Lu Mingfei, who had read Dragon Clan before slaying the dragon

The hatch opened, and a giant bubble of air drifted upward from the dark depths of the ocean. Jiude Mai emerged from the dense bubbles, undressing without any diving gear. The potion had temporarily given her a physique comparable to that of a dragon, allowing her to briefly walk as if on flat ground, even as she descended into the abyss.

She followed the blind spot of the observation window to the top of the submersible. The searchlight of the Trieste shone in all directions. There were few fish living at this depth. The surrounding was the quiet and deep sea water. The light reflected on her face, illuminating the scales on her jaw and neck with a dark glow.

With ease, Mai Jude lifted a piece of memory metal from the Trieste's hull. She easily found the air valve, extended her sharp claws, and thrust gently, piercing it. As she retracted, a stream of fine bubbles erupted. That was the port directly connected to the oxygen tank. Mai Jude inserted a steel pipe into it and connected her oxygen tank to the port in the oxygen tank. After taking a few breaths of air, she secured the metal hook attached to the safety rope at her waist to the safety rope of the submersible. After doing this, she quietly clung to the Trieste's outer wall, gazing at the bottomless abyss like an octopus with suction cups.

"This scenery is so despairing. No wonder the guys buried underneath are trying desperately to break free even after they die." Tiny bubbles appeared in circles on Mai Jiude's oxygen mask.

……

On the sea, the six Sumeru thrones were still running in an orderly manner at the last moment, and the four colors of light represented the smooth progress of the four plans, but in the blink of an eye, all the platforms were jumping with dazzling red lights, and the alarm sounded through the night sky.

"What happened! What went wrong with the diving team?" Yuan Zhisheng shouted from the platform.

"The Trieste's air tank is leaking!" a researcher from the Rock Flow Research Institute shouted back. "The system detects they've lost their buoyancy and are now falling... towards the Abyss!"

Professor Schneider's hoarse voice appeared on the channel: "How could the air tank leak? Haven't you checked it countless times and repeatedly assured that there will be no problems with the Trieste's hull?"

"Yes...it should be safe, but..." Yuan Zhisheng was speechless for a moment.

"I don't care about the reasons, I only care about the results. If anything unexpected happens to my three students under your noses, it will be regarded as a signal of war between you and the secret party. At least my executive department will not let you go." Schneider almost growled and threatened.

Yuan Zhisheng's palm was almost deforming the communicator.

"Quickly select a solution for me. The one with the highest feasibility and the highest efficiency!" Yuan Zhisheng roared at the group of technicians. Then he quickly connected with the diving team. "Caesar Team, Caesar Team, report your current situation. Please reply if you receive it!"

"The submersible has malfunctioned. The air in the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 air chambers has escaped. We have lost pressure balance and cannot surface. We are sinking! I repeat, we are sinking!" It was Caesar's voice, and he sounded panicked.

"Free sinking will cause the water pressure to break your outer shell. You must find a way to restore the momentum to float upwards! Or find a way to slow down!" said Yuan Zhisheng.

"Three of the four air valves are out of order. We have no way to increase our buoyancy... What are you doing?" Caesar suddenly stopped talking and sounded a little surprised.

"Caesar, Caesar! What happened over there?" Yuan Zhisheng yelled.

"Yuan Jun, this is Lu Mingfei." Lu Mingfei's voice appeared on the channel. "The situation is serious. We can't stop the Trieste from falling, and the power system has begun to malfunction. At this rate, the Trieste will fall into the abyss and become a pile of scrap metal. We will all be crushed into a bloody mist by the sea water. Now there is only one way..."

At this time, the scientific researcher in white was whispering something to Yuan Zhisheng.

"The Rock Flow Research Institute has found an emergency plan!" Yuan Zhisheng high-fived. "The Trieste has a powerful power source. Activate your nuclear power module and replace the weak power source with the lithium battery. Combined with the stabilizer wings, as long as you operate smoothly, you can enter an underwater gliding posture. This is the safest method right now..."

"No." Lu Mingfei interrupted Yuan Zhisheng. "This method won't work. We're falling too fast now, and the power system has failed. We can't restore power and replace the power source in such a short time. Even if we can catch up, as long as the Trieste touches the edge of the seabed under the abyss while gliding, with its current kinetic energy, the entire submersible will instantly turn into a nuclear bomb and collapse the Japanese seabed. The only way now is to use the safety hook. Treat us as a falling stone. We can't perform any operations. We can only rely on you to pull us up..."

