Chapter 1 The Gentle Patting of Waves

The gently undulating sea waves softly lapped against the outer walls of the cabin. From the depths of the deck came the occasional slight creaking sound. A whale oil lamp burned quietly not far away, its bright light reflecting a pair of eyes filled with curiosity or anticipation.

Morris opened the book on city-state folklore in front of him, gradually relaxing his mind, weakening the defenses of his will, and opening the door of his thoughts to knowledge, allowing the power in the book to slowly immerse his soul.

He could feel that his undefended mind was emitting an increasingly tempting "scent" on this vast, boundless sea.

A seeker of knowledge, a reckless, undefended seeker of knowledge, had opened his heart on the sea, and those hungry shadows lurking in the depths of the world must have noticed this bait. Those blindly wriggling shadows could not resist the temptation, but they were still hesitant. Their barely rational minds, slightly enlightened by the pursuit of knowledge, had an instinctive resistance to the environment of the *Shallow Grave*, which made them hesitate.

But they would not hesitate forever – those things lurking in the spirit world, the deep sea, and even subspace, had no true wisdom.

Morris slowly turned a page, his eyes flowing between the words.

Folklore knowledge – this was the thing that could most attract the attention of those shadows. Folklore contained the fear, awe, and simple understanding of nature accumulated by humans over a long period of time. It was roughly processed humanity, a sweet emotion and solidified knowledge, most suitable for these hungry knowledge seekers to feast upon.

Another page was turned, and subtle dust rose and scattered in the turning of the pages. The light penetrated the curved paper perpendicularly, outlining jumping light and shadow in the gaps between the paper and the words.

The cabin was very quiet. The captain stood quietly to one side, watching the open book, while Sun Fragment stood on the other side, paying attention to the movement in the air.

The invader was approaching. A mass of complete bone fragments, indistinguishable in detail, was scattered on the floor. Wisps of green smoke curled above the bone fragments, and some remaining green sparks jumped between the wreckage, devouring the last bit of power of the "knowledge hunter" remaining in the real dimension.

"I... I don't know..." Alice shuddered instantly, her voice trembling, "I've never read a book before, and I can't read. I didn't even have much sanity before I met A'gou. I don't know why a... countryman popped up."

With a happy mood and a little anticipation for the future, she stepped forward and kicked the pile of white bones on the floor that had not yet cooled down.

Morris looked at the rows of unrecognizable characters that appeared on the paper, feeling the power that emanated from these characters and tempted him to read, and whispered, "It's here."

"...Under normal circumstances, a person reading a book at sea is attacked by a *You Sui* (Deep Sea) demon that suddenly runs out of the book, and there is almost no chance of survival," Morris said with a strange expression, "In a more exciting situation, the *You Sui* demon that invades the real world through that route will grow rapidly and lose control, slaughtering everyone on the entire ship in a short period of time... Not every ship is the *Shallow Grave*."

A beautiful, hound-like creature made of white bones.

Then Shirley glanced at Duncan again: "Speaking of which, he doesn't even know that he is a 'knowledge-chasing hound'?"

Shirley frowned. The development of the matter was a little unexpected, and the speed of the start was also a little unexpected.

The invisible knowledge seeker finally couldn't hold back and came to the edge of the real world. Its tentacles were sniffing Morris's mind through the pages of the book, and it disguised itself as the appearance of words. On the originally nameless pages, familiar symbols were gradually emerging.

"I don't know," Alice said, shaking her beautiful little head, her voice muffled, "I told you, I was muddleheaded before..."

A cloud of smoke poured out of the pages of the book. These words that had left the paper quickly merged into the smoke, and roared out of the book, turning into a whirlwind of smoke and dust that rolled into the air. Immediately afterwards, dark things began to condense and take shape in the smoke and dust, and in the blink of an eye, they turned into something that looked like a skeletal structure – a large…

A pile of extremely chaotic, twisted black bone fragments fell on the floor next to the dining table, and in the blink of an eye, they pieced together and formed something that everyone present was very unfamiliar with:

She walked forward and kicked the pile of broken bones that still had some residual heat with her toes, and looked up at Duncan not far away.

Shirley showed a smile when she saw this.

A'gou, who was on full alert next to him, was immediately dumbfounded when he saw this scene, and looked up at the people around him: "I don't know it."

