He slowly shook his head.

"Talan Ehl's operation was bold, but in the vast, boundless sea, there's more than one scholar with such courage!"

"Is there anything else you need us to do?" The rabbit doll, Rabi, hopped over from the side, tilted its head, and said in a soft voice.

"Next, I will try to connect to Talan Ehl's dream and help him open a path back to the real world from the other side. But considering the complexity of this dream, I need you to guard the candelabras in this room. If I haven't woken up after three hours, extinguish all the candles in descending order of height. This will forcibly wake me up!"

"Yes," Rooney said, lowering her head. Three hours, extinguish in descending order of height, I remember.

"Rabi can dream with the mistress," the doll rabbit said with anticipation as it hopped over, hugging Lucretia's leg. "Rabi is a rabbit that dreams."

"One nightmare is enough." Lucretia refused the rabbit doll's eagerness without hesitation.

"I don't want such a great scholar to suddenly die on my Dawn's Sigh!"

"Okay, okay, Rabi knows." The rabbit doll lowered its head, making a frustrated sound, and walked to the corner of the room, muttering to itself.

*Plop.* It sat down on the floor!

Lucretia glanced at the doll, ignoring it. After confirming that all the ritual elements were ready, she sat down on a high-backed chair opposite Talan Ehl, then snapped her fingers!

In a laboratory deep within the Dawn's Sigh, Lucretia completed a preliminary examination of Talan Ehl. With the cooperation of the Academy of Truth, transferring this great scholar to the ship was not difficult, but figuring out what happened to him was not so simple. Even the "Sea Witch," known for her vast knowledge and fame in the fields of mysticism and curses, was seeing this for the first time!

Talan Ehl was clearly trapped deep within some kind of dream, but his entrapment showed no signs of a "curse" and no signs of mental pollution!

Lucretia lit the three candelabras in the corner of the laboratory and sprinkled an herbal powder she had personally prepared into the incense burner in front of the candelabras. Then, she went to Talan Ehl's side and arranged crystals, bone fragments, and other items around him!

The clockwork doll Rooney with a ceramic shell, and the rabbit doll Rabi, helped out in the laboratory. Noticing the solemn expression on their mistress's face, Rooney couldn't help but ask, "Is the situation bad? Is this elf in danger?"

"The situation is unclear, which is worse than bad." Lucretia said with a serious expression.

"Talan Ehl fell asleep after trying to observe the sun. If there is a connection between these two things, it means that this kind of sleeping state may not be an isolated incident. How many people looked up during the sun's extinction? To what extent of 'observation' will trigger this sleep? How many people have taken bold actions like this elven scholar?"

As she spoke, a veil of illusion like sand instantly covered her, and all the objects in the laboratory seemed to be plated with a phantom by this layer of illusory and hazy light. The "Sea Witch" slowly lowered her head, and in the next second, she entered the dream!

On the Forsaken, in the captain's room, Morris and Duncan were sitting at the navigation table, and on the wall not far behind them, Agatha's hazy and illusory figure was emerging from the ancient and worn oval mirror!

"Aiyi has already flown over to confirm. The large island ahead of us is indeed Fairwind Harbor."

Duncan said, "Now the Forsaken is hidden in the depths of the spirit world. We will contact Lucretia before landing on the island to confirm the current situation in the city-state with her!"

"As for now, the problem of the Forsaken's sudden teleportation is still before us!"

"Frankly speaking, I have no clue," Morris said, biting his pipe, his brows furrowed like several ravines.

"I've heard of various 'teleportation' incidents. Some are specific phenomenon effects, and some are curses and anomalies like the Mariner's Curse taking effect, but what happened to the Forsaken is obviously different from those... Currently, the sun's extinction seems to be the most likely cause of the Forsaken's teleportation, but those of us on board have never noticed how or when this change occurred..."

"So I've always felt that the problem isn't the Forsaken, but the 'whole world' outside the Forsaken."

Duncan said in a deep voice, "Captain Lawrence's message also suggests this. After the sun went out, incomprehensible changes occurred in the sea area outside our sight!"

"Tiree's report also confirms this!"

