Chapter Seventy-Two: The Iron Serpent
The lake doesn't seem as calm as it seems, and beneath the mirror-like surface of the lake is a silent but noisy world. The lake is bottomless, and there are all kinds of debris under the water, both alive and dead. Under this lake, there are not only schools of strange fish gathered, but also eerie white bones. All sorts of bones floated in the water, both stationary and moving—creatures teetering on the edge of life and death, or dead spirits. Some of the bones were still in good shape, and when they saw a living creature like Lei, they seemed to come back to life and swam towards the living people, but they quickly stopped moving.
They were not deprived of their vitality, but were blocked by the "starlight" emanating from Julius' body. The pale green glow was faint, but it seemed to contain a powerful force that kept the fish and the necrons out of the light.
Rei was surprised to see all of this happen, but there was no way to make a sound in this water, so all she could do was a series of bubbles coming out of her mouth, and it looked like words had been poured into the bubbles, and then floated upwards and finally burst.
Julius could see Lei's surprised expression, but he couldn't speak, so he shook his head at her, signaling that he wasn't too surprised. Seeing Julius's eyes, Rei didn't say anything more—though she couldn't say anything, only to spit out bubbles. The bubbles and the light fused together, fluttering upwards until they all disappeared.
The underground lake seems to be completely invisible to the bottom of the lake, and there is only boundless darkness below. The light from Julius's body had faded, leaving only the bottle of light that Lulunaka had given him and Lei. The light of the liquid in this bottle could not penetrate the darkness, only enveloped them.
But this journey with no end in sight seems to be coming to an end. Julius's eyes, accustomed to the darkness, vaguely saw what seemed to be a wall blocking the way. After a while, he reacted, how could there be such a thing as a wall in this lake, and what he was in front of him should be the bottom of the lake. He was right, Lulunaka had adjusted her body and returned to her head-up position, her feet on the ground. She stood below, looking up at Julius and Leigh above and beckoning to them.
Julius and Rei also reposition themselves and land next to Lulunaka. When her feet finally landed on the ground, Rei felt that there was hard ground under her feet, which was not what a lake bottom should look like, and the bottom of a lake should be more muddy - covered with dirt, and there were all kinds of aquatic plants growing in the soil, and then there were fish of all sizes...... There are strange man-eating fish in this lake, but there don't seem to be any plants or anything.
Standing at the bottom of the lake is a wonderful thing, and it is completely different from the feeling when you are falling. It's like time has slowed down, and no matter what you do, your body is slowed down because there's such a thing as water. For Rei, this wonderful feeling, perhaps with a few more additions, felt that her skin was weird, and the feeling of water sliding on it when she moved made her feel very uncomfortable.
Standing at the bottom of this lake, nothing happened. Julius and Rei glanced at each other, then at Lulunaka. Luluna was looking around, not knowing what she was looking at. As she looked around, she noticed the sight of the two and grinned at them, spitting out a series of bubbles from her mouth. It seems that even she can't speak in the water.
There wasn't much to see at the bottom of the lake, the living and dead were floating in the water, and there was nothing special down there. If there is anything special, it is that there is a track on this hard ground.
In places like ports, you can always see tracks that are set up to facilitate the transportation of goods, and heavy goods can be pushed up on wheels, which can save more manpower. But why there is such a track in such a place as the bottom of the lake, this is what is puzzling.
The track stretches in both directions, and it is not known where it leads, and the bottom of the lake is so dark that even if there is lighting, you can't see anything in the distance. While Julius and Rei were wondering, Lulunaka reached out and stretched out her entire right arm in a blocking motion. Just when the two of them felt even more strange, something strange happened.
There was a rumbling sound coming from a distance, the faint sound that was not obvious at first, but became clearer and clearer as time passed. The ground was also trembling, giving the illusion that the ground beneath its feet was alive, and its heartbeat was being communicated to those standing on it.
Julius and Rei also began to look around, and the movement became louder and more worrying. Lulunaka maintained her posture as if she was going to stop something. In the underwater world, the sound is very vague, but this voice that is gradually approaching is different, and the thing that has this voice, even if you haven't seen its appearance, this sense of existence is so strong that you can't help but care about it.
Because Luluna didn't say anything, Julius and Rei could only hold back their emotions and didn't show too much panic. After a while, the owner of the voice was finally coming into their sight.
In the darkness with no end in sight, a small light emerged - this light did not belong to the lighting bottle on Lulunaka and Rei, and if you pay a little attention, you will see that this light is not small, because it is approaching, and it is getting bigger and bigger.
The light came to the three of them with a roar. Appearing in front of Julius and Lei, dumbfounded, was a large, elongated, strip-like object. The object moved on the railroad tracks, stopping in front of them, and the light that was approaching them came from the front of the object.
It was a behemoth, and Julius and Rei were in front of it like the difference between a snake and a frog—a snake that looked like it was made of steel, with a more striking light than a snake's eyes, and that light pierced through the darkness, leaving two sword-like rays of light at the bottom of the lake, cutting through the darkness and making a way for it.
Lulunaka ignored Julius and Rei as she walked over to the "serpent" made of steel, and into its body. The python at the bottom of this lake does have an opening on the surface that can enter. But just because Julius and Rei were willing to enter the Iron Serpent didn't mean they were willing to go in, but Lulunaka was already waving to them, and her mouth was opening and closing, not knowing what she was talking about.
In fact, even if they did, they couldn't understand what Lulunaka was saying.
Lulunaka said something they might never understand for the rest of their lives:
Welcome to this train, the train will start soon, please get on board.