Seeing the quietly sleeping figure in the garden, Duncan instinctively called out the familiar name!

But he immediately stopped and recalled the scene when he met Queen Frost, Lenore, not long ago in that gorgeous bedroom. He couldn't be mistaken again, could he?

A strange feeling arose in Duncan's heart. He carefully approached the sleeping figure, leaned down, and observed closely.

He noticed the spherical joints at the position of the other's hands and feet, and the obviously bloodless, pure white, porcelain-like

"skin" texture. Duncan finally confirmed that the gothic doll sleeping here was indeed the one he knew. He breathed a sigh of relief, and then his attention was drawn to the black thorns wrapped around her. Thorny vines extended from the flower bushes, spreading across the open space around the young doll, resembling a gorgeous and bizarre skirt.

The thorns wrapped around the doll's hands, feet, and torso, imprisoning her among the flower vines. Alice was sleeping in the middle of this "bed" made of flowers and thorns, without any response to Duncan's approach or calls. Duncan carefully bypassed the thorny vines and crisscrossing thorns, reached out and gently touched the doll's cheek, calling her name again, "Alice? Can you hear me?" A slightly cool sensation came from his fingertips, but Alice didn't respond. She was just sleeping quietly, like a real, lifeless doll. Duncan frowned slightly, and then he noticed something else!

In the sleeping "Alice's" hands, she was holding something that looked like a drawing board. Thorns were wrapped around her arms, but the drawing board seemed to be able to be pulled out from the gaps!

Duncan hesitated, reached out, grabbed the edge of the drawing board, and carefully and slowly pulled it out.

During this process, he also paid attention to Alice's changes at any time, observing what effect his action of pulling out the drawing board would have on her. The doll remained asleep!

Duncan breathed a slight sigh of relief, and looked at the drawing board he had pulled out. The brightly colored, messy lines of the

"artwork" came into his eyes, like the bizarre "sky" above the garden. Childish brushstrokes depicted abstract pictures on the drawing board! There was a vortex, a vortex composed of various colors, which occupied almost two-thirds of the entire picture.

Around the vortex were many glittering points of light. The "author" of the painting used many intersecting lines to represent them – these were the shining stars. And in the center of the colorful vortex, one could see a rich red glow.

Even though the graffiti was crude, Duncan seemed to still feel a strong sense of danger from the red color. Duncan frowned. For some reason, the red light in the vortex felt somewhat familiar. After desperately thinking and recalling for a long time in his mind, he found the source of this familiarity. It was on the platform on the second floor of Alice's Mansion, on the wall near the spiral staircase, where there was an oil painting depicting the scene of a burning giant ship falling from the sky.

And in the sky behind that giant ship, this unsettling crimson light filled the air!

Duncan's expression gradually became solemn! This was the eleventh time that the ominous crimson glow had appeared in this bizarre "Alice's Mansion." What exactly did this crimson glow represent?

Did it symbolize some kind of disaster that was constantly chasing and approaching? Or was it a true depiction of some phenomenon at the end of the world?

The headless butler had repeatedly warned Duncan not to open the mansion door. What was outside the door? Was it the "main body of the crimson glow?" Dangerous thoughts briefly flashed in his mind, but were immediately suppressed by Duncan!

He was indeed very curious about what was outside the door of Alice's Mansion, but curiosity was not equal to recklessness. Before grasping more clues and confirming Alice's safety, he would try his best to avoid disrupting the "order" in this "mansion"! His thoughts gradually calmed down, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief, looked up at the graffiti-style sky above the garden, and then looked down at the equally graffiti-style drawing board in his hand. The doll was still quietly sleeping in the flower bushes beside him, as if embracing all the secrets, silently holding all the answers! Was the graffiti on the sky and the drawing board "created"? Was it this sleeping doll? Was it Alice? Duncan recalled the information he had obtained from Lenore, and suddenly felt that Alice might not be what the Queen Frost thought, just a mixed, erroneous replica of "Lenore" and "Guillotine." Or rather, the shell of the "Doll Miss" might indeed have been obtained in this way, but her inner self clearly hid secrets far greater than that shell!