The situation was extremely urgent, but Lu Mingfei's voice was surprisingly orderly and logical, which stunned Yuan Zhisheng. When he wanted to say something to Lu Mingfei, a noisy electric sound suddenly came from the headphones... The communication was unilaterally cut off.

Yuan Zhisheng punched the steel guardrail in front of him. The guy told him how to save him in a firm tone, almost in a notification tone, but Yuan Zhisheng had to do it. This made him feel like he was being played around by a lunatic!

……

Inside the Trieste, Caesar watched Lu Mingfei snatch the communicator and spout a lengthy rescue plan to Yuan Zhisheng before quickly severing the line. He was stunned, unable to recover. "What do you mean? Why did you cut off the line?"

"Boss, Senior Brother." Lu Mingfei stared intently into Caesar and Chu Zihang's eyes, his tone more serious than ever. "We don't have much time. This is one of the rare occasions when we can't be monitored. What I'm about to say may be a little hard to believe, but I hope you can trust me and keep these words firmly in mind during your time in Japan."

"The Eight Snake Clans are not our friends, nor are the Fierce Ghost Clan, at least not from our current standpoint." Lu Mingfei's first words were earth-shattering.

"If we get out of here alive... all of Japan will be our enemy!"

Chapter 219 We all have to... survive!

Caesar in the cockpit was still in shock. He didn't know why the topic suddenly became so serious when they were discussing the relaxed and harmonious first kiss just a second ago.

It feels like your first love asks you out, and you are looking forward to what to do during the day and what to eat at night, but after meeting, she suddenly says she wants to take you to her mother's funeral. Your silly smile freezes on your face, and you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Caesar glanced at Chu Zihang and found that Chu Zihang was also in a confused state like him. It was obvious that Lu Mingfei's words were too shocking and he was shocked.

"Are you upset?" Caesar asked Lu Mingfei tentatively, "Is it because the topic of 'men' makes you uncomfortable? Or are you frightened by the accident that just happened? Or do you really have some kind of claustrophobia or something like that?"

"I'm very clear-headed." Lu Mingfei shook his head. "Although the Snake Eight Clans and the Fierce Ghost Clan are not our friends, they are not all bad people. Most of them are good people..."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Caesar interrupted Lu Mingfei, "The Snake Eight Clans and the Fierce Ghost Clan are all good people, and you said they see us as enemies. Are you saying that the three of us are the bad guys?"

"Ultimately, it's not about good guys and bad guys, but rather different perspectives. Take the tortoise, for example. He's a very good guy, but we're bound to have conflicts with him in certain areas because he's being used," Lu Mingfei said. "He's not to blame. We can't condemn someone who doesn't know the truth, even though he almost cost us our lives."

"What do you mean?" Caesar frowned. He was increasingly confused by what Lu Mingfei was saying. "Who used the tortoise? And what do you mean he almost cost us our lives? Are you saying he's responsible for the leak in the Trieste's air tank? Is he trying to murder us?"

"It's not murder. He didn't want to sacrifice us if possible. But he had to gamble his own life as well. For a man who even gambles his own life, it's understandable that he would sacrifice the lives of others... As for the bastard who used the elephant tortoise, I can't tell you his name now. With your personality, you will fight him as soon as you get ashore, but we are no match for him now. Sometimes knowing the truth is even more dangerous, because everyone trusts him. We have no allies in Japan. We need to wait and it takes time." Lu Mingfei said in a deep voice.

Besides, now is not the time to start a war. We must catch that guy off guard when he thinks he is the last one standing, snatch away the fruits of his victory when he thinks he is only half a step away from success, and make him suffer a setback when he is at the peak of his powers. Let everyone see his painful and hideous face filled with surprise and unwillingness, let him taste what it means to be abandoned by everyone, what it means to be defeated and desperate... Lu Mingfei thought to himself that if he had a mirror right now, he would really like to look at his own face. He must look like a wicked demon, eager to suck human flesh and blood.

"I just have one question." Chu Zihang looked at Lu Mingfei, "The bastard who used the tortoise you mentioned is the same person who sank the Lenin into the abyss, right?"

"That's right." Lu Mingfei looked at Chu Zihang in surprise.

He didn't expect that his senior brother's thinking could catch up with his pace so quickly, and even though the situation was so urgent and he said such abrupt words, his senior brother still chose to trust him at the first moment.

"Damn it, do you two brothers share the same brain? How can you seamlessly connect with such a train of thought?" Caesar looked at Chu Zihang in surprise, then looked at Lu Mingfei again. "I understand that the tortoise wants to sacrifice us, but what do you mean by risking his own life? Isn't he on the Sumeru throne? What danger would he be in?"

