“Xiao Lu!” Jin Xue’er rushed toward Xiao Lu’s side, but Li Si stopped her: “The dead cannot return to life, Miss Xue’er. Don’t be too heartbroken and agitated. Right now I need to remove the silver needle. Everyone, stand away from the bed.”

“Miss Xue’er, let’s go outside first.” Su Qin helped her out of the cabin room.

Li Si gave a few instructions to Yue Tianhong, and before long, a maidservant brought white liquor.

Li Si applied the white liquor evenly to the wound. With a “pop” sound, the silver needle was pulled out from the brain, and a small amount of fresh blood splattered onto Li Si’s green robe.

The silver needle was over two inches long, with more than half of it pierced into Xiao Lu’s brain.

Surveying the cabin room, a faint fragrance floated in the air. Li Si found an exquisite rouge box near the flower stand, with a cicada and flower pattern carved transparently on the lid.

A small amount had spilled from the rouge box, and there were also faint rouge marks on the blue paper.

The fragrance was rouge scent. Li Si looked at the rouge box and couldn’t help but think of the fragrance he had smelled before falling asleep these past two nights—it wasn’t rouge scent, but more like incense.

Li Si pondered silently.

“Who killed Xiao Lu?” Ji Ming said timidly. “The ship has already put out to sea. The murderer must still be on the sea vessel… Could it be one of us?”

Ji Ming swept a suspicious gaze over everyone. Shan Jie said, “Boss Ji, don’t speculate wildly. Which of us had a grudge against Xiao Lu that we would want him dead?”

“But he was killed by someone! It couldn’t be that he was killed by a ghost.”

A deep fear showed in Ji Ming’s eyes.

Jin Xue’er could no longer hold on and fell backward. Yue Tianhong, with quick eyes and fast hands, caught Jin Xue’er.

“Xue’er…” Yue Tianhong carried her back to her cabin room. In the haste, Jin Xue’er’s boot got caught on the cabin door and fell off, revealing blue-patterned foot wrappings and a lotus-shaped birthmark about the size of a thumb on her skin.

Yue Tianhong helped her put her boot back on and hurried away.

“Stop arguing. Have you forgotten we have a God-Catcher here?” Su Qin looked toward Li Si. Li Si spoke: “The most crucial evidence in Xiao Lu’s murder case is right here.”

Li Si held up the blue paper and read: “Please find the person who possesses three eyes. If not found within two days, you will die by brain penetration!”

“It must be the person who left the blue paper who killed Xiao Lu,” Ji Ming shouted.

“Wait, I think I also saw…” Ji Ming pretended to cough a few times, then closed his mouth.

“What did you see?” Shan Jie asked.

“Nothing.” Ji Ming said dryly.

The sea vessel suddenly emitted a loud noise, and the ship’s cabin shook violently. Everyone was caught off guard. Ji Ming fell flat on his face. Shan Jie grabbed hold of the door frame. Li Si lifted up Su Qin and stood rooted to the spot like a nail.

About a quarter of an hour later, the sea vessel gradually calmed down.

Yue Tianhong rushed out of the ship’s cabin. The captain stammered for a long time before pointing toward the sea. Yue Tianhong, as well as Li Si, Su Qin, and the others who had rushed over, looked out—from the depths of the dark sea, a pitch-black sea vessel was slowly drifting toward them.

The sea vessel came straight toward them. If the captain hadn’t changed the sailing trajectory, they would certainly have collided with this mysterious sea vessel.

“This ship looks very familiar.” Su Qin suddenly said in surprise. “This sea vessel… is exactly the same as ours!”

“Both the shape and the keel are identical without any difference,” the captain also exclaimed.

“Too eerie… an identical ship drifted here from the sea.”

“There’s something even stranger,” Li Si said.

“What?”

“The ship is pitch black, without half a point of light. How do the crew control the sea vessel, and how do the people on board move about?”

When Li Si said this, everyone felt a chill down their spines. Looking again at the sea vessel that had drifted from the depths of the ocean, it was like a ghost ship from the netherworld hell.

“The ship is about to come alongside. What do we do?” Ji Ming said worriedly.

“Don’t panic. Let’s observe how things develop,” Li Si said, his pitch-black eyes deep and unfathomable.

The mysterious sea vessel suddenly stopped not far away. Yue Tianhong, Ji Ming, Shan Jie, and Su Qin looked toward Li Si.

“Is there really no one at all?” Shan Jie said.

“Shh!” Li Si gestured for silence. From within the mysterious sea vessel, a thread of crying sound gradually emerged, seemingly mixed with moaning sounds, drifting over in the sea breeze.

The sound of waves still lingered in their ears, but that crying sound seemed to grow louder and louder.

“There are people on the ship, and they’ve very likely encountered danger,” Li Si said slowly.

Yue Tianhong was undoubtedly the master. After pondering for a moment, he said, “Let’s board the ship to rescue them.”

At the end of the Hour of the Pig, Yue Tianhong ordered the captain to throw a floating ladder to the opposite side. Next was to choose who would go across. The captain and crew members all refused in unison. This sea vessel that had suddenly appeared made them sense a dangerous aura.

Jin Xue’er had not yet awakened, and the maidservants stayed behind to care for her.

Of the remaining people, Yue Tianhong suggested they all go over together—strength in numbers, and it would also embolden them.

Li Si agreed.

Shan Jie had no problem with it. Su Qin hesitated for a while, then also nodded.

Only Ji Ming waved his hand and said, “Don’t count me in.”

“Boss Ji, what you said in the cabin earlier made quite a lot of sense—the murderer is hiding in some corner of the ship. After we go over, you must be very careful. He won’t have many targets to choose from,” Su Qin’s voice was like fine wine.

