Chapter 143 Returning

The fleet was returning along the path it had taken to the Mist Boundary. Perhaps due to the sinking of the massive entity, the "Sanctuary Isle," the nearby waters seemed quite turbulent. The sea, which was usually as smooth as a mirror, was constantly echoing with layers upon layers of fine, fish-scale-like ripples, and the surrounding dense fog always presented bizarre and distorted phantoms – which made many people tense.

But halfway through the journey, no real threatening entities emerged from the fog.

With the spirit-infused sails hoisted high, the slightest creaking sound accompanied the changing angles of the rigging from time to time. A thin mist flowed across the deck of the Vanishing Sail, and in the sparse fog, Agatha's figure faintly appeared as she walked through the mist.

She was inspecting the "environment" around the Vanishing Sail. At this moment, her eyes simultaneously reflected the scenery of the real dimension and the spirit world. The surrounding fog seemed somewhat different from when they had arrived, and the spirit world also seemed faintly restless. Although it didn't seem to have any impact on the Vanishing Sail, she was still concerned and remained vigilant.

The others were gathered in the ship's cabin: the captain was discussing matters concerning the Abyssal Depths with his followers.

In front of his trusted crew, Duncan didn't conceal his experiences in the Abyssal Depths, including the details of his conversation with the Abyssal Lord.

Morrison sat at the long table with his pipe in his mouth, wisps of smoke drifting around him, seemingly revealing his uneasy mood. After a long time, the old scholar finally put down his pipe and muttered with a subtle expression, "I've seen many incredible things in my life, but I've never encountered this situation before. The creator of this world actually invited you to take over His position..."

Nina reached out and pinched her arm hard, still seemingly doubting that she was dreaming. Then she looked up at Duncan, "Did you really refuse?"

Duncan said calmly, "Yes, the Abyssal Lord's plan has major problems, so I refused."

"The Sanctuary has no future..." Lucrezia murmured to herself. She seemed to recall a conversation she had with her father, and after a long silence, she said softly, "I still remember the question you once asked me. You asked if I felt this boundless sea was narrow and cramped – but now it seems that even this narrow and cramped Sanctuary is reaching its limit... I never thought that we would come here, far from the civilized world, only to receive such news."

A slightly oppressive atmosphere enveloped the cabin, and silence fell around the long table for a while. After a while, Nina leaned close to Shirley and asked in a worried whisper, "How are you feeling now? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

"I feel the same as usual, and even my eyes and ears seem to be sharper than before," Shirley muttered, her eyes still glowing with a faint red light, "It's just that I have to cover my eyes or close them when I go into the city in the future... it feels like a lot of trouble."

"At least we came back safely," Nina couldn't help but mutter, "I was so worried when I found out you were missing. I wanted to go to the island to find you, but Goat-head stopped me..."

Listening to the quiet conversation beside him, Duncan's gaze slowly swept over the figures around the long table. His tense expression relaxed slightly, and then he breathed a soft sigh.

"Let's leave it at that. This trip to Sanctuary Isle was exhausting. Before returning to the city-state, everyone should rest well."

As soon as the words fell, he stood up and waved his hand to signal the others not to get up. Then he turned and left.

The captain left – and until his figure disappeared at the door, the cabin maintained a slightly oppressive silence. After a long while, Nina muttered to break the silence, "Uncle Duncan looks very tired... he has a lot on his mind."

"He has too many things to consider," Morrison extinguished his pipe. "Unfortunately, there's too little we can do to help."

Lucrezia, after a moment of thought, turned her gaze to Aggie, "Did father say anything else after rejecting the Abyssal Lord's 'plan'?"

Aggie thought for a moment, then said uncertainly, "He said he had another plan, but it's just an idea now, and he hasn't found the right path... That's all. He didn't mention anything else, and he didn't explain anything to me and Shirley."

Listening to Aggie's story, Lucrezia fell into deep thought...

Duncan, who had left the cabin, didn't go anywhere else. He went straight through the mid-deck to the door of the captain's cabin located at the stern.

In the thin mist that slowly drifted across the deck, the dark wooden door stood quietly before him as always, the words "Door of the Forsaken" clear and sharp on the doorframe.

Duncan placed his hand on the doorknob, but suddenly stopped, just standing there. In a brief moment of contemplation, he raised his head, looked at the white mist like layers of curtains outside the ship's railing, and the chaotic heavenly light shining through the mist, standing for a long time.

