The world that can't see the moonlight is terrifyingly depressing.

The further the ship went, the darker the world became, so dark that the naked eye of the traveler could barely see anything. Everything seems to be soaked in ink, but this darkness is not constant, nor is it really invisible, and travelers can see some simple outlines.

Sometimes it becomes a bird, sometimes it becomes a swimming fish, and its bizarre silhouette floats in no fixed place, swinging freely in the darkness of the heavens and the earth, and as the travelers change their positions, they either approach the travelers, or move away, or float to the sky, and merge into the water.

But when we got closer, we could see that the outlines were none other than the edges of the clouds that had gathered and dispersed. They don't have any particular movement, but only change with the air current, or are in front of other, larger clouds, and the contours are accentuated by the layering of space.

At that time, the trumpet of death or life was above the Netherworld, and it went forward, and a long whistle sounded in the silent space.

The waterwheel and the sail crept cautiously above the infinite rheological abyss.

Its voyage, as can be seen, can never be compared to a ship on the sea, but to a submarine in the deep sea. No matter how cloudy the storm on the sea is, there is a cloud breaking through the sunrise, and there is a shallow light through the gap in the clouds. But the darkness of the deep sea is incomprehensible, and all the light is blocked by the water, and it is as dark as hell and hell.

For the Netherworld, all the light is absorbed by the clouds.

There is also a small door at the very top of the Dead or Alive. This door is connected downwards to the exhaust chamber, a special chamber that is isolated from the overall air circulation of death or life alone. In order to prevent anomalous microscopic things from the outside world from entering the dead or alive number, each time they enter and exit, the gear man will pump, exhaust, and pump separately.

When the action is done, it is disinfected.

The gear man uses high-temperature and high-pressure water vapor to disinfect the exhaust chamber. Zai Yi once said that ordinary aliens would be burned to death by the high-temperature and high-pressure water vapor released everywhere. The Gear Man is not afraid of this kind of injury.

And Gu Chuan was quite cautious. Dressed in a protective suit and a safety rope from his waist, he flicked the gears and opened the door to the special exit, where he saw the misty darkness outside.

He climbed up the ladder, and when he poked his head out of the Dead or Alive, the endless clouds covered his body. The snowflakes were also on the hull and his protective suit.

He closed the exhaust door again, and for the first time, he stood above the head of the Death or Living.

At that time, he thought he was a small sucker fish, hanging from the body of a huge deep-sea lanternfish by a rope. And everything in heaven and earth, as well as the countless clouds and mist that swept around him, were all deep-sea beasts fighting with lantern fish spitting out black ink.

His small fish may be about to swim into the abyss of infinite darkness with the big fish.

So the young man shuddered.

He was one step ahead of him, and when he came out, he heard the voice of the young man, and asked him:

"Standing here, are you scared?"

Gu Chuan didn't know how to describe his mood, he felt that he was not afraid, but he didn't know what his emotions were pointing to, he held back for a long time, and suddenly remembered the words in the Chinese text in his memory, and said:

"I hate that my life as a human being is too short...... Haha, but I think the world is endless! This makes me feel envious. ”

Gu Chuan didn't know that Zai Yan had been poked in the sore spot.

Zai Yi knew how Jing Yu tricked the mirror tube people, and he only said:

"It's almost there, Gu Chuan. The cloud was about to leave our ship. ”

There is a light source on the hull of the Dead or Alive.

The large eye-like glass sphere on the top of its head has a combination of multiple functions, ranging from a "laser-positioned" emitter for telescopes to a simple lamp for direct searchlight. The former can illuminate the farthest point of heaven and earth. The latter is like a lantern hanging from a lantern fish, which can be used to see the light around and the road ahead.

In addition, the Dead or Alive also has an unexpected ability to glow in Gu Chuan. Its peculiar metal body surface is also planned according to the region, and an area is equipped with an undershell light-emitting device by the Gear Man. These light-emitting devices were built by the Cogwheel to repair the hull of the Dead or Alive even in the darkest of times.

Carrying the lamps under these shells, they set up the luminous lamps under these shells, and when they came, there were pieces of metal under their feet that emitted light, illuminating the road all the way.

