If it weren't for the two moons in the sky constantly reminding him that this was Mars, Zhang Fan would have thought he was walking on the ice plains of Antarctica on Earth.

Everything around was silvery white.

After traversing countless ice barriers, ice fissures, high mountains, and deep valleys, Zhang Fan finally arrived at the center of the Martian polar cap.

Zhang Fan felt he should thank Liao Changtian properly. Thanks to the route map he provided, although the journey was winding and dangerous, it was all safe and sound.

It is currently the polar day at the Martian south pole. Before us lies an endless, silvery-white world, with Phobos and Deimos hanging overhead in the night sky, which is filled with stars.

You can see the stars during the day; only on Mars can you enjoy this magical privilege. It's a pity I didn't bring Yui along, otherwise we could have had another romantic getaway.

After leaving the "Bird's Nest" for a distance, it was no longer possible to communicate with Yui and the others, but they should still be able to keep an eye on them using the telescopes on the Soyuz space station overhead.

Unlike the solid ice at the edge of the ice sheet, the pole is a world of drift ice.

Seeing these massive, shifting icebergs, Zhang Fan knew the situation was dire. Judging from their journey, the closer they got to the pole's center, the more severe the ice sheet's fracturing became; near the pole, the icebergs had even formed into shifting icebergs.

This also means that the melting inside the ice sheet was faster than expected, and the thickness of the ice layer was no longer sufficient to support the weight of the iceberg above, which led to the ice sheet breaking apart.

Zhang Fan parked the Beetle and walked on foot towards the edge of the ice.

He is currently on a peninsula-shaped ice floe, surrounded by water on three sides, with only one side still connected to the original ice cap.

Zhang Fan stopped at the edge of the area. In front of him was a vertical ice cliff more than ten meters high, with dark blue icy water flowing below it.

The water was as calm as a mirror at that moment; gazing at it gave one the urge to jump in.

When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

People often say that the sea is vast and boundless, but at this moment Zhang Fan felt that the abyss in front of him was a dark and enclosed space. He couldn't help but imagine that he was trapped in it, and he always felt that some unknown creature in the deep water would suddenly swim up and swallow him.

Zhang Fan comforted himself with these words: This is Mars, not Earth. There's no need to worry about a giant creature suddenly swimming up from the deep sea.

You're just scaring yourself. What a coward, hahaha.

As Zhang Fan was thinking this, a long, spindle-shaped black shadow swam across the seawater beneath the ice.

? ? ?

Zhang Fan froze on the spot.

No, I must have seen it wrong!

Impossible, impossible, impossible!

Zhang Fan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again.

In the "moonlight," a huge spindle-shaped black shadow leaps out of the water, spraying water mist into the sky.

The shadowy figure leaped halfway out of the water before falling back down, creating another splash.

Water splashed down, and a black spine emerged from the water.

Holy crap!

Zhang Fan stumbled back a few steps and fell onto the ice, completely terrified.

no.

Impossible, impossible, impossible!

Zhang Fan closed his eyes again, took a deep breath, and opened his eyes; the black back was still there.

Close your eyes, inhale, open your eyes, and it's still there!

Zhang Fan's legs were trembling, and he grabbed a piece of ice from the side and threw it over.

Clang—

The ice cubes smashed against the black spine and shattered.

Hmm? Judging from that sound, it's not a whale?

Zhang Fan stood up and noticed that the black back had been floating there motionless.

Zhang Fan ran back to the "Beetle," grabbed a spotlight, and shone it forward—

This is a piece of magma that cooled after volcanic magma erupted. Because the magma was filled with gases such as sulfur dioxide during the eruption, the inside of the magma was filled with various pores, which increased the buoyancy and caused some of the magma to float to the surface of the water.

The water mist that was just sprayed was actually the release of gas trapped inside the magma rock.

As the internal gases were released, the "black back" sank back into the water.

I was terrified.

Zhang Fan let out a soft breath, which meant that the breach in the magma chamber was not far away.

Zhang Fan took out a map, compared it with the markings, and continued driving the Beetle forward.

After driving about 40 kilometers, Zhang Fan stopped the car and looked at the map again.

This is the place.

Zhang Fan got off the "Beetle" and stomped on the ice a few times. The ice was solid and looked no different from the surrounding area.

But Zhang Fan knew that there was a breach below that was spewing out magma, and that was precisely the purpose of his trip.

