Chapter 164 The Luminous Mountain

The *Yaocan Xingchen* slowed, cautiously stopping a few hundred meters from the faintly glowing, translucent "cliff."

However, a few hundred meters was nothing compared to the scale of that enormous object. Visually, Rooney still felt like the *Yaocan Xingchen* was right up against the "cliff." The magnificent, mountain-like geometry seemed to overwhelm them. An ordinary person standing here would probably feel suffocated.

"...Truly magnificent," the clockwork puppet marveled, tilting her head back, "and beautiful." It *was* magnificent and beautiful. If you ignored its unsettling nature, it could even be considered a stunning spectacle, enough to inspire an artist's greatest work or a poet's most beautiful verses.

It looked like a mountain carved from pale gold, clear amber, with sharp, defined edges, or an exceptionally regular geometric iceberg. It emanated a misty light, floating in the water, with thin vapors drifting slowly around its surface, creating a dreamlike atmosphere.

And all indications suggested that it *was* dreamlike. It had no substance. Though it was undeniably there, it seemed like just a massive shadow.

"Mistress," Rooney couldn't help but turn back. "What do you think it is?"

"...I don't know. I only know that it fell from the sky," Lucrezia frankly admitted her ignorance. She recalled the *Yaocan Xingchen's* initial sighting of it. Just the day before, in the last few hours at the Barrier, the patrolling *Yaocan Xingchen* observed a huge, hazy, luminous object suddenly falling from the sky. It broke through the clouds and disappeared into the depths of the Border Sea. Since then, she and her ship had been tracking it.

"But other than 'fell from the sky,' that obvious cataclysm, I know nothing about that phantomlike visitor from beyond."

Lucrezia studied the base of the giant geometry, confirming another thing.

She quickly ruled out the possibility—she could still tell if she was dreaming, especially when conscious.

The hands on the wall clock were frozen.

That was incredible. His body barely needed sleep, let alone dreams. In fact, since he'd come aboard this ship, he'd never had a "dream." In Prand's body, he'd had some chaotic, trivial dreams, but never one as murky and vivid as this brief, bizarre one.

The flame of the oil lamp in the bedroom was the only "active" thing still burning fiercely, but its light was subtly pale, giving the whole room an odd illumination.

"It's a giant stone sphere," Lucrezia said with a strange expression, "or at least, it looks like stone. A grayish-white surface with many regular grooves, about ten meters in diameter, suspended above the sea..."

"It has no mass, which means it can't be bound by reality... With the *Yaocan Xingchen's* power, we might even be able to tow it away?"

"First, to the chartroom. See if Goathead knows anything."

Duncan frowned, resisting the urge to open the window and look outside. Instead, he got up and headed for the bedroom door.

"Master?" Rooney looked back at her master. "What's out there?"

Was it because he'd suddenly learned about this and made a connection, or was it a lingering memory from this body? Was his contact with Tyrion and Lucrezia related to this dream?

It was light, very, very light. It floated on the sea, with only a small portion of its lower half submerged, but that slight submersion indicated that this seemingly "phantom" thing did have some mass, that it wasn't just a shadow.

The whole world seemed to have fallen silent, and amidst that silence, the huge, luminous object fell from the sky just as soundlessly.

"...Are you serious?"

Duncan slowly composed himself. He sat up in bed, rubbing his forehead irritably.

One luminous object after another fell, dropping onto the flat surface of the Endless Sea. Despite their immense size, they didn't create a single ripple. It was as if a phantom was falling onto another phantom. Gradually, these luminous objects fell like rain, eventually turning into a terrifying and bizarre meteor shower—countless lights covering the entire sea, enveloping the *Lost Country* in a glow.

It was dim outside the window, with no hint of dawn's light, but also none of the cool, clear light of the world's beginning.

As she spoke, Lucrezia frowned and concentrated, as if giving orders to the ghostly phantom that had entered the luminous geometry. Then she continued, "Can be touched, non-physical."

He pushed open the door to the chartroom, his gaze fixed on the nautical chart table with the chart and Goathead on it.

Rooney looked on curiously, watching the ghostly phantom slowly cross the mist-shrouded sea and silently disappear inside the "mountain."

Lucrezia silently stared at the luminous "mountain." After half a minute, she seemed to make up her mind. "We're going inside to pull it."

