Chapter 528
My pulse is quickening!
It is Guixu.
Although the anchor point was destroyed, the "channel" or "crack" it briefly opened seemed to have left some kind of "trace." This trace is now connecting him, the "key," through the seawater and through his damaged deep-sea suit.
excruciating pain.
The excruciating pain in his back and legs, like a red-hot iron rod, abruptly jolted him awake from that strange state of perception.
Jiang Nian took a deep breath, making a sound like a broken bellows in his throat.
"He's awake! His pulse is quickening!" The steady female voice immediately rang out.
Visibility was blurred; all that could be seen above was the cold, curved metal panel of the submersible's interior and a few small lights emitting a soft white glow.
"Don't move, you're badly injured." The woman's face appeared above her field of vision. She looked to be in her thirties, with a capable face, sharp but concerned eyes, her hair tied into a neat bun at the back of her head, and wearing dark blue overalls with the Tai Chi star symbol on her chest.
“You are…” Jiang Nian’s voice was so hoarse that it was almost inaudible.
“Lin Yue, the Dawnbreaker's field medical supervisor, and also the current head of this ‘Submarine III’.” She spoke quickly, her hands moving non-stop as she applied some kind of gel-like substance to the exposed wound on his back, bringing a cold, stinging sensation. “Old Qin’s orders were for us to stand by in this area. To be honest, we were mostly lucky to be able to pick you up. The underwater turbulence caused by the explosion almost capsized us.”
Jiang Nian turned his neck with difficulty and saw Lao Dao leaning against the opposite bulkhead, his eyes closed, his face pale, his leg re-bandaged, but the gauze was seeping with dark red blood. Engineer Chen, Xiao Li, and Xiao Wang sat in the corner, wrapped in thermal blankets, sipping hot water, looking tired and dazed.
"Where...are we?" Jiang Nian asked.
“At the edge of the Greenland Trench, at a depth of 420 meters, it’s moving southeast, avoiding the organization’s likely main search sector,” Lin Yue replied. “Your injuries are the most severe; I can only provide emergency treatment. Burns require skin grafts, fractures require surgical fixation, and blood loss requires transfusions… These things can’t be done on the submersible. We must get ashore as soon as possible and go to the safe house.”
"Where is the safe house?"
“Svalbard, Norway. We have an outpost there disguised as an abandoned weather station, equipped with advanced medical facilities and defenses.” Lin Yue paused. “But the problem is, the organization must have sealed off the nearby sea and airspace immediately after the explosion. It’s dangerous for us to surface or approach the coastline. The ‘Submarine III’ is a small research submersible with long underwater endurance and good stealth, but it’s slow. It will take at least thirty-six hours to reach Svalbard. Your body…”
She didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was clear: Jiang Nian might not be able to hold on for that long.
“The marking system…” Jiang Nian closed his eyes, concentrating on sensing the flow of energy within his body. The pale golden energy was indeed slowly repairing the damage, but the speed was too slow, far from keeping up with the loss of life force. “It’s working… but not enough…”
"Old Qin mentioned your 'mark'," Lin Yue said in a low voice. "He said it's the key, and also the biggest variable. How are you feeling now? Besides your injuries, is there anything else... unusual?"
Jiang Nian recalled the strange sensation he had before losing consciousness. He hesitated for a moment, but still spoke: "I 'felt' something... down below. Very deep down. Something was... resonating."
Lin Yue's expression instantly turned serious. She quickly glanced at the others in the cabin; Lao Dao was still resting with his eyes closed, and Engineer Chen and the others seemed oblivious to the whispers.
"What kind of resonance?" she asked, lowering her voice even further.
“I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s like a heartbeat, but slower and deeper. And… fragments of images, lines, structures…” Jiang Nian described it with great difficulty.
Lin Yue's eyes flickered uncertainly. She quickly took a small tablet from her waist and pulled up some complex waveforms and data. "After the explosion, we detected continuous, weak, low-frequency vibrations in this sea area, originating from the very deep seabed. It's not an earthquake, nor is it an aftershock. The sonar also detected some... abnormal echoes, irregular in shape, that don't match any known geological structures or man-made objects."
She turned the tablet toward Jiang Nian, which displayed the blurry outline of a sonar image—a huge, irregular shadow lurking deeper into the trench, with faintly sharp protrusions at its edges, like the spire of some kind of building, or a cluster of naturally formed crystals.
"What do you think this is?" Jiang Nian asked.
