Chapter 1 The Return of the White Oak

The White Oak had returned—after a long period of communication breakdown and route deviation, this advanced steamship belonging to the Explorer's Association finally returned to the city-state of Prand.

Many people were waiting for the ship to return, and countless eyes were nervously watching the silhouette gradually approaching on the sea.

Inquisitor Vanna saw that as the White Oak's whistle sounded, the personnel on the dock immediately took action:

The staff guiding the ship to the shore had arrived and began to signal the White Oak with lights and flags. The Church's guards went to activate the deep-sea relics that had been placed at Pier No. 1 the night before: these were large bronze-cast "boundary markers," with the name of the Storm Goddess Gamona inscribed on their bases, and the tops of the grooves were filled with sacred oils and spices. When these boundary markers were activated, the area where the White Oak docked would be sealed off, becoming a "sanctuary" watched over by the goddess.

Further away were the city hall's constables. These ordinary people were not good at dealing with supernatural matters, so their main job was to seal off all intersections with heavy firepower—ordinary guns could not deal with strange and invisible curses, but if the beings running out of the White Oak were corporeal, then eight-millimeter bullets and four-pound cannons would be very effective.

Sometimes Vanna couldn't help but be grateful for the progress of technology. These crystals of engineering gave weak and powerless ordinary people a certain amount of power to intervene in these supernatural events. Although the results of technological progress were mixed, at least... the support of Gatling guns and artillery had greatly reduced the casualties of the Church's compatriots in recent years.

Vanna's gaze crossed the dock and looked at the distant sea.

The White Oak sounded a second blast of its whistle. Guided by the shore's light signals, the ship began to slow down and stopped some distance from the dock.

Seeing this, a priest standing beside Vanna breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, "The White Oak executed the order. It seems that at least the ship is still controlled by 'humans.'"

"It's too early to say. Many people affected by anomalies or visions appear no different from ordinary people until a sudden change occurs," Vanna shook her head. "Send out the second set of signals, dispatch an inspection boat, and have the shore batteries ready at all times. If anything unusual happens on the ship... open fire."

The order from the Inquisitor was quickly conveyed. Since the White Oak's communication device was damaged, the people on shore could only communicate with the ship using lights and flags. After a complex set of lights and flag signals, three lights lit up on the bow of the White Oak, and then, the rope ladder on its side was lowered.

A speedboat was released from the dock and sped towards the White Oak, driven by a small steam engine.

On the speedboat was an entire squad of guards, including eight combat personnel, a commander, and a deep-sea priest. These loyal clerics lit incense on the boat and chanted the holy name of the Storm Goddess. After approaching the White Oak, they did not immediately board the ship, but first circled the large ship completely and sprinkled holy oil mixed with seaweed extract into the nearby sea.

After the oil fell into the sea, it immediately emitted a faint glow and gradually formed a patch, eventually forming a ring completely surrounding the White Oak.

After doing all this, the clerics on the speedboat truly approached the White Oak and boarded the ship along the rope ladder.

All of this fell into Vanna's eyes on the watchtower.

Letting a ship that had been lost at sea "go home" was an extremely dangerous thing, especially since it was an ocean-going ship that had been responsible for transporting anomalies—the White Oak could not directly dock. It first needed to accept an inspection boat at a safe distance. Only after initially confirming that there were no signs of corruption by evil gods on the ship could it approach the pier of Prand. However, even after that, the personnel on the ship could not disembark. They still needed to accept a second round of inspections by the clerics, and the entire ship had to undergo a more rigorous comprehensive search and purification. After that, all the personnel on the ship had to undergo observation in the church at the pier for a few days, or even weeks, and the entire ship had to be purified with incense for at least a week.

Only when all these processes were completed without any accidents could the civilized world dare to readmit these people who had been lost at sea back home—and if any link went wrong, the White Oak and its crew could only be buried at sea.

The Storm Goddess would accept the souls of these poor people.

This cold and even cruel law did not originate from anyone's malice, but was the "way of survival" that human society had explored to this day.

Of course, there were also city-states that were unwilling or unable to implement these strict rules. These city-states are now mostly concentrated in the first two units of the second volume of middle school history textbooks and are required content for the final exam.

