The activity energy of this prominent family is really impressive. Although there is no way to get a C17 transport aircraft from the US military, in less than 24 hours, an Uzbekistan Il-76 large transport aircraft parked in the port city. At the airport, this ability amazed Ling Hao and others.
The "Stone Crab" and "Pippi Shrimp" were loaded onto the plane, as well as several large tanks of "helium oxygen", because some time ago Ling Hao spent a lot of money to carry out inspections on the "Stone Crab" and "Pippi Shrimp" After being upgraded and modified, its pressurization and decompression functions have been strengthened. From now on, they can no longer carry a bulky decompression chamber separately.
The group got on the plane with Adeline and prepared to fly to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The flight would take nearly 7 hours. The transport plane was not as comfortable as the passenger plane. It would be a long and difficult journey.
The comfort level of the seats is reminiscent of the green leather trains of the past. After sitting on them for an hour, your back and buttocks will ache. Fortunately, Ling Hao and his gang are rough guys and don’t care much about this. Tian Yong and Yang Xueting , Yuan Bing and Zuo Pengfei fell asleep as soon as they got on the plane, and they were snoring loudly. Dr. Jiang felt that reading on the plane hurt his eyes, so he started wearing headphones and watching science lectures on his tablet, completely immersed in himself in the world. Shi Si was not a rough person, but he was a clever guy. Not only did he bring a soft cushion, he also held a pillow with the head of "My Emperor Ten Thousand Sleeping Cats" in his arms, and he concentrated on playing mobile games there. This made Adeline a little embarrassed, there was no one to chat with.
She looked at Ling Hao, who was sitting at the back. He was looking down at something, as if he had a very strange-shaped knife in his hand.
Before getting on the plane, Li Liang specially called Ling Hao to a place where no one was around, handed him a mahogany box, and said to him: "You should have heard your father say that generations of your family have been pearl divers in the South China Sea. Right? But as soon as feudal society ended, this trade also declined. In fact, your ancestors’ skills of fishing for pearls and looking for dragons have been lost since your grandfather’s generation. However, the ancient group of pearl divers has been around for generations. What is passed down from generation to generation is almost equivalent to a group. Over time, some traces will be left in the genes. For example, your father and you are born with better water skills than others, so there is no need to learn how to swim. Back then, your father still I was asked to look into the history of pearl divers. I found someone to do a careful study and found that although there are not many records about pearl divers in historical materials, they are mentioned in many miscellaneous notes and records of experiences from past dynasties. It's quite mysterious. If you are interested, I can show you this information when I finish this work. Although the inheritance of the pearl divers seems to be lost, the old objects are still there. When you My father entrusted me with this thing for safekeeping, saying that if anything happens to him in the future, let me give it to you. Now that your father is like this, I don’t know if there will be a day when he wakes up, so I think about it. , I’d better give it to you, especially if you go into the water to explore the sea, it might be of great use to you.”
Ling Hao has never had any idea about the identity of his family's pearl divers. He thought it was no different from the ancient trades of digging ginseng, panning for gold, and collecting medicines. He didn't expect that it could develop to the level of a tribe. He didn't know that pearl divers are now like a tribe. Is there any other descendant of man left besides himself?
After getting on the plane and sitting down, Ling Hao couldn't wait to open the mahogany box. Inside the box was a piece of silk wrapped in something over a foot long. When he unfolded it, a simple short knife with a shark skin scabbard appeared in Ling Hao's box. In front of Hao, the scabbard and the edges of the handle were covered with gold. No precious gems were inlaid with them. Instead, a shiny thin layer of the inner shell of pearl shells was used to inlay a pattern of a mermaid playing with beads on the handle. This craft is called "mother-of-pearl". Although it is exquisite, it is not very valuable. The whole knife is definitely not a treasure from the outside, but it gives people a simple feeling. At a glance, you can tell that it is an old object that has experienced thousands of years.
Gently pulling out the knife, Ling Hao's eyes instantly narrowed. A sharp sword light made Ling Hao's cheeks light up. A cold feeling and evil aura rushed towards his face, making him suddenly have goosebumps all over his body. pimple. What a knife! It can still have such a cold light after such a long time, coupled with the faint sound of dragon roar when it is unsheathed, the materials used in this knife are definitely extraordinary. And it must be a murderous weapon. If it hadn't ended the lives of countless living beings, it would never have been able to accumulate such astonishing evil energy.
