204: Chapter 204 Deep Water Blind Spot, Dark Currents Advance (2)

An incense stick's time passed—they had slipped through the gap in the guard rotation. Leng Feng returned to the core of the undercurrent. Depth: 1,800 zhang.

The water temperature had dropped again. The seawater below 1,800 zhang was nearly half a degree colder than at 1,500 zhang—the temperature distribution of the deep-water layer itself showed a marked drop here.

The distance between the four members of Leng Feng's diamond formation shrank from two zhang to one and a half zhang—the greater the water pressure, the thinner the Qi membrane, and the shorter the communication range.

Two thousand li—the undercurrent stopped at the periphery of the main hub.

Leng Feng stopped at the edge of the undercurrent. Before him was a mountain range rising up from the seabed.

The surface of the mountain range consisted of dark cyan boulders—each one had been hewn by hand and arranged in a regular pattern. Each boulder was about three zhang square, and the gaps between the stones were less than half a finger wide.

The gaps were filled with Array Ink—the Array Ink had been dried for at least a thousand years, but the patterns of the Array Ink itself remained. The flow of the lines was identical to those on the altar stone surface—the curvature of the bends, the angles of the turns, the way they branched—they matched.

It was a continuation of the same set of Sealing Pattern.

Leng Feng pressed his hand against the nearest boulder. The stone surface was ice-cold—nearly half a degree colder than the surrounding seawater.

Extremely shallow lines were carved into the stone surface—they were almost invisible to the naked eye underwater, but his fingers could feel the direction of the lines when he touched them. The lines extended outward from the very center of the stone surface—for every foot they extended outward, the lines became one layer denser.

He traced the mountain range westward for about three li. The mountain range ran from east to west—on the northwest side, there was a gap half-buried in silt and sand.

The location of the gap was at a seam between two boulders—the Array Ink in the seam was thinner than in other places, so thin that a large section had peeled off after being eroded by a thousand years of seawater. The gap was about one person's height—looking inside, one could see a passage extending obliquely downward.

Leng Feng stopped in front of the gap. He used his hand to clear away the silt and sand from the gap—the silt had been soaked by seawater for a thousand years, and it disintegrated into gray-white mud at the slightest touch. The mud dispersed in the water—Leng Feng waited for the mud to clear before taking a look inside.

A passage. The walls of the passage were covered in dense, secondary Sealing Pattern lines—the color of these lines was a shade deeper than the main patterns outside. It was the result of multiple layers of Array Ink—outside, there was only one layer of the main pattern, but inside the passage, there were at least three layers stacked.

The layout of the lines had changed from unidirectional to intersecting—the main patterns and secondary patterns intertwined on the walls to form a net. In the center of each mesh, approximately every foot, a tiny dark crystal was embedded—the surface of the crystal had been corroded by a thousand years of seawater, creating a very thin, misty layer.

But beneath the misty layer, one could still see the interior of the crystals flickering extremely slowly—dimming, brightening, then dimming again. A complete cycle took about forty breaths. It was perfectly synchronized with that main fluctuation on the Receiving Formation.

Leng Feng stopped in front of the gap for about ten breaths. He scanned inside with his Divine Sense—his Divine Sense passed through the gap and pushed forward along the passage for about twenty zhang. Then, it was blocked.

The secondary Sealing Pattern lines on the inner walls of the passage had a spiritual-repelling effect—when his Divine Sense touched the patterns on the walls, it was bounced back. The force of the rebound was as strong as the force with which his Divine Sense had swept out—his Divine Sense hit them and was pushed back along the original path.

He retracted his Divine Sense—and pressed a finger against his Water-avoiding Talisman. The surface of the Water-avoiding Talisman felt slightly hot under the pressure of two thousand zhang of water.

"Enter. We won't go deep—just take a look at what's inside."

He turned sideways and squeezed into the gap. Deng Yue followed behind—his shield wedged in front of him, the edge of the shield brushing against the surface of the boulders on both sides of the gap, scraping off a trail of fine stone dust.

Ma Yuan and Tian Qi kept watch outside the gap—one faced outward, scanning the seabed, while the other held a traction array stake. The stake had already been driven into the silt beside the gap—the anchoring pattern at the base of the stake expanded into the silt, and the communication Array Pattern at the top of the stake lit up with a faint, ghostly blue light.

The passage extended obliquely downward. Leng Feng and Deng Yue walked down step by step—with every step they took, the color of the secondary Sealing Pattern on the passage walls grew a shade deeper. The flickering rhythm of the dark crystals was clearer inside the passage than outside—when they dimmed, nothing could be seen in the passage, but when they brightened, the lines on the walls seemed to be ignited, turning from dark blue to bright blue.

They walked for about fifteen zhang—the passage had not yet ended. But the flickering rhythm of the crystals on the walls had changed. From a complete cycle of forty breaths—it had become twenty breaths. The frequency had doubled.

Deep within the passage—something was accelerating.

Leng Feng turned sideways to squeeze through the gap. His body pressed between the boulders on either side of the gap—as his armor plates brushed against the stone surface, they scraped off a layer of extremely fine stone dust. The stone dust dispersed in the water into a gray-white mist.

The passage extended obliquely downward beneath his feet—the slope was about thirty degrees, and with every step he took, he could feel the stone slabs at the bottom of the passage being pressed solid. There were chisel marks on the surface of the stone slabs—the direction of the chisel marks ran from the entrance toward the depths, each strike made from the outside in.

Deng Yue followed behind. His shield was wedged in front of him—the shield face was less than two inches from his chest, and its edges occasionally struck the stone walls on either side of the passage with a muffled sound. The sound did not travel far in the passage—the secondary Sealing Pattern on the walls absorbed the vibrations in the water.

The passage extended obliquely downward for about fifty zhang. Then, it suddenly opened up.

Leng Feng peered out from the mouth of the passage—before him was a huge space half-buried in the seabed mountain range. All four stone walls had been artificially chiseled—the chisel marks were uniform in direction, running from the top to the bottom. The spacing between the chisel marks was about half a foot—the depth of every chisel mark was roughly the same.

The top was an arched dome—the highest point of the dome was at least fifty zhang from the ground. The surface of the dome was also covered in patterns—the patterns radiated outward from the center of the dome, the way they radiated was identical to the patterns on the boulders outside. The entire space had been chiseled by manpower into the seabed mountain range—every chisel mark had been left by the ancients two thousand years ago.