Chapter 1 The Darkest Depths

In the dark depths of the sea, a streak of ghostly green flame flashed like a meteor, the crushing pressure and stagnation of billions of tons of seawater seeming to have no effect, not slowing down the "meteor" in the slightest.

A Yi traversed the pitch-black deep-sea floating island with lightning speed, and finally stopped in the central area of the island, re-condensing her form from the flames.

Duncan stepped out of the flames, floating in the seawater, and turned to look at the pigeon spirit flying around him.

A Yi flew over and landed on her master's shoulder, tilting her head curiously, "Whatcha lookin' at?"

Duncan didn't speak, but simply reached out and gently rubbed the pigeon's head, then turned and looked at the huge "pillar" in the center of the island.

Now, he stood before it—the shockingly huge pillar stood in his view, extending from the summit of the deep-sea floating island's center, pointing almost straight upwards, as if it not only pierced through the entire island, but could even pierce through the boundless dark sea all the way to the "Frost" above, extending to the sunlit world above the sea.

But it didn't truly extend infinitely.

After getting close enough, Duncan finally saw more details, noticing that the upper part of the "pillar" stopped abruptly in the seawater.

It was very, very high up, where there seemed to be an abrupt break.

But before checking the break, Duncan first carefully approached the middle section of the pillar, observing its "skin."

Neat, dense, with faintly visible simple and irregular patterns, and a regular distribution of protruding structures, the details of the pillar, like a giant tentacle, presented a highly ordered sense of "disorder," even... like some kind of industrial product.

Duncan felt his heart skip a beat. He never thought he would see such a sight—himself standing in a fragmented room, with the chaotic light and shadow of the subspace just a step away, and these hazy, chaotic lights and shadows seemed to be hissing silently, conveying incomprehensible...

...knowledge and "truth" to him with all kinds of wild words.

When in doubt, light a fire—it's always good to be cautious.

The Battle to Defend Frost City was won. If he hadn't ultimately destroyed the Frost's reflection, and the "pillar" in the large hollow deep within the Frost Gold Mine continued to grow uncontrollably... would it eventually grow to break through the mine, even break through the high mountains above, and become a "Duncan" that seemed to pierce through the entire floating island like the one before his eyes?

Duncan floated near the "break," roughly estimating the scale of the pillar through the scene before him, and quickly confirmed one thing—

The pillar did indeed end abruptly here, as if bitten off by some jagged teeth, the edge of the break presenting an uneven appearance.

Duncan raised his hand, carefully extending it towards the darkness beyond the edge of the room.

However, when he arrived, the flash of light had disappeared.

And with the burning of the flames, Duncan suddenly felt... a subtle "connection" being established.

Boom! Subspace.

The next second, he saw the ground below him rapidly changing as the flames spread, gradually transforming into something like a mirror surface, and this mirror-like surface was undulating slightly in the firelight, like some kind of viscous and rough liquid surface!

An invisible barrier blocked him from the subspace.

Was this a process of spontaneous sevenfold formation based on the "original template" under specific stimuli?

Duncan cautiously reached out towards the pillar—this body didn't have fully formed hands and feet, but with the act of reaching out to touch the "pillar," the end of his arm suddenly began to swell and wriggle, and almost in the blink of an eye, it differentiated and formed the structure of a hand.

With almost no hesitation, he immediately swam in that direction.

The ghostly green spirit fire almost instantly fell onto the white "ground," first disappearing as if water seeping into sand, and then, strands of spreading ghostly green firelight appeared in the darkness, and almost in the blink of an eye, the entire "ground" was ablaze!

Duncan observed for a few seconds, finally cautiously approaching the strangely textured "ground," but after reaching out to touch the material, he first condensed a small cluster of flame on his fingertip and threw it into the blurry "veil."

Duncan stared in astonishment at the scene before him, then suddenly turned his head to look behind him.

The two looked very similar in texture—was the pillar standing in the deep sea really a limb of the Gloom Lord extending into the real world?

He was standing in a magnificent and gloomy room.

The feeling of being wrapped in the cold, light seawater suddenly disappeared, and the sensation of standing on solid ground replaced the empty, unsupported feeling of floating a moment ago. The dim light before his eyes gradually became harsh, and as his vision gradually adjusted, Duncan finally saw his surroundings clearly, and was dumbfounded in astonishment.

With an unusual stirring in his heart, Duncan moved back a little, his gaze slowly sweeping over the pillar.