What surprised Ling Hao the most was that the shape of this knife was really weird. It looked like a modern "tiger claw knife", just like a sharp tiger claw, but it was twice as long as the tiger claw knife. There are many, the blade is extremely thin, and there are two hollow blood grooves that are as thin as ripples. The back of the knife is also thinner than an ordinary short knife. There are two barbs on it. I don’t know what they are used for. There are two seal characters engraved on the blade near the handle and guard - "龙ARC", which must be the name of this sword.
Something seemed to be suddenly activated in Ling Hao's memory, causing him to suddenly think of a word, "Scraping Clam Dragon Arc". Yes, when he was very young, he once heard someone tell him the story of the pearl divers. In the story, the magic tool used by the pearl divers to scrape clams for pearls was called "Dragon Arc".
It is said that this knife is extremely magical. For ordinary pearl clams, as long as you use the "dragon arc" to scratch the folds of its shell, the clam will automatically open its shell as if it is hypnotized, allowing pearl divers to take away the contents. Pearl. To deal with those old clams that cannot be hypnotized, the "dragon arc" is as thin as a cicada's wing and can be easily inserted into the clam shell. With just a light knife, the shell pillar can be cut off and the shell opened. This knife is so fast that even the pearl divers can close the clam shell after taking the pearl. As long as the hands and feet are quick enough, the shell pillar can be healed instantly, leaving the old clam with a life and a chance to give birth to another pearl in the future. .
Obviously, the knife in Ling Hao's hand is undoubtedly the pearl diver's artifact "Dragon Arc". But how could this thing be in father's hands? What role does your family play in the group of pearl divers? Why did Uncle Liang give it to him sooner rather than later, and why did he just give it to him when he was on a mission? Ling Hao was filled with doubts and became very curious about his life experience.
Adeline came to the seat at the back with a smile and sat next to Ling Hao. She saw the short knife in his hand and asked in surprise: "Is this an antique? But I have never seen a knife in this shape before. It belongs to you." Collectibles?" As a young lady from an ancient and prominent family, how could she not have a certain knowledge of antiques, works of art, etc.
"No, it's an item passed down from our ancestors. It's a talisman." Ling Hao didn't want to say too much, so he put the knife away casually, and the two of them started chatting. Seven hours passed like this, and the plane landed at the airport on Guadalcanal.
Today, "Guadalcanal" is already a tourist attraction. Many tourists come here to appreciate the blue sea and blue sky, while others come here to pay homage to the traces left by the tragic war decades ago. During World War II, the United States and Japan fought a large-scale battle here, involving land, sea and air. In the end, the United States won, and the Pacific War changed from offensive to defensive. It can be said that the Battle of Guadalcanal was a turning point in the Pacific War. It can still be seen everywhere on the island. Relics such as tanks, cannons and bunkers covered with moss, crashed plane wreckage and sunken ships can be seen everywhere on the seabed around the island, as if a piece of history has been completely sealed here.
However, Ling Hao and the others were not here for sightseeing. They hurriedly unloaded the equipment from the transport plane. Fortunately, there was a dock next to the airport. A huge "saturation diving platform operation ship" was already parked there, and the equipment was quickly It was transported and hoisted to the ship, and then it weighed anchor and left the port, hurriedly heading towards the sea area where the blue hole was located.
This unknown blue hole is indeed huge enough. The hole is shaped like a mouth, and the 5,000-ton work ship is parked above the hole, like a peanut about to be swallowed by the huge mouth.
A group of Adeline's classmates on the work boat were sharing information about the blue hole with Ling Hao and the others. A girl named Emily looked at her laptop and said: "The water depth above the blue hole is 8 meters at low tide and 17 meters at high tide. , I can send you the sonar map of the cave that has been explored so far. The entrance of the cave that Teacher and his team explored is 76 meters underwater. There is a protruding rock there. If you want to conduct a long-term saturation dive, the living cabin It can be placed on the rocks. The cave is an underwater limestone cave type, and the space inside is relatively large, so the teacher and the others drove the mini-submarine in. At the beginning, sonar data and some image data could be sent back intermittently. However, contact was suddenly lost more than an hour after the submarine entered the hole."
