The gentle waves are rising and falling slowly, and the Lost Homeland is sailing steadily on the vast ocean. After sailing for many days, this ancient ghost ship still has not found any islands or navigation marks that can be used as route markers.
The long drifting journey seems to have no end, but its captain still has a lot of things to do.
Duncan returned to the captain's bedroom again. The golden sun mask was still lying quietly on the table, but before that, he had something else to think about.
Alice's matter could be arranged later. There was no rush for subsequent testing and research on "Anomaly 099". The Frost Rebellion half a century ago was not something that needed to be investigated now. But in addition to these things, there was another matter that was closely related to himself.
Duncan raised his head and looked at the mirror hanging on the wall.
The green flame that once floated on the mirror had long since dissipated, and the scene from afar that once appeared in the mirror had also disappeared without a trace, but Duncan could still vaguely feel that the faint and vague "connection" did not disappear with the disappearance of the reflection in the mirror - it still existed, and was pointing to the magnificent cathedral in the center of the Plande city-state.
This connection gave him a feeling somewhat similar to the "connection" between himself, the "antique shop manager" and the "White Oak", but it was weaker and more ethereal. If he had to describe it... it was like some kind of derivative, a "secondary channel" extending from a clear and definite connection.
Duncan closed his eyes slightly, and on the table beside him, the brass compass on Ai's chest quietly opened a crack, and a faint green flame burned quietly in it.
Duncan once again returned to the dark space filled with countless stars and streams of light.
But this time, he did not execute the "spiritual walking". Instead, he maintained the critical state of entering the spiritual walking, carefully observing the flow of faint light and those twinkling lights in this dark space.
He first saw the brightest "star", which pointed to the antique shop and represented his other body, which was cleaning the warehouse and counting the goods in stock;
He saw a hazy, invisible mist of light, much larger than ordinary stars. It represented the White Oak, a steamship that had collided head-on with the Lost Homeland and was completely burned by his spiritual fire.
Finally, he was able to distinguish the "star" that was vaguely connected to himself among the hazy starlight that seemed almost indistinguishable.
Duncan moved closer curiously, wanting to take a closer look at the cluster of starlight.
But as soon as he approached, he felt a subtle repulsion emanating from the cluster of starlight.
The repulsive force was not very strong, it seemed to be just a pure and firm will protecting itself. Duncan felt that if he forcibly extended the spiritual fire over, he should be able to burn this subconscious protection - but he stopped immediately and kept a distance from the starlight.
The owner behind this starlight should be the Inquisitor named "Vanna", a Storm Saint, a powerful transcendent - too reckless contact may first alarm the owner of the starlight, and in worse cases, it may even alarm the "God" standing behind the saint.
Duncan was not prepared to take the risk as he didn't know much about the gods of this world.
And on the other hand, this vague feeling of rejection might also be reminding him that these starlights are different from each other——
When he first occupied the body of the "sacrifice", he did not feel any rejection, nor did he feel any rejection when he occupied the body of the cultist "Ron" who had just died. Why is there such a sense of rejection around Vanna's starlight now?
Is it because she is still "alive"? Is it because the mental strength of the living will spontaneously resist the indescribable erosion? Or is it because of... the protection of so-called faith and divine grace?
Duncan stepped back a little, pondering the meaning of the starlight in this dark space, while trying to slowly reach out to another cluster of starlight closest to him.
He stopped at the last moment before touching the cluster of starlight.
There is no sense of rejection.
He then tried many times around, and every star did not reject his approach - and in some of the stars, he even vaguely felt some new... "elements".
He felt a vivid sense of life, and even felt the instinctive trembling and shrinking of the stars - that was the instinctive retreat of life when faced with the irresistible shadow of death.
Duncan returned to the dark area where the starlight could not shine and looked down at his hands.
Some green flames wandered in the darkness, outlining light and shadows that seemed real and illusory between his fingers.
It seemed that as his trips to the spirit world increased, his control and perception of fire became more precise and acute. He could now even sense the presence of life from those stars!
Duncan frowned slightly and looked into the endless darkness in the distance. The dots of light extended densely in the dark chaos, which even looked a bit spectacular.
Out of caution, he had never explored the far reaches of this dark space, but just by looking at the scale of the starlight, he could imagine how many points of light there were here.
At the beginning, he thought that the starlight here represented "corpses" that had just died and met the requirements, because he possessed corpses in the first two "attachments", but now he felt the presence of vitality from some of the starlight, which showed that his initial guess was wrong.
Among these starlights there are not only the dead but also the living. He just happened to occupy two corpses at the beginning.
The "Judge" named Vanna was also among these stars, and she was undoubtedly a living person.
Then... do the countless stars here represent all the living and dead people in the world?
Duncan frowned slightly in the darkness. This guess came to his mind so naturally and seemed reasonable, but he soon shook his head, thinking that he could not draw conclusions so quickly.
Although there are many stars here, and although the population of this world is far less than that of the Earth, but as far as the eye can see, those stars should not be equal to the world's population. And the number of living people is still easy to define, but how do we define the number of the dead?
Do all the dead people from ancient times to the present count? Or do they only count if there is a body left? Does it count as long as there is a body left, or does it count if the time since death is less than a certain period?
What's more, there is a glorious cluster like the "White Oak" here... How can we explain that a ship can present a corresponding projection here?
Therefore, it is too early to hastily identify the starlight here as "the dead and the living in the world" - at least he needs enough evidence to make a conclusion.
But no matter how the starlight here is connected to the real world, one thing is very clear: the vast majority of starlight will not show rejection of Duncan's approach, only the light of Vanna, the "saint", has this self-protective reaction.
Perhaps this was the work of the god she believed in.
Duncan became a little curious about the power of "faith" in this world.
But no matter how strong the protective barrier that Vanna built through faith was, it was obvious that there were loopholes - this barrier did not prevent the captain of the Lost Homeland from establishing a deep "secret connection" with her.
Then only one question remains: when and how was this connection established?
Duncan pondered seriously in the darkness, wondering what the connection was between him and the Inquisitor he had never met, and why such a connection had suddenly appeared. After eliminating one guess after another, a very bold idea suddenly emerged in his mind -
Could it be the "sacrifice" that possessed him in the first place? !
Duncan recalled his first time setting foot on the land of the city-state of Plande, and recalled the sun sacrifice - he made a scene at the venue as a sacrifice, and then left his possessed "body" at the scene. Shortly after that, Inquisitor Vanna led a team to raid the cult's stronghold, captured the cultists who remained at the scene, and must have participated in the aftermath of the "remnants" at the scene.
If one must say, the only "intersection" between him and the judge lady could only have occurred at that time.
Just a body that has been possessed, just a place where they once appeared together.
"So... we're connected?!" The more Duncan thought about it, the more he felt that this was possible. He looked down at his hands in astonishment. After a while, his astonished expression turned into a weird and helpless smile. "What kind of infection route is this for the Spacetime Companion..."