Deep Sea Ember

Chapter 16 Walking in the Spirit World

The door closed behind him, blocking the empty gaze of the goat's head.

But Duncan could still clearly perceive the Lost Home, perceive every subtle change on the ghost ship—in that limb extension, he "saw" the Lost Home's series of sails finely adjusting their angles in the sea breeze, and the black steering wheel on the aft bridge was turning slightly, further stabilizing the Lost Home in the waves.

As he had expected, Goathead temporarily took over the helm and began to diligently perform his duties as first mate - but Duncan could still take over the ship himself at any time.

Compared with when he was directly at the helm, the Lost Home was a little weaker in terms of flexibility and speed, but now Duncan's main purpose was to further dispel the fog on the charts, and there was no clear goal and route, so he didn't care about this impact.

After confirming that there was no change in the goat's head and that the goth doll below the deck was also staying in the room honestly, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at the not very large room.

In addition to a soft bed, there was a large classical wardrobe and a shelf with many strange monsters against the wall opposite the bed, and there was a dark brown desk opposite the bed, but there were no books visible on the desk, only a few furnishings and tools for writing and drawing.

There was a window next to the desk that looked directly out onto the sea in the distance, and there were a few hooks on the wall next to the window—the pirate sword Duncan now carries with him, and the flintlock gun that he had hung on before that.

Duncan came to the desk, put the long sword and flintlock in a convenient place, opened the table drawer, and checked the gunpowder and buckshot in the wooden box.

A small brass compass was placed next to the buckshot and powder bag, and Duncan picked up the compass and saw that the needle under the glass shell was still spinning randomly, as if it had been being pulled by an invisible chaotic force field, and a small line of text was engraved on the bottom of the compass -

"We are all homeless".

Duncan casually put the compass in his hand and played with it, watching the pointer on it spin around like a drunken person.

He had checked the contents of this room many times, and he had discovered this room during his initial exploration, and the things here, including that line of messages, must have been left by the real Captain Duncan.

After reviewing the information he had so far, Duncan exhaled, casually put the compass on the table, and raised his right hand to gently rub his fingertips.

A small cluster of green flames ignited at his fingertips, and under the reflection of the flames, half of Duncan's palms immediately took on a transparent illusory texture like a spiritual body - but under conscious control, the flame did not spread around as before, but hovered above his fingers like a candle.

After the flame stabilized, Duncan approached the flame with his other hand and felt it, then took a quill from the side and touched the flame with the tip of the pen.

Neither the heat was felt, nor was the quill ignited, only a little shade of green spread on the barrel, making the quill glow with a faint light.

Duncan, on the other hand, did not "feel" any feedback from the quill, which was completely different from when he touched the charts and rudder with flames.

Duncan silently recorded a new experience in his heart - this "spiritual fire" had no temperature, nor would it ignite things, and it was very likely that it would only be associated with the "abnormal" things on the Lost Home, and would not have any feedback on ordinary things.

So if it is an "abnormal" thing other than the lost homeland...... Will this flame react?

Duncan pondered, and for a moment, the figure of a goth doll suddenly appeared in his mind - Alice, which seemed to be an "anomaly" from outside the Lost Homeland?

Will she be affected by this spiritual fire?

But he thought about it for a while, and then threw this boundless thought aside.

Because even if Alice is not a human, even if she is an "anomaly 099" with a curse, she is also an independent individual who can talk and walk, has her own thoughts, and is now a "crew" of the Lost Home, Duncan has subconsciously regarded her as a "person".

He couldn't accept using a living person to test his flame—after all, he wasn't sure what profound effect this flame had on the affected "anomaly" and whether it was harmful or not.

Next, Duncan tested it several more times, checking the nature of the flame while determining whether there were extraordinary attributes behind the various things in this dormitory.

Finally, his eyes finally fell on the small brass compass with a "message".

The brass compass was lying quietly on the table, and the hands under the glass shell were spinning randomly, but I don't know if it was an illusion, when Duncan kept the flame and put his "ill-intentioned" gaze on the pointer, the pointer seemed to suddenly freeze for a moment.

Then continue to spin around in place as if nothing had happened.

Duncan: "......"

This thing definitely reacted to his gaze just now!

He was worried about whether the dead ghost captain had left some kind of power or "trap" on this belonging to prevent thieves, so he had not tested the compass with flames, but after seeing the reaction of the compass, he suddenly made up his mind.

Duncan reached out and picked up the compass, the cold touch reached his fingertips, and after glancing at the pointer that was still spinning randomly, he directly put the thing in his right hand used to maintain the fire of the spirit body, and slowly squeezed it.

The dark green flame flowed instantly like burning grease, spreading between his fingers, and a faint fire light quickly ignited on the surface of the compass, and there seemed to be countless phantoms rising and dissipating in the firelight, and the next moment, the pointer that was spinning randomly suddenly stopped and pointed straight to a certain direction on the vast sea.

Duncan's heart moved, at this moment, he clearly felt the "feedback" from the compass, and confirmed that this was indeed an "abnormal item" that could be controlled by the fire of the spiritual body, but before he could carefully perceive the details in this feedback, a sudden "gravitational force" suddenly appeared.

Duncan only felt his body shake a little, and the next second it was a flower in front of his eyes, the furnishings in the captain's bedroom had turned into nothingness at some point, and even the surrounding walls and roofs collapsed and dissipated like snowflakes in the blink of an eye.

Duncan stood in the center of the darkness in astonishment, his heart ringing, his first reaction was to reach for the musket and saber he had placed beside him, but the next second he found that the brass compass was left beside him—still in his hands.

Duncan blinked, and in his gaze, countless wisps of thin light suddenly filled the area around the brass compass.

These lights spread and intertwined in the darkness, expanding infinitely like a web, and between the intertwining of light, countless stars of light emerged, some of these lights drifted sporadically, some gathered like rivers, and in the background of the intertwined network of light, they were as brilliant as galaxies.

Duncan looked at the vision that appeared in front of him in some confusion, he was very vigilant and a little uneasy, but for some reason, he didn't feel any sense of crisis, even......

Between this dim light network and the stars, he felt a long-lost sense of peace and comfort.

In the next second, a strange feeling suddenly came, Duncan's eyes were involuntarily attracted by a cluster of starlight intertwined with the light network, he looked at the cluster of starlight, only to feel that the starlight was shaking, as if it was about to fall into darkness completely immediately.

He subconsciously stretched out his hand to the starlight.

A huge pull came at this moment - Duncan felt as if his soul was flying, he involuntarily rushed towards the starlight that was about to fall into darkness, and the dense light network intertwined by the compass quickly retreated in sight, and the surrounding galaxy formed by starlight suddenly began to rotate and creep!

In the rapid flight, he subconsciously looked at his right hand holding the compass tightly, but saw that the compass had disappeared at some point, and at the same time, the moment before he was about to touch the dim starlight, the corner of his eye suddenly saw a shadow condensed in the darkness.

The shadow appeared naturally as if it had always been with him, and quickly fell with him towards the dim point of light.

Duncan could only vaguely see that the shadow seemed to be a bird flying with its wings spread, and before he could see the details clearly, his eyes went dark.

The heavy touch from the real world came from the limbs, along with the stench of some kind of decaying limbs, and the harsh sound of heavy iron chains mopping the floor.