Chapter 160 The Book of Blasphemy

A ghostly green fire rose in the captain's cabin. A skeletal bird wreathed in spirit fire flew from the flames, the swirling fire forming a vortex-like doorway behind it. Vanna, Alice, and Morris stepped from the doorway into the cabin.

The dizziness from the light and shadow displacement had barely faded when they turned to the navigation table not far away, bowing respectfully to Duncan, who was sitting behind the table studying a sea chart: "Captain."

"Find a place to sit and rest first. It's easy to fall after teleportation," Duncan said without looking up, then returned to the sea chart. After confirming a few points, he breathed a slight sigh of relief, straightened up, and looked at Morris. "Did you bring the book?"

"Yes," Morris quickly nodded, then took out the black-covered, untitled "Book of Blasphemy" from his arms and handed it to Duncan. "Here it is."

Duncan reached out to take the book, while Vanna couldn't help but ask, "Now that Morris, Alice, and I have returned to the ship, your avatar is the only one left in the city-state… is that alright?"

"There won't be any major trouble in the city, and Tirian will become the new governor of Frost, with him and Agatha maintaining order in the city-state, there's nothing to worry about," Duncan said with a smile. "As far as you're concerned, your work in the Frost city-state is done. My avatar can handle any follow-up."

As he spoke, Duncan took the heavy, black-covered book and sat back down at the navigation table, placing it next to the sea chart. The expression on his face turned serious.

This was the "Book of Blasphemy" that Morris and Vanna had obtained from the cultist leader. It contained information about the Sacred Lord of the Abyss and seemed to mention some secrets from before the creation of the gods and the Great Annihilation.

From the outside, the book looked unremarkable, except for its black cover and lack of a title, and there was no extraordinary aura emanating from it.

Vanna, Morris, and Alice had curiously gathered around, but apart from the carefree Alice, the other two maintained a certain safe distance, not looking directly at the book.

The goat-headed wooden carving on the edge of the navigation table creaked as it turned its neck, curiously turning its head towards the large book in front of Duncan. After looking at it for a long time, it finally couldn't help but ask: "What is this thing? A book? Worthy of such solemnity?"

"Theoretically, it's a missionary handbook for the cultists of Annihilation," Duncan said casually. "It seems to record something related to the creation of the gods, although it's just the mad ramblings of those cultists, but some of the content intrigues me."

"Records of the creation of the gods?" The goat head was stunned for a moment, then its tone changed subtly. "Those lunatics' 'Genesis of the Sacred Lord of the Abyss'? Frankly, I don't see any reference value in their theory – if you can concoct a history of the origin of time without rigorous evidence and reasoning, then any drunken playwright can explain the foundation of our world. There's even a farce that claims our world was stewed in a pot of chowder…"

"But Morris suffered mental pollution while reading this book, even attracting the attention of the Four Gods," Duncan slowly raised his eyelids. "You should know what that means."

The goat head's neck froze.

After an unknown amount of time, it finally squeezed out a sentence: "The closer to the truth, the further from reason…"

"Yes, the first rule of anomalies and apparitions – the closer to the truth, the further from reason," Morris nodded solemnly. "The more likely an item is to cause severe mental pollution, the more likely it is to record the true state of the world. Therefore, scholars sometimes even judge the credibility of ancient scrolls based on the degree of mental damage they suffer after reading them."

The goat head shook its head, pondering for a long time before finally saying, "But immense distortions and pure, high-level transcendent power can also cause mental pollution. In that case, the truth would point in the opposite direction – the more reason is damaged, the more one is deceived."

At this point, it paused and added, "I'm serious, a lot of unlucky guys in your line of work have died because of this, and those who haven't died mistakenly believe they know the truth when they're on the verge of madness. Most of them are now on the wanted lists of major churches – of course, now that you're on this ship, if you really want to be accurate, you're also on the wanted list…"

This goat head had a bizarre style, but after so long, it was clear that it had some genuine concern for the crew members. Its words were harsh, but the concern in them was genuine.

Morris, of course, knew this, so he didn't mind and sincerely said to the goat head, "Thank you for your concern. You're right, this world is very good at fooling mortals. Curiosity often leads us in the opposite direction, so we need the Captain to make the final call."

