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

The three men had stripped off their outer combat uniforms, and the temperature was still rising. Everyone was sweating profusely, and their linings were stuck tightly to their bodies as if they had just finished a sauna. If they did not cool down in time and replenish water in such a hot and sweaty environment, they would soon collapse from dehydration.

"Anyone else want to undress?" Caesar had already stripped off all the outer clothing he could, revealing his supermodel-like physique. "Isn't this the reason we've all been working out so diligently? If I don't show off my body, then all the sweat I've shed on the bench press and in the swimming pool will have been wasted."

"But there are only three grown men here, all straight. Who are we going to show them to if we take off our clothes?" Lu Mingfei said. "If you can't stand it, just say so. Why be so stubborn?"

"The temperature outside the cabin has risen again, reaching 250 degrees Celsius. Our oxygen reserves are enough for 35 minutes of underwater activities." Chu Zihang said, hesitated for a moment, and stripped off his "bottom line".

When he looked up, he found that Caesar was doing the same thing as him. They were both naked and honest with each other.

"I finally got to see it." Lu Mingfei sighed, "It's indeed more spectacular than I imagined."

Caesar and Chu Zihang glanced at each other subconsciously, their competitive spirit aroused instinctively. Caesar frowned and asked, "Who are you referring to?"

"It." Lu Mingfei didn't look at Caesar or Chu Zihang. His gaze penetrated the glass of the observation window and the layers of submarine mountain mantle and stopped in the distance.

Caesar and Chu Zihang followed Lu Mingfei's gaze and were both stunned. Gasps echoed through the headphones, coming from Yuan Zhisheng, Schneider, and Manstein. Everyone was stunned by the scene before them. The intense impact pierced their eyes and exploded in their minds. For a moment, they didn't know whether to feel surprise or fear first.

It was a statue holding up the sky.

It stands atop a towering underwater volcano, lava winding beneath its feet. A divine light shone upon the massive statue's solid form, reflecting arcs of pure white light, making it appear as majestic as a mountain. Not a single algae or shellfish clung to the statue, its entire body cast and polished from an unknown metal, gleaming as if brand new. It was impossible to tell how many hundreds of meters tall it was, but it stood alone on this silent seabed for who knows how many thousands or tens of thousands of years.

There was red gold in its eye sockets, and the huge wings spread out behind it seemed to be protecting this world. White metallic scales covered its entire body, and the flickering light on them made it look as lifelike as a living thing, ferocious and solemn, making people unable to help but worship it.

The statue depicts the greatest and most stunning creature in the world. It is the most perfect creation in the world. Even God cannot help but feel ashamed in front of it. It is an extremely gorgeous statue - a dragon!

Chapter 221: The Gate of the Kingdom of God, No One Responds

The huge dragon sculpture stood quietly in the abyss 8,600 meters below the seabed. Its golden pupils seemed to be gazing at the uninvited guest, the Trieste, with a condescending attitude, as if it were a supreme and majestic god.

"Damn it, this is definitely not something that human civilization can build!" Caesar felt a chill down his spine when he was stared at by the huge dragon shadow. He looked like he had seen a ghost. For a moment, he even thought that thing seemed to be alive?

"This is over 8,600 meters deep in the ocean. To erect such a massive sculpture in such an extreme environment is ten thousand times more difficult than building the pyramids of ancient Egypt." Chu Zihang's face was filled with astonishment. "And it's such a vivid sculpture, every scale and claw is meticulously detailed. This can't be portrayed by imagination alone. Humans don't possess such craftsmanship. I suspect this statue was copied, and it likely represents the appearance of the owner of this area."

"So to figure out who it is, we must first figure out where this place is." Caesar looked at the godlike statue and the huge city at its feet and said slowly, "Find out the origins of this city."

The ancient city stretched as far as the eye could see, dominating everyone's view and spanning countless submarine ridges. The sculpture stood atop the ridge in the center of the city, crimson lava flowing like a river through the heart of the city.

