"What do you think is happening in Pland these days?"

After a long silence, Shirley couldn't help but look up at the old scholar, then at Miss Alice, who seemed to be very familiar with Mr. Duncan, and asked hesitantly.

"...I don't know, but I think Mr. Duncan may have already solved the problem—although I can't imagine how he solved it," Morris said, rubbing his forehead as he pondered. "More than that, I'm more concerned about this place now..."

He raised his head, looked around, and then his eyes fell on the spirit sails billowing in the air above, his expression becoming somewhat strange.

"This ship reminds me of that legend, the legend of the Vanishing Sail...

"That's right," Alice's voice came from the side as Morris finished speaking. She had a proud smile on her face, "This is the Vanishing Sail—welcome aboard."

Morris stopped rubbing his forehead abruptly, his eyes widening in shock. "This is really the Vanishing Sail? Then Mr. Duncan's identity..."

"The captain, duh. You're too slow, old man," Shirley said, rolling her eyes. After being nervous for so long, she finally felt a little happy knowing something others didn't, which relaxed her a lot. "He's called Duncan, how could you not guess?"

"You knew this all along?" Morris looked at the girl in front of him incredulously. "I thought you were like me, coming to this ship for the first time..."

"I'm here for the first time—but it's not the first time I've seen Captain Duncan's true form," Shirley said proudly, puffing out her chest. "Ah Gou and I have been taking lessons from Captain Duncan for a long time... longer than you, anyway!"

Morris didn't pay attention to the second half of Shirley's sentence. After hearing her mention "Captain's true form," he couldn't help but feel a twitch in his forehead, and then he muttered with a strange expression, "...If possible, I'd rather not know what 'true form' means."

Shirley was taken aback. "Huh? What did you say, old man?"

"Nothing... some things are better left unsaid, it's good for your physical and mental health."

"Tch, say it or don't, you academics always like to be so mysterious," Shirley said, curling her lip. But she didn't stay quiet for even two seconds before she couldn't help but look towards the far end of the ship's deck. "Do you think... Nina's okay? She suddenly disappeared from right in front of us. But Mr. Duncan said she's just leaving for a little while..."

Alice's gentle and confident voice came from the side, comforting the worried Shirley, "Don't worry, she'll be fine."

Shirley raised her eyes. She wasn't familiar with Alice, but she knew that this extraordinarily beautiful and mysterious woman seemed to have been following "Captain Duncan" for a long time, so she must know some secrets that others didn't. She couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why do you say that? Do you know about Nina's situation?"

"Because the Captain said so," Alice smiled. "He said there's nothing to worry about."

Shirley couldn't say anything more.

For some reason, she suddenly felt like this exceptionally beautiful woman was... not very smart...

At the same time, on the rear deck of the Vanishing Sail, Duncan was looking at the bright arc of flame floating in mid-air in front of him.

Now, he was one hundred percent certain that, at least in terms of shape, this arc of flame was a solar prominence that was erupting—and it constantly repeated the process from eruption to descent, which gave the feeling... as if a solar prominence had been "cut" from a sun, not only capturing its existence but also capturing its cyclical state over a period of time.

Now, this "cut" solar prominence floated quietly on the Vanishing Sail, and it looked only a person tall. But that didn't mean it was really that... "small and harmless."

Duncan could feel the astonishing energy contained within it, although he could only feel a small part of it. The destructive heat and the terrifying power from the star were still enough to suffocate him. This feeling even exceeded the sensation he had experienced in that instant when he peered at the Crawling Sun through the golden mask, and it made him even more certain that this stream of flame really came from "the sun."

From a real sun, beyond the knowledge of those solar worshipers, that had been alienated and disintegrated in some ancient age.

The seemingly small and harmless appearance of this solar prominence was only because it was still under control.

Duncan couldn't understand. In the knowledge system he had mastered, there was no way to explain why a part of the sun would become like this, nor could he guess what had happened to the real star to which this prominence once belonged.

Just as he couldn't understand this world, couldn't understand what kind of great annihilation could have created the strange and dangerous "Deep Sea Age" of today.

But he finally shook his head.

These things were not important for the time being.

Duncan took a light breath, refocusing his mind, and then tentatively stretched out his right hand towards the "solar prominence."

