Beneath the Deep Sea
The beam of light lingered in the air for almost the time it takes to brew a cup of tea before completely dissipating. Long Tian squatted down at the edge of the open space and touched the ground where the light layers had met. The residual heat had mostly dissipated, with only a very faint layer of warmth remaining on the surface soil.
He stood up and walked to Yu Jin's side. The two stood at their intersection for a moment, confirming each other's sensory status. Yu Jin raised his hand and touched the dark gray bead on his collarbone. The bead's temperature was slightly higher than Long Tian walked to the well platform, stretched out his right arm, his index and middle fingers together, pointing directly southeast in the sunlight. At the same moment, Dragon Shadow raised his right claw, a thin, short beam of light condensing at the tip, extending forward for a distance before stopping at its endpoint.
"This direction coincides with the location of the Dragon Bone Marker Disc from last time," Long Tian retracted his finger, and Dragon Shadow's right claw retracted simultaneously. "The directionality after the two light layers converged was more stable than in a single test by a single person, with almost zero deviation."
He went back inside, spread the silk map on the table, and drew a short horizontal line at the southeastern end with a charcoal pencil. Then he drew a thin line converging the end at the marked position. Yu Jin stood beside him, watching the newly drawn line. After a while, he said, "Let's make another trip to Longfish Bay tomorrow or the day after; we can catch the tidal window then."
That afternoon, Long Tian made no other arrangements. He cleaned the old leather bag again by the well, put away the tide record and the superimposed map, and checked the seals on the water bag and the food bag. Yu Jin packed up the bundle again in the corner. After they finished packing, they went back to their rooms to rest as dusk fell.
The next morning, before dawn, Long Tian and Yu Jin left the stone house. Morning mist still clung to the hillside, and the grass on the path was bent low by dew, leaving dark, damp trails underfoot. They walked along the official road for nearly half a day, reaching the slope outside Longfish Bay before noon. Standing on the high ground, they saw the sea was still calm, and the boats near the shore were all moored at the dock. The people at the stern were squatting, tidying their fishing nets. Seeing them come down the slope, they gathered up the last piece of netting, tied a knot, stood up, untied the rope, and after they boarded the boat, used a pole to propel it away from the shore.
After leaving the shore, the ship followed its usual route through the shallow waters and into the deep blue open sea. As dusk fell, the ship maintained its forward speed in the steady current. Long Tian sat at the bow with his hands resting on his knees, keeping the Origin Return Pearl's output stable. He allowed the Dragon Shadow's light layer to slowly unfold outward from its position against his back, spreading parallel to the surrounding water. Yu Jin sat at the hatch, the dark gray bead at his collarbone shining with the same stable brightness. The two light layers remained parallel above the ship, but had not yet converged.
As night fell, the ship approached the waters where the interface was located. The vertical line on Dragon Shadow's forehead lit up slightly, as if sensing the presence of the stone keel below. Long Tian stood up, took off his coat and placed it on the deck, then tightened the straps of his leather bag. The people at the stern anchored the ship directly above the marker plate, dropping the anchor to stabilize it. Long Tian stood on the gunwale, with Yu Jin beside him. The two simultaneously merged their light layers, and the gentle light re-formed above the ship before falling together onto the water's surface. It penetrated the water and extended downwards, slightly splitting and then converging again as it passed through the interface, finally landing on the surface of the marker plate in the middle of the keel's spine.
At that moment, the marker disc lit up—not from the reflection of any light above the water, but from its own internal light. The engravings on the disc lit up sequentially, transmitting light segment by segment from the edge to the center. The light flowed along the path of each engraving, like a container being continuously filled with liquid, gradually increasing its capacity. After the light filled the entire marker disc, a deep humming sound came from underwater, weakening slightly as it reached the bottom of the boat through the water, but still clearly perceptible to everyone on board. After the humming completely subsided, the light from the marker disc began to spread simultaneously to both ends of the keel spine, extending forward and backward along the spine. After reaching the ends of the spine, it continued to spread outward along the direction of the ribs. The entire keel structure lit up segment by segment during the continuous transmission, like a fuse being lit segment by segment, continuously spreading into the distance along a predetermined path.
Long Tian stood at the ship's railing, watching the gradually forming silhouette underwater take shape segment by segment within the continuous layer of light, like a ship's lamp being slowly illuminated. The vertical line on Dragon Shadow's forehead maintained its brightness at this moment, remaining stable as the entire keel lit up, its wings slightly spread and all four eyes wide open. At the same moment, the dark gray bead on Yu Jin's collarbone also lit up to the same brightness as Dragon Shadow. A new layer of light appeared at the bottom of the keel, extending downwards from the center of the marking disc, passing through the keel itself, and continuing to extend into the deeper seabed along the deeper stone base below. The extending layer of light reached the depths under their continued gaze.
Long Tian flipped over the ship's side, stepped on the current leading to the location of the Dragon Bone Marker Disc, and began to move underwater.