Finally, He'd Found His People

"The Shichuan is a Ruby-class attack submarine."

"Its predecessor was the French Daphne- class submarine. Due to the restrictions of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, its torpedoes, anti-ship missiles, and mine-laying compartments were all modified and turned into storage and living areas."

"Its submersible displacement is 2,600 tons, and its diving depth is over 300 meters, so it should be perfectly capable of undertaking exploration operations near volcanic hydrothermal vents."

"When the Shichuan went missing, there were still seventy-three crew members on board."

Upon arriving at the beach, an engineering vessel was moored beside the Research Station pier of Fang Feng. Uncle Han Zhi talked to the gunsmith about these matters and asked the engineering team to help the gunsmith put on a diving helmet.

"It has three entrances and exits, but only two ways to enter."

"One is a dedicated mission cabin, an entrance/exit provided for use by frogman special operations units."

"One is an isolation chamber. After personnel enter, the outer door is closed, then the water is drained, and the inner door is opened to let you in."

"With the last torpedo compartment included, you can use this escape route. It's a mandatory course for every sailor before boarding, but for the Shichuan, it might hurt a little."

"Because French submarines typically use a pneumatic piston-linkage ejection system, this romantic nation prefers to use high-pressure gas to drive the piston, and after the weapon is ejected from the hull, its launcher is then activated."

"If you are going to leave the Shichuan from the torpedo room, you must be careful about this: the torpedo launching procedure is to first fill the tank with water, and then start the piston to push you out of the ship. This process could kill you."

Jiang Xueming nodded without speaking. He gazed at the distant cave, unable to distinguish between the sea level and the boundary of the stone cave. The King of Cinder had departed, and the sun-loving fish had gradually quieted down; it was time to set off.

The diving helmet and special pressure suit were put on his body, like wearing a heavy ceramic armor helmet. This equipment had to withstand the water pressure of more than 200 meters underwater, as well as the high temperature of nearly 100 degrees Celsius from volcanic hot springs.

The engineering vessel gradually sailed away from the dock, and in just a few minutes, it arrived at the mission location.

Two thick steel cables became Jiang Xueming's lifeline. These specially made cables could provide oxygen and signals for the diving equipment. If the gunsmith lost consciousness during a deep dive, these two lifelines could immediately pull him back.

Beneath the pitch-black sea surface, waves crash against the shore, creating layers of foam. Deeper still, golden light sources flicker and undulate, rising and falling – these are lava spewed from volcanoes. They slowly undulate on the seabed, and the moment the high-temperature sulfides come into contact with the seawater, they turn into boiling black smoke. They are repeatedly pushed apart by the lava from the hot springs, and the difference in temperature creates a powerful current, making the underwater environment even more treacherous and complex.

"Can you hear me?" Uncle Han Zhi raised the radio.

The field of vision narrowed, with only a small window providing a meager view. Uncle Han Zhi's voice came from the audio units on either side of his head. Jiang Xueming raised his hand and replied, "I can hear you."

Uncle Han Zhi: "Let's go."

Xue Ming nodded involuntarily, but the diving gear had no neck at all. With the help of the engineering team, he stepped onto the cage and fell into the dark ocean with it.

The moment he entered the sea, a strange Inspiration enveloped him.

Warm water flows in from all directions, gently pressing the diving equipment like palms, much like a curious child touching a new toy.

Four cables connected the cage, lowering Xue Ming deeper into the hoisting chamber. Cool, fresh air blew in from his lower back; it was the oxygen generator on the engineering vessel starting up, delivering oxygen via the steel cable lifeline.

"The concentration can be lower," Xue Ming said, unconsciously tightening his grip on the cage's wiring harness. "I'll start experiencing oxygen saturation symptoms in two minutes."

"It will decrease gradually," Uncle Han Zhi replied. "The descent will be quick. We need to ensure your blood oxygen level is maintained. Is your mind still clear?"

"I'm starting to hallucinate," Jiang Xueming answered truthfully. "Looking down, there are too many bright spots. The dark areas are too dark, and the bright areas are too bright. It's making me feel dizzy."

Strange noises emanated from various parts of the diving equipment; they were the soft sounds of the insulating ceramic layer and the pressure suit rubbing against each other.