Ji Ming laughed slyly and said, “Thank you for Miss Su’s reminder. On such a dark and windy night, I’m not at ease with you all going either. I’ll go along as well.”

“That’s best.” Su Qin smiled.

The five people stepped across the floating ladder and moved to the opposite side. Li Si was the first to jump onto the opposite deck. Many places on the deck had been corroded by seawater, leaving pockmarked holes.

Li Si used a fire starter to light two torches, keeping one for himself and giving the other to Yue Tianhong.

The five had just arrived in front of the ship’s cabin when Su Qin suddenly turned pale, her breathing becoming rapid. Li Si steadied Su Qin and asked, “Miss Su, what’s wrong with you?”

Yue Tianhong walked around the deck. Ji Ming stroked his silver carp beard and said, “Let’s hurry and rescue the people. This ship is eerily ghostly. I don’t want to stay here a moment longer.”

“The crying sound from earlier seems to have disappeared. Can’t hear it at all anymore.”

“Perhaps we heard wrong. The sea breeze can also make crying sounds. Besides, this sea vessel of unknown origin doesn’t look at all like it has living people.” Ji Ming started backing out, saying, “Let’s go back.”

Li Si shook his head and said, “That wasn’t the sound of the sea breeze.”

“Wu wu wu… wu wu wu!”

Again came a choking crying sound, originating from inside the sea vessel.

“Since we’ve already come this far, let’s do our utmost to rescue the people,” Yue Tianhong said. “Shan Jie, open the cabin hatch.”

The five people entered the ship’s cabin interior.

The sobbing sound lingered. Su Qin frowned and said, “The sound seems to still be below.”

Li Si used the torch to illuminate the path ahead, and the five continued deeper inside.

The layout inside the sea vessel was also the same as Yue Tianhong’s sea vessel—a small hall in the center, with corridors on the left and right. The doors of the cabin rooms were all ajar, filled with waves of cold, dark atmosphere.

“Are there really people on this ship?” Shan Jie couldn’t help but push open a cabin door.

“Swoosh, swoosh”—two black shadows darted out from within the cabin room. One of them swung its claws at Shan Jie, who crouched and dodged the surprise attack.

Shan Jie wanted to give chase but was stopped by Li Si.

“No need to chase. Those aren’t people. They should be sea fowl that live in the sea. I’d say nine times out of ten they’re sea monkeys,” Li Si said.

Li Si closed the cabin room door. Yue Tianhong said steadily and soberly, “Sea monkeys boarding the ship means there are no people left on the ship.”

The fire’s shadow flickered as the five reached the end of the ship’s cabin.

Here was another small hall. On the right was a cabin door, and on the left was a partition board separating the cargo hold on the opposite side.

The cabin door led to the lower hold. Shan Jie turned open the cabin door, and a cold wind blew up. Everyone shivered, and the crying sound was mixed in the wind.

“The crying sound is drifting out from the lower hold,” Yue Tianhong said.

“Do we… really have to go down?” Ji Ming didn’t want to descend into the dark lower hold.

“If Boss Ji doesn’t wish to go down, you can stay in the small hall and wait.”

Ji Ming even less wanted to be left alone somewhere on the ghostly ship from the netherworld: “No, it’s better if everyone stays together.”

“I’ll go down first,” Shan Jie said.

Next were Yue Tianhong, Su Qin, and Ji Ming. Li Si entered the hold last, but suddenly at the entrance to the small hall there seemed to be a black shadow. Li Si immediately thought of the sea monkeys, but no—the shadow was more like a person.

Li Si had wanted to chase after it to take a look, but felt something wasn’t right, so he decided to go to the lower hold first.

Behind the cabin door, the wooden ladder led downward. The crying sound grew even louder as all five entered the lower hold.

The lower hold was empty of people, with only some old wooden barrels. In the middle of the hold was a pool about ten feet wide. The pool water was murky, a deep green color.

“No one here?” Shan Jie said. “But the sobbing sound is coming from right here.”

“I said all along we heard wrong,” Ji Ming said.

“Ah, what’s that on the wall? It’s all wet!” Su Qin accidentally touched the wooden wall. The sensation was slippery and viscous, and she couldn’t help crying out.

“Shine the torch on it.”

As the firelight reached it, there was a layer of deep green viscous substance on the wooden wall’s surface. Li Si knocked off a small piece with a wooden block and sniffed it, saying, “No need to be afraid. This is seaweed and mud from the ocean floor. It likes to grow and reproduce in damp places.”

“There’s a lot of sand here too.”

There were many small piles of mud and sand in the lower hold. Li Si twisted some sand between his fingers, and the puzzled feeling in his eyes grew deeper and deeper.

“Strange.” Li Si took a deep breath and said, “The lower hold is covered with seaweed and mud that only grows on the ocean floor, and there’s also silt sand. These things shouldn’t appear in the lower hold.”

A strange gleam flashed in Li Si’s eyes: “Unless this ship once sank into the sea… and then floated back up to the surface again.”

“If it sank, how could it possibly float back up?” Ji Ming said in a trembling voice. “Could it… really be a ghostly ship from the netherworld beyond hell’s gate?”

“Stop talking,” Yue Tianhong said in a deep voice. “Since there are no people to rescue, let’s leave quickly.”

Everyone walked toward the wooden ladder.

Shan Jie suddenly caught sight of a blue light flashing in the deep green pool, and then a face emerged.

Shan Jie was so frightened he nearly collapsed and shouted, “There’s someone in the pool!”

Everyone turned their gaze back. There, in the deep green water pool, a human face was quietly floating.