Dragon Raja: Dragon Slaying Begins with System Hosting

Page 149

There were two reasons why we didn't bring him to the Three Gorges area: firstly, Chu Zihang wouldn't be able to provide any professional assistance; secondly, Chu Zihang could serve as Old Tang's bodyguard, and even as the head bodyguard.

Meanwhile, after hanging up the phone, Old Tang continued eating heartily, then casually asked Chu Zihang, "Is Boss Lu in the Three Gorges area because of that dragon alchemy thing?"

"Hmm." Chu Zihang nodded slightly and replied, "There are traces of the King of Bronze and Fire over the Three Gorges. The King of Bronze and Fire is skilled in alchemy, so perhaps we can find some information about alchemy."

"The Bronze and Fire Kings..." Old Tang recalled for a moment and then said, "These twin dragon kings are named Norton and Constantine, right?"

"correct."

Old Tang didn't press the matter further.

Norton was the top alchemist among the dragons, and he inevitably came across this name when studying alchemy books. But Constantine... he knew this name, and his clearest impression was that he called out this name in a dream. He couldn't remember if he had seen this name in any alchemy book before, but in any case, he called out this name in a dream.

Is that the name of that little brat who kept calling him "brother"? Thinking of this, Old Tang suddenly felt empty inside, instantly lost his appetite, and even the sumptuous food on the table didn't seem so delicious anymore.

He felt a slight itch on his head, but after scratching it, the itch disappeared.

The food on the table smelled delicious again, and he happily continued to devour it.

……

The Three Gorges area was bustling with activity. After applying to higher authorities, Su Enxi brought over several more salvage boats to help with the salvage and excavation.

Several professional salvage vessels were dispatched together, and they recovered even more. After removing some modern trash such as underwear, the remnants of the city-state civilization that was subservient to the King of Bronze and Fire were also increasing, and they were beginning to piece together the model of this city-state.

"This area has been almost completely dredged up; we need to start digging holes to make new discoveries."

Xia Mi unfolded the blueprints and said to Lu Mingfei, "Boss Lu, your efficiency in eliminating possible shipping locations has been a bit low these past two days. It's about to rain heavily, and with the wind and rain providing cover, why don't we go all out and get to work? That way, we'll be more efficient."

Lu Mingfei looked at the sky with patches of dark clouds passing by, then at the Three Gorges Dam that was faintly visible, and shook his head. "Forget it. If we make a big fuss here, Su Enxi will be under a lot of pressure. It's better to avoid doing things that damage our reputation, otherwise we might find it difficult to move forward in the future."

“Alright, let’s use the brute force method to deal with them one by one.” Xia Mi took out a pen and drew circles, selecting the locations for the first batch of holes.

"I feel that these are the places with the highest drop rate, so let's start with these places."

"Ah."

Drilling a hole in the river with a boat is definitely not as efficient as Lu Mingfei going underwater to explore using his incantations. However, Lu Mingfei's incantations are not omnipotent. The visible layer of the hole he digs out will definitely be clearer and more visible than Lu Mingfei's exploration.

"Da da da……"

The drill bit hit the bedrock, making a dull thud underwater.

Once you reach the bedrock layer, the chances of finding anything are extremely slim. The presence of the bedrock layer isolates too many things, making it not so easy to get through.

The drill bit was put away, and the salvage boat continued to the next location, tap tap tap.

However, their progress was actually very slow, since they had to pass through tens of meters of water to drill down.

After a busy day, night fell and the sky became completely dark. Thick dark clouds dominated the entire sky, and no moonlight or starlight could penetrate it. Lightning flashed and thunder roared from time to time, giving the impression that a heavy rain was about to fall.

"The wind is still picking up, should we stop for a bit?" The captain of one of the salvage boats sensed something was wrong and requested that they stop working overtime.

"Stop and come back once you've finished what you're doing."

The captain's application was approved by the system.

After all, the waters in this area are incredibly wide, and if the wind is strong on the river, the tonnage of the salvage vessel might not be able to withstand it.

"receive."

"receive."

"..."

Xia Mi reached out and caught a few raindrops falling from the sky. She looked up at the sky and said, "After we finish this, we'll go back. But why do I feel like the weather is a bit off? The elements are too chaotic. Could someone be using a spell?"

"Really? Didn't this weather build up for quite a while? It started this afternoon, and if it's only raining now, it's honestly a bit late." The system quietly used its judgment function to probe the stability of the surrounding elements, but found nothing unusual.

"Yeah, it's strange that it's a bit late." Xia Mi stuck her head out and looked at the well in the water. It seemed that she could see the drill bit at the bottom of the water through the deep surface.

"It doesn't seem like there's anything special about this..."

A muffled, loud sound suddenly came, like thunder, but it didn't come from the sky; it came from beneath the river's surface.

"Did we find something real? Or did our banging around here for so long disturb the river god?!"

The enormous sound made everyone's thoughts rise from the bottom of their hearts, and then the river surface became turbulent and unstable.

"There's an underwater earthquake!" Xia Mi suddenly shouted.

Chapter 180 Bronze City Dragon Shadow

Xia Mi felt the earthquake underwater very clearly. The cracks that the earthquake created in the riverbed also caused the river water to be sucked into a small whirlpool on the surface.

The sudden commotion left everyone somewhat bewildered, but fortunately, the earthquake was not very strong.

Xia Mi held her breath and did not immediately plunge into the water to check the situation.

Unlike others, she could clearly sense that this earthquake was not a natural one, but rather that something was causing trouble in the water.

Several salvage boats remained afloat, unaffected.

After exchanging information, the system logged in and instructed the captain to sail to the area where the whirlpool had appeared to check the situation.

