Chapter 1 The Reaction

When Duncan opened the door to the captain's cabin, the "goat head" placed on the edge of the navigation table immediately reacted—it seemed to raise its head in a half-dreaming state, slowly turn towards the door, and then recognize the figure that appeared in the doorway.

"Ah, we meet again," the black wooden carving spoke, its words carrying a peculiar slowness, completely different from the goat head that usually babbled incessantly when it got noisy, "You left in a hurry before..."

"You remember me?" Duncan said, closing the door to the captain's cabin casually and walking towards the navigation table.

He walked past the ancient oval mirror near the door, and a hazy light and shadow floated in the mirror. Agatha's illusory, transparent figure flashed across the mirror.

The goat head on the table didn't seem to notice Agatha's presence. Its gaze remained on Duncan, turning its head slowly as Duncan walked. It spoke slowly, "I remember you, ah, that's a bit incredible. After all, I can't remember many things clearly. This feeling of being able to remember someone clearly... it's wonderful."

Duncan arrived at the navigation table and glanced down at the "sea chart" on the table.

The sea chart still showed the lush forest projection, and the illusory silhouette representing the *Lost Ship* floated above the forest, slowly passing through the clouds, as if surveying the entire forest.

Duncan quickly compared it with the image in his memory and confirmed that the "sea of forests" had not changed much compared to last time. Only the position of the *Lost Ship* had indeed moved a little.

"You really left in a hurry last time," Duncan nodded, casually saying as he sat down at the navigation table. His gaze swept across the oval mirror nearby, and then naturally fell on the goat head, "How is Xilantis?"

"He's sleeping soundly now," the goat head said quickly, "You last time... were just startled. I hope this didn't cause him any trouble."

Duncan couldn't imagine what kind of disaster could turn a magnificent city into that appearance—it was as if the entire city had melted in an instant, with more than half of the city's matter turning into gas in the blink of an eye, and the remaining structures quickly melting and flowing, then solidifying in the ensuing rapid cooling, turning into those jagged stones.

The goat head didn't react to Duncan's actions—the flames that quietly appeared in the room seemed to not exist for it. It just stayed there quietly, as if it were a real wooden carving as long as Duncan didn't talk to it.

Its head shook from left to right, seeming to react to the name Duncan mentioned. After a few seconds of hesitation and thought, it finally slowly raised its head—

…

Duncan sat opposite the giant, a very good listener, taking a short rest.

Speaking of this, he shook his head again, sighing slightly, "But... there's nothing to observe and record in this world anymore."

This answer itself didn't surprise him, but at this moment, what he thought of was the sentence the goat head said when he was talking to it on the *Lost Ship* in the real world—"Remember us!"

In the periphery of his vision, wisps of faint green firelight appeared in the captain's cabin.

He was still recounting those past events.

Duncan exhaled lightly, giving orders to the flames, ordering them to subside, lie dormant, and return to the gaps between the deck, walls, and roof.

The goat head's vague grumbling suddenly stopped.

The continuous "shadow," like the ruins of a city, was now not far from them. They could see it just by looking up.

"Outside?" The goat head shook its head slowly, "I don't know what you mean by 'outside,' but Xilantis has indeed been dreaming. I... have been dreaming for a long, long time. In that dream, there is indeed a lush forest, and... us."

The "us" mentioned by the two goat heads should have the same meaning!

Duncan's heart moved immediately, "Who are *we*?"

The giant lowered his head, his face full of ravines like stone carvings, his eyes, as if burning with clear flames, gazing into Duncan's eyes.

It was a continuous pile of gray-white giant stones. The jagged and strange stones spread across the vast land covered in yellow sand like a jungle. They could no longer see the outlines of buildings, and could hardly see any traces of civilization.

The giant spoke, slowly raising his hand and pointing to the blood-colored rift in the sky.

The giant answered very frankly, "I can reach any corner of this 'world' within a day. That is my ability, because only in this way can I observe and record all the changes that occur in this world at any time—observe and record, that is my duty."

Duncan raised his head, staring in a daze at the ruins not far away.

"What exactly happened to turn the city into this appearance?" Duncan couldn't help but ask the giant, "You just mentioned that the world died... what killed this world?"