The human world had never seen a city with such architectural style, or rather, human civilization had never reached such grandeur. The shadows of the houses resembled mountains, their black tiles covering one peak after another. Huge chains stretched across the hilltops, and from these chains hung upside down foreign flags and blue copper bells, summoning spirits. The sea water rustled the bells like a gentle breeze, and a continuous musical sound echoed, like the sighs of the deep sea, mournful and lonely, as if telling of a past that had been ignored for thousands of years.

"Look over there." Chu Zihang suddenly pointed to a spot on the ridge ahead. "That shiny part of the mountain where it's exposed looks like a bronze vein, doesn't it?"

"This entire city is actually built on a bronze mine? This is probably the largest bronze vein in the world, and it's just used as a foundation? What a waste of resources!" Caesar, the son of Gattuso, couldn't help but click his tongue.

Time has etched its mark on this city, yet it has never completely obliterated its solemnity and splendor. Instead, the dilapidated mountain houses and stone pillars exude a poetic quality of age, a seamless blend of natural beauty and craftsmanship. The sharp edges of the mountain ridges, honed to a sharpness like a giant axe, tower over the city, copper pillars engraved with intricate silver patterns.

Chu Zihang took out a piece of paper and a pen, and while staring at the appearance of the underwater city in front of him, he quickly sketched the city on the paper.

"Is it necessary to draw it?" Caesar asked. "Wouldn't it be more convenient to record it on video and have Norma help analyze it?"

"That's different." Chu Zihang shook his head slightly. He replied while sketching the general topography of the city. "The same city may look a thousand different ways to a thousand people. It can be just a part of the architecture, or a piece of history, or even a civilization. Describing a city is the beginning of understanding a civilization."

The city is divided into regions around a huge sculpture. The crisscrossing and wide roads divide the city into independent blocks. There are dilapidated curved domes, like the structure of a theater; there are high-rise buildings covered with algae, and green fields burying civilization; there are high platforms similar to sacrificial offerings, and corals grow wildly in the candlelight... When the painting got here, Chu Zihang suddenly stopped writing.

"Did you find anything?" Caesar asked.

"This city has a distinct trunk and roads, and a clear layout. There are candles holding torches on the high platform for sacrifices." Chu Zihang whispered, "This shows that this city was probably originally built on land, and for some reason sank into the abyss."

"I'm not surprised by a city sinking to the bottom of the sea. After all, in ancient Greek mythology, Plato's Dialogues also describes a city called Atlantis that was swallowed by a flood and sank to the bottom of the sea." Chu Zihang continued, "But this is an abyss over 8,000 meters deep. What kind of force could sink a great city to such a depth? Moreover, the Atlantis described in the Dialogues is already a ruined city, with no intact walls left. But this city seems to be quite intact."

"Especially that bizarre giant statue," Chu Zihang said. "It's built right next to magma and has been immersed in extremely salty water for years, yet it's as smooth as new. There shouldn't be any metal like it in the world. And those microorganisms cover the entire city, but they only bypass that statue. It's not even scientifically explainable."

"Our mission this time isn't just exploration. Mere observation alone won't kill the embryo," Caesar suggested. "Let's get closer to the city and take a look."

"Thirty minutes." Chu Zihang glanced at the dashboard. "Our oxygen reserves are only enough for us to move around for half an hour at most. Searching for an embryo in such a huge city in half an hour is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I suggest we enter the city through the main gate and use the sonar system to conduct a comprehensive search."

"But where is the main gate of this city? We don't even know where the front is." Caesar frowned slightly.

"We can tell from that statue," Chu Zihang said, looking at the giant dragon statue. "The entire city is built around it, so the center of the city should be on a straight line extending from the midpoint of its pupils. It's right under our feet, at the three o'clock position."

Caesar looked down in the direction Chu Zihang had guessed, then was stunned. A sense of oppression exploded in his mind. The solemn and ancient feeling made him almost breathless, because he saw a building that looked extremely familiar.

The building stood at their feet. It had a very simple structure, with two thick pillars supporting the Kasa wood and the island wood, and a rope inserted between the two pillars. The white shimenawa rope swayed with the ups and downs of the sea, and it looked like a torii.