The world outside the small window is hard to describe in words, just as Xue Ming said—

-- Various dark patches were slowly wriggling. The darkness created some illusions in his eyes. The dark patches left some traces on his retina. His brain would involuntarily recognize these patches as familiar objects. It's hard to explain this feeling in just a few words.

Just like when we walk at night in a Five Fingers -black environment where we can't see our own hands in front of our faces, we see specks in our eyes that resemble floaters. They can turn into tables, chairs, or TVs, or sesame seeds or watermelons. This is related to the brain's associative abilities; whatever you think of becomes what you imagine, which is quite amazing.

In the pitch-black sea, apart from the distant volcanic light source, Xue Ming had lost all sense of distance. He couldn't look up to observe the engineering ship; these dark patches of color almost rushed into the observation window, completely surrounding him.

Uncle Han Zhi: "It's very close, can you see the Tengzhen?"

Jiang Xueming immediately replied, "It looks like a dark outline, but it's slowly becoming clearer."

The hydrothermal vents on the seabed were pulling on the cables of the gondola. When they reached a depth of more than 170 meters, Xue Ming could feel the gondola swaying and the steel cables vibrating.

"I can see it now." Xue Ming saw the complex seabed and could hear the sound of tiny particles in the seawater hitting the diving helmet. These were various sulfides carried by the current, pattering on the diving equipment like raindrops. "Its light is broken; there's no light source."

With a soft rumble, the cage landed on the solid seabed. At that moment, Xue Ming arrived at the seabed.

Heavy diving gear firmly anchored him to the ground. Through the fluorescent markers on the outside of his legs, he could see the seabed rocks containing glittering sand and crystals—mostly obsidian volcanic rock.

Mud doesn't stay here; the circulating water carries away the smoke and dust from the hot springs.

The terrain is extremely unique. The polymetallic sulfides ejected from the crater, under the pull of the circulation, have become an invisible file, repeatedly polishing this seabed, making it smooth and flat, turning it into paths that resemble those trodden by giant snakes. Apart from the cracks left by geological activity, Xue Ming can even skate on this path.

Uncle Han Zhi: "Turn on your searchlight."

Xue Ming followed the instructions and, the instant the lights were turned on, the bright light illuminated a colorful path. The natural colors of various minerals turned the seabed into a disco stage. However, within seconds, the shoulder lights, now without their protective shields, stopped working. The fine sand and gravel in the circulation knocked a crack into the pressure-resistant plate outside the bulb.

"My shoulder light is broken, and my headlamp should be broken too," Jiang Xueming immediately said to the work group. "The underwater environment is very complex. Can this diving gear withstand it?"

"We tested the water for heavy metals and minerals," Han Zhi explained patiently. "The main components are iron, zinc, manganese, and copper from basalt and obsidian—they can't break through your steel helmet."

Xue Ming calmed himself and began to move with difficulty. He slowly made his way to the vicinity of the Tengzhen. The ship had already tilted to one side, as if it had been pulled about by some huge force, and then it crashed headfirst onto the seabed.

He went to the side of the boat and spoke to the work group about it.

"I have arrived at the Tengzhen. Its power supply is down, and the diesel engines have stopped. I can't feel any engine vibration in the power unit; it's very quiet."

Han Zhi: "Were there any survivors?"

"It seems..." Jiang Xueming was about to answer, but immediately changed his mind, "Wait a minute."

He silently bent down, the heavy diving helmet making it difficult for him to see anything below his knees, so he could only hunch over and reach down to retrieve it.

He took two glow sticks from his toolbox and looked at the point where the boat had struck the seabed. He then saw an arm, which must have belonged to a member of the search and rescue team.

"There is a victim, who should already be dead." Jiang Xueming leaned to the side, observing the arm through the window, where the details were indistinct.

It had swelled up due to decompression, its cells bulging and rupturing from the inside out, turning pale from being soaked in seawater, its nails softening and its knuckles becoming enlarged. The water temperature near the hot spring was close to 60 degrees Celsius, just when an egg begins to spoil, and the same applies to human tissue; at this temperature, a person can be slowly cooked.

Han Zhi: "Is there a steel nameplate or other identification?"

"I need to get closer." Xue Ming held up a glow stick in one hand and braced himself against the hull of the boat with the other as he crawled inside.

As he approached the swollen arm, he could clearly feel a strong psionic fluctuation, but by the time he reacted, it was too late—the diving helmet was too heavy.

