Chapter 1: Crushing Debt and the Ancient Bell

The sea breeze at the abandoned pier was no longer gentle. It carried a heavy scent of brine and rust, scraping against Lin Chao’s eardrums like a thousand blunt knives. A low-hanging mist fragmented the silhouettes of a dozen armed thugs from the Black Water Society; only the cold, hard glint of the metal at their waists looked truly vicious in the dim night. Lin Chao backed away desperately until his spine hit the rough, freezing edge of a reef. There was no way back—death behind him, and a bottomless abyss of darkness ahead.

Lin Chao gripped the cold bronze Ancient Bell in his arms, his knuckles white from the strain. The chill from the palm of his hand climbed through his veins, freezing his very heartbeat. His gaze shifted past the agent to the gleaming hilt of the knife at the man's waist, his mind racing through the sheer terror. The bell wasn't just a bargaining chip for his debts; it was the only variable, the only way out. The secret hidden within its chime was far more lethal than the fists of the Black Water Society.

Old Ghost blew a smoke ring and let out a cold laugh. "Sounds like an invitation to hell. But for the right price—or, you know, to avoid being dragged to the bottom to feed the sharks—I can play along with your madness." He patted a fishing net. "I've got a spare sonar transmitter on the boat. It's old, but it's enough to simulate a deep-sea pulse at this range. As long as you can decode the patterns on that bell, I can help you 'plant' the signal right into the eye of the sea."

"Mr. Lin, since this bell is in your hands, it serves as our collateral." Zhao Kun’s agent stepped forward, his leather shoes making a teeth-grating screech against the slippery bluestone slabs. He adjusted his tie with a fake smile, his eyes brimming with undisguised greed and arrogance. "Hand it over, and the debt is wiped clean. Boss Zhao is a decent man; he doesn't like seeing corpses floating in the ocean—especially corpses that didn't know how to follow the rules."

Lin Chao nodded, his mind rapidly mapping the vibration frequency of the Ancient Bell to the spiral fluctuations on Su Man’s instruments. He realized that every "heartbeat" of the bell corresponded to a node within the Undercurrent, and these nodes were tightening over time, forming a massive vortex trap. By all logic, when the seawater surged back in three days, this vortex would shred every ship within a ten-kilometer radius.

The salt-stinking sea breeze slammed into him, making the hem of his clothes snap violently. Su Man had already leaped onto the deck. She crouched by the gunwale, clutching the Sonar Device that was still flashing a warning red, her brow furrowed as she stared at the screen. The jumping waveforms were no longer regular oscillations; they had twisted into an eerie spiral, as if some invisible giant hand were forcibly warping them.

Su Man bit her lip, looking at the instrument screaming alarms in her hands. She took a deep breath. "If that distress signal is real, then in three days, it won't just be you—the agent, Old Ghost, and the entire port district will be buried with it. I'm not doing this for money or my own life. I just want to know what the hell is buried in that shipwreck that can still send out a plea for help a century later."

The fishing boat rocked violently in the night, the roar of the engine sounding as if it might tear the hull apart. Lin Chao gripped the cable tight, his knuckles white. Through the waterproof bag, the Ancient Bell emitted waves of heat—not the residual warmth of friction, but a disturbing, organic throb, as if something living were slumbering inside the bag.

Lin Chao held the bell to his chest, feeling the intensifying heat, a flash of resolve in his eyes. "It's not a monster; it's a key. In three days, when the Undercurrents converge, this bell is the only way to open the path to the core chamber of the Sea Witch. But I need time, and I need a partner who understands deep-sea acoustics." He looked at Su Man, his gaze piercing.

"Forcibly taking unregistered artifacts is a violation of the Marine Cultural Heritage Protection Law." Lin Chao’s voice was low, attempting to build a fragile but necessary psychological defense using legal jargon. His voice trembled in the wind, but he fought to maintain his last shred of dignity. "If you move against me, Zhao Kun is finished. This isn't just about money anymore; this is a criminal offense."

"It knows we're looking for it," Lin Chao whispered, his voice hoarse. He looked out toward the deep sea; beneath the pitch-black surface, it felt as if countless eyes were watching. That scream from earlier hadn't been a thug getting hurt—it was the wail of some creature intimidated by the energy of the Ancient Bell. The agent's talk of "rising and falling at sea" might not have been a curse, but a prophecy.

A humming sound exploded in the depths of his mind like a tsunami, and the phantom image of a century-old shipwreck overlapped violently. Rust-streaked Keels, tilted and broken masts, and the bone-chilling screams of despair from the moment of sinking—all this information turned into sharp electrical currents piercing his nerves. Lin Chao’s pupils contracted sharply; the agony nearly robbed him of his sanity.

It was a person who couldn't possibly be alive after a hundred years—or perhaps a consciousness, or some cursed echo clinging to the Ancient Bell. Lin Chao felt a chill climb up his spine, but he knew that behind this voice lay the ultimate secret to the identity of the mastermind behind the agent, and the location of the missing cargo.

In the darkness ahead of the fishing boat, several ghostly green lights slowly emerged. They looked like bioluminescent plankton, but their movement was perfectly synchronized, forming a massive ring that encircled the boat. Simultaneously, the needles on Old Ghost’s dashboard began to spin wildly, emitting a piercing alarm.

As the night deepened, the sea became like a vast sheet of black silk, wrapping tightly around the vessel. Lin Chao leaned against the bow, listening to the increasingly rapid striking sounds inside the Ancient Bell. The distress call grew clearer, no longer a vague whisper, but the desperate cry of a young girl: "Someone... please save me..."

