Chapter 809: Chapter 806: Far from Home

Lei Nora left, taking with her the flame Zhou Ming had given her–the traveling queen and her drifting house disappeared into the endless gray fog outside the window, and it was not until long after she had left that Zhou Ming took a deep breath and turned away from the window.

He had always been curious about how exactly the “Frost Queen” managed to “travel” through this boundless dense fog, curious about the principles and process of the drifting house navigating the ends of the world–after all, even knowing that the house was an escape pod from the New Hope, he could hardly imagine what kind of power it had now, and what it looked like as it sailed through the fog–however, Lei Nora herself seemed unable to explain this point clearly.

Faced with Zhou Ming’s questions, she only answered that it was some kind of “instinctive” process, that she and the drifting house had merged into one. When the cottage traveled at the world’s end, it was as if she was “walking in the fog,” feeling none of the chaotic spacetime rifts, nor needing to consider the “power” situation of the house.

This sounded quite miraculous, and Zhou Ming could only interpret it as the “escape pod” having a complete set of automatic navigation systems that, with the changes brought about by the great annihilation, might have become the cabin’s “Transcendent Trait”–similar to how Alice now had the “navigational instincts” after taking the helm.

Anyway, the puppet didn’t know how the Homeloss was supposed to start, but that didn’t stop her from making the ship blaze a trail at the world’s end…

Taking a gentle breath, Zhou Ming temporarily put aside irrelevant thoughts in his mind and then stepped over to his desk.

The LCD monitor on the desk was faintly glowing, and the computer main unit next to it was still emitting a soft humming sound. This “machine” which appeared as a “computer” in his eyes was running as usual, seemingly waiting for his interaction.

But this time, Zhou Ming did not touch the keyboard and mouse on the desk; he just sat there quietly staring at the slowly blinking cursor in the search box on the screen, as if… he was staring at a long-lost self in the mirror.

“You’re part of this place, and so is this desk,” Zhou Ming finally said softly to himself after who knows how long, “the floor is, the roof is, everything here is… and so am I. We all are, right?”

The cursor silently blinked on and off, seemingly unresponsive to Zhou Ming’s words, but slowly, the glow on the LCD screen gradually dimmed–the screen slowly darkened, eventually becoming black as ink, dark like a void mirror.

Zhou Ming stared at that void mirror, seeing his own face in it.

And in the edges of his vision, on the desktop beside him, on the walls, on the roof, and even on the shelf in the corner and the small closet, the surfaces of these ordinary “home furnishings” that had been in his memory for many years, pale purple starlight was slowly swelling, emerging.

A kind of “change,” almost uncontrollable, was stirring near the tipping point.

A slight itch suddenly came from his arm, and Zhou Ming looked down to see the World Tree Silantis, like a bonsai, floating next to him. This little sapling was suspended in the air, its branch tips gently poking at his arm, appearing somewhat restless.

Zhou Ming paused for a while, then slowly lifted Silantis and placed it on the desk.

“Don’t be afraid, little sapling, it’s not time yet,” he gently soothed Silantis’s crown, slowly smiling,” I’ll arrange everything well; you’ll take root in a fertile and stable land, there will be bright sunlight and gentle breeze… everyone will have their place, and Saslouka will be there too…”

Silantis floated quietly on the desk, the rustling sound from its crown as if through vast and long distances, the wind from old memories once again blowing through the tree top of the World Tree.

The starlight at the edge of his vision gradually faded, and everything in the room slowly returned to normal.

“It’s not time yet…” In the cabin, the Reverse Singularity quietly said to himself, “The day hasn’t come yet…”

…

The goat head suddenly lifted its head, its obsidian-crafted black eyes staring at the figure who entered the door, and for a brief moment, it seemed to see scattered starlight filling the entire cabin, while a tall figure standing in the starlight stepped through the door of the Displaced, exerting a force as if to crush the Homeloss.

But that momentary illusion quickly faded from Saslouka’s view. It saw the captain walking into the captain’s room, just like every other day.

“Duncan Ebnomal,” Duncan waved his hand, speaking proactively before the other could open their mouth, “I just took a ‘long trip’.”

