Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 538

Chapter 538: Chapter 539: Sailing Towards the Sunlight Chapter 538: Chapter 539: Sailing Towards the Sunlight After Taran El's lengthy explanation, Duncan pondered for a long time.

Without a doubt, the ancient legends of the elves were special, even unique in this world, for one reason alone–they were complete.

After the Great Annihilation, during the Deep Sea Era, the old world had collapsed and overturned, new civilizations were reshaped, and communication between City-States had been severed for a long time. In addition to various impacts during the Dark Period, this led to the historical records of almost all City-States across the Endless Sea being fragmented, with almost no complete heritage preserved by any race.

The Four Gods' faith, which emerged after the Deep Sea Era had begun, developed rapidly precisely because of this discontinuity of heritage and mythological void in the City-States.

However, among the elves, ancient myths were preserved and inherited. Even today, when the Four Gods' faith encompassed the entire world and old belief systems were denounced as heretical, these things were still retained– restricted by population, the elves occupied only a small portion of the Endless Sea and were extremely dispersed, yet in these limited and scattered elven City-States, their culture, customs, and mythological systems still maintained consistency.

Could they achieve this solely because of their “longevity”?

“Such a complete system of myths… perhaps it really reveals some truths from before the Great Annihilation,” Duncan murmured softly to himself.

“Many scholars have always believed so. Elves are the only race that has preserved a complete system of ancient beliefs. Although many of our ancient texts have been 'contaminated,' the myths passed down orally… largely retain their original form,” Taran El said, spreading his hands helplessly. “Even so, we can only study them as 'stories'; we can't use them directly as historical data from before the Great Annihilation.”

Duncan furrowed his brow, recalling some words Morris had told him long ago that involuntarily surfaced in his mind: “…because of those vast contradictions between history and reality.”

“Yes, every scholar who tries to trace the Great Annihilation faces the harsh blows of 'contradictions,'” Taran El sighed. “This we feel most acutely. The more complete the elven myth system is, the less it can explain the current state of the world. The greatest contradiction lies in the fact that… humans and Senkin People have no place in the story of Saslouka's Creation.”

Duncan said nothing, just thoughtfully with a serious expression.

Taran El continued, “Not only the legend of Saslouka's Creation, but also in our other less complete mythological stories that involve descriptions of the world, 'humans' and 'Senkin People' are never mentioned. You must understand, this is highly unusual.”

Duncan slowly nodded, but for some reason, what emerged in his mind at this moment was another image he had seen before–
The moon.

He looked up toward the window where the pale golden “sunlight” diffused over the ocean, a boundary glowing like a cliff visible in the distant surging waves.

That was where Luke provided from the “border” the fallen object she had found. That was the location of that “mysterious stone sphere.”

“Do you want to go see that thing?” Luke noticed Duncan's gaze immediately and took the initiative to speak, “There's a temporary research facility set up by Light Breeze Harbor over there. I've already spoken with them, and they can clear the unrelated personnel from the core area.”

Duncan hesitated for a moment and then nodded gently, “Go ahead and arrange it. That's why I'm here.”

“Alright, I'll contact the research facility and have them clear the people.”

Luke responded and then left the room.

Shortly after she left, Duncan noticed that the Brilliant Starship slowly turned its bow and began to head toward the distant massive luminance.

Only Duncan and the elven scholar remained in the room, and after a moment of silence, Taran El visibly grew tense again.

Fortunately, his tension did not last long–before the awkward atmosphere could brew again, Duncan proactively broke the silence: “I heard that you tried to observe the surface of Anomaly 001 when the sun went out?”

“Yes,” Taran El nervously placed his hands on the table, fiddling with his thumbs, “And Ms. Luke always thinks my slumber is related to observing the sun, though I don't think that's the case…”
“What did you see?” Duncan asked again.

“… I recorded the image at that time. That piece of paper is now in Ms. Luke's hands, but many key details have been smeared–I smeared them myself, but I don't remember doing so. If you're interested, later…”

Taran El was interrupted mid-sentence as the door of the sitting room was opened. Luke, who had left only a short while ago, returned to the room: “The paper is with me.”

As she spoke, she walked back to the table and took out the crumpled draft paper from her bosom, saying to Duncan, “I've temporarily left Rabi in charge of the ship–he's another of my 'crew members.' This is the sketch Master El made at that time, you can take a look.”