But most ordinary torii gates are painted with vermilion paint and supported by large stone or wooden pillars, but the torii gate in front of them is completely black, and the pillars have the same black luster as the huge sculptures. What is even more surprising is its height. Even the famous huge torii gate at Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine in Kyoto, Japan is only a dozen meters high, and the height of the torii gate under their feet is almost ten times that of the torii gate in front of Inari Taisha Shrine - a torii gate that is a hundred meters high. The shocking feeling is indescribable. Only when you see it with your own eyes can you feel its grandeur. It is like the gate to the sky of the kingdom of God, standing quietly there for thousands of years, waiting for the devout visitors of the kingdom of God to come across endless time.

……

Atop the Sumeru throne, the cold sea breeze rustled Yuan Zhisheng's windbreaker, his face etched with an unprecedented hardness. Crow and Yasha had been dispatched to their respective locations for final preparations, leaving only Sakura by his side.

"Ying, I seem to remember the story you told Miyamoto Noyuki about the torii gate deep in the mountains," Gen Chisheng said softly. "You said the torii gate was a door connecting reality and another world. Passing through this door would take you back to the distant past, like a ghost traveling through time and space?"

"My master told me this story when I first became a ninja. I changed his words a little to gain Miyamoto Noyuki's trust," Sakura said. "My master said he read a book called 'Kojiki'. In the story, Amaterasu, because of her brother Susanoo's betrayal, hid herself in a cave and didn't want to see him. As a result, the world lost the sun, so the eight million gods came up with an idea. They built a tall trestle and placed all the roosters in the world on the beam. At dawn, all the roosters cried out together, startling Amaterasu. When he pushed the stone aside to take a look, the sumo wrestlers hiding nearby rushed over and pushed the stone away. The sun rose again in this world, shining brightly. This trestle became the world's first torii."

"So, in later records, the Torii became the symbol of the entrance to the divine realm, to remind visitors that once they enter the Torii, it is equivalent to stepping into the world where the 'God' lives. Good people will see the brilliant kingdom of God and get the opportunity to reincarnate into the secular world; while those who do many evil things will see the netherworld and sink in hell for eternity." Ying repeated her master's original words.

After a moment of silence, Yuan Zhisheng spoke up, "Do you think those three guys are good or evil? Will they be swallowed up by the underworld after entering the kingdom of God?"

"I don't know." Sakura shook her head honestly, then said, "I don't think they're bad by nature, but the real kingdom of God is definitely different from the legendary one. Mr. Masamune said that the gods have turned into demons, so it's the devil's kingdom. In the world of demons, good people have a hard time surviving."

"It's too late to regret. There's no turning back, right?" Yuan Zhisheng said. "Dad said someone had to die. Only by sacrificing some can we save more. If we can completely destroy the Divine Burial Ground with just three lives, it seems like a good deal no matter how you look at it."

"Young Master..." Ying paused, "In your heart, you don't think this is a good deal. You must be a kind person. Kind people don't view life as a transaction."

"No, Ying." Yuan Zhisheng shook his head. "I've made up my mind. Don't interfere with my resolve. From the moment I let those three go into the water, I gave up trying to climb back to that puddle of freedom. I'm the young master of the Sheqi Eight Clan. A young master has firm stances and things he must do."

"They have entered the God's Burial Place. The moment of decision has come. This is a war between the Eight Snake Clans and the Fierce Ghosts. It is also the final contest between humans and Gods. I will end everything here!" Yuan Zhisheng clenched his fists so tightly that his nails pierced into the flesh. He was using pain to drive away the last mercy.

"Have Kaguya take action and cut off the communication between headquarters and the Trieste!"

After giving the final order, Sakura saw Gen Chisei's figure sway slightly. Even killing Miyamoto Noyuki hadn't weighed him down like this. This man had never been so exhausted before. It was as if he was walking further and further away from the path of his dreams, so lonely that it felt like... he had lost even his soul.

