The submersible has crossed the "bottom" of the city-state. The boundless dark water has replaced the previous vertical and rough "cliff". The light beam shot out by the high-power searchlight extends infinitely in the sea water, and nothing can be seen within the range of the light beam.
Only occasionally were there some tiny flashes in the beam of light, which were floating bubbles or some "debris" that had fallen from the upper layer and reflected the light in the water.
Duncan turned a crank on the control panel, and the sound of water filling from the ballast tank turned into a low roar. He slowed down the submersible's sinking speed and carefully controlled it to tilt upward at an angle.
After crossing the border, he would "look back" and look up to observe what the base of the city-state looked like.
The beam of light slowly swept through the darkness, and something so huge that it was suffocating emerged from the boundless water. An indescribable feeling of oppression came over them along with the inverted "rock formation" - even if there was no mental pollution caused by any extraordinary factors, this scene was enough to make most ordinary people feel the psychological pressure, or even mental trauma.
The "base" of the Frost City-State appeared outside the porthole, like the earth hanging upside down. Under the overwhelming crushing perspective, countless rugged structures could be seen, like clusters of stalagmites and forests of spires. Among the large number of raised structures of varying heights, dozens or hundreds of meters in height, there were also things like some kind of adhesion lying between the "stalagmites".
However, amidst the shock and oppression, what arose in Duncan's heart was an irrepressible curiosity - he carefully operated this simple diving machine and headed towards the rugged and strange inverted "jungle".
At the same time, on the Lost Homeland, Duncan had arrived in front of the captain's room and reached out to push open the "Lost Homeland's Door".
Zhou Ming walked into his bachelor apartment and was not surprised to see his new collection, a delicate "model" of the Frost City-State, which was already fully formed and glowing faintly on the table.
He walked to the table, held up the lifelike city-state model in both hands, carefully observed every detail of it, then turned it over to check its bottom structure.
Those dense and complex protrusions looked like some kind of degenerated and chaotically arranged... tentacles, or to be more bold, like some kind of limbs.
Compared to simply using fire to sense the underlying structure of the city-state, this "deep dive" brought Zhou Ming more details.
He slowly closed his eyes, feeling the information coming from another world, feeling the vibration of the submersible, and the magnificent and shocking "scenery" slowly moving outside the submersible's porthole.
This inconspicuous steel device was passing through two "stalagmites" that were estimated to be one or two hundred meters long. The beam of light from the searchlight swept across the rugged and protruding structures in the distance, allowing Duncan to find a safer path to pass through.
This was a scene that had never been mentioned in the materials of the Abyss Project - neither the information provided by Tirian nor the files left by the City Hall mentioned the situation of a submersible passing through the "inverted jungle" at the base of the city-state.
Perhaps, the pioneers at that time focused all their attention on the deep sea and did not do such unnecessary things. Perhaps, this hideous and terrifying thing hanging upside down seemed too dangerous in the darkness, so that the several submersibles at that time did not choose to go deep rashly. Or perhaps...
Some had done this before, but none had ever been able to bring the truth of what they saw above the surface of the sea.
The searchlight beam swept across another area in the darkness.
Something appeared in Duncan's field of vision.
The next second, he suddenly pulled a lever on the control panel. The impact of the sudden reversal of the propeller even caused a creaking noise from inside the submersible. The fragile steel shell vibrated in the deep water, accompanied by the terrible sound of the mechanical structure bearing the load. It finally hovered in a position where it was almost about to hit a nearby "stalagmite".
"What happened?" Agatha asked hurriedly.
She raised her head and looked towards the porthole, but she only saw many upside-down dim lights outside, and among the dim lights there was a larger light body with a hazy and blurred glow, and it was impossible to make out the details inside it.
Duncan did not respond for a moment. He just stared out the window, at the person who had just emerged from the darkness...
Huge, pale eyes.
An eye, a wide-open eye, is located among those black protruding structures that look like tentacles. Its diameter may reach 100 meters, so that the small submersible looks like an inconspicuous stone in front of it.
This eye is lifeless, as if it had died thousands of years ago, or even earlier. It is pale and empty and embedded in the bottom of the city-state, hanging upside down outside the porthole, as if it is still calmly gazing at the endlessly deep dark seabed below while dying. The submersible is now suspended in front of its dead pupil, accepting this gaze of eternal decay.
