The Zijing Sea had its share of wreck hollows, so An Youyu was no stranger to such waters.
When several underwater undercurrents converged, they created a localized zone of weightlessness.
When ships, people, or cargo sank into that zone, they came to a halt, suspended in the deep water without sinking any further.
Over time, as shipwrecks and sunken cargo accumulated, boatfolk began calling these places 【Wreck Hollows】.
The "hollow" here was neither a depression on the seafloor nor a float-sink transition zone formed by overlapping sea layers, but rather a localized weightless region created by converging undercurrents.
As for the Salt-Bone Sea, having just arrived, he did not yet know the distribution of these wreck hollows.
"What's the hollow to the southwest called?"
"【Ghost Hollow】."
"Do you have a map showing the distribution of wreck hollows nearby?"
"There are several near Seven-Masts. I don't have a complete map, but there's a search-and-rescue map of Ghost Hollow in the Green Bud's old files. Hold on a moment."
Shopkeeper Xing went into the back storage room, carried out a dusty leather file bag, pulled an old map from inside, and unrolled it on the counter.
Tracing the faded vermilion line southwest of Seven-Masts Anchorage, he tapped the end of it.
Map of Wreck Hollow Distribution
"This is Ghost Hollow, about three hundred meters beneath the sea surface. The search and rescue team retrieved the hull planks from this stretch of water as well."
"What about the hull?" An Youyu asked.
"They never found it."
An Youyu stared at the mark.
The wreckage of the Green Bud was most likely in this area, and Soil Box Number Three, containing the medicine, might have remained in the hollow along with the rest of the sunken cargo.
A soil box used native land soil to nourish live medicine; inside the box, Tiger-Head Mushrooms could enter a dormant state within the soil, consuming hardly any nutrients.
If the casing and soil seal hadn't been broken, those two stalks might still be alive.
Yet when he asked about Tiger-Head Mushrooms earlier, why hadn't Shopkeeper Xing even mentioned this old shipment from the Green Bud?
Did he think mentioning a ship that had been sunk for over a decade was useless, or did he simply have no idea those two stalks were on board?
Even if the ship hadn't arrived, the manifest might have been delivered long in advance.
In the Zijing Sea, after loading cargo, a merchant ship would write a second copy of the manifest and entrust a fast ship to deliver it ahead to the receiving firm.
On the 【Cargo Manifest Copy】, the item names, quantities, and hold locations were all clearly recorded.
"What medicine was the Green Bud delivering back then? Is the manifest copy still around?"
"We did receive one back then, but it's been over ten years. I'll have to dig around to see if I can still find it."
Shopkeeper Xing entered the back storage room again.
Only after a good while did he return holding a piece of thin paper folded several times, which he set on the counter and flattened along its creases.
The top of the page listed the receiving anchorage and firm.
【Seven-Masts Anchorage, Luotu Firm.】
Below were columns divided by hold, listing each soil box's serial number, medicine name, and quantity.
An Youyu shifted his gaze to Hold Three, where he found a line.
【Soil Box Number Three: Gray Umbrella Mushrooms, two stalks.】
Cargo Manifest Copy
An Youyu frowned.
The box number and quantity matched, but the medicine name was wrong.
The voice in the lingering echo had clearly shouted "Tiger-Head Mushroom."
The cargo didn't match the documentation.
He had seen similar cases among the smuggling operations he handled in the past.
Some valuable medicines were restricted by major local firms and forbidden from private sale, so people would replace the name with an ordinary medicine to slip it out of anchorage mixed within legitimate freight.
Once the ship arrived, another buyer would pick it up.
Could those two stalks of Tiger-Head Mushrooms also be smuggled goods hidden under an altered name?
Yet when he recalled the bronze plaque he saw upon entering, with a long line of 【Renowned】 honors below its trademark—an old firm like this was unlikely to engage in contraband trade itself; it was more probable that someone had used Luotu Firm's name for smuggling.
An Youyu turned the manifest copy toward Shopkeeper Xing.
"None of this medicine was salvaged later?"
"We tried once, but found nothing," Shopkeeper Xing said. "The manifest listed only cheap Land Medicine. Hiring divers to go down again wouldn't cover their wages even if they brought anything up."
