dragon raja

The Bronze City（4）

The earthquake tore the bottom of the water, and a clear c***k approached rapidly from a distance, as if an invisible sword was cutting, and the thick and dense rock layer cracked to the lower limit. The coffin immediately sank. Ye Sheng and Ya Ji had no time to react at all, and they felt the huge water pressure from top to bottom, like a wave several tens of meters high hitting their heads. The pressure on all sides of the bottom of the water was equal. There was only one way to cause the pressure on the head to suddenly increase, that is, a huge cavity appeared under their feet, and millions of tons of water were pouring into that cavity, carrying them and the rocks down, down, and down. The high-tech lifeline could not resist this natural force.

At this moment, Ye Sheng thought of Lucifer's fall from heaven, that mythical fall that lasted for nine days and nine nights, all the way from paradise to hell. Ye Sheng didn't know what was in the darkness under his feet, maybe it was hell.

There was a dead silence in the front cabin. Mans Rundstedt put his hands into his hair and pulled it back hard, pulling it out so hard that it hurt the roots. He lost two of his best students, although he realized this possibility before coming here. There is no shortage of heroes in the history of Kassel Academy, and most of them are dead. Dragon slaying is never a fun thing. The communication machine emits a chaotic hissing sound of electricity, the signal is interrupted, and the survival is unknown. Should we send people to explore and rescue? Or give up like the time in the Greenland Ice Sea? Mans gritted his teeth and thought.

"If you see a wall and you can't see the end up, down, left or right, and you can never reach the edge, what is that?" A low voice echoed in the cabin.

Mans suddenly raised his head. He believed that he had not heard it wrong. It was Ye Sheng's voice!

"That's death, a Chinese science fiction writer said. I understand what he meant now." The voice said, "This is Ye Sheng. Aki and I are both alive. I am communicating with you through the electricity of the 'snake'. I have arrived at the underground palace of Dragon King Norton. Please reply if you receive any."

"Are you sure?" Mans grabbed the microphone, his voice trembling slightly.

"Professor, if you see the bronze wall in front of me, you will believe it too," said Ye Sheng.

150 meters underwater, Ye Sheng and Ya Ji held each other's hands tightly, floating in the dark green water. They looked up, and the flashlight was lost in the dark green, with no end in sight. A huge bronze wall with several feet of rust stood there, extending up and down, left and right, seemingly without boundaries. The dust in the water gradually fell, and the view became clear.

The earthquake stopped instantly, but the door to the Kingdom of Dragons had already opened. Ye Sheng could see the mottled mark on the copper rust, which was exactly the same as the mark on the pottery he found, a face burning in the flames.

"Is it a coincidence? Are we so lucky?" Yaji said softly. The communication line between her and Ye Sheng was not disconnected.

"If it's not a coincidence, just treat it as an invitation from Dragon King Norton." Ye Sheng smiled, "I guess the ancient tomb where the coffin is located originally led to this bronze city, but it was destroyed by the flowing water and the entrance was blocked. The seal here is very good, such a large cavity has been maintained without gaps for thousands of years."

"It is exactly the same as the bronze city in the ice and snow of Northern Europe as described in the legend."

"Do you remember Professor von Schneider mentioned a possibility in class? The Dragon King Norton hollowed out the entire mountain as a mold, poured copper slurry from the top of the mountain, and while the bronze city was taking shape, the high heat caused the mountain rocks to c***k, thus casting a behemoth that could not be achieved with current technology, a city made entirely of bronze, his habitat."

"Dragons are really crazy." Aki said softly, "I wonder what's inside."

"Let's knock on a hole and see." Ye Sheng said, "I'm looking forward to it."

"Moniah, pepper water cutter support." Ye Sheng's voice came into the cabin.

Mance hesitated for a moment, "You are now 150 meters deep. The water jet can't cut something that big. And your oxygen is about to run out. After replacing the oxygen cylinder, it can only last for two hours. I suggest you give up the mission and return. Dragon King Norton has not yet awakened. We still have a chance."

