In the dark deep sea, a ball of dark green flame suddenly streaked across the sky like a meteor. The pressure and stagnation of billions of tons of sea water seemed to be non-existent, and the "meteor" did not show any signs of slowing down.

Ai crossed the pitch-black deep-sea floating island at lightning speed, and finally stopped in the central area of ​​the island, re-condensing his body from the flames.

Duncan stepped out of the flames, floated in the sea, and turned his head to look at the pigeon spirit flying around him.

Aiyi flew over and landed on his master's shoulder, tilting his head curiously: "What are you looking at?"

Duncan didn't say anything, but stretched out his arm and gently rubbed the pigeon's head. Then he turned around and looked at the huge "pillar" in the center of the island.

Now, he came in front of it - this shocking giant pillar stood in his field of vision, extending from the top of the mountain in the center of the deep-sea floating island, pointing almost straight up to the sky, as if it not only penetrated the entire island, but even penetrated the boundless dark deep sea, extending to the "frost" above, and to the world bathed in sunlight above the sea.

But it was not truly infinite - after getting close enough, Duncan finally saw more details and noticed that the upper part of the "pillar" came to an abrupt end in the sea water.

It was at a very high place, and there seemed to be an abrupt fracture.

But before checking the fracture, Duncan first carefully approached the middle section of the pillar and observed its "skin" shape.

It is regular, dense, with faintly visible complex and regular patterns and regular raised structures. This pillar, like a giant tentacle, unexpectedly presents a very orderly and "neat" sense in the details, even... like some kind of industrial product.

Duncan hesitated for a moment, then cautiously reached out his hand toward the pillar - this body had no formed hands or feet, but as he reached out to touch the "pillar", the end of his arm suddenly began to swell and wriggle, and almost in the blink of an eye it differentiated into the structure of a palm.

Is this a process of spontaneous secondary molding based on the "original template" under specific stimulation?

Duncan recalled the feeling of the eye structure being differentiated from the face of this body, and subconsciously guessed in his heart. At the same time, he felt that his new fingers had touched the dark surface of the pillar.

A rough and cold touch came from the fingertips, as if caressing crude cast iron, but... it seemed to have a certain softness.

Duncan moved closer, examining the appearance of the pillar more closely.

Deep within the dull grey-black epidermis, one could vaguely see some light blue lines, like blood vessels buried deep within the skin.

Duncan's heart moved, and he instantly thought of the "flesh and blood" sample he got from the mouth of Captain Cristo Barberi deep in the Obsidian.

The two look very similar in texture - is this pillar standing in the deep sea really the limb of the Lord of the Abyss extending into the real world?

With a strange feeling in his heart, Duncan stepped back a little and slowly swept his eyes across the giant pillar.

It is certainly unrealistic to find the wound left by Captain Crystal on such a huge structure, but this does not prevent Duncan from feeling respect for Captain Crystal again.

A few minutes later, Duncan began to swim towards the top of the pillar, his goal being the "break".

After a long time, he finally arrived at the location of the fracture, and the situation here was similar to what he had imagined.

The pillar did come to an abrupt end here, as if it had been bitten off by some jagged teeth, and the edges of the fracture appeared uneven.

Inside the fracture, the gray-black inner wall appears to be continuously concave, like a crater with a strange atmosphere.

Duncan floated near this "fracture" and roughly estimated the size of the pillar based on the scene before him. He soon confirmed one thing -

If the "big hole" in the boiling gold mine was really the result of erosion by a similar "pillar" or "tentacle", then the tentacle that pierced into the city-state must be much smaller than the pillar in front of us. The former may be only one-fifth of the latter, or even smaller.

Is it because the "tentacle" that pierced the city-state is just a "power projection" of the deep sea itself? Or is it because the tentacle in the big hole is in the early stages of growth and it will continue to grow?

If the battle to defend Frost failed, if he was ultimately unable to destroy Frost's mirror image, if the "pillar" in the large cavity deep within the Boiling Gold Mine continued to grow uncontrollably... would it eventually grow to the point of breaking through the mine, or even the mountains above, and become a "giant pillar" like the one before his eyes that seemed to run through the entire floating island?

Is this what those crazy annihilation cultists claim and pursue - "to recreate the grand blueprint of the Holy Lord's creation of the world in the real world"?

These rather frightening conjectures suddenly popped up in Duncan's mind, but then a sudden flash of light from the edge of his vision interrupted his thoughts.