In the swirling wind and clouds, Gu Chuan cautiously followed behind Zaiyan, as if walking on the edge of the abyss.

The experience was very new to him.

The farther they went to the stern, the more snow there became, and when they reached a fog they knew they were in the whale cloud that had drifted by.

Huge snowflakes flew out of the clouds and slapped on the young man's body. The snow was not cold, but scorching, and he felt a little overwhelmed.

He held one hand in front of his eyes to prevent the snow flakes from smashing against the glass dome to pollute his vision, and with the other he grabbed a piece of hot snow, the scorching temperature comparable to his body temperature much higher than normal.

"Is this the cloud that emits high-temperature condensation snow?"

Gu Chuan asked.

Zai lowered his head and kicked the snow that covered the roof of the boat. There was no damage to the hull. The snow moved like a flow of glue, and then drifted into the netherworld in defy gravity.

Zai Yi said:

"Yes. I think one of the properties of the cetacean cloud that your classification says produces such snow. ”

He thought for a moment and added:

"This kind of snow, which is supposed to be a netherworld liquid, has condensed at a temperature change, or at a high altitude, and then falls in the form of a high-temperature condensate."

Gu Chuan's gaze was still on the snow that had been kicked away. The color of the snow is also very strange. Like the Netherwaters, they glow with strange colors, like mud blocks, with occasional smoke emitted from their surfaces.

After they fell into the Netherworld, Gu Chuan found that the snow was a little whiter, and the Netherworld was darker. But the white fell into the black, and soon dyed black, and the difference was no longer visible.

The darkness is still smoky, like a fantasy.

He pondered Zaiyi's words and said seriously:

"Your idea is that there is an area of ultra-high heat somewhere in the path of the cetacean cloud? The approximate range of this area, in height, is about two kilometers away. When the cetacean cloud passed over that location, some high-temperature reaction occurred......"

They began to walk back.

Zai Yi expressed great surprise at Gu Chuan's speculation:

"Your idea is very interesting...... Perhaps it is. If you generalize from a point of view, perhaps it is a cloud as large as the cetacean cloud that can pass through. Scaly clouds can't pass through that area. ”

"Why?"

"Because the latter is too small and not solid enough. Only the former has enough mass and volume to leap over that area in the event of high-temperature condensation occurring in multiple parts of the body. ”

"Indeed."

Before Gu Chuan entered the hatch, he looked into the distance with some feeling, and he saw an arc of light flickering on the edge of another tower-like cloud. The arc light illuminated the shadows of the storm cloud bands in the distance.

Worried, the two men returned to the outside observation chamber with a sudden new idea.

At that time, Mr. Dan Dan was chatting with Chu Yun.

It heard the thoughts of the two young men and let out a mocking sound:

"What a strange thing you are saying! According to your thinking, clouds condense because of high temperatures, but don't you know that when the temperature increases, water turns into gas? Does the temperature drop before the water turns into ice? ”

Mr. Dandan's common sense words choked the two of them.

Gu Chuan thought for a while and said:

"Perhaps, it doesn't follow this law there, it's very likely!"

And Zai Yi said:

"The Netherworld does not necessarily adhere to this nature. It may condense at high temperatures, but volatilize at low temperatures...... When we arrived, the temperature changed very erratically, but overall, all the way here, it remained at a very low temperature level. ”

The propeller gear machine was flying around in the air, busy.

And Hatsuyun leisurely stuffed the glass book into his bag and replaced it with another one. She thought the answers given by both men were good. She spoke at the right time:

"I've found another anomaly that I think has something to do with the nature of the Netherworld."

"What anomaly?"

Gu Chuan hurriedly asked her.

In an isolated sea, anything abnormal can kill someone.

Chu Yun got up and led the two of them to the table in front of the telescope. On the table, there is a compass and a parent substance.

"Look at the direction of the needle."

Although he had heard of this nature, he did not fully agree with it, and only stood aside and observed silently.

The young man bowed his head and looked closely, only to feel that the compass was still pointing at its eternal position, and there was no change.

The unchanging object made him feel a strange human reassurance.

Chu Yun shook his head and pointed seriously:

"Not in a horizontal position, but in a vertical position."

