Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 807: Far Away from Home
Lei Nora left, taking with her the flame Zhou Ming gave her - the traveling queen and her drifting house disappeared in the endless gray mist outside the window. It was not until long after she left that Zhou Ming took a deep breath and turned away from the window.

In fact, he had always been very curious about how the "Frost Queen" "traveled" in this endless fog, and was very curious about the principles and process of the drifting house sailing at the end of the world. After all, even if he knew that the house was the escape pod of the New Hope, it was difficult for him to imagine what kind of power that thing was now, and what it looked like when sailing in the fog - but Lenora herself seemed to be unable to explain this clearly.

In response to Zhou Ming's question, she only replied that this was some kind of "instinctive" process. She and the drifting house had merged into one. When the house was traveling at the end of the world, she was like "walking in the fog". She could not feel the chaotic space-time faults, nor did she need to consider the "power" of the house.

This sounded strange, and Zhou Ming could only explain it as the "escape pod" retaining a complete automatic navigation system. With the changes brought about by the great annihilation, this automatic navigation system may have become the "extraordinary characteristic" of the drifting house - just like Alice's "navigation instinct" after taking the helm now.

Anyway, the puppet doesn't know how the Lost Homeland is sailed, but this doesn't prevent her from making the ship run all the way to the end of the world...

Zhou Ming took a deep breath, put aside the irrelevant thoughts in his mind, and then walked to his desk.

The LCD monitor on the table was glowing faintly, and the computer host next to it was still making a slight buzzing sound. This "machine" that looked like a "computer" in his eyes was running as usual, as if waiting for his interaction.

But this time, Zhou Ming did not touch the keyboard and mouse on the table. He just sat at the table, quietly staring at the slowly flashing cursor in the search box on the screen, just like... staring at himself in the mirror whom he had not seen for a long time.

"You are part of this place, and so is this table," Zhou Ming said softly to himself after an unknown amount of time, "The floor is, the roof is, everything here is... me too. We all are, right?"

The cursor flickered silently, as if it had no reaction to Zhou Ming's words, but slowly, the glow on the LCD screen gradually dimmed - the screen went darker and darker, and finally became as black as ink, as black as a hollow mirror.

Zhou Ming stared at the empty mirror and saw his face in it.

And at the edge of his vision, on the table beside him, on the wall, on the roof, and even on the shelf and small wardrobe in the corner, these ordinary "home furnishings" that he had used for many years in his memory, the lavender starlight was swelling and emerging little by little.

A kind of "change" that is almost unstoppable is brewing near the critical point.

A slight itch suddenly came from his arm. Zhou Ming looked down and saw the "World Tree" Silandis floating beside him like a bonsai. The small sapling was suspended in the air, and the branches at the edge of the crown were gently poking his arm. It looked a little uneasy.

Zhou Ming was stunned for a moment, then slowly reached out to pick up Silandis and put him on the desk.

"Don't be afraid, little sapling. It's not time yet." He gently stroked the crown of Silandis, a smile slowly showing on his face. "I will arrange everything well. You will take root in a fertile and stable land, where there will be bright sunshine and warm wind... Everyone will have his or her own place, and Sasloka will be there too..."

Silandis floated quietly on the table, and a slight rustling sound came from the treetops, as if the wind in the memory of the past was blowing through the top of the World Tree again after a long and distant time.

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

"It's not time yet..." In the hut, Reverse Singularity said to himself softly, "The day has not come yet..."

……

The goat head suddenly raised its head, and its dark eyes like obsidian carvings stared at the figure who opened the door. For a brief moment, it seemed to see the scattered starlight filling the entire cabin, and a tall figure standing in the starlight stepped through the door of the Lost Homeland, exuding a power that seemed to crush the Lost Homeland.

But the momentary illusion quickly disappeared from Sasloka's eyes, and he saw the captain walk into the captain's room, just like every day in the past.

"Duncan Abenomar," Duncan waved his hand and took the initiative to say before the other party spoke, "I just went on a 'long trip'."

