Scene 5: Dragon’s Shadow (1)

A huge amount of information flowed into Ye Sheng’s brain through the “snake”, just like water flowed back from the whole Pacific Ocean into the Yangtze River.

At the moment, Ye Sheng’s brain was like an overheating computer, the great pain almost tore his brain apart. The information contained a three-dimensional map of the great bronze city, perhaps the real “Bai Di City” of history. It was completely transparent to Ye Sheng at the moment.

The super system that was cast two thousand years ago came to life, a whole bronze wall split. Millions of cubic meters of air escape through the cracks, carrying a cacophony of wind and water below to fill the void. Bronze like spider’s web spun and rejoined, like a revolver’s wheel spinning at the moment of fire, and new bullets were placed at the muzzle.

Every moment, the path of escape is changing. Ye Sheng was going to be crazy, he got the map, but… It’s like if you look at a map of the world, you can see Africa moving slowly towards Australia, Asia sliding clockwise to fill the Pacific, Hawaii leaving Americas, and a moment later docking with India! For a gentleman who needs travelling the world in 88 days, it’s not surprising that he’s going to crazy.

The bronze walls twenty meters high behind him were slowly falling, looking like the sky was tilting. Aki hugged Ye Sheng’s neck to swim forward who was almost collapsed.

Aki’s mind was a mess. She remembered that Ye Sheng was a young man of eighteen when they both entered the college. He just came from China to the United States with two thick flying black eyebrows, and he’s the best swimmer in the class. He led the sailing team the following year, winning the Golden Fleece Cup from the University of Chicago, which was a hit with the girls in his class. His biggest hobby is to laugh at Aki in swimming class when the stupid duck Aki is still in the middle of a kilometre warm-up, Ye Sheng has swum a kilometre, basking under ultraviolet ray. He is wearing only swimming trunks, half-naked, and patting his ass back to Aki, saying something “Is it because the Japanese legs are shorter so you can’t swim fast” bitchy word, and suddenly shows the look of despair: “After we became partners I will die in water because of you,” as hateful as he can.

The bronze wall broke into the water and caused a huge wave, pushing Aki and Ye Sheng against the opposite wall. Aki turned to drag Ye Sheng in her arms timely, the collision almost let to lumbar displacement. She gritted her teeth and hugged the frail, infantile man in her arms, blood was spilling from the corner of her mouth.

When did protecting Ye Sheng become a habit? At that time, it’s her pointed at his nose and shouted to counter Ye Sheng’s taunt, “In the future, if you die underwater, don’t think I’ll save you!” Why did this happen?

“The key!” Shouted Ye Sheng hoarsely.

Through the snake’s electric current, the sound reverberated in the Moniaher’s cabin like the last roar of a wounded wolf.

“Yes! The key! The key will find a way!” He shouted.

The sleeping baby was hugged to the fore cabin. The moment he was placed in front of the screen, he opened his eyes miraculously, a light dripped under them. He held out his fleshy fingers, glided across the huge screen and started to scan the corners of the map.

“Come on baby, it’s up to you!” Maans stared at his fingers.

Fingertips stood against the screen then fell slowly… The glow of the baby’s eyes faded and he returned to his normal infant state. Suddenly, he burst into tears!

Maans’s heart dropped to the floor. So there’s no way out?

Ye Sheng suddenly opened his eyes, pale gold light occupied his pupils. The cry of “The key” came, and suddenly a clear red line appeared on the ever-changing map in his mind. It ran down, straight down, through the cracks in the walls, the passages, the bronze walls, and emerged right below.

“That’s the exit!” Ye Sheng understood!

The key has mastered the laws of the bronze city. All they had to do was go down to the thick walls, where the work of the bronze city would create new roads. This is the last escape route, but they need to be fast. If they are not fast enough they will be closed in the dead road, or be compressed by gaps getting closer and closer.

The key cried not because of sadness, but because of fear. The key is urging them!

“Right below, Ye Sheng, Aki Shutoku, ready to come out!” Ye Sheng’s voice echoed back to the front cabin.

“Directly below?” Maans was stunned when he noticed the trace left by the key’s finger on the screen, straight out of the bronze city.