He suddenly looked in the direction where the faint light had appeared.

It is in the center of the "fracture", the deepest part of the sunken "crater".

Without any hesitation, he immediately swam in that direction.

Crossing the jagged broken "cliffs" on the edge of the pillar, and crossing the dark matter that gradually sags towards the center, in this silent deep sea far away from the civilized world, a sudden flash of light became the only target in Duncan's eyes. He swam across this distance at the fastest speed and came to the center point of the broken pillar.

However, when he got here, the flash had disappeared.

There was only a void of darkness left, and the "ground" inside the broken pillar was as cold and silent as rock.

Duncan floated in the sea, frowning and scanning the darkness. This empty place was like a condensed, regretful ellipsis, hiding the secret again deep in the curtain.

However, he soon discovered that something was wrong in his vision.

Below him, in the center area of ​​the "broken end" of the pillar, the texture of the "ground" seemed vaguely weird, and it looked a little... "fuzzy".

Yes, it was blurry, as if it was not a real substance, but a veil between reality and illusion.

Duncan hesitated for a few seconds, and finally approached the "ground" with strange texture cautiously. But before reaching out to touch the substance, he first condensed a small flame at his fingertips and threw it into the blurry "curtain".

When in doubt, use spiritual fire to clear the way - it never hurts to be more cautious.

The dark green spirit fire fell into the black "ground" almost in the blink of an eye. It first disappeared like water seeping into sand, and then, strands of dark green flames began to appear in the darkness. Almost in the blink of an eye, the entire "ground" was burning!

As the flames burned, Duncan suddenly felt... a subtle "connection" was being established.

However, the connection did not point to the "huge pillar" under his feet that was suspected to be the tentacles of the ancient god, but to a... vaguely familiar breath.

The next second, he saw the ground below changing rapidly as the flames spread, and gradually transformed into a mirror-like texture, and the mirror-like surface was slightly surging in the firelight, like some kind of viscous and smooth liquid surface!

Duncan's heart moved, and then he followed the feeling from the flame and approached the surging, mirror-like "liquid surface", and stretched out his fingers to touch its surface.

boom!

In the illusion, it was as if a loud bang exploded in his mind, like frozen time suddenly starting up, like a thick curtain suddenly torn open, like a barrier collapsing with a roar at the border of reality. Duncan felt that he had crossed a certain boundary in an instant, and then, the "world" in front of him began to be filled with warm light.

The feeling of being enveloped by the cold, heavy sea water suddenly disappeared. The feeling of floating in the vastness and helplessness of the previous second was replaced by the touch of solid ground. The warm light in front of his eyes gradually softened. As his vision gradually adapted, Duncan finally saw the surrounding situation clearly and was stunned in astonishment.

He was in a gorgeous and bright room.

Light poured down from the chandelier on the ceiling, illuminating the many exquisite and sophisticated furnishings in the room. The palace-style shelves and metal sculptures glowed softly in the light. There was also a gorgeous bed placed in the center of the room, surrounded by translucent curtains, and it seemed that someone was sleeping deep inside.

Duncan looked at the scene in astonishment, then suddenly turned around and looked behind him.

That seemed to be the direction from which he came.

He saw a distorted darkness.

The room seemed to disappear out of thin air in front of that boundary. Beyond the shattered and broken walls and floors was a chaotic realm like the void. There were disordered shadows and dim light flows rising and falling in that nothingness, as if it was filled with truths and mysteries that were enough to drive mortals crazy, but it seemed just a meaningless void.

A word suddenly came into my mind——

Subspace

Duncan felt his heart (if this body had a heart) suddenly stop beating. He had never imagined that there would be such a scene - he was standing in a fragmented room, one step away was the chaotic light and shadow of the subspace, and those hazy and chaotic lights and shadows seemed to be making silent roars, conveying incomprehensible... knowledge and "truth" to him in all kinds of frantic words.

Duncan raised his hand and cautiously reached into the darkness beyond the boundaries of the room.

He touched a hard, cold surface.

An invisible barrier stood between him and the warp.

"You can't get through," a voice suddenly came from behind him, "You haven't really opened the door yet."

Duncan was startled and turned back suddenly.

The gauze curtains around the gorgeous bed had been opened. The person sleeping on the bed had woken up at some point and was looking at this side quietly.

Her long silver hair fell from her shoulders and her purple eyes sparkled like gemstones.

"Alice?"