Lucrezia nodded to the phantom, who silently turned and flew towards the "mountain" a few hundred meters away.

Could they tow it back to the territories of civilization, organize a real team of professionals to study it? The Explorer's Association would be happy to help...

"Let's proceed with caution," Lucrezia said, raising her hand and piercing her finger. A bead of blood oozed from her fingertip, slowly floating forward, and then, halfway there, it suddenly burst with a "pop," turning into a puff of exaggerated smoke.

He stood at the bow of the *Lost Country*. The ship was silent. He heard neither Goathead's chatter in his mind nor Alice's usual cacophony on deck as she fought with buckets and mops. Even the Endless Sea was silent, with no waves, no wind.

Duncan gently tapped his forehead and reached for the wine bottle on the nearby cabinet, preparing to calm his nerves with alcohol, but as he reached out, his gaze swept over the wall clock, and he stopped.

"The elven scholars in Haven would be interested in this thing," Lucrezia said softly. "The patterns on the surface of the stone sphere are clearly regular, yet contain simple geometric structures. I bet... those skilled in mathematics could see something in it."

Duncan suddenly opened his eyes. The vivid impression left by the absurd dream still lingered strongly in his mind.

Duncan looked up at the end of the dream and saw only a dark red, mottled, terrifying void as if the dying embers in darkness silently overlooked all things in the world.

Duncan calmly scanned everything, taking in all the abnormal phenomena.

He was astonished that he would dream on the ship, and even more astonished by the bizarre scenes he saw in the dream—

Nothing had happened.

"Non-physical," Rooney paused for a moment. Her many years of experience allowed her to quickly understand what her master meant. "You want to... tow it back?"

On this strange Endless Sea, aboard the *Lost Country*, she couldn't be sure that the dream was just a dream—something must have influenced her, or her "intuition" sensed something, causing her to see that scene in her dream.

"Core? What kind of core?"

"He's at the deepest part," the "Sea Witch" said. "There's a core."

"Then how are we supposed to 'tow' this thing back?" Rooney looked at her master, bewildered. "With a strong enough rope or chain? There are spare ropes on board, but they might not be long enough—the projected part of this luminous object is too big. The distance from here to its core is probably beyond the rope's limit..."

Lucrezia was thinking quickly, and Rooney's voice sounded beside her: "Are we going to explore its interior?"

...Okay, she was serious.

Frozen at the moment, one minute from sunrise.

Could it be related to the "world countdown" he had just learned about? Related to the "truth" about the end of the world that this insane "Captain Duncan" would encounter in a hundred years?

Goathead wasn't here. "My curiosity is piqued."

However, the sky gradually brightened with the falling lights. At the end of the dream, the meteor shower gradually stopped, and the sky had turned a stark white.

Lucrezia frowned slightly and looked ahead.

Rooney nodded. Although she was just a clockwork puppet, she had a "soul" closer to that of a human than any other crew member on the ship. A sense of relief welled up. She reached behind her and wound her clockwork key a few times, using that method to alleviate the slight vibrations that the various parts inside her were making because of the relief, and then waited a long time before suddenly seeing a change in her mistress's expression.

But theory aside, how could it be done in practice? How could they tow a huge, permeable phantom? Or... was there a solid core deep within the luminous geometry, and was that core the source of its mass?

"Light and cold, very cool, but not scaldingly cold, dim, but piercingly silver... No wind or waves on the outside. The sea below seems 'lower' than the outside," Lucrezia said slowly, as she perceived the information transmitted by the phantom doppelganger, "For now, it seems that at least the 'mountain's' shallow layers are harmless. It is accelerating towards the interior.”

In the dream, she saw meteors, meteors appearing in broad daylight.

Something was clearly wrong... Was he still dreaming?

The smoke dissipated, and another "Lucrezia" appeared in the pilot room—but it was just a ghostly phantom, wearing a pale and complete dress, its face lively and eerie, its whole body showing a semi-transparent texture, drifting eerily in the air.

Frowning slightly, he was lost in agitated thought.

A chaotic world, complicated meteors, a dark, dying sky, and a terrifying void that looked down on the world like an eye... Why would I dream of such a bizarre scene? What does this dream mean?!

Duncan slept in the captain's cabin of the *Lost Country* and had a short, bizarre dream.