Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As a deep-sea creature, Nangong Wuyue had gained greater perceived ability underwater. She had sensed something amiss when the team dived closer to the bottom of the lake. The unusual magnetic field made her a little sick.
Hao Ren wasn’t affected. But he had noticed Lil Pea was behaving strangely as she swam beside him: she swayed slowly to a side as her body tilted as if she was drunk. She knew she was sober but confused as she had to constantly adjust her posture. After much struggle, she finally corrected her swimming posture and clung to Hao Ren, remained motionless and slightly terrified—her instinct to seek shelter when she sensed something wasn’t right.
"She might have a talent in magnetic field navigation. The magnetic field down here affects her." Nangong Wuyue tried to explain as she had also noticed Lil Pea’s strange behaviour, she was just trying make Hao Ren at ease. "It’s OK. Magnetic field of this level isn’t going to be harmful. It would only confuse the sense of navigation of deep-sea creatures. But anyway, just keep your eyes open. There might be something strange, unusual out there."
Hao Ren nodded. He checked his armor charge before pulling behind Nangong Wuyue. Meanwhile, Y’zaks had summoned two balls of evil fire in hands. Vivian tried to summon her bats but realising bats couldn’t swim, she could only have a layer of blood fog as protection, just in case. As she swam, she left behind a blood-like trail; Lily saw it and said without even thinking, "You’re having a heavy gushing period..."
The two almost came to blows in the water.
The faint shadow became clearer. Hao Ren had roughly known that he was almost at the the bottom. He kept his eyes open while he continued to descend until the red vision came to an end to be met with a vast area of black at the bottom of the lake.
Nothing was unusual here. The lake bottom was of solid ground, not of mud but of some black gravel and strips of strange, long slab. Y’zaks summoned a few balls of inextinguishable flame, visibility was greatly improved as a result. Hao Ren could see not far ahead the lake bottom was gradually sloping upward: it could be the base of the island.
"There’s burning smell," Lily frowned. "it’s strangely sour."
Nangong Wuyue picked up a piece of slab with her tail, examining curiously. "Look like it’s man-made...see, one side is very smooth like it has been polished."
More slabs were found as they looked further ahead, giving the impression that these were fragments shot out by explosion in the middle of the lake. The first thing came to Hao Ren’s mind was the light at the bottom of the lake during the night the orb went missing two months ago, but he quickly dismissed the possibility: it seemed the slabs had been there for a very long time, and there hadn’t any signs of new impact. The fact that the slabs were covered in layers of aquatic light-shy creatures meant they had been lying at the bottom of the lake since a long long time ago.
Hao Ren took the stone from Nangong Wuyue and shoved it in the dimensional pocket. He had collected quite a lot of things during the few days in this world—mostly things he considered of value. "Bring them back. I will studied them when I’m free."
The siren maiden nodded. Her long snake-tail was as agile as her arms, picking up slabs, and passed all to Hao Ren while she muttered. "I think I should’ve transformed into a squid..."
Holding Lil Pea in his arms, Hao Ren stared angrily at Nangong Wuyue. "Since the moment you formshifted as a sea snake, she played with her tail for like half a day. Please don’t influence her with more weird knowledge while her worldview’s still in its infancy. OK?"
Nangong Wuyue twitched her mouth before wheeling around and keeping going.
The exploration team searched around and finally found something suspicious in the stone field at the lake bottom.
Large pieces of gravel were rolled and tossed out, exposing the fresh deep-water mud. Lots of huge gully were created by the shockwave probably from the huge explosion not long ago.
Lily needn’t say it, Hao Ren could already smell the weird and unbearable stench spreading in the lake. Though Nangong Wuyue’s special ability made everyone ‘water-resistant’; for the sake of exploration, smell could still be detectable. Lil Pea wrinkled her nose in discomfort, she rubbed her face against Hao Ren’s sleeve and grunted. Seeing that, Nangong Wuyue created a pure-water bubble so that Lil Pea could stay inside.
"Strange debris in the water." Vivian frowned as the stench also made her sick. She looked up and saw the upward slope was so steep that it became conical shape, which meant they had reached the base of the island. As she looked around, suddenly an strange shadow appeared beside the conical island base. "Over there! Something big!"
They swam towards it. As they went round the base of the island, their jaw dropped to the ground.
Hao Ren mumbled inadvertently. "...that’s f**king interesting!"
