Chapter 92: Chapter 96 Gaze
Inside the captain’s quarters of the Homeloss, Duncan, who had been sitting with his arms crossed in front of the window and resting with his eyes closed, slowly opened his eyes.
He glanced at the familiar furnishings of the room and checked on the state of his body, letting out a slight sigh of relief.
Now, he’d once again transferred his primary consciousness back to Homeloss, leaving his other body in the antique shop at Plunder City-State, awkwardly controlling it as it tidied up the first-floor shop and hung a “Closed” sign on the door.
The Duncan in captain’s quarters slowly stood up from the chair, stretching his limbs as he looked towards the nearby desk. There he saw the pigeon Ai Yi leisurely strolling along the edge of the desk. The sun mask previously delivered here still lay quietly on the table, glowing with enchanting colors under the setting sun streaming in through the window, as if an illusory flame flowed through the golden patterns.
The Duncan in front of the antique shop hung up the “Closed for the evening” wooden sign and turned to greet a neighbor who just happened to be returning home. A faint smile on his face, he engaged in a chat about the day’s weather and recent business dealings with this “old neighborhood buddy.”
His expression outside the antique shop was a bit stiff, his speech somewhat slow, but the neighbor didn’t suspect anything—after all, a former gambler who had been drowning in alcohol, now living conscientiously, was surprising enough. A little slowness in response was nothing compared to that; how lively could someone whose body had been damaged by alcohol be?
Back in the captain’s bedroom, a slight smile appeared on Duncan’s face. After remotely controlling his “interaction shell” to complete a social interaction attempt, he casually picked up the sun mask lying on the desk.
There was still much to be done in Plunder City-State, but not everything could be accomplished overnight, especially since there was a strict curfew in the City-State after nightfall. It was best for his human body to stay quietly in the shop at night to avoid attracting attention—after sunset, it was time for the “true self” on Homeloss.
He planned to use this time to study the mask he had obtained from the Sun Priest.
The mask felt cool to the touch, seemingly cast from pure metal, heavy, and quite substantial.
Looking at the golden object in his hand, Duncan’s thoughts suddenly became active; his first thought was whether this thing was made of pure gold—if so, perhaps after studying it, melting it down could fetch a tidy sum of money…
Although he was temporarily free of financial pressures in the City-State, cash was something humans could never have too much of in society; what if it was needed in the future?
The Heretics of the sun cult had a variety of loot that could be used for gathering information, reporting in exchange for bounties, or acquiring transcendent items relevant to oneself. And of course, it was perfectly normal to sell off any excess transcendent items that were of no use after a bit of processing and refinement…
This was called diversified, sustainable exploitation.
Pondering for a moment, Duncan suddenly touched his chin and thoughtfully exclaimed, “The Sun Cultists are truly treasures from head to toe…”
The strolling Ai Yi suddenly stopped, tilted her head to look at Duncan, and let out a sharp female voice, “Be a person, be a person!”
“You, a bird, have no right to lecture me,” Duncan glared at the pigeon, then immediately began to rub his fingertips together, preparing to summon the Spectral Flame to “cleanse” the mask inside and out and conduct a thorough “test” after gaining control.
A clump of faint green flames ignited at his fingertips. Just as Duncan was about to channel the flame into the mask, he suddenly heard a vague voice, as if whispering from the depths of his heart:
“…might inadvertently link them to Homeloss…”
Duncan’s movements halted abruptly.
He looked at the pigeon beside him, “Did you hear anything?”
The pigeon thought for a second, flapping its wings off-key as it started to sing loudly, “Listen~ to the sound of the sea weeping~ lamenting for whom’s heart was hurt again~”
“Stop, stop, stop… I shouldn’t have asked you!” Duncan quickly pinned the pigeon down, thinking to himself that his communication with this bird was like a damn quantum state—what was said and what was heard were never certain. After pinning the bird down, he immediately focused his spirit, attempting to trace back to the fleeting “perception” that had emerged in his heart when the “whisper” sounded.
He was sure—he had not heard a phantom voice! He was certain he’d heard a voice, a voice of a young and calm woman!
