Chapter 137 Whispers from the Deep Sea

Deep within the Alice Manor, in the farthest reaches of that eerie garden, in the shadows between the lush bushes and shrubs, winding and bizarre tendrils, as if covered with metallic scales, were slithering and crawling!

The rustling sound came again from another direction, and in the corner of his eye, he saw another dark tentacle, like a limb of some mollusk, passing through the gaps between the bushes, shaking the branches, rubbing against the rough soil, making a soft sound.

That soft rustling sound almost sounded like a call.

Duncan instantly expanded his senses, cautiously watching any movement in the garden, while locking onto the direction where one of the tentacles had just disappeared, and walking towards it.

Behind him, beneath his feet, ghostly green flames began to spread with his footsteps, leaving a faint path of fire, which quietly spread along the cracks in the ground, gradually permeating into the depths of the garden.

This was "Alice Manor," most likely a crucial part of Alice's "soul." Duncan certainly wouldn't set fire to this place casually, but now that strange things had appeared in the depths of the garden, he had to prepare for some countermeasures. If there really was something dangerous invading the garden, he had to find a way to eliminate the invaders without damaging the manor itself.

With cautious thoughts in his mind, Duncan had gradually followed the guidance of the rustling sound to a place far away from the "sleeping doll," to an edge of the manor garden. After passing through several bushes and crossing a few unknown small trees, he noticed that the surrounding light had dimmed, and the light from the "graffiti sun" in the sky seemed unable to reach so far—the shade of the plants made it as dark as dusk.

And in this twilight-like "skylight," he saw a clump of plants in front of him suddenly shake, and then a tentacle slowly lifted from there, gently swaying in front of him.

No hiding, no pretense, this tentacle seemed to be deliberately inviting Duncan to come, and now it was generously showing itself.

Duncan looked at this bizarre "limb" in surprise—

The tentacle was dark in color, with a dense structure on the surface that resembled metallic scales. Between the rough and complex protrusions, faint blue lines could be seen, giving him a very familiar feeling, as if...

Beneath the frost, in the deep sea, the pattern on the surface of that ancient god's tentacle.

A limb of the Abyssal Saint?!

Duncan felt a jolt in his heart and suddenly realized the source of this familiarity. The moment the words "Abyssal Saint" flashed in his mind, the tentacle that had been blindly swaying in the air suddenly trembled, as if a distant and vast consciousness had finally connected to this limb—

It bent towards Duncan, accompanied by a peculiar, low hum. The end of the tentacle slowly opened, and an "eyeball" that flickered with a cold blue light, like an irregular crystal, appeared from within, "gazing" into Duncan's eyes.

"Hello, Fire Thief, I have something to say to you."

A low, turbid voice, indistinguishable in emotion or gender, suddenly came, as if directly in his mind.

Duncan was instantly startled, frowning and staring at the tentacle in front of him: "Abyssal Saint? King of Crawling? Lh-01?"

"All are, but please listen to me now," the tentacle trembled, seeming to already be bearing a load far exceeding its threshold. The voice it conveyed quickly became low and distorted as it sped up its speech. "My opportunity to communicate with you is extremely limited. Now, I only convey necessary information. Whether you can understand it or not, remember now:

"The design lifespan of ￥＃％￥＃ is only eight thousand years, and now it is running beyond its capacity. We have not received a signal from ＆＊％￥ outside within the time limit..."

"This is the last cycle reset. ￥＊（￥＃ will not regenerate after this cycle."

"Save the fallen ￥＃＆＊＊ fragments. If all is irreparable, use them to extend the lifespan of each node city as much as possible. Stay alive. Survival is the first directive."

"We don't know what you can do, but you woke up at the end of the cycle. This must have meaning."

"We firmly believe that you, and we, are not alone."

"The above necessary information has been conveyed. If there is an opportunity, I hope to be able to meet with you in person under more stable circumstances...flow..."

The trembling of the tentacle was rapidly decreasing. The metallic scales had begun to be covered with a layer of dying pallor. Duncan could even clearly feel the rapid departure and weakening of the voice in his mind—although he didn't understand the specific principles and processes, it was obvious that the ancient god called the "Abyssal Saint" had taken advantage of some loophole or external force to forcibly establish contact with him, and now this extremely limited connection was about to be severed.

Duncan didn't even bother to be curious or deeply ponder what the information that the other party had poured out was. With rational judgment, he chose to quickly and forcibly memorize it all, and only after the other party finished speaking would he have time to turn his mind and think about what he had just heard.

