Eighteen Ghost Emperors of my ancestors, how dare you make me live in terror?

After the minor incident, all six S-class vehicles arrived.

The major general from the military headquarters, who had been standing at the very edge of the deck the whole time, finally spoke up: "Is it all over? If you're done, come in with me. Time is tight and the mission is important."

The group slowly walked in.

The interior of the submersible is more spacious than it appears from the outside, containing a cockpit, a rest area, a small conference room, and a row of watertight doors.

After the six people were seated, the major general stood at the front and projected a map of the seabed.

In the center of the image is an extremely deep ravine with steep, knife-cut edges, and a blurry shadow at the bottom.

"The Abyss Trench is 9,200 meters deep, and at its bottom lies an ancient ruin." The Major General pointed to the shadowy area. "This is the S-rank eerie instance you are about to enter, called 'Abyss Sacrifice: The City of Drowning'."

Mo Yuan from Beiming Academy frowned: "This instance wasn't made public before?"

"No," the major general shook his head, "because it wasn't a copy before."

Everyone's gaze sharpened.

The major continued, "It was only three months ago that strange fluctuations were detected here. Before that, it was just an ordinary seabed geological structure. But three months ago, the seal began to loosen, and strange auras leaked out. The rules of the ghost realm eroded that space, which is how this S-level dungeon was formed."

"Seal?" Fang Jinxun grasped the key word.

"Yes." The major general looked at the six people. "The people from the Central Bureau of Evil and Mystery discovered the seal in the trench. After entering to explore, they collected the strange energy fluctuations belonging to the super S-class from the seal, codenamed 'The Drowner,' and sorted out its source."

"What is Super S-class?" Lu Ye raised his hand.

"It's beyond the threshold of a normal S-rank anomaly, already approaching the Great Demon level." Ling Xue'er crossed her arms and said disdainfully, "How did it even qualify as S-rank?"

"Do you believe I can make your other eye swell up too?" Lu Ye pointed at Ling Xue'er's other eye, which was not yet bruised.

Ling Xue'er flipped the table and shouted, "Come on! Let's fight here if you dare!"

"Hey!" Lu Ye rolled up his sleeves, ready to get to work. "I've been in this business for so long, and I've never seen anyone as tough as me!"

"Calm down, everyone. How about we wait until we get into the dungeon to fight? We'll have to pay for the damage if we break this place," Su Qianqian advised, then turned to glare at Bai Ye. "Put the stool down. Even if we're going to fight, we can't use a stool. Bai Ye, you weren't like this before."

A single sentence plunged Bai Ye into deep thought.

Both of them were eventually stopped.

The major general, unfazed, continued, "S-rank, huh? Of course they'll fight if they get together." "Normal," he replied.

"That seal comes from 200 years ago, from the battlefield ruins of the 'Third Tide.' The true form of the 'Drowner' was a powerful Master of Deception who sacrificed himself to seal the strange rift that had opened up back then. This also involves a powerful and mysterious being who appeared 200 years ago..."

The major general's explanation had the straightforward style typical of soldiers; he simply stated the facts without explaining anything.

"The remnants of the third tide........."

"There have been five strange tides in history, and each time countless ghost-controllers died, including countless ancestors who sacrificed themselves to stop the invasion of the ghost realm."

Fang Jin asked, "So our mission is to go in and kill it?"

"You can't kill it." The major general shook his head. "The military has already tried, and the casualties were heavy. Killing it is unrealistic, and... we shouldn't have killed it."

"Is it because it's still protecting us?" Ling Xue'er asked softly.

"Yes, that is the seal. It originally belonged to a human demon tamer, but their consciousness was greatly corrupted by the supernatural. So what you need to do is reinforce the seal and seal the crack. If the seal completely collapses, the crack will tear open directly in the sea, and half of the coastline will be swallowed up by the demon realm."

There was silence inside the submersible for a few seconds.

Su Qianqian asked softly, "What if the reinforcement fails?"

The major general did not answer.

Lu Ye raised her hand again: "I have a real question to ask."

"ask."

"What if, just in case, assuming, Shinichi accidentally kills the 'Addict'?"

The major general thought for a moment, then said, "I'll kowtow to you first, and then I'll send you to a military court tonight."

"Understood."

It means that while killing someone is good, you should never kill them.

That's very difficult.

"After entering, there will be a phase where you will each act separately. Based on your individual information, the military has already prepared groups in advance. Each group is determined based on your capabilities and is the best-matched group."

