Chapter 1 The Unfolding

The eerie green firelight rose in the captain's cabin, and a skeletal bird wreathed in spirit flames flew out of the fire. The swirling flames behind it formed a vortex-like doorway, and Vanna, Alice, and Morris stepped out of it into the cabin.

The dizziness from the light and shadow shift had barely subsided when they turned to the navigation table not far away, bowing respectfully to Duncan, who was sitting behind it studying a sea chart: "Captain."

"Find a place to sit down and rest for a while; it's easy to fall after teleporting," Duncan said without looking up, then confirmed a few points on the sea chart. He sighed softly, straightened up, and looked at Morris. "Did you bring the book?"

"Yes," Morris nodded quickly, then took out the black-covered, nameless "Book of Blasphemy" from his chest and handed it to Duncan. "Here it is."

Duncan reached out to take the book, while Vanna couldn't help but ask, "Now that Morris, Alice, and I are back on the ship, with only your avatar left in the city-state… is that alright?"

"There won't be any major trouble in the city anymore. Besides, Tirien will become the new governor of Frost, and with him and Agatha maintaining order in the city-state, there's nothing to worry about," Duncan said with a smile. "As far as you're concerned, your work in the Frost City-State is done. Any follow-up can be handled by my avatar."

As he spoke, Duncan took the heavy, black-covered book and sat back down at the navigation table, placing it next to the sea chart. The expression on his face turned serious.

This was the "Book of Blasphemy" that Morris and Vanna had obtained from the cultist leader. It contained information about the Deep Saint and allegedly mentioned some secrets about the creation of the gods and the era before the Great Annihilation.

From the outside, the book appeared unremarkable, except for its black cover and lack of title. No extraordinary aura emanated from it.

Vanna, Morris, and Alice had already curiously gathered around, but apart from the carefree Alice, the other two kept a safe distance, avoiding direct eye contact with the book.

The goat-head wood carving on the edge of the navigation table creaked as it turned its neck, curiously directing its head towards the large book in front of Duncan. After looking at it for a long time, it finally couldn't help but ask, "What is this thing? Just a book? What's so important about it?"

"Theoretically, it's a heretical missionary's handbook," Duncan said casually. "It seems to record something related to the creation of the gods, albeit the mad ramblings of those cultists. But there's a part of it that concerns me."

"Records of the creation of the gods?" The goat-head was momentarily stunned, then its tone changed subtly. "That bunch of lunatics' 'Deep Saint Genesis'? Frankly, in my opinion, their theory has no reference value whatsoever. If you can concoct a history of time without any rigorous evidence or reasoning, then any drunken playwright can explain the foundations of our world. There's even an absurd play that claims our world was stewed in a big pot of stew…"

"But Morris suffered mental pollution while reading this book, even attracting the attention of the Four Gods," Duncan said slowly, raising his eyelids. "You should know what that means."

The goat-head's neck froze.

After an unknown amount of time, it finally eked out a sentence: "The closer to the truth, the further from reason…"

"Yes, the first principle of anomalies and visions – the closer to the truth, the further from reason," Morris nodded solemnly. "The more likely an item is to cause severe mental pollution, the more likely it is to record the true nature of the world. Therefore, scholars sometimes even judge the credibility of ancient scrolls based on the degree of mental damage they suffer after reading them."

The goat-head shook its head, pondering for a long time before finally saying, "But immense distortion and pure, high-level extraordinary power can also cause mental pollution. In that case, the truth may point in the opposite direction – the more reason is damaged, the more one is deceived."

It paused, then added, "I'm serious, Morris. Many unfortunates in your line of work have died because of this, and those who haven't died are at the brink of madness, mistakenly believing they know the truth. Most of them are now on the heresy wanted lists of major churches – of course, you're on this ship now, so if we're being honest, you're actually on the wanted list too…"

This goat-head had a bizarre style, but after so long, it was clear that it had some genuine concern for the members of the ship. Its words weren't pleasant, but its care was sincere.

Morris was well aware of this, so he didn't mind. Instead, he said sincerely to the goat-head, "Thank you for your concern. You're right, this world is very good at fooling mortals, and curiosity often leads us in the opposite direction. That's why we need the Captain to make the final judgment."