After an unknown amount of time, he retracted his gaze and pushed the door open.

Passing through the familiar door, stepping on the familiar floor, and entering the familiar room, Zhou Ming breathed a soft sigh and strolled through the living room.

Everything in the studio apartment was as he remembered it, as if it would never change, as if not only the past few years or decades, but even the past thousands or tens of thousands of years had always been like this.

Everything here was imprinted in Zhou Ming's mind like a deep engraving. He walked through the familiar furnishings, stepped to the window, and looked at the scenery outside through the window that had never been opened.

The pale mist was like layers of curtains, and no scenery that should have been a "street" could be distinguished in the mist. Only chaotic heavenly light poured down from above, filling the mist.

Zhou Ming hesitated for a moment, then slowly reached out his hand to the window and pressed it against the glass.

A cold, hard touch came from the window, which remained motionless as always, as if solidified with space.

He took a light breath, then slowly blinked his eyes.

In the instant the eyelids closed, in the initial 0.002 seconds of darkness, he... saw nothing.

No windows, no mist outside the window, and no so-called "true side" presented in his vision.

Before his eyes was only a boundless darkness, an ultimate nothingness like the annihilation of all things.

Zhou Ming slowly took two steps back, calming his breathing.

He remembered the changes that had occurred in his body, remembered that when he was active on the "other side" of the door, each blink could see certain "true scenery" hidden beneath the real dimension in the brief moment of 0.002 seconds, but why was there only a darkness formed by ultimate nothingness before his eyes here?

Was it because he was "Zhou Ming" here and not "Duncan"? Was it because this room was a higher-level existence? Or was it because there really... was nothing here?

Zhou Ming stood in the living room, lost in thought. Then, the corner of his eye noticed a glimmer of light in the room.

...It was his computer. The computer, which had already been unplugged, was running with a buzzing sound, and the monitor was automatically playing a looping wallpaper, as always.

Zhou Ming frowned, seemingly thinking of something, and quickly walked to the computer and sat down.

He moved the mouse to turn off the wallpaper, then opened the browser and began to type in the search bar – perhaps because it hadn't been used for a long time, his operation was a bit rusty, and he made several typos before slowly regaining his touch.

He remembered that the computer's browser had responded to him once during an operation – it had shown the "Moon," and this response had indeed answered the "truth" of the world to some extent.

Would it respond to his other questions again?

In the light sound of the keyboard, he first entered the words "0.002 seconds" in the search box, then pressed Enter.

He looked anxiously at the spinning cursor and the slowly moving progress bar, his thoughts rising and falling at the same time—

Navigator One told him that he had come to this world at the very beginning of the Great Annihilation, and the Ancient Kings surrounded him, seeing a chaotic light cocoon floating in the center of the ashes... Was that light cocoon his "studio apartment"?

If so, then what did the various furnishings in this studio apartment represent...?

What did this computer represent? What did the shelf at the end of the room represent? And what about those "models" that were transformed here after being burned by flames? What symbolism did they have?

The cursor flashed, and the progress bar at the bottom of the screen suddenly cleared. The browser's error message appeared in Zhou Ming's vision.

But he wasn't surprised.

After a brief thought, he typed new information into the search box: Great Annihilation.

Browser error, search failed.

Zhou Ming wasn't discouraged. After a moment of thought, he entered another keyword: End of Time.

Then there was a new error message, and then, more keywords—

"Cosmic Collision", "Redshift", "Sanctuary", "Ancient Kings", "Deep Sea Age", "Stars"...

One keyword after another was tried, but the error message on the screen remained unchanged.

After trying countless times, Zhou Ming finally frowned gradually. As the last keyword "Zhou Ming" was exchanged for a new error message, he sighed softly, and a burst of disappointment rose in his heart.

"It" didn't respond to him, didn't give any answers.

Unable to tell whether it was frustration or emptiness, Zhou Ming shook his head and leaned back in the chair, looking at the screen in front of him with tired eyes.

The small cursor was still flashing in the search bar, as if still waiting for him to enter new keywords, or just issuing a silent mockery.

Zhou Ming sat quietly for more than ten minutes, but suddenly, he stared at the flashing little cursor, and something seemed to flash in his mind.

He sat up straight suddenly, put his hand on the keyboard again, and entered another keyword—

"Reverse Singularity"

At the moment he pressed Enter, a illusory roar suddenly broke into Zhou Ming's mind, and then the screen in front of him plunged into darkness.