The current grew faster and faster.
The boat began to rock gently from side to side. A teeth-grating scraping sound came from beneath the hull, as though something underwater was rubbing against the bottom of the boat.
Jin Shanba and Sun Hong desperately fought to keep it on course.
But the force of the current had grown so great that the oars and rudder in their hands became increasingly heavy.
"Mr. Jiang!"
Veins bulged on Jin Shanba's forehead, and the corpse spots on both his arms surfaced uncontrollably, instinctively resisting some supernatural assault. "There's something wrong with this current! It's..."
Before he could finish.
The lead-gray fog ahead began to change color.
Like ink dripping into clear water, darkness rapidly spread outward from deep within the mist.
The lead gray was swallowed up, replaced by a pure black devoid of any impurities. That blackness spread toward them at a speed visible to the naked eye.
As though the entire world were being swallowed by a giant mouth.
"What the hell is that?"
Terror appeared on Lei Yu's face, and his voice cracked.
Jiang Qiao lowered his head and glanced at the water.
The figures beneath the lake that had been looking up had completely vanished. Cleanly, without a single one left behind. The lakebed, once packed with them, was now nothing but a deep blue empty expanse, bottomless and unfathomable.
He turned back to look.
The ghost ship was still there.
Five meters away, not a fraction off.
The one at the bow in opera costume and the woman at the stern covered in stitched scars still held their rigid poses.
But Jiang Qiao noticed one detail.
At some point, their heads had turned. They were no longer facing each other, but were both looking toward the depths of the