Duncan felt his thoughts spreading in the ship, his perception expanding like a spider web, and every part of the ship seemed to have become his own body structure - smoother and clearer than last time. This ghost ship sailing on the edge of dreams was revealing all its secrets to him without reservation.

His spirit began to sink all the way down, from the towering stern deck, to the cabin below the deck, to the mezzanine where gunpowder and shells were stored, to the warehouse where anchor cables were stored, the water tank... from every wall, to every pillar, from every rope, to every lantern...

The entire ship gradually turned into a clear and detailed "projection" and appeared in his mind.

Duncan compared the structure that appeared in his mind with the one in his memory, hoping to find some discrepancies, perhaps a beam that was not in the structural design, a cabin that had never appeared in the real dimension, or a mezzanine that no one had ever discovered - that was the dislocation in the fusion of the Lost Homeland and the Goat Head consciousness.

This was originally just a thought that suddenly popped up in his mind. Duncan just realized that this ship was not the dream of "Goat Head" himself, and realized that the "memory" of the Lost Homeland itself might also play a role in it, so he wanted to find evidence of the latter's existence. However, as his perception continued to spread on the ship, the idea of ​​"giving it a try" became stronger and stronger, as if an invisible voice was guiding and telling him -

There really is something hidden deep in this ship, and the Lost Homeland really wants to tell him some secrets. In a place that cannot be seen from the real dimension, the Lost Homeland still "remembers" some things that once happened in the subspace.

And this hidden memory points to one of the most core secrets in this intricate dream:

The origin of the goat head and the connection between this dream ship and Silendis.

Was it my intuition? Or was the Lost Homeland really whispering to me?

A vague idea emerged in Duncan's mind, but he did not dwell on this issue. He focused on his work and looked for possible clues.

This is not easy, because even for the ship he is most familiar with, Duncan does not dare to say that he can clearly remember the location of every item on the entire Lost Homeland. He hopes that his "intuition" can play a role in this process and help him find some discrepancies.

But he didn't expect that this didn't require any intuition at all - the incongruity was more obvious and abrupt than he had imagined.

Three decks below, he sensed a large-scale... "perception gap".

Duncan frowned immediately. While tightly gripping the steering wheel in his hand, he looked down at the place he "saw" in his perception: right below him.

Bottom of the boat?

Duncan suddenly thought of something, then he hesitated and loosened his grip on the steering wheel.

His connection with the "helm" was severed.

But the perception transmitted to him by the entire ship was not interrupted, and he could still feel that the ship was connected to him - the ship was still sailing fast in the endless darkness and fog, and in the dark space outside the ship's side, those huge structures that looked like plant roots and branches still existed and kept flying around.

Silantis's "Flowing Light" was also there, and it was still circling around the cockpit.

Watching this scene, Duncan had a slight realization in his mind: it seemed that as long as the connection was established, it would not be broken until the end of this dream.

Because he entered the dream as a reflection, he has now become a part of this dream - all the actions he takes here will no longer be regarded as "foreign invasions", nor will they be easily expelled or erased by the dream's own healing power.

After confirming this, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief and quickly left the bridge, but before going deep into the cabin, he turned back to the stern deck and returned to the captain's room.

Near the door of the captain's room, he saw the quaint lantern hanging quietly on the wall.

To go to the lower structure of the Lost Homeland, he needed to carry a lantern - although he didn't know whether this rule still needed to be followed on this "dream ship", he decided to act cautiously.

Agatha's figure appeared in the nearby mirror. She looked at Duncan curiously: "Captain, what are you doing?"

"Go to the bilge," Duncan said quickly, looking back at the direction of the navigation table - the goat head was still there quietly, seemingly unresponsive, "There's something under the boat."

Agatha was startled when she heard this, and her expression immediately became serious.

"Let's talk while we walk," Duncan added, "don't discuss it here."

As he spoke, he had already picked up the quaint brass lantern, opened the door and walked out of the room.

He walked quickly across the misty, empty deck. The "fire" had already ignited the lantern, causing the flame to emit a faint green light. The mist floating around him retreated slightly in the light and then closed behind him. In the light and shadow outlined by the light, an extra shadow was also moving quickly beside him, almost overlapping with his shadow.

Agatha's voice came from the shadow: "The cabin you mentioned... is it the area you usually don't let me get close to?"