……

In the central control room of Kassel Academy, Schneider and Manstein stared at the video data uploaded on the big screen.

When they saw the Trieste approach the foot of the huge torii gate, they subconsciously held their breath, as if they were there too, and as sincere visitors, they were afraid that their breathing would disturb the sleeping god.

"You saw it too..." Schneider said woodenly, his voice hoarse and low.

"Nonsense!" Manstein angrily retorted, "I'm not blind. How can I not see a screen over a hundred inches long?"

"No, I'm doubting my eyes." Schneider shook his head. "Those creatures, that statue, that city and torii gate, those inscriptions and carvings... If it weren't for the video sent by our ace specialists, I would never have believed that such a world existed. This is definitely the largest dragon ruins discovered since the founding of Kassel Academy. These are priceless artifacts! They will become a milestone discovery in our understanding of dragon civilization and history!"

"Yes, but... have you ever looked closely at the sculptures on either side of the torii? They resemble human bodies with snake tails," Manstein pondered. "This kind of image seems to rarely appear in European mythology. The only similar structures I can recall are China's Nuwa and the White Snake, Greece's Medusa, and Japan's mermaid."

"So this is a brand new discovery. I didn't expect that the mission of blowing up the embryos would bring us such amazing information." Schneider sighed.

"Remember? The original mission the principal assigned to the Equipment Department was just to explore a sunken ship, but now a whole set of dragon ruins has suddenly appeared, and it's so complete... I always feel that this is very strange." Manstein stared at the scene on the screen and fell into deep thought. His eyes suddenly widened in an instant, almost popping out. "A door! Isn't that a door... An unprecedented, huge door!"

His finger pointed at the towering black torii on the screen.

Schneider's expression suddenly changed, a thick fear exploding in his mind as he realized, shockingly, that he had overlooked the "door." Aren't torii gates the most distinctive gates in Japanese mythology? Hell, they actually saw a door underwater! In the video, the Trieste was heading straight for the torii gate, seemingly about to pass into another world.

"Stop! Stop!" Schneider roared like crazy, not caring at all how much strain such a roar would put on his half-broken throat. The fear of eleven years ago filled his mind and made him lose his mind. "Trieste! Do you hear me? Return immediately! Sumeru, recover them! As the person in charge of the mission, I order you to recover them quickly!"

But Schneider's terrifying roar was met with deathly silence, and no one responded in the headphones.

At this moment, a playful female voice suddenly sounded.

The book club group number is 30.8289090. Interested readers are welcome to join in the fun.

Chapter 222: Dragons awaken, unprecedented crisis!

Schneider's voice echoed in the huge central control room. He seemed to be roaring at the empty air. At this moment, both the Trieste and the Sumeru seemed to have lost their response. Only the "crackling" sound of electricity could be heard in the headphones, and the communication was cut off.

Schneider and Manstein looked at each other, and both saw the fear and panic in each other's eyes, and their faces were uglier than if their parents had died.

There was no way not to panic. The three-person team that went down included the heir of the Gattuso family, the ace commissioner of the executive department, and the principal's most cherished "S"-level. If they lost these three people, the entire secret party would fall into chaos, and the board of directors and the entire school would go crazy!

"Do you want to activate it?" Just when Schneider and Manstein were in despair, a playful female voice suddenly sounded.

"Who is it?" Schneider and Manstein were both stunned.

"I'm EVA." A translucent girl with a youthful appearance appeared in the center of the large screen. "I'm also what you call Norma. Both EVA and Norma are different personalities of the same super-intelligent computer. Norma and I share a database of information and memories, but our neurons are organized differently, so we have different personalities and functions."

"How are they manifested?" Manstein asked cautiously.

"Norma plays a role similar to that of a college secretary or nanny. Her system logic is more inclined towards calculation, analysis, and defense," said the young girl EVA. "Mine, on the other hand, is more offensive. In the digital realm, I can break through 99.99% of the world's firewalls and easily hack into any computer system. In the real world, I even have the authority to call upon nuclear-grade weapons that only heads of state have the right to use. In other words, you can think of me as a super war machine."

