Duncan knew that his idea was bold and bizarre, even to the point of seeming too outrageous in this strange and unpredictable Deep Sea Embers era—transforming a real celestial body into this ten-meter diameter "stone sphere" before him and making it float on the sea surface could no longer be described as wishful thinking.

But once this idea surfaced, it was difficult for him to completely banish it from his mind. No matter how incredible it felt, he couldn't help but associate it.

Because... it was so similar, not just in appearance, but also in a strong... "intuition," and even a "familiarity" that seemed to transcend time and the dimensions of the world was surging in his mind.

Duncan looked at the pale, textured sphere before him. For a moment, he even felt like he had returned to that familiar world, gazing at his homeland's... moon.

He stared fixedly at the moon floating beside the Bright Star's hull, his expression frozen for a long time, until he heard footsteps approaching and Lucresia's voice reached his ears: "Father, this is it."

Duncan turned his head. At that moment, he didn't realize how strange his expression was: "Ah... yes, this is it..."

Lucresia, of course, noticed the strangeness in Duncan's expression and tone. She seemed slightly nervous, then asked with concern in her voice: "Are you alright? You don't look well... Is there something wrong with this stone sphere?"

"It's... fine, thank you for your concern, Lucy," Duncan waved his hand, trying to adjust his expression, then turned back to point at the stone sphere, "It..."

He stopped.

He had no idea how to explain this to Lucresia, how to describe the concept of a "moon," how to explain another world, and his reaction at this moment, just like he couldn't explain it to Tiri'an back then—he didn't even know how to explain what a "planet" was.

So he could only open his mouth, then awkwardly changed the subject: "Has anything changed since it fell? Was it like this from the beginning?"

"Yes, it was like this from the beginning," Lucresia nodded immediately, then recounted the general process of discovering the fallen object and added some details about moving it to Lightwind Port, "... It floats in the air at a certain height above the sea surface by an unknown mechanism. Without interference, it will remain completely in place, but it can be towed by the ship's external force. Its interior is solid and dense. Several cautious samples have proven that its internal texture is similar to stone, but so far we have only collected relatively shallow components—the deeper you go, the harder it becomes, and the drill simply cannot penetrate it..."

Duncan listened quietly and asked, "What else? What else have you discovered?"

"We have also tried to unravel the mysteries of the 'light' around it," Lucresia continued. "The huge geometric luminous body wrapped around the 'stone sphere' constantly releases 'sunlight' outwards. The scale of the sunlight can illuminate the entire city-state, but this light does not emanate from the 'stone sphere,' or at least not 'shine' in the way we understand it—the light is directly 'generated' in the nearby space and then evenly distributed outwards.

"To verify this, we built a large awning that completely covered the stone sphere. It proved that this had no effect on the luminous geometry or the 'sunlight' on the nearby sea...

"In addition, we have also confirmed that the surface of the stone sphere is covered with a very, very fine layer of 'dust.' They are 'attached' to the stone sphere by an unknown force. Although they can be scraped off for sampling, they will not 'fall' from the sphere without external force, even the dust at the bottom of the sphere is the same, as if some invisible force is 'adsorbing' them..."

Lucresia explained to Duncan as best she could the various tests that the scholars had performed on the "stone sphere" and the information she knew so far.

In the process, she had been paying attention to the changes in Duncan's expression, wanting to guess what kind of mood was hidden under her father's overly serious expression.

However, she couldn't see through it. All of her father's thoughts seemed to be shrouded in a thick fog, shrouded in the depths of that familiar and unfamiliar majestic face. The only thing she could be sure of was that her father really cared about this "stone sphere"—even more than she and Tiri'an had imagined.

After a long silence, Duncan finally spoke: "You've done a lot of sampling?"

"Yes, surface samples were scraped from various parts of the stone sphere, and this sampling is still ongoing," Lucresia nodded. "The inside of the stone sphere is very hard and difficult to sample, but its surface layer is relatively 'loose,' and grayish-white debris can be scraped off. The properties of those debris are no different from stone powder..."

