“You are an idiotic team member, but the good thing is you are well-behaved.” With a thumbs-up, Ye Sheng dived into the water. The bronze city was filled with holes, each of which was connected by a bronze passage that, when submerged, lay mostly below the surface, like a half-submerged ant nest.
Aki looked up with her flashlight at the cavern, which was as big as a giant’s palace. The dome was carved with ancient patterns. It’s a huge tree with leaves and branches acted as unknown characters.
“Dragon’s language?” Aki suddenly understood what it was.
She took out the waterproof camera in her pocket, began taking pictures piece by piece, then immediately transmitted them back to Moniaher.
“Backup! Backup! It’s a bonus!” Maans rubbed his hands in surprise. “For the first time since Nicholas Flamel, the human had access to such a vast amount of dragon’s language data. Although it is impossible to interpret it, for the time being, it is extremely precious to the dragons, which uses words to convey power.”
Complex patterns entered the helmet of Aki constantly. The patterns reminded her of what she had seen when she had a “spiritual vision” in the 3E exam, but it was more complicated. The leaves gathered together like human faces, which, when separated, were indeed ancient texts that had disappeared for many years, rotating counterclockwise on the dome. She wanted to shoot more, so she turned down the output pressure of the oxygen cylinder to give her more time and to wait for Ye Sheng.
The reduced oxygen flow made her dizzy, the pattern on the dome blurred. She paused, closed her eyes, took a deep breath and tried to stay awake.
“Aki, your heart is beating faster. Are you ok?” Selma’s nervous voice came through the headphones.
“Nothing, just a little dizzy,” Aki said.
She put the knife back in her pocket, opened her eyes again, and swam to the edge of the cave.
“Signal out!” On the board of the Moniaher, Selma exclaimed, “Data transmission between us and Aki is interrupted!”
Maans paused. “Get the line on! Warn Ye Sheng!”
The turbine in the stern turned again to retrieve the lifeline of Aki.
“There’s no tension in the engine,” Selma looking up with a drained face. “Her lifeline was gone again.”
Ye Sheng floated from Aki’s side, holding her arm which made her feel much easier.
“Are you back? Is the mission finished? I didn’t hear the explosion.” Aki was relaxed when she saw her partner.
“Underwater explosion, not that noisy.” Ye Sheng said, “I have solved the problem. After collecting, we are ready to return. Time is running out.”
“Ok, I have finished taking photos of the dome pattern.”
“Let’s collect some more bronze stuff and go back to analyze the composition,” Ye Sheng said, pointing to a statue on the bronze wall not far away. “We can try to bring that back. It’s not a Chinese statue but came from Europe.”
“Good,” Aki said as she swam toward the statue, dragged by Ye Sheng. The water was parted along with her wetsuit with faint warmth.
The statue was only dozens of centimetre long, which was not comparable to the huge statues they had seen when they entered the bronze city. It stood on a bridge-shaped bronze pole, dressing in an ancient Chinese robe and carrying a sceptre, with its head lowered slightly in a reverent manner like a nobleman. It has the head of a cobra, whose neck was sticking out of the collar of its robe, which was extremely abrupt.
It was a snake-faced man.
“What is this?” Aki turned to Ye Sheng.
“I don’t know, probably a totem of the dragons, but will be useful to bring it back. Take it.” Ye Sheng said.
Aki nodded and swam over. There was a hint of surprise in the instant she met the statue of the snake-faced man, whose eyes were of pure silver. On its dark bronze surface shone a solitary silver light like blinking. Aki reminded herself to give up the strange idea, it is only because of reflection caused by the illusion. She must remain calm in underwater operations.
She reached out and grabbed the snake-faced man by the neck. The bronze sculpture was not as heavy as she had thought, and she lifted it easily.
A shadow rose from her side and seized her neck with indescribable rapidity. With her combating lessons at Cassel and years of underwater experience, Aki didn’t hesitate to pull her knife out of the pocket to cut the shadow.
At the same time, she shouted: “Ye Sheng! Be careful!”
Ye Sheng had equipped a Russian-made SSP-1 underwater pistol that had been modified by the Equipment Department.
But the shadow was even faster than Aki and Ye Sheng. He used a weapon in hand to separate the folding knife of Aki and hit it on the top of Aki’s helmet. Aki instantly lost the ability to fight back. She rolled back subconsciously to avoid the shadow’s next attack but was already clasped in a tight embrace.
“Ye Sheng! Shoot!” Aki shouted.
“At whom?” The shadow asked.
Aki was stunned. It was the voice of Ye Sheng. Once, when they were training in the Great Barrier Reef, her oxygen cylinder broke down underwater. At the moment of suffocation, she heard Ye Sheng’s voice and regained consciousness, which saved her life. She opened her eyes wide and looked at the black shadow around her. The glimmer of light in the other’s helmet lit up his face, it’s Ye Sheng’s face.
“How can there be two Ye Sheng?” Aki’s heart exploded with fear.
She turned her head to her back, and the man who swam with her, Ye Sheng, was gone. What floating in the water was a sculpture of a snake-face man. No one knew why a bronze sculpture could float in the water. Its silver eyes shone with a taunting smile.
