"What kind of nonsense is this? Drifting at sea for days for no reason. Not to brag, but the fortune-teller said my fate is of fire and I should avoid water. Now look—exactly what I feared has come true."
After the meeting, Sun Fatty grumbled like a bitter housewife the entire way.
Annoyed, I turned around and said, "Great Sage, since when are you a fire fate? Last time you told me you were a gold fate. You even said you had a 24K pure gold destiny."
As I said that, the Wealth Rat in Sun Fatty's hands suddenly let out a squeaky cheer and nodded furiously at me. That little rodent seemed to understand and was actually backing me up.
Sun Fatty grinned at me. "Same thing. I'm telling you, Lazi, haven't you heard? True gold fears no fire."
"You're full of crap," I scolded him with a laugh. "At this rate, Great Sage, give it a few more days and you'll be all five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—rolled into one."
"Lazi, who are you calling five poisons in one?"
A familiar voice rang out behind me. I didn't even need to turn around—I could tell it was Xiao Heshang.
Before I could say anything, Sun Fatty frowned and said, "Master Xiao, what kind of ears do you have? Come on, you used to be in the film and entertainment business. You've seen some of the world. Why on earth would you volunteer to come on this clean-up mission just to hitch a ride on the ship?"
"You don't know shit," Xiao Heshang rolled his eyes at Sun Fatty. "What's so great about slaving away at the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation? It's way more chill out here at sea for a couple of days..."
The next morning, our ship returned to the dock. After dropping off Gao Liang and his team, it took the few of us back out to the waters where we'd seen the Phantom Vessel the day before.
Our job this time was to recover the glass spheres filled with talismans and cinnabar that Gao Liang's team had previously deployed in the area. They had dropped a total of forty-nine spheres over the past few days. Special methods were used to control the drifting range of the glass.
Sun Fatty used a scoop net to fish one out—a sphere about the size of a soccer ball. He turned back to Hao Wenming and asked, "Hey, Hao-head, not to be rude, but what's with all these glass balls? Aren't we a little old for playing message-in-a-bottle?"
Hao Wenming rolled his eyes at Sun Fatty. "To this day, I still don't know what possessed me to pass you during your internship."
After a short pause to collect himself, he explained, "The spheres are warning devices. If the Phantom Vessel passes nearby, the cinnabar inside will detonate, dyeing the surface of the water red. Based on that, we can estimate the ship's route."
Turns out, recovering those spheres wasn't as easy as we thought. The sea area where they were deployed was just too large. Over the span of a full week, the few of us managed to haul in just over twenty of them—still less than half of what was dropped.
Sun Fatty was the first to lose patience. When we hauled up the twenty-third sphere, he looked miserable as he asked Hao Wenming, "Hao-head, seriously, why are there so few? Couldn't some of them have broken already? Or drifted away to another area with the currents?"
Hao Wenming had apparently accepted Sun Fatty's theft of his catchphrase. But when Sun Fatty hit him with a "not to be rude," Hao still shot him a glare before saying, "I already told you, the cinnabar inside was specially made by Ouyang Pianzuo. If the spheres had broken, we'd see it immediately. And the glass itself is reinforced—no way it got carried away by the waves. Bottom line: keep looking. Not to be rude, but we're not leaving until all the spheres are recovered."
Another four or five days passed before our luck finally turned. Just before nightfall, we had recovered a total of forty-seven spheres. We thought that was it for the day. But after dinner, while shooting the breeze on deck, I noticed a faint flashing light in the water—blinking and disappearing on the surface. I looked closer and saw it was one of the Bureau's glass spheres, or rather, two of them tangled together by a strand of seaweed. With those two recovered, we had all forty-nine.
Once the last two were brought aboard, Po Jun lined up all forty-nine glass spheres neatly on the deck and did a final count.
While we were all focused on the spheres, Sun Fatty suddenly said, "Huh? When did it start getting foggy?"
Fog?
I looked out to sea. In just a minute's time, the ocean had turned into a vast, white blur. A thick fog was rolling in fast, and in no time at all, it completely engulfed our ship.
"Lazi, doesn't this fog look a lot like the one that showed up when the Phantom Vessel appeared?" Sun Fatty suddenly asked me.
I glanced at him and said, "Fog is fog—how can it look different? Great Sage, stop scaring yourself. Boss Gao already confirmed it—the… treasure ship won't reappear for another twenty years. You think it's a taxi? Just wave and it'll come over?"
As I said that, I even made a waving gesture for emphasis.
