Absolute Gate

Chapter 79 Underwater Mass Burial Ground

Onion glanced at his watch and said urgently, "My brother's multifaceted moments are numbered."

"Since both the red and blue ropes are pointing downwards, let's go down too."

Wu nodded: "Okay, but don't rush, we can't be separated again."

"Ah."

The two tied the rope they brought to the loops around their waists, connected it to the red guide rope, and slid down to ensure they wouldn't get lost.

Seventy meters... eighty meters... ninety meters... They entered the abyss, and the surrounding scenery, under the headlamps, was both monotonous and utterly different.

The sedimentary marks on the rock face began to take on bizarre shapes, like distorted human faces or arms screaming silently.

Of course, this is just a metaphor, a meaningless association made by the brain in extreme environments.

"150 meters." Wu Zhong would glance at his diving watch every now and then, which displayed key data such as remaining dive time, depth, and water temperature in real time.

Below, we reached a fork in the road.

A dense array of protrusions and twisted channels spread below, extending deeper into the surrounding area.

If one had a third eye, looking at it from the side, one would see that the dark abyss resembles a tree trunk, while the countless branching paths below are like the complex roots beneath the trunk.

“Starting from 150 meters deep, the terrain below becomes extremely complex, with branching paths that resemble a tree diagram and are intertwined with each other.”

"The red and blue ropes split here, each corresponding to one of the two forks in the road. Which one should we choose?"

Wu Zhong took out a tree branch and started talking, but as soon as he shook it, the branch suddenly crumbled.

It's too deep; the water pressure is enormous, fifteen times that at the surface.

Even cedar branches were flattened and crushed like squashed styrofoam, and would rot at the slightest pressure.

The onion branches did the same. He turned around, waved to Wu Zhong, and gestured to enter a cave that extended from the red rope below.

Wu nodded at the end, and the beam of light swayed.

Onion immediately took the lead, its body becoming hot and bubbling even without a wetsuit.

In a flash, it disappeared into the red rope fork in the road.

Wu Zhong followed closely behind. The passage twisted downwards, and the surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the hissing of breathing remaining.

Every so often, you can see other forks in the road.

The forking was like exponential expansion. Wu Zhongguang felt a chill run down his spine just recalling and imagining the forks in the road he had taken.

At a depth of 221 meters, the red rope finally came to an end, and below were seven or eight more forks in the road.

"This is the limit for ordinary people."

"Ok?"

Wu shone his headlamp on the rope end, then looked at the D-shaped ring that had been shaken open on the rock wall, and suddenly realized something.

He quickly grabbed Onion and showed it to the other person.

Onion looked confused. "Isn't this the end of the rope? What's so interesting about it?"

Wu Zhong held the red rope against the cliff face and demonstrated it to him in sign language: "The top of the red rope was originally fixed to the rock, but for some reason, it broke free."

"This caused that part of the rope to dangle wildly in the water."

Onion understood what was going on, but didn't understand what Wu Zhong meant. It's normal for the rope to come loose when it wasn't securely fastened underwater.

Wu then demonstrated again, pretending to be a person diving down while holding a rope, but because there was no rope buckle, he simply held the rope in a loop with his bare hands.

When the hand moves to the end of the rope, with a pop, the rope end pops out of the fist, and the whole rope slips out of the hand.

"Don't you understand? Your brother is indeed highly skilled and daring. He can breathe underwater and dive to 200 meters while holding onto a rope with his bare hands."

"However, he didn't know that the end of the rope was not fixed, and since he couldn't see in the dark, the rope suddenly slipped from his grasp."

"And once he let go, he could never get it back. The more he waved it, the more the current drove the dangling rope away from him."

"In the end, without a rope to guide him, he could only swim back by feeling. If he still couldn't find the fish, he would inevitably get lost."

He demonstrated it repeatedly until Onion finally understood.

