Who refueled it? It couldn’t have been a cleaning worker, right? Or maybe the owner had just left?
Lu Mingfei and Nono jumped onto the bronze waterwheel. One side of the wheel descended, while the other ascended. As they neared the top, they saw a bronze plate carved with a human face—the living spirit guarding the entrance. This time, Lu Mingfei was fully proactive—he removed his diving glove and rubbed his hand against the spirit’s lips.
When escaping for your life, giving a bit of blood was no big deal.
The bronze plate melted open, and a powerful suction pulled them upward. When they could see their surroundings again, they were back underwater. Lu Mingfei was so desperate to escape that he forgot to put on his mask, ended up swallowing a mouthful of the corpse-soaked water he despised, and nearly choked. When he finally managed to put on his mask and connect his oxygen, he found Nono hovering in the water, looking around. In the beam of her flashlight, her face was pale.
“Move!” Lu Mingfei said.
“Move where?” Nono asked. “Haven’t you noticed? The communication line… is gone!”
Lu Mingfei’s heart almost stopped. Their communication line had been cut at the entrance, but the end should still have been left outside. But now, it was gone—completely gone. He and Nono were still able to communicate because they were linked by a short cable between them.
“The water flow is very slow here, it shouldn’t have carried the communication line away. Someone… took it,” Nono said.
“Stop saying creepy things like that—it sounds like we’re dealing with ghosts! It couldn’t be the Dragon King, right? He wouldn’t need to do something like that—he could just breathe fire and roast us!” Lu Mingfei forced himself to sound tough.
“The water pressure has decreased,” Nono said.
Lu Mingfei looked at the pressure gauge—it had halved, which meant that the water above them had suddenly become shallower.
“Something’s happening,” Nono said.
“What could be happening?” Lu Mingfei pricked his sensitive ears.
Suddenly, he heard it—a faint grinding noise, growing louder and louder, until it turned into a thunderous roar. Lu Mingfei couldn’t make out what kind of noise it was, but it felt as though he had shrunk down and entered the gears of a massive watch, listening to its workings. Countless metal cogs meshing, bearings turning, pendulums swinging—all these tiny sounds were magnified a thousand fold.
“The bronze city is starting to move!” Nono exclaimed. “Someone’s activated it! The water level is dropping, meaning water is being drained elsewhere—this will generate power to drive the bronze city.”
A massive, round shadow fell from above. Lu Mingfei watched it land not far from him, sinking into the pile of bones and easily crushing the centuries-old remains into dust. It was a bronze gear, as big as a millstone, weighing several tons.
More bronze gears fell, churning up the water, followed by huge chunks of bronze, engraved with patterns of branches and leaves. The ceiling also started collapsing.
“What kind of joke is this? Moving? This is a cave-in, isn’t it?” Lu Mingfei’s eyes widened.
“Is this the self-destruct sequence?” Nono took a deep breath. “Norton once destroyed his bronze palace in Northern Europe, sinking it into the Ice Sea.”
“We don’t have time to study this guy’s demolition history! Look up there!” Lu Mingfei shouted.
Nono raised her head and saw a nightmarish scene. Amid the falling bronze fragments, a massive snake face emerged. The statue of the Dragon King Norton had toppled—eight stories tall, carried by the powerful currents, it was sinking, crashing down directly above them.
“Head below!” Nono didn’t hesitate and pressed Lu Mingfei’s hand onto the face of the living spirit at the bottom.
With the surging current, they reentered the Dragon King’s chamber. Moments later, a quake-like sound echoed from above, likely from the giant bronze statue settling to the bottom. The entire room shook, and it seemed like it could collapse at any moment.
“There’s another passage directly below!” Nono shouted. “That’s the path Ye Sheng and Aki used last time!”
The door guarded by the living spirit had already cracked open. Even walls made of regenerating metal couldn’t withstand such intense impact. The water pushed the bronze waterwheel, carrying them further down. They plunged again, into another seemingly bottomless body of water. Lu Mingfei had no time to survey the surroundings before a wild rush of water poured down from above, slamming into his head.
“The upper level is filled with water!” Nono shouted. “It’s filling one layer at a time! Just like what happened to Ye Sheng and Aki! Do you still remember the path on the bronze city map that you deciphered last time?”
“I don’t remember!” Lu Mingfei shouted back in panic. “Just go down, keep going down!”
“We’re betting it all!” Nono pulled out an emergency tourniquet and tightly wrapped it around his wrist, tying a dead knot. “Turn your oxygen valve to maximum and increase pressure! We have enough oxygen, which is different from Ye Sheng and Aki’s situation. It’s fine if your hand is exposed, but don’t undo this knot. If the oxygen leaks, you won’t make it! Got it?”
“Got it!” Lu Mingfei nodded vigorously, shaking like a leaf.
“Dive now, and I’ll cover you.” Nono stared into Lu Mingfei’s eyes, where a timid and cowardly soul trembled.
Nono reached out and patted his head, remaining silent for a moment. “Maybe you really shouldn’t have come down. I thought it would be easy… but being scared is useless. Remember when I walked into the screening room? You were standing there like a frightened rabbit, hunched over with your shoulders up. I hate seeing people like that because I used to stand like that too, in a corner where no one noticed me… but that doesn’t help. It won’t make you feel better.”
“Even in the hardest times, you have to put on an expression like you came in a Maybach!” Nono showed a faint smile, her face pale under the flashlight.
“Can you not make it sound like a farewell?” Lu Mingfei said.
“Shut up! This is to avoid a farewell! Dive!” Nono shouted.
The forward cabin of the Maniach fell silent.
The connection status on the monitoring screen was still disconnected. The Maniakh had lost contact with the diving team for unknown reasons. Staring at the screen were Manschtine and Caesar, neither of them moving their gaze from the moment the connection broke, now fifteen minutes.