As the dark green flames illuminated the cabin, the distant sound of waves outside the cabin gradually seemed to come from a vague dream, and those secrets from the endless deep sea, from that dark and cold land, gradually seeped into everyone's mind like a creepy shadow.

The only refuges for mortals on the boundless sea are all built on the corpses of indescribable giant beasts—withered tentacles hanging from the bottom of the city-state, and pale and terrifying eyeballs staring at the endless abyss;

All living beings in the world are descendants of the Lord of the Deep. The flesh and blood of the ancient gods constructed all things in the world. What happened in Frost was not an invasion, but the "awakening" of the ancient gods from their own creations.

The Four Gods are not necessarily stable and orderly beings. They may also fall and lose control. Similar "loss of control" processes may have happened more than once in this world. The Four Gods may be the only gods who can still stay awake.

The catastrophe that occurred in Frost will not be the last. As the situation of the Lord of the Deep worsens, and as the flaws in the "Blueprint of Creation" continue to magnify over time, similar "awakenings" are very likely to occur all over the world. Erroneous copies of the ancient gods will emerge from the deep sea, from the depths of city-states, and even... from the body of every mortal.

In a calm and composed tone, Duncan informed his followers of everything he knew in the deep sea and what he had deduced based on the existing intelligence.

Then, the cabin fell into a long silence.

Even the hard-headed Alice and the heartless Shirley calmed down and realized the seriousness of the problem... probably.

After a long time, Vanna was the first to break the silence. She took a deep breath, and her gloomy expression seemed to be condensed by a dark cloud: "If I hadn't heard you say this in person, I would definitely regard every word of this information as the crazy ravings of the End Preacher..."

“Even the craziest End of the World preacher probably couldn’t make up something of this level,” Morris said slowly, picking up the pipe and putting it to his mouth, but found that the tobacco inside had gone out at some point, so he put it down with a wry smile, “Ah, yes, End of the World preachers, and End of the World preachers who deal with the Frost Queen - one of the craziest things in the world is that some of those Warp believers can actually stay sober…”

Tirian frowned, and after a long silence, he finally couldn't help but raise his head: "Father, is this information true?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt that he had asked a stupid question, but this stupid question was so necessary at this moment - everyone sitting at the long table probably had this thought in their mind.

"That's at least what I saw and heard," Duncan said calmly, "Of course, partial intelligence can be misleading, and even the most obvious clues can be interpreted in many different ways.

"Also, the Frost Queen may not always tell the truth. Even if she does, she could still make mistakes. We can only deduce the possibility that is closest to the truth based on the information we have at this stage."

"Is this the closest possibility to the truth at this stage..." Tirian repeated this sentence in a low voice, and then asked, "Did the queen mention what kind of signs would appear if other city-states experienced a similar situation as the 'awakening of the ancient gods' in Frostbite?"

"No," Duncan shook his head. "She also couldn't confirm the mechanism of this 'awakening'. Perhaps the only way is to enter the Deep Sea and directly confirm the status of the Deep Lord's body."

As soon as the words fell, several eyes at the scene instantly fell on Agou, who was hiding in the corner with his head tucked in.

“Don’t look at me!” Ah Gou jumped up almost instantly, his huge head shaking, “It’s not feasible. I can’t get close to the Holy Lord, let alone bring anyone in…”

"But you can open the 'channel' to the Deep Sea, and even take Shirley away through the channel." Duncan looked seriously at the only Deep Demon at the scene, "You also said that the Deep Hound is a demon breed born near the Holy Lord, and your 'hometown' is next to the Holy Lord."

"That is a shallow passage that can only pass through the edge of the Deep Sea. It is used for escape." Seeing that everyone was staring at him, Agou hesitated for two seconds and could only reveal all these secrets. In the past many years, these secrets have always been the trump card for him and Shirley to save their lives. "The Deep Sea is a place that is more complicated and strange than you can imagine. It is not a whole, and the various 'areas' are not continuous...

"You can see the deep areas from the shallow areas, but without the right method, you will not be able to reach your destination even if you spend 10,000 years. There, 'distance' is an illusion, and 'movement' is also an illusion...

"I have been 'exiled' from the Deep Sea. Although I can't explain the exact reason, perhaps it's because I developed a 'heart'. For many years, I have been unable to open the passage to the Holy Lord. On the other hand, I am now very unwelcome by the 'fellow villagers' over there. Even if I just pass through the safe area of ​​the shallow area, I will be besieged by countless demons...

