Chapter 16 Walking in the Spirit Realm

The door closed behind him, blocking the hollow gaze of the goat-headed figure.

Yet Duncan could still keenly sense the Homeloss, feeling every minute change on this Ghost Ship—as if extending his own limbs in empathy, he "saw" the set of sails on the Homeloss finely adjusting their angles with the sea breeze, while the black steering wheel at the stern gently rotated, further stabilizing the Homeloss in the waves.

As he expected, the goat-headed figure temporarily took over the helm, diligently fulfilling the duties of the first mate—but Duncan could take over the ship personally at any time.

Given that Homeloss was somewhat less agile and slower than when he was steering, but since Duncan's main goal now was to further clear the fog on the sea chart without a specific target or course, he didn't mind this impact.

After ensuring there were no abnormal movements from the goat-headed figure and the gothic figure below deck had stayed quietly in his room, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief and surveyed his relatively modest room.

This was his private cabin as the captain and the most comfortable, exquisite room on the Homeloss. Besides a soft bed, directly opposite the room's door, against the wall, there was a classical wardrobe and a rack holding many odd items. Opposite the bed stood a dark brown desk devoid of books, decorated only with a few ornaments and tools for writing and drawing.

Next to the desk was a window that directly overlooked the distant sea, and on the wall beside the window hung several hooks—where Duncan's pirate sword and the flintlock pistol had previously been hung.

Duncan approached the desk, placed the Longsword and flintlock pistol within easy reach, then opened a drawer to check the powder and bullets stored inside a wooden box.

A small brass Compass lay beside the bullets and powder bag. Duncan picked up the Compass and saw the needle spinning wildly under the glass case, as if constantly being drawn by an invisible chaotic force field, and engraved on the bottom was a line of fine text—

"We are all The Displaced."

Duncan casually rotated the Compass in his hand, watching the needle spin as if drunk.

He had checked everything here many times over. He had discovered this room during his initial exploration, and all things here, including that message, presumably were left by the true Captain Duncan.

After mentally reviewing the information he had gathered so far, Duncan exhaled, set the Compass on the desk, and raised his right hand to gently rub his fingertips.

A small green flame ignited at his fingertips, casting his half palm in an almost Spiritual Body-like translucent, ethereal texture—but under his deliberate control, this flame did not spread as before but hovered above his fingers like a flicker of candlelight.

Once the flame stabilized, Duncan used his other hand to feel the flame, then took a feather pen and touched the flame with the end of the pen.

The pen neither felt warm nor ignited; only a shadow of eerie green hue spread up the shaft, casting a ghostly glow on the feather pen.

Yet Duncan did not "feel" any feedback from the feather pen, a different experience from when he used the flame to touch the sea chart and the helm.

Duncan mentally noted the new experience—this "Spiritual Body Flame" had no temperature and wouldn't ignite objects; it likely only interacted with the "anomalous" items aboard the Homeloss, exhibiting no feedback on ordinary objects.

So, what if it was an "anomalous" item from outside the Homeloss... would the flame react?

Duncan pondered, and for a moment, the image of a certain gothic figure flashed in his mind—Alice, who seemed to be an "anomaly" from outside the Homeloss?

Would she be affected by this Spiritual Body Flame?

But that was just a fleeting thought, which he immediately dismissed.

Because even if Alice was not human, even if she carried the "Curse 099," she was also a sentient, independent individual who could speak and move, and now a "crew member" of the Homeloss; Duncan had subconsciously started to see her as a "person."

He couldn't accept using living people to test his flame—after all, he was still unsure of what profound effect this flame had on the affected "anomalies" and whether it was harmful.

After conducting several tests, Duncan inspected the nature of the flame while determining whether the various objects in the dormitory possessed any transcendent properties.

Finally, his gaze rested on the small brass Compass inscribed with the "message."

The brass Compass lay quietly on the desk, the needle spinning chaotically under the glass cover, but perhaps it was an illusion, as when Duncan maintained the flame while casting a malevolent glance at the needle, it seemed to abruptly stall for an instant.

Then it continued to spin aimlessly as if nothing had happened.

Duncan: "…"

This thing definitely reacted to his gaze just now!

Initially, he was wary of the Compass because it bore the handwriting of the "real Captain Duncan," and he feared that the deceased ghost captain might have left some force or "trap" on this personal item to ward off thieves, so he hadn't tested the Compass with the flame. But seeing the reaction the Compass exhibited, he suddenly made up his mind.

Duncan reached out and picked up the Compass, the cold sensation reaching his fingertips. After glancing at the still erratically spinning needle, he placed the object directly into his right hand, which was maintaining the spiritual flame, and slowly clenched his fist.

The ghastly green flame flowed instantaneously like burning fat, spreading through the gaps in his fingers, and a ghostly light swiftly ignited on the surface of the Compass, within which countless phantasms rose and dissipated. The next instant, the needle that had been spinning chaotically suddenly stopped and pointed straight toward a certain direction over the vast sea.

A thought struck Duncan, and in that instant, he clearly felt a "response" from the Compass and confirmed it indeed was an "anomalous item" that could be manipulated by the spiritual flame. However, before he could perceive the details within this feedback, a sudden "gravity" struck him!

Duncan felt his body sway, and in the next second, his vision blurred. The furnishings of the captain's dormitory had turned to nothingness at some unknown point, along with the surrounding walls and ceiling, which disintegrated and scattered like snowflakes in the twinkling light and shadow, filling his view with boundless darkness.

Standing in the center of this darkness, Duncan's mind sounded alarm bells. His first reaction was to reach for the musket and longsword beside him, but in the next second, he realized that only the brass Compass remained by his side—still firmly clutched in his hand.

Duncan blinked, and suddenly countless fine, thread-like beams of light began to emanate around the brass Compass.

These light beams spread and interwove in the darkness like a web, endlessly expanding, and amidst these interlacing lights, myriad specks of light emerged—some diffusely scattered, others converging like rivers. Against the backdrop of the intersecting network of light, they appeared as brilliantly as the Milky Way.

Duncan watched the phenomenon before him perplexedly. He was apprehensive yet uneasy, but for some reason, he felt no sense of danger—instead...

Amidst the dim network of light and pinpoint stars, he felt an inexplicably comforting and soothing sensation.

The next second, an odd sensation suddenly surfaced. Duncan's gaze involuntarily was drawn to a cluster of starlight within the intersecting light network. He looked at the cluster, feeling it wobble as if about to plunge into darkness.

Instinctively, he reached his hand towards that starlight.

A tremendous pulling force came at that moment—Duncan felt as though his soul had taken flight, and he helplessly surged toward the starlight about to fall into darkness, while the dense network of light woven by the Compass rapidly receded in his view and the surrounding rivers of starlight suddenly began to rotate and squirm!

As he soared swiftly, he glanced at his right hand, which tightly held the Compass, only to see that the Compass had vanished without a trace. Simultaneously, just before he reached the dim starlight, he caught a glimpse of a shadow suddenly forming in the darkness from the corner of his eye.

The shadow seemed to have been naturally accompanying him all along, emerging and plummeting rapidly towards the dim light point with him.

Duncan could barely make out that the shadow seemed to be a bird in flight. Before he could discern the details, his vision went dark.

A heavy, tangible sensation from the real world transmitted through his limbs, bringing with it the stench of decaying flesh and the grating sound of weighty chains dragging across the ground.

(Oh my God!)