Ashes Of Deep Sea

Chapter 297: Chapter 301: Setting Foot on the Ghost Ship

A ship thus rose from the sea in a shocking manner, appearing in front of Fenna and Nina.

The waves on the sea had not yet subsided, and the turbulent currents spread outward from the rusted ship, with seawater continuously falling from its corroded funnels and deck structures, making a loud and noisy sound as it swayed slightly among the waves. The slanting sunlight cast upon its deck seemed to diffuse a kind of unreal color.

Nina was stunned, taking several seconds to react before she began to shout excitedly, “Ah! A ship! A ship has suddenly emerged!”

Right after that, she turned to Fenna, speaking rapidly, “I have to tell Uncle Duncan!”

Without waiting for a reply, the girl spun around and, like a gust of wind, dashed across the deck toward the stern.

Fenna, however, still stared intently at the eerie ship that had suddenly risen from the water, observing the decaying, ancient marks and every single detail on the hull.

She noticed the large letters on one side of the ship’s bow—severely covered with rust and filth, making them difficult to discern, but she still managed to make them out:

“Obsidian.”

The mysterious ship’s sudden appearance on the surface of the water was quite a commotion, and certainly not only Nina and Fenna had taken notice. Within moments, the others who had been resting in the cabins had also gathered on deck, including Maurice, Sherry, Argou, and Alice. They came near the bow, looking out in astonishment at the strange ship a short distance away, speculating about its origin. Soon, Duncan had also arrived at the deck by the bow, following Nina.

“Mr. Duncan,” Fenna immediately spoke upon seeing Duncan, “there’s no sign of life aboard that ship. It might be a… ghost ship.”

When she uttered the words “ghost ship,” there was a slightly odd expression on the young Judge’s face.

“Ah, a fellow traveler,” Duncan replied casually, then looked up at the ghost ship, which seemed to be only half the size of the Homeloss, first noticing the funnel structure on its upper decks. “Looks like a steamship… Can you guess its approximate age and origin?”

“No need to guess,” Maurice’s voice suddenly sounded from the side. The old scholar gazed out at the distant sea, his eyes reflecting a trace of complexity, “I saw its name—Obsidian, a steam clipper, sunk six years ago off the Frost Outer Sea.”

“Ah?” Sherry, who was craning her neck near him, instantly looked at the old man in surprise. “Sir, you know about that ship?”

“Brown Scott was aboard that ship when the incident happened,” Maurice said in a slightly somber tone, “But how… how could it appear here? And in such a way…”

Alice, who had been listening to the others’ conversation, looked up at the distant “Obsidian,” then turned to look at Maurice and Duncan, pondering for a long while before finally venturing, “Captain, is this normal? Do sunken ships just float back up from the sea?”

“This is certainly not normal,” Duncan glanced at her, “This is called a ghost ship… And I suspect it’s not just any ghost ship.”

While he was speaking, the voice of the Goat’s Head suddenly rang out in his mind: “Captain, shall we fire a couple shots to see? The cannons are telling me they’re quite eager at this perfect angle and distance; they’re itching to send a few cannonballs flying over…”

“Let them hold it in!” Duncan interrupted the Goat’s Head without hesitation, then pondered for a moment and turned to the people beside him, “We need to go over and check it out.”

“We’re going to… board the ghost ship?” Sherry immediately shrank back, “Isn’t that a bit rash? I’m not afraid of anything else, but what if the ship suddenly sinks back down? After all, it emerged suddenly…”

“Ai Yi will bring us back,” Duncan said coolly, looking at the girl, “Of course, if you don’t want to go, you can stay here. No pressure.”

Sherry opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Argou had already broken the silence: “Let’s go, let’s go! Fulfilling our mission for the captain is our undeniable duty! We’re more than willing!”

Sherry paused, then mentally grumbled to her partner, “Argou, can’t you stick to some principles…”

“Embracing the moment, actively participating in group activities, and seeing the situation clearly, how is that not principled?” Argou justified himself in the mental link, “With the big boss leading us, safety’s not a concern, of course we should seize the opportunity to show what we’re made of…”

“My point is, next time, can you let me have the chance to cozy up? You always beat me to it…”

After some consideration, Argou replied, “… Sherry, can’t you stick to some principles?”