Time passed minute by minute. Everyone was waiting for the guard squad boarding the ship to send back a signal, and there were only two possible signals—if everything was safe, the squad would use special psionic communication to send back a docking request. If the ship had been contaminated, the squad would fight to the last man and try to detonate the nitroglycerin on the speedboat before all of them died.

For ocean-going ships the size of the White Oak, if it was truly deeply contaminated by the subspace or something, it would be impossible for the mere few people boarding the ship to return alive.

Vanna crossed her arms and gently tapped the metal on her arm guards.

Suddenly, bells rang from the small church on the dock, and the steam relief pipes on both sides of the bell tower sounded three long rings.

The priests in the church had received a secret message from the inspection squad, and the church's bells and whistles were notifying all the groups on the dock:

The ship was safe, the White Oak was requesting to dock, and there was a special situation to report.

Vanna immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

At least for now, the ship seemed to be normal, which was the best news.

As for reporting a special situation... she was not surprised.

It would be strange if a strangely lost ship returned to port without any special situations to report.

The White Oak slowly docked. This ocean-going ship that had experienced a series of twists and turns finally returned to the pier of the civilized world. Although the personnel on board had not yet been allowed to disembark, they must have been able to relax a lot.

More Church guards began to board the ship in an orderly manner, preparing to conduct a thorough inspection and inquiry. Vanna also left the watchtower and personally led a team of priests to the dock. She walked across the long gangplank and finally stepped onto the deck of the White Oak, where she met the gray-haired and burly captain on the foredeck.

The old captain looked a little haggard. Obviously, he had been working in a highly tense state for too long, but after seeing the Church's Inquisitor approaching, the old man immediately cheered up and took the initiative to come to Vanna.

"Hello, I am Vanna, the Inquisitor of the Deep Sea Church of the city-state of Prand, Captain Lawrence," Vanna did not like redundant etiquette. She chose to greet him directly. "Let's skip the introductions—first, I apologize and hope that you and your crew can understand the strict inspection by the city-state authorities and the Church."

"Of course, Inquisitor," Lawrence nodded immediately. He originally wanted to say "Inquisitor Miss," after all, the other party looked almost as old as his daughter, but he changed it to a more respectful title when the words came to his lips. "I expected it, after all... we've been out of contact for so long."

Vanna nodded: "Briefly tell me what the White Oak encountered, why did you lose contact? And why did you suddenly appear on an unreported route? How is the cargo you were escorting, anomaly 099?"

As soon as these words came out, the expression on Lawrence's face was filled with frustration and tension. He sighed, first subconsciously glanced around quickly, and then slowly opened his mouth: "You may not believe it when I say it, but we... encountered that legendary ship, the Ship of the Lost..."

In front of him, the expression on the face of the Inquisitor Miss, who had been serious, suddenly petrified, with a strange expression frozen on her face.

He couldn't tell what this expression meant, but it looked just like he did a few days ago after being hit by the Ship of the Lost.

"Inquisitor... Madam?" Lawrence asked cautiously, "You..."

"Captain Lawrence," Vanna seemed to suddenly wake up, staring at the captain in front of her, "Say that again?"

"You may not believe it when I say it..."

"I said the second half of the sentence."

"We encountered that legendary ship, the Ship of the Lost..."

"I believe it."

Lawrence was stunned: "Then..."

"You may need to stay at the dock for a few more days, Captain," Vanna said with a serious face, "This matter is very serious, very serious, you... Wait, you encountered the Ship of the Lost, but everyone survived?"

The expression on the Inquisitor Miss's face suddenly changed slightly, and there was a hint of doubt in her eyes. Seeing this, Lawrence quickly opened his hands: "We are all right, but the Ship of the Lost took away anomaly 099, which is that doll's coffin. I suspect that the ghost ship was coming for the doll's coffin."

"The Ship of the Lost took away anomaly 099?" Vanna frowned, and then asked, "What happened after that? Did it just let you go?"

"Yes... yes," Lawrence also became nervous, and vaguely realized something, "Inquisitor Madam, has something happened in the city recently..."

"...It doesn't matter if I tell you, after all, it seems that your 'contact' may be more serious than ours," Vanna sighed and looked at the old captain in front of her, "Captain Lawrence, you may not be the only one who has dealt with the Ship of the Lost recently. Let's find a quiet place, I need to understand more about the situation."