The water was quite deep, but the boat had a dedicated underwater extension camera. After lowering the tubes of several cameras and seeing the situation displayed on the screen, everyone was somewhat surprised and uncertain.

A large crack appeared in what should have been a flat riverbed.

Due to the limited visibility underwater due to the murky water, they were unable to obtain accurate data on the size and length of the crack.

It requires someone to go underwater and check it.

"Is this a crack caused by the earthquake just now? Something feels off," Xia Mi said to the system, frowning slightly.

"What's wrong?"

The system didn't understand what she was talking about. After a trip to Japan, both it and Lu Mingfei came to believe that earthquakes were a normal occurrence...

Earthquakes are not uncommon in China. However, due to the country's large size, the range of vibrations from small, perceptible earthquakes is relatively small compared to the entire country, and their impact is limited to a small area.

Given the intensity of the earthquake just now, if this place is the epicenter, then the magnitude of this earthquake is probably not high.

The riverbed cracks are a bit strange. After cramming on earthquake knowledge in Japan, the system roughly understands the magnitude of the earthquake and its impact.

The crack in the riverbed is not small. Small, perceptible earthquakes can cause ground fissures, but they shouldn't create such a large crack.

However, this statement is not absolute, and there are many special cases, so for the time being, the system did not know what was wrong with what Xia Mi said.

"Um... I just feel that this earthquake came too suddenly. We were just digging a well here, and then suddenly there was an earthquake right under our feet. Karma came a little too fast," Xia Mi said.

"When an earthquake strikes, can't you at least tell us?" The system felt that Xia Mi was even stranger in comparison.

Isn't it normal for natural disasters to occur suddenly?

"Uh, that's alright then. How many people should we send down to investigate?"

"Let's wait and see if there are any aftershocks. If not, let the divers go down and take a look, and while they're at it, explore the area and see if there's anything else."

"understood."

Xia Mi stopped speaking and quietly watched as Lu Mingfei directed the underwater camera to be extended into the crack to investigate the situation.

However, the water in the crack remained murky because the river above kept carrying sediment down, making it impossible for the underwater camera to see the situation clearly.

We still need to send people down to explore. After waiting for more than an hour without any aftershocks, the system began to arrange for people to dive into the water to check the situation at the bottom.

There were no further dangerous situations underwater, such as the previous small-scale tremor, which was just a foreshock or something.

Half an hour later, the divers who went down into the water determined the size of the crack and the surrounding conditions.

Apart from this place, there don't seem to be any cracks or anything like that elsewhere.

The crack was quite deep. The diver tried to descend a short distance but couldn't reach the bottom because the water in the crack was extremely murky and the crack was winding, making visibility very limited. After roughly testing his diving depth, the diver surfaced.

“The riverbed here is about 20 meters deep, and this crack should be more than 20 meters deep. Further down, it’s difficult to explore because of visibility issues and the crack not being straight, so I came up.”

"Understood." The system nodded.

With a water depth exceeding 40 meters, it's no longer a simple dive; it takes time to surface, not to mention that the crack is as winding as a Malay sword.

"Shall we go down and take a look?" Xia Mi volunteered. "We are much stronger than them, so we won't be affected as much underwater, and we won't have to worry about any unexpected dangers."

These ordinary divers were hesitant and fearful, and the dangerous hybrids of the Snake Clan weren't very good at underwater combat, so the information they could see was really limited... This thing causing trouble underwater really piqued Xia Mi's curiosity, but she really couldn't sense what was causing trouble below.

She wanted to see what kind of thing dared to cause trouble right under the noses of the two dragon kings.

"One of us will stay on this side of the water to communicate. Go down and take a look." The system agreed to her suggestion, but only half of it.

It's true that underwater conditions are complex and require someone to take charge of the overall situation; it's also true that the system doesn't like to explore unknown environments.

After all, exploring the unknown means there's a possibility of unexpected dangers, which is too risky.

Xia Mi didn't seem to have any objection to what it said. Just like when she suggested that the two of them, who were physically stronger, go into the water, Lu Mingfei's words also made a lot of sense.

She immediately donned her protective gear, slung an oxygen tank over her shoulder, and jumped into the water.

"Guru Guru~"

Once inside the water, Xia Mi immediately swam rapidly to the bottom like a fish, with a wired communication device attached to her back to help her stay in touch with the ship.

The rugged cracks did not hinder her at all; she passed through them smoothly and descended about 50 meters before stopping.

She had already stepped to the bottom, but when she touched what was under her feet, her mind went blank for a moment.

Dude, what are you doing?

Beneath her feet was something metallic—bronze.

Unsurprisingly, the entire area from which this crack extends was formed by a bronze base.

Moreover, this bronze was not ordinary bronze; to her senses, it was clearly bronze that had been refined through alchemy.

It was precisely because it had been specially crafted using alchemy that she had been completely unaware of it before, and could not detect that there was such a large bronze structure twenty or thirty meters below the riverbed.

For a moment, Xia Mi felt a chill run down her spine. Wasn't this the work of Norton?

The creation of colossal metal objects is something only the lineage of the King of Bronze and Fire would do. If it could be concealed from her, it wouldn't be an ordinary method of creation... Without an invitation from its master, it would be difficult for dragons outside to enter Nibelungen. However, Nibelungen is formless, but such a large bronze object has a physical form.

Burying tangible things underground to evade her detection—that's a grand scheme only Norton would pull off!

"Have you figured it out yet? Have you found anything?" Lu Mingfei's voice came through her earphones via wired communication.

"Um... we've reached the bottom. It seems like the ground is bronze?" Xia Mi replied to Lu Mingfei with a forced smile.

The things under her feet were made by Norton, and the things above her head were also made by Norton? Oh no, she was stuck in the middle.