The ripples in the darkness gradually calmed down, and those pale words no longer floated up. No matter how much Zhou Ming concentrated or searched in the darkness, he could not see those strange "conversations."

Yes, conversations, there was no doubt that they were conversations, and they seemed to be conversations happening between gods.

At least, Zhou Ming recognized the name "Bartok." In the darkness, Zhou Ming stood quietly in place. He no longer tried to trigger new ripples, but instead fell into prolonged contemplation. An astonishing amount of information surged in his mind like a tide. Beneath the seemingly calm surface of his thoughts lay immense astonishment and a tangled mess of ideas. Was this a cruel joke?

Obviously unlikely. So, was this really happening? If so, when did these conversations occur? Were they recordings of something that had happened in the past, or were they taking place at this very moment, in some mysterious dimension?

"They are talking, and this conversation…

…is reflected in this dark and eerie place. Bartok, the name of the God of Death, that's certain. But what do the other names represent? The most logical idea is that those names all represent gods. Then the King of Fire is likely Tarikin, the 'Sui Ran Xin Huo' (Burning Tinder) worshiped by the flame-keepers. And the Leviathan Queen? Is she the Storm Goddess?

Is "Leviathan Queen" another name for the Storm Goddess? In the darkness, Zhou Ming gradually frowned. The extremely peculiar title "Leviathan Queen" made him think of various guesses and associations. But even more uncontrollable were his thoughts about the fourth name.

One of those conversing with the gods had a name called "Lh-o2." If the conversationalists he had just seen represented the four gods, then the last one could only be Lachehm, the God of Death who held the power of wisdom and foolishness. Lachehm's 'name'... is 'Lh-o2'?

That didn't sound like a name at all, but more like a code! A sequence belonging to a machine! Countless crazy guesses surged. Zhou Ming felt his mind churning as if it were boiling. He even had to try to restrain his wild thoughts to prevent those guesses from becoming too absurd and outlandish. While sorting out these messy guesses, he also did not ignore the shocking information mentioned in those "conversations."

The situation is not optimistic, the critical state is accelerating... the cluster controller has begun to replicate itself, or has completely lost control. These few sentences alone were enough for Zhou Ming to sense the tense and solemn atmosphere. What "situation" were "they" referring to? The state of the mortal world?

Then, the accelerating critical state... was that referring to the imminent collapse of some vast system?

Zhou Ming instantly recalled his last conversation with Agatha. The incidents involving Prand and Frost, one after the other, and the "failure" of Anomaly 001—all of these events were like a "precursor stage" of a vast system constantly developing problems.

Then, the cluster controller has begun to replicate itself... Zhou Ming's expression suddenly became serious. A sentence surfaced in his mind: "This is a counterfeit." In the darkness, he couldn't help but take a light breath, subconsciously looking towards the space where the words had just appeared, as if expecting more information to appear there.

Of course, nothing appeared there. Zhou Ming withdrew his gaze with a solemn expression. Of course, there were still many issues worth paying attention to. Although he had only seen a few sentences of conversation just now, the amount of information behind each sentence was astonishing.

Even the name of each conversationalist was worth pondering for a long time. For example, Lachehm, Gamora, and Tarikin all used "aliases." Why did Bartok, the God of Death, use his real name? The last piece of information, seemingly from the God of Wisdom Lachehm "Lh-02," also mentioned a suspicious visitor, and said that the other party "sent a dog's head and left." What was going on with that? In all honesty, if the preceding sentences hadn't been so informative, Zhou Ming's entire attention would probably have been focused on that last "dog's head."

But now, that incongruous sentence just seemed a bit strange.

Just then, a faint noise suddenly came from the depths of the darkness, interrupting the storm in Zhou Ming's mind. It sounded like something quietly breaking. At first, it was very weak, almost like an auditory hallucination. But almost in an instant, the sound of shattering became clear and dense. Then, countless chaotic light and shadow lines filled the dark space, and increasingly dense noise filled Zhou Ming's mind. The entire dark space also began to rapidly collapse and shatter. Rotating lights and shadows rose from all directions. The next second, he…

…heard a loud "boom" in his mind!