One the slope, a huge thing not belong here was half-covered in mud. The exposed portion was about two or three hundred metres long, with a greenish grey glow of cold metallic lustre, cylindrical shaped. The tail end had several sophisticated and complicated protruding-rings, and six pairs of engine-like structures. There was a crack at the side: a large piece of armored belt was gouged out leaving behind tens of metres of narrow crack exposing metal structure within. This could be the critical damage.
There were rings of mark left behind by the shockwave around the thing, metal fragments and lumps of jelly-like substance strewn around. The jelly-like substance was spilled out from the crack, emitted a muddy-green glow, and water insoluble.
This muddy-green jelly substance could be the source of the stench. And the wreckage could be the source of the magnetic field: something must still be running inside the wreckage.
"Whoa!" Lily was stunned by what she saw. She scurried to the side of the wreckage to take a closer look and then turned back in shock. "What’s that thing?"
"A spacecraft." said Hao Ren, nodding. "I’ve read it somewhere in the study material. Though it looks a little different, its overall structure tells that it’s a typical spacecraft model."
Vivian swam slowly towards it. "Whatever it is, it’s certainly not of this world. Let’s take a closer look."
Everyone went closer cautiously, fearing of secondary explosion or further spilling of poisonous substance—that greenish jelly substance seemed to be toxic. That thing had been lying at the bottom of the lake for two months. It had cooled down considerably since and now was like a cold dead corpse. Hao Ren tried to peek through the crack, the interior was large with a corridor near to the hull.
But the crack was blocked by broken metals and pipes, criss-crossing like a spider web. And that gave the damaged outer skin of the spacecraft a broken-but-not-entirely-severed look. Vivian patted Lily and said, "Doggie, clear the way."
"Why me?"
"Because you’re the best."
"OK." Lily lunged to the crack happily. "You can count on me!"
Hao Ren gave Vivian a weird glance. "You seems to know her better by the day."
Lily was already in front of the crack, wielding her fire and ice claws. The fire and ice claws worked just fine in water—soggy ice on the left and air bubble on the right, she was like swinging a pair of ribbon. But the claws didn’t help in swimming. The maiden thought for a second before coming up with an ingenious idea: she spun her tail like a propeller, now she could swim faster than paddling doggie-style.
Hao Ren had studied her for like half a day but still, he couldn’t wrap her head around—how did she make her tail spin like that?
Vivian was silent for a while before letting out a sigh. "It seems she’d learned something from her fight against a sub..."
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As a deep-sea creature, Nangong Wuyue had gained greater perceived ability underwater. She had sensed something amiss when the team dived closer to the bottom of the lake. The unusual magnetic field made her a little sick.
Hao Ren wasn’t affected. But he had noticed Lil Pea was behaving strangely as she swam beside him: she swayed slowly to a side as her body tilted as if she was drunk. She knew she was sober but confused as she had to constantly adjust her posture. After much struggle, she finally corrected her swimming posture and clung to Hao Ren, remained motionless and slightly terrified—her instinct to seek shelter when she sensed something wasn’t right.
"She might have a talent in magnetic field navigation. The magnetic field down here affects her." Nangong Wuyue tried to explain as she had also noticed Lil Pea’s strange behaviour, she was just trying make Hao Ren at ease. "It’s OK. Magnetic field of this level isn’t going to be harmful. It would only confuse the sense of navigation of deep-sea creatures. But anyway, just keep your eyes open. There might be something strange, unusual out there."
Hao Ren nodded. He checked his armor charge before pulling behind Nangong Wuyue. Meanwhile, Y’zaks had summoned two balls of evil fire in hands. Vivian tried to summon her bats but realising bats couldn’t swim, she could only have a layer of blood fog as protection, just in case. As she swam, she left behind a blood-like trail; Lily saw it and said without even thinking, "You’re having a heavy gushing period..."
The two almost came to blows in the water.
The faint shadow became clearer. Hao Ren had roughly known that he was almost at the the bottom. He kept his eyes open while he continued to descend until the red vision came to an end to be met with a vast area of black at the bottom of the lake.
Nothing was unusual here. The lake bottom was of solid ground, not of mud but of some black gravel and strips of strange, long slab. Y’zaks summoned a few balls of inextinguishable flame, visibility was greatly improved as a result. Hao Ren could see not far ahead the lake bottom was gradually sloping upward: it could be the base of the island.
"There’s burning smell," Lily frowned. "it’s strangely sour."
Nangong Wuyue picked up a piece of slab with her tail, examining curiously. "Look like it’s man-made...see, one side is very smooth like it has been polished."
