In the dim morning light, Vision 001, locked by a double rune ring, is rising slowly from the distant horizon. In the gradually spreading glow, a huge ghost sail ship is floating on the endless calm sea, gradually being coated with a layer of light in the early morning.

At the end of the distant sea, deep in the fine morning mist, the silhouette of the Frost City can be vaguely seen - the trauma of the city and the joys and sorrows of countless people have all turned into a haze in the mist at this distance, as if dissolving in the sunlight.

Duncan sat quietly on the edge of the bow deck, with a fishing rod beside him, watching the fishing line reflecting the sunlight in the morning glow, and occasionally looking up at the distance, in the direction of the Frost City.

At this time, most places in the city were still very quiet. He did not have to pay too much attention to the incarnations in the city-state and could enjoy the rare comfort on the boat.

The pigeon Ai was walking back and forth on the big wooden barrel beside him. On the lid of the barrel was a pile of French fries, which were brought on board from the Frost City-State. Unlike Pland's French fries, the Frost people would add some special spices when frying the French fries, giving them a salty aroma. Ai was obviously very satisfied with this. It would occasionally look up at its owner who was fishing, or at the sea in the distance, and the rest of the time it would lower its head and eat its food.

On the other side of Duncan, on another shorter wooden barrel, Shirley was lying there writing furiously, her expression as sad as if she was facing a mortal enemy.

Agou lay quietly beside Shirley, holding a book "Modern Geometry" in his paws. The deck next to him was piled with draft papers with marks and drawings on them.

Feeling this moment of tranquility, Duncan couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth, and the gloom that had accumulated in his heart for many days also dissipated little by little.

But obviously not everyone at the scene was enjoying this "tranquility".

"Why can Nina sleep in the cabin...I have to get up early to finish my homework here..." Shirley couldn't help muttering, her expression was so depressed that water could be squeezed out, "If I had known that I could only do homework on the ship, I might as well continue to stay in the city, at least I can go out shopping occasionally..."

"There's nothing to see in Frost right now, and life in that city won't be comfortable for the foreseeable future," Duncan said calmly. "Also, don't complain about your homework. It's your own fault that your homework was eaten by wild dogs."

Shirley raised her head aggrievedly: "Then why doesn't Nina need to make up for it?"

"Anyone knows that she must have finished writing. Morris will give her a comprehensive test paper later to test her self-study progress during this period." Duncan glanced at Shirley, "Nina is different from you. She doesn't need anyone to urge her."

Shirley shrank her neck: "Then...then is there a possibility that I have already written..."

Duncan deadpanned, "How do you spell the plural form of 'pebbles'?"

“I haven’t memorized this yet…”

"This is the content of the second page of your previous homework. You didn't finish both pages."

Shirley's expression froze, and she fell silent for a moment. Then the girl let out a long sigh, lowered her head and continued to struggle desperately with her spelling homework.

Duncan smiled and shook his head, and then his eyes involuntarily fell on the dog beside him - the dog was putting his book aside temporarily, holding a pencil with his paws and drawing auxiliary lines on the draft paper on the deck.

Duncan's gaze made Agou's soul tremble suddenly, and his head trembled subconsciously, and the auxiliary line became crooked.

"Ship...Captain?" Agou raised his head nervously. He wanted to avoid Duncan's gaze but didn't dare to turn his head away. His head kept shaking.

Duncan reached out and touched Agou's ugly skeleton head, with a subtle expression. After several seconds, he couldn't help but speak: "Isn't your learning progress a bit too fast? Why do I feel that you will be able to catch up with Morris's teaching progress in a while?"

"Ah? I don't feel that way." Ah Gou was stunned for a moment, the red light in his hollow eye sockets flickered, as if he was in a daze. "I just feel that these things are quite interesting... Is there anything wrong with the fast learning progress?"

Duncan thought about it, smiled and shook his head: "Forget it, no problem, it's always good to learn more things, so that you and Shirley will not be illiterate after all."

Agou uttered "Oh" in confusion, while Duncan exhaled slightly and looked back at the fishing rod which was still motionless.

I didn't catch any fish this morning.

