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墨書 Inktalez
I sighed; I really couldn't accept a girl with such a personality. Silently, I walked away to grab the Searchlight. This was a multifunctional underwater work light, and someone nearby briefly explained its usage to me. It was a lamp powered by five high-output white LED lights connected in series, encased in an imported high-hardness alloy shell that could withstand strong impacts and collisions. Its sealing performance was excellent, with an effective underwater illumination range of thirty meters and a continuous working time of about ten hours. It could be used in handheld or shoulder-slung modes, with a touch switch that made it easy to operate. At close range, it could even temporarily blind someone. What a great tool! Thinking this calmed me down a bit as I turned back to see Old Bi already suited up and descending the rope ladder into the water. Xiao Mo Ya was also turning to prepare to go down, so I quickly secured my helmet and followed.
The moment I entered the water, I felt a bit of fear; however, there was no turning back at this point. I quickly wrapped the light around my hand a few times, released my grip on the rope ladder, and sank into the water. Because I was wearing a helmet, my underwater vision became blurry all at once. Fortunately, the sun had been shining brightly earlier in the day, and when I reached the bottom, I could still see Old Bi and Xiao Mo Ya standing beside me, seemingly waiting for me to catch up. Old Bi gestured for us to swim forward, so I turned on the light, and suddenly everything ahead became clear!
The river water was murky, with a few fish occasionally swimming by. The bottom was muddy; however, due to the presence of sand-suction boats, stepping on it didn't sink too deeply. There were various protrusions covered in mud scattered across the riverbed—perhaps abandoned trash or debris.
The current wasn't strong. I leaned slightly forward and took a few steps along the riverbed with my feet, feeling like it required little effort. After adjusting my posture and pushing off slightly harder, I shot forward a short distance. It seemed this method worked well; without worrying about my footing anymore, I focused ahead. Less than ten meters in front of me, a massive hole suddenly appeared in the riverbed. As the light illuminated it, I realized it wasn't round but rather rectangular—narrower at our end, only about two or three meters wide, while the far end was much wider, roughly seven or eight meters across.
Old Bi slowly approached the near side of the hole while I noticed Xiao Mo Ya on my right starting to turn her camera to film. I adjusted my speed and held the light as I moved closer to Old Bi. We stood about two meters away from the hole; for some reason, I felt the water temperature drop slightly. I aimed the light into the dark hole below; darkness met darkness—absolute darkness! The thirty-meter beam of light felt like a candle in the night within that black void.
I couldn't shake off an unsettling feeling as if facing an abyss; fear surged from deep within me. It felt similar to standing at a great height looking down—my head would spin slightly with a sense of vertigo. Just then, someone unexpectedly pushed me from behind; caught off guard, I floated forward and quickly grabbed onto Old Bi's arm to steady myself. My heart raced as I turned around to find it was Xiao Mo Ya. She saw me looking back at her and gestured for me to come closer. Irritated, I tapped Old Bi on his shoulder and moved aside slightly to signal her to come forward.
Old Bi also shifted aside, allowing Xiao Mo Ya to dart between us. She seemed mesmerized by this situation as she stood there frozen for a moment without reacting. I shone the Searchlight down at our feet; thankfully, it wasn't a sheer drop-off—there was an inclined angle leading down from where we stood toward the narrow end of the hole. I glanced at Old Bi to see how he would decide what to do next but before he made any move, Xiao Mo Ya surprisingly took action first—she began walking slowly toward the black hole while filming with her camera...
Damn! I cursed inwardly; just when you think you’re safe, trouble finds you! But for everyone's safety, I pointed my light at the riverbed in front of Xiao Mo Ya and hurried after her. Seeing this, Old Bi followed suit until we formed a line: Xiao Mo Ya in front, me slightly behind on her left side, and Old Bi on her right.
I realized this approach wasn’t wise; Xiao Mo Ya clearly had a strong curiosity but given our current situation continuing further wasn’t advisable—recklessly moving ahead could lead us into danger. So I caught up with Xiao Mo Ya and tugged at her arm; however, she ignored me and kept moving downward.
Seeing that Xiao Mo Ya had already descended below the level of the narrow riverbed surface left me no choice but to grab hold of the rope behind her with my left hand. Turning back towards Old Bi for his plan, I was surprised to see him signaling frantically for us to retreat!
Just then, before I could signal back by pulling on the rope, I suddenly felt the surrounding water accelerate its flow—my body swayed slightly as if caught in something powerful. Balancing myself just barely, I realized it wasn’t just that—the black hole had begun generating something akin to a whirlpool inside it! Debris around us—and even a fish—was swiftly drawn into that unfathomable darkness.
I felt alarmed; how had we not noticed that whirlpool before? The pull intensified gradually as my left hand clutched onto Xiao Mo Ya while my right hand reached out for the rope to signal for help—the beam from my Searchlight swept across the black hole just then when suddenly two red dots flickered deep within its depths! Before I could process what I'd seen further, Old Bi had already started swimming back using the rope.
