The submersible had passed the "bottom" of the city-state, the boundless darkness of the water had replaced the vertical and rough "cliff" before, and the pillars of light from the high-powered searchlights stretched infinitely in the seawater, and nothing could be seen within the beam of light.

Only occasionally a few tiny flashes of light appear within the pillar of light, which are floating bubbles or some "debris" falling from the upper layer, reflecting the light in the water.

Duncan turned one of the cranks on the console, and the sound of water filling from the direction of the pressurized tank turned into a low roar, and he slowed the sinking of the submersible and carefully controlled it to tilt it up at an angle.

After crossing the border, he had to "look back" to see what the city-state's base was like.

The pillar of light slowly swept through the darkness, and something so large and suffocating appeared in the boundless body of water, and an indescribable sense of depression came along with the upside-down "rock formation" - even if there was no spiritual pollution caused by any supernatural factors, this scene was enough to make most ordinary people feel the weight of the psychological level, and even the mental trauma.

The "base" of the frost city-state appeared outside the porthole, as if the earth was hanging upside down, and under the overwhelming crushing perspective, what could be seen was countless craggy structures, like stalagmites, like minarets like forests, a large number of high and low, dozens of meters and hundreds of meters of convex structures, and something like some kind of adhesive across the "stalagmites".

However, in the shock and depression that came to his face, Duncan's heart was filled with more irrepressible curiosity - he cautiously steered the rudimentary diving machine, and instead drove towards the craggy and strange upside-down "jungle".

At the same time, on the Lost Land, Duncan had already arrived in front of the captain's quarters and reached out to open the "Lost Door".

Zhou Ming walked into his bachelor apartment, and was not surprised to see the delicate "model" of the frost city-state of the new collection that was emitting a faint glow on the table.

He went to the table, held the lifelike model of the city-state in both hands, and carefully examined every detail of it, then flipped it over to examine its underlying structure.

The intricate protrusions look like some kind of degraded and messy arrangement...... The tentacles, or more daringly, like some kind of limb.

Compared with simply using flames to perceive the underlying structure of the city-state, this "deep dive" brought more details to Zhou Ming.

He slowly closed his eyes, feeling the message from the other world, feeling the vibration of the submersible, and the magnificent and shocking "scenery" that moved slowly outside the porthole of the submersible.

The inconspicuous steel device was passing between two stalagmites, estimated to be one or two hundred meters long, and the beam from the searchlight swept over the jagged and bulging structures in the distance, allowing Duncan to find a safer path through it.

This is a sight not mentioned in the materials of the Abyss Project - neither the information provided by Tirion nor the dossier left by the town hall mentions the submersible's passage through the "overhanging jungle" at the base of the city-state.

Perhaps, the original pioneers focused all their attention on the deep sea and did not do such superfluous things, or perhaps, this hideous and terrifying thing hanging upside down was too dangerous in the darkness that the original submersibles did not choose to rush deeper, or perhaps, or ......

Someone has done this, but no one has been able to bring the truth of what they see above the surface.

The beam of the searchlight swept another area in the darkness.

Something came into Duncan's field of vision.

The next second, he suddenly pulled a lever on the console, and the impact of the sudden reversal of the propeller even caused a creaking noise from inside the submersible, the fragile steel spherical shell trembled in the deep water, and with the terrible sound of the mechanical structure bearing the load, it finally hovered at a position that almost hit a nearby "stalagmite".

"What's going on?" Agatha asked hurriedly.

She looked up in the direction of the porthole, but all she saw was a lot of upside-down shimmers outside, and in the shimmer there was a large body of light, glowing with a hazy and blurry light, and she couldn't make out the details inside.

Duncan didn't respond for a moment, he just stared out of the porthole, at the ...... that had just emerged from the darkness

Huge and pale eyes.

An eye, round and open, was between the tentacles, black protrusions, perhaps a hundred meters in diameter, so that the tiny submersible looked like an inconspicuous pebble in front of it.

The eye was lifeless, as if it had died thousands of years ago, or even older, pale and hollow at the bottom of the city-state, hanging upside down from the portholes, as if it were dying calmly gazing at the infinite darkness of the ocean below, and the submersible was now suspended in front of its dead pupils, under the gaze of this eternal decay.

