Ashes Of Deep Sea Chapter 771

Chapter 771: Chapter 768: The Black Fog Chapter 771: Chapter 768: The Black Fog In the place where Sea Song once set sail, the docking pier remained vacant–only the ship that had returned in the erroneous time window of 1675 could never come back to this place again.

“I remember this place too…”

The sailor muttered, looking in the direction of the wharf illuminated by the high-powered lights. The docks extending from the mobile harbor were like the outstretched limbs of a colossal beast, each one pointing towards the infinite curtain of night far in the distance. In this place far from the lights of civilization, it seemed that once one left those illuminated wharfs, they would forever dissolve into the darkness outside–embarking towards that dense and dark fog was indeed a feat requiring much courage.

“We've arranged for three sentinel ships,” Helena said, “They will also serve as guides for the journey. Once preparations are complete, they will enter the Veil with you and take you to the 'lighthouse' where Sea Song last transmitted its signal. You will continue from there, crossing the Six Nautical Miles threshold, while the three warships performing the guidance task will remain near the lighthouse, waiting for your return.”

Duncan didn't speak; he just nodded lightly. Lucresia, standing beside him, curiously asked, “How long will you wait here?”

“Forever,” Helena said calmly, “There are no new border patrol missions anymore. The Eternal Veil is gradually crumbling, and more and more ships are encountering unimaginable dangers and mutations. Most of the patrol routes are now impassable, so except for the necessary fixed monitoring points, all patrolling fleets are slowly retracting into the Endless Sea–this mobile harbor will stay here, and my incarnation will stay here until you come back. Or…”

She didn't finish her sentence but took a long breath and looked up at Duncan: “We look forward to your safe return.”

“We will return safely,” Duncan said solemnly, his arms crossed as he gazed at the murky wall of fog in the distance, “Both Homeloss and Brilliant Starship have returned from that critical line before, and now we also have the 'route' left by Captain Karan–nothing will stop us from coming back.”

Helena gave a slight nod.

After this, Duncan led his crew to make minor repairs at this border base until the three sentinel ships tasked with navigating were ready–in a moment not particularly special in this long night, they set off.

Three state-of-the-art warships bearing the mark of the Deep Sea Church, and two century-old Ghost Ships, left the dock amidst the booming foghorn of the mobile harbor.

The bright lights of the harbor gradually fell behind, and the surrounding area slowly became enveloped in an increasingly dense nightfall. The dark fog, which seemed to swell and undulate like a living thing under the night sky, revealed in the field of view an increasingly intimidating presence.

Duncan stood on the towering stern deck, but involuntarily turned to glance one last time in the direction of the harbor. As the distance grew, the lights dimmed, and suddenly, he remembered the last few words a Cretan had said to him–“Walk against the light.”

The End-Time Survey Team had walked against the light, Sea Song had departed from here walking against the light, and now… it was Homeloss and Brilliant Starship's turn.

Following a path opened by those who went to their doom, each walk against the light allowed for further progress–now, Homeloss finally had the chance to touch the true “beyond the end” of the world.

Alice stood next to Duncan, the doll's gaze completely captivated by the grand and dark fog in the distance. As they neared, she increasingly craned her neck until, looking at the curtain, she let out an exclamation, “Wow… it's even more terrifying than when it's daylit… Boer.”

After tilting her head past a certain angle, Miss Doll's head unsurprisingly fell off from her neck–without even looking, Duncan reached out to catch it, skillfully grabbing Alice's hair and holding it up to his eyes, muttering with resignation, “When will you ever learn…”

Alice blinked her eyes: “Captain… don't grab the hair… falling… falling hair…”

Duncan casually tossed Alice's head back to her own fumbling hands, which promptly pressed the head “boer” back onto the neck. Then she felt a lost hair, holding it mournfully as she muttered, “Another one… poor Kaleenef Kavos Goldina Boltitas Anguivenistan Refugeni the Fourth…”

Duncan listened in bemusement: “…have you already started giving them such outlandish names?”

Alice said nothing, just lowered her head with a sorrowful face, carefully winding the long-named silver hair strand around her finger.

Seeing this, Duncan shook his head: “… just be careful not to get it stuck in your finger joints, cleaning hair out of your joints last time was quite the hassle.”

As he spoke, he looked up again at the “Eternal Veil” that was now growing increasingly close ahead of Homeloss, and suddenly, he began to frown.