"That's right," Duncan nodded. He opened the door to the lower cabin and walked down the stairs quickly with a lantern in hand. "In the real dimension, the bottom of the ship is connected to the subspace. There is a fragmented area there. Every crack reflects the subspace. It is dangerous for anyone to get close to it without my company."

"...From your description, it's already very dangerous." Agatha's shadow seemed to tremble. Although her expression could not be seen, the shadow obviously became a little lighter, which seemed to indicate that she was a little nervous. "From your reaction, it seems that the situation in the cabin of this 'Dream Ship' has changed?"

"There's a structure I haven't seen before," Duncan said quickly. He walked through the stairs below the deck, through the empty and dim warehouse, and went down floor by floor. "Not far ahead, the broken area is at the bottom of the last staircase..."

After running as fast as they could through the dimly lit corridors and stairs with a strange atmosphere and even inverted light and shadow, Duncan and Agatha's shadows suddenly stopped.

They came to the end of the last staircase, and the door connecting to the broken area of ​​the bottom of the cabin stood quietly in Duncan's sight.

Agatha's shadow "crawled" along the stairs to Duncan's side, and then stood up along the wall little by little. Judging from the silhouette, she seemed to be looking at the door in front cautiously and nervously.

"I can't feel anything on the other side of the door," she said in a low voice, "even at such a close distance, I can't feel anything... It's as if there is a pure 'void' on the other side of the door."

Duncan glanced at Agatha, then looked down at the lantern in his hand.

The glow from the lantern softly illuminated the surroundings, but when it fell on the door in front, it seemed to be absorbed by something, leaving only half the brightness.

He took a deep breath, took a step forward and pushed open the door.

In the real world, the space behind this door is the shattered cabin at the bottom of the Lost Homeland - its structure floating in the warp.

And here, what first caught Duncan's eyes was endless darkness.

He almost thought he was going to fall into the endless darkness.

Duncan subconsciously felt his nerves tense. The contrast between the vast darkness and the scene in the cabin was too strong, which caught him off guard. But soon, he saw that there was something else in the darkness.

His eyes gradually adjusted, and he could see clearly the huge things emerging from the darkness:

First, there is an extremely large continuous structure, as wide as a road floating in the void, with slightly raised shapes at both ends. Then, it becomes clear that there are many "branches" connected to both sides of this continuous structure. They are neatly arranged in the darkness, extending all the way to the end of the field of vision, just like... ribs.

Duncan was standing in the middle of this huge, continuous structure. He saw that except for the "trunk" under his feet and the rib-like branches around the trunk, there was no outer wall of the cabin - not even a fragmented outer wall. Between the "ribs", there was complete darkness and nothingness, and wisps of mist were surging in the darkness, lingering in this vast space.

Duncan knew what it was.

At the same time, Agatha's shadow also "crawled" out of the door and landed next to Duncan's shadow. She looked at the incredible scene in front of her in astonishment. After a moment, she suddenly reacted: "Wait, this thing is..."

"The keel of the Lost Homeland." Duncan nodded slightly and spoke in a deep voice.

"Keel... Yes, the Lost Homeland is a sailing ship built a century ago. Of course it has a keel..." Agatha hesitated, her tone a little strange, "But it looks..."

Duncan ignored Agatha, his attention was almost entirely drawn to the amazing structure that curved and extended in the darkness.

This was the first time he saw the keel of the Lost Homeland - because according to the shipbuilding regulations of this world, under normal circumstances, a completed sailing warship would not expose its keel in the visible area inside the cabin. However, the "bottom bulkhead" of the Lost Homeland where the keel could be seen had been broken and was floating in the subspace, making it impossible to distinguish the structure of the keel at all.

He had never thought about what the keel of the ship would look like.

Now he knows.

He walked to the "road" floating in the darkness, walked along it, and stopped in front of the first "link".

The light from the lantern illuminated the huge bulge and connecting structure, and further away was the next "link" and more "links".

This segmented "connection structure" certainly does not meet the construction requirements of a sailboat keel. For ordinary old-time sailing ships, the keel must be a whole piece of wood so that it can withstand the wind and waves on the sea.

But Duncan believed that the keel at the bottom of the Lost Homeland, which had many "connecting structures", was definitely stronger than any other keel in the world.

Because it is the spine of an ancient god.