Deep within the grayish-white, shiny surface, he could vaguely see some light blue lines, like blood vessels buried deep in the skin.

Duncan's heart stirred, and he instantly thought of the "flesh" sample he had obtained from the mouth of Captain Cristobal Barbery deep within the Obsidian.

A few minutes later, Duncan began to swim towards the lower part of the pillar, his target being the "break."

Those rather frightening conjectures popped into Duncan's mind for a moment, but then, a glimmer of light suddenly flashed from the edge of his vision, interrupting his thoughts. He suddenly looked in the direction where the glimmer of light had appeared.

Was it because the "tentacle" piercing into the city-state was just a "power projection" of the deep-sea body? Or was it because the tentacle outside the large hollow was in its early stages of growth, and it would have continued to grow?

He touched a soft, cold surface.

Duncan recalled the feeling of the eye structure differentiating from the face of that body before, and subconsciously guessed in his heart. At the same time, he felt that his newly formed fingers had already touched the dark surface of the pillar.

Only a hollow darkness remained here, the "ground" inside the pillar's break as cold and silent as rock.

A smooth, cold sensation came from his fingertips, as if stroking rough cast iron, but... it also seemed to have a certain softness.

If the "large hollow" in the Frost Gold Mine was really the result of a similar "pillar" or "tentacle" invasion, then the tentacle piercing into the city-state was definitely much smaller compared to the pillar before him. The scale of the former was perhaps only one-seventh of the latter, or even smaller.

The room seemed to disappear out of thin air beyond this boundary. Beyond the completely broken walls and floor was a chaotic realm like a space of nothingness, with chaotic shadows and bright light flowing and undulating in this nothingness, as if filled with truths and mysteries enough to drive mortals mad, yet as if it were just a meaningless void.

And inside the break, the grayish-white inner wall presented a constantly concave state, like a strangely atmospheric volcano.

Silvery-white hair fell from her shoulders, and her purple eyes shone like gemstones.

In the illusion, it seemed as if a loud bang exploded in his mind, as if frozen time suddenly started, as if a heavy curtain was suddenly torn open, as if a wall was collapsing with a roar on the edge of reality. Duncan felt that he had crossed a boundary in an instant, and then, the "world" before his eyes began to be filled with cool light. Wasn't this what those crazy Annihilation Cultists proclaimed and pursued—"reproducing the Gloom Lord's magnificent blueprint for creation in the real world?"

Of course, it was unrealistic to find the wound left by Captain Cristobal on such a huge structure, but this didn't prevent Duncan from feeling a surge of respect for Captain Cristobal again.

However, he quickly discovered that something was wrong with his vision.

"Alice?"

A word suddenly flowed into his mind—

The gauze curtains around the magnificent bed had already been opened, and the person sleeping in the bed had awakened at some unknown time, and was quietly watching him.

However, the connection didn't point to the "giant pillar" under his feet, which was suspected to be an ancient god's tentacle, but to a... vaguely familiar aura.

Duncan was startled and suddenly turned his head.

Crossing the jagged and uneven "cliffs" on the edge of the pillar, crossing the dark substance that gradually concave towards the center, in this noisy deep sea far from the civilized world, a sudden flash of light became the only target in Duncan's eyes. He swam the distance at the fastest speed, arriving near the center of the pillar's break. In the center of the "break" below him, the texture of the "ground" vaguely revealed strangeness, the feeling as if it was a bit... "blurred."

This seemed to be the direction he "came from."

Lights spilled from the chandelier on the ceiling, illuminating the many exquisite and elaborate furnishings in the room. Palace-style shelves and metal sculptures shone harshly in the light, and a magnificent bed was placed in the center of the room, surrounded by translucent curtains, and someone seemed to be sleeping deep within.

Yes, blurred, as if it weren't a truly existing substance, but a veil between reality and illusion.

Duncan approached and observed the surface of the pillar more carefully.

After a long time, he finally arrived at the location of the break, and the situation here was almost the same as he imagined.

He saw a twisted and chaotic darkness.

Duncan's heart stirred, and then he followed the feeling from the flames and approached the surging, mirror-like "liquid surface," and reached out his finger to touch its surface.

It was in the center of the "break," at the deepest part of the concave "volcano."

Duncan floated in the seawater, frowning as he scanned the darkness. The empty place was like a condensed, regretful ellipsis, hiding the secret back into the depths of the veil.

"You can't get through," a voice suddenly came from behind him, "You haven't truly opened the door yet."