The muster bell rang, and the rapid sound was followed by the sailors' hurried footsteps. Lawrence, the second mate, and the pastor, who was still gasping for breath, stayed in the wheelhouse.
The old captain looked at the sea outside the window. At this moment, the White Oak was still in the depths of the spiritual world. There was mist on the sea outside the ship's side, and the water surface was still as dark as ink, but the storm had stopped, and the terrible Lost Homeland had disappeared - this gave people an illusion, as if the previous storm and even the collapsed border of reality were caused by the ghost ship, and now all the disasters were away from the White Oak with the departure of the ship.
Lawrence thought of the terrible legends about the Homeland Lost and Captain Duncan Abnormal, the fleet that was swallowed up by the border of reality more than a century ago, and the ships that sank into the deep sea after encountering the Homeland Lost. Suddenly, he felt that this was not impossible.
But no matter what, now that the Lost Homeland has left, the surrounding seas have temporarily returned to calm, and although they are still in the dangerous depths of the spirit world, at least he and his crew have a chance to catch their breath.
Next, Lawrence must determine what the Lost Homelander took from the White Oak—or left behind.
And it must be determined as soon as possible.
Without eliminating all hidden dangers, he did not dare to let the ship float to the real world rashly, because some things brought out from the spiritual world would cause terrible pollution in the real world. However, if they stayed in the depths of the spiritual world for too long, he and his crew would still be irreversibly affected.
Listening to the noisy noise coming from the deck, Lawrence suddenly raised his head from his thoughts. He looked at the priest who was sitting in front of the incense burner. His face had improved a little. His expression was very serious: "Mr. Ron, how stable are we now?"
The priest coughed twice, then took out from his arms a small compass with exquisite shape and many marine symbols and sacred symbols engraved on the surface. After pressing the metal cover open with a snap, the needle on the compass immediately rotated rapidly and finally stopped steadily at a certain position.
"We are staying on the surface of the spirit world, slightly closer to the real world. The influence from the abyss is very weak." The priest looked at the state of the compass needle, his expression suddenly confused. "Strange... We are completely stable here. With the holy object turned off, there is almost no sinking... cough cough..."
"Perhaps the 'crash' of the Lost Hometown has bumped us onto a safe course," Lawrence shook his head with a wry smile, trying to liven up the atmosphere with a cold joke. "I heard that there are some subtle balance points in the spirit world that can protect things in the real world from deeper 'pulls'..."
"Captain, this joke is too cold," the priest said, and coughed twice. Although he had recovered his breath, his condition was not good at all. "Ahem, no matter what, what happened today must be reported to the church... The appearance of the Lost Home is by no means a trivial matter. There have always been reports about the Lost Home in the past few decades, but they were later confirmed to be just the crew's nonsense or group hallucinations caused by out-of-control visions. But today we really witnessed it... Goddess, when you return to Plande, you'd better be mentally prepared to not be able to sail in the near future."
"I understand - neither the church nor the city-state authorities will allow a ship that has just encountered a strange disaster to return to the sea. This is for the safety of everyone. And I have to report to more than just the church, the city-state, and the Explorers' Association... Oh, and my terrible wife..." Captain Lawrence pressed his forehead hard, sighed, and waved his hand, "Let's not talk about this. You need to rest now. Until we return to the port, this ship needs the goddess's blessing."
The pastor nodded slightly, and soon the first mate who had just left returned to the cabin.
"There are no fewer or more people on board," the first mate reported immediately as soon as they met, without waiting for the captain to ask, "I personally checked the sailors gathered on the deck, and also went to the boiler room to check the mechanics left there. They can all accurately pronounce the names of the gods they believe in. They are definitely alive."
"No one is missing?" Lawrence's eyes widened. This should be good news, but he didn't dare to believe what the first mate reported. "Where is the Holy Emblem beacon?"
"The relic is also functioning normally," the first mate nodded immediately. "The navigator is preparing incense and essential oils, awaiting your order to restart the relic."