An Youyu felt slightly relieved.
Since the shopkeeper assessed the cargo based on cheap Land Medicine, Luotu Firm had most likely been kept in the dark as well.
Shopkeeper Xing glanced at the old map.
"Besides, it was Ghost Hollow."
An Youyu caught the implication. "Is something wrong with that place?"
"Even before the Green Bud met its end, rumors insisted there was a ghost city down there called the 【Rakshasa Sea Market】. They said lights would turn on inside the city to lure the living in, which is how Ghost Hollow got its name."
Shopkeeper Xing pulled a few brittle pages of search-and-rescue logs from the old file and slid them toward An Youyu.
"We searched only that one time back then. Who went, what diving gear they used, and how many came back—it's all here."
An Youyu spread open the logbook.
Beneath the header for Luotu Firm and the Seven-Masts Search and Rescue Team, ten names were listed in a column.
Six of them were ordinary divers who had not undergone fish-transformation; equipped with individual diving gear, they could only descend one to two hundred meters to search the shallows and mind the safety ropes.
The ones who actually ventured deep into Ghost Hollow to look for the ship were four fish-transformed individuals from the 【Maritime Affairs Fish-Transformation Squad】.
Equipped with diving knives, grappling hooks, and guide ropes, they relied on their own fish-swimming force to dive.
During the meeting at the commune hall last night, An Youyu had heard people mention this fish-transformation squad. It had an established roster of three hundred, supported jointly by the twenty-eight communes, and was responsible for patrolling the waters and making arrests in the Seven-Masts Waters.
However, most members were thirty to forty-year-old veterans whose cultivation had stalled at First-Transformation, with few standout young talents like those competing for top mast in the Tide Battle.
During that search and rescue operation, two of the four fish-transformed who entered the hollow died, while the other two returned injured.
Ghost Hollow
The salvaged items occupied only a single short line: one copper ship name ornament, several tattered sails, and a few cracked hull planks.
At the very bottom was written:
【Hull of Green Bud not found.】
Shopkeeper Xing pulled out a few pages tucked underneath.
"These two are the transcriptions left by the two who returned from the hollow."
Parts of the paper had been blurred by water, leaving behind only fragmentary lines.
The transcriptions recorded bizarre occurrences: lights and human silhouettes in deep water, companions vanishing without a trace, and weapons passing right through the silhouettes.
The survivors also claimed to have stumbled upon the legendary 【Rakshasa Sea Market】.
Back when he was a patrol scout and water scout in the Northern Jurisdiction, An Youyu had encountered such "Rakshasa Sea Markets" several times.
Brightly lit market streets in deep water, clear sounds of human voices, yet reaching out met nothing solid—most were the work of sea monsters like the 【Ghost Mirage】.
Some were illusions projected by Ghost Mirages, while others were toxic miasmas accumulated at their nests that clouded people's minds.
The situation described in the transcripts was similar to what he had seen; the "city" in Ghost Hollow was most likely connected to a Ghost Mirage.
Whether it was a projection or toxic miasma, however, could not be determined from just these few verbal accounts.
The 【Ghost Mirage Path】 was the most sinister of the Eight King Paths, and those who cultivated it were also known as 【water ghosts】.
A Ghost Mirage's projection could sometimes recreate fragments of life from before the land sank.
Though the ancient land had long since submerged, shops in the projection would still open their doors for business; water ghosts used the lights and voices to lure the living away from their companions before striking lethally from the shadows.
When An Youyu accompanied squads to deal with mirage disasters back in the day, he often had to locate the Ghost Mirage's hiding spot in turbulent currents to guide his armed companions to its position.
He had also assisted in preparing gear many times—what to use against illusions before going underwater, and what to bring to harm a Ghost Mirage.
Even at his peak, he was only at Three Hundred Pressure, so head-on combat was not his strength, but identifying currents and navigating routes underwater were routine tasks for him.
His fish-swimming force had not yet recovered, so he needed to regain it first.
How dangerous the things inside Ghost Hollow were could not be determined for certain from just two transcriptions.
For now, he would follow his past methods for dealing with mirage disasters and gather all necessary preparations.
……
Rate on N.U.
