Chapter 1 The Tangled Beginning

In the chaotic night sky woven from "sunlight" and the World Engine, Duncan and his group swiftly traversed the silent, deserted streets, eventually stopping at an intersection completely covered and blocked by countless lush plants.

Towering trees obscured the sky, and intricate vines entwined the tall buildings along the road. Root structures bulged from the road surface, meandering across the ground like angry, swollen veins. The entire district was deathly still, yet occasionally, one could hear seemingly real and yet illusory bird calls or the sound of wind from the dark depths of the dense forest, ethereal sounds that seemed to cross the border between dream and reality.

"...It really is still here."

Standing at the intersection at the end of the street, Duncan looked solemnly at the massive vine that stretched out from the darkness, speaking as if to himself.

Alice craned her neck to look at the long slope where the vine was spreading and growing. After looking for a long time, she spoke a little uncertainly, "Captain, does this thing look...a little bigger than last time? I remember it didn't seem to extend this far before..."

"You're not wrong," Duncan said with a sigh, his expression serious. "Its scale has expanded compared to last time. This vine...is growing."

Alice blinked her eyes and finally exclaimed after a long while, "Wow..."

Duncan didn't say anything more. Before taking further action, he was confirming the situation with Morris and the others in the depths of his consciousness—especially Vanna's situation.

Apart from himself and the two puppets, everyone had arrived on the other side of the Dream of the Noteworthy, just like last time, and everyone's entry point into the dream was not too different from before. In this regard, the Dream of the Noteworthy seemed to exhibit a certain intriguing..."continuity."

And among everyone, the situation Duncan faced was the most perplexing.

"Everything changed in an instant, without any process," Vanessa confirmed again. "The second before, I was still in the reflection of the Vanishing, observing and waiting for any possible changes in the mirrored world. The next instant, the 'atmosphere' in the mirrored world changed. I could feel...the shadow of the Vanishing had turned into something I didn't recognize. My jumps between the mirrors were suppressed, and I couldn't perceive the boundary between the spirit world and the real world, nor could I return to the normal mirrors of the real world. It was as if...the whole world had become unusually viscous and was gradually solidifying..."

Due to the experience from the last time, this time his control was more careful, in order to prevent disturbing "Silindis" again like last time.

"Can you move freely now?" Aga suddenly asked.

His gaze fell on a mop placed against the wall.

"No process?"

Now, he could only hope that Duncan could get some more advanced information from the vast sea of sand and the mysterious giant, or...that others could find some clues related to the "desert" in this endless forest.

He stopped in front of a window.

The boundless mist reappeared in his vision.

Shan Xu listened carefully to Vanessa's description, then slowly turned his head to look in the direction of the stern deck.

Was this Vanishing, with its strange atmosphere, not only identical to the "genuine product" in reality, but also corresponding to the changes on the Vanishing in reality in real time?

Shan Xu only felt more and more awake.

As in their last encounter, the ship was still empty and deserted, with wisps of mist floating above the noisy, uninhabited deck, the unfamiliar ship facilities appearing shadowy in the mist.

"It seems to be unaffected," Vanessa said immediately, with a hint of disbelief in her voice, "The strange sense of suppression magically disappeared before you became aware of my existence."

A moment later, Aga opened his eyes in the darkness.

He condensed his spiritual incarnation in the darkness, then carefully controlled the flow of the flames around him, and flew towards the Vanishing in the depths of the mist, landing silently on its deck.

"Yes, I stayed in the reflection of the Vanishing before nightfall. It seemed a bit risky, but I succeeded," Vanessa nodded. "As the reflection changed, I came here and met you. It seems my guess was correct: when night falls, the Vanishing's missing 'shadow' turns into the 'other Vanishing' that you see here—although the principle is not yet clear, we have finally found the connection between the two Vanishings."

"They are watching the movements around, definitely a drastic change, immediately wake me up." He turned his head and said to the two puppets behind him.

This time, Shan Xu did not go directly to the captain's cabin located at the stern, but after looking around, he strode in another direction.

So, Aga discovered another difference between this Vanishing, with its strange atmosphere, and his familiar Vanishing:

There was a vague, shadow or dense fog, seemingly mixed with white dust, floating on the glass surface of the window, seemingly trying to take shape.