Lawrence listened with doubt and once again couldn't help but whisper, "...Did he really let this ship go?"
"Good luck is on our side, Captain," the first mate spread his hands, "We didn't lose anything. Perhaps that scary ghost captain just happened to pass by, or even just bumped into us by accident."
"Do you believe that?" Lawrence immediately glared at his first mate. "If luck really favors us, we wouldn't have encountered..."
He had just said half of his words when a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the door, and then someone pushed open the door of the cab. The sweaty boatswain appeared in front of Lawrence, and the tall man's face was full of fear.
"Captain! Anomaly 099 is missing!!"
The cab fell silent instantly, and everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. However, for some reason, Lawrence suddenly felt relieved after his brief shock.
That’s great. After the encounter with the Lost Homeland, we finally found something wrong on the ship. That’s perfect!
But then he controlled his facial expression, walked towards the door, and hurriedly ordered the first mate to take over the steering wheel and the boatswain to lead the way.
Hurried footsteps sounded in the cabin corridor of the White Oak, and soon, Lawrence, led by the boatswain, came to the deepest part of the steamship.
A special cabin appeared before him.
The door of the cabin was engraved with dense mystical symbols. The heavy, black door seemed to be made of a whole piece of black iron. The mysterious symbols extended from the edge of the door frame to the corridor, as if to form some kind of closed cage to confine the things stored in the cabin.
Lawrence glanced at the gate and confirmed that there were no signs of damage to the gate and the surrounding symbols. He then looked up - the "holy room" where the holy emblem beacon was placed was right above the seal room. That beacon was the key to ensuring that the ship was not affected by the "deep" and was also the second line of defense for maintaining the seal room. Even when it was closed, it should be able to ensure the integrity of the barrier between the seals.
But even with both barriers intact, the contents of the sealed room, the most critical cargo escorted by the White Oak on this voyage, Anomaly 099—the puppet coffin, disappeared.
Lawrence took a deep breath, walked forward, opened the door of the sealed room, and pushed the heavy door open with force.
The sealed room was brightly lit, with gas lamps hanging on four pillars illuminating the center of the room almost without blind spots. However, the "cargo" that should have been placed there had disappeared, leaving only a few criss-crossing chains and some gray-white ashes scattered on the surrounding ground.
The boatswain's voice came from behind Lawrence: "According to the requirements of the seal of Anomaly 099, the lights in this room have been kept on, and every two hours a crew member comes in to re-reinforce the chains around the 'coffin' and sprinkle ashes on the floor of the room. But when that... ghost ship appeared, due to the chaos, the sailor who was supposed to be on duty did not enter the room in time. He was almost seven minutes late, and found that Anomaly 099 had disappeared..."
"Being late by only seven minutes won't cause the thing to go out of control. At most, the seal will weaken and cause abnormal movements. In the worst case, a coffin will just run around in this room. The layers of seals and holy emblems here are not for show," Lawrence frowned and shook his head. "The current situation is that it has disappeared... The cargo has left the ship. This has nothing to do with the sailor."
The boatswain looked a little nervous: "So what you mean is..."
"It must be the Lost Homeland," Lawrence said solemnly, "The 'captain' took away Anomaly 099..."
He paused for a moment and sighed softly, "Perhaps we should be thankful that the Lost Homeland only takes away what it wants. The captain came for Anomaly 099, not our lives."
The boatswain looked at his captain's face, then looked at the empty sealed room. After a long pause, he asked hesitantly, "Then... we lost such an important cargo, how should we report it to the city-state authorities..."
Lawrence glanced at the boatswain and patted him on the shoulder.
"The Lost Homeland was a natural disaster. We have marine insurance."
“… Will the insurance company pay for this?”
"If they don't pay, the Explorers' Association will issue a new bounty for the Lost Homeland..."
"Captain, are you a little anxious..."
"Shut up."