The submersible has crossed the "bottom" of the city-state, and the endless dark water has replaced the previous vertical and rough "cliff". The light beam emitted by the high-power searchlight extends infinitely in the sea water, and nothing can be seen within the range of the light beam.
.
Only occasionally some small flashes appear in the light column, which are floating bubbles or some "debris" falling from the upper layer, reflecting the light in the water.
Duncan turned a crank on the control panel, and the sound of water filling from the direction of the pressurized water tank turned into a low roar. He slowed down the submersible's sinking speed and carefully controlled it to tilt upward at an angle.
After crossing that boundary, he had to "look back" and look up to see what the base of the city-state looked like.
The beam of light slowly swept across the darkness, and something so huge that it was suffocating emerged from the boundless water. An indescribable sense of oppression came to the face along with the hanging "rock formation" - even if there were no extraordinary factors.
The mental pollution caused by this scene is enough to make most ordinary people feel psychological pressure and even suffer mental trauma.
The "base" of the Frost City State appeared outside the porthole, as if the earth was hanging upside down. From the overwhelming crushing perspective, what could be seen were countless rugged structures, like clusters of stalagmites, like forests of spiers, and a large number of high and low structures.
Among the raised structures scattered across tens to hundreds of meters, there is also something like some kind of adhesion lying between the "stalagmites".
However, in the shock and depression that hit him, Duncan felt more and more uncontrollable curiosity - he carefully manipulated this simple diving machine, and instead headed towards the rugged and weird hanging "jungle"
Drive away.
At the same time, on the Homeless Ship, Duncan had arrived in front of the captain's cabin and reached out to open the "Homeless Man's Door".
Zhou Ming walked into his bachelor apartment and was not surprised to see the fully formed new collection on the table, which was emitting a faint glow - the exquisite "model" of the Frost City State.
He came to the table, held the lifelike city-state model in his hands, carefully observed every detail of it, and then turned it over to examine its underlying structure.
Those delicate and complex protrusions look like some kind of degenerated and messily arranged... tentacles, or to put it more boldly - like some kind of limbs.
Compared to simply using flames to perceive the underlying structure of the city-state, this "deep dive" brought more details to Zhou Ming.
He slowly closed his eyes, feeling the information coming from another world, feeling the vibrations of the submersible, and the magnificent and shocking "landscape" slowly moving outside the submersible's port window.
This inconspicuous steel device is passing between two "stalagmites" that are estimated to be one or two hundred meters long. The beam of the searchlight sweeps across the jagged and raised structures in the distance, allowing Duncan to find a safer path.
.
This is a scene that has never been mentioned in the materials of the Submersible Abyss Project - neither the information provided by Tirian nor the files left by the city hall mentioned the submersible traveling through the "hanging jungle" at the base of the city-state.
Condition.
Perhaps the pioneers at the time focused all their attention on the deep sea and did not do such unnecessary things. Perhaps this terrifying thing hanging upside down seemed too dangerous in the darkness, so that the first few submersibles
Neither of them chose to go in-depth rashly, maybe...
Some people have done this before, but no one has been able to bring the truth of what they saw above the surface of the sea.
The searchlight beam swept across another area in the darkness.
Something appeared in Duncan's field of vision.
The next second, he suddenly pulled a lever on the control panel. The impact of the sudden reversal of the propeller even caused a creaking noise to come from inside the submersible. The fragile steel spherical shell trembled in the deep water.
, accompanied by the terrifying sound of the mechanical structure bearing the load, it finally hovered at a position where it was almost about to hit a nearby "stalagmite".
"What happened?" Agatha asked hurriedly.
She raised her head and looked in the direction of the porthole, but she could only see many faint lights hanging upside down outside, and there was a larger light body in the dim light, glowing with a hazy and fuzzy light, and the details inside it could not be discerned.
appearance.
Duncan didn't respond for a while. He just stared out the porthole, staring at the person who just emerged from the darkness...
Huge, pale eyes.
One eye, a round eye, is located between those black protruding structures that are like tentacles. Its diameter may reach a hundred meters, so that a small submersible is like an inconspicuous stone in front of it.
generally.
These eyes were lifeless, as if they had died thousands of years ago, or even more ancient times. They were pale and hollow inlaid at the bottom of the city, hanging upside down outside the porthole, as if they were still calmly gazing at the endless horizon below when they were dying.
