Midday, 12:00 sharp.

A while sounded rapidly nearby and the Commander of the Chinese garrison, Gao Hongxing, walked from the distance. After he came to the front of five people, he said with a serious face, "The teams from other countries have begun to a.s.semble. The destination is the East coast and a submarine is already waiting there."

"Which country's submarine does it belong to, Commander Gao?" asked Zhu Long.

"The United States, but there are a lot of soldiers from various countries inside," said Gao Hongxing. "So, it's impossible even if the American people want to scheme something inside the submarine."

"Sufficient interests will make people lose their reason, regardless." Zhu Long slowly nodded. "Not to mention that the things inside the three-star vestige are enough to drive many people crazy. Commander Gao, please keep in touch with our own side and do pay attention to safety."

"Our country's wars.h.i.+ps are already being mobilized 150 nautical miles away in this water. Many submarines lurking in the depths of the seabed somewhere else too." Gao Hongxin grinned. "The Southern Army is also conducting maritime military exercises over yonder in the South China Sea, so no one will dare to act rashly unless they are out of their minds. But your warning is noted seriously, regardless."

The distance to the destination was a dozen kilometer and Tang Xiu's group of five was escorted by a squad of soldiers and quickly arrived there. As they came to the coastline, Tang Xiu finally saw exploration teams of other countries.

"Hmm?"

Tang Xiu's gaze swept over the five members of the j.a.pan team and was quite surprised. Little did he think that he saw two acquaintances among the five members. He was just a bit surprised when he saw Kuwako Yamamoto, but seeing Cheng Xuemei among them was rather beyond his antic.i.p.ation.

At this time, Kuwako and Cheng Xuemei also saw Tang Xiu. The former acted normal since she couldn't expose that she had a relations.h.i.+p with Tang Xiu and just made an indistinct, faint respectful gesture, whereas the latter quickly lowered her head and looked fl.u.s.tered.

Tang Xiu only knew that Cheng Xuemei had been missing six months ago, causing her sister Cheng Yannan to get bullied at home. Originally, he was absolutely sure that she was not in danger but was currently carrying out a mission in secret, so seeing her now finally confirmed his conjectures.

Retracting his gaze back without greeting them, Tang Xiu then followed Zhu Long's group of four. He saw Gao Hongxing conversing with several foreign men and the team of five stood near the various teams of other countries.

"READY TO EMBARK!"

Right at 12:00 sharp, a stocky Caucasian man shouted loudly.

Immediately, 50 people from 10 countries queued up to board the submarine and entered the interior of the submarine under the guidance of its crew.

Half an hour later, the submarine stopped somewhere on the seabed. As the exit docks connected with the entrance to the vestige, 50 people from 10 countries eventually followed the docking pa.s.sage and entered the vestige.

"What a spectacular and amazing sight. We should be hundreds of meters in the depth of the sea now, right? But I didn't expect to not feel even the slightest pressure. There must anti-gravity devices somewhere inside if my guess is correct," sighed Firedevil, who still carried his birdcage in his hand and military bag on his back.

Tang Xiu nodded lightly and walked through the pa.s.sage. He could see a small city in front of him consisting of buildings of different shapes, ranging from 100-meters at the highest to dozens of meters at the lowest, all of which were planned perfectly. However, there seemed to ripples in the air and the buildings looked vague and unreal.

"It's a hologram, holographic simulation technology," said Zhu Long lightly while squinting at Tang Xiu's face.

Tang Xiu looked dull for a moment and instantly released his perception. After detecting the situation in the front, he found that the scene was truly a virtual hologram. Behind it was pa.s.sageways that extended to far away parts in all directions and it was unknown where they ended.

"Don't delay, let's go ahead!"

Zhu Long immediately ordered in a deep voice when the team of five pa.s.sed through the turbulent air fluctuations and stood in front of the dozens of pa.s.sages. They found that other countries' teams had already picked a pa.s.sage and quickly disappeared into the channel.

"Which pa.s.sage will we take, Zhu Long Capt?" asked Firedevil.

"Find the entrance marked with '3'," answered Zhu Long. "We'll trace back the steps that our country's previous team had taken, so we can correctly follow the route on the map."

"There!" Tang Xiu pointed to a channel on the left side and walked over.

Zhu Long was stunned and an angry look appeared on his face. He hesitated for a moment before he followed. When the five people came to the mouth of the pa.s.sage, they found a '3' mark on one side of the steel wall.

"How did you know it was here?" asked Zhu Long, a glimmer flas.h.i.+ng in his fixed eyes that were focused on Tang Xiu.

Tang Xiu couldn't tell Zhu Long that he had observed the situation with his spiritual sense, so he made up some lies, "Back when I met Senior Duanmu, he already told me about it. I calculated a while ago that it must be here. And by the way, one of my special abilities is that I have a very strong perception."

