Deep Sea Embers

The mustering bell rang, followed by the hurried footsteps of the sailors. Lawrence stayed in the cab with the second mate and the pastor who hadn't recovered his breath.

The old captain looked at the sea outside the window. At this moment, the White Oak was still in the depths of the spirit world. The sea beyond the ship's side was filled with mist, and the water surface was still as black as ink, but the storm had subsided, and the terrible Lost Home was also gone. It has disappeared—this can't help but give people an illusion, as if the previous storm and even the collapsed frontier of reality were brought by that ghost ship, and now all the disasters have disappeared with the departure of that ship. away from the White Oak.

Lawrence thought of the frightening legends about the Lost Home and Captain Duncan Abu Normar, the fleet that was swallowed up by the frontier of reality more than a century ago, and the ship that sank into the deep sea during the encounter with the Lost Home. A ship at sea suddenly felt that this was not impossible.

But in any case, now that the Lost Homeland had left, the surrounding sea area had temporarily returned to calm. Although it was still in the dangerous depths of the spirit world, at least he and his crew had a chance to breathe.

Next, Lawrence must determine exactly what the Lost took from the White Oak—or left behind.

And it must be determined as soon as possible.

Without ruling out all the hidden dangers, he dare not let the boat float to the real world rashly, because some things brought out from the spirit world will cause terrible pollution in the real world, but if he stays in the depths of the spirit world for too long, he and his crew will They will still be irreversibly affected.

Hearing the noise from the deck, Lawrence suddenly raised his head from his thoughts. He looked at the pastor who was sitting in front of the incense burner, whose face had improved a little, with a very serious expression: "Mr. Ron, our current How is the stability?"

The pastor coughed twice, and then took out a small compass with exquisite shape and many sea symbols and sacred symbols engraved on the surface. After pressing the metal cover with a snap, the pointer on the compass immediately rotated rapidly, and finally stabilized. stopped at a certain position.

"We stay on the surface of the spiritual world, slightly closer to the real world, and the influence from the depths...is very weak," the pastor looked at the state of the compass pointer, his expression suddenly a little confused, "It's strange...we are completely stable here. When the holy relic is closed, there is almost no sinking... ahem..."

"Perhaps the 'hit' of the Lost Lands knocked us onto a safe route." Lawrence smiled wryly and shook his head, wanting to liven up the atmosphere with a cold joke. "I heard that there are some subtleties in the spirit world. A balance that frees real-world stuff from deeper 'pulls'..."

"Mr. Captain, this joke is too cold," the pastor said, coughing twice, although he has recovered, but his condition is not good at all, "cough cough, anyway, what happened today It must be reported to the church... The appearance of the Lost Homeland is no small matter. In the past few decades, there have always been reports of encounters with the Lost Homelander, but it was later confirmed that it was just the crew's nonsense or a group hallucination caused by an out-of-control vision , but today we really witnessed it...Goddess, when you return to Prand, you'd better make mental preparations that you won't be able to sail again in the near future."

"I understand—neither the church nor the city-state authorities will allow a ship that has just encountered a vision disaster to return to the sea. This is for the safety of everyone, and I have to report more than just the church. The city-state, the Explorers' Association... Alas, and my terrible wife..." Captain Lawrence pressed his forehead hard, and waved his hand after a long sigh, "I won't talk about this, you need to rest now, until you return to the port, this Every ship needs the blessing of the goddess."

The pastor nodded lightly, and soon, the first officer who had just left also returned to the cab.

"There are not too many people on board, and there are not many people on board," the first mate reported immediately without waiting for the captain to ask questions. Mechanics, they can accurately read the names of the gods they believe in, they are living people."

"No one is missing?" Lawrence's eyes widened. This should be good news, but he couldn't believe the situation reported by the first mate. "Where is the Holy Emblem Beacon?"

"The holy object is also normal," the first officer nodded immediately, "the navigator is preparing incense and essential oils, and is waiting for your order to restart the holy object."

