The dark passages, the blackened planks, the musty smell in the air, and the fishy smell of the sea water all give a feeling of oppression.

While the other team members pried open the nearby hatch and checked the contents of the cabin, Chen Ziyang took out a yellow candle from his backpack.

If you look closely at this candle, you will see that this is not an ordinary candle. Candles are not made of wax, but are made of yellow runes, which are rolled into the body of the candle layer by layer, and even the wick of the candle is twisted from a single rune.

The method of making this candle was learned by Chen Ziyang from a Taoist secret book found in a Taoist holy place, and the name of the candle is called the Thousand Fu Candle.

Literally, the Thousand Runes Candle should be made from a thousand spirit runes, but the candle in Chen Ziyang's hand only used 99 spirit runes, plus the one that was rolled into the heart of the candle, a total of 100 pieces.

A hundred spirit runes are rolled together, this candle is already very thick, if it is really as the literal meaning of the thousand runes described, with a thousand spirit runes rolled into a candle, I don't know how thick this candle will be, it is likely that it is inconvenient to hold.

However, although only a hundred spirit runes were used, the effectiveness of the thousand rune candle in Chen Ziyang's hand was not bad.

He had tested it several times before, and this candle had a very keen detection effect on evil spirits, and when the candle was lit, if there was something evil nearby, the flame from the burning candle would glow green.

The closer you are to the object, the more conspicuous the green light in the candle flame will be, and when the candle flame turns completely green, it means that the person holding the candle has already arrived in front of the evil thing.

Although the Du family's compass can indicate the direction of the coffin, it cannot mark the distance between it and the coffin, so Chen Ziyang took out this thousand candles, hoping to detect the distance between the evil thing and himself, so that he can have a time to prepare, so that he will not be at a loss when he is suddenly attacked by the evil thing, and he is not prepared at all.

After the Thousand Fu Candle was lit, the outer flame of the candle flame had already shown green, accounting for almost one-third of the entire flame area, and Chen Ziyang knew that the distance between his position and the coffin was not too far.

However, he estimated that it was very likely that the coffin should be on the second floor of the cargo hold, after all, according to the structure of the cargo hold that is being explored now, the first floor should be inhabited, and the second floor should be the place where some large or large quantities of goods are placed.

Yang Lei and Umbrella Shishuai have been closely following behind Chen Ziyang and have not joined the search team. Several other members of Liu Cong's team kept priing open the doors of one room after another, looking for traces of the iron book in the cabins.

Without exception, there is nothing noteworthy in these cabins, although some non-rotten artifacts can occasionally be found, but these things are not the antiques transported by Shiranamaru before, they should be the belongings left by the crew or passengers who lived in these cabins before.

Because of the overnight parking on the sea, the seawater in the upper cargo hold has been almost discharged, although there is occasionally accumulated seawater in some low-lying places, but it does not affect the search. After a while, Chen Ziyang and the others searched six or seven cabins one after another.

"Weird?" The speed of the search was so fast, but it made the doubts in Chen Ziyang's heart deeper. What the hell was the team that came in before? Where have their people gone? Why haven't you seen even a single person until now?

The design of the door of the cargo hold is very simple, even if there is a lock on it, it has been very corroded, and the door can be opened with a crowbar, and the area of the room is not large, if there is anything inside, it is clear at a glance.

From using a crowbar to pry open the hatch to looking at the contents of the house, it didn't take half a minute, and the previous team was quite large, and the search should be very fast, but why did they just search the first few rooms, but not the back rooms?

"Something must have lured them away!" Chen Ziyang became more and more convinced of his idea. And at this moment, the umbrella Shi Shuai behind him pushed his shoulder, and pointed to a hatch that had just opened, apparently finding something in the room next to him. Chen Ziyang followed Umbrella Shishuai into the room.

The musty smell of rot in the cabin was very strong, and there was nothing special on the floor except for some seawater and a few piles of black, rotting stuff. After looking around, Chen Ziyang raised his head and looked at the bulkhead with Umbrella Shishuai.

What attracted the attention of Umbrella Shi Shuai was the bulkhead in front of the two people. The boards in front of the two of them were covered with scratches one after another, and these scratches were densely packed and crossed with each other, even on the blackened planks were very conspicuous.

After taking a look, Chen Ziyang knew why Umbrella Shishuai paid attention to these scratches. Although the scratches have been soaked in the sea water for many years, they are still relatively clear, but the edges of the scratches are no longer edged and ankled.

Scratches exist in groups, each group of scratches is three or four straight lines in parallel, and the length of each scratch is about ten centimeters, and these scratches can be seen to be scratched by the nails.

After looking around in the cabin, Chen Ziyang found that in addition to this bulkhead, there were many such scratches on the back of the hatch and near the hatch, even denser than those on this bulkhead.

The dense scratches in front of it seem to tell a horrific story to those who watch it, to tell a tragic incident, or to describe a terrifying monster. But it is clear that the effect of these scratches is not very ideal, and although the atmosphere of horror is created, the story is not clearly explained.

After careful observation for a while, Chen Ziyang found that these scratches should not have been made by one person, because the length of these scratches and the distance between the two scratches were not the same, and it was obvious that the people in this cabin had contributed some scratches to this wall.

These scratches must have been very deep before, and even after so many years of immersion in the seawater, they were still clearly visible, and from this it is clear that the people who had made the scratches on this wall before must have felt very horrible, or suffered greatly.

