Chapter 1 A Glimpse of Light

In the dark depths of the sea, a cluster of eerie green flames streaked across like a meteor. The immense pressure and stagnation of billions of tons of seawater seemed nonexistent, failing to slow the "meteor" in the slightest.

A Yi traversed the jet-black deep-sea floating island with lightning speed, finally stopping in the island's central area and reforming from the flames.

Duncan stepped out of the flames, floating in the seawater, and glanced at the pigeon spirit fluttering around him.

A Yi flew over and landed on her master's shoulder, tilting her head curiously. "What are you looking at?"

Duncan didn't speak, but reached out and gently rubbed the pigeon's head before turning to face the massive "pillar" in the center of the island.

Now, he stood before it—the shockingly huge pillar towered in his vision, extending from the mountaintop at the center of the deep-sea floating island, pointing almost straight upwards. It seemed to pierce not only the entire island but also the boundless dark sea, reaching towards the "Frost" above, towards the sunlit world above the surface.

But it didn't truly extend infinitely—once he was close enough, Duncan could finally see more details. He noticed that the upper part of the "pillar" ended abruptly in the seawater.

It was very, very high up, where there seemed to be a sudden break.

But before inspecting that break, Duncan cautiously approached the middle section of the pillar, observing the form of its "skin."

Regular, dense, with faintly visible complex and patterned textures, and distributed with regular raised structures. This pillar, resembling a giant tentacle, possessed a highly ordered sense of "neatness" in its details, even… like some kind of industrial product.

Duncan hesitated, cautiously reaching out towards the pillar. This body didn't have fully formed hands and feet, but with the gesture of reaching out to touch the "pillar," the end of his arm suddenly began to swell and wriggle, differentiating into the structure of a hand almost in the blink of an eye.

Was this a process of spontaneous secondary shaping based on the "original template" and triggered by specific stimuli?

Duncan recalled the feeling of the eye structure differentiating from this body's face earlier, instinctively guessing in his heart. At the same time, he felt his newly formed fingers touch the pitch-black surface of the pillar.

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

Duncan moved closer, observing the pillar's surface more carefully.

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

Duncan's heart stirred, instantly thinking of the "flesh" sample he had obtained from Captain Kristo Babelly's mouth deep within the Obsidian.

The textures looked very similar—was this pillar standing in the deep sea truly a limb of the Primordial God of the Abyss extending into the real world?

With a strange stirring in his heart, Duncan stepped back slightly, his gaze slowly sweeping across the giant pillar.

It was unrealistic, of course, to find the wound left by Captain Kristo on such a massive structure, but that didn't stop a sense of respect for Captain Kristo from rising in Duncan's heart once again.

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

After a long time, he finally reached the location of the break, and the situation here was about as he had imagined.

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

And inside the break, the grayish-black inner wall was in a state of constant downward concavity, like a strangely atmospheric volcano.

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

If the "big hollow" in the Boiling Gold Mine was truly the result of a similar "pillar" or "tentacle" eroding it, then the tentacle that had pierced into the city-state was definitely much smaller compared to the pillar before him. The former's scale might only be one-fifth of the latter's, or even smaller.

Was it because the "tentacle" that pierced into the city-state was merely a "projection of power" of this deep-sea body? Or was it because the tentacle in the big hollow was in an early stage of growth, and it would have continued to grow?

If the Frost Defense War had failed, if he had ultimately failed to eliminate the mirror image of Frost, if the "pillar" in the big hollow deep in the Boiling Gold Mine continued to grow uncontrollably… would it eventually grow to break through the mine, even break through the high mountains above, and also become a "giant pillar" like the one before him, as if it had pierced through the entire floating island?

Was this what those crazed Annihilation cultists were proclaiming and pursuing—"reproducing the Primordial God's magnificent blueprint for creation in the real world"?

These rather frightening guesses flashed through Duncan's mind in an instant, but then, a glimmer of light that suddenly flashed from the edge of his vision interrupted his thoughts.

He suddenly looked in the direction where the glimmer of light had appeared.

