Chapter 5 A Glimmer of Light

Mountain Goat Head was a dangerous fellow, a fact Duncan had known from the start—its danger lay not only in being an anomaly with unknown origins but also in its past loyalty to the real Captain Duncan, and in the fact that it still acted and thought according to the old rules.

From Mountain Goat Head's perspective, the city-states on land were meaningless, the mortals in the city-states were foolish and laughable, the weak city-state fleets were all food, and plundering and killing them… was the Ghost Ship's natural "routine."

Duncan didn't know how long it would take to adjust Mountain Goat Head's way of thinking, but he knew that the process had to be subtle—using reasonable justifications to change his and the Ghost Ship's style of doing things was the safest approach.

He took one last look at the Mountain Goat Head, which was quietly standing by on the navigation table, and confirmed that the other party had taken over the Ghost Ship's sails and rudder system before pushing open the door and entering his bedroom.

This afternoon, Nina would return to the antique shop, and before that, he wanted to have the pigeon Ii complete more test projects.

The door to the captain's bedroom closed, and Mountain Goat Head quietly watched the direction of the door in the dim light. It remained silent for an unknown amount of time until it confirmed that the captain's consciousness had departed for a spirit realm walk. Then, it whispered to itself, "Really not affected by the subspace..."

In the dim light, the wooden carved goat head creaked and turned. It seemed to be surveying the room, and yet it also seemed to be looking through the room, surveying the entire ship.

"Ghost Ship, oh Ghost Ship… what terrifying thing did you dredge up back then…"

…

Duncan had returned to that familiar dark space. He felt his will extending among countless stars and lines of light, with the Ghost Ship and the antique shop in Pland City at either end of the extension.

It seemed that as the time of this "dual connection" lengthened, this feeling was becoming clearer and clearer. He could now perceive the situation at the antique shop without deliberately concentrating—and he could remotely control the body in the shop to perform some simple daily activities.

This was obviously a good thing. An antique shop owner who "slept" in the shop for more than half the time was obviously suspicious, and even if that body simply got up and moved around, standing at the door for a minute or two, it could dispel a lot of unnecessary attention.

Duncan did not immediately "transmit" his main consciousness to Pland City. Instead, he stopped in the dark space, carefully sensing the changes in the space, and then looked back at his side.

In the vast darkness, Ii in bone pigeon form was silently circling, its ghostly body constantly scattering starlight-like green fire as it flew. At the center of Ii's circling area were some vague shadows.

Among those shadows were the sun amulet he had previously brought to the Ghost Ship, an ancient and simple short dagger, a piece of cheese, a round cannonball, and a stiff, dried salted fish.

These were all "test items" he had prepared before departure to further test Ii's ability to carry items and the changes that occurred during the carrying process.

The short dagger was found in the cabin and may have once belonged to a sailor. It was a "common object" without thought. The cheese was taken from the kitchen and had the property of not spoiling. The cannonball came from the ammunition depot, and the dried salted fish was one of the spoils of the last fishing trip, which had just been dried these two days—actually, it hadn't been dried very thoroughly, but it was already stiff.

Duncan looked at Ii circling around these shadows and nodded slightly. "So that's how you carry items every time."

Ii flapped its wings and made a hoarse, sharp cry: "Hold on tight, hold on tight!"

Duncan smiled and concentrated his mind, preparing to project his main consciousness.

But in the instant he concentrated, he suddenly saw a strange glimmer of light appearing at the end of the light stream that pointed to Pland City!

Duncan stopped immediately, looking in surprise at the light that flickered among countless dim stars—the light seemed to have been there originally, but it only turned from dark to bright the instant he concentrated, as if it had been suddenly noticed, and began to emit a clear sense of existence.

What was that thing?

Duncan tried to approach the glimmer in doubt, and with just a thought, he had crossed the vast darkness. The glimmer rapidly expanded before his eyes and turned into a stream of light flowing and undulating before him.

He then saw that there was an imperceptible "connection" between the flowing and undulating light stream and himself—just like the connection between his body on the Ghost Ship and the spare body in the antique shop.