He first felt something grab his arm, and then instinctively pulled away.

Once he was completely off the boat and back in open space, he saw a little bit of flesh on his arm.

The wreckage buried beneath the Tengzhen seemed to have moved just now?

"It seems to have scratched me?"

Xue Ming didn't understand. When he said these things, Han Zhi couldn't understand the true meaning at all, because the diving equipment couldn't fit the camera and photography equipment, and the engineering team couldn't see anything.

Protected by the pressure helmet, Xue Ming was not injured, but the tremors coming from his arm aroused his suspicion.

The airflow quickly swept away the small amount of flesh. A few seconds later, his pupils contracted, and he swiftly locked his gaze onto the arm outside the hull.

--It seemed to have been torn apart by Xue Ming's rough movements.

It floated on the seabed, tumbling rapidly with the turbulent currents. No blood flowed from the severed arm; it had been completely boiled white. The exposed bones were first crushed by the Tengzhen, then held in place by the resilient muscles, preventing them from becoming part of the surrounding sandstorm.

That arm seems to have actually grabbed me just now.

Its owner is still alive? Is that even possible?

The Tengzhen has taken on water; no Homo sapiens could survive in such an environment.

"This thing seems to still be alive."

Han Zhi immediately tensed up. "Do you want to end the mission early? We can bring you back at any time."

"Let's go check on the Shichuan," Jiang Xueming said immediately. "I can't just make a wasted trip; I need to bring this arm back."

Han Zhi: "If possible, that would be best."

Before he could finish speaking, the severed arm followed the circulation.

Right under Xue Ming's nose, it rolled several tens of centimeters away, where it was immediately subjected to a stronger pull and was gradually pulverized into a pulp by the unseen files on the seabed. It then drifted to a ravine several tens of meters away and became part of the current.

"It's too late, I'm sorry, it was gone in the blink of an eye." Jiang Xueming said, breaking the glow stick in half. The bright green tracer floated forward and immediately turned into a colorful ribbon on the seabed.

The glowing oil surged and tumbled upwards along with the fine sand, and the liquid, which was less dense than seawater, could not escape to the surface, due to the strong water current locking it in.

Xue Ming carefully avoided these unseen "files." Such surging currents are common on the seabed. Without the guidance of tracers, one can discern the direction and speed of the flow simply by looking at the grooves on the seabed.

"If other search and rescue teams and fishing crews need to go into the water, tell them to bring down more tracers. It's too dangerous down there." Xue Ming said as he approached the Shichuan. "I can't back down here. Uncle Han Zhi —any other psychic would be in the same boat, losing their lives at any moment, let alone ordinary people without Inspiration."

"Then you need to hurry," Han Zhi advised. "The two steel cables of the diving equipment can withstand the water pressure and the abrasion from these circulating sands and gravel, but metals will eventually tire, and steel will also undergo creep deformation. Over time, its oxygen delivery function may be affected."

"I'll try to finish this quickly." Xue Ming touched the side of the Shichuan's hull and headed towards the location of the submarine's usual entrance and exit, just as he remembered it.

It is located some distance from the seabed, at a relatively high position.

--Since the Shichuan was sitting firmly on a rock, it was quite difficult to reach the entrance hatch.

"SD!" Jiang Xueming shouted Hunwei's real name.

The giant steel cat burst out of the body, seemingly unaware of what was happening. Seawater squeezed the Fragrant Dream's head, and it blew bubbles, but no sound came out. It could only pout and wriggle its mouth, struggling to maintain its balance.

"Take me up with you," Jiang Xueming called out from afar.

But Fragrant Dream couldn't hear what Xue Ming was saying at all.

--It stood there stunned for a long time before finally leaning forward.

Jiang Xueming was startled. Suddenly, a large, shimmering cat face popped into the observation window. Without any physical support Fragrant Dream stuffed its head directly into the diving helmet, almost kissing its true form.

"What are you doing?!" the Cat Knight asked, completely bewildered. "Why did we suddenly end up at the bottom of the sea?!"

"On an exploration mission." Xue Ming felt utterly exhausted. His soul power possessed self-awareness, the downside being that he had to explain everything to the spirit body. "Send me to the entrance/exit!"

"Oh! You should have said so earlier!" The big cat first realized, then immediately pouted and winked, "Oh, oh, oh! I forgot! I can't hear you!"