What exactly was going on with this desert? What was the origin of this giant who claimed to be a god? What was the relationship between these lost years mentioned by the other party and the ancient heritage of the elves? Why did they say that such a strange place would appear in the depths of the Dream of the Ascendant?

The vine hadn't disappeared...but its scale had instead expanded.

"You should indeed have discussed it with me in advance, but that's not what I'm considering now," Aga waved his hand. "You stayed on the 'reflection' side, so did you observe how this transformation process specifically happened? Did the Vanishing have any obvious...'movements' at the time?"

Aga frowned slightly, his gaze swept across the quiet cables, buckets, and iron hooks. He walked among them, then suddenly stopped.

He walked through the fog swirling on the deck, his footsteps echoing in this empty, desolate place. He crossed the cables and debris piled and coiled on the deck, heading towards the entrance to the cabin.

However, the content narrated by the other party did not correspond at all to the ancient legends that Shan Xu knew and that circulated in this world!

Of course, the current situation also made him have to start worrying about another thing:

Maintaining the connection with the others in the depths of his consciousness, Aga took a deep breath and refocused his attention on the matter at hand.

Shan Xu nodded slightly, then made his thoughts gradually intense, carefully manipulating the power of the flames, letting his perception spread and penetrate with the wisps of flowing spiritual fire, and re-establishing contact with the vine.

Now Duncan was trekking through the vast sea of sand with the giant, and from the current situation, the giant seemed very friendly and told Duncan a lot about this desert.

The giant vine reappeared in the real world, which was actually good news for him—he had once worried that his "scare" last time would cause unpredictable changes in the Dream of the Noteworthy, leading to the disappearance or relocation of the vine, making it difficult for his investigation to continue. But now it seemed...at least this clue hadn't been broken.

The little sister of the inquisitor had arrived in this barren desert again, and this time, she had encountered a giant who claimed to be a "god" there.

A lot of guesses suddenly appeared in his mind, and Aga felt that he seemed to vaguely grasp a certain "essence" of this strange Vanishing. And at that moment, another subtle sound that suddenly came from a corner instantly caught his attention.

Following the guidance of his intuition, Aga looked towards the deepest part of the mist.

Runi also bowed slightly, responding respectfully: "Yes, Old Master."

A moment later, he realized what the sudden "unfamiliar feeling" was all about: This mop was casually placed in this position by Alice when she returned to the ship earlier!

Would this thing just keep growing like that until it wrapped around the entire city?

Vanessa shook her head: "No process."

As his voice fell, the shadow that was constantly gathering and dispersing suddenly converged, and within a few seconds, it transformed into a turbid image on the window—Vanessa's figure appeared in the glass.

The cables and various objects piled on the deck did not react to Aga's approach—they were just quietly piled in place, like the most special inanimate objects.

This was the location of the captain's cabin, where "the other goat head" was staying.

"Ah, you finally noticed me," Vanessa on the glass surface took a long breath as soon as she took shape. "I've been calling out in the cracks of the shadows, trying to get your attention, but I really can't find a suitable mirror in the distance..."

Aga instantly locked onto the direction from which the sound came and strode towards it.

"Hey!" Shan Xu Peng nodded immediately and said.

Aga's brows gradually furrowed. He listened to the other party's account but did not respond for a while, which made Vanessa a little uneasy: "...Should I not have acted so arbitrarily?"

Aga stared at the cluster of shadows that were sometimes gathering and sometimes dispersing for a few seconds, suddenly reacted, and said in a low voice: "Vanessa?"

In the "abnormal Vanishing," the things on the deck would definitely move when he approached, either greeting the captain diligently or making various strange noises to try to attract the captain's attention. However, here...although the two ships were almost identical in every way, the things on this ship were all "dead."

"How could you be here?" Aga looked at the person in the mirror in surprise, and then thought of something, "Wait, did you come through the Vanishing's..."

A blurry, enormous phantom gradually emerged under his gaze. The boundless mist floated, and the light and shadow in the mist outlined the familiar silhouette of the Vanishing—this awe-inspiring ship floated in the void like a silent ghost, as if...sending Aga a silent invitation.

Aga gladly accepted the invitation.