Lu Mingfei thought of The Birth of Venus from the world art appreciation class. Suddenly, he thought: When Botticelli painted that, there must have been a stunning beauty swimming before him.
He obediently let Nono pull him out of his damaged diving suit and put him into the intact one. Nono zipped it up for him, sealed the valves, and connected the oxygen.
The high-pressure helium-oxygen mixture quickly drove out the water in the diving suit, expelling it from the soles of Lu Mingfei’s feet, and his consciousness returned.
He looked at Nono through his mask. Nono had her hands on his shoulders, giving him an inquiring look. Now she couldn’t speak; she was surviving on the oxygen in her lungs, and every breath was a matter of life and death. Gas embolism was also occurring in her body; gases were escaping from her blood, clogging her vessels. No one had tried swimming like this under such extreme conditions, and there was no telling how far she could make it.
Lu Mingfei nodded. Nono gave him a thumbs-up, indicating “OK,” grabbed the communication line that originally connected their diving suits, and swam ahead.
Lu Mingfei didn’t have much strength left to swim; he could only mechanically kick his legs to keep up. For someone as much of a wimp as he was, the best he could do was to give it his all.
Swim forward, just keep swimming forward. Every few dozen meters, Nono would stop to take a breath from Lu Mingfei’s oxygen supply. There were no words, gestures, or even any meaningful expressions. Above them, the Bronze City was shaking, trembling, seemingly ready to collapse at any moment. Lu Mingfei followed behind Nono, watching her long hair floating in the water like seaweed, thinking of nothing.
They hadn’t swum far after exiting the bottom of the Bronze City when they heard the sound of rocks crumbling behind them. Lu Mingfei turned around and saw the bronze palace embedded in the rocks tilt as the stones that held it in place fell, crashing into the earthquake-created fissures. More and more rubble fell, blocking the crack that had allowed entry.
The Bronze City, exposed to the world by the earthquake, was once again buried.
The Maniach was already sitting very low in the water. With three watertight compartments leaking, the waterline was less than half a meter below the deck. Caesar closed his eyes, listening to the shadow moving quickly beneath the water, closely following them. They couldn’t hold on for much longer—one more leak, and the ship would sink. Abandoning ship wasn’t an option; who would jump into water where a dragon lurked? The crew rushed around putting out fires, and the diving bell had already been lowered, but it was just like bait for the Dragon King.
He pondered, then suddenly opened his eyes, cold flames burning in his ice-blue eyes.
“Is the torpedo still in the hold?” He suddenly stood up, grabbing the first officer by the shoulder.
“Wha… what?”
“I’m asking, is the torpedo still in the cabin?” Caesar repeated each word clearly.
“The torpedo is still in the hold, but the alchemical warhead has been destroyed,” the first officer stammered.
“Before installing the alchemical warhead, you removed the conventional warhead. Where is the conventional warhead?”
“In the aft hold, but it’s a dud—the explosive component was removed. The equipment team said a normal explosion is ineffective against the Dragon King, not fatal, so to avoid any risk…”
“Install the conventional warhead,” Caesar patted his shoulder, “immediately.”
“Caesar, a conventional warhead is ineffective against the Dragon King, and it doesn’t even have the explosive component.”
“I’m only interested in one thing: the supercavitating generator on the warhead is still there, right?” Caesar looked at him.
The first officer nodded.
“You took fluid dynamics at the college, so you should understand what the Storm Torpedo is. It’s a Cold War miracle—the supercavitating generator on the warhead, combined with a rocket motor, wraps the entire torpedo in a slender air bubble. It travels in an almost vacuum-like environment, eliminating water resistance, and moves as fast as a plane—200 knots per hour, five times the speed of a conventional torpedo. Imagine an 8.23-meter-long, 2,700-kilogram torpedo hitting something at plane speed. What kind of impact would that create? Anything alive would be pierced through. It doesn’t need an explosive—it’ll do just fine as a cold weapon,” Caesar said coldly.
“But the equipment team said…” The first officer was stunned by such an audacious idea.
“The equipment team thinks the torpedo can’t directly hit the Dragon King. He moves at fifty knots, is incredibly agile, and can easily dodge the torpedo’s body—just not the alchemical explosion forming a circular barrage, right?”
“Yes!” The first officer nodded.
“But we don’t have an alchemical warhead now; we can only hit him directly!”
“Impossible,” the first officer was almost hysterical, “The Storm Torpedo is too fast, it can only go straight, not even guided!”
“No need for guidance—straight is fine.” Caesar said, “Fire when I give the order, Zero!”
“At his speed of fifty knots, for you to hit him with the Storm Torpedo, you must fire at extremely close range,” Zero said in her usual calm tone.
“How close?” Caesar asked.
“No more than a hundred meters. At that range, the torpedo will take less than a second to hit. With the Dragon King’s size, he won’t be able to dodge, right?” Zero said. “The 2.7-ton metal mass, even his flames can’t melt it.”
“Good, one hundred meters. I’ll get you within one hundred meters.” Caesar grabbed the loaded Barrett M82A1 sniper rifle and walked onto the deck, looking out at the water.
“The supercavitating torpedo will create massive cavitation noise upon firing, as if you were standing directly under a space shuttle at launch,” Zero shouted at him, “So don’t use ‘Kamaitachi,’ it will amplify that sound, and your eardrums will be destroyed instantly.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” Caesar said calmly, “I’ve never heard a space shuttle launch before. I’ll make sure to listen carefully.”
He pulled a handkerchief from his combat suit pocket and tied it over his eyes.
He had been able to use Kamaitachi since he was very young—he understood this Yanling better than anyone else. To achieve the peak sensitivity to sound, one had to deprive oneself of sight. Like a blind person, the lack of vision makes hearing sharper.
Yanling Kamaitachi, full domain!