Lethal heat appeared in his perception, but the next second, the heat dissipated as if it were an illusion. He saw a cluster of faint green fire flickering at his fingertips, and inside the solar prominence, there were also wisps of green flame quietly wandering, as if resonating.

Not long ago, it was this wisp of pre-implanted "pollution" that terminated and tore apart the birth process of the dark sun above Pland, and also preserved Nina's "humanity."

"Nina, try again," Duncan said. "Recall the feeling of that transformation, let yourself 'come back.' We were very close to success just now."

The stream of flame jumped a few times in the air, and then the surface swelled up. Golden flames rose and entwined. In a short time, a figure gradually emerged from the leaping firelight. This vague figure could be seen as a girl, but the facial features were blurred.

She lowered her head, seeming to look at her body curiously, but the next second, the newly formed flame shattered with a bang, and she transformed into the form of a surging flame again.

"Don't be discouraged, let's try again," Duncan said gently, not impatient at all, and continued to guide her. "I will 'support' you. Since you can recover to this extent, it means this idea is feasible..."

The arc of flame swelled up again, crackling sounds coming from within the golden flames, and then Nina's figure emerged from the flames once more.

Duncan watched this scene with some tension—similar attempts had been made countless times, but each time it would fail midway. Although, according to the feedback from the spirit fire implanted in the solar fragment, this process should indeed be controllable, it was clear that this vast and unfamiliar power was not so easy to master.

The golden flames crackled, and Duncan was ready to fail again.

But in the next breath, the firelight and arc of flame in front of him instantly vanished without a trace.

A familiar figure jumped out from the last wisp of flickering firelight.

A gentle sea breeze blew across the deck, bringing moisture and coolness. Nina's hair tips fluttered slightly in the sea breeze. Bright sunlight slanted through the clouds, and passed through her wind-blown hair. Between the fluttering strands of hair, the sunlight danced like flames.

And in the next moment, those sunlit flames dancing in her hair vanished like phantoms.

Nina smiled, looking at the "Uncle Duncan" in front of her, who was completely different from the one in her memory, but undeniably him. "Uncle, I'm back!"

Only now did Duncan finally breathe a sigh of relief, and with this sigh, the entire Vanishing Sail reacted—the ship had seemed to be tense the whole time, all the cables, masts, and sails were taut, but now, crackling sounds rang out from all directions, interspersed with the whooshing and clicking sounds from below the deck.

It was as if the whole ship was cheering, celebrating with its captain.

"Quiet," Duncan said, turning his head, and the whole ship immediately quieted down. Then he turned his gaze back, looking at Nina with some curiosity. "You can still recognize me?"

"Yeah, you're Uncle Duncan," Nina said matter-of-factly, but then scratched her face—her habitual gesture of concealing embarrassment and helplessness. "But... I don't know how I recognized you. Anyway, I just felt it was you. When I was floating in the sky before, you called me down, and I recognized you directly..."

She hesitated and stopped, looking up and down at Duncan in front of her, then narrowed her eyes slightly, as if trying to carefully distinguish some details on her "uncle."

He didn't look like him at all, there was almost no resemblance to the Uncle Duncan in the antique shop.

But the clear recognition was directly mapped in her mind.

It was as if she didn't recognize the person in front of her through her eyes, but directly through "reading the facts."

Nina didn't know how to explain her feelings at this moment, she could only giggle foolishly until Duncan stepped forward and ruffled her hair as usual.

"That's good," Duncan breathed a sigh of relief. "I was still wondering how to explain this ship to you, and my other appearance."

Nina dodged the hand on her head. This Uncle Duncan was much taller than she remembered, and his palms were also much wider and rougher, with calloused fingers brushing against her forehead, making her feel itchy.

After a while, when he took his hand back, she suddenly raised her head and looked straight into Duncan's eyes.

"I actually have two 'uncles', right?"

She said suddenly.

Duncan's gaze didn't waver. Although this moment came suddenly, he wasn't too surprised.

It seemed that long ago, he knew this moment would come sooner or later.

If there was any power in this world that could resist the might of "Captain Duncan," then "the sun"... no matter which sun it was, was an expected option.

He quietly met Nina's gaze.

"You noticed?"

"...Mm."