The first thing he noticed was the "noise"—when this ancient god was speaking to him, some of the crucial information, which should have been important nouns, had turned into sharp, chaotic sounds in his ears.

It was as if the "meaning" in those syllables had been filtered out by something, or the meaning represented by those syllables exceeded the limits that this communication could bear, so that it could not be transmitted to his ears at all.

But now was obviously not the time to ask about those "noises" in detail.

The ancient god's whispers were about to fade away. The connection that He had barely established with him was only a sliver left. Duncan looked up and saw that the surface of the tentacle was already covered with cracks, perhaps only able to last for a few more seconds.

He instantly completed his thinking and seized this last moment to ask, "If I want to find you, how do I get to the Abyssal Deep Sea?"

Going to the Abyssal Deep Sea and communicating with the other party in person was undoubtedly the simplest and most effective way to resolve all doubts.

The ancient god's tentacle had slowly stiffened. The faded fragments were constantly falling down like dust. That powerful and indescribable will was gradually fading from this fragile carrier, but before the connection with the real world was completely severed, He still tried his best to grasp this last bit of connection, casting a low murmur in Duncan's mind—

"I don't know."

Duncan: ".....?"

He finally realized what it felt like when the people around him usually had their brains crash after hearing a single sentence from him.

He really didn't expect the Abyssal Saint to give him such an answer!

But he only froze for a moment before hearing that ethereal and low murmur again in his mind—

"Grab a few Annihilation Cultists and try..."

"Huh?" Duncan didn't react for a moment. "Aren't they your followers?"

However, there was no sound to answer his question—the ancient god's whispered murmur had finally completely stopped. Accompanied by a series of cracking sounds, the "tentacle" that had carried too much power finally completely collapsed. It turned into dust and debris that fell to the ground and rose into wisps of blue smoke that dissipated.

The rustling sounds that surrounded the edge of the manor garden also completely ceased at the same time, and the abnormal twilight in the shadows of the trees also faded away.

Duncan continued to stand quietly in front of the bushes for a while, until several minutes had passed, before shaking his head with a frown and waking up from his contemplation.

Everything that had just happened still felt like a dream. The ancient god called the "Abyssal Saint" had actually run directly in front of him, quickly babbling a bunch of things to him and then quickly leaving. This kind of thing would be shocking not only in Pingtou Harbor, but also in the entire Boundless Sea.

But around him...it didn't seem so shocking?

Duncan turned around and looked back at the lush "manor garden" not far away, bathed in the light of the sky, and the silver-haired doll quietly sleeping in the sunny open space in the center of the garden.

The anomaly 099 born from the Abyssal Saint's "copying" ability, the "Alice Manor" closely connected to Alice. In the end, this entire "manor" was inextricably linked to that "ancient god" in the Abyssal Deep Sea, and it was even very likely that this ancient god had deliberately created it as a carrier for transmitting information to the outside world.

Therefore, seeing the power projection of the Abyssal Saint in the depths of this manor garden did not seem like an unimaginable thing.

Duncan was thinking about something else—

The Abyssal Saint's attitude, or rather "state," seemed to be different from what he had expected. He still maintained his sanity, but seemed to be in some kind of extremely restricted state. His attitude was friendly, unlike what the world imagined, which was only pure destructive tendency.

But these "deviations" didn't mean much to Duncan. After all, there were not many people in this world who had truly come into contact with those so-called "ancient gods." The information gained from imagination was not accurate in the first place. In addition, the "ancient gods" in the eyes of different individuals might also present different appearances. The friendly and harmless good neighbor in his eyes might be a bit indescribable in the eyes of ordinary people—after adapting to this world for so long, Duncan still had some self-awareness in this regard.

Most importantly, it was the "information" that the ancient god had told him.

Duncan recalled the words that seemed to contain a great deal of information in his mind again and again—

Something, with a design lifespan of only eight thousand years, and now it was running beyond its capacity.

The "we" that the Abyssal Saint mentioned seemed to have been waiting for a signal to be sent back from somewhere, but so far had not received that response.

The other party also mentioned cycle resets...what did this mean?

He, this "Fire Thief," had awakened at the end of the cycle. What did this mean? Also, preserve the fallen fragments and extend the lifespan of the node cities...

In his contemplation, Duncan's expression gradually became solemn.