“…I almost didn’t recognize you again,” the goat head seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, immediately chattering, “Every time you ‘go out’ lately it’s a bit scary, sometimes when you come in I’m not sure what thing is walking through the door… Ah I blabbered, don’t take offense just because I just saw a scary sight and got a bit nervous are you feeling okay do you need to rest back in your room they’re not back yet but I guess they should be back by now even Sherry’s appetite should be satisfied by now we might be close right Alice is still at the…”

Overwhelmed by the goat head’s barrage like a landslide, Duncan, who had some complex emotions after returning from the door across, had all his emotions dashed by the deputy’s outburst, could only instinctively glare: “Shut up!”

The goat head abruptly “crunched” to silence, then quieted down for a few seconds before shaking its head again and speaking without the previous clamor, but with a sigh and a smile: “… Welcome back, it’s good you’re fine.”

“… What could happen to me,” Duncan sighed, walking towards the navigation table but still looked up at the goat head seriously and nodded, “Don’t worry.”

His gaze then fell on the navigation map covered with a thin mist.

Since crossing the world’s border, the paths and markings of the Endless Sea on this real-time updated sea chart had disappeared, replaced only by endless gray-white fog, and the faint green traces of Homeloss vaguely visible in the mist.

The fuzzy trace is still floating on the edge of the sea chart, now it has traveled about half the distance to the world’s end.

The third node is near — this is the only information this sea chart can currently provide.

A hundred years ago, when the real Duncan Ebnomal was challenging the world’s borders aboard the Homeloss, was he relying on such an almost useless navigation chart?

Or … perhaps he didn’t even have such a chart at that time?

Somewhat irrelevant thoughts sprang up in Duncan’s mind, and just then, he heard the lively noises coming from the deck outside.

His crew had returned from a meal aboard the Brilliant Starship.

An inexplicable mood welled up, bringing a faint smile to Duncan’s face. He rose from behind the chart table, stepped to the door of the captain’s cabin, and walked out.

Nina and Sherry, who were playing around on the deck, immediately heard the noise and turned their heads in unison. Nina smiled cheerfully and waved her arms: “Uncle Duncan!”

Morris, with his pipe in his mouth, removed the pipe and bowed to Duncan. Fenna also lowered her head with a smile. Sherry, sitting on Dog’s back, rubbed her belly and chuckled awkwardly to Duncan, flaunting a bit, “I ate a little too much …”

Dog grumbled with a belly full of resentment: “You ate too much, why don’t you walk around yourself, what’s the point of making me carry you around …”

Nina happily walked over, holding a lunchbox with a handle, delighted to show Duncan the contents inside: “Luny made sweet pancakes and carrot stewed meat, I’ll put it on the table for you, don’t forget to eat~”

As her words fell, the girl briskly passed Duncan and walked into the captain’s cabin.

Duncan’s face was continuously smiling as he watched these lively figures talk, joke, roughhouse, and boast. He saw the sailors coming out of the cabin, complaining to Morris about those “unidentifiable viscous compounds” in the kitchen’s soup pot that were hard to clean. Meanwhile, Agatha’s figure appeared in the air nearby — Sherry saw her and ran, but after only a few steps, Dog yanked her back with a leash …

Duncan just watched from the side, as if to imprint all these figures in his mind.

This was truly the best day he had on this ship.

Then, he heard a deep rumble coming from high above and felt the Homeloss tremble slightly — outside the bulwark, stripes of color suddenly appeared against the uniform gray-white background, indicating the transit channel reaching its end.

Above Homeloss and Brilliant Starship, the New Hope’s phantom was gradually fading, the front end of the transit channel began to fracture, and colors of dark grey and dark red appeared in the distant fog, followed by the sound of ships entering the water — they had arrived at their destination.

“…transition stop…”

The garbled and distorted voice entered everyone’s ears.

The people on the deck reacted, then spontaneously ran towards the bulwark. Duncan instinctively turned back to look in the direction of the rear deck. The next second, he saw a head poking over the railing at the edge of the control platform, Alice cheerfully waving at him: “Captain! We’ve arrived at our stop! It’s Fire Festival…”

A head fell from the edge of the control platform, bounced a few times on the ground, and rolled to Duncan’s feet.

Alice looked up, blinking at the captain.

Duncan sighed, “Sometimes I suspect you do it on purpose.”

Alice thought for a moment: “Help, help, help…”