Speaking of this, she paused, looked at Duncan hesitantly, and then pointed to the floating platform used to study the stone sphere not far away: "Would you like to go take a look with me?"

"... Okay."

Duncan and Lucresia came to the "research station" built by the elves, and then came to a platform directly connected to the surface of the stone sphere through the connecting bridge on the upper layer of the research station.

A diameter of ten meters is insignificant for a celestial body, but as an object close at hand, it is still a behemoth. Even without considering the height at which it floats on the sea, the diameter of the sphere itself actually exceeds three stories.

The elves fixed a platform on the "waist" of this behemoth and fixed it with hoops surrounding the sphere and a series of anchors and struts. The platform was small, only a few square meters, but it was enough to gain a foothold.

Duncan stood on this platform, reached out his hand, and gently touched the... moon.

A rough, cold sensation came from his fingertips, like stroking a stone.

He retracted his hand, looked at the little grayish-white dust on his fingertips, rubbed his fingers, and let the grayish-white dust fall slowly.

Some dust slowly floated towards the sphere and landed on its surface again.

"This phenomenon is also very puzzling to us," Lucresia's voice came from the side. "The dust scraped from the sphere seems to be attracted by the sphere itself. When the distance is close enough, the debris will actively return to the surface of the sphere. However, this 'attraction' only exists between the substances of the stone sphere itself. We have done tests with other light powders..."

Duncan hummed, but didn't say much.

"I heard my brother say that you call this strange stone sphere the 'moon,'" Lucresia said, cautiously observing Duncan's reaction. "And you seemed very excited when you saw it... Do you know anything about this stone sphere?"

"It..." Duncan hesitated, then finally slowly opened his mouth, "It's different from what I know. It should be very big, much bigger than it is now..."

"Big?" Lucresia blinked. "Bigger than the Lost Ship?"

"Much bigger than that."

"Bigger than the Pilgrimage Arks of the Four Gods Church? Or bigger than a city-state?"

Duncan shook his head: "Bigger, bigger than you can imagine."

"... Could it be bigger than the Boundless Sea?"

"I haven't measured the Boundless Sea, but... perhaps," Duncan said softly, as if to himself, "Perhaps it is bigger than the Boundless Sea, because this sea, named 'Boundless,' is actually just a cage surrounded by mist."

Lucresia's eyes widened.

For some reason, she suddenly thought of her childhood. The few questions and answers just now seemed to have suddenly reversed a century of time, triggering those memories that had long been asleep in the deepest part of her mind—she vaguely remembered that many, many years ago, she had also asked her father similar questions.

She had asked her father at that time how big the Boundless Sea was.

Her father told her that the sea was very large, larger than the Lost Ship, larger than a city-state—it was as boundless as its name, and could accommodate a person's lifelong curiosity and exploration.

She remembered it firmly and followed in her father's footsteps to become an explorer, a "border scholar." As a member of the Lost Ship Fleet, she followed her father to many places, including the distant and unpredictable "border." She felt that her father in childhood had not deceived her—this sea was really big.

But now her father was telling her that the "Boundless Sea" was just a cage surrounded by mist.

The "stone sphere" in front of her, which was only ten meters in diameter, should have been larger than the Boundless Sea.

Lucresia narrowed her eyes, raised her head, and looked up at the "moon" in front of her, trying to imagine it being bigger than the Boundless Sea, but for the first time felt that her imagination was so limited—not only could she not understand what her father was saying, she couldn't even imagine it.

"Such a big 'moon'... how much space would it take to accommodate it?" she couldn't help but ask, "Like you said, it's even bigger than this world..."

The Boundless Sea is not the whole world.

The sentence instinctively flashed in Duncan's mind, but he controlled the urge to blurt it out.

Because he had never measured this world, nor had he crossed the mist called the "border."

He was not sure whether the Boundless Sea was really all there was to this world.

And Lucresia was destined to not understand what a universe large enough to accommodate billions of stars would look like.

Even if she owned a ship, and that ship's name was "Bright Star."

"... Sorry, Lucy," Duncan finally sighed softly. He turned his head and looked into the eyes of the "Sea Witch," "I have no way to explain this to you."

(End of this chapter)