ‘fall’ through the darkness for a thousand years before reaching the deepest part of The Abyss, and this ‘fall’ could be in any direction…”

As it spoke, it looked up at the dim interstellar space above.

“Given the scale of the Mysterious Deep Sea and the endless number of demons, we can even suspect that some of the original demon substrates differentiated from The Saint are still floating in the darkness, never having gained a form, and among the earliest demons that died in battles, some are still in that darkness, enduring a ‘fall’ that has lasted ten thousand years and still haven’t fallen to the bottom–this is all quite possible.”

Uncertainty, discontinuity, a “chaotic cycle” system established amidst massive random events…

How eerie!

Duncan’s brow furrowed tightly as he envisioned a world “order” completely contrary to commonsense based on A-Gou’s description, and then he voiced his thoughts thoughtfully, “…but originally, Homeloss pierced straight through the Mysterious Deep Sea.”

“Yes, that’s why it’s the most terrifying thing,” A-Gou’s eyes momentarily narrowed with a ghostly green gleam, “In fact, more shocking to the demons in the Mysterious Deep Sea than ‘being smashed by a meteor falling from the sky,’ is that ‘an object can actually fall from above and is certain to reach the bottom.’ Demons don’t have intellect, but at least they live in this chaotic land by instinct, and the appearance of Homeloss completely violated the ‘rules’ here–a phenomenon beyond understanding, irrational, and against the laws, that’s what drove many demons mad on the spot.”

A-Gou paused, his tone especially grave, “Do you see what I mean? For the Mysterious Deep Sea, ‘something can fall from above to below, and that this descent is consistent every time’, something which is taken for granted in the real world, here it is ‘indescribable’–Homeloss’s descent here not only destroyed several islands, killed tens of thousands of demons, it ‘pierced’ through the very order of the Mysterious Deep Sea itself.”

Duncan pondered, “…so you mean, for the sake of the demons’ mental and physical health here, I’d better not trigger any more ‘falls’ in this place?”

“Not for the sake of the demons’ mental and physical health–they aren’t exactly living healthily anyway,” A-Gou shook its head, “but for the ‘health’ of the Mysterious Deep Sea. This place is already unstable, if you strike again, it might really leak.”

Duncan stroked his chin, silent for a moment.

As he thought about how to resolve the discontinuity of space outside the floating islands and how to reach the “bottom” where The Saint resides, he suddenly felt someone tugging at his arm.

He turned and saw Alice’s beautiful big eyes.

The doll raised her hand, presenting a dark object in front of him, “Captain! The stone!”

Duncan was momentarily taken aback, his expression slightly comical, “Uh, Alice, now is not the…”

He suddenly stopped.

The stone in Alice’s hand… was the very one A-Gou had thrown out!