In the underground of Nangang, the submersible control hall is brightly lit.

The light from gas lamps and electric lights made the entire hall as bright as day. The huge egg-shaped diving equipment was suspended by steel cables on the top of the slide leading to the sea. The undead engineers were busy everywhere, doing the final stages of inspection and adjustments for the submersible to enter the water.

Next to the steel platform that fixed the submersible, Duncan was sitting in a chair, watching everything calmly, waiting for Tirian's men to get everything ready.

Those undead people whose appearances were strange, ugly, and even terrifying seemed to be very enthusiastic, even with a hint of joy and excitement.

A bald man with a nervous look on his face came over from not far away and bent down in front of Duncan nervously: "Um... Old Captain, nice to meet you..."

Duncan looked up at the sturdy man wearing a sailor's shirt, with a shiny head and skin as pale as death. He compared the information he had learned before and nodded slightly: "You are Aiden, and you have been following Tirian since the Lost Homeland Fleet."

"It's me," Aiden grinned, "Do you remember me?"

"I don't remember," Duncan shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't remember most of the things. The warp damaged my memory. I heard about you and the other 'first-term sailors' of the Sea Mist Fleet from other people."

"Don't apologize, don't apologize," Aiden suddenly looked even more uneasy, shaking his head and saying, "I'm glad you... can come back. Everyone misses you."

“You must be very scared, right?” Duncan smiled and glanced around the hall. Many eyes unconsciously dodged in fear as he scanned the room. “Fortunately, I am only using an avatar now. If the real body came here, I am afraid that most of the sailors would not be able to work in peace.”

"More than half of the people here are from the 'second phase'. They are indeed afraid of you," Aiden scratched the buttons of his shirt awkwardly, "After all, this is their first contact with you..."

"I know about the Frost Encounter half a century ago." Duncan exhaled lightly and said casually, and as he finished speaking, Tirian walked over quickly.

"The submersible is ready, father."

"Oh, it looks like it's time to set off."

Duncan smiled immediately. He stood up from his chair and walked with Tirian to the platform used to fix the submersible. The diving equipment that embodied the wisdom and hard work of countless people was already waiting quietly.

The circular hatch on its side had been opened, and opposite the thick watertight compartment, the lights illuminated the structure inside the sphere. The inside did not look spacious. Apart from many dazzling pipes, valves and control panels, the space for people to move around seemed to be able to accommodate three or four people at most.

Duncan observed the situation of the submersible and took a step forward.

But the next second he suddenly stopped and looked in a certain direction as if he sensed something.

A swirling gray wind suddenly swept into the hall, and quickly circled to the submersible platform, condensing and forming in front of Duncan, Tirian and others.

Agatha stepped out from the gray wind—still dressed as a blind nun in a black dress with long hair.

"I want to go with you."

She didn't waste any words and spoke directly after coming in front of Duncan.

"You want to dive too?" Duncan looked at Agatha in surprise. "Why?"

"Because I want to 'see' with my own eyes what is under the frost," Agatha said calmly and firmly, "As the protector of this city, I cannot stay in the safe cathedral and wait for your results, and..."

She suddenly stopped, and after a few seconds of silence, she raised her head and "looked" into Duncan's eyes through the thick black cloth.

"Besides, this is the city of the Frost people. It's the Frost people's business. There must be at least one Frost person in the submersible we built. Let me go down and take a look on behalf of Governor Winston and all the previous governors of the Frost people."

"It's a reasonable reason, and you should already know the risks of doing this. Since you are aware of it, I won't persuade you any further." Duncan nodded, then turned and looked at Tirian.

The latter reacted quickly and said, "The submersible is designed to accommodate up to four people. Of course, there is no problem with two people going in, but..."

"It's okay, I don't need to breathe either." Agatha spoke softly, interrupting Tirian.

Tirian was stunned for a moment and stepped back: "Okay, then there will be no problem."

Duncan laughed. He walked to the hatch of the submersible, turned around and held out his hand to Agatha. "Very good, let's go."

He and Agatha got into the submersible, and the heavy round hatch slowly closed.

Two strong undead sailors walked onto the platform and tightened the hatch's locking mechanism from the outside.

Heavy steel separates the inside and outside of the submersible. The narrow crew cabin becomes quiet, with only the occasional humming sound from certain machines and pipes being heard.