The thugs swarmed forward, the noise of chaotic footsteps and clashing metal instantly drowning out the tide. In the face of desperation, Lin Chao closed his eyes, his fingertips sinking deep into the recessed inscriptions of the bell. In that instant, the world froze. The surrounding noise receded like a tide, leaving only the ancient tremor vibrating through his fingertips.

Lin Chao snapped upright, and the Ancient Bell in his hand erupted in a burst of blue light, illuminating the sea for ten meters around them. Those green lights weren't creatures; they were high-tech nano-trackers. They were slowly contracting along the edge of the Undercurrent, forcing the fishing boat toward the dead center of the void.

But the presence of the Ancient Bell broke the stalemate. It wasn't just a receiver; it was a regulator. If he could drop the bell at the specific coordinates at the critical moment the vortex formed, he could temporarily calm the Undercurrent, winning a precious thirty-minute window to enter the wreck.

The moment the boat plunged into the center of the mist, the vibrations in Lin Chao’s arms stopped. The rapid "heartbeat" ceased abruptly, replaced by a long, mournful chime that pierced through the fog, through the seawater, and soared straight into the sky.

"Gah—" Lin Chao violently coughed up a mouthful of bloody foam. Phantom pain forced him to one knee, cold sweat soaking his back. But in that instant, his eyes became unnervingly clear, as if he had transcended physical pain to see a direct torrent of data.

Without looking back, Lin Chao shoved the bell back into the waterproof bag and sprinted toward the old fishing boat where Old Ghost was waiting on the shore. Old Ghost, cigarette dangling from his lips and a cunning glint in his eye, quickly flung a cable to Lin Chao, his rough fingers tightening the knot.

Lin Chao tapped a glowing depression on the bell, projecting a blurred map of the sea. "Here. Directly beneath the wreckage of the Sea Witch. There's a geomagnetic anomaly zone. Old Ghost, can your boat pinpoint that level of precision?"

Old Ghost narrowed his eyes and rubbed his rough chin. "Geomagnetic anomaly? The currents are a mess there; one wrong move and you're hitting a reef. But to stay alive, I'm willing to gamble. Just keep that damn bell tucked away—don't let it blow us to pieces."

An iron pipe slammed hard into a decayed, loose metal plate, sending sparks flying. Amidst the crash, a fat thug slipped, losing his balance and tumbling headfirst into a pit. A scream like a slaughtered pig ripped through the air, and the surrounding thugs instantly fell into chaos.

"Coordinates: 22 degrees North, 117 degrees East..." he muttered to himself, his voice trembling with a mix of excitement and terror. "Undercurrent eruption countdown: thirty minutes. The bell is warning me—the sea area is about to collapse."

A cold smile touched Lin Chao’s lips as his fingertips brushed the slightly warm bell inside the bag. The bell suddenly vibrated violently, and a silent distress signal pierced through the water and straight into his mind, as clear as a whisper in his ear.

"Lin Chao, did you hear that?" Su Man’s voice trembled. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with fear. "For a second just now, the Echo System captured a non-natural frequency. It... it's breathing."

"Hold on tight, the big debt collector is here!" Old Ghost chuckled and slammed the throttle. The engine let out a muffled roar, and the boat shot into the waves like an arrow from a bow, the freezing spray slapping Lin Chao’s face.

The fat thug swung a heavy iron pipe, the wind whistling as he aimed for Lin Chao’s back. The moment the pipe descended, Lin Chao sensed the metallic groan of the loose floorplate and instinctively rolled to the left.

Su Man’s figure suddenly leaped from the open hatch of the submarine, splashing into the murky water. She was drenched, the Sonar Device in her hand flashing frantically, the red light illuminating her paper-white face.

"In three days, the Undercurrent will swallow this entire region," Lin Chao repeated in a low voice, his gaze becoming deep and resolute. He looked toward the pitch-black horizon, where secrets and death lay hidden.

"The agent's men have caught up." Lin Chao’s eyes were cold. He held the Ancient Bell high, and with a crisp chime, a ring of white mist exploded across the surface, blinding everyone around them.

"Lin Chao! The Undercurrent is ahead of schedule!" Su Man shrieked, her voice fragmented by the wind. "If we don't leave now, this sea is going to become a meat grinder! The water is surging back!"

The agent sneered as if he'd heard the biggest joke of his life. He waved dismissively. "Enough talk. Strip-search him! If you find it, tear him apart and feed him to the fish!"

The boat bumped along as it entered a relatively calm stretch of water. Old Ghost finally eased the throttle and asked, panting, "Kid, what kind of monster are you hiding on you?"

Standing on high ground, the agent roared into his communication device, "If the money isn't paid within three days, I'll make sure you rise and fall at sea, leaving no trace!"

"Something's wrong!" Old Ghost yelled. "Why are things swimming toward us in a place like this? And... they aren't alive!"

"Hold on!" Old Ghost slammed the throttle again, and the boat veered wildly to the left through the mist, charging straight toward the center of the lethal vortex.

"Run!" Lin Chao grabbed the bell and, taking advantage of the thugs shoving one another, bolted toward the edge of the pier like a ghost.

Su Man suddenly pointed at the water, her voice shrill. "Lin Chao! Look over there!"

"Where are the coordinates?" Su Man asked urgently.

*Clang.*

The moment that chime faded, deep within the mist, a pair of massive, scaled eyes slowly opened, silently watching the lone boat that had dared to trespass into the forbidden zone.