“Forty-five metres!” Said Selma. “Three minutes left for the oxygen supply!”

“Plus the airless snorkelling time, they can come out successfully!” Maans’s voice was almost in the air.

Ye Sheng took back his speaking spirit and recovered his strength. He turned to take Aki’s hand, but Aki did not move. She turned on the shimmering light in her helmet so that Ye Sheng could see her face. Her lips moved, but Ye Sheng couldn’t hear her. The signal line between them had just broken.

“It’s too late. We don’t have enough oxygen.” Aki turned off her mask, the low oxygen levels made her cough violently.

Ye Sheng glanced at his oxygen reserve, which can last three minutes, plus his ability to hold his breath underwater for five minutes, it should be enough for them to make it.

“It’s enough.” He also turned off his mask.

“No, it’s not.” Aki shook her head, tears creeping down her cheeks. “Let’s stay here. I want to look at you. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a long time… I….. “

“I love you too.” Ye Sheng cut her words off simply and neatly. He did something that could have been punished by the Executive Department, he pressed Aki’s lips hard to kiss her. Aki was stunned.

He crooked his mouth and showed that smile sometimes hateful, but somethings can let a person forget all the troubles of the again, Aki thought back her in the swimming pool, she saw Ye Sheng patted his ass under the sun from the french dash.

“Fool, believe me, it’s enough!” Ye Sheng hugged slender Aki tightly.

“Hey, actually her legs are not short at all!” He said to himself, yanking her into the water.

A faint swirl formed in the water, indicating that a gap opened directly below.

Maans was doing the cha-cha in the front cabin, it’s a rare gaffe of Captain Maans. But the captain was too proud of the way he had handled the situation, and the students he loves will come back safely.

“This is what I call a reversal!” Maans danced and yelled to Selma, “It was like a three-pointer in the last second of the fourth quarter. It was like a service break in the third set of tennis!” He glanced at his watch. “How many minutes?”

He was suddenly dumb, his steps were so clumsy that he nearly stumbled and fell, clinging to the steering wheel. Maans’s face became miserable. He flung open the door and rushed out, standing in the storm, staring blankly at the undulating river.

“Captain?” Selma and the first mate came after him.

“The exit is below the bronze city. They can get out of the bronze city, but they can’t get to the surface.” Maans’s face twitched. “We did the math wrong… They don’t have enough oxygen!”

In the cabin, “The key” suddenly stopped crying and tears welled up in the baby’s large eyes.

There was a hum in the wind, and a great distant spot of light moved over the dark water. A moment later, the call appeared to the front left of the bow. “Attention, Moniaher, this is the Maritime Bureau of the Yangtze River Waterway, please reply with light, please reply with light.”

The third mate went onto the deck. “Captain, do we still need to wait?”

Maans stared at the water for a few seconds, then looked down at his watch. Fourteen minutes had passed. He suddenly felt tired.

“Signal returned, rescue accepted, we will go.” He turned to go back to the cabin, but then he heard a groan from the stern, he unconsciously took out his torch and lit it. At the side of the boat, a black hair head floated up, followed by a pale face.

“Aki!” Maans couldn’t believe his eyes.

His favourite student, Aki Shutoku, the Japanese girl who always sparkles with maternal brilliance, somehow surpassed the limits of human diving and survived. She was struggling to push a brass pot, almost as tall as her, onto the lifeboat.

“Selma! Selma! Save her!” Growled Maans, and then he shouted, “Come up! Leave that stupid jar alone! You Japanese are all paranoid!”

Aki didn’t answer, but with a yell in Japanese, she pushed the can with all her might onto the lifeboat. She did not attempt to climb the lifeboat, her slender hands hooked to the ropes on its side, and looked at Maans from a distance.

“Professor, take the pot and go! Just go!” Aki yelled hoarsely, “That’s Ye Sheng… Ye Sheng fought it back… “

She sank, torn down by a great force from below. The long hair seemed to disappear in the water. As Maans ran to the side of the boat, red blood rose from underwater like a red smoke.

“Aki!” Manse shouted, tearing the buttons of the captain’s coat wildly and wanted to go into the water.