The latter immediately felt annoyed, then looked up and looked around, repeatedly scanning the surroundings with the beam of his headlamp.

Wu Zhong took out a rope he carried with him, about 100 meters long, and tied it to the red guide rope, so that he could explore another 100 meters outward.

They then hung the empty gas cylinders on the rope.

Onion did the same, but he wasn't wearing a diving suit. The rope was wrapped around his hands, and the other end was attached to Wu Zhong's rope, so they were two hundred meters apart.

With a whoosh, he swam back and then searched through a side passage he had come in through.

Now that we've guessed the skinny guy swam back after breaking free of the rope, he should be above everyone else, but he accidentally took the wrong path on his way back, since he can't see.

Onion randomly chose a passage, and Wu Zhong followed closely behind. However, Onion's movements were too large, stirring up mud and sand, instantly obscuring the surrounding view and drastically reducing visibility!

Even with a headlamp, you can't see more than a meter away.

"Damn it, slow down!"

With a flick of his webbed feet, Wu Zhong darted out like an arrow, instantly catching up with his opponent and pinning him against the rock wall.

Onion tried to struggle, but Wu held her down firmly.

"..." Onion looked at Wu Zhong in alarm, not expecting him to be so strong.

It's important to know that the onion is now in a state of multi-element processing; otherwise, it wouldn't be able to adapt to the water temperature and pressure.

As a result, Wu Zhong pinned him down with one arm, and feeling the amazing strength in his arm, Onion immediately became obedient.

"Don't make any big movements!" Wu Zhong pointed to the swirling mud and sand around them, which had made the entire underwater area murky and extremely difficult to see.

Onion made an OK sign to indicate that he understood.

Even though he was anxious to find his teammates, he acted much more cautiously. He had no choice but to be cautious, as Wu Zhong was too strong.

The two swam at a normal pace, and after passing through several dozen meters, they discovered numerous branching paths.

They had no choice but to choose another path to search. When the rope reached its end, the two had no choice but to turn back and swim again, then choose a different fork in the road.

Repeating this process, they extended outwards by 100 meters from the main guide rope, searching for one underwater passage after another, until their gas cylinders were exhausted one by one.

The deeper the water, the faster the gas cylinders are consumed.

A gas cylinder that can last for 60 minutes at a depth of 10 meters can only last for 30 minutes at a depth of 20 meters.

And now, they are underwater at a depth of 200 meters!

In theory, a gas cylinder will be depleted in three minutes! Seeing that Onion was constantly consuming the gas cylinder, Wu Zhong simply stopped breathing, removed his respirator, and handed the gas cylinder to him.

He then activated the Longevity Technique, entering a state of tortoise breathing, calmly holding his breath without any feeling of suffocation.

When Onion found out, he was only slightly surprised, but it wasn't too bad, since he could also hold it in, just not as much as Wu Zhong.

He nodded gratefully to Wu Zhidian and wrapped the last six gas cylinders around his body.

These gas cylinders will allow him to breathe for a maximum of eighteen more minutes.

Onion thought for a moment, then suddenly stared at the deep abyss entrances below.

He seemed to suddenly remember something and began to dive again.

Wu Zhong was taken aback, chased after him, grabbed him, and asked, "What are you doing?"

Onion pointed down, and seeing that Wu Zhong didn't understand, he simply turned upside down and gestured for Wu Zhong to do the same.

Wu did as instructed, then froze in surprise.

He understood what the onion meant: here, people couldn't distinguish up from down from left from right!

This is different from the ocean, where the light on the surface and the seabed can help you find your way. But this is a cave, where everything is the same in all directions, and no matter which way you rush, you will eventually reach the rock wall.

If you remove the rope, it's difficult to tell which way is up and which way is down.

Not to mention the so-called 'swimming back'—what does 'back' even mean? Which direction did we come from? Who knows?

From the perspective of the skinny man, he was in the dark and had broken free of the guide rope.