This is… another candidate spare body?

Such a guess couldn't help but pop up in Duncan's mind, but he quickly shook his head—the scale of the glimmer flowing before him far surpassed those light spots representing "bodies." Such a large expanse of light… rather than representing a candidate body, it was more like a huge object that had established a connection with him.

Hesitantly, he made up his mind and cautiously reached out and touched the light…

The next second, a vast and unfamiliar "perception" suddenly flooded into his mind—he couldn't see the things around him, but he felt the sea breeze blowing against his body, felt the waves slowly rising and falling around him. He felt many people walking around him, even walking on his body. He heard people talking from all directions, but all the voices were mixed together, as if separated by thick curtains, completely inaudible.

He vaguely realized that he was perceiving the environment through the perspective of a behemoth, but this behemoth was not suitable for his spirit to directly descend, or perhaps there was some force protecting this thing, blocking his power from intruding, so all his perceptions were delayed and obscured.

This behemoth seemed to be staying on the sea near the land, and many people were gathering here.

A tense and solemn atmosphere filled the crowd, and they seemed to be solemnly dealing with some dangerous factors. Everyone's conversations were low and concise.

Duncan tried to concentrate his mind, wanting to hear what these rumbling, overlapping, and mixed voices were talking about.

He tried for a long time before he finally heard a word that was repeatedly mentioned from these buzzing, rumbling, overlapping, and mixed voices—White Oak.

Duncan withdrew the hand that had touched the light stream, looking at the floating glimmer with some surprise.

The glimmer floated in the darkness, vaguely showing the silhouette of a warship.

White Oak… the name seemed a little familiar, but he couldn't remember when he had heard it.

Duncan tried hard to think and recall, and finally dug up some shallow impressions from the depths of his memory. He recalled the ship he had crashed into in the spirit realm when he first took the helm, recalled that when the Ghost Ship passed through the other party, he seemed to have seen its name on one side of the ship's hull… that ship seemed to be called White Oak.

Then, he remembered the newspaper he bought in Pland City. At that time, an inconspicuous section of the newspaper seemed to have mentioned this matter, saying that the ocean-going ship White Oak, which had been missing for several days, would be docking soon…

Duncan stared blankly at the floating glimmer before him.

This was the White Oak, the White Oak that was responsible for escorting Anomaly 099.

The old captain who had tried to talk to him and his crew seemed to have finally arrived in Pland City smoothly—this was something to be happy about.

Obviously, he had established a connection with this ship.

Could the connection have been established after that "spirit realm ship collision" accident? Because the Ghost Ship's flames spread to the White Oak at that time?

Guesses vaguely emerged in Duncan's mind, and he used them to speculate about the various attributes of his spiritual flames. At the same time, he was also thinking about whether the connection between himself and this steamship could be of any use.

After drifting on the boundless sea for so long, he valued every connection between himself and the civilized world.

Now it seemed that although the White Oak had docked, it was still under some kind of blockade and surveillance. Those nervous people should be the city-state's "professionals" who specialized in dealing with transcendent phenomena.

Obviously, as far as the people in the city-state were concerned, a ship that had been lost at sea was dangerous, and its experience of making negative-distance contact with the Ghost Ship might also be a major matter to be investigated.

Duncan was still somewhat aware of his and the Ghost Ship's notorious reputation.

After thinking about it, Duncan cautiously stepped back, not continuing to touch the light mist in front of him.

As the number one boss on the boundless sea, he didn't plan to deal with the protectors of the city-state, and he didn't want to expose the fact that the White Oak had established a connection with "Captain Duncan" without knowing the details of those "transcendent experts."

He didn't want the connection between himself and this steamship to be discovered and cleared—anyway, the connection had already been established, as stable as an anchor cable under the sea. He could wait patiently, and the surveillance of the White Oak would be lifted one day.

When that time came, maybe he could chat with the old captain peacefully.

To inquire about what the old captain was shouting to him when the wind and waves were too high at that time.