"It's an eye." Duncan finally broke the silence and whispered.

He turned his head again and looked in the other direction through the porthole on the other side.

The afterglow of the searchlight illuminated all around, and he could see the black "stalagmites" hanging upside down in the sea, and now, he could finally be sure that these things were really limbs.

It is a tentacle that mutates, degenerates, and then loses its vitality.

These tentacles hang down in the sea, like withered vines hanging from the top of a cave.

Agatha gripped the armrest so hard that even though her heart had stopped beating, she felt as if something was about to rush out of her chest, and when she realized what she had heard, realized the true face of the glimmer of light in front of her eyes, she even felt suffocated for the first time in a long time: "You...... What do you mean ......"

"The city-state, built on some kind of gigantic creature," Duncan said slowly, similarly stunned by what he saw, but still trying to calm his mind and gather his thoughts, "at least...... There are also some biological traits remaining. ”

Agatha was unable to speak for a long time, and it was a long time before she sorted out the words in extreme astonishment and confusion: "It's ...... Dead? ”

She unconsciously lowered her voice, as if she was worried that the voice would awaken the unimaginable and incomprehensible "creature" too loudly.

"It must be dead," Duncan said, as he began to maneuver the submersible cautiously, slowly moving away from the large, pale eye, his movements very carefully - although he was almost certain that the giant creature was dead, he still couldn't help but have some terrifying associations, as if the eye would suddenly turn around once the submersible was too big, "and theoretically, it shouldn't have looked like this, which is not in accordance with biological laws...... It looked more like a twisted corpse, or something built out of corpses......"

Agatha didn't speak, she didn't know whether to lament whether Captain Duncan could calmly analyze in such a situation, or whether it was necessary for a creature capable of carrying a city-state to "conform to the laws of biology"—a great confusion filled her mind, so much so that she couldn't think about it as she normally would.

The worldview that has been built up over a long period of time is being put to the test.

The true appearance beneath the city-state is so horrible and strange that the only safe refuge of mortals in the infinite sea is built on the bodies of indescribable creatures, at the feet of each person, at the bottom of thousands of meters of rocks and soil, withered tentacles hang down into the deep sea, pale eyes overlooking the abyss, and everyone is ...... Nothing.

After a long pause, Agatha finally woke up, turned to Duncan, and hesitated, "Is it only the frost?" ”

She didn't know why she was asking Captain Duncan this question, and she didn't even think about what answer she would get—it was just a great confusion urging her to speak, even if the question was destined to be inconclusive.

But the captain answered.

"Probably all city-states are like that," Duncan said slowly, recalling his "perception" of the underneath Plain, and in another perspective, he also looked at the "collection" on the shelves of his bachelor's apartment, "There are similar structures below the city-states of Purland—but no eyes, just a misshapen, swollen mass in place." ”

Agatha subconsciously spoke in shock: "Have you sneaked under Plant? ”

Duncan shook his head: "No, this is my first time diving into the deep sea myself, but I have other means to get a rough sense of what is going on beneath the city-state. ”

As he spoke, he raised his head and looked out the porthole at the "jungle" hanging upside down in the darkness.

There was a limit to his rough perception, and if he hadn't come down to see it himself, he would probably never have thought of the strange jagged structures beneath the city-state...... It was an unspeakable corpse.

The huge pale eyeball was slowly moving away from its field of vision, and the beams of light from the searchlight were sweeping over the tentacles around it, but even as the eye faded into darkness, a feeling as if it had been watched for a long time still haunted the mind, as if there were countless invisible tentacles wrapping around the submersible's shell from all sides.

Even the steam core seemed to be sluggish.

But these were illusions – the submersible remained smoothly away from the "forest" and the eye, unsubstantially unhindered.

"We're going to keep diving," Duncan said, turning his head to Agatha, "the truth about the city-state's 'base' is just the beginning, we're stepping into the blind spot of civilization, and anything is possible next—do you still have the courage?" ”

Agatha also turned her head, and through the black curtain, she calmly met Duncan's gaze.

"I'm ready," the city-state guardian said in a calm tone, "and we're going to dive. ”

(End of chapter)