"That's the second thing I want to say. Time is running out, so I'll just keep it short." Lu Mingfei checked the Trieste's diving depth and schedule. "Compared to the enemies on land, our current situation is the most urgent matter."

"You mean our current situation as we fall?" Caesar felt the upside-down Trieste. If it weren't for the hybrids' unusual physiques, they would have trouble standing. "The situation is indeed tricky, but haven't you and the tortoise already agreed on a rescue plan? Will it work? We won't fall into the trench and be smashed to pieces on the seabed, right?"

"It won't be completely shattered, but if we don't give it our all, the outcome will probably be worse than being shattered," Lu Mingfei said. "I know my words are hard to understand, but you don't need me to explain them. We'll see it with our own eyes soon. We'll all be witnesses. In front of that scene, any words pale in comparison."

"Your words are more than just incomprehensible, they're downright incomprehensible. If I hadn't gotten a high score in my required Chinese class, I'd have thought we weren't speaking the same language!" Caesar complained. "Basically, your situation is dire, and after we've weathered this crisis, we'll face a new one once we get ashore, right? It sounds like a tongue twister."

"That's right, you deserve the high score in Chinese class. Your ability to summarize is amazing, boss!" Lu Mingfei gave a thumbs up.

"Then tell us this, what do you need us to do?" Caesar's ice-blue eyes looked straight into Lu Mingfei's dark pupils.

"Survive." Lu Mingfei whispered, "This is the only goal. Before dawn arrives, we must all... survive!"

……

The Trieste was like a malfunctioning elevator, falling towards the endless darkness below, accompanied by an intense feeling of weightlessness, as if it were falling endlessly into the real hell.

Jude Mai was pinned to the surface of the Trieste, unable to move. Not only was the water pressure increasing exponentially, but the immense kinetic energy of the Trieste's descent was also present. If it weren't for the potion that had transformed her physique, falling at this depth, she would have been crushed into a bloody foam in an instant and dissipated without a trace in the deep waters.

She couldn't remember how long she'd been falling. For the first minute, she could still manage to count the seconds, but after that, fear took over. No girl was afraid of the dark, not even an elite ninja like Mai Jude. Falling into a dark abyss with no end in sight, it felt like her soul had been thrown from her body, her thoughts unable to keep up. Mai Jude felt her mind go blank, with only vague memories of the last time she'd been on the brink of death. Vague memories flooded back like a tide.

It was after she had risen to fame in the ninja world, on a transatlantic voyage on a private jet, on a mission to assassinate a prominent figure. Unlike the passengers inside, the VIPs sat in luxurious seats, sipping afternoon tea and discussing world affairs, while she lay prone outside the cabin, the wind and clouds brushing against her face.

When Jude Mai successfully completed her assassination, she was surprised to find another ninja lying in wait on the plane. He wasn't there for any politicians, but Jude Mai. He had sabotaged the plane's power system and destroyed all the parachute packs, even risking his own life for the sake of it. He was a complete lunatic!

The plane lost power and slid down rapidly. Jiude Mai hung on to the side of the wing with a hook. Several times she felt that she was almost thrown away. At that time, she did not have the potion that could rewrite her bloodline. The feeling of weightlessness as if she was neither up nor down was really terrible. The whistling wind blew on her face, cutting her like a sharp knife, as if the god of death was waving a scythe and circling her on both sides. Jiude Mai deeply experienced the taste of death and was so scared that she almost cried.

When she was approaching the sea level, she could no longer tell how long she had been falling. She only knew that her life seemed to have come to an end. The sky was blue, the sea was blue, and she fell from a height of ten thousand meters. The sound of the wind almost tore her eardrums and skin. She seemed to be unable to hear any sound and had lost any sense of touch. Only one voice lingered in her ears.

"I'm still useful. Don't die for something so meaningless... I only allow you to die for me."

She should have plummeted into the icy waters, beaten to a pulp, but instead she landed in a gentle embrace, a dreamlike experience. The crashed plane burned in a fireball on the sea not far away. Everyone was dead, but she was still alive. Because that person wouldn't allow her to die over such a meaningless thing, she wouldn't die.

"I won't die this time, I definitely won't die. I must survive even in the underworld." Jiude Mai whispered to herself.

Suddenly, she and the Trieste stopped together. A warm light lit up before her eyes, making her cold heart come alive again, just like that dreamlike embrace many years ago.

