The Captain Steps Onto The Land

The pigeon's words were as comically absurd and foolish as ever, both in content and tone.

However, it was now an undead bird engulfed in spectral flames, its translucent flesh revealing bones and tendons that flowed with fire. Its cries were mixed with crackling pops, like the wails of vengeful spirits leaking from the gates of the underworld.

It turned out that often, there wasn't much distance between the sinister and the ridiculous.

The Spirit Body Fire still burned around Duncan, and he watched the three cultists vanish before his eyes, unable to be sure of the principle behind the process.

He only knew that this was "Ai Yi's" ability.

A few seconds later, after confirming the three cultists were truly gone for good, he tilted his head slightly and asked the pigeon on his shoulder, "...Where did you put them?"

Ai Yi flapped its wings, using its beak to preen its now translucent feathers. After a moment of thought, it suddenly blurted out, "Back into the shadows!"

Duncan frowned. He had been learning to understand the true meaning behind Ai Yi's words lately. "...You mean you banished them to some kind of... parallel dimension? Or turned them into some untouchable state?"

The pigeon looked up, its eyes darting around at Duncan. "Coo coo!"

It was pretending to be a real pigeon again.

But Duncan believed he had grasped the truth. He tapped Ai Yi's head with his finger, then scanned the dimly lit "sanctuary" once more.

In the flickering light of the oil lamp, everything in the small room was clear. The Sun God's followers who had once hidden here had completely disappeared from this world. Now standing here were only a Ghost Captain, who had arrived by possessing a cultist's body, and his pigeon.

Yet, in the depths of his being, Duncan had a feeling—he could sense the three cultists were still here, right beside him. They were trapped in this room, in some dimensional rift that could not be detected or contacted by any means.

He could even "feel" the cultists shouting and struggling in vain, feel their desperation to reconnect with the real world, only to be permanently shut out by an invisible barrier.

This feeling permeated the air until, at a certain moment, Duncan saw proof: during one of the oil lamp's swings, amidst a perfectly timed interplay of light and shadow, he suddenly saw a mark on the nearby wall. It looked like it had been left by a short sword's forceful slash—but when he looked again, the oil lamp's flame flickered once more, and the mark on the wall vanished without a trace.

That was the last contact the three Sun God followers had with the real world.

Duncan let out a soft breath and, with the pigeon, turned to leave the room.

Outside the abandoned lounge was a passageway much narrower than the sewer corridors they had seen before. The deep, long passageway extended to both sides, one end leading to a fork, the other connecting to an upward sloping ramp.

Even in the abandoned areas, the city's administrators had clearly maintained basic maintenance of these underground facilities—at least, the gas lamps on both sides of the passageway were still lit.

Duncan briefly assessed the direction of the passageway and, using the fragmented memories remaining in his mind, sorted out the route to the surface. He soon stepped onto the upward sloping ramp.

He walked faster and faster.

Fresh airflow appeared, and a cool breeze stirred Duncan's hair. He heard some faint, distant sounds—the rumbling of some factory facilities operating through the night, and the even more distant sound of waves... the sound of evening surf crashing against the coastal rocks.

Duncan almost broke into a run.

The pigeon Ai Yi, having shed its spectral flames and returned to normal, flapped its wings on his shoulder, making happy sounds: "The times are calling! The times are calling!"

Duncan suddenly stopped, staring into the pigeon's eyes: "Don't talk casually outside—normal pigeons don't talk."

Ai Yi thought for a moment and flapped its wings vigorously: "Aye captain!"

Duncan was immediately surprised, as the pigeon had responded correctly to him for once. He didn't know if it was a coincidence or what—but he soon stopped thinking about it.

He had to prepare himself to face the world.

The black robe he was wearing definitely couldn't be worn outside. In the memories he had "devoured," such a suspicious robe was only used for secret rituals of the Sun God's followers. On the streets of the surface city, wearing this outfit would get him tied to a tree and beaten by seven or eight guards.

The Pland City-State enforced a rather strict curfew. Wandering at night seemed quite dangerous. Ordinary people needed a permit and prior registration to go out at night—the cultist whose body he had possessed clearly didn't have these legal procedures, so he would have to avoid the night patrols to move around the city.

Those responsible for maintaining order in the city at night were called "Guardians." They seemed to be armed forces under the Deep Sea Church. In the memories he had devoured, the original owner of this body harbored deep fear and hostility towards those armed priests...

Duncan quickly sorted through the fragmented memories in his mind. Since they were inherited from a corpse, these fragments were mostly chaotic and blurry. He couldn't piece together a complete life trajectory of a "member of modern civilized society" from them, nor could he piece together all the information about the Pland City-State. But even the most basic parts were enough to give him a general idea for his upcoming actions.

First, he took off the black robe at the entrance to the ramp leading to the surface—underneath the black robe were normal clothes, and walking outside in them wouldn't attract suspicion.

He considered whether he should burn the black robe, but the flames and smoke might attract the attention of the night patrols. So, in the end, he just rolled up the black robe and hid it in a corner near the ramp.

The sun amulet was also something that could cause trouble, but it might also contain valuable information. After hesitating, Duncan decided to take it with him—when he returned to the Lost Homeland, he could use this amulet to test if Ai Yi could bring it back too.

He could study this thing safely on the Lost Homeland.

He dealt with the traces of where he hid the black robe and tidied up his appearance as much as possible, trying to look like an ordinary citizen rather than a disheveled cultist hiding in the sewers. After finishing all this, he finally stepped onto the ramp.

The road ahead wasn't too far.

Duncan hurried up the ramp, the increasingly fresh air filling his chest. He could already clearly hear the sounds of distant factories and waves, and after a few minutes, he even saw a faint, clear light on the steps not far ahead.

He quickened his pace, and the faint, clear light finally enveloped him completely.

He had reached the surface.

Solid, stable ground, bathed in a pale, faint light.

Duncan's eyes widened. He saw a city, a city standing on the Boundless Sea, a city representing mortal civilization—a huge scar across the sky traversed the city, illuminating the dense rows of rooftops, towers, and buildings further in the distance. Not far ahead of him was the slightly dilapidated outer edge of the city, and on higher ground further away, he could see many distant and magnificent buildings—those were the "upper city" districts, where the grand church and City Hall were located.

Duncan suddenly laughed. He didn't make a sound, but he laughed until he was breathless.

However, after a moment, he forcibly stopped his laughter. He took a deep breath in the cool night wind and then strode in a direction from his memories.

Cultists also had their "normal lives." Apart from a few "priests" whose sole profession was to harm the world, the Sun Church, like most other cults, relied on a large number of ordinary people to support its operations—these misled grassroots believers were mostly poor citizens from the city's lower strata, neglected elderly people, inexperienced youths, or like the body Duncan now occupied...

An unnoticed, seriously ill ordinary person who ran a deceptive antique shop in the lower city, struggling with life and taxes.

The antique shop owner named "Roen" had a terrible life that had ended. His debt to some evil deity had been settled with his last breath, but he had left behind a place in this world... a place Duncan quite fancied.