“I don’t know.” Lin Yue shook her head. “There’s no matching record in Elder Qin’s database. But considering your feelings…” She looked at Jiang Nian, “Perhaps the explosion at the anchor point didn’t just destroy one facility. It might… have disturbed something sleeping on the seabed. Or, as Elder Qin speculated, although the ‘door’ to the Ruins of Return wasn’t fully opened, the ‘crack’ already existed, and it was releasing some kind of… ‘signal’ or ‘pressure’.”
Does the organization know about this?
“They definitely detected the anomaly. But their priority right now is to confirm the extent of the anchor point's destruction, recover any possible data debris, and…” Lin Yue looked at Jiang Nian, “search for survivors, especially you. You are a crucial ‘key’ in their plan; they need to find you alive or dead.”
A brief silence fell over the cabin, broken only by the deep hum of the submersible engine and the faint hiss of the life support system.
"Can we... shake them off?" Xiao Li couldn't help but ask, his voice filled with fear.
“We’re in the shadows, and they’re unsure of our fate or location.” Lin Yue regained her composure. “‘Submarine III’ has advanced anechoic tiles and electromagnetic shielding. As long as we don’t surface into shallow waters and get directly scanned by anti-submarine aircraft or surface ships’ active sonar, they’ll have a hard time finding us. But the problem is, we need to get ashore, and you need treatment. And the moment we get ashore is the most dangerous.”
"Are there any other rendezvous points?" Engineer Chen asked, "Closer ones?"
“Yes, but the risks are higher.” Lin Yue pulled up an electronic nautical chart and pointed to several flashing dots. “There are several secret contact points on the east coast of Greenland, but they are all within the organization’s possible land search range. There is also one near Iceland, but it requires crossing open waters, which poses a high risk of exposure. Svalbard is far away, but it is in a remote location and is frozen all year round, so the organization’s infiltration is relatively weak. Our safe house has the best concealment and the most complete facilities.”
“Then let’s go to Svalbard.” Old Knife suddenly spoke, his eyes still closed, but his tone was resolute.
“But his injuries…” Lin Yue looked at Jiang Nian.
“He won’t die.” Old Dao opened his eyes, looked at Jiang Nian, and said with a complicated expression, “This kid is tough. The marking system… since Elder Qin values it so much, it must be of some use in saving his life.”
Jiang Nian gave a slight smirk in response. He could indeed feel the energy of the marking system slowly but steadily repairing the internal organ damage and stabilizing blood circulation, which kept him barely hanging on. However, the marking system seemed to be dealing with the severe burns and fractures on his body surface much more slowly, or perhaps with a different priority.
“I will try my best to maintain his vital signs.” Lin Yue no longer hesitated and began to prepare more medicine and support equipment. “But we need to develop a detailed plan for getting ashore. The safe house in Svalbard is in an abandoned mine north of Longyearbyen. There is an underground dock, but the entrance is hidden and requires a specific time window and signal connection. We must arrive on time and make sure there are no tails.”
For the next period of time, the submersible sailed smoothly in the deep sea.
Lin Yue performed basic examinations and treatments on everyone. Although Lao Dao's leg injury wasn't as severe as Jiang Nian's, it still required surgical debridement and immobilization. Chen Gong, Xiao Li, and Xiao Wang mainly suffered from exhaustion and minor frostbite, but recovered considerably after rest.
Jiang Nian was mostly in a semi-comatose state. The energy flow of the marking system and his faint perception of the deep-sea "resonance" intertwined, causing his consciousness to sometimes rise and fall in the excruciating pain of reality, and sometimes drift towards that strange space filled with dark gold lines and a low pulsation. He vaguely felt that the "thing" in the deep sea was not far from them, and even... as the submersible sailed, that faint sense of resonance would sometimes strengthen and sometimes weaken, as if they were moving around the edge of some huge, invisible field.
Lin Yue continued monitoring the data from various sensors, her expression growing increasingly grave. The abnormal low-frequency vibrations persisted, and the massive shadowy outline on the sonar seemed… to be slowly changing? She couldn't be sure, because deep-sea exploration itself had a significant margin of error. Twenty hours later.
"We are about to enter the waters off Svalbard, about 100 nautical miles from our target," Lin Yue reported to the group. "But we have received an encrypted message from Elder Qin that the organization's search network is expanding northward. They are using more satellites and high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, focusing on scanning the ice sheet edge and fjord entrances. The risks of our original landing route have increased."
"Is there an alternative route?" Engineer Chen asked.