"You said you could hack into 99.99% of the world's computers," Manstein said. "We now need to restore communications with the three specialists at headquarters aboard the Trieste. Their communications must have been intercepted by Kaguya from the Japanese branch. Can you compromise Kaguya? Is she part of the remaining 0.01%?"

"Kaguya-hime?" The young girl EVA said the name in an upturned tone, a hint of contempt on her lips, and said with a confident tone, "Give me three minutes."

……

The Trieste approached the pitch-black torii. Lu Mingfei looked up, feeling as if he had traveled to another world, across eight thousand meters of water and a massive gate, to an ancient dragon city.

"Is this really an ancient dragon city? Although we cannot explain how such a city and statues could be built with human skills."

Caesar paused and looked up at the huge building.

"But why would the dragons use a torii gate as the entrance to their city? Furthermore, these carvings and paintings clearly give me a strong sense of Japanese style. Could it be that Japanese civilization was inherited from this ancient city? Then wouldn't the owners of this city be their ancestors?"

"Oh my god!" Caesar exclaimed. "Are we going to destroy their ancestral graves? That embryo might be their ancestor. So the Japanese branch is going to help us blow up their ancestors? What kind of crazy development is this?"

Caesar looked extremely excited and couldn't wait to drive the Trieste through the huge torii gate.

"Caesar, don't be impatient. Everything is still unknown. Let's hover here for a while." Just as the Trieste was about to pass through the torii gate, Chu Zihang suddenly said, "Move up a little closer. There seems to be something written on the forehead of this torii gate."

The torii is a rectangular structure fixed between the torii and the Kasa wood, similar to a Chinese plaque. Torii are usually placed at the entrance of a shrine or a mountain road, so the name of the shrine or mountain is usually recorded on the torii.

"Hey, you're Chinese. You know you can plant a bomb in someone's ancestral tomb, shouldn't you be more enthusiastic than me?" Caesar complained, as if he couldn't wait to enter the ancestral tomb to find out what was going on. However, his hands were still operating the submersible in the direction Chu Zihang pointed. "The oxygen supply won't last much longer. We're running out of time. We haven't found the embryo yet. Are you sure you want to waste your time on these irrelevant things?"

"If the name of this ancient city is marked on it, it will be very important information," said Chu Zihang.

The Trieste floated close to the forehead of the torii, and everyone could see the patterns carved on it clearly.

The pattern resembled words but was more like a design. Countless figures danced around the bonfire, like some kind of grand ceremony. This pattern was the first to appear in this ancient city, and it was completely different from the dragon characters engraved elsewhere.

"It looks a lot like some kind of hieroglyphics. Let Norma identify it." Chu Zihang restored all the patterns on the paper. "Norma's database can compare the types of characters. You can ask her to try comparing it with the Japanese character database first to see if there is any connection between this city and Japanese history."

"Sorry, there's a minor communication glitch. We've temporarily lost the signal with headquarters." Yuan Zhisheng's steady voice came from the headset. "The satellite system has been affected by the solar flare, and the magnetic field has been disrupted. The Rock Flow Research Institute is already adjusting the satellite's orbit. We'll gradually try to restore communications until we can reconnect with headquarters..."

"Communications have been restored." Professor Schneider's hoarse voice suddenly appeared on the channel. "This is headquarters. Norma has connected to Kaguya's channel to speak directly with you. Diving team, please evacuate the Abyss immediately! I repeat, diving team, please evacuate the Abyss immediately!"

Yuan Zhisheng was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted and interrupted loudly: "Wait, you can't evacuate now. There is only one step left, and the mission will be completed!"

He didn't have time to worry about how Schneider had hacked into Kaguya's channel. The three men had already arrived at the God's Burial Ground. The God's grave was right before their eyes. They were carrying a nuclear power module equivalent to an entire 10,000-ton nuclear bomb. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to completely destroy the God. He couldn't bear to see his family's years of preparation destroyed in an instant!