……

A harsh sound of metal friction was heard, and the feeling of weightlessness in the cockpit of the Trieste suddenly disappeared. A violent jerk pressed the three people to the floor. The sudden feeling of overweight made it almost impossible to breathe.

The depth gauge stopped at 7940 meters. The whistling sound of the airflow and the deformation of the metal shell were tooth-grinding. The submersible was suspended by a stretched fiber steel cable, swaying left and right in the deep sea like a giant pendulum.

After rubbing his bruised butt, Lu Mingfei made a gesture of silence to Caesar and Chu Zihang, indicating that the conversation should not be leaked. Then he sat up and resumed communication with the ground.

"Do you want to die?" Yuan Zhisheng's curses roared through the communicator, nearly deafening the three of them. "Why cut off communication in that situation?! Seven thousand nine hundred and forty meters. If I had activated the safety hooks with the remote control half a second later and used the safety cables to slow you down step by step, you would have either been smashed to pieces on the seabed or flung to who knows where!"

"I didn't mean to do that. The entire Trieste started tumbling violently. It was so sudden, like a pendulum at an amusement park. Yuanjun, have you ever ridden a pendulum? Can you imagine wearing headphones and chatting while doing so?" Lu Mingfei's tone was quite innocent. "We were afraid the headphones would fall and break, and then we would lose our only means of communication with the ground. So after we came up with the rescue plan, we immediately cut off communication and protected the communicator. Remember, we couldn't even stand steadily at the time..."

Caesar and Chu Zihang looked at each other, and neither of them exposed Lu Mingfei's lies.

Suddenly, a shrill alarm sounded on the dashboard, and a red light flashed. Caesar took a look and suddenly shouted, "Damn it! Bad news! Our oxygen reserves have dropped by half. Now there are only 42% left!"

"The air chamber is leaking, and the oxygen tanks have lost their protective layer. Seawater is pouring in. The water pressure at over 7,000 meters deep is enough to crush the metal tanks." Chu Zihang pointed outside the observation window. "Look at those two pieces of metal. Do they look like the oxygen tanks we escaped with?"

Following Chu Zihang's finger, the three of them looked up at the observation window in the skylight. The cylindrical oxygen tanks rapidly deflated before their eyes, crushed into two discus by an invisible force. Precious oxygen transformed into large bubbles, vying to escape. This was extreme pressure, a powerful force of nature. Under the water pressure at this depth, even steel would be quickly crushed. The discus, compressed to a mere dozen centimeters, lost all its oxygen and plummeted deeper.

"Damn it! We originally had two hours to explore, but now we only have less than fifty minutes left," Caesar said. "Fifty minutes is way too short for an Italian man!"

Yuan Zhisheng was stunned and speechless. He didn't expect that in this situation, these lunatics would still have the mind to do something stupid?

"Boss, senior brother, I think you should come and take a look." Lu Mingfei's voice appeared in Yuan Zhisheng's headphones again, followed by a loud shout and a low growl.

"What happened again?" Yuan Zhisheng frowned. He seemed really worried that these lunatics would cause another accident.

"You really should come and see it! It's more beautiful than anything I've seen in my travels around the world!" Caesar exclaimed.

The deep sea should be absolutely dark and deep, just like the "lightless world" where the goddess of death Hela lives in Norse mythology, but light appeared before their eyes. Warm red light shone through the porthole glass on Caesar's face, from the eight thousand meters deep sea.

The bottom of the abyss, never before explored, was a neon-like world. Schools of fish drifted past the observation windows like a phantom mist, their silvery scales reflecting the seabed's brilliant red glow, like a crimson sunset. Occasionally, a large fish would streak through them, tearing the sunset-like schools apart, only to reunite once the larger fish had passed.

The "earth" here is a crimson color with a golden glow, magma surges like a river through the cracks on the seabed, and the sky is grayish white with traces of silver; huge schools of whales pass by hundreds of meters overhead, like clouds covering the sky, and the natural patterns on their bellies emit faint arcs of light, as if a dozen crescent moons are lit up at the same time; the clear sea water is like the dazzling Milky Way, and the schools of fish are like moving stars.

They broke into Gu Long's world and were shocked by the vast and harmonious beauty before them.

Chapter 220 The Sky-Bearing Dragon

"This dragon must have been a poet when it hatched." Caesar couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the beautiful scenery outside the observation window. "Otherwise, how could this guy make this place so poetic!"