The power of perception?

Zhu Long was startled and instantly understood why Tang Xiu could get the quota to explore the three-star vestige given his superhuman perception power. With this ability, he would be of great help when they encountered danger; they could even gain some advantages when exploring the vestige.

The pa.s.sage was hundreds of meters long. After the team of five pa.s.sed through it, they saw a s.p.a.cious area covered by a steel wall. Just like the steel s.p.a.ce on foreign sci-fi movies, this one was also filled with a lot of high-tech products, multicolored indicator lights, various unknown symbols, and some 3D holographic pictures.

There were various steel buildings inside the steel area, with each door connecting to the paths that connected to the road, though the doors of those building were tightly shut.

"We'll come across two robots 50 meters ahead—they are AI robots and extremely hostile. The man who escaped alive from here said that those two robots shot and killed nearly half of them when they entered."

Zhu Long's brows were tightly locked and his vision swept over the two robots while he racked up his brain in order to pa.s.s through this hurdle with ease. They must go through this path if they wanted to advance deeper.

"I got an idea but I dunno if it's feasible," interjected Tang Xiu.

"You do? Tell me!" Zhu Long knitted his brows.

"Such a type of robot should have a set algorithm. Even if they are said to be intelligent robots, they can lose their mobility if their internal structures are destroyed. Aquababe's power should be control over water, right? Just inundate these two robots with water while Electrolady releases her lightning to destroy them. It should be able to create problems with the robots' interiors."

Water and electricity?

Zhu Long's eyes lit up and he immediately facepalmed his own forehead and praised, "You're so d.a.m.n right! Water can conduct electricity. When water breaches into the robots' interior, the current can cause damage to the robots' interior even if they are waterproof. Aquababe, Electrolady, try it you two!"

Aquababe paced forward a few steps, drawing a circle in the air with her arms. The water element in the air continuously agglomerated together and then formed circular water-grinding discs in a short time that hovered in her arms. Her hands waved as the water mill discs turned into two water dragons and hurled towards the two robots standing beside the wall.

"Intruders found. No trace of friendly signature. Hostiles detected. Shoot."

Two sounds were heard from the two robots' mouths at the same time. As they moved, two laser pulses initiated through their configured weapons and instantly shot forward through the two water dragons.

The water dragons weren't affected much and directly hit the two robots, pus.h.i.+ng them backward for several steps. The water shape then dispersed and the robots were drenched.

A cold glimmer flashed in Electrolady's eyes as sparks of electricity formed between her fingers, then constantly blitzing forward to shoot at the two robots. The moment the current hit the robots, sparks splashed in all directions, whereas the robots that fired laser pulses suddenly emitted loud sounds along with black smoke that came out of them.

"Done."

Finally, the two robots fell to the floor and their AI was also shut down. There was a look of satisfaction on Zhu Long's face as he turned to look at Tang Xiu and said, "You're… not bad. At least you got a brain!"

Tang Xiu's cheek turned red. He couldn't truly accept the praise from Zhu Long.

A brilliant glimmer flashed in Aquababe's eyes as she said softly, "Water in conjunction with electricity can indeed cause special effects, that's a common fact and a very simple principle that many people have comprehended, but somehow we missed them. You're amazing Tang Xiu. I believe our team can obtain quite a good harvest with you always in the team."

Firedevil, however, interjected without being salty nor light, "Don't talk that much, Aquababe. Besides, the different individual has different aspirations. We have no rights to meddle in anyone's intention to stay or leave the team either."

Aquababe discontentedly glared at him, lowered her head and no longer spoke.

The team of five kept advancing forward. When they came closer to the door of the first building, Zhu Long spoke, "There's nothing special in the 16 rooms on both sides in front of us, so we need to start searching from room 17. If not, we'll go through a large number of steel statuaries in front and head straight to the interior area past that door."

"Wait."

Tang Xiu strode toward the two robots, pulling out the Mitsubis.h.i.+ army knife and began dissecting the robots. Quickly, he took out two glimmering crystal cores from the two robots. He threw one of them to Zhu Long and took one for himself, and then said, "This stuff must have great research value. If the scientists of our country can fully figure out this type of energy stone, the level of technological achievement of the country will qualitatively leap forward in the future."

Having said that, he hesitated for a while before he took out a cigarette and ignited it. After two puffs in and out, he continued, "I think the internal boards of these two robots, as well as their energy circuitries, are necessary things to research. It's best to disa.s.semble one to bring back with you when you leave this place."

"Makes sense!"

Even though Zhu Long was rather dissatisfied with Tang Xiu, his dissatisfaction was getting lesser and lesser at this time.