"What's going on?" Caesar on the control panel frowned slightly. He was a little confused about the current situation and was in a dilemma.

"Norma activated her EVA personality. We took advantage of Kaguya's moment of inattention to hack into her database and made a startling discovery."

At this critical juncture, Schneider didn't care whether he was exposed or not, and he broke off relations with the Japanese branch in a tough manner.

"EVA cracked an encrypted document about this mission. Our goal is to blow up the embryo, but the Japanese branch has had different goals from the beginning. They want to... blow up the entire Jiyuan!"

"Blow up the entire Jiyuan?" Caesar frowned slightly.

"That's right, the alpha particle count in your nuclear power module is seriously exceeding the standard. This is the modification the Japanese branch made to the submersible without telling us. It's like you're driving a nuclear bomb that could explode at any moment!" Schneider seemed to be unable to contain his anger. "If it were just an embryo, there would be no need for such a big fuss. The Sheqi Eight Clans want to blow up something in the Abyss, and these bastards are sending you to die!"

"Gen-kun?" Caesar said in surprise. "Tell me, Norma and Professor Schneider made a mistake. That encrypted document might be some plan to abolish and invalidate it, right?"

Honestly, before coming to Japan, Caesar had believed that Japan was a country populated by cowardly and effeminate men. The moment he saw Gen Chisei, Caesar felt his belief was confirmed, as he looked feminine and smoked cigarettes like a woman. But after a few days of spending time together, Caesar's impression gradually changed. He came to believe that the Pinta Island tortoise was a responsible man, otherwise he wouldn't have sacrificed his freedom for his family. He had witnessed him intimidate two rival gangs with his aura during a riot on the streets of the underworld. At that moment, even as proud as Caesar was, he had to admit that he possessed the same leadership qualities as himself.

Caesar recognized Yuan Zhisheng. He felt that he was a trustworthy partner. A leader should never be stingy in trusting his partner, so he gave Yuan Zhisheng enough trust, not only betting his own life, but also the lives of Chu Zihang and Lu Mingfei.

Caesar Gattuso once thought that he could just laugh off any betrayal from anyone and remain calm, but he was wrong... Yuan Zhisheng in the headphones did not respond for a long time. Sometimes silence is the most direct answer. Caesar never felt so angry.

The operating lever on the console was almost deformed, and the veins on Caesar's forehead were throbbing. This man who could smile in the face of any difficulties had rarely lost his usual composure.

"Asshole!" Caesar roared angrily, "Do you know that if you do this you will never be able to crawl back into your puddle?"

"I know." Yuan Zhisheng's voice sounded calmly, "But I have my own position and have to do this. Gentlemen, I am truly sorry... Although I know that in your eyes now, my apology must be as worthless as dirt."

"Not even as good as dirt!" Caesar growled coldly.

"Caesar, do you remember what I told you about the 'door'?" Professor Schneider's urgent voice sounded again, "The torii gate in front of you is a door. Evacuate it quickly. Do not enter the door..."

"It's too late." Lu Mingfei, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke.

"What do you mean it's late?" Caesar frowned and looked at Lu Mingfei, "Asshole, why are you playing dumb too?"

"Caesar!" Chu Zihang's tone was a little creepy, "Take a look at the sonar screen."

Caesar whipped his head around to look at the dashboard, his body suddenly frozen as a chill shot straight to his skull. The sonar screen, previously silent, suddenly flashed red. Not one, not two... but a whole!

Countless red dots appeared on the screen and jumped, the frequency changed from slow to fast, and then to crazy!

There are probably hundreds, no, maybe thousands!

Each red light represented a heartbeat. Something was awakening in this city beneath the abyss, densely packed beneath their feet. If these creatures were all dragon embryos, then what had awakened was an army of dragons, so many that they could easily destroy an entire nation!

"Impossible! How could such a dragon exist?! This hatching rate is over ten times faster than the one in Greenland!" Schneider's horrified voice exploded, "Fifty percent! Quickly reel in the safety line! Quick!"