Chapter 103: Chapter 107: Highly Contagious
The gentle waves undulated softly, and the Homeloss sailed smoothly on the Endless Sea. After many days of sailing, this ancient ghost ship still hadn’t found any islands or navigation marks that could serve as sailing landmarks.
The seemingly endless voyage appeared to have no conclusion, yet its captain still had many matters to attend to.
Duncan returned to the captain’s quarters once again, where the golden sun mask still lay quietly on the table. However, before that, there were other things he needed to contemplate.
Alice’s matters could be arranged later, the follow-up testing and research on “anomaly 099” weren’t urgent, and the Frost rebellion half a century ago was not something to be investigated right now. But apart from these matters, there was one thing closely related to him.
Duncan raised his head and looked at the mirror hanging on the wall.
The green flames that once floated on the mirror’s surface had long since dissipated, and the vista of a distant place that once appeared in the mirror was now gone without a trace. However, Duncan could still faintly feel that the weak and vague “connection” had not vanished with the disappearance of the mirror’s reflection—it still existed, and it pointed towards the majestic cathedral at the heart of Plunder City-State.
The connection felt somewhat like the “link” he had with the “antiquities shopkeeper” and the “White Oak,” yet even weaker, more ethereal, and if one had to describe it… it resembled some kind of derivative, a “secondary channel” extended from a clear and definite connection.
Duncan closed his eyes slightly, and on the table beside him, Ai Yi’s brass Compass quietly opened a slit, within which a quiet green flame burned silently.
Duncan returned to that dark space filled with countless stars and streams of light.
But this time, he did not perform “Spirit Realm walking.” Instead, he maintained the critical state of entering the Spirit Realm walk, observing carefully the flow of faint light in the dark space and the specks of starlight.
First, he saw the brightest “star,” which pointed towards the antique store, representing his other shell, which was cleaning the warehouse and casually taking stock of the goods in inventory;
Then, he saw a hazy and formless light mist, much larger than ordinary stars, representing the “White Oak,” a steamship that had once collided head-on with Homeloss and had been thoroughly burnt by his spiritual fire;
Finally, he discerned that “star” with which he had a faint connection amid the haze of indistinguishable starlight.
Duncan leaned in curiously, wanting to observe this cluster of starlight closely.
But as soon as he approached, he felt a subtle repulsion emanating from that cluster of starlight.
The repulsive force wasn’t strong, seemingly just a pure and steadfast will protecting itself. Duncan felt that if he forcibly extended his spiritual fire, he could burn away this subconscious protection—yet he immediately stopped and maintained a distance from the starlight.
The owner behind this starlight should be the Judge called “Fenna,” a Storm Saint, a powerful Transcendent—reckless contact might first disturb the owner of the starlight, and in a worse scenario, might even alarm the “deity” standing behind the Saint.
With his current limited understanding of the deities of this world, Duncan was not ready to take this risk.
Moreover, from another perspective, this subtle sense of repulsion might also be a reminder of the different natures present in these starlights—
When he first occupied the shell of that “sacrifice,” he hadn’t felt any repulsion. Nor did he feel any when he took over the dead heretic “Ron’s” body. So why was there this sense of repulsion around Fenna’s starlight?
Was it because she was still “alive”? Was it because the mental power of a living person would instinctively defend against indescribable Corrosion? Or was it because of… the so-called protection of faith and divine grace?
Duncan backed away a bit, pondering the significance of the starlight in this dark space while gradually extending his hand towards another cluster of starlight closest to him.
He stopped at the last moment before touching that cluster of starlight.
No sense of repulsion.
He then tried many more times around him, none of the stars ever repulsed his approach—and within some stars, he vaguely sensed some new… “elements.”
He felt the vibrant sense of life and even the instinctive trembles and cringes of those stars—that was the instinctive retreat of life when faced with the irresistible shadow of death.
Duncan returned to a zone of darkness where starlight could not reach and looked down at his own hands.
Green flames wandered through the darkness, sketching eerily realistic shadows between his fingers.
It seemed that with the increasing number of journeys through the Spirit Realm, his control and perception of flames had become more precise and sharp. He could now sense the presence of vitality within those stars!
Duncan slightly furrowed his brow and looked into the far reaches of the endless darkness. The specks of light stretched densely into the chaotic black, looking almost magnificent from afar.
Out of caution, he had never ventured far into this dark space, but just by gazing at the scale of the starlight, he could imagine how numerous these points of light were.
At first, he thought that the starlight here represented only “corpses” that had just died and met certain conditions, as his first two “attachments” involved inhabiting bodies. But now, as he felt the presence of life from some of the stars, it seemed his initial speculation was mistaken.
Not only were there deceased among these specks of starlight, but there were also the living; it was merely a coincidence that he initially occupied two bodies.
That “Judge” named Fenna was also among these lights, and she was undoubtedly alive.
Then… could the countless stars here truly represent all the living and dead in the world?
Duncan furrowed his brow in the darkness. The idea emerged so naturally in his mind and seemed plausible, but he shook his head quickly, feeling he could not yet jump to that conclusion.
Although there were many points of light here, and the world’s population was much lower than Earth’s, the stars within sight probably did not match the world’s entire population. Moreover, the living were one thing, but how should the number of the dead be defined?
Did it include all the deceased from ancient to modern times or only those with remaining corpses? And should it count any remaining corpse, or was there a time limit after death to make the count?
Additionally, there were clusters of light like the “Homeloss” that appeared here… How could the projection of a whole ship be explained?
Therefore, it was still too early to define the stars here as “the dead and living of the world”—at least not until he had sufficient evidence to be certain.
Regardless of how these points of light were connected to the real world, one thing was very clear: most of the starlight did not repel Duncan’s approach. Only the light from the “saint” Fenna produced a self-protective reaction.
Perhaps this was the influence of the deity she believed in.
Duncan became slightly curious about the power of “faith” in this world.
But however strong the protective barrier Fenna established through faith, it was evidently flawed—it had not prevented the captain of the Homeloss and her from forming a deep and hidden connection.
So only one question remained: when and how was this connection established?
Duncan pondered seriously in the darkness, considering any intersections he might have had with the Judge he had never met, wondering why such a connection would emerge from nowhere. After dismissing one speculation after another, a very audacious idea suddenly came into his mind—
Could it have been the “sacrifice” he initially inhabited?
Duncan recalled the first time he set foot on the land of the Plunder City-State, remembered the solar sacrifice—where he, as the sacrifice, had caused a commotion at the event, subsequently leaving the “shell” he had inhabited behind at the scene. Not long after, Judge Fenna led a raid on the heretics’ stronghold, capturing heretics left at the site, where she certainly dealt with the “remains” left behind.
Strictly speaking, his only “intersection” with Judge Fenna could have only happened at that time.
Just a body he once occupied, just a place they had both been present.
“This is… the connection?!” The more Duncan thought about it, the more likely it seemed, and he couldn’t help but look down at his hands in astonishment. After a while, his surprised expression turned into an extremely awkward, resigned smile, “What kind of space-time companion infection route is this…”