Braving the Rapids

The next moment, a thin stream of water, as sharp as a knife, gushed out.

Several pulse-seekers lying on the ground were cut up, with long, narrow slits appearing on their armor.

The bell-ringing priest was about to warn a nearby clock-ringing colleague, but everything happened very quickly.

Before his communication spell could even fully form, the leak expanded from a few lines to dozens of lines, and then the rock wall collapsed with a deafening roar!

A roaring wall of water, carrying broken rocks, crashed into the inner side.

The bell-ringing priest groaned as he was pressed firmly against the stone pillar, a metallic taste filling his mouth.

The magical shield around him rippled, its light flickering.

The bell-ringing priest tried to move it, but the huge drop of 260 meters brought hundreds of cubic meters of water flowing every second, carrying enormous pressure.

He was completely unable to move!

The bell-ringing priest had barely lifted himself up when the water slammed him back against the stone pillar, squeezing the air out of his chest bit by bit.

Click!

The pillar behind him also developed cracks from the impact, which spread along its length. Finally, after barely holding on for a dozen seconds, the shield on the bell-ringer shattered.

Immense pressure surged from my chest throughout my body, causing my bones to crack repeatedly as they broke and pierced my skin, tearing through flesh and blood along with them.

As darkness gradually fell, the bell-ringing priest vaguely saw a futuristic, fish-shaped alchemical artifact whizzing past him as it drifted along the water.

He suddenly realized who had done it.

"Damn it... Bone King..."

The pillar behind him finally collapsed, and the bell-ringer's body was torn into pieces and swept into the water.

****

The bell-ringer priest was wrong about one thing.

That explosion wasn't a single one, but hundreds of ones.

Hundreds of explosives embedded in the rock layer detonate sequentially along the array with millisecond-level precision, causing the stress generated by the explosions to superimpose.

As for the amphibious robot that swept past the bell-ringing priest, it was naturally the "Baby Fish" amphibious robot.

Throughout the entire underground palace, everyone was swept away by the water. This included the man with the engraving needle; he had sensed the anomaly and had just entered the palace when he was slammed against the rock wall by the oncoming torrent of water.

The mine carts overturned, the supports collapsed, and all the lights went out after the water rushed in.

Some of the orcs who were closer to the entrance of the alleyway fled upwards in terror.

With such a strong current, it's uncertain whether we can even escape!

The "Baby Fish" entered the interior following the swift current.

It first sank to the bottom of the water, appearing as quiet as an ordinary piece of metal debris. But its internal detection devices were running at full capacity, scanning for any movement around it.

Sure enough, someone staggered and crawled up along the rock wall. To be able to move under such immense water pressure, they must be a high-level superhuman.

The intelligent system responded immediately, activating the small torpedoes mounted on the giant salamander, and using its rocket engine to spray air from both the front and back, trailing a long string of bubbles as it attacked the target.

The engraving needle reacted.

Despite struggling to breathe and surrounded by chaos, he managed to deploy his shield and attempt to dodge.

The water limited its speed, and the small cavitation torpedo easily corrected its trajectory.

Two blinding orbs of light exploded at the point of contact. The high temperature vaporized the water, forming white bubble cavities with orange-red flames churning inside. The high-pressure shockwave expanded, shattering the surrounding stone walls, and the entire body of water instantly turned murky and gray.

Then it quickly dimmed.

The explosion in the water was so subtle and restrained.

But due to the thousandfold mass of water, the needle took the impact squarely. It was slammed back against the rock face, leaving shallow dents on the rock behind it.

The engraving needle caused his entire body to tremble and his ears and nose to ring.

The giant salamander immediately recognized that the target structure was intact and still human-shaped.

There's only one solution to this problem: launch the remaining two torpedoes again!

Boom!

This time, the shield, which had been relentlessly attacked by the needle, finally shattered, and the person was blown to pieces, their remains drifting with the current.

The detection devices aboard the giant salamander continued to operate, confirming that there was no further life activity in the surrounding area.

It then arrived at the entrance of the alley, surfaced above the rising water, scanned the area, and found that none of the fleeing orcs dared to turn back.

The "Amazing Fish" extended its four mechanical legs, climbed ashore, and streams of water flowed down its hull. It then accelerated forward.

Its four legs have wheels on the bottom, allowing it to traverse relatively flat areas at high speeds.

If they encounter obstacles, they will climb or even jump over them.

With its four mechanical legs retracting and extending in sequence, the machine landed on the ground, then leaped over the collapsed mine carts and wooden frames.

In less than a minute, it had penetrated more than 300 meters into the sloping tunnel, and had advanced more than 70 meters in vertical distance.

This is a strategic pass, with hard rock layers on both sides and a natural fault zone above it.

After assessing the situation, the "Amazing Fish" anchored the explosives to the tunnel sidewalls and top, then turned around, its wheels spinning at high speed, and hurtled down the slippery slope.

"Boom!"

The intense flames instantly filled the tunnel, and debris caught up with the giant salamander from behind.

