Southern Route
Back in the stone house, Long Tian spent a day reorganizing his supplies. He filled his water bag, repacked his rations, and spread the silk map on the table, using charcoal to clarify the new extension lines and endpoint markers. Long Tieshan squatted by the stove, wrapped a small bag of dried seaweed and a few pieces of salted meat in oilcloth, and handed it to him, just as he always did before going on long journeys, without needing to say much. Yu Jin patched the worn soles of his boots with old leather on the side of the house, tied them tightly with thin rope, stood up and walked a few steps to test the tightness, then squatted down and retied the boot laces.
The next morning, Long Tian and Yu Jin traveled along the official road all day, arriving at Longfish Bay in the evening. The people at the stern were placing a new pottery pot into the cabin at the dock. Seeing them come down the ramp, they didn't ask any questions, untied the mooring rope from the iron stake, and after they boarded, used a pole to propel the boat away from the shore. This journey was more southerly than any previous one. After leaving the bay, the boat cut southeast along the coastline for a distance before turning due east after leaving the nearshore waters. The color of the seawater gradually transitioned from light blue to dark blue after leaving the nearshore area, and after sailing for most of the day, it began to take on a darker hue, as if entering another body of water.
The following afternoon, a faint temperature difference line began to appear on the sea surface. Long Tian dipped his hand into the water for a moment. The water temperature was basically the same as the surrounding sea, but his fingertips felt an extremely subtle temperature difference, as if a thin warm current was flowing through a deeper layer of water. Its temperature was only one or two degrees different from the surface water, and as it continued to flow, it formed a water layer difference extending in a specific direction. He withdrew his hand, dried the water droplets on his trouser leg, stood up, walked to the stern, and described the location and direction of the temperature difference line. The people at the stern adjusted the course so that the bow aligned with the direction of the warm current.
The ship was moving slightly faster in the warm current channel than before, as if a continuous thrust was replenishing its forward momentum from below. No new islands or color bands appeared ahead, but the color of the seawater was undergoing an extremely slow gradation as it moved forward—from deep blue to deep grayish-blue, and then gradually transitioning to a grayish hue. Long Tian squatted at the bow, mentally superimposing the silk map and the light screen map, adjusting their orientation several times to make them overlap. Confirming that the position was correct, his gaze continued to extend along the route, finally landing on the marked circle at the end of the map.
As dusk fell, a faint band of color began to appear on the sea ahead of the ship. Unlike the pale gray of the outer edge of the Great Abyss, it was a darker hue, as if the seabed was lighter than the surrounding area, creating a color difference. As the ship gradually approached that band of color, a uniform echo came from the bottom of the ship, as if the hull was passing through a compacted shallow layer. The echoing sound was clear and regular, like the rhythmic vibration of a uniformly distributed hard layer under the action of the ocean current.
Long Tian stood up and walked to the side of the ship, looking down at the water below. As the water approached the band of color, it changed to a hue between deep blue and grayish-green, as if the underwater strata had transformed from muddy to stony, altering the optical appearance of the sea surface through continuous reflection, like an old cloth soaked in water gradually revealing the color of its inner fabric through constant washing. The bow continued forward for a while, then the speed began to decrease after entering the band of color, as if the hull had encountered shallower water, and the ship's draft was slowly changing.
The man at the stern loosened the rudder slightly, allowing the boat to slow down naturally. He then walked to the side of the boat, squatted down, and dipped his hand into the water for a moment. When he withdrew his hand, his fingertips were covered with a thin layer of grayish-white powder, the same type as the powder Long Tian had seen in the Great Abyss and on the underwater keel—the same color and texture, as if it had been formed by long-term sedimentation in the same geological area. He wiped the powder off his clothes, stood up, walked back to the helm, and gripped the rudder again.
"There's something on the seabed. It's not a reef, not a shipwreck, but a completely flat, paved surface with clearly defined edges, like a finely cut stone structure. The seabed within the colored bands is below normal depth, but the paved surface itself is level, not a naturally formed topographical feature."
Long Tian crouched down by the ship's side, spreading the aura of the Origin Return Pearl along the water's surface, allowing it to penetrate the water and reach the surface of the paved area. The paved surface had a uniform texture, consistent with the material of the base beneath the keel, suggesting it was an area connected to that structure in its construction. He withdrew his aura, stood up, and returned to the bow, letting the ship continue sailing along the edge of the paved surface within the colored band for a distance, until the color band ahead gradually faded, narrowing into a thin line with the surrounding seawater, before returning to normal. The ship stopped at the end of the colored band, and the people at the stern lowered the anchor cable, stabilizing the ship in this area of water.
Long Tian stood up from the bow of the boat, stepped onto the gunwale, and flipped into the water. The underwater visibility was clearer than in the Great Abyss area, and the water was highly transparent. The outline of the paved surface appeared below him after he had dived for about two zhang. He swam forward along the surface of the paved surface for a while and saw a circular depression similar to the Dragon Bone Marker Disc embedded in the paved surface. The edges were smooth, and the surface was covered with a thin layer of sediment, but a layer of metallic reflection could be faintly seen beneath the sediment.