"Weird?" Chen Ziyang scratched his head, lowered his head and looked at the floor of this cabin, and then he kept picking up the piles of debris on the ground with his feet.

"What are you looking for?" Yang Lei, who had been around the room for a few times and didn't find anything, came over, and after seeing Chen Ziyang's intentions, he said that he wanted to help.

"Corpses."

"What? Corpse? Whose corpse? Yang Lei, who didn't understand the situation, asked very incomprehensibly. But Umbrella Shishuai, who had been studying these nail marks with Chen Ziyang, reacted.

"Eryang, you mean ......"

"Not bad. Don't you think it's strange that since we boarded the White Wave Pill, we haven't even seen a single corpse, not even a complete skeleton, or even a human bone, which is so wrong.

Even if the list of goods carried on the Shiranamaru is not necessarily accurate and exaggerated, the list of personnel should not be wrong.

The ship was carrying at least a thousand Japanese residents at the time of departure, as well as hundreds of soldiers and hundreds of sailors, and the younger two thousand people died on this ship, why didn't we even see a skeleton.

It was unconscionable that there was not a single body on the upper deck, in the cockpit, or in the cargo hold on the upper deck.

These cabins are all separated, and the area is not large, it is obvious that they are used for temporary occupancy, and the daily necessities in the cabin can also prove this, but what about people, why not even a person? ”

"Perhaps...... Maybe before the Shiranamaru sank, these people realized that something was wrong, so they boarded the lifeboat, or jumped directly into the sea, so they didn't die in the cabin, maybe their bodies were in the sea. Yang Lei's eyes rolled and he thought of this explanation.

"I've thought about this before, but it doesn't make sense. I used to look around when I was at the bottom of the sea, and although there were many items from the wreck scattered around, there was still not a single skeleton.

The place where the Shiranamaru sank was an undersea mountain range, the mud and sand on the stones were not thick, it was impossible to cover up all the bones, and I had seen scattered items that were much smaller than bones, but not a single human bone was found, which means that these people should still die on the ship. ”

"Maybe these people were all organized together before the ship sank, and they wanted to be rescued together or escape together, after all, the sinking of the ship takes a long time, and they should have enough time to assemble." Umbrella Shishuai said.

"It's a possibility, but look here." Chen Ziyang pointed to the scratches on the nails in front of him.

"If I were to get these scratches now, I wouldn't have been able to get them, and judging by the density and depth of these scratches, the person who made them could only unleash such potential at the moment of life and death, and be able to make these marks on the board with so much force.

So according to my estimate, I don't know why the door of this cabin was blocked at the time, and the white wave pill was sinking little by little, and the sea water had poured into this cabin, so the people in this cabin would keep scratching the hatch with their fingernails.

That's because they don't have anything in their hands, and the water is pouring in so fast that they can only compete with the hard planks with their fingernails. That's why the back of the hatch has the most dense nail scratches, because many people in the cabin want to get out of the most vulnerable doors. ”

After saying this, a picture seemed to appear in the minds of Umbrella Shishuai and Yang Lei, some unarmed Japanese civilians were trapped in this cabin, and the sea water was pouring in through the cracks in the doors and wooden boards, reaching their waists, and it would take a few minutes to completely fill the space in the warehouse.

But these Japanese civilians had no way to open the blocked hatch or shake the solid wooden bulkheads, they could only scratch and scratch on the planks with their fingernails.

It wasn't until blood oozed from their fingers, until pieces of their nails fell off their fingers, until the sea filled the entire chamber that they hung their arms limply.

"You're right, the scratches do match the scene you described." Umbrella Shishuai nodded and said with certainty.

"Then the problem comes back, since these people are trapped in this cabin, which means that their bodies should be left here, even if all the flesh and blood on the corpses are decomposed, but the bones should always be left, but there is nothing here."

"Ziyang, do you think there will be anyone...... Or was there something that came through this chamber after these people died, and took away their bodies? ”

"This ...... It's possible, but wasn't the door to this cabin locked? Chen Ziyang stared at the umbrella Shi Shuai and asked strangely, after all, he was the first to notice the situation in the cabin before.

"Huh? I didn't pay attention, I just saw Liu Cong's team members open the hatch, as for whether they pushed it open or pried it open, I really didn't pay attention, by the way, let's just ask. ”

After saying this, Umbrella Shishuai hurriedly turned around, wanting to find Liu Cong's team members, but he found that there were only three people left on his side in this cabin, it seemed that Liu Cong's team members were not interested in the scratches of these nails, they should continue to search.

The umbrella Shi Shuai, who chased out the door, was suddenly stunned in the passage, and then he hurriedly waved his hand to Chen Ziyang and called him into the passage.

Chen Ziyang, who returned to the passage, looked at the dark passage in front of him and was stunned. At this time, Liu Cong's team members who came in with them had disappeared, and the entire passage was very quiet, and no sound could be heard at all, obviously these people were not searching other cabins.

In front of this passage, only two hatches were opened, and the hatches in front of it were still closed, which means that Liu Cong's team members disappeared after leaving the room with scratched nails.

"Eryang! You see! Yang Lei pointed to the thousand rune candles in Chen Ziyang's hand and said in surprise.

At this time, Chen Ziyang noticed that more than half of the flame of the Thousand Rune Candle he was holding in his hand had turned green, and the flame was shaking very much.

"Oh no, the evil thing has moved."

(End of chapter)