Chapter 263 Burning

The spread of the fire was faster and more violent than Duncan had imagined.

He had only lit a small flame at the edge of that massive "pillar" and prepared to wait for it to spread slowly, but he hadn't expected that small flame to instantly grow into a raging inferno that illuminated the deep sea—under the pressure of billions of tons of seawater, the weirdness of that blazing fire was even more pronounced than usual.

Extraordinary things were the best fuel for spiritual flames, and the tentacles of the ancient gods naturally belonged to the "extraordinary," but even so, this fire was burning too fiercely and too quickly.

It was as if some force was catalyzing and enhancing the power of the spiritual fire.

Was it due to the special environment of the deep sea itself? Or was that ancient god's tentacle actively "cooperating"?

Duncan frowned slightly, feeling the vast amount of information that the flames were transmitting to him—the information was fragmented, interspersed with a large amount of distorted noise and fragments of light and shadow whose meanings were unclear, which seemed to be things that had escaped uncontrollably during the collapse of the "tentacle."

To ordinary humans, even a whisper of those "things" might be enough to drive them mad, but Duncan only found them trivial and chaotic—he tried hard to distinguish useful information from those chaotic noises, and just before all the noise subsided, he finally "heard" some understandable "sounds."

In the seawater, his eyes suddenly widened, staring in slight astonishment at the ancient god's tentacle that was rapidly collapsing and disintegrating in the spiritual fire.

"Lh-01? Navigator One?!"

In the void, it seemed as if a roar came from the deep sea. The ancient god's flawed replica finally completely collapsed, all the noise disappeared, and no sound answered Duncan's momentary question—in the sudden silence that seemed to be filled with endless emptiness, only a hazy thought, like a phantom in the mist, quietly floated through his mind—

"Thank you, Fire Thief."

Duncan blinked, his mind surging with complex thoughts and countless astonishing guesses and associations. After who knew how long, just as he was beginning to think about whether to continue exploring this place and whether to continue descending deeper, a flickering light suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision.

He suddenly turned his head and saw that Ai, who had been flying around him, was suddenly flickering violently, like a faulty projection. The firelight on the pigeon's body became dim and bright, and it began to flap its wings rapidly, making sharp and intermittent cries: "Your...signal quality is poor, please check...your hardware connection...remote server...waiting..."

Duncan's eyes narrowed instantly. He waved his hand to send Ai back, and in the next second after Ai returned to the Ghost Ship, he noticed that the "temporary body" he was using was rapidly collapsing.

Large and small cracks instantly covered the entire body of this "roughcast" body, and the faint green flames jumping in the cracks were rapidly escaping.

In the surrounding seawater, those "human figures" floating around also began to show the same signs of disintegration. Countless human bodies were rapidly turning into black debris and sinking towards the dark "Frost Island" in the deep sea.

The ancient god's flawed replica was burned to ashes by the flames, and the rough human bodies surrounding the deep-sea floating island collapsed along with it. Except for the floating island itself, which might be the "original blueprint," everything in this deep sea was rapidly disintegrating and dissipating, returning to..."the normal state of the initial design."

Duncan quickly understood the cause and effect relationship between these changes, and in the next second, he felt his consciousness being forcibly "ejected" from this body that could no longer be maintained.

Before the perception was interrupted, he had only one thought in his mind—

It's a pity about this body adapted to the deep-sea environment. I thought I could use it for a long time, but it's another disposable one...

The low roar of the ballast tank draining water echoed in the submersible. Accompanied by a slight vibration, the entire machine began to accelerate upwards.

Duncan sighed regretfully in front of the control panel, mourning the loss of yet another "temporary body," while also confirming the status of the machine.

The deep-sea turbulence caused by the collapse and disintegration of that huge "pillar" had impacted the slowly ascending submersible, but fortunately, it had not caused any damage.

Agatha's horrified voice came from the side: "Just now...what was that?!"

She pointed to the outside of the porthole, to the dark deep sea that was rapidly returning to dimness—however, in the boundless darkness, there were still some residual green glows erupting from time to time, and large-scale faint green streamers seemed to be rapidly burning along some huge wreckage, as if a series of explosions were erupting in that darkness.

Outside the submersible, there were chaotic currents everywhere at this moment, and the noise of the machine running and the occasional banging sounds from the hull were frightening.

There was no doubt that something big had happened below.