After determining the location, Zhang Fan drove the Beetle directly towards the nearest iceberg.

As the titanium alloy drill bit turned, the "Beetle" burrowed headfirst into the iceberg like a dung beetle, leaving behind a five- or six-meter-deep ice hole when it came out.

Zhang Fan got out of the car, put the anchor from the "Beetle" steel cable into it, then pushed the ice hole down, poured ice water on it, and let it freeze again.

This process was repeated three times, with one end of the steel cable anchored to the iceberg like a claw, and the other end connected to the body of the "Beetle".

Everything is ready.

Zhang Fan adjusted the "Beetle" to drilling mode, lowered the front wheels, raised the hydraulic rods of the rear wheels, started the drill bit, and ice chips flew everywhere.

The "beetle" burrowed into the ice at a 45-degree angle.

The tranquil water surface rippled slightly because of the beetle's beating.

The holographic rearview mirror on the "Beetle" clearly shows the ice chips, shattered by the titanium alloy drill bit, churning and rapidly closing up in the rear tunnel as the "Beetle" descends.

The mixture of ice and water filled the space through which the "beetle" passed.

Zhang Fan now understands why Liao Changtian required him to come up within 10 minutes, regardless of whether the mission was successful or not.

Because the mixture of ice and water in the tunnel above will quickly freeze back into ice.

After the "Beetle" had advanced more than 300 meters, the drill bit suddenly started spinning freely, and the steel cable behind it tightened instantly.

The "Beetle" broke through the ice cap and reached below the ice layer.

Before me lay a magnificent and dreamlike scene.

Beneath the vast ice sheet lies a deep blue expanse, pure and unblemished, much like the underwater world of Antarctica on Earth, where countless "whales" swim and blow bubbles.

Zhang Fan now knows that these bubbling "whales" are actually magma rocks that have cooled and are suspended in the air.

Zhang Fan activated the underwater mode of the "Beetle," and the external propellers rotated, propelling the "Beetle to swim in the water."

Zhang Fan turned on the thermal imager and began searching for the hole in the "wall" of the magma chamber.

The target was easy to find; the gushing magma from underground looked like a rose stuck in the water on the thermal imager.

With all the steel cables at the rear deployed, the "Beetle" could no longer descend.

Zhang Fan adjusted the Beetle's underwater posture, locked the sights in the cockpit onto the base of the Rose, and then pressed the button.

bomb.

The "depth charge" detached from the beetle's abdominal cavity and sank to the bottom of the water under its own weight.

boom--

The depth charge struck the rocks and detonated automatically. The surrounding seawater froze into ice, carrying the rocks with it as it floated upwards.

Zhang Fan was dumbfounded; the "depth charge" had hit a "whale" swimming in the water.

Damn it, I actually overlooked this influencing factor.

For the second bombing, Zhang Fan aimed at the target and, after confirming that the surrounding "whales" had all swum away, pressed the button.

The depth charge sank into the dark, deep waters.

boom--

Through thermal imaging, one can see that the "depth charge" exploded at the entrance of the magma chamber, and the surrounding seawater instantly froze into ice.

Just as Zhang Fan was about to cheer, he saw the frozen ice being slowly pushed away by the lava, and finally floating upwards.

Damn it!

With only one "depth charge" left, Zhang Fan checked the time and realized 10 minutes had passed. He quickly turned the "Beetle" around, tightened the steel cable, and swam back towards the tunnel they had come from.

Some of the ice in the tunnel had already solidified, so the titanium alloy drill bit cut through the still-unsolidified ice and quickly climbed upwards.

Just as he was about to climb onto the ice, Zhang Fan was startled by what he saw: a "whale" was stuck in front of the tunnel, unable to move.

I don't know how this piece of lava rock ended up floating into the tunnel when it was rising.

Zhang Fan couldn't care less about anything else. There were still more than ten meters of ice left, so he directly turned on the titanium alloy drill bit at maximum power and drilled towards the magma rock.

Rocks were flying everywhere, and the drill was only one or two meters away from breaking through the ice.

Click, click, click... snap, snap, snap...

The titanium alloy drill bit slowly came to a stop.

No way?

Zhang Fan was going crazy. He immediately checked the drill bit. The "Beetle" system showed that the titanium alloy drill bit was stuck because broken magma rocks had been mixed into its side.

The "beetle" is below the ice layer.

Unable to move.