"The Captain…" The goat head was stunned, then noticed that Duncan's hand was already on the cover of the black-covered book, looking like he was about to open it. "Ah? Are you sure you want to read it?"

"What else?" Duncan raised his head. "Did I have Morris bring this thing on board to use as a base for you?"

The goat head was stunned, its head swaying slightly from side to side. "Actually, it's not entirely impossible…"

Duncan didn't pay attention to this obviously playful behavior. He had already prepared himself, took a final deep breath, and gradually focused his mind.

A faint green flame rose from his body, instantly transforming it into a spirit form. After confirming that he had completed the transformation, Duncan opened the first page of the black-covered book.

At first glance, he saw no words on the page.

At second glance, he saw boundless darkness suddenly gathering from all directions.

In an instant, the light and shadow changed, everything happened too fast to react – just like the first time he used the Spirit Realm Compass, Duncan's consciousness suddenly "fell" into an endless darkness.

He raised his head in astonishment, seeing that all the familiar objects in the captain's cabin had disappeared, and the goat head and Morris were nowhere to be seen. Even the black-covered book he had been reading a moment ago was gone.

He stood in the darkness, frowning and thinking for a few seconds. Something was wrong – this was different from what Morris had described.

After he opened this book, something completely different happened than when Morris had opened the book! And just then, he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye.

Zhou Ming subconsciously looked over, seeing a tiny white light floating in the air not far from him. He focused his attention and finally realized… it was text.

The text became clearer. After he opened the book, something completely different happened than when Morris had opened the book.

Zhou Ming was suddenly stunned.

He stood there motionless, quietly staring at the line of text floating in the air, forgetting to breathe and forgetting to think for a moment.

After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly remembered something.

He remembered, he had seen a similar place before. He had visited the same darkness and seen text in the darkness – a

"That was in the subspace, on the dilapidated Lost Home sailing in the subspace. Pushing open the door to the captain's cabin, there was a dark place, and words emerged from the darkness, describing…"

The pale text floated rapidly in the air, but soon gradually faded away.

Zhou Ming stopped abruptly. He controlled himself, trying not to let his mind wander, which was very difficult, but after filling his mind with a bunch of random numbers, words, and meaningless scenery memories, the words that had appeared in the darkness really disappeared.

Then, he worked hard again, restraining his thoughts while calming his pounding heart.

What exactly was going on? What was this darkness? What were these words emerging from the darkness?

They seemed to be describing him… were they really describing him? What did this description mean?

Was this some kind of mind-reading process? Or some kind of "mapping" phenomenon on the soul level? The last time he saw a similar dark space was on the dilapidated Lost Home in the subspace. This time, it was after opening that book. Why did that book have this kind of "power"?

He couldn't help but have all kinds of thoughts emerge in his mind, and almost at the same time, new words appeared in the darkness.

But this time, the words were not describing himself, but a few random words –

"Manifestation… transforming into reality the true…"

Zhou Ming frowned, subconsciously approached the new line of text, and reached out his finger to try to touch it.

His finger passed through the phantoms, and only a few ripples appeared in the darkness.

And in the trembling of the ripples, he vaguely saw other words hidden behind those words!

He hesitated for only a second, then reached out and continued to play with the water-like, reflected handwriting, expanding the ripples, revealing the overlapping faces, and letting the other information hidden in the depths of the darkness appear in his vision.

Suddenly, he saw a few lines of intermittent text emerging in the darkness, trembling and extending downwards and moving.

"Source - Leviathan Queen - The situation… is not optimistic, the critical state is accelerating…"

"Source - Fire King - Any new records?"

"Source - Bartok - Bad news… node feedback is ambiguous… suspect cluster controller has begun to copy self… or is completely out of control…"

"Source - Lh-02 - Relevant information available."

"Specifics?"

"Lh-02 - Observed an individual carrying cluster controller characteristics approaching, suspected mental mutation, suspected to be able to communicate with me."

"Source - Leviathan Queen - Amazing information! Follow-up?"

"Source - Lh-02 - No follow-up."

"Source - Bartok - ?"

"Source - Lh-02 - The suspicious individual sent a dog head and left."