"And even if we put these factors aside, I can't just bring anyone in there. The Deep Demon can only bring its contracted symbiote through the passage - I can only bring Shirley, I can't bring anyone else."

Agou said a lot of things in a flash, and then he carefully observed the people around him, especially Duncan's reaction. He shrank his neck and added: "I'm not making excuses, Captain. You heard it too. There are indeed many difficulties."

Duncan was not annoyed by the difficulties that Agou was talking about. He just thought about it seriously for a while, and then said thoughtfully: "You mean, the space in the deep sea is not continuous?"

"...That's probably how it can be understood," Agou thought for a moment and nodded, "I can't explain it in detail - I'm currently studying Professor Brandauer's book Three Conjectures of Asymmetric Spacetime. When I finish studying it, I may be able to explain it to you more clearly."

Duncan didn't pay attention to the second half of Agou's words. He just continued to think and asked another question: "But I still remember you mentioned that during those years when the Lost Homeland was completely out of control, it once smashed through the entire Deep Sea."

Agou's expression (although it was very abstract) changed instantly, and his entire skeleton creaked and froze.

Duncan thought the other party had forgotten, so he added some details: "You said that it fell from the real world into the subspace, and then floated up from the subspace, traveling through the worlds like a repeated earthquake, and each time it would smash through the entire spirit world and the deep sea - in this process, is it equivalent to breaking through the 'space fault' in the deep sea?"

This time, not only Agou's expression was abstract, but the expressions of everyone in the cabin became interesting - a feeling of horror enveloped everyone, even Lucrecia who was standing opposite the crystal ball.

"Captain... Captain!" Agou's hoarse voice finally uttered a sound, and every bone in his body was trembling. "Don't say such terrible things... You don't really plan to... smash it again..."

"Father, please be careful." Even Lucrecia, who had been silent and seemed quite distant, could not help but break the silence. She looked at Duncan in the crystal ball nervously, as if she was afraid that her father would turn into the bloodless and tearless terrifying "god" again in the next second. "It is definitely not a good idea to let the Lost Homeland return to an out-of-control state and smash open the door to the deep sea. Even as a 'scientific research project'... this is a bit too radical."

Duncan didn't expect that his bold idea would cause such a big reaction from others, so he shook his head: "Don't worry, I won't do such an extreme 'test' - I have always been a cautious person."

Everyone was visibly relieved.

But then Duncan changed the subject and added, "But even from a cautious perspective, this 'old incident' also gave me an idea - some properties of the Lost Homeland can ignore the spatial faults in the deep sea. I will do some research on this basis to see if I can open the door to that place while ensuring safety..."

Everyone's heart was immediately lifted again...

But at least, this time no one raised strong objections like before. Only Morris and Lucrecia, as scholars, once again emphasized the need for "safety" and "caution" - judging from their attitudes, they were obviously still worried that the captain would really drive the Lost Homeland into the deep sea one day...

Fortunately, Duncan quickly changed to the next topic.

"Besides the state of the Lord of the Deep, I am more concerned about another thing now," he stroked his chin and spoke while thinking, "those End of the World Preachers - strictly speaking, those End of the World Preachers who are rational and whose behavior style is completely opposite to that of the 'cultists'."

He turned his head and his eyes fell on Tirian.

"You once told Vanna that three missionaries of the End of the World visited the Lost Homeland and talked with me all night long?"

Tirian immediately leaned forward, his expression a little embarrassed: "Yes, father, at that time I couldn't confirm your...'condition', so I talked about some 'old things' about you with Miss Vanna."

"It's okay," Duncan waved his hand. "I can't remember many things from those years, so it's a good thing that you can remember them."

He calmly emphasized again that he had lost his memory due to the influence of the warp, and at the same time confirmed the changes in Tirian and Lucrecia's expressions, and then continued: "What I want to say is that I have a hunch that sooner or later we will have to deal with those 'rational end preachers' again."

Morris asked subconsciously: "Why do you think so?"

"Because they seem to be committed to participating in 'historical events' with far-reaching impact," Duncan adjusted his sitting posture and spoke slowly, "and the noise made by the Lost Hometown...is getting bigger and bigger."