Ling Hao and other members of the diving team looked at the sonar structure diagram of the blue hole and listened silently. The hole was very deep, and the overall shape was like a rhinoceros horn pointed downwards. The bottom was getting thinner and thinner, but it seemed It is a problem with the sonar performance or the structure at the bottom of the cave. There is no image below 300 meters. There are several relatively large lateral caves in the middle of the cave, which extend horizontally like the roots of trees and slowly wind down. From the sonar map, these horizontal caves are more like blood vessels. , gradually getting thinner. Because the exploration has not been completed, we don’t know where these caves lead and how deep they will be. But what is certain is that they will definitely be very long. The sonar map of the cave that Professor Levins and their team explored The displayed length is nearly 400 meters.
Ling Hao frowned. The task this time was probably much more difficult than he imagined. The key was that the professor lost contact in a relatively large area, and the reason for the loss of contact was not clear. If there was just a problem with the communication equipment, it would have been In the past 48 hours, they should have surfaced long ago. They must have encountered some danger below. The professor and others will encounter the same dangers as his own rescue team.
"Did they dive under pressure?" Ling Hao asked.
"No, because I just wanted to explore the path for a short period of time, and the water depth was less than 100 meters, so I dived directly in a mini-submarine without conducting a saturation dive." A student answered.
"What's the oxygen situation on the mini-submarine? Is there fresh water and food?" Dr. Jiang Mingyu asked.
"Oh, our mini-submarine is the latest product of the German Mankai Company. It not only has a small oxygen-generating equipment, but is also equipped with pressurization and decompression functions. When they launched it, we put some drinking water into the submarine, which was about About 7 liters, there is no food left, but Robert, who drives the submarine, is a foodie, so he may have some candies and chocolates on him." A student boasted about their submarine with a smile on his face.
Zuo Pengfei glanced at him disdainfully and said, "How can even the most advanced equipment be used without power? It has been out of contact for more than 48 hours. How long can the submarine's power last? If the battery runs out, will they still have a source of oxygen?" "
The student immediately became silent, and Adeline said: "If no pressure equipment is used, the power on the boat can support the operation of the oxygen generator for 72 hours. There are ten oxygen candles in the storage compartment, which is enough for them to breathe for 20 hours. . In addition, there are three sets of diving suits and a total of six hyperbaric oxygen bottles, which is almost an hour and a half."
Ling Hao nodded: "In other words, according to a more idealized estimate, they still have 42 hours. In fact, it may be less. Yuan Bing, Pengfei, please hurry up and install the 'Stone Crab' and 'Pippi Shrimp' No.'. Shi Si, download all the sonar map data, and the others will check the diving and rescue equipment, and bring more water and food. Adeline, could you please show me the image data they sent back before they lost contact? Okay?"
Ling Hao assigned the task, and what he was most concerned about was what kind of trouble the professor and the others had encountered, hoping to find some clues in these image data.
It has to be said that it is difficult to say how well this so-called latest product micro-submarine performs, but the configuration of the camera and underwater lights is really unsatisfactory. In such a clear sea, the distance illuminated by the lights is still less than 10 meters. The cameras are not very clear, and there are only two installed. One faces the cockpit and the other faces the front of the submarine. The sides are completely blind spots for cameras. , let alone the back of the submarine.
Fortunately, the video has sound. At the beginning, the three people on the boat exclaimed, how spectacular the stalactites were, how shocking the terrain at the bottom of the cave was, etc. Unfortunately, the broken camera could only capture it. Some vague shadows of stalactites, but nothing else. As time passed slowly, the three of them were probably shocked enough, and their moods calmed down, and they began to talk about some academic topics, which were definitely not nutritious to Ling Hao.
When he saw that there were only three minutes left in the video bar, Ling Hao finally became serious and stared at the screen without blinking. The three of them were chatting. Robert, who was driving the submarine, suddenly frowned, stared at the front of the submarine and said, "Look, what is that?"
Then the professor and another student opened their eyes wide and looked ahead in shock: "Oh my God, what is that? How could there be such a beautiful thing?" Although the three of them in the video all looked intoxicated. However, the camera outside the submarine could only capture some faint blue or lavender halos. As for what was glowing, it was not clear at all.
Suddenly, the student slapped Robert on the shoulder and shouted: "Be careful!" Then there was a violent vibration. The camera outside the submarine lost the image for the first time, and the camera inside the submarine only captured the three people falling on the ground. The ground and people were on their backs, and then turned into snowflakes all over the screen, and the video data ended.