Duncan's expression froze instantly—

That journey was shortened—Duncan could clearly feel that.

But if it really was some kind of instantaneous low temperature... why would the vast land outside the city be a sea of sand?

"It doesn't matter, I don't care." Duncan said, placing his hand on the table again, quietly and cautiously mobilizing the power of the flames.

The situation was as he expected—the fire seeds left on the *Lost Ship* in the real world could "burn through" the border between dream and reality, and appear synchronously on this eerily atmospheric *Lost Ship*. And the flames "sent" there in this way were equivalent to achieving "smuggling" at the dream level. As long as he controlled their spread well, it wouldn't cause too strong a stimulus to the "Xilantis Qing Si" in the goat head's mouth.

"Is Xilantis always dreaming?" Duncan sensed the rapid movement of these fire seeds on the ship, and exchanged conversation with the goat head on the table as if they were chatting casually, "Is that entire forest outside Xilantis's dream?"

Duncan quickly controlled the spreading trend of these flames, suppressing them to their current state, in order to prevent further stimulating the "Duncan Qing Si" in the goat head's mouth. At the same time, he finally confirmed another thing in his heart.

"What is your name?" he asked.

It was indeed as he had initially guessed, the ruins of a city—however, when he first saw these things, he almost failed to connect the ruins with a "city."

From a certain point of view, these projected flames were equivalent to becoming the "fixed structure" on this eerily atmospheric *Lost Ship*, instead of being regarded as "foreign objects disturbing the dream" like the flames he had summoned here last time.

Duncan's eyes changed several times in an instant, and in the rapid connection of clues, he felt that he could almost determine the bold guess about the true identity of the goat head—so his expression became serious, and with an exceptionally solemn attitude, he stared into the goat head's eyes.

"We died a long, long time ago. When the world died, no living being could cross that day."

"Sasroka died a long, long time ago."

Such a low temperature would melt the sand and turn it into a glass-like substance. There would be no desert around the city at all, but rather a whole piece of sintered obsidian ground.

The goat head lowered its head slightly, seeming to fall into a half-dreaming state again, but after a moment, it responded, "We are... creatures born in the forest. A long, long time ago, we gave our race a name, called elves..."

Remember *us*... why emphasize "remember" so much? And the goat head eventually forgot "*us*"... What was the reason for this "forgetting"?

At a normal walking speed, he and the giant couldn't have arrived near those ruins in such a short time.

This incredible phenomenon was obviously related to the giant traveling with him—it seemed that as long as he traveled with this giant, the "distance" on the journey would be shortened.

The goat head didn't answer, it just made a series of vague grunts, like muttering in its sleep.

"The only thing I can tell you is that when the doomsday came, the 'erosion' belonging to this world swarmed out of that rift. They shattered the earth beneath our feet in an instant, and reorganized it in sorrow. Everything we gloried in turned into dust in the erosion."

He had found a way to safely send the flames in here. Next, as long as he repeated this once or twice, he might be able to use the "smuggled" flames to burn through this eerie *Lost Ship*, thereby completely controlling this ship that had been transformed from the shadow of the *Lost Ship*.

These flames were not what he had summoned just now, but the "fire seeds" he had deliberately left on the *Lost Ship* in the real world during the day.

Duncan's cultural class grades were not very good, but he still had this basic knowledge.

After thinking of this, Duncan didn't hide his guess, and directly stated his speculation.

The endless wind and sand swept across the entire sea of sand time and time again like the reincarnation of fate. The giant in ragged robes sat cross-legged among a pile of hideous and twisted rocks. His huge body seemed to deter the sand and dust, causing the disordered wind to stay several meters away from the stone pile, so that the sand and dust would not fall on the "traveler's" body.

"Are you Sasroka?" Duncan didn't care, but continued to ask. Unknowingly, his body leaned forward slightly. "The creator in elven legends, the creator of the original dream, the creator and guardian of Xilantis—your name, isn't it Sasroka?"

"Don't try to understand that doomsday. It has already exceeded the mind of mortals, and even exceeded the wisdom of the gods—when it came, those who worshipped me begged me for help. I glanced at the doomsday, and it burned through my reason and soul, traveler... it is something that cannot be described in words."