"It's an eye." Duncan finally broke the silence and said softly.
He turned his head again and looked in the other direction through the porthole on the other side.
The residual light of the searchlight illuminated the surroundings, and he could see the black "stalagmites" hanging upside down in the sea. Now, he could finally be sure - these things were really limbs.
It is a tentacle that has mutated, degenerated and lost its vitality.
These tentacles hang down in the water like withered vines hanging from the ceiling of a cave.
Agatha tightly grasped the handrail. Even though her heart had stopped beating, she still felt as if something was about to burst out of her chest. When she realized what she had heard and the true face of the glimmer in front of her, she even felt suffocated for the first time in a long time: "You...you mean..."
"The city-state was built on some giant creature," Duncan said slowly. He was also shocked by the scene before his eyes, but he still tried to calm down and organize his thoughts. "At least... there are still some characteristics of the creature left."
Agatha was unable to speak for a long time. After a long time, she finally sorted out the words in extreme shock and confusion: "Is it... dead?"
She unconsciously lowered her voice, as if she was afraid that speaking too loudly would wake up that unimaginable and incomprehensible "creature".
"It should be dead," Duncan said, while carefully maneuvering the submersible, slowly moving away from the huge pale eye. His movements were very careful. Although he was almost certain that the huge creature was dead, he still had some horrifying associations, as if the eye would suddenly turn around if the submersible moved too much. "And in theory, it shouldn't look like this. It doesn't conform to biological laws... It looks more like a twisted corpse, or something built with a corpse as raw material..."
Agatha did not speak, for she did not know whether she should marvel at the fact that Captain Duncan could analyze the situation calmly under such circumstances, or whether she should marvel at the necessity for a creature that could carry a city-state on its back to "comply with biological laws" - great confusion and astonishment filled her heart, so much so that she could not think about these issues as usual.
The worldview that has been established for a long time is being tested.
The true appearance below the city-state was so horrifying and weird. The only safe shelter for mortals in the boundless ocean was built on indescribable creatures. Under every person's feet, at the bottom of rocks and soil thousands of meters deep, withered tentacles hung down into the deep sea, and pale eyes overlooked the abyss, and everyone knew nothing about it.
After being in a daze for an unknown period of time, Agatha finally woke up. She turned to Duncan and said hesitantly: "Is it only Frost that is like this?"
She didn't know why she asked Captain Duncan this question, and she didn't even think about what answer she would get - it was just that the huge chaos was urging her to speak, even if the question was destined to have no conclusion.
But the captain answered.
"Perhaps all city-states are like this," Duncan said slowly, recalling his initial "perception" of the bottom of Plande. From another perspective, he was also examining the "collections" on the shelf of his bachelor apartment. "There is also a similar structure under Plande City-State—but there are no eyes, and there are only a bunch of deformed and swollen masses in the corresponding position."
Agatha spoke subconsciously in astonishment: "Have you ever dived under Plander?"
Duncan shook his head: "No, this is my first time diving into the deep sea, but I have other means to roughly sense the appearance of the city-state below."
As he spoke, he raised his head and looked out the porthole at the "jungle" hanging upside down in the darkness.
Rough perception has its limits. If he hadn't come down to see it in person, he would probably never have imagined that those rugged and strange structures under the city-state... were actually indescribable corpses.
The huge pale eyeball was slowly moving away from the field of vision, and the beam of light from the searchlight was sweeping across the tentacles around it. However, even though the eye gradually disappeared into the darkness, a feeling of being watched for a long time still lingered in the mind, as if countless invisible tentacles were wrapping around the hull of the submersible from all directions.
Even the operation of the steam core seemed to become heavy and slow.
But these were all illusions - the submersible continued to move smoothly away from the "forest" and the eye, without encountering any substantial hindrance.
"We have to continue diving," Duncan turned around and said to Agatha, "The truth about the city-state's 'base' is just the beginning. We are stepping into the blind spot of the civilized world. Anything is possible next - do you still have the courage?"
Agatha also turned her head, and through the black curtain, she met Duncan's gaze calmly.
"I'm ready," the city-state guardian said in a calm tone, "Let's continue diving."