"Professor, will you stop to take a breath when you touch the border of the world?" Ye Sheng said, "Although the awakening period has not yet arrived, I am worried that the 'snake' will wake him up. I can feel that the 'snake' that went in is afraid, and it is swimming around something."

Mance was silent for a full minute. "Prince Norton is in there? Okay, I understand. A total of four underwater cutting devices are ready and will arrive at your designated location in 10 minutes. Remember, you only have two hours, whether it's oxygen or electricity. The helicopter of the waterway rescue agency will probably arrive in two hours. By then, we won't be able to explain to these government agencies that we are taking advantage of the rainy night to dig out the place where the Dragon King sleeps."

"Also, always pay attention to your 'amulet'. If it is contaminated, it means that the spirit of the Dragon King has begun to invade you, so you must evacuate quickly." He added.

"I remember everything I learned in class," Ye Sheng said. He held the flashlight horizontally in front of him, and the "World Tree" on his diving suit was still shining silver. This was the "amulet", an alchemical product washed with mercury. If the dragons released their spiritual realm to attack them, this little thing could withstand them several times.

Soon, dazzling lights came from above, and four young members of the executive department approached with a cutting machine that could be propelled underwater. After replacing the oxygen cylinders and lifelines for Ye Sheng and Ya Ji, they began to punch four holes in this huge bronze wall and began to cut. The sonar was working again, and the result of echolocation showed that the bronze product half-embedded in the underwater mountain range was roughly in the shape of a square. It was not without boundaries, but the volume was larger than a skyscraper. If it stood on the water, it would be a bronze mountain.

"Oh my God, I really want to know why he can't build himself a stone nest. Do dragons like living in metal houses?" Someone operating a water jet complained that the high-pressure water flow that can cut through high-strength steel cut into the bronze wall but could not penetrate it.

"It's just that the Bronze King likes it, right? Who told him that he has the right to manipulate fire to smelt metal?" Ye Sheng and Aki smiled at each other through their masks.

Mance walked into the rear cabin and turned on the satellite phone. "Principal, we believe we have found Dragon King Norton."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while. "This is really exciting news, but shouldn't you be in Lop Nur? You've always told me that Lop Nur is where the Dragon King Norton is sleeping, but now it has suddenly become the Three Gorges Reservoir."

"Lop Nur is just a cover-up. Someone is following us. They will find us wherever we find them. That's why we left some people in Lop Nur to make a busy excavation site, but secretly concentrated the main force here."

“Who would try to compete with us in archaeological exploration?”

"It's an archaeological team funded by a private foundation in Hong Kong, China, but it seems that they don't know much about the Dragon King." Mans said, "But we have made a breakthrough here. We are cutting into the Bronze City and waiting for instructions from the headquarters."

"The first priority is to capture it alive, the second is to kill it." The principal said, "But remember not to let a real dragon out of our surveillance. If such a thing is released, the whole world will be turned upside down."

"Understood. Time is limited. To open the Bronze City, can I use the 'key'?"

"Okay, I let you take him with you just for this moment." The principal hung up the phone.

Mance put away the phone, leaned down and gently stroked the baby in the cradle. The baby, who was crying loudly just now, was now quiet, staring around with innocent eyes. Sitting next to the cradle was a middle-aged woman with a charming face. The shining wedding ring on her left ring finger showed that she obviously had a very wealthy husband.

"Baby, did you feel that thing?" Mance pinched the baby's nose.

"Be careful when using it, it's the only 'key' we have right now." The woman looked into Mance's eyes.

"I know, I like him very much," Mance shrugged. "Don't act so distrustful. This is not your child, it belongs to all of us. You have your own daughter, you can take care of her more when you have time. She even chose one of my classes this year."

"Chen Motong?" the woman said indifferently, "I can't see that she regards me as a mother."

