Chapter 61 The Second Day of the New World Countdown "Duke of Hope..."
"You want the Duke to live in a place like this?" Baron looked at the empty sea in front of him and turned to Sang Zhitao in disbelief.
Sang Zhitao frowned, looked down at the mini compass in her hand, and nodded: "According to Captain Bayer, I hope the box the Duke gave us can lead us directly to him. As long as he's not lying to me, then we're on the right track."
“But…” Baron glanced at the mini compass in the box, then looked at the sea in front of him, unable to understand where the Duke of Hope came from in the middle of the sea.
"Move the boat forward a little further," Sang Zhitao instructed after a moment's thought.
Barron sighed after hearing this, said nothing more, and turned to instruct the sailors.
The boat hadn't gone far when Sang Zhitao suddenly spoke up: "Stop! Go back!"
Seeing that she was staring intently at the compass in the box, Baron pursed his lips and continued giving instructions.
"Turn left!"
"A little more to the right."
"A little further back."
...
After going back and forth like this more than ten times, Sang Zhitao finally nodded.
Barron couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Captain, what are you doing...?"
Sang Zhitao placed the wooden box in his hands, gesturing for him to look at the compass inside.
Baron looked at the box curiously, only to find that the compass inside was flashing a green fluorescent light, and his lips twitched involuntarily.
"Now that we've confirmed this location, but... where is the person?"
Sang Zhitao was somewhat at a loss when faced with the calm sea. She had just returned from the dark vortex a few days ago and rushed to find Duke Hope with the box, but she did not expect that the so-called destination was just an empty ocean.
"Boom!" Just as they were completely bewildered, they heard a series of loud noises coming from the bottom of the ship and the sea.
"careful!"
"What's going on!"
Eureka quickly assisted Sang Zhitao, who was almost knocked over.
Sang Zhitao gripped the railing tightly, watching the sea not far away go from calm to turbulent and then to huge waves in just a short moment.
"What is that!" Anna exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at the distant sea in disbelief.
Sang Zhitao and her group looked up and saw a giant ship rising from the seabed, and the huge waves were caused by the giant ship.
"Hope!" Barron's face turned grim as he stared at the sign on the opposite ship and exclaimed in surprise.
Is the Hope ship hidden at the bottom of the sea?
Sang Zhitao felt even more confused: how could a human live on the seabed with a ship?
The turmoil caused by the Hope's appearance did not last long, and the sea quickly returned to its usual calm.
"Let's get closer," Sang Zhitao said softly, looking at the quiet giant ship in front of her.
Baron nodded silently, arranged for someone to move forward, and threw on the string-receiving board.
"Let's go with you." Baron pulled Sang Zhitao back as she was about to step onto the connecting board, his face filled with worry.
"It's alright. You guys stay on the ship and keep watch. I have a feeling that all the answers are on the ship. I'll be fine." Sang Zhitao gently pushed his hand away, ignoring his continued attempts to stop her, and went straight to the chord board.
The Hope was much cleaner and tidier than Sang Zhitao had imagined, and it didn't look like it had been at the bottom of the sea for a long time. Especially the room that could be seen through the window, where the tea was still steaming.
Strangely, Sang Zhitao did not see any of the boatmen; the entire boat was almost empty.
Ghost ship?
The legends she had seen on Earth instantly came to mind.
"This isn't a ghost ship," a voice suddenly rang out.
The commotion startled Sang Zhitao: "Who's there!"
"I'll be waiting for you in the captain's cabin," the voice said simply, and then didn't reply.
Sang Zhitao called out several times, but received no response, so she reluctantly continued walking forward.
Although the Hope was much larger than a typical pirate ship, the layout was the same, with the captain's cabin located on the second floor.
Following the layout of the Anling, Sang Zhitao searched along the way, feeling that the scene looked strangely familiar. It wasn't until she arrived at the captain's cabin that she felt a chill run down her spine.
The Hope not only has the same layout as the Requiem, but even the arrangement is the same; it's practically an enlarged version of the Requiem.
She stared at the doorknob of the captain's cabin with a grim expression; there was a deep scratch on it.
On the Anling, there is a similar mark on the cabin doorknob, made three days ago when Sang Zhitao and Eureka accidentally slashed it during their competition.
Sang Zhitao's hands trembled slightly. She unconsciously turned her gaze to the left door frame. If it really was a replica of the Anling, there should be a matching one there.
really!
She looked at the door frame, about a meter off the ground, where there was a fox-eye pattern, which she had carved with a dagger when she was bored yesterday.
The fox's eyes are her favorite parallelogram shape, a style she's loved to draw since childhood, and she believes that at least in this world, no two are exactly alike.
"Aren't you coming in?" a clear male voice rang out from inside.
Sang Zhitao took a deep breath, stared intently at the fox-eye pattern, and only after a while did she reach out and press the doorknob.
Just as she thought, the entire captain's cabin was like an enlarged version of the Anling, with similar layouts and details that made it a perfect place for a spot-the-difference game.
But now, a boy is sitting in the captain's chair on the Hope.
"Huh?" Sang Zhitao looked at the boy in front of her, who was no more than four or five years old, with disbelief on her face. "You are the Duke of Hope?"