Ye Sheng took out his pistol and blew up the head of the snake-face man, “I came back and found you swimming here, and the thing was floating behind you. I didn’t get why it was following you until you reached out and started the system.”
It was then that Aki found her lifeline was cut. She touched down the rope, which had been cut by a knife, and found a smooth notch. Aki touched her waist… She used her knife and cut the lifeline!
“For god sake!” Aki shuddered. “Is it an illusion?”
“Maybe it’s because of those dragon inscriptions,” Ye Sheng said, pointing to the dome. “When you take pictures in succession, it’s like reading the dragon inscriptions in order. It made a spiritual vision that led to disorder.”
“This spiritual vision… Is very weird.”
A creepy voice sounded. It was like someone holding two pieces of rusty iron and rubbing them against your ear. At the moment similar sounds are amplified hundreds of times.
As Ye Sheng and Aki look around at the bronze walls: Thousands of bronze gears turned slowly, huge bells rang inside the cavern, rust began to peel off from gears, and tooth clucked each together. Ye Sheng looked upward. In the darkness, an unprecedented huge bell vibrated with great power. The bronze pendulum vibrates back and forth around the bearings. The snake-faced man on the bronze wall moved at the same time. It raised the truncheon in its hand, curving its neck as if holding an ancient pilgrimage.
“You’ve activated the system,” said Ye Sheng, looking at the bronze pole that had just been pushed by his partner. “I don’t know what the system is, but it doesn’t seem like a good thing… This is a trap!”
He felt in his heart that the “snake”, whom he had left on guard around him, was running away. This was unprecedented. The “snake”, his faithful servant, was always in the depths of his consciousness. Ye Sheng had severe head pain and other snakes in the depths of his consciousness were swimming in terror, trying to burst his head.
Must evacuate as soon as possible, this is Ye Sheng’s intuition.
He pulled out the knife from Aki’s waist and plunged it into space between two gears with great strength. The folding NT knife was intersected into the bronze wall two inches deep. Two gears were buckled by the folding knife and could not be turned. The shaking of the huge bronze clock slowed down immediately while losing its power.
“No matter what machinery it is, power is needed, this alchemy machinery is not an exception.” Ye Sheng shouted, “Better run! The whole city seems to be moving!”
The knife fell, and the great bronze bell resumed its power. It roared heartily.
Lu Mingfei woke up hearing the deafening bell. He suddenly sat up, turned to look out of the window and saw the sun is shining at noon.
“What the hell? Americans don’t nap?” His first reaction was to curse, and his second reaction was to lift the quilt over his head and go back to sleep.
He huddled under the quilt for a moment and realized something was wrong. The bell did not die down. Fingel was napping too, sleeping like a dead pig, how can he sleep without waking up? Lu Mingfei slowly lifted the quilt.
“Hi, here.” Someone said at the window.
The boy in the small black suit, white silk shirt and small square shoes was sitting on his windowsill, watching in a daze quietly.
Lu Mingze.
Lu Mingfei hesitated for a moment. He tiptoed to the boy and suddenly reached out and grabbed the boy’s hair. The touch was very real, his washed hair was smooth and easy to touch, his temperature was also real.
“Hey… Can you tell me if I’m dreaming?” Lu Mingfei stood beside the window.
“Depending on how you define ‘dream’. According to your understatement, you’re not looking at the real world.” The boy shrugged. “But what is the real world? Maybe the real world is your dream.”
“But I feel super real! I’ve never had a dream this real,” said Lu Mingfei, pointing to the clock tower outside. “The clocks are still going. Everything is normal except you.”
“Don’t trust your eyes too much. What you see may not be true. Maybe you’re dead now, and you just feel like you’re still standing here talking.” The boy looked at Lu Mingfei in the eyes. “Maggots are crawling about in your body like worms in a cheese hole.”
Lu Mingfei froze for a moment, feeling cold sweat all over him, “Hey, Hey! I had just had cheese for dinner, can you avoid this negative metaphor? And don’t push me down this time. Let’s talk it over.”
“Not this time. You were so annoying last time. I can’t stay too long, just to remind you that something is happening and you need to be prepared.” The boy said.
“What is it? Dragon invasion, world destruction? Don’t wake me up from my nap without such an event.”
“Don’t you hear? The clock is striking.” The boy said significantly, “You have to be prepared to continue your studies in this place as an ‘S’ student but not garbage. Remember the secrets of StarCraft?”
“Of course, power overwhelming is unbeatable, show me the money is adding 10,000 mines and gas, and black sheep wall can open the map.” Lu Mingfei was familiar with this.
“Black sheep wall, open maps. Useful, hum?”
“Sure, don’t you know how important the map is in StarCraft?”
“The first secret I taught you was Black Sheep Wall, unlocking right now. Using it, you’ll get a detailed map of your surroundings. But don’t overuse it. They’ll find out.” The boy smiled mysteriously.
Lu Mingfei hesitated, “You think we’re in Harry Potter? Magic Academy? I just need to say… Black… “
The boy suddenly put his hand on Lu Mingfei’s mouth and shook his head. “I said, don’t abuse it.”
The boy jumped off the ledge and patted him on the shoulder, “Black sheep wall, remember it… You’ll need it soon at that very moment.”
Dragon's Raja 