“What the hell is that thing?”

The human face floated in the pool water—flat mouth, sunken nose, with eyelids but no eyeballs. The entire face was deep blue, a penetrating blue.

“That’s not a person!” Shan Jie said in surprise. “It looks like a fish.”

Below the human face there was no torso, only a fish body. The fish body was like a deep blue ball of flesh with over a dozen pairs of floating tentacles.

“It doesn’t look like a fish either. It’s like a monster. Let’s escape quickly.” Ji Ming turned and rushed toward the wooden ladder.

“Wu wu wu… wu wu wu!” The human-faced monster fish emitted a mournful crying sound, exactly the same as the sobbing cry Li Si had heard outside.

“So the crying sound was the call of this human-faced monster fish,” Yue Tianhong said with sudden realization.

The ferocious sea monkeys, the unknown black shadow, the strange sea sand and seaweed, and the human-faced monster fish—each one was inexplicable, draping this sea vessel of unknown origin with a veil of danger.

“Let’s go back,” Li Si said.

Li Si took one last look at the pool. When the firelight moved away from the pool’s range, the human-faced monster suddenly shot out rings of shallow light that was blue with brilliant gold. The blue-gold light was like water ripples, slowly spreading throughout the entire lower hold.

Li Si stared in astonishment until Su Qin tugged his sleeve: “Let’s go, Lord Li.”

“Mm.”

The five climbed out of the lower hold and came to the deck again.

Ji Ming didn’t see the floating ladder. “Where’s the floating ladder?” Ji Ming searched all around.

The floating ladder was tied to the sea vessel’s cloud carriage. On one side of the cloud carriage were obvious marks of being hacked. Li Si shook his head and said, “Someone cut the floating ladder.”

Yue Tianhong said, “There’s no other way. Have the people on the opposite side throw the floating ladder over again.”

“Right.” Ji Ming huffed a few times and said, “I’ll call them.”

“Hey! People on the opposite side, throw the floating ladder over…” Ji Ming shouted at the top of his lungs, but no one responded.

“It’s impossible that no one heard.”

The lights on the opposite sea vessel suddenly went out, just like the ghostly ship from the netherworld where Li Si was standing.

“What’s going on? Why did all the lights on the opposite side go out?” Ji Ming said.

“Xue’er is still over there.” Yue Tianhong worried about Xue’er’s safety and shouted toward the opposite side: “Xue’er, Xue’er!” Yue Tianhong shouted several times, and a woman really did run out onto the opposite deck—it was Jin Xue’er.

Jin Xue’er on the opposite side let out a scream, twisted around and ran into the ship’s cabin. Soon she could no longer be seen.

“Xue’er encountered danger.” Yue Tianhong turned to jump off the sea vessel.

“Brother Yue, don’t act rashly.” With quick eyes and fast hands, Li Si pulled Yue Tianhong back.

“I need to save Xue’er, save my daughter.” Yue Tianhong struggled. Li Si firmly held him down and said sternly, “Calm down! If you jump down now, not only can you not save Xue’er, you’ll also drown.”

“The seawater after nightfall is bitterly cold as ice, and deep-sea beasts all habitually hunt at night.”

“Uncle Yue, you mustn’t do anything foolish, otherwise I won’t be able to explain to Xue’er,” Shan Jie said worriedly.

Yue Tianhong nodded blankly: “What should we do now?”

“Crack!” A thunderclap exploded over the sea surface. From the depths of the ocean, thick dark clouds were rapidly gathering, and violent winds were gradually arriving.

Li Si frowned and said, “A storm is coming soon. We can only wait until dawn and then figure out a way to get to the opposite side.”

“Alright, we’ll talk about it after dawn.” Yue Tianhong hung his head.

The five people returned to the ship’s cabin in silence and came to the small hall.

Li Si inserted the two torches into the holes of the flower stand. The firelight gradually weakened.

Shan Jie broke the suffocating silence: “We don’t know what happened on the opposite ship.” Yue Tianhong’s face was iron blue, his thoughts already in chaos.

“Could it be…” Su Qin pursed her lips and said, “The murderer who killed Xiao Lu has killed again?”

Yue Tianhong heavily pounded his fist on the table: “I was too careless, actually leaving Xue’er alone on the opposite ship.”

“Don’t blame yourself yet. There are still questions about this matter. Even if the murderer appeared, it would be impossible to kill all the crew in such a short time. These people disappeared—there must be another reason.” Li Si said calmly. “We must not lose our composure.”

“The ship we’re staying on also has strange occurrences one after another. The floating ladder was inexplicably cut,” Su Qin said.

“Hmph! The murderer couldn’t possibly be so supernaturally powerful—playing ghost one moment, then running to the opposite side to kill people the next. This is absolutely not something a person could do,” Ji Ming said with a false smile. “Unless he’s not human!”

“Not human?”

“Still don’t understand? The ghostly ship from the netherworld that emerged from the ocean floor! When we intruded on the evil spirit’s territory, it became angry. It cut the floating ladder so we couldn’t escape and killed all the people on the opposite side to cut off our chance of seeking help.” Ji Ming shouted loudly.

“There are no evil spirits in this world. Don’t frighten yourself anymore,” Li Si’s eyes were like lightning.

Ji Ming’s emotions calmed slightly: “If there are no evil spirits, then how do you explain the strange occurrences?”

“Xiao Lu died before we encountered this ship. If it was an evil spirit killing people, how did Xiao Lu die?” Yue Tianhong brought up Xiao Lu.

Ji Ming said hollowly, “Brother Yue, haven’t you noticed? Your sea vessel is exactly the same as this ghost ship. In legend, the ghostly ship from the netherworld has long since rotted away and become formless. Because it set its sights on you, it transformed to have the same appearance as your sea vessel.”

“The evil spirit killed Xiao Lu, then lured us to rescue people, and finally trapped us all on the ghost ship to kill us one by one!” Ji Ming laughed loudly. “I should have realized earlier this was the evil spirit’s temptation… If I had realized it, I wouldn’t have come, wouldn’t be trapped here waiting to die.”

“Stop talking nonsense,” Yue Tianhong rebuked, but undeniably he was shaken by Ji Ming’s words, his facial muscles twitching.

Su Qin curled up in her chair, nervously surveying the surrounding darkness.

“I’m not talking nonsense!” Ji Ming had fallen into madness. Suddenly his body went soft and he collapsed to the ground.

Everyone was startled. Li Si said, “It’s alright. I pressed his acupoint to let him sleep for a while. Brother Yue, Shan Jie, Su Qin, you should also take a nap. There will be more troublesome matters after dawn.”

Shan Jie quietly asked Yue Tianhong, “Uncle Yue, will Ji Ming go mad from this?”

Yue Tianhong sighed: “I hope when he wakes up, he’ll return to normal.”

Ji Ming soon began to snore. Li Si, Yue Tianhong, and the others were also exhausted from the ordeal. They each found secure places to close their eyes and sleep.

Not long after the five fell asleep, a powerful storm at sea was gradually sweeping in. Even greater danger and disaster were about to arrive.