But just as I raised my hand, I suddenly spotted a dark shape emerging from the heart of the fog. Judging from its size and form, it was the exact same vessel Sun Fatty and I had seen ten days ago—the Phantom Vessel.
Sun Fatty's eyes went wide. "Didn't they say it wouldn't show up for another twenty years? What is this—time travel?"
Just as he finished speaking, there was a loud boom at the center of the deck. All forty-nine glass spheres exploded simultaneously. The cinnabar powder inside them burst into a thick cloud, instantly covering the entire deck.
Luckily, we had all moved away from that area to watch the Phantom Vessel, so no one was injured in the blast.
Right after the explosion, the captain came rushing out of the wheelhouse, trying to see what had happened. Hao Wenming immediately stopped him.
"Start the engines! Get us out of here—as fast as possible!"
The captain had been recruited by Gao Liang through special channels. Although not formally on the Investigation Bureau's payroll, there was no way we could hide our operations from him. Now, seeing Director Hao's expression twisted with tension, the captain said nothing more and turned back into the wheelhouse.
The Phantom Vessel loomed closer through the thick fog, yet our own ship showed no sign of preparing to weigh anchor. Growing anxious, Hao Wenming rushed into the wheelhouse. He saw the captain, drenched in sweat, frantically directing a few crew members as they scrambled across the control panel.
"Why aren't we moving?" Hao Wenming frowned.
The captain wiped his forehead and replied, "The anchor won't retract. Feels like something's stuck."
"Stuck…" Hao Wenming froze, then his face suddenly went pale, as if something had just occurred to him. He ignored the captain, spun on his heel, and dashed out of the wheelhouse, shouting to the rest of us, "The ship can't move! Get over here and help!"
By the time he spoke, Hao Wenming was already at the anchor winch. The fog was dense, but I could still see the sea around the submerged anchor, bubbling furiously. Dense clusters of air bubbles surged to the surface, and the water had turned a dark green hue around them.
Xiao Heshang followed close behind, and the moment he saw the scene below, he frowned and cursed, "Damn it, even the water ghosts are joining the fun."
Standing beside him, Sun Fatty squinted into the water. Of all of us, his Heavenly Eye was the weakest, so he could only make out a vague picture. Upon hearing Xiao Heshang mention water ghosts, he asked, "Old Xiao Master, you mean there are water ghosts down there? I mean, come on, just a few water ghosts can trap our anchor?"
"A few?" Xiao Heshang let out a cold chuckle and replied, "There are too many to count. Enough to stain the sea—there must be tens of thousands of them."
"Tens of thousands…?" Sun Fatty's expression changed. "We're supposed to deal with them one by one? That'll take forever."
Hao Wenming glanced at him and said, "Says who? Who told you we'd handle them one by one?"
Without another word, Hao Wenming strode quickly to the center of the deck. He looked around, found a piece of canvas, and wrapped up the shattered glass shards, cinnabar, and the talismans scattered on the ground. Po Jun came over to lend a hand, and the two of them carried the bundle of cinnabar dust and broken glass back to the anchor's position.
Hao Wenming pulled out a small blade, sliced open his fingertip, and let a few drops of fresh blood fall into the dark green sea. Instantly, the water began to churn, wave after wave rolling upward as if the sea had come to a boil. The color of the water deepened, and though the affected area shrank, it turned from green to pitch black within seconds.
Then, in perfect sync, Hao Wenming and Po Jun gave a flick of their wrists and dumped the contents of the canvas bundle into the sea. The boiling surface fell eerily silent for a brief moment—barely a second.
What followed was like tossing salt into a pot of hot oil. Boom! A blast echoed as the sea reacted violently to the cinnabar and talismans. Pale yellow smoke rose from the water, and the pitch-black sea slowly returned to its normal color.
Once he was sure it had worked, Hao Wenming turned and shouted toward the wheelhouse, "Weigh anchor!"
With the whine of the winch, the previously immobile anchor slowly began to rise. The engine revved, and at last, the ship began to move.
The captain pushed the throttle to maximum, and within minutes, we had left the Phantom Vessel far behind—until it disappeared completely from view.
"Wait a second, aren't we going the wrong way?" With the ghost ship no longer bearing down on us, Sun Fatty had found his voice again. "I mean, Old Xiao Master, weren't we here to find the Phantom Vessel? Now that we've seen it, shouldn't we have charged right in?"
Xiao Heshang gave him a sidelong look. "Nonsense. Gao Fatty took all the people and gear with him—what are you gonna charge it with?"