"Has there been any further news from Mr. Tiree?"

Agatha's voice suddenly sounded from the mirror. "Has Coldport responded?"

"Yes... The situation is developing in the most bizarre direction." Duncan nodded. "Tiree has reconfirmed with the city-states that had previously lost contact. According to the responses from various places... including Coldport, the other city-states not only don't know about the sun's extinction, but they don't even know that their communications with Frostfell were interrupted!"

Agatha's expression suddenly changed slightly!

She opened her mouth. "That is to say..."

"That is to say, they didn't experience those twelve hours of the sun's extinction."

Duncan slowly opened his mouth. "In their eyes, the world has been running normally all along. Frostfell, Prandis, and Fairwind Harbor are all normal. Then suddenly, Frostfell sent a lot of inexplicable and nervous messages, talking about the 'sun's extinction' and 'communication interruptions'—now a tense atmosphere is spreading between the several city-states. In Tiree's words, 'They urgently need to figure out which side is abnormal!'"

Morris listened and pondered, then slowly put down his pipe. "Then it can also be understood this way: after the sun went out, the time of the entire world was frozen for twelve hours, and the Forsaken and the three city-states were actually 'incorrectly maintaining normalcy' during these twelve hours, as if in a nightmare that everyone slept through... we accidentally opened our eyes and saw the truth in the cracks of time!"

Duncan showed a thoughtful expression!

It must be admitted that great scholars are great scholars. Although Morris couldn't explain the principle behind all this, he put forward a very enlightening guess!

Then can this guess be extended further?

In that world after the sun went out, are there more bizarre changes that have never been noticed? Even make this guess more extreme...

Was the sun really extinguished for the first time?

These guesses floated in everyone's mind, and silence fell in the captain's room for a while.

Just then, Duncan seemed to suddenly sense something and frowned slightly with a hint of doubt. "Hmm?"

"Captain?"

Agatha immediately asked, "Did you think of something?"

"...No, it's something else."

Duncan waved his hand while continuing to maintain his perception and listen. His eyes seemed unfocused, or gazing at a place that was not in the room.

"There's an aura..."

He suddenly raised his head and looked at Morris opposite him!

"What is Heidi doing now?"

"Heidi?" Morris was stunned, not knowing why the captain suddenly mentioned this. "Heidi stayed in Prandis. At this time, it should still be chaotic there because of the sun's extinction. The city hall will probably call her to... Is something wrong with Heidi?"

The great scholar finally reacted, and his face suddenly became tense!

"She shouldn't be in too much danger, but the state of the amulet I left her is a bit wrong." Duncan frowned, then waved his hand towards the air. As a ghostly green flame rose into the air, Aiyi's figure appeared in the air beside him. "I need a passage to the dream realm!"

"So, you were actually giving someone 'treatment,' and then somehow, you came to my dream—then you thought I was an intruder and poked me in the neck with that cone?"

The elven scholar who claimed to be "Talan Ehl" said calmly, looking at the "golden cone" in Heidi's hand.

"I think there are many things wrong with what you're saying?"

"Actually..."

Heidi was full of embarrassment. If there was anything worse than accidentally injuring a patient with a golden cone and being discovered on the spot, it must be not being discovered on the spot, but the patient suddenly reacting after half a day, and analyzing the matter with such a serious attitude—this elven scholar's reaction was really deviated from ordinary people. Heidi had seen many strange patients over the years, but this type was really the first time she had seen.

"I also think something's wrong... but what I said is true!"

"What you said is true."

"Yeah." Talan Ehl nodded, then asked, "What about the 'other patient' you mentioned?"

Heidi immediately turned around and pointed in the direction she had come from: "That building is her dream... realm..." Her words gradually stopped, and her expression became stiff!

In the direction she was pointing, between the lush towering trees and vines, the medical facility that was once so large... had disappeared without a trace!

"It's gone..." Heidi muttered to herself, slowly turning her head.

"But it was really there before, a very big..."

"Miss Psychiatrist." Talan Ehl interrupted Heidi's mutterings. The elven scholar spread his hands with a helpless expression.

"The way you're acting, it's hard for me to believe you!"