"Nothing a Keane says can be trusted!"
Ben Coates stormed through a random door, shouting, "What happened to working together? What happened to being friends on the ship, enemies off it? No honor! The moment there's a benefit, you run off alone and slam the door behind you, hogging all the good stuff! Hope you choke on it, you bastard!"
He'd watched Quinn closely just now—Quinn stepped into that mysterious room and shut the door behind him!
It wasn't the door closing automatically—Quinn had shut it himself, using the ship's spatial formation to keep Ben locked out!
That kid clearly planned to hog everything for himself!
Ben Coates quickly calmed down, focusing on calculating the ship's second-layer spatial formation. Coldly, he said, "Now that I know there's a second layer, I can figure out where that corridor really is. You won't get all the benefits for yourself!"
As he calculated, Ben opened room after room, searching for his subordinates. The ship had countless rooms, and his people had long since gotten lost, wandering in circles, trying to find a way out but only getting more trapped.
Ben had already figured out how to crack the ship's outer spatial formation, but finding his people still took time. Along the way, he ran into the two White Bat Demons and the Dragon-Qilin—who, surprisingly, was also working on breaking the spatial formation and was nearly at the bridge.
The two sides fought fiercely, and Ben's group was routed—until a Witch King burst into the room and managed to rescue them.
When he finally found a few other Witch Kings, he still couldn't locate the corridor, and a deep sense of frustration welled up in his heart.
"Even if I can't find it, that Keane brat will show up eventually. Then I'll capture him, force him to hand over the silver helm, and spill all his secrets!"
Inside the room at the end of the corridor, Quinn blinked. Locking Ben Coates outside had been deliberate. The Old Man in the Painting had led him here to uncover the ship's secret, and now that he was close, he didn't need Ben tagging along and getting in the way.
He'd agreed to work with Ben Coates only so he could push Ben out front if danger arose. Now that things were safe, he kicked Ben out without hesitation.
"Grand Venerable, I bet you were thinking the same thing. But I was just a bit quicker!"
He turned and looked around. The place was an impossibly vast room, almost like the Qu Mountain God Temple he'd seen under the sea—spanning nearly ten li, a hidden world inside the ship, though not quite as big as the temple.
But this room was many times larger than the ship itself—hiding such a vast space inside was truly unbelievable.
Quinn looked up; the ceiling was made of long wooden beams, unlike the Qu Mountain God Temple, which had been built from the bones of a Glutton beast. The two were very different.
Glutton beasts naturally have vast internal spaces, so building a temple around their bones makes for a spacious interior.
But this room was shaped by great power and divine arts that twisted space itself—much harder to build than the temple.
In the center of the immense room, a colossal wooden trunk hung from the ceiling to the floor, its roots coiling across the ground like ancient dragons.
Light flowed constantly along the enormous tree's surface, streaming from the roots to the ceiling and illuminating the vast room.
Within those streams of light, rune patterns seemed to flicker, flowing along the beams and into the ship's hull.
After a while, a heartbeat sounded from inside the tree—an ear-splitting thump.
Quinn studied the scene, puzzled—the ship seemed built on a miraculous ancient tree, with the beams above likely its branches.
Judging by the flowing light and the heartbeat, the tree was still alive—and had become the ship's core, its very power source!
How many years would it take for such a giant tree to grow?
Why did the ancient tree have such immense power, enough to serve as the ship's engine and drive it on long voyages?
'So the helm and silver helmet on the bridge aren't really the controls—this is the real core.'
Quinn's gaze fell to the floor in front of him, polished like a mirror. The Old Man in the Painting was pressed against it, waving him over, then running ahead.
Quinn hurried after him, full of curiosity. 'Is the Old Man in the Painting really just a drawing? This painting technique seems even more advanced than Grandpa Deaf's. Grandpa Deaf's art can infuse a touch of spirit, but if his figures come alive, they soon turn back to ink. Yet this Old Man seems truly alive—except he can only walk on walls and floors, everything else is just like a real person. Could someone really surpass Grandpa Deaf in painting? Impossible!'
Suddenly, he realized the key—the person who painted the Old Man in the Painting might not surpass Grandpa Deaf in painting, but in the Dao of Creation itself.
This person used the Dao of Creation to give life to the Old Man in the Painting, turning him into a living guide and secret guardian!
