Ashes Of Deep Sea

Chapter 278: Chapter 282 “Knowledge Seeker

The gently rolling waves softly slapped the outer walls of the cabin, and from time to time, faint creaking sounds emerged from deep within the deck. A boat lamp, fueled by whale blubber, quietly burned not far away. In its bright glow, pairs of eyes, curious or expectant, were illuminated.

Maurice opened the book about City-State folklore in front of him, gradually relaxing his mind, lessening his safeguards against his own self-will, and opening his thoughts to knowledge, letting the power from the book slowly immerse his spirit.

He could feel his undefended mind emitting an increasingly tempting “scent” over the vast Endless Sea.

A scholar, a reckless, undefended scholar, had opened his mind out on the sea; the hungry shadows lurking deep in the world must have sensed this bait—these blindly writhing shadows couldn’t resist the lure. However, they were still hesitating; their barely rational minds, slightly civilized by the pursuit of knowledge, had an instinctive repulsion to the environment aboard Homeloss, which kept them indecisive.

But they would not hesitate forever—those lurking in the Spirit Realm, the Profound, or even in Subspace did not truly possess wisdom.

Maurice slowly turned a page, his gaze flowing between the lines of text.

Folklore knowledge, that was what most attracted these shadows. The folklore held human fears, reverence, and simplistic understanding of nature, accumulated over long spans of time—it was coarse humanity, sweet emotions mingled with solidified knowledge, perfect for those hungry knowledge seekers to devour.

Another page flipped, with fine dust rising and fluttering amidst the turning, the light skewing through the curled paper, illustrating dancing shadows amid the paper and text.

The cabin was very quiet.

The captain stood quietly to one side, watching the open book, while Sun Shard stood on the other, attentive to the air’s stirrings.

Maurice looked down at the next line of text, seeing the edges of the letters slightly tremble.

The invader was drawing near.

The invisible knowledge predators, no longer able to restrain themselves, had come to the edge of the real world. Their tendrils sniffed at Maurice’s psyche through the pages, beginning to disguise themselves as text, with strange symbols gradually emerging on what were initially normal pages.

These were nonexistent texts, depicting nonexistent knowledge.

Clever hunters often disguise themselves as their prey, and knowledge seekers luring scholars frequently disguise themselves as “knowledge,” where reading them was the first step into a trap.

Maurice watched lines of indecipherable characters appear on the paper, feeling the enticing power seeping from the characters, urging him to read, and he whispered softly, “It has arrived.”

The next second, the “hunter” hidden in the book pages and text, as if suddenly sensing something, let out a sharp and chaotic screech that pierced everyone’s ears. The pages of the thick book then began to flip wildly, the black text on the pages seeming to come alive, struggling to transform into ink, attempting to break free from the yellowed paper!

Duncan flashed a slight smile at this.

His “fishing” had succeeded; using a historian in this confrontation with knowledge predators had indeed proven effective.

A cloud of smoke surged from the book pages, the words that detached from the pages quickly blended into the smoke, roaring as they flew out of the book, forming a smoky vortex swirling upward. Amid the smoke, dark things began to condense and take shape, rapidly forming a structure akin to bones—a massive pile of chaotic, twisted dark bone shards crackling to the ground next to the dining table. In the blink of an eye, they assembled into something those present were all too familiar with:

An ugly creature made of black bones, resembling a hound.

The ever-vigilant A-Dog, standing nearby, suddenly looked stunned, raising his head to the others around him, “I don’t recognize it.”

“That makes things easier,” Duncan casually remarked, stepping towards the newly formed Abyssal Hound, which by then had also recovered from its confusion. It fiercely lifted its head, its hollow, blood-red eye sockets exploding with red light, and black flames surged up from the bone cracks all over its body, poised to resist!

However, its resistance ended before it had even started—as the black flames inside the Abyssal Hound surged, its gaze met Duncan’s. The next second, every thread of flame bursting from its body was tinged with a touch of eerie green.