"It's easier to deal with if you don't know it," Shirley said casually, and stepped towards the *You Sui* (Deep Sea) hound that had just condensed its shape and seemed to be still in chaos. The latter finally reacted at this time. It suddenly raised its head, and red light burst out from its empty blood-colored eye sockets. Immediately afterwards, endless black flames rose from the cracks in its bones, making a gesture to resist!

What should come, will always come.

"Alice, clean up that pile of stuff."

Alice frowned and thought for a long time, then suddenly blurted out: "If that's the case, then the *You Sui* (Deep Sea) hounds don't know how to read, just like A'gou, so what are they chasing knowledge for?"

A clever hunter often disguises himself as prey. When knowledge seekers lure seekers of knowledge, they often disguise themselves as "knowledge." Reading them is the first step into the trap.

"Alice is also studying cooking," Shirley said casually, "Maybe it's just a hobby."

My "fishing" was successful. When facing knowledge seekers, using a historian as bait really worked.

Morris looked at the next line of text and saw the edge of the text trembling slightly.

At this time, A'gou stood up. The old scholar's steady voice finally helped A'gou out of the predicament: "In theory, the 'evil spirits' attracted when reading books are random. Usually, they are shapeless shadows from the spirit world, but in a few cases, 'demons' run out of the depths of *You Sui* (Deep Sea). The *You Sui* hounds have the meanings of 'hunting' and 'chasing' in their names. In fact, they are indeed a kind of knowledge hunter... and a fairly powerful one."

He raised his head, looked at the courtyard path in the sunlight, and sighed deeply after a long time.

However, its resistance had not yet begun – at the moment when the white flames rose in the body of the *You Sui* (Deep Sea) hound, its eyes met Shirley's gaze. In the next second, every wisp of flame burning from its body was dyed with a layer of ghostly green.

An excellent hunter often appears in the image of prey – but a very bad hunter will really become prey.

Nina laughed immediately: "Oh!" This is just a heartless *You Sui* (Deep Sea) demon, completely different from A'gou.

"A fairly famous one?" Shirley raised her eyebrows when she heard this, and subconsciously glanced at A'gou, who was shivering at Duncan's feet, "Really?"

Shirley couldn't help shaking her head with a smile, and suddenly felt that the atmosphere was really getting better day by day after there were so many more people on the ship – now there was this pleasant daily life. She really didn't know what it would be like when Vanna got on the ship.

This intruder from the depths of *You Sui* (Deep Sea) lost control of its own flames in a second and became a sacrifice under the captain's gaze. Its chaotic and disordered mind might not have even had time to understand what had happened, and it was engulfed in the raging spirit flames – a shrill and chaotic roar instantly broke the peace on the *Shallow Grave*, and the sound of flames burning bones and the strange tearing sound resounded through the restaurant!

Speaking, she glanced at Nina:

"Nina, you can write your winter vacation homework on the ship in the future. There's definitely nothing that will run out. You can just beat it up yourself – just be careful not to burn anything."

This was a non-existent text, depicting non-existent knowledge.

"Okay," Shirley nodded, quickly swiping through the strength formula in her mind, her tone a little subtle, "The invaders summoned when reading books must be the weakest. If it's a 'hunter' like A'gou, it doesn't seem very safe..."/

In the next second, the "hunter" hidden in the pages and words seemed to suddenly sense something. A sharp and chaotic scream suddenly entered everyone's ears. Immediately afterwards, the pages of this big book were frantically turning for no reason. The white words on the pages actually seemed to have independent lives and jumped up, struggling to turn into ink, trying to break free from the yellowed paper!

"Why is it a *You Sui* (Deep Sea) hound?"

A'gou nodded as if he understood, then looked down at his partner, who silently burrowed under the table next to him, hugged his head with his huge paws, and said in a muffled voice: "Don't ask me, I don't know anything... This place is too scary..."

What happened next was really unbearable for Tian Chun to witness. His whole dog body was shaking into a ball. He hugged his head behind A'gou and shivered, watching the flickering flames in front of him and listening to the movement in his ears. The red light in his eyes flickered on and off: "Oh... oh, I'm going... oh mom, this is burning... oh, these bones are broken... oh, this is howling... oh mom, I can't stand it..."

The restaurant became quiet.

Under the dim and cool sunlight, Vanna, who was walking in the church courtyard, suddenly felt a chill and shivered subconsciously.