Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 719

Chapter 719: Chapter 716: Intertwining of Reality and Illusion Chapter 719: Chapter 716: Intertwining of Reality and Illusion Descending from the entrance, at first was a narrow and low incline, the rough signs of man-made excavation were clearly discernible on the surrounding rock walls, but after moving forward a dozen or so meters, the pathway ahead began to open up and the slope became somewhat more gentle.

A pale green light spread among the rocks, casting its glow to illuminate the path ahead; Duncan furrowed his brows as he looked at the corridor that extended into the darkness.

“Did those Heretics dig all this out in just a few days after the sun went out?” He couldn't help but look toward Sherry, “In such a short time, they dug out such a deep passage?”

“No, they just opened this passage at the entrance and also opened up the rocks at the bottom,” Sherry shook her head, “This section of the road under our feet seems to have already been there…”

“A passage that already existed deep beneath this 'Holy Land Island'?” Maurice's eyebrows slightly creased upon hearing this. He stepped up to the rock wall in front, observing the surrounding stones and ground beneath his feet, then spoke thoughtfully, “Which means that before those Heretics found this place, someone else was excavating here…”

He suddenly stopped in puzzlement, furrowing his brows, and after a moment slowly raised his head to look toward the path illuminated by the eerie green fire.

“No, it doesn't look man-made… this 'existing passage' was made by something else…”

Upon hearing this, Duncan stepped forward: “What did you find?”

“Look at these traces on the rock layers,” Maurice raised his hand pointing to the walls around, “These smooth undulations and the regularly distributed circular patterns… They don't seem man-made.”

Duncan immediately noticed the unusual marks on the surrounding rock walls that Maurice mentioned.

He saw the corridor walls ahead were smooth, the hard black and gray stones looked as though they were chiseled into continuous shapes by something sharp, and there were ring-like protruding structures visible every three meters or so, circling throughout the entire corridor; the ground underfoot was even and smooth, the big and small stones as if carefully carved, fitting tightly together along the entire slope–clearly, these weren't traces that could be made by the tools of those Heretics or their demonic spells, nor were they “excavated results” from anyone prior.

Even the current City-State didn't have such subterranean excavation and construction technology.

Maurice ran his fingers slowly over the smooth, flat rock walls on both sides, muttering to himself, “It's as if we're walking inside a giant pipe…”

“…In the great hollows beneath Frost, some areas also exhibited this state… and the scholars in the City-State couldn't explain how these smooth, even breaks were formed in the end; they could only assume they were 'Eroded Hollows' left behind as the flesh of The Saint receded,” Duncan said in a low voice, “But this Holy Land Island… if it's entirely part of The Saint, why would it have these kinds of 'Eroded Hollows' inside?”

Sherry, listening to the exchange between Maurice and the captain, suddenly had a dark epiphany, “…Maybe this is The Saint's colon?”

The moment she spoke these words, all fell eerily silent, and the faces of Duncan and Maurice turned even darker than Sherry's epiphany, with Duncan glaring angrily at her, “Couldn't you have said it was a blood vessel?!”

Sherry instinctively shrank her neck, scratching her head while trying to divert the conversation with feigned Calmness, “A blood vessel seems quite likely too, heh…”

However, Duncan didn't continue to argue with Sherry. Instead, after uttering an impromptu remark, he frowned thoughtfully again.

Blood vessels… internal pathways?

If this Holy Land Island is really as Sherry described, “a piece of an ancient god's flesh,” could there really be so-called “blood vessels” and “nerves” within? If they exist, would they really present themselves as the corridor before our eyes?

Duncan unconsciously associated, sketching in his mind what form The Saint could have had and what kind of “physiological structure,” when suddenly he noticed that Alice had been quiet for quite some time.

Normally, the puppet girl who accompanied the captain on explorations in strange environments would chatter incessantly, but today she seemed unusually quiet.

“Alice,” feeling that something was off, Duncan immediately turned toward the seemingly distracted puppet next to him, “What are you thinking about?”

After being called twice, Alice seemed to suddenly come to her senses and quickly turned around: “Huh… huh? Captain, what did you say?”

“I asked you what you were thinking about–you seemed to be distracted just now,” Duncan said with a slight frown, looking concernedly into Alice's eyes, “Did you see or hear something again?”

Alice looked around, puzzled, hesitated for quite a while before cautiously saying to Duncan, “I haven't really seen anything… but I don't know why, after walking here I just have this feeling… a very familiar feeling.”

Duncan and Maurice simultaneously exclaimed, “A familiar feeling?”

“Yes, familiar, comforting, like…” Alice gestured as she thought hard for a moment before finally finding the right description, “like lying in my wooden box.”

