Chapter 364: Crystal Mountain
A lot of sea beasts were surrounding the spaceplane, but thankfully they were only concerned with escaping the carnage. At most, they swiped the hull once or twice out of curiosity and not hostility.
The sawtooth fishes’ hunt lasted an hour or so. But just because the sea surface had returned to calm didn’t mean that the sawtooth fishes had left the area, at least not entirely. A large majority of the rear party were still parked under the sea for whatever reason.
The best way to determine if they had truly left was to observe the sea beasts that were taking refuge on the atoll. Some sea beasts couldn’t afford to loiter indefinitely on the atoll because they weren’t amphibians. They left the waters only because they had no other choice. Therefore, the gang only needed to wait until these creatures made their move.
Ten or so minutes later, some sea beasts started making their way to the edge of the atoll. After probing the sea surface for a bit, they abruptly dove into the waters and weren’t seen again. The rest of the refugees began evacuating the atoll, and the territory “owners” began chasing away the outsiders.
“Get ready,” Lung said after the sea beasts started leaving the atoll en masse. “And call Wheeze back, Cillin. We’re heading to our destination right now.”
Wheeze flew out of the waters despite not having played to its heart’s content. However, it made sure to take a piss at a couple of key locations and rub its body against some coral reefs before returning to the spaceplane. It was like it was drawing an invisible line around the zone it had cleared out earlier.
“Is it marking its territory?” Pascado asked.
“I think so, but I don’t know if a sea beast can understand a cat’s markings,” someone replied.
Wheeze had already fed the large sea beast it killed earlier to the sawtooth fishes. Although the coral reef was still stained with its blue blood, Wheeze didn’t believe it was enough to keep the smaller sea beasts from invading. That was why it had left behind its own markings. If the creatures still invaded its territory, then it would have all the justification it needed to devour them all. It was a win-win for it.
After Wheeze had returned to the spaceplane, Lung activated its submarine mode and dove into the sea. They immediately saw the gigantic, seemingly artificial stairs they had caught on the camera earlier. It seemed to stretch from the atoll all the way to the seabed.
Although the sea had become bluer due to the carnage wrought by the sawtooth fishes, there were still enough light to see the surrounding fishes and the sea beasts clearly.
“Larger sea beasts are rarely seen the sunlight zone. Although sea beasts from the midnight zone would occasionally rise to the surface to feed, generally speaking you won’t find a true heavyweight anywhere in this layer. The sea beast Wheeze killed is fairly huge for a sunlight zone creature, but it is nothing but a small fry in the midnight zone.”
During the dive, Lung would occasionally point out a sea creature and impart with Cillin his knowledge. However, he rarely possessed complete information on the species, and encounters with never-before-seen species were incredibly common. When this happened, Lung would order his subordinates to gather as much basic data as possible and analyze it with them. Cillin was able to learn many new knowledge from their discussion.
Not all data needed to be measured and analyzed by a machine to be accurate. For example, experienced seamen—literally—like Lung and his subordinates were able to identify a sea beast’s a ton of general data based on their appearance alone. They could even identify the evolutionary features that benefited or impaired a creature clearly. Although the creatures of Sea Paradise evolved differently from sea creatures of other worlds due to its unique environment, they still obeyed the laws of natural selection. Each and every organ had their own reason for existing.
The deeper they dove, the darker the sea became. However, Lung ordered his subordinates to activate their night vision equipment instead of the usual navigation lights because the large majority of the sea beasts at this layer were light sensitive. It would draw unwanted attention to say the least.
“You may be surprised, but most of the giants residing in this layer aren’t actually as scary or violent as they look. More accurately, they are only interested in familiar prey and have no interest in prodding unfamiliar objects.” Lung explained to Cillin when a seventy-meter-long sea beast swam past their spaceplane.
On Cillin’s shoulder, Wheeze stared at the departing sea beast’s tails and smacked its lips. It already knew this, but one really shouldn’t judge a sea beast solely by its cover.
Maybe it was because the sawtooth fishes had just frequented the area, but the spaceplane didn’t encounter any trouble during their descent. The number of sea beasts in the area were also fewer than expected.
The sea beasts in the midnight zone were as huge and extraordinary as Lung had described. Already, Cillin had witnessed hundred-meter-long sea giants and even more strangely-shaped sea beasts. The giant jellyfishes were but the appetizers.
Cillin glanced at a monitor. The spaceplane had dove to a depth 2700 meters and were descending even lower. It shouldn’t be long before they reached the depth where the scanners had begun to experience abnormalities.
Beep—
Beep—
It was at this moment the ship’s detection equipment made a series of beeping noises.
“This is where the signals started deteriorating,” one of Lung’s subordinates said.
“Begin deep analysis,” said Lung before opening an apparatus and going to work himself. The scanners weren’t equipped with this apparatus and thus weren’t able to copy and transmit the signal back to the spaceplane properly. That was why they had to come all the way here before they could perform the analysis.
The results came out soon enough.