"However, to prevent you from fighting each other due to personal grudges beforehand, the group numbers will be placed on each of you first. When the time comes, you will each open them, and those with the same number will be in the same group."

"Let's begin the descent now."

After the major general finished speaking, he made a hand gesture.

As the submersible began to sink, the seawater outside the porthole changed from deep blue to dark green, and then to complete black.

Only the cabin lights illuminated a small patch of water, occasionally flashing with phosphorescence like the eyes of some creature.

Lu Ye leaned against the porthole, looking out the window. Bai Ye sat next to him, silently drinking milk.

Ling Xue'er sat opposite him, holding her sword and closing her eyes to rest. But Lu also noticed that her ears were twitching, listening to the sounds around her. Once the mission officially began, she became serious.

Fang Jinxun and Mo Yuan each held a document in their hands and were taking notes. Su Qianqian occasionally chimed in, and the atmosphere was actually a little tense.

After descending to 8,000 meters, all these things have to be left in the cabin.

Even for S-rank, one needs to be quite serious when actually entering an S-rank dungeon, let alone when it contains a super S-rank behemoth.

"We've reached depth," the major general's voice came from the cockpit. "The dungeon entrance is thirty meters ahead. Prepare to enter. I hope you come out alive."

Searchlights illuminated the bottom of the submersible, their beams piercing the darkness and revealing a vast black outline.

That was a city.

A city submerged at the bottom of the sea.

The building ruins were covered with a thick layer of grayish-white sediment, and black corals grew among the broken walls, their shapes resembling twisted human hands.

The entire city is centered around a huge circular square, in the center of which stands a broken stone pillar covered with dense carvings.

Lu Ye leaned closer to look for a while, pondering, "You know, when people used to live in this house, they probably needed oxygen tanks when they went out, right?"

Bai Ye replied earnestly, "This city should still be above ground when it sank."

"You still don't understand that this is a joke."

The moment the hatch opened, the icy seawater did not rush in; a layer of pale blue light film sealed the hatch, isolating it from external pressure.

Fang Jinxun was the first to step across the light membrane. When he landed, his feet were on dry stone slabs. Feeling his surroundings, he thought, "The dungeon rules have begun to take effect."

The six people stepped out of the submersible one by one, with Lu Ye being the last.

The stone slabs felt solid underfoot, like walking on ordinary ground. Above them was the dark sea, like an inverted sky, but there was no water in the space they were in, which felt quite novel.

Su Qianqian took a deep breath, closed her eyes and sensed for a moment. When she opened her eyes, her expression was somewhat solemn: "The area is larger than I imagined. The folded space is far larger than a city, and there is a boundary wall on the outside, so we can't get through."

He then approached a broken pillar and touched the strange patterns on it. "These patterns are part of a seal. The entire city is a sealing array. It's amazing."

Mo Yuan, who had been keeping his eyes closed, finally opened them and pointed ahead, saying, "The core is under that broken stone pillar in the center of the plaza."

At the beginning, the S-class students gradually revealed their different abilities.

Mo Yuan and Su Qianqian are likely skilled in perception and sealing, leaning towards support roles. Fang Jinxun excels at thinking and decision-making, Ling Xue'er and Bai Ye are skilled at attacking, and Lu Ye is skilled at reckless attacks.

Lu Ye wasn't particularly curious about other people's abilities; after all, other people's abilities were their own, and his were different from everyone else's.

The six moved towards the plaza. Along the way, shadowy figures occasionally flashed from the dilapidated houses, but none made a move to attack. Lu

"They seem to be waiting for something," Bai Ye whispered.

Fang Jinxun nodded: "Let's make mistakes first."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ling Xue'er, who was at the front, stopped in her tracks.

We've arrived at the square.

But standing beside the broken stone pillar in the center of the square was a person.

A person who looks exactly like Lu Ye.

Wearing the same dark robes, standing amidst the gray and white sediment, their smiles were exactly the same as Lu Ye's.

"Why did you take so long to arrive?" the "Lu Ye" asked, his voice and tone exactly the same as the real Lu Ye's.

Everyone else turned to look at Lu Ye.

Lu Ye looked at himself facing him, remained silent for two seconds, and then used [Mirror Image] to conjure five "selves".

"You don't have this trick up your sleeve, do you?"

Unexpectedly, the person opposite him casually conjured up five identical copies of himself.

"I have one too."

Now, twelve "Lu Ye" figures stood neatly in the square.

"I hate it when people imitate me."

Lu also pulled out his spiked club and charged forward.

In an instant, the twelve Lus also started fighting each other in the square.