This invader from the depths of the Profound lost control over its own flames within a second, becoming a sacrifice under the captain’s gaze. Its mind, chaotic and confused, possibly couldn’t even grasp what was happening before it was engulfed in the ferocious Spectral Flame—fierce, chaotic howls instantly shattered the calm aboard Homeloss, flames devouring bones in a cacophony of explosive sounds and eerie tearing noises that echoed through the dining area!

Excellent hunters often show themselves in the guise of their prey—but truly inept hunters really do become the prey.

What happened next was unbearable for the dog, its whole body shivering into a ball, huddled behind Sherry, trembling as it watched the flickering firelight in front and listened to the sounds around it. The red light in its eyes faded in and out, “Oh… Oh my, this… oh mom, this burning… oh these shattered bones… oh that howling… oh mom, I can’t watch this anymore…”

The dining room fell silent.

A cluster of shattered bone fragments, unrecognizable in detail, lay scattered across the floor, with light green smoke curling above them and a few lingering green sparks leaping around the debris, devouring the last bit of energy the “Knowledge Hunter” had in this reality dimension.

Duncan furrowed his brows, the development of events had taken an unexpectedly swift turn.

He walked forward and kicked the pile of still-warm fragments with the tip of his shoe, then looked up at the dog nearby.

“Why would it be an Abyssal Hound?”

“I… I don’t know…” The dog shuddered instantly, its voice trembling, “I’ve never read books, I can’t read, and I hardly had any sanity before meeting Sherry. I don’t know why it suddenly appeared… fellow villager.”

At that moment, Morris stood up. The old scholar’s steady voice finally helped relieve the dog, “Theoretically, the ‘evil spirits’ attracted while reading books are random, usually intangible shadows from the Spirit Realm, but there are rare cases where ‘demons’ emerge from the depths of the Abyssal, with Abyssal Hounds embodying ‘hunting’ and ‘chasing’ in their name. In fact, they are indeed a type of Knowledge Hunter… and quite a powerful one at that.”

“A quite powerful one?” Duncan raised his eyebrows upon hearing this, glancing inadvertently at the shivering dog by Sherry’s feet, “Really?”

“Under normal circumstances, a person reading a book on a ship, if ambushed suddenly by a Profound Demon emerging from the book, would almost certainly not survive,” Morris’s expression turned a bit odd, “In worse scenarios, a Profound Demon that invades the real world in this way could quickly grow out of control and slaughter everyone on the ship within a short period… not every ship is the Homeloss.”

“Okay,” Duncan nodded, quickly recalculating the power formula in his mind, his tone slightly nuanced, “If the strongest invaders summoned while reading are just ‘hunters’ like the dog, then it doesn’t seem too dangerous…”

With that, he glanced at Nina, “Nina, you can do your winter homework on the ship in the future. If something really comes out, just beat it up yourself—just be careful not to burn anything.”

Nina immediately smiled, “Oh!”

Duncan then looked back at the dog, “So you didn’t even know you were a ‘knowledge chasing hound’?”

“I didn’t know,” the dog shook its ugly head, its voice muffled, “I told you, I was oblivious before…”

Sherry pondered for a while, then suddenly exclaimed, “Then if you say that, if Abyssal Hounds like the dog can’t read, why do they chase knowledge?”

“Alice also studies cooking,” Duncan casually remarked, “It could just be a hobby.”

Sherry nodded, seemingly getting the idea, but then looked down at her partner, who had quietly crawled under a nearby table and was hiding there, its large paws clutching its head, muttering, “Don’t ask me, I don’t know anything… This place is too damn scary…”

Duncan couldn’t help but shake his head with a smile, suddenly feeling that the atmosphere on the ship had really been improving day by day—now with these delightful daily occurrences, he was curious what it would be like when Fenna came on board.

With a cheerful mood and a slight anticipation for the future, he walked forward and kicked the pile of black bones that had gradually cooled on the floor.

It was just a heartless Profound Demon, completely different from the dog.

“Alice, clean up this mess.”

…

Under the bright and warm sunlight, Fenna walking through the church courtyard suddenly felt a chill and shivered instinctively.

She looked up at the sunny path in the courtyard, sighed deeply after a long while.

What was meant to come, would always come.