It's very possible that his body has already tilted without him realizing it. He thought he was swimming back, but he might actually be swimming sideways, or even charging headfirst, thinking he was floating.

After all, he didn't bring any equipment, and he didn't have a buoyancy controller; he had to rely entirely on swimming to move.

"Tsk tsk, that makes it too many possibilities, with so many openings down there." Wu Zhong shook his head and pointed to his few remaining gas cylinders.

But Onion looked anxious and showed him the time on his diving computer watch.

Wu finally calculated that the skinny man's multi-faceted time was about to run out, with only a few minutes left.

But on the other hand, the other party is still alive.

Wu thought for a moment and nodded, but made a '1' gesture.

This means that at most one passage can be explored.

Onion nodded. He could only explore one more oxygen source at most, so he chose the one that was vertically downwards.

The two descended deeper and deeper, but the air tanks were consumed faster the deeper they went.

When they had only two gas cylinders left, they reached a depth of 400 meters underwater.

Suddenly, the space opened up, revealing a vast expanse of open space.

Wu Zhong scanned his surroundings and finally spotted a blurry, pale, curled-up figure in the darkness on his left.

He seemed to be embedded in the rock and soil, head down, upside down, with only his lower body showing.

Onion saw it too, rushed over, and pulled the person out with force.

Upon seeing it, he burst into tears on the spot, because it was his elder brother.

"No no no!"

Wu could see Onion frantically blowing bubbles from the corners of his mouth, clearly extremely excited.

"What are you standing there for? Go back now!" Wu Zhong frantically shook his headlamp.

Onion understood immediately. Holding the skinny man in one arm, he leaped like a cannonball to Wu Zhongsheng's side and then frantically swam upwards along the rope, racing against time.

Whether he wanted to save the skinny man or his own gas cylinder was about to run out, he didn't have much time left.

Even though the rapid ascent could cause decompression sickness or even lung expansion damage, he clearly couldn't care less about that.

Wu Zhong also planned to rise rapidly, even though his physique was strong enough to withstand rapid decompression and he didn't feel any suffocation at all.

But by the time he feels suffocated, it will probably be too late, and he's not sure how long he can hold his breath.

"Ok?"

Wu was about to catch up with Onion when he suddenly sensed something was wrong.

When he was looking down and waving his headlamp at the onion, he seemed to have caught a glimpse of something.

As Wu Zhong rose, he looked down, and the beam of light swept across the area below once more.

Suddenly! The beam of light swept across an area filled with corpses, sending chills down his spine.

"What's this?"

Wu Zhong was shocked. How could there be so many skeletons at a depth of 400 meters?

The skeletons were densely packed, too many to count, and they were all just bones, without any clothing.

Upon closer inspection, one could see scattered gold and jade artifacts, each with a distinct style.

One of the gold artifacts was a human-shaped statue, which was none other than the warrior statue in the photo of the patron.

Found it, the quest item is found, but... this environment...

"Damn, so many corpses, is this an underwater mass grave?"

Wu Zhong sensed something was wrong and hurriedly surfaced at full speed.

In a flash, he overtook Onion, grabbed him, and sped back along the guide rope.

When they were about 100 meters away, Wu Zhong saw Onion convulsing, clinging tightly to his brother while rolling his eyes back.

I don't know if it's because of the rapid stress relief, or something else.

Wu Zhong just wanted to get back to the surface of the water as quickly as possible and use his internal energy to accelerate!
"boom!"

A series of violent underwater shockwaves erupted from beneath his feet.

There were several curved passages along the way. He crashed directly into the rock wall and then accelerated again by stepping on the rock wall.

Finally, in less than a minute, he burst out of the water!
"Oh!"

From the perspective of those on the shore, it looked like the water suddenly exploded, and then Wu Zhong rushed out carrying two people, one fat and one thin.

Its body leaped out like a large bird and landed on the shore.

……

(End of this chapter)