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

Almost without hesitation, he immediately swam in that direction.

Crossing the jagged broken "cliffs" at the edge of the pillar, crossing the dark matter that gradually concaved towards the center, in this silent deep sea far from the civilized world, a sudden flash of light became the only target in Duncan's eyes. He swam through this distance at the fastest speed, arriving near the center point of the pillar's break.

But when he arrived here, the flash of light had already disappeared.

Only an empty darkness remained, the "ground" inside the pillar's break as cold and silent as rock.

Duncan floated in the seawater, frowning as he scanned the darkness. This empty place was like a condensed ellipsis filled with regret, hiding the secret again deep within the curtain.

However, he soon noticed something wrong in his vision.

Below him, the texture of the "ground" in the central area of the pillar's "break" faintly revealed a strangeness, seeming a bit…"blurred."

Yes, blurred, as if it weren't a truly existing substance, but really a layer of curtain between reality and illusion.

Duncan hesitated for a few seconds, finally cautiously approaching the strangely textured "ground," but before reaching out to touch that substance, he first condensed a small cluster of flames at his fingertip and threw it into the blurred "curtain."

When in doubt, open the way with spirit fire—it never hurts to be extra cautious.

The eerie green spirit fire fell onto the black "ground" almost in the blink of an eye, first disappearing like water seeping into sand, and then, wisps of spreading eerie green fire began to appear in the darkness. Almost in the blink of an eye, the entire "ground" was ablaze!

And as the flames burned, Duncan suddenly felt… some subtle "connection" was being established.

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

The next second, he saw the ground below him rapidly changing in the spreading flames, gradually transforming into a mirror-like texture, and that mirror-like surface was rippling slightly in the firelight, like some kind of viscous and smooth liquid surface!

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

Boom!

In the illusion, it was as if a loud noise exploded in his mind, as if stagnant time suddenly started, as if a heavy curtain was suddenly torn open, as if a barrier collapsed rumbling at the edge of reality. Duncan felt as if he had crossed a boundary in an instant, and then, the "world" before him began to be filled with warm light.

The feeling of being wrapped in cold, heavy seawater suddenly disappeared, and the feeling of standing on solid ground replaced the feeling of emptiness and being adrift. The warm light before his eyes gradually softened, and as his vision gradually adapted, Duncan finally saw the surrounding situation and was stunned in astonishment.

He was standing in a magnificent and bright room.

Lights shone down from the chandelier on the ceiling, illuminating the many exquisite and elaborate furnishings in the room. Court-style display stands and metal sculptures shone with a soft glow in the light, and a gorgeous large bed was placed in the center of the room. The large bed was surrounded by translucent curtains, and someone seemed to be sleeping deep inside.

Duncan looked at the scene before him in astonishment, then suddenly turned his head sharply, looking behind him.

That seemed to be the direction he had "come from."

He saw a twisted and chaotic darkness.

The room seemed to disappear out of thin air before that boundary. Beyond the broken and fractured walls and floor was a chaotic domain like a void space, and chaotic shadows and dim streams of light undulated and flowed in that void, as if filled with truths and mysteries enough to drive mortals mad, yet as if it were only a meaningless void.

A word suddenly flowed into his mind—

The subspace.

Duncan felt his heart (if this body had a heart) suddenly skip a beat. He had never imagined such a scene—he was standing in a fragmented room, a step away from the chaotic light and shadow of the subspace, and those hazy, chaotic lights and shadows seemed to be roaring silently, conveying incomprehensible… knowledge and "truths" to him in all sorts of mad words.

Duncan raised his hand, cautiously reaching towards the darkness beyond the boundary of the room.

He touched a hard, cold surface.

An invisible barrier blocked him from the subspace.

"You can't pass," a voice suddenly came from behind him, "You haven't truly opened that door yet."

Duncan was shocked and suddenly turned around.

The gauze around the gorgeous large bed had been opened, and the person sleeping on the bed had woken up at some point and was quietly looking over here.

Silver hair fell from her shoulders, and purple eyes shone like gems.

"Alice?"

(End of Chapter)