Chapter 92: Chapter 96 Gaze
Inside the captain’s quarters of the Holoss, Duncan, who had been sitting with his arms crossed in front of the window and resting with his eyes closed, slowly opened his eyes.
He glanced at the familiar furnishings of the room and checked on the state of his body, letting out a slight sigh of relief.
Now, he’d once again transferred his primary consciousness back to Holoss, leaving his other body in the antique shop at Plunder City-State, awkwardly controlling it as it tidied up the first-floor shop and hung a “Closed” sign on the door.
The Duncan in captain’s quarters slowly stood up from the chair, stretching his limbs as he looked towards the nearby desk. There he saw the pigeon Ai Yi leisurely strolling along the edge of the desk. The sun mask previously delivered here still lay quietly on the table, glowing with enchanting colors under the setting sun streaming in through the window, as if an illusory fla flowed through the golden patterns.
The Duncan in front of the antique shop hung up the “Closed for the evening” wooden sign and turned to greet a neighbor who just happened to be returning ho. A faint smile on his face, he engaged in a chat about the day’s weather and recent business dealings with this “old neighborhood buddy.”
His expression outside the antique shop was a bit stiff, his speech sowhat slow, but the neighbor didn’t suspect anything—after all, a forr gambler who had been drowning in alcohol, now living conscientiously, was surprising enough. A little slowness in response was nothing compared to that; how lively could soone whose body had been damaged by alcohol be?
Back in the captain’s bedroom, a slight smile appeared on Duncan’s face. After remotely controlling his “interaction shell” to complete a social interaction attempt, he casually picked up the sun mask lying on the desk.
There was still much to be done in Plunder City-State, but not everything could be accomplished overnight, especially since there was a strict curfew in the City-State after nightfall. It was best for his human body to stay quietly in the shop at night to avoid attracting attention—after sunset, it was ti for the “true self” on Holoss.
He planned to use this ti to study the mask he had obtained from the Sun Priest.
The mask felt cool to the touch, seemingly cast from pure tal, heavy, and quite substantial.
Looking at the golden object in his hand, Duncan’s thoughts suddenly beca active; his first thought was whether this thing was made of pure gold—if so, perhaps after studying it, lting it down could fetch a tidy sum of money…
Although he was temporarily free of financial pressures in the City-State, cash was sothing humans could never have too much of in society; what if it was needed in the future?
The Heretics of the sun cult had a variety of loot that could be used for gathering information, reporting in exchange for bounties, or acquiring transcendent items relevant to oneself. And of course, it was perfectly normal to sell off any excess transcendent items that were of no use after a bit of processing and refinent…
This was called diversified, sustainable exploitation.
Pondering for a mont, Duncan suddenly touched his chin and thoughtfully exclaid, “The Sun Cultists are truly treasures from head to toe…”
The strolling Ai Yi suddenly stopped, tilted her head to look at Duncan, and let out a sharp female voice, “Be a person, be a person!”
“You, a bird, have no right to lecture ,” Duncan glared at the pigeon, then imdiately began to rub his fingertips together, preparing to summon the Spectral Fla to “cleanse” the mask inside and out and conduct a thorough “test” after gaining control.
A clump of faint green flas ignited at his fingertips. Just as Duncan was about to channel the fla into the mask, he suddenly heard a vague voice, as if whispering from the depths of his heart:
“…might inadvertently link them to Holoss…”
Duncan’s movents halted abruptly.
He looked at the pigeon beside him, “Did you hear anything?”
The pigeon thought for a second, flapping its wings off-key as it started to sing loudly, “Listen~ to the sound of the sea weeping~ lanting for whom’s heart was hurt again~”
“Stop, stop, stop… I shouldn’t have asked you!” Duncan quickly pinned the pigeon down, thinking to himself that his communication with this bird was like a damn quantum state—what was said and what was heard were never certain. After pinning the bird down, he imdiately focused his spirit, attempting to trace back to the fleeting “perception” that had erged in his heart when the “whisper” sounded.
He was sure—he had not heard a phantom voice! He was certain he’d heard a voice, a voice of a young and calm woman!