"After such a big battle, I'm afraid we won't be able to catch any fish in the surrounding waters anytime soon," he sighed regretfully, slowly packing up his fishing gear, "The noise was too loud, even the deep-sea descendants are unwilling to approach this place..."

Shirley couldn't help but look up when she heard this: "Are we leaving here? When will you bring Mr. Morris and Sister Vanna over from the city?"

Duncan stopped packing up his fishing rod and turned to look at Shirley: "Did I ever say that the matter of Frost is completely over?"

"Ah?" Shirley was a little confused. "Isn't it all done? And you also recommended Mr. Tirian to the City Hall. I thought you were going to let him finish the rest of the work."

"Indeed, I intend to let him deal with all the troubles in this city - but there are still some things that the Sea Mist Fleet cannot solve," Duncan continued to clean up and said casually, "I have to deal with those things myself. Before they are solved, it's best for the Lost Homeland to stay away from here."

Shirley still didn't react: "Something that the Sea Fog Fleet can't solve? That is..."

Duncan lowered his eyelids and glanced at her calmly: "Where did the Mirror Frost come from?"

Shirley thought for a moment and said uncertainly, "Is it... summoned from the deep sea by those cultists?"

"That's about right. The Mirror Frost summoned from the deep sea is a 'product', a transformed thing. Everything we destroyed in the process, including the sacrificial site deep in the Mirror Frost, can actually only be considered a 'summoned object' in essence. Since there is a summoned object, there must be a source of summoning."

Shirley finally reacted, and surprise gradually appeared in her eyes.

"You mean... the things on the bottom of the sea are still there?!"

"If my judgment is correct, everything near the sea surface, whether it is the fakes or the mirror city-state itself, is essentially just the spread and projection of power, just like a huge plant that keeps growing from the bottom up. In the fierce battle that just ended with Frost, we only destroyed the overgrown crown of the out-of-control plant, but its roots are still there," Duncan said calmly, "Don't forget, the Frost Queen threw several submersibles into the sea before she could barely touch the body of that thing - that power has a 'real body' in the deep sea."

Shirley finally couldn't sit still anymore, she almost jumped up: "Ah? Doesn't that mean we have to dive into the deep sea to fight that thing? Otherwise, won't it create another mirror image soon?!"

"Soon? Not really," Duncan smiled and shook his head. "It's not as serious as you think. Even if the main body is still there, it must have been badly damaged. I have almost completely burned the spread part. The rest... after losing the ritual support of those cultists, it is probably in a dormant or dormant state. Even if we really leave it alone, it may take another half century for problems to arise again."

Having said this, he suddenly stopped and stretched out his hand towards the air.

"Isn't that right, Agatha?"

A cluster of green flames burned at Duncan's fingertips and quickly jumped and expanded in the air, forming a vortex-like curtain. In the burning curtain, a blind priestess in a black dress and a blindfold was standing there in a praying posture with her hands clasped in front of her chest.

Shirley and Agou stared at the scene in amazement.

"Yes, this is exactly what we are worried about," Agatha raised her head, her slightly magnetic voice sounding ethereal, "Everyone who knows the truth about the Abyss Project will be worried about this - we only destroyed the 'products' that appeared on the sea surface, but we have no energy left to destroy the 'main body' that may still be dormant in the deep sea."

"We can't leave it alone for another fifty years and then repeat the Frost Defense War the next time a crisis arises," Duncan said. "I don't mind helping out every time, but there will always be many unnecessary casualties in the war."

"...I'm afraid Frost doesn't have the spare capacity to build a submersible like that now," Agatha said after a moment of silence. "It's not just the submersible itself that's a problem, there are also other equipment, data, personnel, and material resources required for diving... All of these are beyond the ability of Frost to come up with when it's in a state of disrepair."

"Then make preparations as soon as possible and ask your city hall to think of a solution," Duncan said calmly. "If all else fails, prepare an iron coffin that can be blown up in the deep sea and put a body inside. I can use this medium to go to the bottom of the sea and take a look at the situation. Although the temporary incarnation can only carry limited power, as long as a stable channel is established, I should be able to spread the fire to the bottom of the sea."