Duncan didn’t bother with what Sherry and Argou were babbling about in silence (he knew whenever these two were quiet, they were definitely muttering in their mental connection) but instead looked up and asked the others, “Anyone else coming?”

“I’m going!” Nina was the first to raise her hand, even seeming a bit excited, “A ghost ship, hey? I’ve only ever heard of them in legends and stories; I’ve never seen one with my own eyes.”

“Homeloss is also a ghost ship,” Duncan had to remind the girl, then looked at the others, “What about you?”

“That ship may hold clues left behind before Brown’s incident,” Morris nodded, “I’ll go with you.”

“I’ll go too,” Fenna followed, “The ghost ship phenomenon is likely related to heresy or evil corrosion, I have some experience in this area.”

“I don’t know,” Alice thought for a moment and looked at Duncan, “but I want to be with the captain.”

“Then let’s all go and see the world,” Duncan said casually, and waved toward the mast not far away, summoning down the pigeon that was sunbathing and meditating high above, “Ai Yi, take us over to that ghost ship for a look.”

A bundle of ghostly green flames suddenly surged atop Homeloss, and moments later, the massive skeletal bird soared into the sky, swooping toward the “Obsidian,” which was gently swaying with the sea waves at a short distance.

The deck of Homeloss quieted down.

This quiet lasted for a short while, when a small boat moored nearby on the side of Homeloss suddenly made creaking noises, shaking in apparent dismay.

It was a shuttle, normally used for quickly transferring personnel between two ships that approach each other at close range on the sea.

Two cables coiled at the edge of the deck made a rustling friction noise and, like snakes, wriggled to the shuttle, lifting their ends to pat on the shell of the small boat.

The goat-headed Judge remaining in the captain’s cabin certainly sensed the situation near the deck, sighed softly, and struck up a conversation with those old mates who had been with it for a century, “Or… maybe you few small boats should practice the skill of splashing around in the sea…”

The creaking of the small boat shaking intensified…

On the other side, Ai Yi, who had flown above Obsidian, did not land immediately but circled several times over the ghost ship under Duncan’s command, making sure there were no active targets on the entire ship before landing on a part of the deck that appeared to be relatively clean and stable.

The ghostly green flames soared, and the figures of Duncan and his group stepped out from within the flames.

A distinct foul smell immediately invaded everyone’s nostrils — it was the fishy stench brought by sea water, mixed with some indescribable scent of decay.

Nina was the first to frown upon reaching the deck, “Ugh… the smell here is terrible…”

“Not all ghost ships are as clean and tidy as Homeloss, with an unlimited supply of fries,” Duncan said to Nina with a smile, “If this ship really is the Obsidian from back then, then it’s been soaked in the deep sea for six years.”

While speaking, he surveyed the eerie steamship all around.

Corrosion, decay, and stained marks — it might have once been a sleek and advanced mechanical speedboat, but now all that was left was a pile of lifeless steel and wood. The eerier aspect was that, as a ship that had just risen from the sea, it lacked any sign of sea water.

The deck was dry.

Even in many of the depressed areas of the deck, where water should easily accumulate, it was dry.

Fenna also noticed this and crouched down, rubbing the ground with her finger, her brow slightly furrowed.

She remembered the scene of the ship emerging from the sea, with vast amounts of water pouring down from the Obsidian like an endless waterfall, washing over every corner of the ship — logically, there should not be a dry spot on the ship.

“Fenna,” Morris turned after briefly surveying the surroundings, “did you feel any trace of heresy or evil corruption?”

“…No,” Fenna replied slowly shaking her head with a frown; she had been focusing on this since stepping on the deck, constantly sensing whether there were any Transcendent power fluctuations around, “There’s not the slightest Transcendent aura, but that’s even more strange— the deck is dry, which clearly isn’t normal, and behind every abnormal phenomenon, there should be the involvement of Transcendent powers.”

“Then it may be Transcendent powers beyond your perception,” Duncan said offhandedly, then started walking forward, “Anyway, if there really is something hidden on this ship, we just have to keep looking and it’s bound to show up.”

Nina hurriedly ran a few steps to catch up with her Uncle Duncan, “What if something really does jump out?”

Duncan stopped, turned with a smile, “First, try to reason with it…”