The fog seemed darker than before–at a close enough distance, he could discern that the darkness of the fog was not just due to the night but was changing color on its own.

For, as common sense would dictate, even at night, “fog” should be light-colored; when illuminated, its natural color shouldn't appear so dark and gloomy.

He immediately called to Fenna, who was stationed on the forward deck, inquiring about this situation–she quickly established contact with the guide ship ahead and got a response.

“The color of the fog has been changing slowly over the past two days,” Fenna reported through the mental connection, “approximately after Sea Song crossed the Six Nautical Miles threshold, but only the surface layer of the fog has undergone this change; farther into the Veil, it is still the normal light-colored mist.”

She paused, seemingly still communicating with the brethren from the Church about the details, then continued, “The scholars have conducted many checks, aside from the color change in the surface layer of the fog, these dense mists have not undergone any other changes, there's no toxicity… It feels as if on this shallow layer, only the 'color' attribute is the problem…”

Listening to Fenna's report, Duncan nodded slowly with a grave expression. In his view, the dark, dense fog had gradually begun to cover the bow of Homeloss.

All the ships had reduced their speed and lit various warning lights along their hulls. The leading ships and Homeloss, along with Brilliant Starship, started to draw nearer to each other, maintaining a distance that ensured no accidents would occur–the visibility on the surrounding sea was rapidly decreasing, and the fleet members needed to stay close to prevent dispersal while being careful to avoid collisions.

Then, around Homeloss, fierce, eerie green flames began to rise–the fire of Spiritual Bodies to some extent dispersed the surrounding dark fog, reflecting the hazy outlines of the ships in the streaming mist.

The dispersed black fog swirled around the fleet like thick, undulating curtains.

After igniting the flames, Duncan still frowned and closely watched the black fog, before suddenly heading toward the captain's quarters.

“Hey, Captain, where are you going?” Alice asked in surprise.

“Just 'stepping away' for a moment,” Duncan waved his hand, “Don't worry, I'll be back soon.”

As he spoke, he also called out in his heart to his first mate: “Goat Head, take charge of Homeloss. I need to 'step away' for a bit–if I'm not back by the time we approach the critical line of Six Nautical Miles, notify the others to wait.”

“Roger that, Captain.”

In less than a moment, Duncan had arrived at the door of the captain's quarters–in front of him, the “Door of the Displaced” still stood in silence.

He took a deep breath and then pushed the door open.

As usual, the brief, disorienting sensation and the cool breath of air flashed past, Zhou Ming shook his head and saw that he had returned to his familiar bachelor apartment.

Outside the window was the familiar grey mist, unchanged, the dense fog obscuring everything, sealing off the cabin.

But this time, Zhou Ming didn't go to check the windows–he didn't move toward the room, but turned back to look in the direction he had come.

The apartment's main door was open, and outside was the surging black fog.

On that first day when he had decided to step through that door, black fog like this had billowed outside–it was through this layer of black fog that he came to Homeloss, and, in some sense, this “black fog” was the doorway from his own “Shelter” to the Endless Sea.

Zhou Ming's brow furrowed more tightly, recalling that he had once been curious–why was everything outside the windows sealed off by grey mist, but outside the apartment's main door was that spooky black fog…

Now, the same black fog had appeared on the boundary of the Endless Sea.

Was this a signifier of the approaching apocalypse? A symbol of the barrier's gradual collapse? Or could it be… that the day he stepped through the dense fog was fated to bring him to a moment just before the end of the world–
The Sea Song, having crossed the border without accurate “navigation,” ended up in the time window of 1675 upon returning to the Endless Sea, but when “I” chose to step through this black fog, I landed precisely on Homeloss in the year 1900–just one step away from the apocalypse.

“…Just beyond the boundary of Six Nautical Miles, time is discontinuous…

“Without accurate 'navigation,' the 'time landing point' when crossing back into the Endless Sea through the Six Nautical Miles threshold is random…

“There must be some method to constrain the 'time landing point'…”

Zhou Ming murmured to himself, sorting through his somewhat jumbled thoughts, and after a while, he slowly made his way to his room.

As he passed by the window, he suddenly stopped.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something on the window glass.

It was a row of blurred, watery, mirror-inverted letters.

Zhou Ming couldn't put into words the astonishment and shock he felt at that moment–he just stood frozen for an instant, then almost dashed like the wind to the window side!

Chapter end

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