Xiao Heshang swept his flashlight around the room. With the aid of that narrow beam, I finally caught a glimpse of what had been hidden in darkness just moments ago. This level of the ship appeared unusually spacious. Only a few tables and chairs were scattered messily in the corners. Aside from that, there was nothing else—no decoration, no furnishings.
Once he confirmed there was nothing abnormal inside, Xiao Heshang stepped in first. The rest of us followed closely behind, leaving Hao Wenming alone to stand guard at the entrance. Xiao Heshang's attention was fixed on the walls, as though searching for something. But even after scanning every side with his flashlight, he found nothing. Eventually, he gave up.
He muttered, "Not even an oil lamp or a candle. Who knows how long these few batteries will last. It's pitch-black in here—if we lose all light, we'll be no better than five blind men stumbling in the dark."
His words surprised me. I stared at his back and said, "Old Master Xiao, even you guys can't see? Your Heavenly Eyes are blocked too?"
Xiao Heshang paused and glanced back at me. "Lazi, who told you this is a problem with the Heavenly Eyes?" Seeing the confused look on my face, he continued, "This ghost ship is under a suppression spell. For people like us, once we board the vessel, abilities like the Heavenly Eye will gradually be weakened. Break the suppression, and our abilities will come back immediately."
You knew and didn't bother to warn me? I was fuming inside. Before I could open my mouth again, Po Jun leaned in close and whispered, "We ran into the suppression below. Only after seeing it ourselves did we realize what was going on. But we didn't have the right tools—there was no way to break it."
Sun Fatty shuffled over and said to Po Jun, "Jun, aside from that suppression thing, did you find anything else down there? You know, like gold, jade artifacts, treasures?"
Po Jun replied, "Nothing. We were worried about you guys up here, so we didn't look around carefully. Gave it a quick once-over. When we saw you hadn't come down, we came back up."
Just as Po Jun finished speaking, Xiao Heshang spotted something on the floor. The beam of the flashlight caught a pale, shriveled human hand lying there all alone. It was the same severed hand that Sun Fatty had chopped off earlier on deck and tossed down.
But now, it looked nothing like before. The hand had twisted into a grotesque shape. The skin between the middle and ring fingers had been torn open, and the pinky and thumb were bent at unnatural angles. Faint bite marks were still visible on the back of the hand. If we didn't remember the shape of the wound and that it was Sun Fatty who did it, we never would've guessed this was the same hand—it had been mutilated beyond recognition.
Sun Fatty recoiled in disgust, turning his head away. Po Jun and I managed to hold our ground, staying beside Xiao Heshang to take a closer look.
Xiao Heshang stepped forward, pulling a steel needle—about the size and thickness of a knitting needle—from behind his waist. He used it to pick up the severed hand and examined it under the flashlight. After a moment, he muttered, "What kind of grudge could twist a hand like this… Hm? What's this?"
He was pointing at something stuck to the wound—a small black pebble, about the size of a soybean. Under the beam of the flashlight, it gleamed with a dark, oily sheen. It looked neither like stone nor jade. Xiao Heshang held it up, his brows furrowing as he studied it. After a long pause, he said hesitantly, "Is this… a tooth?"
"Old Master Xiao, you seeing things?" I shifted my gaze from the pebble to his face. "That's supposed to be a tooth? The color's all wrong, and the shape doesn't fit either. It's not flat or pointed—since when are teeth round?" I pointed at the slightly tapered end and added, "There's not even a root. What kind of tooth has no root?"
After hearing me out, Xiao Heshang kept shaking his head. He seemed to vaguely recall something about the black 'tooth' but couldn't quite place it. The answer was on the tip of his tongue, yet just out of reach. After hesitating a bit, he called out, "Xiao Hao, come take a look. Tell me what this thing is."
When Director Hao came over and saw the little black pebble, he frowned in thought. He held it in his palm and examined it under the flashlight for a long while. Then, suddenly, he slapped his thigh and said, "Consultant Xiao, you were right. This is a black tooth. It's the tooth of a Nyeh."
"A… Nyeh Tooth?" Xiao Heshang murmured. "I always thought that thing was just a myth." He frowned and looked at Hao Wenming. "Xiao Hao, are you sure it's really a Nyeh tooth?"