"It's not that simple." Chu Zihang frowned slightly. He remembered what Lu Mingfei said a minute ago about the impending crisis. "Beautiful scenery often hides subtle dangers. Take a closer look at those creatures. They are actually very different from the species we have seen before."

Caesar looked intently and realized that the glowing fish were not reflecting the color of the magma under the water, but were shining with a bright blue light themselves. He could see the exposed blood vessels through their almost transparent bodies, which made people feel terrified when he looked closely. The sharks were also abnormally large, with saw-like sharp teeth arranged in a spiral. Such a giant with such sharp weapons could even hunt whales outside and dominate an area of ​​the sea.

The whales in the abyss are the long-extinct Basilosaurus. They drag their long and huge tails, stirring up huge vortexes with a diameter of more than 20 meters. The 15-meter-long Trieste was caught in the vortex and kept moving in circles, hanging on thin steel cables, like a carousel in an amusement park.

"Have you carefully observed the patterns on the bellies of those whales?" Chu Zihang asked.

Caesar stared at the belly of a passing Basilosaur and discovered that the characters faintly resonated with the dragon blood in his body. He exclaimed in surprise, "Is that... dragon writing?"

"Yes, those are no longer obscure dragon characters. They have even formed the most basic prototype. There is no doubt that so many creatures gathered here are attracted by some kind of biological magnetic field, and their bloodlines are subtly being rewritten, with a tendency to evolve into dragons." Chu Zihang whispered, "This is enough to prove one thing."

"That embryo's lineage is definitely not low. It's a dragon with pure blood, even comparable to a Dragon King!" Chu Zihang's words shocked everyone, but he immediately fell into deep thought. "But how could it change the bloodlines of these marine creatures? Is it simply relying on the influence of its biomagnetic field? Or releasing some kind of secretion rich in genetic information? As far as I know, not even a Dragon King has such an ability to overturn the theory of evolution."

Chu Zihang knew how difficult it was to change the bloodline of a creature. Even the three dragon kings, Norton, Jörmungandr and Fenrir, could only help him stabilize his bloodline temporarily. The dragon kings did not have the ability to rewrite their bloodlines. At least the King of Bronze and Fire and the King of Earth and Mountains could not allow other species to cross the racial barriers.

"We're probably only at the very edge of this area, and the embryos are probably below us," Lu Mingfei said. "That means we're only seeing the very bottom of the food chain in this underwater world. The deeper we go, the stronger the biological lineages should be."

"This inference is very likely." Chu Zihang nodded in agreement with Lu Mingfei's point of view.

"But it's bizarre, isn't it?" Caesar frowned. "We have no idea how a single embryo could rewrite the genes of such a large group of creatures. In the history of hybrids, there's never been a case of using biomagnetic fields to influence bloodlines in such a short period of time. There are only two ways to alter a bloodline: the first is to purify dragon blood through blood-blasting techniques, and the second is to be directly contaminated by dragon blood. Contaminated hybrids become deadpools, extremely aggressive... but the marine life here is as harmonious as a whole family."

"Let's go deeper, maybe the answer is waiting for us ahead." Lu Mingfei said.

"Calling headquarters, calling headquarters." Caesar connected to the Kassel Academy channel. "The Trieste suffered a crash. The bad news is that we've lost half of our oxygen supply, and the remaining oxygen is only enough for us to explore for at most fifty minutes. The good news is that we accidentally fell into the embryo's territory. Both the personnel and the Trieste are safe. The video of the surrounding environment has been uploaded to Norma and Kaguya's channels. The ecological environment here is incredible. We suspect that the Abyss has been infected by dragon blood. We are now requesting to explore deeper into the Abyss. I repeat, we are requesting to explore deeper into the Abyss."

After a brief silence, Schneider's voice rang out, "What else can I say? You've already entered uncharted territory. If I order you to return now, no one will be willing to do so. But remember, your safety is paramount. If an accident like this happens again, I will have the Japanese branch rescue you at all costs!"

"Where is the Sumeru throne? Did you receive our video and conversation?" Caesar asked.

"Well, go ahead and be careful." Yuan Zhisheng responded indifferently.

Caesar and Chu Zihang looked at each other.

They all knew how precious and shocking the video recordings they had made were, but Yuan Zhisheng's emotions did not sound high. Instead, he displayed a suppressed calm, like a priest praying silently... mourning in his heart for something that was about to happen.

Sitting on the Xumi throne, Yuan Zhisheng looked at the turbulent sea. He took off his headphones and picked up the phone. His voice was emotionless. "Dad, they sent the video. It looks like they're only one step away from the God's Burial Ground."