"Yes, it's me." The child, who was only four or five years old, spoke with the voice of an adult, which sent chills down Sang Zhitao's spine.
"Don't be afraid. I just don't have enough energy, so I chose this form in the hope of seeing you before I disappear." A look of relief, typical of an adult, appeared on his youthful face.
"I thought I would never see you again in this life." He looked at Sang Zhitao with eyes full of longing.
"What do you mean? Have we met before?" Sang Zhitao frowned and looked at him in confusion.
Duke Hope sighed and pointed to the chair opposite him, saying, "Please sit down. Some things are too long to talk about."
Sang Zhitao hesitated for a moment, but did not refuse. She sat down in the chair and looked at the child across the table.
"How long ago should we start this story? Let's begin with the destruction of the world..." Duke Hope sighed, gazing into the void as he spoke slowly.
Sang Zhitao felt a little uncomfortable with the other person using a child's face to act like an old person. She twitched her lips but didn't interrupt, leaning back slightly in her chair and listening obediently.
Time slipped away slowly as the Duke of Hope narrated, while the hourglass beside him ticked softly.
"Do you understand now?" Duke Hope asked, then picked up the tea in front of him and took a sip.
"No," Sang Zhitao said bluntly.
It wasn't that she was deliberately being unreasonable; she genuinely didn't understand.
The Duke's constant use of terms like space, time, and dimension was like a foreign language to Sang Zhitao.
Duke Hope paused in his actions, looking at Sang Zhitao speechlessly: "If you don't understand, why didn't you interrupt me?"
"I wanted to try and see if I could understand it," Sang Zhitao shrugged. "Unfortunately, I still couldn't understand it."
"You!" The Duke rolled his eyes at her without caring about his image before putting the cup on the table.
"To put it simply, I come from the future of a destroyed pirate world. You are the legendary savior, and only you can change our fate of destruction. However, I came to the wrong coordinates and went to forty years ago. In order to make things go smoothly for you, I changed some rules."
"Excuse me!" Sang Zhitao raised her hand and, without waiting for Duke Hope to say anything, asked directly, "First, how can you be sure that I am the savior? Second, how will I save the world?"
The Duke looked at her intently for a long while before saying, "I cannot tell you how I know you are the savior; you will find out later. As for how you will save the world, I think the answer lies in the Land of the Unknown."
“Since you arrived forty years ago, why didn’t you go and save them yourself?” Sang Zhitao continued to press.
“Only you can, your soul comes from the Land of Origin.” Duke Hope looked somewhat lost in thought, and before Sang Zhi Tao could ask further, he hurriedly added, “I can only say that all the answers are there, and only you can lead people into the Land of the Unknown.”
“No, three hundred years ago, someone went in, didn’t he?” Sang Zhitao shook her head. “He obtained the treasure of immortality.”
“That’s not the true Land of the Unknown. The true Land of the Unknown is deep within the Fountain of Immortality, a place accessible only to the souls of origin.” Duke Hope sighed.
"Okay, if that's the case, I'll give it a try." Sang Zhitao thought of the things they had discussed after returning to Earth following the acquisition of the Dark Vortex.
"Tao Tao, are you saying you want to bring the Fountain of Immortality to Earth?" Li Mingguo looked at her with suspicion that day, and after a long while said, "Rather than wanting those treasures, we hope you can be careful."
Sang Zhitao looked at Duke Hope, putting those matters aside for the moment: "And what about you?"
Duke Hope shook his head and offered her his hand, which was already somewhat transparent: "Look, I'm almost gone."
“This…” Sang Zhitao didn’t expect that the “quick disappearance” he was referring to was this situation.
"It's alright, I'll give you the ship." Duke Hope smiled with relief.
“Speaking of ships…” Sang Zhitao suddenly asked curiously, “Why is even the design I carved yesterday appearing on the Hope?”
Duke Hope suddenly burst into laughter, and only after Sang Zhitao pressed him further did he say, "Because it's an illusion. I've been hinting at it to you the whole way, which is why I've planted the impression in your mind that the Hope and the Anling are exactly the same."
"Hallucination? But..." Sang Zhitao looked at the other person in disbelief.
Duke Hope turned around and took out a small box, just like the one in the compass, and handed it to her: "Here, the controller is for you."
Sang Zhitao hesitated before taking the controller, then pulled out a clip from her person to try and open the copper lock.
“…I have the key.” Duke Hope looked at the key in his hand, then at the open brass lock in the other person’s hand, his lips twitching uncontrollably.
Sang Zhitao looked at him speechlessly, but still took the key in the end.
As soon as the key was in hand, I hoped that the Duke would also become completely transparent.
“You…” Sang Zhitao looked at him and didn’t know what to say for a moment.
"It's nothing, I've just returned to where my soul belongs," Duke Hope replied with a smile before disappearing completely from her sight.
Sang Zhitao looked at the regulator in the small box in her hand and turned it directly towards the stop.
Just moments ago, it was an identical captain's cabin, but gradually, the surface appearance faded, revealing its original form.
"Damn it!" Sang Zhitao looked at the old table in front of her, soaked by water, and the wet clutter around it, and laughed angrily. "I knew it! How could it have come out of the sea without getting a single drop of water on it!"
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