The gentle waves are rising and falling slowly, and the Lost Homeland is sailing steadily on the boundless ocean. After sailing for many days, this ancient ghost ship still has not found any bird islands or navigation marks that can be used as route markers.
The long drifting journey seems to have no end, but its captain still has a lot of things to do.
Duncan returned to the captain's bedroom again. The golden sun mask was still lying quietly on the table, but before that, he had something else to think about.
Alice's matter could be arranged later. There was no rush for the follow-up testing and research on "Anomaly 099". The Frost Rebellion half a century ago was not something that needed to be investigated now. But in addition to these things, there was another matter that was closely related to him.
Close.
Duncan raised his head and looked at the mirror hanging on the wall.
The green flame that once floated on the mirror had long since dissipated, and the distant scene that once appeared in the mirror had also disappeared without a trace, but Duncan could still vaguely feel that the weak and vague "connection" had not disappeared with the disappearance of the reflection in the mirror.
Lost and gone - it still exists, and is pointing far away to the magnificent cathedral in the center of the city-state of Plande.
This connection gave him a feeling similar to the "connection" between him, the "Antique Shop Manager" and the "White Oak", but it was weaker and more ethereal. If I had to say it... it was like some kind of derivative, extending from a clear and definite connection.
The "secondary channel" that stretches out
Duncan closed his eyes slightly, and on the table beside him, the brass compass on Ai Yin's chest quietly opened a crack, and a faint green flame burned quietly in it.
Duncan once again returned to the dark space filled with countless stars and streams of light.
But this time, he did not execute the "spiritual walking", but maintained the critical state of entering the spiritual world, carefully observing the flow of faint light and those twinkling lights in this dark space.
He first saw the brightest "star", which pointed to the antique shop and represented his other body, which was cleaning the warehouse and counting the goods in stock;
He saw a hazy, invisible mist of light, much larger than ordinary stars. It represented the White Oak, a steamship that had collided head-on with the Lost Homeland and was completely burned by his spiritual fire.
Finally, he finally distinguished the "star" that was vaguely connected to him from among the hazy starlight that seemed almost indistinguishable.
Duncan moved closer curiously, wanting to take a closer look at the cluster of starlight.
But as soon as he approached, he felt a subtle repulsion emanating from the cluster of starlight.
The repulsive force was not very strong, it seemed to be just a pure and firm will protecting itself. Duncan felt that if he forcibly extended the spiritual fire over, he should be able to burn this subconscious protection.
But he stopped immediately and kept a distance from the starlight.
The owner behind this starlight should be the Inquisitor named "Vanna", a Storm Saint, a powerful transcendent.
A too reckless contact might first alarm the owner of the starlight, and in worse cases, it might even alarm the saint.
The "God" standing behind the disciple
Duncan was not prepared to take the risk as he didn't know much about the gods of this world.
On the other hand, this vague sense of rejection may also be reminding him that these stars are different from each other.
When he first occupied the body of the "sacrifice", he did not feel any rejection, nor did he feel any rejection when he occupied the body of the cultist "Ron" who had just died. Why is there such a sense of rejection around Vanna's starlight now
Is it because she is still "alive"? Is it because the mental strength of the living will spontaneously resist the indescribable erosion? Or is it because of... the so-called protection of faith and divine grace
Duncan stepped back a little, - while pondering the meaning of the starlight in this dark space, - while trying to slowly reach out his hand to another cluster of starlight closest to him.
He stopped at the last moment before touching the cluster of starlight.
There is no sense of rejection.
He then tried many times around, and every star did not reject his approach.
-And in some of the stars, he also vaguely felt some new... . "elements"
He felt a vivid sense of life, and even felt the instinctive trembling and shrinking of the stars - that was the instinctive retreat of life when faced with the irresistible shadow of death.
Duncan returned to the dark area where the starlight could not shine and looked down at his hands.
Some green flames wandered in the darkness, outlining light and shadows that seemed real and illusory between his fingers.
It seemed that as he traveled more and more times in the spirit world, his control and perception of fire became more accurate and sharper. He could now even sense the existence of life from those stars!
Duncan frowned slightly and looked into the endless darkness in the distance. The dots of light extended densely in the dark chaos, which even looked a bit spectacular.
Out of caution, he had never explored the far reaches of this dark space, but just by looking at the scale of the starlight, he could imagine how many points of light there were here.
At the beginning, he thought that the starlight here represented "corpses" that had just died and met the requirements, because the first two times he "attached" himself he was attached to corpses, but now he felt the presence of vitality from some of the starlight, which showed that his initial guess was wrong.
Among these starlights there are not only the dead but also the living. He just happened to occupy two corpses at the beginning.
The "Judge" named Vanna was also among these stars, and she was undoubtedly a living person.
... .Do the countless stars here represent all the living and dead in the world
Duncan frowned slightly in the darkness. This guess came to his mind so naturally and seemed reasonable, but he soon shook his head, thinking that he could not draw conclusions so quickly.
Although there are many stars here, and although the population of this world is far less than that of Earth, within the range of sight, those stars should not be equal to the world's population. Moreover, the number of living people is still easy to define, but how do we define the number of the dead
Do all the dead from ancient times to the present count? Or do only those whose bodies remain count? Does it count as long as there is a body left, or does it count only if the time since death does not exceed a certain period
What's more, there is a brilliant cluster like the "White Oak" here... How can we explain that every ship can show a corresponding projection here
Therefore, it is too early to hastily identify the starlight here as "the dead and the living in the world" - at least he needs enough evidence to make a conclusion.
But no matter how the starlight here is connected to the real world, one thing is very clear: the vast majority of starlight will not show rejection of Duncan's approach, only the light of Vanna, the "saint", has this self-protective reaction.
Perhaps this was the work of the god she believed in.
Duncan became a little curious about the power of "faith" in this world.
But no matter how strong the protective barrier Vanna built through faith was, it was obviously flawed. This barrier did not prevent the captain of the Lost Homeland from establishing a deep "secret connection" with her.
Then only one question remains: when and how was this connection established
Duncan pondered in the darkness, wondering what the connection was between him and the judge he had never met, and why such a connection had suddenly appeared. After eliminating one guess after another, a very bold idea suddenly emerged in his mind. Could it be that it was the "sacrifice" that he had originally possessed!
Duncan recalled the first time he set foot on the land of Plande City-State and the sun sacrifice.
He made a scene at the meeting as a sacrifice, and then left his possessed "body" at the scene. Shortly after that, Judge Van
Na led the team to raid the cult's stronghold, captured the cultists who remained at the scene, and definitely participated in the cleanup of the "remnants" at the scene.
If one must say, the only "intersection" between him and the judge lady could only have occurred at that time.
It's just a body that has been possessed, just a place that has appeared in common.
.And now... they are connected?!" The more Duncan thought about it, the more he felt that this was possible. He looked down at his hands in astonishment. After a while, his astonished expression turned into a weird and helpless smile. "What kind of infection route is this for the Spacetime Companion?"