Hao Wenming replied, "There's one way to be sure—just test it."
Sun Fatty nudged Po Jun with his elbow and asked, "Jun, what's a Nyeh?"
Po Jun looked confused and shook his head. "Nyeh tooth… Never heard of it."
Meanwhile, Hao Wenming had already walked beneath a hole in the ceiling with the black stone in hand. He placed it on the floor, right under the moonlight shining through. At first, nothing happened. But after about five or six seconds, the black stone began to tremble—lightly at first, then more and more violently. Another five or six seconds passed, and the stone began to slowly roll away, heading for the shadows just beyond the reach of the moonlight. Only once it reached total darkness did it come to a stop.
"'Teeth as black as pearls, fleeing from sun and moonlight.' If you ask me, there's a ninety-nine percent chance this really is a Nyeh tooth," Hao Wenming said as he picked it up—without so much as a glance—and handed it back to Xiao Heshang, as if the thing was cursed.
Even after the identity of the stone was confirmed, Xiao Heshang's frown only deepened. Judging by the look on his face, if Hao Wenming hadn't handed it right to him, he probably wouldn't have taken it back.
Sun Fatty stepped beside Hao Wenming and asked, "Hao Tou, what exactly is a Nyeh? Doesn't sound like anything good." Po Jun and I had also gathered around, and I added fuel to the fire, saying, "Hao Tou, how about giving us a quick lesson—what's a Nyeh?"
Before answering, Hao Wenming glanced at Xiao Heshang. Seeing no objection, he slowly began to explain what he knew.
Within the Investigation Bureau, records on the Nyeh are exceedingly scarce. Even now, there's ongoing debate over whether this 'being' truly exists. The archive only holds two files related to the Nyeh—and even those are mostly derived from unofficial histories.
One account dates back to the second year of Emperor Wu of Han's Yuanding reign(Note: 115 BCE.), in the fourth lunar month. That year, a severe drought struck, and in Yao County of the Guanzhong region, not a single grain was harvested across a hundred-li radius. Over thirty county folk abandoned their homes in search of survival. While passing through Tiger Ear Mountain in Ba Commandery, they encountered a black wild horse. Driven mad by hunger, they immediately shot the horse with arrows.
To their shock, the black horse uttered a single word before it died—"Nyeh!"
By then, people had lost all semblance of reason. The dead were being thrown into pots, let alone a horse that could speak. Yet when they began butchering the carcass, they discovered something strange—the horse's bones, including its teeth, were all pitch black.
Among the refugees was a defrocked Daoist. Upon seeing this, he refused to eat the horse meat no matter what, and secretly pocketed one of the black teeth. The others were too busy scrambling for meat to care. That entire horse, organs and all, was devoured clean by the thirty-plus starving survivors.
At first, nothing happened. Some even mocked the defrocked Daoist for being timid. But just one hour later, everyone who had eaten the meat began to melt, like snowmen collapsing into bloody puddles. Skin, flesh, bones—even their hair—dissolved at a terrifying speed.
The scene resembled a vision of hell. Those melting didn't die immediately. Instead, they watched in horror as their bodies liquefied, enduring extreme agony before they "slowly" perished. The lone survivor, the defrocked Daoist, fainted on the spot.
It wasn't until late the next day that the Daoist finally regained consciousness. What greeted him was a field littered with clothes. No bodies, no blood, nothing remained. Not even a trace of the pools of gore. Disoriented, unsure whether it had been a dream, he remembered the black horse tooth he'd kept. But as soon as he took it out, sunlight hit it—and the tooth rolled out of his hand by itself, moving until it reached a shaded corner, where it stopped, as if alive.
After that, the man re-entered the Daoist sect and eventually became the chief of a temple. He often recounted the tale as a warning to his disciples. Whenever someone doubted him, he would produce the black tooth as proof. Five years later, the tooth disappeared without explanation. A month afterward, the Daoist died suddenly, screaming a single word before he passed: "Nyeh!"
When they found his body, it had turned entirely black—skin, pupils, even his teeth looked like charcoal. But unlike the tooth he once owned, his teeth lacked the power to avoid sunlight.