Lawrence listened in amazement, and couldn't help muttering softly again: "...he really let the ship go?"

"Good luck favors us, Captain," the first mate spread his hands, "We didn't lose anything, maybe that scary ghost captain just happened to pass by, or maybe even bumped into it accidentally."

"Do you believe this?" Lawrence immediately glared at his first mate, "If good luck really favored us, we would never have met..."

Just as he was halfway through his words, there was a rush of footsteps from outside the door, and then someone pushed open the door of the cab, and the sweaty bosun appeared in front of Lawrence. This tall man His face was full of horror.

"Captain! Anomaly 099 is gone!!"

The cab fell silent instantly, and everyone was looking at each other, but for some reason, Lawrence suddenly felt relieved amidst the brief shock——

That's great, after the encounter with the Lost Country, something is finally found on board, so that's great!

But then he controlled the expression on his face, and as he walked towards the door, he hurriedly ordered the first mate to take over the steering wheel, and ordered the bosun to lead the way.

Hasty footsteps sounded in the cabin corridor of the White Oak, and soon, Lawrence, led by the boatswain, reached the deepest part of the steamship.

A special cabin appeared before his eyes.

The door of this cabin is engraved with dense mystic symbols, the heavy and dark door seems to be cast from a whole piece of black iron, and the mysterious symbols extend from the edge of the door frame to the corridor, vaguely as if to form some kind of A closed cage to restrain the things kept in the cabin.

Lawrence glanced at the gate, confirmed that there were no signs of damage to the gate and the symbols around it, and then looked up at the top—the "sacred relic room" where the Holy Emblem Beacon is placed is right above the seal room, and the Beacon is to ensure that the ships The key to not being affected by the "deep layer" is also the second layer of insurance to maintain the seals. Even if it is closed, it should be able to ensure the integrity of the barriers between the seals.

But with both barriers intact, the thing in the sealed room, the most critical cargo escorted by the White Oak on this voyage, anomaly 099—the doll coffin, disappeared.

Lawrence took a deep breath, stepped forward and opened the door of the sealed room, and pushed the heavy door open forcefully.

In the sealing room, the lights were bright, and the gas lamps hanging on the four pillars illuminated the center of the room almost without blind spots, but the "goods" that should have been placed there had disappeared, leaving only a few vertical and horizontal lines in place. Intertwined chains, and some off-white ash scattered on the surrounding ground.

The voice of the boatswain came from behind Lawrence: "According to the sealing requirements of Anomaly 099, the lights in this room are always maintained, and every two hours a crew member will come in to re-strengthen the chains around the 'coffin' and the floor of the room. The ashes were sprinkled, but when that... ghost ship appeared, due to the chaotic situation, the sailor who was supposed to be on duty did not enter the room in time, and he was almost seven minutes late, only to find that anomaly 099 had disappeared..."

"Just seven minutes late won't cause that thing to get out of control. At best, it's a change in the weakening of the seal. At worst, it's just a coffin running around in this room-there are layers of seals and holy emblems. Imprisonment is not a decoration," Lawrence frowned and shook his head, "The current situation is that it disappeared... The cargo left the ship, and it has nothing to do with the sailor."

The bosun's expression was a little nervous: "Then you mean..."

"It must be the Lost Country," Lawrence said in a deep voice, "The 'captain' took away anomaly 099..."

Speaking of this, he paused, and then sighed softly: "Perhaps we should be thankful that the Lost Country has always taken away what it wanted, and the captain came here for Anomaly 099, not us. life."

The bosun looked at his captain's face, then at the empty seal room, and hesitantly asked after a long time, "Then...we have lost such an important cargo, how should we report to the city-state authorities..."

Lawrence glanced at the bosun and patted him on the shoulder vigorously.

"The Lost Home is a natural disaster, and we have marine insurance."

"... Will the insurance company pay for this?"

"If they don't pay, let the Explorers' Association issue a new reward for the Lost Home..."

"Captain, are you a little anxious..."

"Shut up."