"Family issues are always complicated... Let's not discuss this during work hours," Mans carefully picked up the child from the cradle. "However, if a mother insists that her daughter regards her as her mother before she regards her daughter as her daughter, isn't it too much to ask of her?"

"A girl who can watch her own mother die in front of her without crying or making a fuss, and just waited quietly for two days and two nights until the corpse collector knocked on the door, makes people have no intention of loving her." There was no hesitation in the woman's voice.

Mans stood in front of the window of the front cabin, stretched out his arms and asked his men to help him put on the diving suit that could withstand high pressure and tearing. Someone beside him helped him hold the baby. His eyes passed through the wind and rain and fell on the mountain that emerged from the water in the distance. "Well, Baidi City, I like this name very much."

"Professor...Oh, no, Captain, is there really a city underwater?" Selma asked.

"It really exists. There is a city built more than 2,000 years ago. A few decades ago, it was still exposed to the air. Because of the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir, the water level rose and the main part of the ancient city was submerged. Only the Baidi Temple on the island remained. The man who founded this city was named Gongsun Shu. More than 2,000 years ago, he rebelled against an idealistic dynasty rebel, Wang Mang, and established his own country here. Some people call him "Baidi"

"Baidi, this name reminds me of the White King." said the third mate.

"It's not the White King. According to the information we have, the next one should be the Bronze King. Some people also call him the Fire King or the Gray King. His name is Norton, the noble first generation of dragons, and the greatest dragon prince directly bred by the Black King Nidhogg."

"Can you explain it in more detail?"

"You obviously didn't put much effort into the dragon genealogy class, but this introductory theory class is actually quite important. Not only do you have to master the dragon-slaying techniques, you also have to know the things behind the techniques." Mance returned to the time when he was in high spirits in the classroom at Kassel Academy. "To put it simply, the dragon princes are arranged according to the four elements, but the elements are expressed differently by Orientals and us. They are gold, wood, water, fire and earth. This is the west in the ancient Chinese map, and Gongsun Shu believes that his luck comes from metal, and the color of metal is white, so he is called the 'White Emperor'. In other words, the so-called 'White Emperor' actually means 'King of Metal' in Chinese."

"Same as what the Bronze King meant?"

"Yes, Bronze King Norton was named after his unparalleled fire. He refined bronze from the depths of the earth and used it as a weapon."

"Is that Gongsun Shu? That Chinese man is actually the Dragon King?"

"No, it was someone hiding behind Gongsun Shu. It was this person who made Gongsun Shu see a dragon rising from a well and lying in front of his mansion. The record in Chinese history was 'a dragon came out of the palace', which Gongsun Shu regarded as a good omen that he could become emperor." Mans said, "See, this is the difference between a teacher and a student. I did enough homework before coming here."

"This person...well, he is actually a dragon. Why does he do all this? And he has to build such a huge bronze city. This is an incredible project!" Selma stared at the huge object on the sonar map in a daze.

Os shrugged. "We never knew that. If we want to figure out what these dragons want to do, we have to first figure out what dragons are and their relationship with humans. But... this is an academic problem. We can't come to a conclusion just by analyzing dragon fossils. We may have to capture a living dragon king and torture him." He paused. "Tonight is our chance!"

Ye Sheng glanced at the barometer reading. There was only about an hour of oxygen left. The water jet left a "well"-shaped vertical and horizontal pattern on the bronze wall, about 20 centimeters deep, but they could not penetrate the wall. This behemoth made people feel that it was a piece of pure solid metal. Ye Sheng felt that the "snake" he left inside the metal was getting more uneasy and swam much faster, as if it had sensed something.

The beam of strong flashlight shone from top to bottom. Mans in the diving suit did not speak, but knocked on his helmet mask to greet him and blew out a string of bubbles. He looked like a woman who was nine months pregnant. The special diving suit had a hard transparent material bag in front of him, and inside was a baby wearing a super small diving suit. At 150 meters underwater, the baby did not cry or even show any frightened expression. He slowly turned his head and looked around, with a faint golden light flowing in his pupils.