"So that's the situation. Vanna, what are your thoughts on this?"

On the deck of the *Ghost Ship*, Duncan said to Vanna, who was holding a piece of sea-breath wood and carving a talisman.

Vanna listened in a daze as Duncan recounted the problems the *White Oak* was encountering and the captain's plans for the future. It took her a long time to react. She tossed the newly carved talisman into a wooden bucket, looked up, and said, "You mean, I should vouch for the *White Oak* as a Saint, and then issue a permit as an Inquisitor to allow the aberrant ship to regain its legal status?"

"The process seems feasible," Duncan said seriously. "After all, you are indeed a Saint of the Storm Goddess—and an Inquisitor of Pland."

"But my Inquisitor position has been revoked..."

Duncan waved his hand. "Isn't that something the Pope arranged privately? Your official status in public hasn't changed."

Vanna paused again. This straightforward lady seemed a little unaccustomed to Duncan's way of thinking. "Exploiting loopholes" was a completely new concept she had never considered in her many years as an Inquisitor. She instinctively felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She could only hesitantly say, "The process... I don't even know if the process is right, but..."

Duncan interrupted Vanna's hesitation with a serious expression. "The *White Oak* needs to regain its legal status, and the *Ghost Ship Fleet* needs to reconnect with the civilized world. You probably don't want us to be a shadow looming over the world forever. Neutralizing the *Ghost Ship Fleet*, which once threatened the world, is a good thing. As a Saint of the Storm Goddess, you should actively promote this matter, don't you think?"

Vanna froze. Her expression turned calm as she fell into thought. After a long while, she looked up and stared into Duncan's eyes. "You sound like you're usually fooling Alice."

"You're not Alice—Alice would have believed me after the first sentence."

Vanna: "..."

"But the reasoning is the same. The *White Oak* really needs your help now," Duncan continued calmly. "And from a practical point of view, having another controllable and powerful extraordinary exploration ship isn't a bad thing for the city-states either—it's better than letting this ship really become a wandering shadow on the boundless sea."

"I..."

Vanna opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but at that moment, a phantom and distant chime suddenly rang in her mind, interrupting her movement.

She looked up, subconsciously listening to the direction from which the chime came, listening to the special rhythmic ringing echoing in her soul. Duncan's concerned voice seemed to come from the other side of a thick curtain. "What's happening?"

"Swift Bell... the Cathedral is summoning Saints from all over, it seems to be news about the Tomb of the Nameless King..." Vanna murmured to herself in confusion, her tone filled with disbelief. "Why can I still hear this summons..."

Duncan raised his eyebrows. "Is that so strange? You're still a Saint of the Deep Sea Church."

"But I thought..." Vanna frowned. "I thought they wouldn't summon me anymore after boarding the *Ghost Ship*."

Duncan's eyes twitched. He heard the hint of "getting on a pirate ship" in her tone, but he quickly concealed the change in his expression and said calmly, "Don't think too much about it. Since it's a summons from the Cathedral, you should go to the prayer room quickly. If you have the chance to see Pope Helena, ask her about issuing a permit for the *White Oak*."

A strange expression appeared on Vanna's face, but this time she managed to restrain her impulse to question him. Listening to the chimes echoing in her mind like urging, she nodded quickly to Duncan and turned to walk quickly towards the cabin.

The *Ghost Ship* had many empty cabins. With the captain's permission, one of them had been converted into a prayer room—although she hadn't tried it before, in theory she should be able to respond to the spiritual communication through that cabin and go to the "Gathering Place."

Vanna left. It wasn't until her figure disappeared behind the cabin door that Duncan withdrew his gaze.

He looked in the direction Vanna had disappeared, then turned to look at Alice, who had returned to the *Ghost Ship* with him and was now dragging a large bucket to wash the deck not far away. After a long while, he sighed softly, "Sigh... she's much harder to fool."

After sighing, he bent down and picked up the sea-breath wood talisman that Vanna had carved from the wooden bucket beside him.

The talisman wasn't too exquisite, but it was obviously made with care. Duncan stood on the edge of the deck, casually playing with the small piece of wood while waiting for Vanna to return.

In theory, it shouldn't take too long.

And in this idle wait, he was also slowly sorting out the information he had gathered during this time, especially the information he had just obtained on the *White Oak*.

The massive shadow beneath the deep sea, the "composite" named Martha, and... the changes that had occurred in that composite.

Duncan's mind conjured up the scene of the fluctuating shadow re-condensing and stabilizing into "Martha," and... before that scene appeared, the illusion of "fish" in front of his eyes.

He turned his head and looked at the slightly undulating sea in the distance. The sea was deep, and the waves were like a curtain.

The sea seemed to be a curtain that concealed all secrets, blocking the truth beneath the surface of the sea. When the fishing rod was cast, no one knew what would be caught.