Another account of a similar nature emerged around the same time, during the short-lived Xin Dynasty under Wang Mang. At the end of that era(Note: 23 CE.), the Red Eyebrows and Green Forest rebels rose in revolt. One of the Red Eyebrow leaders, Xiang Xia, encountered a black fox while hunting. Delighted by its rare black fur—never before seen—he skinned it and fashioned the pelt into a collar. During the skinning, he too noticed the fox's black bones and teeth, but as a hardened soldier, he paid it no mind.
The first time Xiang Xia wore the collar, he began to hear whispering in his ears. A voice repeated the same word again and again: "Nyeh, nyeh, nyeh, nyeh…" The moment he removed the collar, the voice vanished. Alarmed, he burned the fur collar immediately.
But a few days later, he began to hear the whispers again, even without the collar. Xiang Xia grew terrified and regretted killing the fox, but it was too late.
Not long afterward, during the Battle of Yiyang between the Red Eyebrows and Liu Xiu's forces, Xiang Xia was killed. According to his personal guards, he was slain by a soldier with the face of a fox. As Xiang Xia died, he screamed "Nyeh!"—and the fox-faced soldier echoed the same cry. When the man opened his mouth, he revealed a set of jet-black teeth.
Those are the only two known records regarding the Nyeh, both from the Western Han period. In the two thousand years that followed, no similar incident—neither in official histories nor folk tales—was ever documented. Most people in the Bureau regard tales of the Nyeh as ancient ghost stories, fabricated superstition. No one ever took it seriously.
Until we encountered it on the Phantom Vessel.
After Hao Wenming finished speaking, Sun Fatty blinked, tilted his head in thought, and said, "Hao Tou, you still didn't explain—what is the Nyeh, exactly? A horse? A fox? Or is it something that turns into a horse or fox?"
Hao Wenming sighed. "Those two are the only records we have. If it weren't for the description of the tooth, I wouldn't even have recognized it as a Tooth of the Nyeh."
Unconvinced, Sun Fatty turned to Xiao Heshang. "Old Xiao, Master Monk, do you see anything?"Xiao Heshang was staring blankly at the black tooth in his hand. Hearing the question, he silently handed it to Sun Fatty.
As soon as Sun Fatty took the Tooth of the Nyeh, his pocket let out a sharp screech. The Wealth Rat leapt from his pocket, scurried up his arm, and snatched the black tooth with one paw. Using the remaining three paws, it darted straight to Xiao Heshang and tossed the black tooth at his feet.
Xiao Heshang bared his teeth in annoyance, about to curse, when suddenly a voice rang out from above: "Nyeh!"
We all shuddered at that single word. Xiao Heshang immediately aimed his flashlight upward—and saw a black cat's head poking through a hole in the ceiling. It had spoken that word. Bathed in flashlight beam, the cat looked otherwise normal… until it licked its lips, revealing a mouthful of inky black teeth.
We were all stunned speechless. Sun Fatty stared up and murmured, "It's missing a tooth…"
As the words left his mouth, the black cat twisted its body and vanished back through the ceiling. At the same moment, there was a whoosh—the hole in the ceiling was suddenly sealed shut by something like a wooden board.
Hao Wenming reacted first. The moment the hatch closed, he shouted, "Out! Hurry, get out of here!"
But it was already too late.
Just as we moved to flee, we heard another whoosh—this time from the direction of the exit. The stairs, which had still allowed a faint glimmer of moonlight, were now shrouded in absolute darkness. The path out had been sealed.
Fortunately, Xiao Heshang still had his flashlight, so at least we weren't plunged into total blindness.
By the beam of his light, I saw clearly what had sealed the hatch—a slab of solid cast iron.
Xiao Heshang walked over and knocked on it. The metal gave off a heavy, muffled sound. Frowning, he thought for a while, then turned to me and asked, "Lazi, is there any other way out?"
"There's only that one. But earlier, I did climb out through the ceiling," I replied, pointing to the now-sealed opening above us.
"Heshang Consultant, give us some light—I'm going up to check it out," said Hao Wenming, already stepping onto Po Jun's shoulders beneath the ceiling. He reached the extra layer now covering the hole. "It's iron too," he said, testing it with a push. The panel didn't budge. He had Po Jun hold him steady and tested other parts of the ceiling, tearing off a few wooden boards. Then he said, "The entire ceiling layer is iron now." He gave it a knock, and the echo was almost identical to what Xiao Heshang had heard earlier.