"...I found the source of the Frost Crisis. In the center of the deep-sea floating island that is suspected to be the 'Genesis Blueprint,' there is a shockingly large ancient god's tentacle, which is a flawed replica of the Lord of the Abyss—His existence has affected this entire sea area," Duncan turned his head slightly and glanced at Agatha, who was obviously waiting for an explanation. "In the past fifty years, the Frost Queen's soul has been appeasing that flawed replica, and has persisted for too long."

Agatha slowly opened her mouth wide.

She hadn't expected that Captain Duncan would just use an "avatar" to take a look and bring back such shocking information!

She was stunned in shock for a long time before she finally woke up and subconsciously asked, "Then...then what happened? What happened then?"

"Burned it." Duncan said concisely.

Agatha didn't react for a moment: "...Burned it?"

"Burned it," Duncan repeated, and pointed to the outside of the porthole, "Didn't you see? I lit the fire."

"No, it's not that I didn't understand what you said, I understand...no, I don't understand, I don't understand at all," Agatha was a little incoherent. She had never felt this helpless when facing hundreds of cultists in that weird and evil sacrificial site, but in front of Captain Duncan, who never seemed to play by the rules, her sanity always seemed to be insufficient. "You just...burned it? An ancient god...even if it's just a flawed replica of an ancient god...you just burned it?"

Of course, Duncan knew that Agatha would react this way, but he really didn't know how to explain the vast amount of details, so he struggled for a long time, shrugged helplessly, and said, "To be honest, I was also very surprised. He was more flammable than I thought."

Agatha: "..."

After a moment of silence, the gatekeeper's mind finally reconnected: "Then...what about the Frost Queen's soul? Was she also 'burned' by you?"

"She gained freedom, but I don't know where she will go—maybe we'll meet again," Duncan said truthfully in every sentence. "I talked to her about many things, including her experiences in life, the secrets in the deep sea, and some...truths about our world. Most of the content is very subversive."

"Very subversive?" Agatha didn't seem to have recovered from the shock of "burning" just now, and her mind was obviously a little slow. Listening to Duncan's words, she just subconsciously asked, "What kind of subversion?"

"The kind of subversion that requires burning incense and praying and writing a will before listening, and requires isolation and observation and mental examination after listening," Duncan tilted his head and glanced at her, "I will tell you after we return to safe land and confirm that you are ready."

Even as a gatekeeper who had experienced many trials and had an extremely strong mental will, Agatha subconsciously felt her nerves tighten after hearing Duncan's words.

This "captain" who could even return from subspace would use such a solemn and serious tone...what kind of secrets did he know in that cold and boundless darkness?

At the same time, on the Ghost Ship, Duncan had returned from that "single apartment" sealed by thick fog and returned to his captain's room.

At the edge of the nautical chart table, the dark goat head creaked and twisted its neck, and the obsidian-inlaid eyes focused on the captain.

"Name?" it asked mechanically.

"Duncan Abnomar," Duncan waved his hand, sat down at the table, and looked up at the goat head. "Was I gone too long?"

"You were gone too far," the goat head seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, and its tone immediately returned to normal. "I felt a wisp of your will go to a very, very far place, so far that even the Ghost Ship could hardly capture it. Please don't be angry, I was also worried about your safety, after all, such a big ship is still relying on the wise captain to lead..."

"Okay, I know your loyalty, reliability, diligence, and consideration. Don't worry, it was just a distant but brief journey. It didn't have much impact—what is Alice doing?"

"Miss Alice?" The goat head paused, then said, "She was resting in her cabin just now...ah, she's coming to the captain's room, she seems to be in a hurry."

As soon as the goat head finished speaking, a rapid sound of footsteps came from the deck outside the door, and Alice's familiar aura appeared outside the door.

Just as the knock on the door was about to sound, Duncan spoke first, "Come in."

The two knocks on the door still came over in the next second, and then the puppet realized belatedly and said "oh" outside before opening the door and walking into the room.

"Captain! Captain, Captain!" As soon as she entered the room, Alice rushed to Duncan and said in a flurry before he could speak, "Something happened! I just had a dream! I just had a dream!"

Duncan had a lot of things he wanted to say to Alice, but he didn't expect the other party to be even more anxious than him, which made him frown. "You had a dream? What did you dream about?"

"I can't remember the specifics!" Alice said confidently, "I just felt like I was...a bit powerful in the dream? Like the feeling you mentioned before...like I grew a brain?"

(Time for book recommendation. The name of the book is *Shepherd's Secret Canon*, a Victorian fantasy, amber stream. The author has written *Mercury Blood* and *Players are Super Righteous* before. The quality is guaranteed and worth reading.)

(End of chapter)