And with that voice, he also vaguely perceived a “connection,” much fainter than the one between him and his “remote shell,” but it definitely existed!
Duncan put aside the matter of the golden mask and glanced again at the Spectral Fla that was quietly burning at his fingertips.
The faint connection also seed to be based on the burning of the fire.
He slightly closed his eyes, sensing the “direction” that the fla was giving him, and in the ensuing darkness, he seed to see a glimr of light erge before his eyes.
That glimr faintly resembled a “window,” with shadows moving within it, but he couldn’t see or hear clearly what was happening on the other side of the window.
Even so, Duncan felt the guidance of the fla in the dark—he opened his eyes and searched in the direction where the faint light had appeared, only to suddenly see a mirror hanging beside the door.
It was just an ordinary oval mirror with a simple and dark wooden fra, not any Transcendent item, just like those used in many ordinary hos.
But Duncan could feel that his fla now needed a dium to strengthen this connection that had suddenly ford—thinking of the vague scenes he had seen in the dark and the direction he had faintly sensed, the mirror seed quite suitable.
Mirrors, in many esoteric rituals, occupy a very important position, seen as a symbol of “insight” and as a tool to extend the mind’s perceptual abilities, to observe truths that are normally invisible and unknowable.
Duncan approached the mirror and casually touched the fla in his hand to its surface.
The green Spiritual Body fla rippled like water upon the glass mirror, a thin, faintly glowing channel instantly ford, and in the next second, the glimring window Duncan had seen in the darkness appeared crystal clear on the mirror’s surface!
He leaned in curiously.
Within the gently rippling light screen, he saw a room lit by lamplight, where an exceptionally tall lady was standing near a window, reading sothing by the twilight of the Sky Light, seemingly completely unaware of the gaze that was observing the room through the glass beside her.
Fenna’s gaze moved across the docunts, confirming the content word by word.
This was a notice jointly discussed and drafted by the bishops of various City-States and personally reviewed and approved by the Pope seated in the Storm Cathedral; the discussion of the notice was completed remotely under the state of Psychic Resonance, with the entire process watched over and protected by the Goddess, to ensure that the text on the notice wouldn’t be disturbed by any anomalies or phenona during drafting.
Such extrely special docunts had one purpose: to inform every Voyager sailing the Endless Sea that a superior anomaly had slipped beyond the control of the civilized world.
This was necessary.
An uncontrolled anomaly on the Endless Sea wouldn’t disappear forever from the eyes of the world, and though the deep sea swallowed everything, it never swallowed the “anomalies” that fell into it. Those uncontrolled anomalies often wandered the fringes of the civilized world in even more unpredictable and difficult-to-prevent ways, like wolves prowling around a pasture, chasing and threatening the safety of Voyagers, almost every year, sailors set out to sea died at the hands of uncontrolled anomalies.
As the keepers and sealers of these anomalies, each church had the responsibility and obligation to inform all the captains who might encounter them as soon as they lost control of an anomaly under their care—no one thought this would damage the “face” of the church, because it was the church’s duty and obligation.
Tily notices of uncontrolled situations could perhaps save a ship unfortunate enough to encounter an anomaly one day in the future or give an uncontrolled anomaly the chance to be resealed and contained.
Under normal circumstances, such notices would be issued to port authorities within twenty-four hours of the uncontrolled event, but the notice concerning “Anomaly 099” was a bit late.
Because this uncontrolled incident not only involved Anomaly 099 – Puppet Coffin but also Phenonon 005 – Holoss.
The Pope and the bishops had to carefully consider the content of the docunt to ensure that, while the information disclosed was accurate, it avoided drawing the attention of Holoss upon people reading the docunt.
Fenna’s expression was as still as water as she read the docunt, confirming whether the words in the docunt matched the sacred and intangible prayer structure, to avoid the gaze of the Ghost Ship captain.
And in the gap of light and shadow on the windowpane beside her, a gap that neither she nor the regional bishop noticed, Duncan was straining to peer at the content on the docunt.
Ghost Ship captain in shock.jpg.
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