“Yes, but it’s more troublesome.” Lin Yue pulled up another map. “We’ll go around from the northwest, following the ice shelf, using the icebergs and the complex terrain beneath the ice for cover. But the water temperature there is even lower, the ice conditions are more complicated, making navigation more difficult, and it will take eight to ten hours longer.”
Everyone looked at Jiang Nian.
His face was paler than paper, his breathing weak but steady, barely holding on thanks to the combined effects of strong painkillers and the marking system. Another ten hours would undoubtedly be a tremendous ordeal.
“Let’s take…the alternate route,” Jiang Nian said softly, his eyes closed.
"Are you sure?" Lin Yue frowned.
“The organization…is not stupid. The original route…is too obvious.” Jiang Nian said haltingly, “Since Elder Qin issued a warning…it means they…have some suspicion. Taking a risk…it’s better to take a detour.”
Old Dao nodded: "Listen to him. That kid's intuition about danger is always very accurate."
Lin Yue said no more and immediately adjusted the course. The "Submarine III" turned silently and dived into the colder and darker ice shelf.
The temperature plummeted. Even with the temperature control system inside the cabin, a bone-chilling cold could be felt seeping in from the metal outer shell. Occasionally, massive iceberg bases would flash past the portholes, like sleeping white behemoths, casting menacing shadows under the submersible's lights. The muffled sound of ice breaking through the water sent shivers down one's spine.
The voyage became exceptionally difficult. Lin Yue focused intently on maneuvering, dodging icicles and floating ice. The sonar screen was filled with clutter, and the terrain beneath the ice was as complex as a maze.
Jiang Nian's condition seemed to worsen in the cold environment. He began to shiver uncontrollably, and even being covered with a thermal blanket did not help. Lin Yue injected him with medication to combat the cold and stabilize his heart rate, but the effect was limited.
"His temperature is still dropping...it's 34 degrees..." Lin Yue stared at the monitor, her voice filled with anxiety, "Blood loss and burns have severely impaired his thermoregulation. We must warm him up as soon as possible, otherwise..."
Just then, the submersible suddenly jolted!
"boom--!"
A dull thud came from the right, and the ship tilted noticeably.
"What did you bump into?" Old Dao immediately grabbed onto something fixed in place.
"It's not ice!" Lin Yue stared at the sonar, her expression changing drastically. "There's something! Underwater! Moving very fast!"
On the sonar screen, a medium-sized dot of light was rapidly approaching from the right rear. Its outline was blurry, but it was clearly not a natural creature or an ice floe!
"Is it an organization's tracker? Or an underwater drone?" Engineer Chen asked nervously.
"I don't know! But they're up to no good!" Lin Yue pushed the control stick hard, and "Diving Shark No. 3" accelerated its descent, trying to use the complex terrain below the ice shelf to get away.
But that thing was hot on their heels! It was incredibly fast and agile, weaving through the icicles and quickly closing the distance.
"It's locked onto us!" Lin Yue exclaimed, watching the approaching dot of light on the screen. "Prepare to attack!"
The words had barely left his mouth—
"Boom!"
An even more violent impact! This time at the rear!
The ship is rocking violently, the alarm is sounding, and the red lights are flashing!
"The tail thruster is damaged! Power reduced by forty percent!" Lin Yue roared. "We must fight back! Does 'Submarine III' have any means of self-defense?"
“There are… there are two small sonic chaff missiles…” Xiao Li pointed to a spot on the control panel, “but their range is very short, they need to be fired at very close range…”
"Then let it get closer!" A resolute glint flashed in Lin Yue's eyes. She adjusted the course, deliberately slowing down the ship, while simultaneously pointing the chaff launchers towards the rear.
The unidentified object indeed accelerated and rushed towards us!
"Now!"
The jamming projectile was launched, but there was no explosion or flash; only a strong high-frequency sound wave exploded underwater!
The sonar screen was instantly covered by clutter, the tracking light spot flickered violently, and then... disappeared?
"Did you hit it?" Xiao Wang asked nervously.
"Uncertain..." Lin Yue dared not relax. She carefully maneuvered the submersible to hide behind a huge iceberg base, shut down most of the non-essential systems, and entered a silent state.
Everyone held their breath.
Time passed second by second.
The sonar screen showed only icebergs and clutter caused by turbulence.
Several minutes later, there was still no trace of the light.
"Perhaps... it was destroyed by chaff, or the target was lost." Lin Yue breathed a slight sigh of relief, but her brows remained furrowed. "But our whereabouts have been exposed. The organization knows our approximate location. They may send more tracking units." (End of Chapter)