And with that voice, he also vaguely perceived a “connection,” much fainter than the one between him and his “remote shell,” but it definitely existed!
Duncan put aside the matter of the golden mask and glanced again at the Spectral Flame that was quietly burning at his fingertips.
The faint connection also seemed to be based on the burning of the fire.
He slightly closed his eyes, sensing the “direction” that the flame was giving him, and in the ensuing darkness, he seemed to see a glimmer of light emerge before his eyes.
That glimmer faintly resembled a “window,” with shadows moving within it, but he couldn’t see or hear clearly what was happening on the other side of the window.
Even so, Duncan felt the guidance of the flame in the dark—he opened his eyes and searched in the direction where the faint light had appeared, only to suddenly see a mirror hanging beside the door.
It was just an ordinary oval mirror with a simple and dark wooden frame, not any Transcendent item, just like those used in many ordinary homes.
But Duncan could feel that his flame now needed a medium to strengthen this connection that had suddenly formed—thinking of the vague scenes he had seen in the dark and the direction he had faintly sensed, the mirror seemed quite suitable.
Mirrors, in many esoteric rituals, occupy a very important position, seen as a symbol of “insight” and as a tool to extend the mind’s perceptual abilities, to observe truths that are normally invisible and unknowable.
Duncan approached the mirror and casually touched the flame in his hand to its surface.
The green Spiritual Body flame rippled like water upon the glass mirror, a thin, faintly glowing channel instantly formed, and in the next second, the glimmering window Duncan had seen in the darkness appeared crystal clear on the mirror’s surface!
He leaned in curiously.
Within the gently rippling light screen, he saw a room lit by lamplight, where an exceptionally tall lady was standing near a window, reading something by the twilight of the Sky Light, seemingly completely unaware of the gaze that was observing the room through the glass beside her.
Fenna’s gaze moved across the documents, confirming the content word by word.
This was a notice jointly discussed and drafted by the bishops of various City-States and personally reviewed and approved by the Pope seated in the Storm Cathedral; the discussion of the notice was completed remotely under the state of Psychic Resonance, with the entire process watched over and protected by the Goddess, to ensure that the text on the notice wouldn’t be disturbed by any anomalies or phenomena during drafting.
Such extremely special documents had one purpose: to inform every Voyager sailing the Endless Sea that a superior anomaly had slipped beyond the control of the civilized world.
This was necessary.
An uncontrolled anomaly on the Endless Sea wouldn’t disappear forever from the eyes of the world, and though the deep sea swallowed everything, it never swallowed the “anomalies” that fell into it. Those uncontrolled anomalies often wandered the fringes of the civilized world in even more unpredictable and difficult-to-prevent ways, like wolves prowling around a pasture, chasing and threatening the safety of Voyagers, almost every year, sailors set out to sea died at the hands of uncontrolled anomalies.
As the keepers and sealers of these anomalies, each church had the responsibility and obligation to inform all the captains who might encounter them as soon as they lost control of an anomaly under their care—no one thought this would damage the “face” of the church, because it was the church’s duty and obligation.
Timely notices of uncontrolled situations could perhaps save a ship unfortunate enough to encounter an anomaly one day in the future or give an uncontrolled anomaly the chance to be resealed and contained.
Under normal circumstances, such notices would be issued to port authorities within twenty-four hours of the uncontrolled event, but the notice concerning “Anomaly 099” was a bit late.
Because this uncontrolled incident not only involved Anomaly 099 – Puppet Coffin but also Phenomenon 005 – Homeloss.
The Pope and the bishops had to carefully consider the content of the document to ensure that, while the information disclosed was accurate, it avoided drawing the attention of Homeloss upon people reading the document.
Fenna’s expression was as still as water as she read the document, confirming whether the words in the document matched the sacred and intangible prayer structure, to avoid the gaze of the Ghost Ship captain.
And in the gap of light and shadow on the windowpane beside her, a gap that neither she nor the regional bishop noticed, Duncan was straining to peer at the content on the document.
Ghost Ship captain in shock.jpg.