There was no place to sit in the crew cabin, so Duncan and Agatha stood in front of the control panel, holding the iron pipes on both sides that served as guardrails. Through the extremely thick and sturdy glass portholes embedded in the adjacent bulkhead, they could see the undead sailors around the platform loosening the steel cables used to secure the submersible and releasing the safety pins on both sides of the steel frame.

Tirian's voice came from a small device in the corner of the submersible's console: "Father, Lady Agatha, can you hear me?"

Duncan came to the console: "Okay, very clear."

"Okay. I won't go into details about the submersible's controls. Its functions are actually very simple, and you shouldn't make any mistakes. Now I'll tell you what happens after you enter the water.

"The submersible is powered by a small steam core and a generator connected to the steam core. Theoretically, it is enough to complete all deep-diving missions. However, if there is a problem with the steam core or the generator, there are two batteries in the bottom of the cabin that can allow the submersible to continue operating for about two hours...

"There are three sets of high-power searchlights for external lighting, but they are limited in effect in deep-sea environments, so please be careful when operating them. In addition, the resistance on the seabed is very large, and the power of the propulsion system can only allow the submersible to move slowly, which also requires attention...

“The communication device on the submersible has an effective range of only three hundred meters, so after the depth exceeds three hundred meters, we will no longer be able to communicate like this, but your power or Ms. Agatha’s psychic resonance should not be affected.

"Also... although I may be worrying too much, even you should pay attention to the dangers in the deep sea - if you encounter something wrong, please surface immediately. The lever on the upper left corner of the console is for emergency surfacing. Pulling it will directly discard the ballast structure at the bottom of the submersible and open the buoyancy balls on both sides of the hull... In the worst case, abandon the submersible. With your strength, you can directly teleport back with Ms. Agatha. The machine can be rebuilt..."

Duncan listened carefully to Tirian's reminders.

To be honest, this "former great pirate of the Cold Sea" was indeed a bit long-winded, and many of his instructions seemed unnecessary to Duncan.

But Duncan still listened to every word of Tirian patiently. He didn't say anything until the other party finished speaking. Then he said in a deep voice: "I understand. Let's start."

Outside the submersible, at the command seat at the end of the hall, Tirian took a deep breath and then nodded to his subordinates beside him.

"Open the sea valve!"

"Water filling the channel!"

"Disconnect the submersible's external cable and prepare to release the hook!"

The low roar penetrated the steel shell of the submersible and echoed faintly in the spherical cabin. Slight vibrations came from under the feet, accompanied by a creaking sound from the outside of the hull.

The sea valve was opened. In the passage below the facility that led directly to the sea, sea water was rising rapidly and gradually reaching the predetermined water level. The last two steel cables above the submersible began to squeak and were released downwards little by little.

Duncan and Agatha first felt a shake, and then sank - after a brief period of weightlessness, the submersible entered the water, and they began to sink along the inclined corridor, and guided by a series of slides, they moved rapidly towards an outlet to the sea on the outer edge of South Port.

Outside the porthole, the sea water surged up and then gradually fell into darkness. Only occasional flashes of light could be seen in the darkness. The lights flashed faster and faster, and the vibrations of the submersible became stronger and stronger - and finally, all the vibrations calmed down.

Outside the porthole, there was only an endless deep blue that was gradually fading.

The sun shines through the sea water above, casting a series of constantly moving, bright and dark light beams outside the window. In the gradually darkening sea water, bubbles rise from the outside of the hull, accompanied by the reflection of the afterglow of the sun, like some kind of sea creature surrounded by psychedelic colors.

Agatha seemed to be attracted by the "scenery" outside the porthole.

She slowly left the control room and walked to the porthole holding the handrail. She moved closer curiously, and through the thick black cloth, her empty eyes "stared" at the deep blue that was rapidly sinking into darkness.

“What can you see?”

Duncan turned around and asked casually while getting familiar with the not-too-complicated levers and buttons on the console.

"Lights, all kinds of tiny lights," Agatha whispered, as if she was talking to herself or was intoxicated by a trance. "They flow like rivers, forming a huge, complex but orderly circulation... But in fact, it's dark outside now, right?"

"There's still some sunlight left, but it will be completely dark soon," Duncan said, maneuvering the submersible to slowly turn an angle. "What about now?"

"An extremely huge 'light curtain', faint, but filled my entire field of vision," Agatha said, with a tone of shock in her voice, "What is that?"

"It's frost," Duncan said calmly. He looked through the porthole. Under the increasingly weak sunlight and the high-power searchlight of the submersible, an extremely broad, rough and mottled "cliff" was standing quietly in the sea. "It's the 'foundation' of the city-state."