The explosion tore open the fracture zone, and thousands of tons of rock, losing their support, poured down with a sound even more violent than the explosion itself.

The massive supporting wooden beams snapped in half, triggering a chain reaction that caused the rock top to collapse section by section before it finally subsided.

Soon, it piled up into a long, dead-end path.

In such a collapsed area, the rocks above will keep falling during the clearing process, so it is definitely not a short-term task.

The alleyway was essentially sealed off.

The giant salamander burst out of the dust and came to a stop. Some flying pebbles came from behind and hit its shell, making a crisp metallic clanging sound.

It still had explosives on it.

The salamander deployed its scanner, beginning to explore the branching sections of the mine tunnel and search for other areas that might need to be blocked.

****

When the hole first broke open, the flow rate reached 600 cubic meters per second due to the huge water level difference.

A few minutes later, as the inner underground palace gradually filled up, the water spread and rose along the channel, and the flow rate began to drop rapidly.

As time went on, the water level on the orc side continued to rise, and the salamanders returned to the water.

The previously collapsed section of the tunnel was gradually submerged. Water seeped through the gaps and continued to climb upwards.

The "Amazing Fish" communicated via underwater acoustics, sending a signal that "no enemy detected" and "safe." Two of the three small underwater vehicles, towing umbilical cables, passed through the cave entrance one after another and entered the inner underground palace of the Fire-Infused Magic Array.

The submersible activated its sonar and cameras to search in the murky, dark water.

Large amounts of rubble, tools, and orc corpses floated inside the dungeon, swirling with the water.

They sent back the data.

"The inner underground palace is 135 meters deep."

No survivor activity was detected.

Su Ming and his group are currently in the outer passage. Explosives have also been placed two hundred meters below them.

According to the contingency plan, if a powerful enemy that cannot be suppressed is encountered, the subsequent operation will be canceled, the outer passage will be blown up to block the enemy, and then an immediate withdrawal will be made.

However, this did not happen, and the drone successfully took control of the area.

"The water's deep enough, we can move now," Simina said.

The three of them began their descent from their waiting positions, passed through the passage, and returned to the outer underground palace of the Fire-Infused Magic Array.

The closer they got to the blast point, the more pronounced the water flow became, dragging them towards it. The three of them grabbed onto the fixed rope, circled around from the outside, and, hugging the stone pillar, arrived at the opposite side of the cave entrance.

The debris suspended in the water converged towards the cave entrance, quickly passing over the three people's protective suits.

A steel cable winch has been installed on the massive stone pillar.

Su Ming glanced at the wrist screen; the current water depth was 220 meters, a significant drop.

This was clearly caused by water flowing to the other side.

The water depth in the inner underground palace has increased again.

"I'll go first," Simina said. "The pressure on both sides is quite different; you can't handle it."

"Be careful!" Su Ming had no choice but to say.

Simina locked the hook and, dragged along by the steel cable, slowly approached the breach.

The closer you are, the stronger the current becomes.

Her body gradually turned sideways, her flippers and gear bag stretched backward by the water flow.

Simina took a deep breath and suddenly pressed the handle. The winch released rapidly, and she accelerated abruptly, being dragged into the breach by the surging water.

The broken rocks on both sides rushed past, and the scenery illuminated by the headlamp almost merged into one in the field of vision.

After passing through, Simina released the release handle, and the winch tightened the cable, beginning to brake and slow her down with a pre-set force.

Simina's waist strap tightened, and her speed gradually decreased.

At the same time, her body suddenly relaxed, experiencing a sudden and intense decompression of seventy meters.

The wetsuit bulged, and intense discomfort shot through my eardrums and chest cavity simultaneously.

Simina took out the water harp, her fingertips swiftly strumming the strings, and a transparent shield unfolded around her body.

The convergent shield can provide an additional 50 meters of water pressure.

If this is not done, the nitrogen and helium dissolved in Simina's blood will form a large number of bubbles due to the drastic pressure drop.

In mild cases, it can cause confusion; in severe cases, it can lead to blood vessel blockage and immediate death.

However, the damage caused by this process was still considerable.

Simina activated the "Holy Spring Key," and a pale green light immediately enveloped her entire body. She steadied her breathing and checked the water depth and her physiological parameters again.

After confirming that her physical condition had not deteriorated further, Simina untied the steel cable around her waist, turned on her headlamp, and surveyed her surroundings.

[No enemy detected!]

Simina informed Su Ming.

****

A few minutes later, Yise also crossed over and joined Simina.

Simina still applied the Convergence Shield to Yise.

"This shield will slowly dissipate," she reminded Yise, "So you need to keep equalizing your ear pressure."

"Understood," Yise said.

She unfastened the steel cable around her waist, checked her equipment, and confirmed that there were no abnormalities.

Zijin and Jinxiu also came along.

The little bone dragon perched on Yise's left shoulder, its four bone claws firmly gripping the restraints. Jinxiu, on the other hand, was on his right shoulder, curiously examining the completely flooded inner dungeon. "Divide into groups and explore."

Everyone split up according to their previous groups and began investigating this part of the Fire-Burning Array.