As she spoke, she also pointed toward the darker depths of the corridor, “And in that direction, there's an even stronger sense of familiarity, as if… I had been to this place long ago or… been here for a very long time…”

Duncan listened seriously to Alice's description, nodding gently after a moment, “We will continue further in–Alice, Sherry, Dog, no matter what unusual things you see or hear, report to me immediately.”

With increasingly cautious hearts, the group began to progress deeper into the seemingly endless corridor.

Flames slowly spread through the passage, and after an unknown amount of time, Duncan noticed that their surroundings suddenly became much more spacious.

It seemed they'd entered a huge underground cavern structure: channels resembling some sort of pipes on either side suddenly expanded into spacious rock walls, and the ceiling above stretched up to more than ten meters high–the sudden enlargement of the underground space plunged the surroundings into a brief darkness. But in just one or two seconds, the ghostly green flames quickly spread to the surrounding ground, beginning to illuminate the spacious area.

Sherry, looking up with an expression of wonder, gazed at the cavern that resembled a giant assembly hall. Despite having seen a fleeting glimpse in the “illusion,” the sight still took her breath away with its spaciousness: “…Holy shit…”

“…I suddenly think Fenna could have come here too,” Duncan, stroking his chin thoughtfully, remarked, “This place looks like it's got enough room for her to take off…”

Morris remained silent. The old scholar's attention seemed entirely immersed in the mysterious cavern brimming with secrets. He walked slowly forward along the path lit by the Spiritual Fire, meticulously observing the surroundings. Then, he suddenly stopped in front of a rock wall.

“There's something on this wall!”

Duncan rushed over, and a scene resembling a “relief” painting came into his view.

On the dark rock wall, a creature with strong limbs, crawling, and a slender body came to life.

Sherry and A Dog also quickly walked over, joining Duncan in looking at the “relief” on the wall.

After a while, Duncan could hear Sherry mutter softly: “…Is this an Abyssal Hound?”

“Seems… like it is,” A Dog's voice was especially uncertain, “but it doesn't look much like me… This one seems to have flesh and blood, and the body proportions are a bit off too…”

Before he could finish, Morris's voice followed promptly from ahead: “There's more over here!”

Following Morris's direction, Duncan saw a second relief.

It was unmistakably a creature floating in mid-air, resembling a jellyfish–however, it was not made of dust and smoke, but had a tangible body, more intricate tentacle structures, and even something like eyes on its 'head.'
Duncan slowly lifted his head. In the cavern illuminated by the Spiritual Fire, more reliefs were faintly embedded in the rock walls, seemingly extending infinitely into his line of sight.

He frowned slightly and took a step towards another relief–
Trembling flecks of light appeared on the edge of his vision.

Duncan suddenly came to a halt.

And almost at the same time, the lights and shadows in front of him transformed.

Everything fell apart like collapsing fragments of light. The dark cavern and the ancient, mysterious reliefs crumbled silently before his eyes. After a moment, the collapsing fragments of light rose and swarmed back together, reconstituting and illuminating, revealing–
In the silent “roar,” he saw a hall, a hall that seemed to have no boundaries. It howled and reconstituted before Duncan's eyes. He saw a silver-gray substance of unknown material extend into firm ground, mysterious patterns emitting a dark blue glow spread across the floor, and massive pipes and cables intertwined like nerves and blood vessels on the high dome above.

And in this hall, stood platform after platform of a cylindrical shape.

Those platforms emitted a soft light, and above them, an invisible force field seemed to imprison various things–stagnant within the force field were strong-limbed hound-like creatures, predatory beasts, a variety of birds, and many creatures he couldn't recognize or see clearly.

The light and shadow flickered before his eyes, and the lights in the hall dimmed and brightened intermittently. In the blink of an eye, Duncan felt as if he saw that dark cavern again, with the neatly arranged “reliefs” on its walls–
But the next second, the dim cavern collapsed back into the appearance of a hall. He saw something standing at the far end, seemingly a huge machine, or some sort of… terminal, surrounded by numerous pipes clustered around the complex prism structure, with black sludge emitting a metallic sheen flowing through the pipes. Lights flickered on that core prism, and something that seemed like a holographic projection floated in front of it, lines of characters endlessly refreshing.

Those were unfamiliar characters, Duncan did not recognize that script–but with just a glance, the meaning of those characters seemed to directly imprint upon his mind–
“…New Hope… main system offline…

“LH-01, Navigator One, ecological reconstruction mainframe… status abnormal.

“LH-02, Navigator Two, data and central control mainframe… status abnormal.

“LH-03, Navigator Three, navigation mainframe… offline.

“The spaceship has disintegrated…”

Chapter end

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