“Abandon the anchor! Start the engine! Full power!” The third mate roared, pulling Maans back hardly.

He is the oldest crewmember here and had spent more than ten years on the ocean. What had just happened to Aki was very strange. He had seen a shark attack a diving companion. But obviously, sharks don’t live in freshwater, by looking at the huge vortices that swirl up in the water as Aki sank, it’s an incredibly big thing.

Both chains were cut at the same time. The powerful engine didn’t need to warm up, it started instantly, the huge acceleration caused the third made and Maans to tumble over each other. Just before they fell, the third mate saw a sharp waterline following them straight behind.

“What the hell?” The third mate broke out in a cold sweat.

“Turn on the sonar and see what it is!” As Maans dragged the can into the cabin, his deadly face twitched.

“It’s too fast to make an accurate image. It’s about 15 meters long and looks like a fish!” Shouted the second mate.

“A fish?” Said the third mate. “What fish can dive at fifty knots?”

“Good to hear it’s a living thing,” Maans said, cutting open a new cigar and lighting it, flexed his facial muscles. “As long as it’s a living thing, it can be dead!”

Maans opened the weapon cabinet on the bulkhead and an L115A3 sniper rifle was erected in the center. This British-made long-range sniper rifle may be the king of sniper rifles, but the equipment department is still not satisfied with its performance and added more deadly ammunition. Maans filled the magazine with one cold blue bullet after another, each with an ancient engraving on the warhead, and each with a red primer, which’s the signature of a high level dangerous weapon.

“I fucking love those crazy people in the equipment department who optimize weapons!” Maans pushed the magazine into the gun.

“Could it be the dragon king?” The third mate asked.

“Good if the answer is yes, I am here to kill him!” Maans flashed out of the cabin.

Xenon lights shone brightly on the foaming water behind the boat, which could not hide the sharp waterline, as if an invisible knife was cutting through the water below. Maans leaned against the bulkhead, his foot on the side rail. His whole body was like a tripod between the bulkhead and the railing to keep him balanced in the violent turbulence. He had seen the underwater “fish” in the infrared scope, it was swimming at full speed with a much higher temperature than the water’s, which exposed it completely.

“Very well, boy,” Maans whispered.

He pulled the trigger and a straight line of cold blue light entered the water, which’s the result of the tracer head heating up as it rubbed against the air. The sound of the gun was like thunder, and the force of the recoil could turn a strong man over. The propulsion of the waterline was suddenly impeded and a vortex arose on the water. Maans fired in succession with ten large-calibre bullets into the water. Before the first cold blue light extinguished, the latter has been pulled out. Several cold lights made retention in the dark air with deadly beauty. Maans watched it wriggle through the water as if trying to avoid it, took off his cigar and laughed hoarsely.

“More bullets, Selma!” He shouted.

He wanted to watch the corpse of it come up out of the water so that he could see what it was that dared take his student from him a few metres away.

Selma rushed out of the cabin with a newly filled magazine and saw the Marine Bureau helicopter was hovering in mid-air. Apparently, they had also noticed that the Moniaher had been chased by something, and they hit the swirl with the searchlight. There were a lot of bubbles in the middle of the vortex. Suddenly, a huge and mysterious figure appeared. For a moment, Selma suspected that she was seeing something. At this moment, the lightning tore the sky, and the black shadow in the electric light was like a dragon. Selma collapsed on the deck, she learned from countless theory classes that this species existed in the world, but never once saw them in person. It was a miracle, a dragon breaking water into the sky, all these storms are to meet this great moment.

Maans grabbed the magazine, filled the gun and fired into the air. In an instant, the thing was at the height of the helicopter. It was exhausted, but its long tail caught the landing gear of the heavy helicopter. It’s not small, but for a heavy helicopter capable of carrying 15 tons of cargo it’s still not big enough. Maans’s bullet hit its body with sparks.

The thing leaped up again on the landing gear, and another bolt of lightning shot across the sky. In the electric light, it stretched out after a slight meal and writhed like a long whip, beating hard on the rotor of the helicopter. Pieces of steel flew in all directions, the helicopter lost its balance, spiralled toward the water. Selma could see several black figures opened the hatch and dived. The helicopter crashed violently into the water, splashing nearly fifty meters high. A dozen seconds later, the flames burst into the night sky because the helicopter exploded underwater.

