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

But he stopped immediately, recalling the scene when he met Queen of Frost, Lenore, in that gorgeous bedroom not long ago. Surely he wouldn't mistake another one, would he?

A strange feeling rose in Duncan's heart, and then he carefully approached the sleeping figure, bending down to observe her closely.

He noticed the spherical joints at the positions of her hands and feet, and the texture of her "skin" that was obviously bloodless, pure white like porcelain.

It really was Alice. Duncan finally confirmed that the gothic doll sleeping here was indeed the one he knew, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Then his attention turned to the black thorns entwined around her. Thorny vines extended from the flower bushes, spreading across the open space around the doll, resembling a gorgeous and bizarre skirt.

The thorns wrapped around the doll's hands, feet, and torso, imprisoning her among the flowers and vines as if in shackles! Alice was sleeping in the middle of this "bed" made of flowers and thorns, with no reaction to Duncan's approach or calls. Duncan carefully avoided the thorny vines and crisscrossing thorns, reaching out to gently touch the doll's cheek, calling her name again, "Alice, can you hear me?" A slightly cool sensation came from his fingertips, but Alice did not respond in any way. 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. The thorn bushes were wrapped around her arms, but the drawing board seemed to be able to be pulled out from the gaps!

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

During this process, he paid close attention to Alice's changes, observing what effect his action of taking away 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. A brightly colored, chaotically lined "painting" came into his view, just like the bizarre "sky" above this garden. Childish strokes depicted an abstract scene on the drawing board! There was a vortex, a vortex pieced together from various colors, occupying almost two-thirds of the entire picture.

Around the vortex were many starlight dots, which the "author" of the painting indicated with many intersecting lines—these were all glowing stars. And in the center of the colored vortex, a rich red light could be seen.

Even though the graffiti was crude, Duncan still seemed to feel a strong sense of danger from that red light. Duncan frowned. For some reason, the red light in the vortex felt somewhat familiar. After racking his brains and recalling for a long time, 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, that unsettling dark red glow filled the air!

Duncan's expression gradually became solemn! This was the eleventh time this ominous, dark red glow had appeared in this strange "Alice's mansion." What exactly did this dark red glow represent?

Did it symbolize some kind of disaster that was constantly chasing and approaching? Or was it a true reflection 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 this dark red glow?" Dangerous thoughts briefly arose in his heart, but Duncan quickly suppressed them!

He was indeed very curious about what was outside the door of Alice's mansion, but curiosity was not equal to recklessness. Before he grasped more clues and confirmed Alice's safety, he would try his best to avoid disrupting the "order" in this "mansion!" As 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 sleeping quietly in the flowers beside him, as if embracing all the secrets and remaining silent about all the answers! Were the graffiti on the sky and the drawing board "created"? By 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 of Frost thought she was—just a mixed, erroneous replica of "Lenore" and the "Guillotine." Or rather, the shell of "Miss Doll" might indeed have come about 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 were her "inner self," and these secrets clearly surpassed the things that Lenore had grasped! This was a very simple principle: if a copied file carried more information than the original, then there was only one possibility—someone had written something else into the "file" during the "copying" process! Duncan's thoughts flowed, and after contemplating quietly 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 on the back of the drawing board suddenly caught his attention!

Duncan's eyes narrowed instantly, and he quickly brought 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 has 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 simple, timeless words, and he maintained the same expression for a long time!

After what seemed like a long time, he gently exhaled, bent down, avoided the thorns and vines, and slowly placed 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 Long Night… Duncan stood up, his expression thoughtful, and some known information was gradually reorganized and connected in his thoughts!

The Third Long Night was the most crucial piece of information. The *Book of Blasphemy* of the Annihilation Cult, which very 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 founders of the ancient Kingdom of Crete, those mysterious "Ancient Sages!" Picking up the lost ancient stars… could this sentence be describing… the historical event of the ancient Kingdom of Crete creating Anomaly 001, the Sun?

Unfortunately, there was too little information. Aside from causing vague associations, this cryptic "message" could not serve any purpose. Duncan shook his head and temporarily suppressed this regret. Then, he carefully checked this vibrant yet strangely eerie garden again. He did not find anything else worth paying attention to. Apart from a sleeping doll, this vast garden only contained lush plants and neatly maintained paths. Finally, he returned to the "sleeping doll!" After circling around this hibernating "Alice," he suddenly stopped behind her! A keyhole! But not on her back, which was covered by clothes, but on her exposed neck. The familiar keyhole on the back of the sleeping doll's neck caught Duncan's attention. He subconsciously moved closer, observing the small keyhole!

The doll in the garden did indeed have a keyhole, but why was it in a different location than Alice's?

Did this difference in location also have any symbolic meaning? Having come into contact with too many strange and wicked things in this world, Duncan couldn't help but think of "symbolic meaning" and other such directions when considering problems. However, he quickly restrained these thoughts, which were destined to have no answers, and hesitated as he took 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, and then he made up his mind and slowly brought the key closer to the keyhole on the back of the sleeping doll's neck, and carefully inserted it!

With a soft click, the key successfully engaged with something. Then, it began to rotate on its own as before. A familiar feeling instantly came from all directions—a replacement of light and shadow, a reshaping of the senses, weightlessness followed immediately by the feeling of standing firmly on the ground. In almost the blink of an eye, Duncan's surroundings changed back 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, and it took him several seconds to react. Then a strange thought popped into his mind:

"What a waste not to give such a good back a few cupping treatments." Hearing the soft murmur behind her, Alice carefully twisted her head while clutching her clothes and asked sleepily,

"Huh? What did you say, Captain?" "No, nothing." Duncan immediately woke up, quickly cleared his throat to cover up the moment's 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 she groped for the zipper on her back and turned around in surprise. "Wasn't it just starting?" Duncan's movement of putting away the key paused slightly when he heard this! Had he spent so long in "Alice's Mansion" that only a moment had passed in the real world?