"The Captain…" The goat-head paused, finally noticing that Duncan's hand was already on the cover of the black-covered book, and he looked ready to open it. "Ah? Are you sure you want to read it?"

"What else would I do?" Duncan looked up. "Did I have Morris bring this thing on board to use as a base for you?"

The goat-head stared blankly, its head swaying slightly from side to side. "Actually, it's not entirely impossible…"

Duncan ignored the creature's obvious attempt at humor. He had prepared himself, took a final deep breath, and gradually focused his mind.

A faint green flame rose from within his body, instantly transforming his physical form into a spirit form. After confirming that his transformation was complete, Duncan opened the first page of the black-covered book.

At first glance, he saw no words on the page.

At second glance, he saw boundless darkness suddenly gathering from all directions.

In an instant, the light and shadows shifted, and everything happened too quickly to react. Just like the first time he used the Spirit Realm Compass, Duncan's consciousness suddenly "fell" into an endless darkness.

He looked up in astonishment, seeing that all the familiar things in the captain's cabin had disappeared. The goat-head, Morris, and the others were gone, and even the black-covered book he had been reading a second ago was nowhere to be found.

He stood in the darkness, frowning in thought for a few seconds. Something was wrong – this wasn't the process Morris had described.

After he opened this book, something completely different happened than when Morris had opened it! And just then, something suddenly appeared in the corner of his eye.

Zhou Ming subconsciously looked over, seeing a small, white light and shadow floating in the air not far from him. He focused his attention again, finally realizing… it was text.

The text became clear. After he opened the book, something completely different happened than when Morris had opened it.

Zhou Ming suddenly froze.

He stood there motionless, quietly staring at the line of text floating in the air, forgetting to breathe, forgetting to think.

After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly remembered something.

He remembered seeing a similar place, he had visited the same darkness, and he had seen text in the darkness –

"That was in the subspace, on the derelict, lost ship sailing through the subspace. Pushing open the door to the captain's cabin, there was a dark place, and words appeared in the darkness, describing…"

Pale words quickly appeared in the air, but soon faded away.

Zhou Ming suddenly stopped. He controlled himself, trying hard not to let his mind wander. It was very difficult, but after filling his mind with a lot of random numbers, words, and meaningless scenery, the words that had appeared in the darkness before his eyes really disappeared.

Afterward, he put in a lot of effort, restraining his thoughts and calming his pounding heart.

What exactly was going on? What was this darkness? What were these words that emerged from the darkness?

They seemed to be describing himself… were they really describing himself? What did this description mean?

Was this some kind of mind-reading process? Or some kind of soul-level "mapping" phenomenon? The last time he saw a similar dark space was on the derelict, lost ship in the subspace. This time, it was after opening that book. Why did that book have this kind of "power"?

Countless thoughts couldn't help but emerge in his mind, and almost at the same time, new words appeared in the darkness.

But this time, the words weren't describing himself, but a few random words –

"Embodiment… transformation into reality… the real…"

Zhou Ming frowned, subconsciously moving closer to the new line of text, reaching out to touch it.

His fingers passed through the phantoms, causing only slight ripples in the darkness.

And in the trembling ripples, he faintly saw that there seemed to be other words hidden behind those words!

He hesitated for only a second before reaching out again, continuing to stir the words like reflections in water, causing the ripples to expand, the overlapping words to reveal their true form, and the other information hidden deep in the darkness to appear in his vision.

Suddenly, he saw several lines of fragmented text appearing in the darkness, trembling and extending downwards, moving.

"Source-Leviathan Queen-The situation… is not optimistic, the critical state is accelerating…"

"Source-Fire King-Are there any new records?"

"Source-Bartok-Bad news… Node feedback is blurred… Suspect the cluster controller has begun to copy itself… or is completely out of control…"

"Source-Lh-02-There is relevant information."

"Specifics?"

"Lh-02-Observed an individual with cluster controller characteristics approaching, suspected mental mutation, suspected of being able to communicate with me."

"Source-Leviathan Queen-Amazing information! Follow-up?"

"Source-Lh-02-No follow-up."

"Source-Bartok-?"

"Source-Lh-02-The suspicious individual sent a dog head and left."