I hurriedly pulled on the rope while kicking backward with all my might but felt like I wasn’t moving at all—it struck me how useful swimming skills would be right now! Just when desperation set in completely, I felt someone grab hold of me.
Looking over revealed that Xiao Mo Ya had finally realized something was wrong; she hung her camera on herself while gripping onto the rope with one hand and clutching me tightly with her other hand as she pulled us both back toward safety. Yet despite her efforts against that immense force pulling us backward—I found myself unable to stay grounded anymore; my body dangled helplessly in the water as if being consumed by an enormous whale opening its mouth wide to swallow fish whole.
At that moment, I felt the rope starting to retract, probably because the people on the boat were pulling it up. I felt a bit more at ease. Glancing sideways, I saw that Old Bi had already pulled ahead of us by a person's distance. Since I was holding onto Xiao Mo Ya's rope, our speed was noticeably slower. I shone the light back along the path we had come from and saw that it was only about ten meters away; it should be fine. With this thought, I moved closer to the boat by another meter or two.
Suddenly, I felt an even stronger pulling force, and my lower body was completely drifting toward the black hole. I recalled Captain Zhao's rope snapping and quickly wrapped my legs around the rope, adjusting my hands to grip it tighter. Unexpectedly, the light slipped from my grasp and fell behind me. I hurriedly tightened my hold on the rope and looked back, only to see swirling mud and sand illuminated by the light, as if something was stirring up the riverbed sediment. The water became murkier, and soon, the light vanished into the darkness.
Without the light, everything around me was filled with mud and sand, visibility dropped even further, and that pulling force grew stronger. For some reason, I felt an overwhelming sense of danger lurking beneath me. Old Bi was already several meters ahead. Unable to resist, I glanced back again; all I could see was a torrent of mud rolling behind me, obscuring everything.
At that moment, Xiao Mo Ya was pulling me by my clothes with all her strength toward the boat, but it still felt painfully slow. I looked up toward the boat and realized we were not far from it now. Hurry up! Hurry up! My heart raced with urgency. However, to my relief, the pulling force seemed to be weakening gradually. In just a few seconds, it felt like an eternity had passed before I sensed that the rope was gaining traction and slowly pulling me upward toward the boat.
As I broke through the surface of the water, I exhaled deeply. Old Bi had already boarded and was removing his gear while Xiao Mo Ya was climbing up as well. As I grasped the rope ladder, I turned back to glance at the River Surface; its calmness showed no signs of what had just transpired beneath it.
After Xiao Mo Ya and Old Bi reported to Professor Zhang, I took off my gear and changed back into my clothes before sitting on the deck to catch my breath. After a while, Xiao Mo Ya approached me and squatted down in front of me with a concerned look. "You can't swim?" she asked. I weakly nodded in response. "Yeah, you almost got me killed." Xiao Mo Ya looked guilty and lowered her head for a moment before saying softly, "I'm sorry." I waved my hand dismissively. "It's fine. Did you report everything to Professor Zhang?"
"Yes, I told Professor Zhang; they went to study the footage." "Did Professor Zhang say anything?" "He thinks there might be an underground river or perhaps a deep hole formed due to geological reasons."
"Do you believe that?" "I don't know; there must be some reasonable explanation." Xiao Mo Ya sounded timid; no wonder people say you gain wisdom through experience. Her demeanor made me feel protective of her.
"Well, our mission is complete; from now on it's your responsibility. It seems those two missing Divers won't be coming back."
Xiao Mo Ya remained silent as I slowly got up and looked around, only to find that Old Bi had already organized everything and returned to the Assault Boat without calling for me. "Old Bi! Wait for me!" I shouted as I prepared to disembark when Xiao Mo Ya gently called out from behind me, "Wang Squad Leader!"
"What is it?" I turned to look at her.
"Do you have your phone number? I... I'd like to treat you to a meal as a thank you."
"Oh no, that's not necessary!" I thought to myself; her temperament was really hard for me to handle.
"Yes, yes!" Xiao Mo Ya hurriedly ran up and grabbed my arm. At that moment, I heard a whistle from below. Following the sound, I realized it was Old Bi, who was winking at me.
Oh no, with all this pulling and tugging, Old Bi saw us. He's such a blabbermouth! I helplessly smiled at Xiao Mo Ya and said, "Alright, remember what I told you. We'll get in touch later."
Once we got into the boat, Old Bi started the motor, and we quickly headed back to the training area. From behind, Old Bi chuckled, "Old Wang, are you trying to pick up girls again?"
I didn't respond to him but turned around and asked Old Bi, "Old Bi, did you see anything down there?"
Old Bi paused for a moment. "I didn't see anything."
"If you didn't see anything, why did you signal me to retreat? Just tell me the truth; I saw it too."
"You also saw a pair of flickering red lanterns??"
...
"Hidden Dragon Abyss" has come to an end. Stay tuned for the next chapter, "Soaring Dragon Shadow"! Tomorrow will be even more exciting!
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