And what he had caught in the beginning was "fish."

A trace of solemnity slowly appeared in Duncan's eyes. He lowered his head and glanced at the wave talisman in his hand, hesitated slightly, and then threw the talisman back into the wooden bucket. He picked up a piece of uncarved wood from the side that looked unremarkable.

He looked at the piece of wood very seriously, and after a long while, he opened his mouth in a slow and solemn tone, "This is a piece of bread."

The wood was still wood, and nothing had changed.

Duncan stared at the piece of wood for a long time, twitched the corner of his mouth, raised his head to make sure there was no one around, and casually threw the piece of wood back to its original place.

"Looks like it's not that simple... so what's the principle..."

At the same time, in a private cabin below the deck of the *Ghost Ship*, Vanna had quickly arranged the "venue" for performing the ritual.

She locked the cabin door and turned to look at the ritual site she had arranged.

Under normal circumstances, to respond to the Gathering summons, one had to use the specially built "Tidal Chamber" in the church to construct a spiritual channel, but this was obviously not very realistic on a ship with limited conditions—she could only place her usual prayer books on the nearby ground to serve as the anchor point of the "holy land," and light a large candlestick in the center of the room to serve as the ritual brazier. Then, she found holy oil and essence purchased from the city-state to serve as "sacrifices" to enhance the effect of the ritual, barely enough to gather the elements to open the spiritual channel.

To be honest, the conditions were very makeshift, even a little disrespectful to the Goddess—but there was no better alternative.

The chimes in her mind continued, echoing repeatedly like urging, as if the chimes would continue to ring if she didn't respond.

"...Hopefully the Goddess won't blame me... If I had known, I should have prepared some better quality holy oil at least." Vanna muttered to herself, finally made up her mind, and took out the holy oil and essence to drip into the candlestick.

In the flames that suddenly rose, she took a light breath and calmed her mind...

The immense Gathering Place was shrouded by an ancient, dark sky. Chaotic streams of light floated and wandered at the top of countless ancient and solemn pillars, and hazy figures were successively emerging on the broken plaza between the pillars.

After all the figures were in place, Vanna's soul projection arrived late.

Slight dizziness and sensory deprivation made her stand in place for a few seconds. After initially adapting, she lowered her head to confirm her status, as well as the outlines of the surrounding figures.

"It's still going smoothly..."

She muttered in surprise.

Instead of going through the Tidal Chamber, she used the temporary altar on the *Ghost Ship* and the candle serving as the ritual brazier to perform the ritual. She originally didn't have much hope for the success rate of this operation, but she didn't expect it to succeed in one go.

A figure approached from the side, interrupting Vanna's thoughts.

She raised her head and recognized the owner of the figure from the familiar outline and aura—it was Bishop Valentine, whom she hadn't seen for a long time.

"Vanna, you're finally here!" The old bishop's voice carried a hint of joy at their reunion. "I didn't expect you to really be able to come..."

"I... didn't expect it either," Vanna said with a slightly awkward tone. "Have you all been waiting for a long time? My conditions here are limited, and I prepared the ritual in a hurry. It took a long time..."

"It's okay. For some reason, Her Holiness the Pope also arrived very late today and hasn't arrived yet," Valentine said immediately, then leaned over and lowered his voice. "Where are you now? Are you still on the 'ship'?"

"...Yes, on the 'ship'. I just left Frost," Vanna glanced around and lowered her voice as well. "I was talking to the 'Captain' a dozen minutes ago."

"...He actually let you set up a prayer room on the ship?" Bishop Valentine's tone was filled with disbelief. "And you can even open a spiritual channel from the ship? Did you find a powerful relic?"

"It's just a crude ritual site," Vanna said with some embarrassment. "I didn't expect it to succeed..."

"A crude ritual site?" Valentine asked suspiciously, but then a roar from the center of the plaza interrupted what he was about to say.

Accompanied by a loud noise, the ancient and solemn Tomb of the Nameless King slowly rose from the center of the plaza to the ground. The Saints gathered in various places of the Gathering Place also quieted down, and gazes fell on the gray-white pyramid-shaped building.

Vanna also subconsciously looked at the building, at the heavy door in front of the pyramid.

The door slowly opened, and a tomb guardian wrapped in bandages, as if between life and death, stepped out.

Vanna's heart stirred, and then she saw the tall guardian walking straight towards her. A small commotion broke out in the Gathering Place.

For the third time, the tomb guardian had chosen the same "Listener" three times in a row.

But for some reason, Vanna actually felt a sense of expected... relief. She turned her head, spread her hands helplessly to Valentine's phantom, took a step forward, and waited for the guardian to approach.

The giant between life and death strode up to Vanna, and his turbid yellow eyes lowered their gaze. "Good afternoon, please come with me."