This magnificent and bizarre "Alice's Mansion," and the doll sleeping quietly in this garden, was her "inner self." And these secrets clearly far exceeded what Lenore had grasped! This was a very simple principle: if a copy file carried more information than the original, then there was only one possibility: someone had written something else into it during the "copying" of this "file"! Duncan's thoughts flowed, and after quietly pondering for a long time, he sighed and prepared to put the drawing board back into the doll's hands, returning it to its original state to prevent any unforeseen events. This was necessary caution!

But just as he turned the drawing board around, preparing to put it back, some uneven traces of dents on the back of the drawing board suddenly caught his attention!

Duncan's eyes instantly narrowed. He quickly took the drawing board to his eyes again, carefully observing the back part that he had initially ignored. The uneven traces were a line of words deeply engraved on the back frame of the drawing board.

"The messenger brings news from afar. The chosen clan raised the lost ancient stars and forged them into a crown of blessing. The Third Long Night is over!" Duncan's gaze fell on the ancient and meaningful words, maintaining the same expression for a long time!

After an unknown amount of time, he gently exhaled, bent down, avoided the thorns and vines, and slowly put the drawing board back into the doll's hands!

And in his mind, the sentence on the back of the drawing board seemed to be replaying over and over again! The chosen clan... ancient stars... the end of the Third Night... Duncan stood up, his expression thoughtful. Some known information was gradually reorganized and connected in his thoughts!

The Third Long Night was the most critical piece of information. The *Book of Blasphemy* of the Annihilation Cult, which likely hid historical truths, recorded that the Deep Sea Era began after the Third Long Night was safely passed. The entire world had survived until now since then. And the only "chosen clan" that could correspond to the "Third Long Night" was the creators of the ancient Kingdom of Crete, those mysterious "Ancient Sages"! Raise the lost ancient stars... Could this sentence be describing... the historical event of the ancient Kingdom of Crete creating the Vision 001 Sun?

Unfortunately, there was too little information. Besides causing seemingly plausible associations, a mere ambiguous "message" couldn't serve any purpose. Duncan shook his head and temporarily suppressed this regret. Then, he carefully checked this vibrant but strangely atmospheric garden again. He didn't find anything else worth paying attention to. In this large garden, besides a sleeping doll, there were only lush plants and neatly maintained paths. Finally, he returned to the "sleeping doll"! After circling around this dormant "Alice," he suddenly stopped behind her! A keyhole! But not on her back, which was covered by clothing, but on the exposed position of her neck. Behind the sleeping doll's neck, a familiar keyhole attracted Duncan's attention. He subconsciously approached and observed the small keyhole!

The doll in the garden really had a keyhole, but why wasn't it in the same position as Alice's?

Did this positional difference also have any symbolic meaning? Having come into contact with too many strange and evil things in this world, Duncan couldn't help but think of "symbolic meaning" and the like when thinking about problems. However, he quickly restrained these thoughts, which were destined to have no answers, and hesitated to take out the brass key he was carrying. After entering Alice's Mansion, this key had inexplicably appeared in his hand. Was it meant to be used in this place?

The thought flashed through Duncan's mind. Then, he made up his mind and slowly brought the key closer to the keyhole behind the sleeping doll's neck, and carefully inserted it!

With a soft click, the key successfully engaged something. Then, it began to rotate on its own as before. A familiar feeling instantly came from all directions. Light and shadow shifted, senses were reshaped, and after weightlessness, there was the feeling of standing on solid ground again. In the blink of an eye, Duncan's surroundings had returned to the familiar captain's bedroom on the *Vanishing Sea*.

A smooth, white back appeared before his eyes. Alice was still sitting obediently on the round stool, waiting for the captain to wind her up. Duncan stared blankly at the scene before him, remaining stunned for several seconds before he reacted. Then, a strange thought popped into his mind.

"What a nice back, it's a pity not to give her a few cupping treatments." Alice heard the soft murmur from behind, and while clutching her clothes, she cautiously turned her head. "Huh? What did you say, Captain?" "No, nothing," Duncan immediately woke up, quickly coughed twice to cover up the momentary embarrassment, and then took the key out of the keyhole.

"It's over. Are you feeling okay?"

"Huh?" Alice was obviously stunned for a moment, and then, while groping for the zipper on her back, she turned her head in surprise, "Wasn't it just starting?" Duncan's movements as he put away the key paused slightly when he heard this! Had he been in "Alice's Mansion" for so long that only a moment had passed in the real world?