"Dasheng, let me use Wu Rendi's dagger." When Hao Wenming said this, Sun Fatty didn't hesitate at all. He immediately went over, handed the short sword to Po Jun, who then passed it up to Hao Wenming resting on his shoulder.
Suddenly, Po Jun reacted and said, "Dasheng, didn't you say this dagger is your family heirloom? How come Wu Rendi… the Director, is involved now?"
Unexpectedly, Hao Wenming recognized the short sword as Wu Rendi's. But Sun Fatty was quick on the uptake; after a brief hesitation, he came up with an explanation: "I'm the first generation, starting from me. Da Jun, stop with the nonsense. Stand firm and watch your back—your Hao head is right above you."
While Sun Fatty was babbling, Hao Wenming had already jumped down from Po Jun's shoulder. After returning the short sword to Sun Fatty, he told Xiao Heshang, "The iron plate is strange. The dagger can only be inserted a few inches before it gets stuck. Consultant Xiao, I'm not saying this lightly, but we need to find another way out."
Hearing Hao Wenming's words, I gave up the idea of using the dagger to scratch the iron plate at the door. We then spent over half an hour searching through the ship's cabin again and again. Even under the floorboards, there were iron plates installed. After looking around for a while, we still couldn't find any other exits.
"Old Xiao, Hao head, wandering around like this isn't a solution." Sun Fatty was the first to give up. He leaned against the corner and said, "Judging by this cabin, it looks like a place to hold people. We can't get out, and no 'one' from outside can get in. I'm just saying, let's wait quietly for a couple of days until Director Gao and his team come, break the ghost ship, then we can get out."
"You're dreaming." Xiao Heshang snorted, "I'm just afraid we won't live long enough for Fatty Gao and his team to come. This ship has drifted in the sea for over six hundred years. From the Ming Dynasty's Imperial Astronomical Bureau's Mystical Division, to the Qing Dynasty's Tongxuan Master Jia Shifang, and even to the Republican-era Religious Affairs Committee, they all tried to investigate this ghost ship. Six hundred years, and no one has ever come back from it. You really think with GPS, Fatty Gao and his team can just locate it precisely?"
From Xiao Heshang's words, I sensed something and asked, "Old Xiao, so many people want this ship. What exactly is on it? Don't tell me you don't know."
"Who do you think I am?" Xiao Heshang wheezed heavily and continued, "The files on this ghost ship are all stored on the fourth underground floor of the Bureau. Only Fatty Gao has permission to access them. If you want to know what treasures are on this ship, just ask him!"
"What's on the ship, we'll know when we get out." Hao Wenming cut in, "Consultant Xiao is right. Even if we had GPS, Director Gao's team might not find us. Think about it—how long will a phone battery last? When it dies, there's no GPS signal. Then what?"
Sun Fatty seemed affected by this and slowly got up, hands pressing on the floor to stand. But his movement was too heavy, making the floor creak loudly. The sound caught my attention immediately, and I shouted at him, "Dasheng, don't move!"
My shout startled Hao Wenming, Xiao Heshang, and Po Jun as well. Xiao Heshang asked, "Xiao Lazi, what's wrong? What did you find?"
They all gathered around Sun Fatty, who looked dazed and said, "Lazi, what the hell are you doing? You scared me."
I ignored him and crouched down next to Sun Fatty, tapping the floor with my finger. The floor sounded hollow underneath. The floor under Sun Fatty's feet was empty. We had checked other floorboards before and found iron plates underneath, but unexpectedly, the floor under Sun Fatty's feet might be our way out.
"The floor below is hollow." Sun Fatty caught on too. Together, we crouched down and drew the family heirloom short sword. He thrust the tip into the floorboard, pushing the whole blade in. Then he carved out a square about the size of a soccer ball on the floor. With a light tap, the wooden panel inside popped out, revealing the space below.
Once the hole was opened, a faint light shone up from below. From here, we could see the lower level Hao Wenming, Xiao Heshang, and Po Jun had been on earlier. After they saw the scene below, they confirmed my guess. Po Jun was the first to say, "That's right. The level we were on before is downstairs."