"I've seen the video, and I have to say it's truly astonishing. It's like being in another world, a world no one has ever reached... the world of the gods." Tachibana Masamune's voice was tinged with enthusiasm. "We can only imagine what the gods' burial place looks like through the myths left by our ancestors. No one has ever seen it with their own eyes. But today we saw it. It wasn't the embryo's ability at all, but the power of the gods. The gods transformed everything in that world into what they desired. And that was just her grave, the remnant of her power after death. No one can imagine how terrifying it would be if the gods were to be resurrected one day. Perhaps the entire world would fall!"

"But Dad, I've been thinking. You said that when God awakens, the world will be overturned, becoming what He desires. But in order to prevent God's resurrection, we are also changing the world. We have also chosen to sacrifice many people, not only our own people, but also many people who have nothing to do with us." Yuan Zhisheng whispered, "Is this the right path? When this road reaches its end, what difference will we make from the original 'God'?"

"Chisheng, have you ever heard of an old-fashioned dilemma? It's like there's a fork in a railway track, with one hundred children tied to the track on one side and ninety-nine children tied on the other side. A train is roaring past, and you happen to be standing in the control room at the fork. You don't know which track the train will go to, but you can freely control the train's next trajectory. What should you choose at this time?" asked Masamune Tachibana.

Yuan Zhisheng opened his mouth, and he found that he could not make any choice, because once he changed the track of the train, it seemed that all the blood debt would be weighed on him. Those were the lives of hundreds of children, and the sin was heavier than a mountain.

"What if ninety-nine children were exchanged for just one?" Tachibana Masamune continued, "If you had to choose between one hundred children and one child, who would you save?"

Yuan Zhisheng was still speechless because he still couldn't make a choice. He felt that he did not have the power to decide life and death for others.

"Chisheng, do you know why you've been unable to speak? This issue may seem like sacrificing one side to save the other, but from the perspective of the person making the choice, the children you've abandoned are the same as those you've killed. This is the crux of the matter," said Tachibana Masamune. "The moment you make a decision, you're actually raising a butcher's knife. Whether it's one person or a hundred, you must choose to kill some lives. This debt of blood will be borne by you, leaving you breathless. But this is the way the world is. There will always be people who need to bleed. Absolute peace is just empty talk, and justice is always built on the bones of some people."

"What about Dad? Will you make a choice?"

"Yes," Tachibana Masamune answered without hesitation. "Whether there's one child or ninety-nine on the other side, I will choose to let the one hundred live. Since fate has given me the choice, I won't hesitate to use it, even if it means saving just one more person. Call me a butcher, call me an executioner, it doesn't matter. I will consume both the blood debt and the sin. This is what I consider 'absolute' justice."

"Aren't you tiring, Dad? With so many sins accumulated, isn't it like living with a mountain on your back?" Yuan Zhisheng asked.

"It's better for one person to carry a mountain than for many people to do so," said Tachibana Masamune. "Don't worry, Chisheng. Even if this is a sin, it's my sin. I chose to let some people bleed and sacrifice. As for Chisheng, you only need to be responsible for those who survived. Be a competent head of family and a perfect new 'god'."

Yuan Zhisheng hung up the phone in silence. He gazed off into the distance, his sight seemingly piercing the other side of the darkness. He said softly, "But Dad, not everyone has your ambition, yearning for the gods above. Some people use up their entire lives just to survive."

……

The Trieste was slowly descending, beneath a pool of molten golden magma. Seawater vaporized on the surface, creating a rumble like deep thunder. Caesar piloted the machine, Chu Zihang repaired damaged parts, and Lu Mingfei surveyed the surroundings. The three of them had already established a tacit understanding.

"There are creatures moving in the lava. They must be krill. I originally thought that only true dragons could withstand such high temperatures." Lu Mingfei looked at the translucent shrimps darting around in the rocks near the lava. "Even from this distance away, I felt like I was going to burn. They can actually withstand it with such thick shells."

"The krill's shell is a natural insulation layer. Furthermore, since we're near the center of the Abyss, a large portion of their genes must have been rewritten to resemble dragons, so it's understandable that they're heat-resistant." Chu Zihang glanced at the instrument panel. "The water temperature outside has reached 224 degrees Celsius. Water temperatures this high wouldn't be possible outside; it would boil at 100 degrees Celsius. But the pressure here is so great that the water's saturation temperature has reached a staggering 370 degrees Celsius. The room temperature inside the Trieste is 47 degrees Celsius. The improved insulation provided by the equipment department is very effective."