Grandpa Deaf's art isn't about cultivation, but his mastery of painting itself!
Quinn followed the Old Man in the Painting toward the great tree at the room's center. As he neared, he frowned—patches of green slime stained the polished floor, as if something had crawled through and left a trail.
The closer he got to the tree, the more green slime there was.
The Old Man in the Painting grew cautious, carefully avoiding the slime as he approached the tree.
Quinn scanned the empty room, nothing looked dangerous—but the slime gave him a bad feeling. He'd seen it before on the ship's deck, right before a wave of demonic energy attacked, hiding a terrifying presence.
There had been slime everywhere in that corridor room, too.
Here as well—the slime surrounded the ancient tree, clearly marking it as crucial to whatever left those trails.
Quinn looked around, unease growing. The place felt more and more like a nest—the lair of whatever left the slime!
At last, Quinn followed the Old Man in the Painting to the base of the tree. Suddenly, he froze—he saw the face of the white-robed man from his earlier visions.
More precisely, he saw only the man's face.
The ship's master—the white-robed Keane from Carefree Haven—had merged with the ancient tree, leaving only his face exposed, and even that was barely visible.
His face had almost fully blended into the tree, his eyes dull and lifeless. The tree's heartbeat was really his own, slow and heavy.
Quinn was stunned. The white-robed man must've used a forbidden technique to link his life to the tree—keeping himself alive, but slowly turning into wood, unable to move.
He must've been gravely wounded, on the brink of death!
Pursued by enemies, he'd fought his way here, killed his pursuers, and then used a forbidden art to merge with the tree and survive!
Quinn gazed at him. The tree-bound man's eyes moved dryly, like wooden balls—barely able to see, but not clearly.
"Did you send the Old Man in the Painting to guide me here?"
Quinn felt an inexplicable kinship with the man, a strange connection that made his heart tremble. He asked, "Are you Fenix Greenwood Keane? Are you from Carefree Haven?"
The man in the tree seemed to gradually make out Quinn's features, growing emotional. He struggled to open his mouth, but his tongue had turned to wood—he couldn't make a sound.
Quinn was stunned. The backlash of this forbidden art was overwhelming—the white-robed man's life continued, but his senses and bodily functions were all but gone.
"Do you recognize this jade pendant?"
Quinn quickly took the jade pendant from around his neck and held it out, trying to contain his excitement. "Do you know it? I've had this since I was a baby. I've always worn it. This character—it's the Keane character from Carefree Haven, isn't it?"
Suddenly, the white-robed man grew agitated, the ancient tree trembling as he struggled to break free and snatch the jade pendant!
Streams of light flowed along the tree's trunk, suppressing his struggle.
He opened his mouth, as if he had a thousand things to say to Quinn, but not a single word could escape.
Quinn's face fell. Speaking to the tree-bound man, or maybe just to himself, he whispered, "Granny told me a woman's corpse carried me in a basket, delivering me to Old Village in the Great Ruins at night. I never saw her. Later, I glimpsed her under the river, but I could never see her clearly. All I have is this jade pendant—I've worn it since I was little, always hoping to learn where I came from, if I have family still out there..."
He sat beneath the tree, hugging his knees, the jade pendant dangling from his fingers, swinging back and forth.
"I think my parents might still be alive, waiting for me to come home. I've never met them..."
"Later, a little girl who became a Sun Guardian told me I might be from Carefree Haven, so I tried desperately to get back there. I searched for news of Carefree Haven, looked for a way to reach it, but failed over and over—and nearly got the village chief and the others killed because of me..."
"This time, I didn't tell them I was coming here—I was afraid I'd drag them into danger again. Fenix Greenwood Keane, is that really your name? I've found you, but you can't tell me anything. Is going home, learning who I am, really this hard...?"
He buried his face in his arms and fell silent.
Drip.
A tear dropped down. Quinn looked up, wiped his own tears, and saw tears rolling down the tree-bound man's eyes.
Suddenly, something began to writhe on the tree, slithering down like a giant serpent, wrapping around the trunk, its voice strange and guttural: "Qin Hanzhen, you've met Fenix Greenwood Keane now. Your wish should be fulfilled, shouldn't it?"
--- Third update is here, but it's past eleven o'clock. Deep apologies from Piggy宅!