“It looks like a guiding signal. I think it’s telling us which way to go,” said the guy on the analyzer. “Do we follow the signal, young master?”
Instead of answering, Lung shot Cillin a look before walking into a lounge.
Cillin threw Wheeze onto Czedow’s shoulder and followed Lung into the lounge as well.
After the door was closed, Lung took out the star map and examined its holographic key. Unless he was sorely mistaken, the direction it was pointing at wasn’t the same as the direction of the guiding signal.
“What do you think?” he asked Cillin.
“Follow the star map and ignore the guiding signal,” Cillin answered immediately. He didn’t know the Xi Family well, but he could tell that the guiding signal was meant to mislead someone who reached this point without a star map.
Lung stared at the star map a bit longer before putting it away and saying, “Very well. We will follow the guidance of the star map!”
Back at the bridge, Pascado and the others looked confused when Lung told them to ignore the signal and continue along their original path. However, they obeyed Lung’s orders without question.
Big Rock shot his young master and Cillin a glance before returning to his serious demeanor. It was clear that his young master possessed some sort of critical information, but he didn’t think that he would rather share it with the B Squad commander of a hunter regiment than him, an old servant of his grandfather Fergus. What on earth could this information be?
Endless possibilities ran through his head until one jolted his eyelids.
Could it be… God’s Tear?!
They had reached a point where the sea temperature was basically unchanging. Their surroundings were pitch black as well. Vision hadn’t been a problem until they reached the point—seven thousand meters below sea level to be exact—where some of their night vision equipment were finally overwhelmed by the ever-strengthening magnetic field.
“We’re close to the sea bed now,” Pascado said.
The scanners had lost contact with the spaceplane when they approached the sea bed. It looked like the same thing was happening to them as well.
“Lower our speed by one level and proceed cautiously.”
“Yes, young master.”
Just like the scanners, their monitors were displaying the vague outline of what seemed to be an underwater city. However, they couldn’t be certain because their night vision equipment had malfunctioned.
Should they move toward the underwater city now, or…?
While Lung and his subordinates were busy studying the data, Cillin were staring at Wheeze’s ears intently. It was because he knew that its ears were far more reliable a detector than any equipment on the spaceplane.
On Czedow’s shoulder, Wheeze was closing its eyes and swaying its tailed back and forth slowly. Its ears were fully erect and vibrating slightly as if it was listening for something. There was a sudden twitch, and Wheeze opened its eyes and patted Czedow once on the shoulder. Then, it looked at Cillin and declared, “We’re here!”
Lung and the others looked up from their work. They were just about to ask what it meant by that when all the lights in the spaceplane suddenly winked out without warning. At first glance, it looked like the rest of their equipment had suffered a complete failure as well.
Lung immediately took out his backup lights. They were natural luminous stones and so weren’t affected by the overwhelming interference. Obviously, they couldn’t compare to a functioning lighting system, but it was better than having no light at all.
“Young master, the thrusters have stopped completely. None of the equipment are operable as well. We’re sinking toward the sea bed!” Pascado said.
Bang! Bang!
A number of shudders later, the spaceplane came to a complete stop.
“We have reached the sea bed.”
“What do we do now, young master?”
Lung checked out the apparatus he was holding. If even the Andrea Family’s specialized equipment couldn’t withstand the magnetic interference at this depth, then there was only one thing left to do.
“Let’s head out,” Lung said.
Unless the spaceplane could be restarted, staying here was akin to waiting for death to claim them. There was also the slight but very distinct possibility that the overlords of this depth might choose to step on them for whatever reason. That would be a most humiliating way to die.
“It’s pitch black outside, and we will have to use our lights carefully, young master. As you are aware, there are a lot of huge… things at this depth,” one of his subordinates said.
“We won’t achieve our objective or escape this place if we act conservatively. Heading out is the only way.”
Lung stepped into the airlock first, putting on his protective suit and inspecting his equipment. The others followed suit as well. After everything was ready, Bigrock stood in front of Lung and motioned for his colleague to open the hatch.
Cold water rushed into the airlock the moment the hatch was opened. Since the spaceplane had lost its pressurizing functions, they could feel an obvious pressure even through their pressure-resistant protective suits.
The suit’s first comms device was dead. The second comms device, which was built to be resistant to interference, only had an effective range of a hundred meters despite functioning properly. They wouldn’t be able to stray too far from one another.
Wheeze, as usual, defied all logic by swimming unassisted in the water. It kicked its fat limbs and swam in a circle around Cillin.
“My detection range is shorter than normal,” Wheeze said. That said, it was still better than Lung’s equipment.
Lung took out a barrel-shaped object and pointed it diagonally upward.
Bang bang bang!
A bunch of “flares” shot out of the barrel and illuminated the surroundings. They were luminous stones wrapped inside a shell that allowed them to remain at the depth they were shot to.
The light they provided was practically nothing at this depth, but everyone in the the group possessed good enough eyesight to identify their surroundings immediately.
That was how they spotted the giant, teeth-filled maw directly in front of them.