In situations where visibility is poor, people instinctively feel fear towards humanoid figures. Moreover, Zhang Haiyan could clearly distinguish that the postures of these shadows were unlike those of living people. All the shadows were drooping their heads, yet their bodies stood straight. Anyone would know that maintaining such a posture would be quite exhausting for a living person, and these shadows remained almost motionless, resembling zombies.

“Xia, are you there?” Zhang Haiyan shouted into the thick fog. The moment the fog surged in, he felt a faint worry in his heart. If it really were some malevolent spirits at play, even Zhang Hai, the most formidable weapon in the South Seas, would likely be powerless.

“Yes.” The response from the fog was calm. Zhang Haiyan sighed in relief and asked, “What do you think?”

“It smells like rotting corpses,” Zhang Hai replied from the fog. “It seems they are definitely not living people.”

“Should we regroup or something?”

“Are you scared?”

“No, can you stop being contrary?” Zhang Haiyan glanced around; the figures were not approaching him, but the sky was growing darker, and the dense shadows were chilling. He raised the lantern, the light cutting through the mist. Without hesitation, he walked straight toward the nearest figure.

As he got closer, the figure gradually became clearer; it was indeed a standing person, but the way they stood was very strange. Zhang Haiyan had seen many processed corpses in the South Seas, and depending on the degree of muscle rigidity during processing, bizarre postures could emerge, such as wrists turned outward, heads dangling sideways on the chest, or excessive twisting of the upper and lower body. This corpse was in such a condition. Its mouth was wide open, seemingly dislocated.

The entire body was covered in a white crust of salt.

“It’s been cured,” Zhang Haiyan shouted, “This is a pile of ham.” He thought to himself: Damn, could it be that for the past decade, someone has been pickling people on the reef?

Suddenly, he froze for a moment, feeling that something was off about the corpse. He brought the lantern closer and immediately realized that the body standing before him was actually Chen Libiao.

After just half a second, he thought, Oh no! The ship!

Chen Libiao had just been on the ship, which had already left the reef for some distance. Now he suddenly appeared on the reef, pickled, indicating that something must have happened to their ship.

“Xia, our ship is in trouble.”

Losing the ship on a deserted island meant something serious for both of them.

“It’s fine; only people would do something like this to cut off our escape route. Since it’s not ghosts but humans, there must be another boat nearby,” Zhang Hai said calmly from the fog. He leisurely stepped out from the thick mist, passing through those ghostly figures, and returned to Zhang Haiyan’s side without even lighting the lantern.

“I am a bit worried about the captain; he has dependents.”

“And looking at this situation, they want to scare us, to make us spread rumors about ghosts. So they must have a way to let us go back,” Zhang Hai said.

“Come out!” Zhang Haiyan shouted into the surrounding fog.

There was no echo.

Zhang Hai stared at the fog; it was getting thicker, and the shadows of the corpses became more erratic, appearing and disappearing intermittently.

Zhang Haiyan continued, “I am Zhang Haiyan, the Maritime Supervisor of Nanyang. You are here playing tricks, and I will investigate all of you. If you surrender within three minutes, we’ll only deal with the main offenders. Once three minutes pass, everyone will face immediate execution.”

After saying this, Zhang Haiyan glanced at his watch and began to unbutton his collar. Zhang Haixia also stretched his neck a bit. Just three seconds after the watch ticked, Zhang Haiyan put down the lantern and started to move forward. Zhang Haixia said, “But three minutes haven’t passed yet?”

Zhang Haiyan adjusted his military cap, looking puzzled. “You believe my words? Hurry up, take advantage of their hesitation and go scare them.”

The two quickly entered the thick fog, crouching and moving stealthily. Soon, they spotted the corpse of the ship’s captain. Zhang Haiyan sighed and did not approach. All the bodies had been preserved, some highly dehydrated.

Zhang Haiyan used lip-reading to communicate with Haixia, saying, “These look like the passengers who went missing here ten years ago; they have now turned into jerky.” Before he could finish, both suddenly sensed something was off and turned around, discovering that something was indeed moving. Without thinking, Zhang Haiyan flicked his tongue and shot out three beams of cold light into the fog. At the same time, he crouched down and charged forward.