Duncan immediately took the draft paper handed over with a serious expression, unrolled it on the table, and scanned the crudely drawn images on it.

However, at first glance, he only felt that it was just a jumbled mass of meaningless lines–except for the circular contour around the edges, which indicated it was indeed the pattern of 'Anomaly 001,' the severe smearing within the circle had almost completely destroyed its original true structure.

But after gazing intently for a while, he began to sense a feeling of familiarity from behind those chaotic smeared lines.

It was as if hidden deep within those smear traces was something he had once seen, something even profoundly memorable.

Duncan's brows were tightly knitted. After looking carefully for a long time, he raised his head and looked at Taran El, “You can't remember anything at all?”

“I can't remember anything,” Taran El said awkwardly, “My mind automatically erased that part of my memory. I think… it must have been very dangerous information.”

“The paper itself doesn't carry any contamination, but rashly restoring its 'real version' might bring about danger,” Lecretia added from the side, “I was originally planning to give it to the scholars at Light Breeze Harbor. But realizing the risks involved, I thought it better to give it to you.”

“That's good,” Duncan breathed a sigh of relief, and a slight smile suddenly appeared on his face, “You've started to rebuild your trust in me?”

Lecretia suddenly became nervous, “…I just felt… you were more suitable… Of course, I trust you, my brother said that you now…”

“No need to say more, Lucy,” Duncan said with a smile, shaking his head, then solemnly put away the paper, “I'll take it back with me. Later, I'll find a way to uncover its secrets–if there's any progress, I'll inform you immediately.”

Lecretia seemed to exhale in relief, and even… appeared a bit pleased.

Duncan said no more. After securing the sketch paper, he rose and went to the window, quietly gazing at the undulating sea surface and the patch of “sunlight” that was gradually approaching from the corner of the porthole.

After a not-too-long voyage, the Brilliant Starship gradually approached the “luminous fallen object” that floated near Light Breeze Harbor.

Now, the ship was passing by that temporary harbor nearby.

Duncan went to the bow deck, watching the grand golden radiance like a towering cliff rushing towards him, continuously magnifying in his field of view.

This was his first time seeing this “fallen object” firsthand, which had previously only existed in descriptions from Tirian–and at such a close distance. The oppressive feel of the looming behemoth mixed with the mysterious sensation from the undistinguishable true illusion even made him feel momentarily breathless.

He could fully imagine the impact it had caused the Elves here when Lecretia had initially dragged this thing near Light Breeze Harbor.

But by now, the Elves evidently had gotten accustomed to this “neighbor.”

“Is this harbor the 'research facility' you mentioned before?” Duncan raised his arm, pointing toward the temporary floating harbor on the nearby sea surface, asking Lecretia beside him.

“Yes,” Lecretia nodded, “Concerned that some substances in the 'fallen object' might be dangerous, we positioned all our research work to be carried out over the sea. Master Taran El is one of the main supervisors of this harbor. Additionally, there's a small permanent station in the center area of the fallen object, but everyone there has already been pulled back.”

“Understandable–after all, not everyone is equipped to handle close contact with a 'Subspace Shadow,'” Duncan said with a laugh, “That Mr. Taran El certainly has performed well.”

Hearing this, Lecretia hastily explained, “It's not entirely like that–the way you are now, I mean after you've subdued your flames, you really don't look much different from ordinary people. Most people wouldn't recognize you… I'm mainly worried about unrelated individuals disturbing you…”

“It's okay, don't always be so nervous,” Duncan said with a smile, waving his hand, “It's normal for people to be afraid. I'm used to it.”

Lecretia quickly nodded, then raised her eyes to glance at the huge light wall that was now approaching, “We're preparing to enter the light entity. We need to be careful navigating next–I need to go and take the helm myself.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

Lecretia nodded, then suddenly transformed into countless swirling colorful paper pieces, circling towards the bridge.

Duncan watched this scene in amazement; it was his first time witnessing Lecretia's marvelous power–as he watched the paper pieces flutter before him, he casually reached out and caught one, curiously examining it.

The next instant, he heard a cry from the air, followed quickly by the flying paper pieces suddenly coming back together into Lecretia's form.

Miss Witch fell on the deck, quite disheveled.

And she slid quite far.

Chapter end

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