Then you see the all-powerful robot cat leave its diving helmet, its legs twisting and deforming into six propeller blades, which hug Xue Ming's torso and lift the main body upwards.

Upon arriving at the isolation compartment, Xue Ming discovered that all the mechanical and electrical switches on the Shichuan had failed, turning the submarine into a veritable iron coffin—it had been lying on the seabed for several years.

He gently tapped on the hull of the boat and gestured for Fragrant Dream to open the door.

Such a small matter was no challenge for the steel cat. It moved back and forth between the hydraulic system and linkage of the gate, carefully inspecting the area from all angles. When the gate was opened, it removed the rock salt calcium deposits and red clam shells from the seams of the door and brought Xue Ming in.

"I'm on the submarine now. If I want to get to the living quarters, I'll have to cut the lifeline."

Han Zhi asked nervously, "What's in the isolation ward?"

Jiang Xueming raised his glow stick and counted the objects inside the cabin one by one.

"The sheet metal is intact, showing no deformation, and the reinforcing ribs are structurally complete and free of rust."

"You can see some hydras that look a lot like dandelions, and there are some red clams at the entrance, hiding in the crevices to survive."

"There were also some broken crab limbs, dead starfish and sea anemones in the compartment, and a layer of mud and sand at the bottom."

Han Zhi then explained, "This is all normal. If you need to disconnect your lifeline, the oxygen reserve in your diving suit will allow you to move freely for twenty minutes."

"My Soul Power is checking the water injection and drainage system of the isolation chamber. If everything is normal..." Xue Ming hadn't finished speaking when Fragrant Dream, lying next to the mechanical panel, gave her main body an "OK" sign.

"It should be fine, Uncle Han Zhi, everything is going smoothly."

Xue Ming breathed a sigh of relief and said to each of his colleagues in the work group.

"I'm going in now. The voice call is about to end. If there's no response in twenty minutes, send someone down."

Han Zhi didn't reply immediately; he was still considering it. The rest of the engineering and research teams were silently watching Jiang Xueming's every move. They hoped the trip would be fruitful, but they hoped even more that the gunsmith would return safely.

After a few minutes, Han Zhi finally finished discussing with his team members.

"Wait a minute, gunsmith."

Jiang Xueming leaned against the wall of the isolation ward near the entrance to the living area, waiting. Upon hearing the voice message from the work group, she immediately replied, "Go ahead."

Han Zhi immediately said, "We will lower other steel cables as backup escape routes. The engineering vessel has eight diesel engines as traction machines, and their winches can bring you up. If anything goes wrong, quickly use Hunwei to violently break open a path for you. Look out at any steel cable and you can come back along it."

"As for whether the water pressure will damage the Shichuan's internal facilities, that's not a concern. Your life is the priority."

Jiang Xueming: "Understood."

Fragrant Dream slowly removed the two steel cables from Xue Ming's torso. The moment the oxygen supply valve closed, he could feel the air slowly becoming murky.

The lifeline was thrown outside the submarine's compartment door, and then the heavy door was closed to maintain the pressure inside the submarine.

As the valves hissed, the water level gradually dropped, and everything became clear. The heavy gravity pulled Xue Ming back to his familiar surroundings. In the dimly lit isolation chamber, almost nothing could be seen. After removing his diving gear, he and Steel Cat opened the isolation door leading to the interior of the submarine.

Many of the bright yellow byproducts of the nuclear industry are used as safety lights. These tritium tubes are attached to the cabinet doors of pressure diving equipment and near the calves in the living area corridors, providing basic lighting for corridors in case of emergency power outages.

As Xue Ming entered the narrow and cramped corridor, he immediately saw two security guards slowly "walking" over from the more distant dormitory area.

They wore grayish-white clothes, covered in blood, their faces swollen and without pupils. Hair had fallen out and hung halfway down their faces. Their flesh seemed to be dissolving, and they walked very slowly, their posture twisted and strange. The security guard on the right had a complete badge, but his knees were no longer strong enough. His body seemed to be pulled by some inexplicable force, writhing and trembling like a puppet on strings, each step accompanied by a splashing sound.

Jiang Xueming finally breathed a sigh of relief. When he saw the two monsters, it was as if he had seen his family.

"Oh! I thought there wasn't! Turns out there really is!"