More slabs were found as they looked further ahead, giving the impression that these were fragments shot out by explosion in the middle of the lake. The first thing came to Hao Ren’s mind was the light at the bottom of the lake during the night the orb went missing two months ago, but he quickly dismissed the possibility: it seemed the slabs had been there for a very long time, and there hadn’t any signs of new impact. The fact that the slabs were covered in layers of aquatic light-shy creatures meant they had been lying at the bottom of the lake since a long long time ago.
Hao Ren took the stone from Nangong Wuyue and shoved it in the dimensional pocket. He had collected quite a lot of things during the few days in this world—mostly things he considered of value. "Bring them back. I will studied them when I’m free."
The siren maiden nodded. Her long snake-tail was as agile as her arms, picking up slabs, and passed all to Hao Ren while she muttered. "I think I should’ve transformed into a squid..."
Holding Lil Pea in his arms, Hao Ren stared angrily at Nangong Wuyue. "Since the moment you formshifted as a sea snake, she played with her tail for like half a day. Please don’t influence her with more weird knowledge while her worldview’s still in its infancy. OK?"
Nangong Wuyue twitched her mouth before wheeling around and keeping going.
The exploration team searched around and finally found something suspicious in the stone field at the lake bottom.
Large pieces of gravel were rolled and tossed out, exposing the fresh deep-water mud. Lots of huge gully were created by the shockwave probably from the huge explosion not long ago.
Lily needn’t say it, Hao Ren could already smell the weird and unbearable stench spreading in the lake. Though Nangong Wuyue’s special ability made everyone ‘water-resistant’; for the sake of exploration, smell could still be detectable. Lil Pea wrinkled her nose in discomfort, she rubbed her face against Hao Ren’s sleeve and grunted. Seeing that, Nangong Wuyue created a pure-water bubble so that Lil Pea could stay inside.
"Strange debris in the water." Vivian frowned as the stench also made her sick. She looked up and saw the upward slope was so steep that it became conical shape, which meant they had reached the base of the island. As she looked around, suddenly an strange shadow appeared beside the conical island base. "Over there! Something big!"
They swam towards it. As they went round the base of the island, their jaw dropped to the ground.
Hao Ren mumbled inadvertently. "...that’s f**king interesting!"
One the slope, a huge thing not belong here was half-covered in mud. The exposed portion was about two or three hundred metres long, with a greenish grey glow of cold metallic lustre, cylindrical shaped. The tail end had several sophisticated and complicated protruding-rings, and six pairs of engine-like structures. There was a crack at the side: a large piece of armored belt was gouged out leaving behind tens of metres of narrow crack exposing metal structure within. This could be the critical damage.
There were rings of mark left behind by the shockwave around the thing, metal fragments and lumps of jelly-like substance strewn around. The jelly-like substance was spilled out from the crack, emitted a muddy-green glow, and water insoluble.
This muddy-green jelly substance could be the source of the stench. And the wreckage could be the source of the magnetic field: something must still be running inside the wreckage.
"Whoa!" Lily was stunned by what she saw. She scurried to the side of the wreckage to take a closer look and then turned back in shock. "What’s that thing?"
"A spacecraft." said Hao Ren, nodding. "I’ve read it somewhere in the study material. Though it looks a little different, its overall structure tells that it’s a typical spacecraft model."
Vivian swam slowly towards it. "Whatever it is, it’s certainly not of this world. Let’s take a closer look."
Everyone went closer cautiously, fearing of secondary explosion or further spilling of poisonous substance—that greenish jelly substance seemed to be toxic. That thing had been lying at the bottom of the lake for two months. It had cooled down considerably since and now was like a cold dead corpse. Hao Ren tried to peek through the crack, the interior was large with a corridor near to the hull.
But the crack was blocked by broken metals and pipes, criss-crossing like a spider web. And that gave the damaged outer skin of the spacecraft a broken-but-not-entirely-severed look. Vivian patted Lily and said, "Doggie, clear the way."
"Why me?"
"Because you’re the best."
"OK." Lily lunged to the crack happily. "You can count on me!"
Hao Ren gave Vivian a weird glance. "You seems to know her better by the day."
Lily was already in front of the crack, wielding her fire and ice claws. The fire and ice claws worked just fine in water—soggy ice on the left and air bubble on the right, she was like swinging a pair of ribbon. But the claws didn’t help in swimming. The maiden thought for a second before coming up with an ingenious idea: she spun her tail like a propeller, now she could swim faster than paddling doggie-style.
Hao Ren had studied her for like half a day but still, he couldn’t wrap her head around—how did she make her tail spin like that?
Vivian was silent for a while before letting out a sigh. "It seems she’d learned something from her fight against a sub..."