"...I almost didn't recognize you again," the goat-head seemed to be relieved and immediately started chattering, "You've been a little scary every time you've 'gone out' lately. Sometimes when you walked in, I wasn't sure what it was that came in... Hey, I'm talking nonsense, don't blame me for being offensive. I just saw a scary scene and I'm a little nervous. Are you feeling okay? Do you need to go back to your room and rest? They haven't come back yet, but I guess they should be back by now. Even Shirley should have had a full meal by now. We might be almost there. Alice is still in charge..."

The noise from the goat head came at him like a tidal wave. Duncan had mixed emotions after returning from the other side of the door, but when the first mate spoke, all his emotions disappeared. He could only glare at him subconsciously: "Shut up!"

The goat head suddenly fell silent with a "bang", and then it was silent for less than a few seconds, then it shook its head again, but when it spoke again, it was not as noisy, but only with an exclamation and a smile: "...Welcome back, I hope you are okay."

"...What could possibly happen to me?" Duncan exhaled, and walked towards the chart table. However, before he sat down, he still looked up at the goat's head and nodded seriously, "Don't worry."

His eyes then fell on the nautical chart covered with a thin mist.

After crossing the world border, the routes and signs on the boundless ocean could no longer be seen on this nautical chart that could be updated in real time. Instead, there was only endless gray-white fog and the faintly visible light green trace of the Lost Homeland in the fog.

Now the vague trail still floats on the edge of the chart, and it has now sailed almost halfway to the end of the world.

The third node is approaching - this is the only information that this nautical chart can currently provide.

A hundred years ago, when the real Duncan Abnomer piloted the Lost Homeland to challenge the world's borders, was he relying on such a nautical chart that provided almost no useful information?

Or... he didn't even have such a sea chart at that time?

Some irrelevant thoughts popped up in Duncan's mind, and at this moment, he heard a lively sound coming from the deck outside.

His crew had returned from their meal on the Brilliant Star.

An inexplicable feeling surged up, and Duncan couldn't help but smile slightly. He stood up from behind the chart table, walked to the door of the captain's room, pushed it open and walked out.

Nina and Shirley, who were playing and joking on the deck, heard the noise immediately and turned to look over here. Nina smiled and waved her arms happily, "Uncle Duncan!"

Morris took off the pipe from his mouth and bowed to Duncan. Vanna also bowed her head with a smile. Shirley sat on Agou and rubbed her belly. She waved her arms at Duncan with a smile, and said in an awkward and unreasonable way: "I ate a little too much..."

Ah Gou was full of resentment: "You've eaten too much, why don't you go for a walk by yourself? What's the point of me carrying you around..."

Nina came over with a smile, holding a lunch box with a handle in her hand. She happily showed Duncan the contents. "This is the sweet pancakes and carrot stew that Luni made. I'll put them on the table for you. Don't forget to eat them~"

As soon as she finished speaking, the girl walked briskly past Duncan and into the captain's room.

Duncan had a smile on his face the whole time. He looked at these lively figures, watching them talking, laughing, playing, and boasting around him. He saw the sailor also came out of the cabin and complained to Morris about the "viscous compounds of unknown composition" in the kitchen soup pot that were difficult to clean. Agatha's figure appeared in the air nearby - Shirley ran when she saw her, but was pulled back by Agou with a chain after running a few steps...

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

This was truly his best day on this ship.

Then, he heard a low roar coming from the sky and felt the slight shaking of the Lost Homeland's hull - outside the side of the ship, wisps of color suddenly emerged in the uniform gray-white background, which was a sign that the jump channel had reached the end.

Above the Homeland Lost and Radiant Star, the phantom of the New Hope was gradually fading, the front end of the jump channel began to break, and a gray-black and dark red color appeared in the thick fog in the distance, followed by the sound of the ship entering the water - the destination was reached.

"…The jump stops…"

The fuzzy and distorted sound reached everyone's ears.

The people on the deck reacted, and then all ran towards the side of the ship. Duncan subconsciously looked back at the direction of the stern deck. The next second, he saw a head sticking out from the guardrail at the edge of the bridge. Alice was waving at him happily: "Captain! We've arrived! It's the Fire Festival..."

A head fell from the edge of the cockpit, bounced a few times on the ground, and landed at Duncan's feet.

Alice looked up at the captain, blinking her eyes.

Duncan sighed: "Sometimes, I even suspect that you did it on purpose."

Alice thought for a moment and said, "Help, help, help..."

(End of this chapter)