Gu Chuan was suddenly startled, walked to the side of the compass, turned his head sideways to take a look, and sure enough, he found that it was not as usual. He went to fetch the ruler again, and compared it, and found that the compass was tilted upwards at three angles compared to the original.

Originally, the compass was pointing horizontally forward, but now it is subtly pointing upwards.

"What does this mean?"

I don't know why.

Gu Chuan said:

"From the pattern of the compass that I have so far, this could mean ...... Our ship is tilting downward, not exactly in the same direction as it should be. ”

The young man could not be sure, because he had never been in a similar situation either.

He and Hatsuyun had walked all the way, both climbing the mountains and walking into the caves, but they had never seen such an obvious upward arc.

But they can't see it, and they can't test the level with the naked eye alone.

Everything in the Netherworld is dark, and the smoke is so thick that you can't even see the exact interface of the Netherworld. According to the Gear Man, the Netherworld is a heavy water, a very heavy thing, which cannot be easily touched and penetrated, and once you enter it, it is like a quagmire, and it is difficult to climb out.

"But horizontally, there's a simple way to measure it."

Gu Chuan said.

"That's perpendicular to gravity."

The discovery of gravity, or gravitation, was already a Newtonian thing on Earth. Hatsuyun doesn't know very well, but Zaiyu probably understands a little:

"What are you going to do?"

Gu Chuan couldn't say that he understood the gravity of the other world very well, but he knew that he would not fly out of thin air when he stood on this land, and the apples on the apple tree would also fall, instead of flying out of thin air, which meant that this world might still obey the laws of gravity.

He said:

"It's a simple thing. We take a rope and hang an ordinary stone on the rope. ”

Mr. DanDan watched with interest. Zai Hao hurried to the storeroom and fetched a string and a small ball.

The rope is an ordinary rope.

This little ball is not ordinary, and its origin is also strange. This ball is called the amorphous ball by the gear man. Its anomaly is that it will not be hindered. At the time of the Cogearsman's discovery, the ball was rolling infinitely in a hole. Roll from the top to the bottom, and from the bottom to the top along the other side, and never stop.

There are openings in the ball for rope threading. The opening was not chiseled by the cogwheel man, but was there at the beginning.

Young people have become very accustomed to this anti-physical infinite nature of the oddity. But as soon as he was about to thread the rope into the ball, the ball rolled out of his hand and straight forward, almost without friction.

The ball hits the corner of the wall, is driven by the force, turns back the way it came, and then begins a never-ending back and forth motion between walls.

"Why did you get such a strange thing?"

The young man was a little crying and laughing.

Zai Yi said apologetically:

"Another one? I just happened to see them together. I didn't think much of it. ”

"Catch the ball first, I don't know how long it's going to roll here. It doesn't seem to slow down at all. ”

Zai Wei waved his hand and called the propeller gear machine.

The propeller gear machine spread its round body with two small claws around the edges. Together, the two of them pounced the ball in the palms of their combined hands.

Then, Gu Chuan used a thin rope to pass through the pores of the amorphous ball and make a plumb drop.

He covered the plumb amorphous ball and brought it to the side of the compass table, then let go, only one end of the rope, and let the amorphous ball droop naturally.

The amorphous ball descends vertically in the air and starts an infinite bouncing motion.

"Let's change it."

They were replaced with ordinary weights.

This time the plumb line successfully indicated them in a straight downward direction.

"Is this the direction of gravity?"

Hatsuun thought he had discovered a new world. She exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yes. The reason why we can't fly is because gravity firmly pulls our feet on the ground. Gravity is straight down...... In other words, the upright position of the animal is in line with the direction of gravity, which involves the growth of bones and flesh. Gu Chuan said, "And the direction perpendicular to the direction of gravity should be called horizontal." ”

Gu Chuan's explanation, Chu Yun mostly seems to understand but does not understand. But she was happy because she knew she was about to come into contact with a new kingdom of knowledge.

And Gu Chuan's attention was all on the plumb line.

He saw that above and below the plumb line that indicated gravity, the table top was horizontal, the plank was horizontal, in other words, the Death or Life was horizontal.

However, the compass still points somewhere above the horizon.

And this time the gap became four degrees.