The deep dark seabed, and the submersible is currently suspended in front of its dead pupils, accepting the gaze of eternal decay.
"It's an eye." Duncan finally broke the silence and said softly.
He turned his head again and looked in other directions through the porthole on the other side.
The residual light of the searchlight illuminated the surroundings, and he could see the black "stalagmites" hanging upside down in the sea water. Now, he could finally confirm that these things were really limbs.
It is a tentacle that mutates, degenerates and then loses its vitality.
These tentacles hang down in the seawater, like withered vines hanging from the top of a cave.
Agatha gripped the armrest tightly. Even though her heart had stopped beating, she still felt as if something was about to burst out of her chest. When she realized what she had heard and the true nature of those glimmers of light in front of her eyes, she even
Feeling suffocated for the first time in a long time: "You...you mean..."
"The city-state was built on some kind of huge creature," Duncan said slowly. He was also shocked by what he saw in front of him, but he still tried to calm down and organize his thoughts, "At least... there are still some remaining
Characteristics of living things.”
Agatha couldn't speak for a long time. It took a long time before she sorted out the words in extreme shock and confusion: "Is it... dead?"
She lowered her voice unconsciously, as if she was worried that speaking too loudly would wake up the unimaginable and incomprehensible "creature".
"It should be dead," Duncan said, and at the same time he began to carefully control the submersible, slowly moving away from the huge pale eye, his movements were very careful - even though he was almost certain that the huge creature was dead, he still
Some scary associations can't help but arise, as if once the movement of the submersible is too large, the eye will suddenly turn around, "And theoretically, it shouldn't look like this originally. This is not in line with biological laws... It looks like
It's more like a twisted corpse, or something built using corpses as raw materials..."
Agatha did not speak. She didn't know whether to lament that Captain Duncan could still analyze calmly in this situation, or whether she should lament whether a creature that could carry a city-state had to "comply with the laws of biology" - huge confusion and consternation.
It filled her heart so much that she couldn't think about these issues as usual now.
The long-established worldview is now being tested.
The real appearance below the city-state is so terrifying and weird. The only safe shelter for mortals in the boundless sea is actually built on indescribable creatures. Under everyone's feet, under the rocks and soil thousands of meters deep, withered
His tentacles dropped into the deep sea, and his pale eyes looked down at the abyss, but everyone... knew nothing about it.
After being dazed for an unknown amount of time, Agatha finally woke up. She turned to Duncan and said hesitantly: "Is it only the frost?"
She didn't know why she asked Captain Duncan this question, and she didn't even think about the answer she would get - it was just the huge confusion urging her to speak, even if the question was destined to be inconclusive.
But the captain answered.
"Perhaps this is true for all city-states," Duncan said slowly, recalling his initial "perception" of the bottom of Pland, and from another perspective, he also looked at the shelves in his bachelor apartment
"Collection", "There is a similar structure to this one below the city-state of Puland - but there are no eyes, and there are only a bunch of deformed and swollen masses in the corresponding positions."
Agatha spoke subconsciously in shock: "Have you ever sneaked under Plande?"
Duncan shook his head: "No, this is my first time personally diving into the deep sea, but I have other means to roughly perceive what is underneath the city-state."
As he spoke, he raised his head and looked out the porthole at the "jungle" hanging upside down in the darkness.
There are limits to rough perception. If he hadn't come down to take a look in person, he might never have thought that those jagged and weird structures below the city... were actually indescribable corpses.
The huge pale eyeball is slowly moving away from the field of vision, and the beam of light from the searchlight is passing over the tentacles around it. However, even though the eye gradually disappears into the darkness, a feeling as if it has been watched for a long time is still entangled in my mind.
It was like there were countless invisible tentacles wrapping around the shell of the submersible from all directions.
Even the operation of the steam core seems to have become heavy and sluggish.
But these are all illusions - the submersible is still smoothly moving away from the "forest" and the eye, without being substantially hindered.
"We will continue to dive," Duncan turned his head and said to Agatha, "The truth about the city-state's base is just the beginning. We are entering the blind spot of the civilized world, and anything is possible next - you
Do you still have the courage?"
Agatha also turned her head, facing Duncan's gaze calmly through the black curtain.
"I'm ready," the city-state guardian said in a calm tone, "let's continue diving."