Hao Wenming also glanced at Sun Fatty. "Da Sheng, there will be other chances. The Phantom Vessel has appeared four times already—it'll appear a fifth, a sixth. Chief Gao will come back eventually. I'll recommend you be the first one on board."
Sun Fatty laughed. "As if it's that easy? It took five or six hundred years for us to see it this time. Who's lucky enough to run into it twice? Am I right, Lazi?"
He shot me a grin, but it just made my stomach churn. I was about to remind him to keep a low profile, when the captain emerged from the wheelhouse, pointed straight ahead, and called out to Hao Wenming, "Director Hao, come take a look—what's that up ahead?"
Following the captain's finger, we all looked. Through the thick fog, a massive and sinister sailing ship blocked our path.
Sun Fatty dropped to the deck and stared blankly at the ghost ship. "It's back again…" he muttered. Then, suddenly looking at the captain, he snapped, "I mean, seriously, who told you to turn the damn ship around?"
The captain waved his hands frantically and gestured, "I checked the GPS—we've been going in a straight line. It's impossible we circled back. This… this is insane…"
"Insane…" As soon as Sun Fatty heard that word, his pupils constricted. He said no more.
Watching the Phantom Vessel close in once again, Hao Wenming couldn't take it anymore. He shouted at the captain, "Turn us around—full speed, get us out of here!" At that moment, Xiao Heshang opened his mouth as if to say something, hesitated, then swallowed his words. While everyone else was distracted, he discreetly took out a small plastic bottle and poured its contents into the sea.
After a few moments of confusion, we managed to turn the ship around again. With the engines at full throttle, the ghost ship eventually disappeared from sight.
But this time, the mood was far from relaxed. None of us said a word—we all stood silently at the bow. Even Sun Fatty, usually a chatterbox, kept his mouth shut.
Another ten minutes passed. Then, a small black dot appeared ahead. It grew slowly in the fog, and just like before, the Phantom Vessel materialized once again.
Hao Wenming's face darkened, and he ordered the captain to turn the ship again. But this time, Xiao Heshang stopped him. "Xiao Hao, it's no use—we're going in circles." He pointed toward a patch of sea darkened by some substance. "That's the hair dye I poured into the sea earlier. We've looped back to where we started." After a pause, he added, "There's something wrong with this fog…"
"Impossible." Po Jun, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke. "Even if we're disoriented, the ship's GPS can't be confused by fog."
Something's wrong with the fog… Xiao Heshang's last comment had clearly sparked something in Hao Wenming. Hearing Po Jun's objection, he suddenly turned and marched back into the wheelhouse.
"Let me ask you," he said to the captain, "are all the GPS units on board functioning properly?"
"No issues," the captain replied, puzzled. "These GPS systems were installed on Chief Gao's orders—latest models, top-of-the-line. If you don't believe me, take a look yourself."
Hao Wenming didn't really understand marine GPS navigation, but he still pretended to examine it. The captain even pointed at the screen and began explaining things to him.
Then, without warning, Hao Wenming seized the captain's hand. Before the man could react, he stabbed a hidden steel needle into the bone of his ring finger.
The captain cried out in pain. Before he could curse, Hao Wenming let go and said, "Take another look. Still see the same thing?"
"What the hell are you trying to—" The captain froze mid-sentence as he glanced at the screen again. "No way… We've been circling the same patch of ocean?" He flipped through the system logs, growing more alarmed with each entry. Eventually, he stopped and looked up, stunned. "I swear, that's not what I saw earlier. It was the opposite."
Xiao Heshang had been right. Hao Wenming let out a long breath and asked, "So? Now it's working fine, isn't it?"
The captain hesitated, didn't answer. He looked dazed—what had just happened had shaken him deeply, like a lingering dream. Hao Wenming sighed, grabbed his hand, and stabbed another needle into his thumb. The captain let out another scream.
"Feeling more alert now?" Hao Wenming asked.
"Yeah… next time, just give me a heads-up, alright? If you're gonna stick needles in me, at least let me brace for it." The captain sighed and nodded. "I know what to do now." He turned to the crew in the wheelhouse and said, "Recalibrate our course. All engines, full speed ahead!"
"Hold it." Hao Wenming stopped him. "Who said anything about setting sail?"
The captain froze. "Then what do you want us to do?"
Hao Wenming replied coolly, "Drop anchor. Hold position."
By then, all of us had entered the wheelhouse. Sun Fatty gawked and said, "I mean, seriously, Hao, what are you thinking? We can still run—why the hell would we…"