Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 124: Subspecies (9)

Dragon Raja 3

“Boss, take a look; are those two things floating upwards our oxygen tanks?” Lu Mingfei pointed to the observation window above.

Illuminated by the “Gas Ray,” the view revealed two spherical blue steel tanks slowly floating up while gradually collapsing. These deep-sea oxygen tanks had steel walls several centimeters thick, but they couldn’t withstand the high pressure here and ultimately became flat steel sheets, with oxygen escaping through the cracks. After floating a dozen meters, the tanks lost buoyancy and began to sink to the seabed. Lu Mingfei finally understood what extreme high pressure meant. If the submersible’s outer shell collapsed, the three of them would have no chance of survival; they clearly weren’t as sturdy as those two oxygen tanks.

“That’s half of our oxygen supply; it must be that the bolts securing the oxygen tanks broke during the turbulence,” Caesar muttered. “We can only last another 50 minutes at most.”

“I’ll call the Executive Department to see if we should return for repairs or adjust the survey plan,” Chisei said. “Please hold on.”

“I don’t think we can return just yet. As for why, you’ll understand once you see the video we sent back,” Caesar’s voice sounded oddly.

Caesar suddenly sensed something was wrong.

The Trieste ship was in a power outage protection state, and the cockpit should have been completely dark, but they could clearly see each other’s faces without needing flashlights. Light was coming in through the porthole, a warm red glow, yet they were at a depth of 7,900 meters, where there should be absolute darkness.

Surprisingly, this section of the sea was teeming with life. The water glowed like the evening glow, and schools of fish, composed of thousands, floated in the glimmering waters. Some followed spiral arcs upwards, while others spiraled down into the depths. Most of the fish were unfamiliar to them, even though some resembled known species; for instance, the devil rays had heads with black and white patterned exoskeletons, making them look like the helmeted dragons from fantasy novels. The shells of the sea turtles weren’t hard but fleshy, resembling cracked red basalt.

Before her was a magnificent and grand sight. The dreamlike beauty surpassed the limits of imagination, making one mistake the sea, colored like a sunset, for the sky before dusk, with schools of fish swimming in the sky.

Lu Mingfei looked up, seeing gray and white clouds flowing above the submersible.

“This is so unscientific,” he rubbed his eyes, trying to confirm that he wasn’t dreaming.

Suddenly, the cloud turned, stirring the seawater with its long tail, leaving a transparent vortex several meters in diameter. Its massive body struck the water, producing a sound like thunder. It was a giant whale over a hundred meters long, and the gray-white cloud was the pattern on its belly. There shouldn’t be a whale of such size in the world.

“From its appearance, it looks like the extinct Leviathan,” Chu Zihang said softly.

“You don’t need to say it; I can guess that too. We’re about to find that embryo, right?” Lu Mingfei said.

“That should be the case. There shouldn’t be large marine animals at such depths, yet we can see a Leviathan here. The ecological environment is too abnormal, indicating that something unusual nearby has rebuilt the ecosystem,” Chu Zihang said. “Look down; we’re directly above the Abyss.”

Lu Mingfei leaned against the observation window to look down, finally understanding why the seawater here appeared red like the evening glow. They were directly above the Japan Trench; on the left was a gently sloping seabed, and on the right were jagged cliffs. The left side belonged to the Eurasian Plate, while the right side was the Pacific Plate. Here, they collided to form an extremely deep underwater canyon. At the canyon’s bottom was a golden fissure running north to south, where the crust had split open, revealing layers of red-hot rock. Magma intermittently spewed forth, creating a surreal scene where seawater and magma mixed, with distant rumbling thunder echoing below.

“Damn! My vocabulary is a bit lacking! I originally thought the depths of the Abyss would be some dark and silent hell,” Lu Mingfei exclaimed.

“That’s a wound of the Earth,” Chu Zihang said. “The crust is split open here, exposing the mantle directly. Beneath the Abyss is a reservoir of trillions of tons of magma. Because of this wound, Japan has become the country with the most earthquakes in the world. It’s possible that one day, it will sink into the sea like Atlantis. It’s incredible that dragons would choose such an unbelievable place as a hatchery.”

“Talk about good luck; we’ve fallen directly into the ancient dragon’s territory, saving us the trouble of finding it,” Caesar remarked.

“Is that really good luck? You go hunting and drive into a lion’s territory, shouting that it’s lucky. The lion might think it’s lucky too, having breakfast delivered to it while driving,” Lu Mingfei countered. “Why would these marine creatures come here? Are they just waiting to be eaten by the dragon?”

“I think they’re here to eat,” Caesar replied. “This place reminds me a lot of the waters near Norway. Cold currents bring a large number of microorganisms to Norway’s fishing grounds. If you dive there, you’ll see similar scenes, with schools of small fish swimming either for mating or migration, or because there are tiny microorganisms in the water for them to feast on.”

“How could there be microorganisms in this hellish place?”

“We can collect some water samples to study back home. In any case, there must be a special reason for these fish to gather in the deep sea,” Caesar said. “There’s also a possibility that the embryo released pheromones to lure these fish in as a food reserve.”

“So that means the dragon is ready to feast? Are we here delivering takeout? Are we going to swim up to it and say, ‘Master, what would you like to eat first? The fish? The submersible? Or… me?’” Lu Mingfei joked.

“If you swim up and do that, it would probably spit you out. It wouldn’t be able to eat anything.”

“Strange! The fish suddenly disappeared!” Chu Zihang exclaimed.

The surrounding waters suddenly became empty. Just moments ago, the schools of fish had been swimming happily, but now they were all gone, leaving behind only the sunset-colored sea.

“Bad news, something is coming!” Caesar warned.

“What is it?” Lu Mingfei felt a chill run down his spine.

“We’ll have to see to find out, but it definitely won’t be anything small,” Caesar replied, appearing quite confident.

“Is that it?” Chu Zihang pointed to the right observation window.

In the sunset-colored water, a long black shadow moved, its long tail swaying slowly. As it swam, it did so leisurely, but anyone could tell it could unleash incredible speed at any moment, darting towards its target like a torpedo. It was a giant hammerhead shark, its head shaped like a spatula, with one eye on each side and a distance of nearly 2 meters between them.

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