The next second, a brief sense of weightlessness and dizziness "dragged" him back to the real world. The feeling of sitting in a chair made Duncan suddenly open his eyes... The sight of raging flames filled his vision. The nameless black leather book in his hands was already burning fiercely! Alice's exclamation sounded from the side: "It's burning! Captain! The book is burning!" Duncan was immediately startled and immediately pressed his hand on the blazing flames. In the blink of an eye, he controlled the fire. However, the book's rate of burning was absurdly fast. In just the blink of an eye, most of the book had turned to ashes. In the end, only a small, messy half of the pages remained on the table.

A dark red liquid, like blood, seeped out from the remaining half of the book, soaking and rotting the pages. Duncan frowned and opened those remaining pages, finding that they had all turned into soft, fluffy wads, and were obviously unreadable.

He looked up, his expression somewhat subtle. "I don't think I did anything."

"Judging from the phenomenon... this book probably can't withstand your power," Morris hesitated for a second, and then said hesitantly.

"This is obvious transcendent overload."

"Can't withstand my power?" Duncan frowned, muttering subconsciously. Just unable to withstand his own power?

What this book had just withstood... was probably more than just his own power. Perhaps, it had just acted as some kind of medium—a medium that far exceeded its own limits. Duncan recalled the golden sun mask he had obtained in Prand. He had glimpsed the appearance of the "True Sun God" through that mask, but it had also caused the mask to break down. Morris didn't know what Duncan was thinking, but he noticed that the captain's expression wasn't very good, and couldn't help but add, "This book should just be a copy, replicated from the 'original' using some special ritual. This kind of transcendent item is indeed fragile…"

Duncan looked up. "So, if there's an original, it might be stable enough for me to read?"

"In theory, yes," Morris said, adjusting his monocle. Alice, who was beside him, looked left and right, and finally couldn't help but come closer. "Captain, did you see anything just now? Why do you look so serious?" Duncan rubbed his heart. Everything he had seen in the darkness resurfaced in his mind, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he suddenly stopped himself from saying what was really going on.

For weaker mortals, much of the "information" itself was toxic.

"I saw something different from what Morris saw."

After carefully considering his words for a few seconds, he slowly opened his mouth. "But I can't say the specifics, because it might hurt you."

Vanna and Morris immediately exchanged glances. The next second, the same nervousness and solemnity appeared in both of their eyes.

After a brief thought, Morris spoke. "Different from what I saw... does that mean that this book presents different content depending on the reader?"

"Maybe," Duncan said. "But it might just be that it presents different content to me."

Duncan pondered, then added with some regret, "Too bad... I should have tested it at the end. Even if I had let Tirian take a look at the contents of the book first, at least we could have gotten more clues. Now the only sample has been burned."

Morris's expression suddenly became a little strange. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but didn't. Vanna, who was next to him, was more straightforward. "Shouldn't you also consider Mr. Tirian's physical and mental health?"

"Reading more books is always better than watching burlesque," Duncan waved his hand. "Besides, I'm watching over him, so nothing bad can happen. Forget about it." He shook his head, then his gaze fell on Vanna, deciding to indirectly verify some things.

"Vanna, have you ever heard of the title 'Leviathan Queen'?"

"Leviathan Queen?" Vanna was stunned when she heard this, her expression of astonishment and confusion didn't seem fake. "I've never heard of it. Is it the ruler of some city-state? But I haven't heard of any city-state called that." Duncan observed Vanna's expression, while also concentrating his mind to sense whether there were any abnormal aura fluctuations or transcendent phenomena in the surrounding area.

Because he was very curious as to whether mentioning the name "Leviathan Queen" in the real world would also trigger some phenomenon. But half a minute passed, and nothing happened. "Okay, forget about this question for now." Duncan shook his head, then looked at Morris again. "Lh-o2, have you ever heard of this?"

"No," Morris said, puzzled. But noticing the seriousness in Duncan's expression, he also recalled it very carefully before shaking his head. "Does that sound like the code name of some kind of machine?"

The reactions of the two "saints" didn't seem fake.

They really hadn't heard of these two titles, but that still couldn't rule out the possibility that these two titles corresponded to the "Storm Goddess Gamora" and the "God of Wisdom Lachehm," respectively.

After all, above the saints there were still popes, and above the city-state cathedrals there were several "pilgrimage cathedral arks" that cruised the boundless sea for a long time. The secrets closest to the gods were kept in those places far away from the mortal world.

"Forget about these two names for now." After a long time, after confirming that nothing had really happened in the cabin, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief and shook his head. "Don't mention it to anyone, especially after leaving the range of the *Ghost Ship*, don't mention these words to anyone."