“Did… Did it destroy a heavy chopper? How can it leap twenty meters out of the water?” Selma was stupefied.

“It should be called ‘him’, an intelligent creature,” Maans said. “We’re going to be his next dish.”

Again the fearful waterline rose from the bottom and followed Moniaher.

“Why is it chasing us so hard?” Asked Selma.

“Probably the copper pot is the thing that it really cares about….” Shouted Maans to the foredeck, “What else weapon?”

“There are only ten miniature underwater bombs. We are now a tugboat and we have removed all our weapons to avoid trouble during the inspection.” The first mate responded with a roar. He was at the helm, the full-throttle engine made the Moniaher looks like a crazed swordfish. The first mate’s forehead was thick with perspiration; he was absorbed in the intricate instrument panels.

“Because I didn’t think it will be a brush encounter! Underwater bombs are ready to release!” Maans shouted.

The steering wheel spun swiftly in the chief mate’s hands, and Moniaher splashed nearly ten meters high, creating a zigzag pattern in the water with a large angle. At the same time, the second mate opened the underwater hatch, ten underwater bombs were released continuously. Because of the “Z” shaped route, they formed three rows, three in the front row, four in the middle and three in the back row. The miniature engines were turned on, and the bombs were suspended five to ten meters below the surface. From sonar monitors, they looked like traps waiting for that thing.

“Nice job!” the second mate said.

The location of the bombs was perfect. This thing has to either slow down and get around to give the Moniaher some time to escape, or it has to get in close contact with bombs. Although the bombs are small, they are the products of the crazy people in the Equipment Department. They were designed with the hope that each one of them could blow through the armour of the Los Angeles nuclear submarine.

Maans pushed aside the second mate and leaned on the board. The bright lights on the sonar display were getting closer and closer to the giant fish.

“Super close, fifty meters left!” the second mate shouted, “That thing came straight at us without slowing down!”

“Good! Blow him up!” Maans said.

The cruising speed of the creature was close to Moniaher at 50 knots, and the distance of 50 meters will only take it two or three seconds, it’s just a sharp brake distance. But who can brake in water with only 50 meters?

“It’s… It’s stopped!” The second mate’s face was white.

They all covered up their ears for a thunderous explosion, but sonar showed that the monster stopped in front of the underwater bomb cordon. It’s not like the brakes, there’s no sliding, but the whoosh stopped completely and the speed went to zero. Even dolphins can’t do that.

“Detonate the bomb now?” The second mate looked up at Maans.

“Will it work?”

“Can you please look at the screen first…” One of the interns said carefully.

Five of the original ten points of light on the screen have disappeared. The behemoth was swimming around the remaining points of light, like a small whale playing curiously with a school of jellyfish. Completely stunned, the second mate looked up at another monitor screen, where the signal for five underwater bombs had disappeared.

The last blip was gone, too, before the second mate had time to detonate the bomb.

Maans looked up. “I guess… Your bombs were eaten.”

“Were eaten?” The second mate felt a great sense of powerlessness. “Will they taste good?” He suddenly asked a nonsensical question.

“Captain…” Selma’s voice was trembling as she pointed to the stern.

Maans followed Selma’s fingers. There was no longer a thin waterline chasing them. A dark back rose to the surface, each of which was dimly discernible as a reef. The long tail swung at high speed but did not pick up any spray. A huge mouth was half-submerged, and on the surface of the water was a ferocious upper jaw with two yellow teeth.

“Sure… It’s a vertebrate.” Whispered Maans.

“Reptiles are vertebrates, of course.” Selma was stunned.

“A lot of theories about dragons are extrapolations, no one is sure they’re reptiles. Maybe the so-called dragon is just the shadow in people’s hearts.” Maans said.

“Captain! There are bomb signals again!” The second mate exclaimed in surprise, like a sorrowful father who suddenly finds his missing children.

Suddenly, Maans realized something. “Quick, detonate!”

“Weird, I thought they were eaten?” The second mate was at a loss.