Chapter 308 First Stop: Mariana Trench
Zhou Jue's gaze slowly moved across the tablet.
Three hundred and twenty-seven points of light, like stars, are scattered across this blue planet.
Her fingertips traced across the Asian continent, crossed the Himalayas, and skimmed over the vast Pacific Ocean.
Finally, her finger stopped at a deep, dark blue area on the map.
Mariana Trench.
"Here." Zhou Jue's voice was very soft.
Sun Jiuchou leaned over and glanced at it: "Challenger Abyss, the deepest part of Earth."
"It's the point closest to us, and also the one with the most unique energy reaction," Zhou Jue explained succinctly.
She withdrew her hand and looked at Sun Jiuchou.
How do we get there?
"Teleport, or shall we fly there ourselves?"
Sun Jiuchou laughed: "We don't have much time."
"With over three hundred targets, if we flew to each one one by one, by the time we returned, Cheng Gan's child would probably be old enough to run errands."
"Let's use teleportation instead; it's faster and more efficient."
"Alright! Brother Tong, simulate teleportation, coordinate lock, Mariana Trench, Challenger Abyss."
[Received! Host, please prepare.]
Zhou Jue and Sun Jiuchou stood together, preparing for their time travel.
[Teleportation initiated!]
The next second, the surrounding air instantly distorted.
The valley, the trees, the sky—everything was like paint thrown into water, spinning rapidly, blurring, and stretching.
When everything around them became clear again, they were no longer in the valley.
The two stopped above the Mariana Trench. The system simply threw them into the air. Zhou Jue watched helplessly as Sun Jiuchou plummeted downwards. Without thinking, she used her spiritual power to fly towards Sun Jiuchou and grabbed him, preventing him from falling.
She frowned. Sun Jiuchou was acting too much like a normal person. Logically speaking, there were no outsiders here, so was there any need for him to pretend?
Sun Jiuchou breathed a sigh of relief and, with Zhou Jue's help, tidied his hair.
"Xiao Jue, luckily you reacted quickly, otherwise I would have fallen. Sigh, I'll have to train harder when I get back and try to reach the Foundation Establishment stage as soon as possible," Sun Jiuchou said with lingering fear.
"Mm," Zhou Jue responded.
"Get ready, I'm going to launch the submersible." After Zhou Jue finished speaking, he released a small submersible from his spatial storage. After it was placed, the two of them entered the submersible.
Before me was a small space filled with a sense of technology.
Through the super-strong porthole at the front of the submersible, all you can see is an endless ocean.
"Xiao Jue, get ready to dive." Sun Jiuchou called out to Zhou Jue from the control panel.
On the instrument panel inside the deep-sea submersible, rows of data are constantly being updated.
Depth: -10984 meters
Water pressure: 110MPa
[Outside temperature: 1.8℃]
"Welcome to the end of the world," Sun Jiuchou's voice echoed in the quiet cockpit.
He was sitting in the driver's seat, his hands flying across the control panel.
"This 'Abyss' is the military's most advanced individual deep-sea submersible, with a pressure resistance limit of 13,000 meters, which is sufficient for us to conduct exploration here."
Zhou Jue's gaze remained fixed on the ocean outside the porthole.
“You seem very familiar with everything here,” she suddenly said.
Sun Jiuchou paused for a moment, turned his head to look at Zhou Jue, and still had that calm and unhurried smile on his face.
"Before coming here, I read through all the information on the 327 target points, as well as the instruction manuals for all the vehicles we might use."
"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated, right?"
Zhou Jue looked at him silently.
Those clear, cold eyes seemed to be able to see right through people's hearts.
Sun Jiuche's smile remained unchanged, but something settled deep within his eyes.
You're doubting me.
He used a declarative sentence, not a question.
Zhou Jue did not deny it; she simply asked, "Should I believe you?"
Upon hearing this, Sun Jiuchou suddenly laughed, a laugh tinged with helplessness.
"We can be considered as partners who fight side by side."
"I thought that you agreed to let me go on the mission with you because you trusted me."
He turned around and faced the console again.
"Xiao Jue, you only need to remember one thing."
"I am not your enemy."
"At least, not now."
The atmosphere inside the submersible became somewhat subtle because of these few words of conversation.
Zhou Jue didn't ask any further questions. She walked to the passenger seat and sat down, turning her gaze to the energy detector on the main screen.
On the screen, the red dot representing the energy source is flashing regularly.
“The energy fluctuations are very stable,” Zhou Jue said, breaking the silence.
“Yes, the frequency is the same as what we detected remotely from the ground; there are no anomalies,” Sun Jiuchou replied.
His finger swiped across another screen, bringing up a more detailed data stream.
“From the data model perspective, this energy source is more like a… dormant heart.”
"It contracts and relaxes rhythmically, releasing a faint but steady spiritual energy with each pulsation."
Zhou Jue's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
A heart? In the deep sea, thousands of meters below the surface? Is there a heart that can still beat?
Can you pinpoint the exact location?
“Okay.” Sun Jiuchou quickly circled a range on the screen with his finger.
"It's on the seabed about 300 meters below us."
"The 'Abyss' probes have locked onto the target and are conducting a deeper structural scan."
"Soon, we'll see what it actually is."
Both of them fell silent, their eyes fixed on the screen.
Time passed by, second by second.
The progress bar for the structural scan is slowly moving forward.
10%...
30%...
50%...
Just as the progress bar was about to reach 70%, the energy detector on the main screen suddenly emitted a rapid alarm.
The red dot, which had been blinking steadily, began to jump violently.
The data stream on the screen refreshed wildly, like a waterfall.
"What happened?" Zhou Jue's voice turned somber.
Sun Jiuchou's expression turned serious. His hands moved across the control panel, leaving afterimages as he tried to stabilize the out-of-control data flow.
"The energy readings are soaring!"
"The fluctuation frequency... has changed!"
"wrong!"
Sun Jiuchou suddenly raised his head, his gaze piercing through the porthole, looking into the endless darkness, as if he saw something.
He turned to look at Zhou Jue, his smile vanishing completely, replaced by an expression that was a mixture of excitement and danger.
"It seems we've come at the wrong time."
Zhou Jue looked at him.
"Or rather..."
Sun Jiuchou's voice rang out clearly in the small space.
“We have arrived at the perfect time.”
"It's awake."
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