Dragon 3: Tide of the Black Moon (1)

Looking in the direction he pointed, the sea level hidden in the black clouds suddenly lit up like burning, the line where the sky and the sea meet was especially bright, almost like sunlight projected on the sea. Then it was like a palace floating up in the sea, the exquisite buildings were brightly lit, more brilliant than any mirage, and the sky and the sea were illuminated in dazzling white by those palace-like buildings. The Moriah began to slow down, and the palace in the sea opened its welcoming door.

"A floating platform?" Caesar understood.

"Yes, that is a project under the family. These offshore floating platforms are suitable for long-term operations at sea, such as oil exploration or undersea veins, and although they move slowly because of their great self-weight, they can resist the force of 12 winds and even tsunamis at sea. In Buddhism, 'Sumeru' refers to the pedestal where the Buddha statue or pagoda or temple is placed, and we call them Sumeru because they are deservedly unsinkable. The family has concentrated all six 'Sumeru' floating platforms here as a base for this deep sea survey, and it is far more reliable than the Lenin that sank here in the first place, so please don't worry about the storm." Genchiyo said.

The Moriah extinguished its gas turbines, added tractor chains to the hull on both sides, and was towed into the docks of the floating platforms, which were large enough to accommodate the entire Moriah. The locks were closed, the lights on both sides of the dock came on in turn, and men dressed in black stood side by side on both sides of the dock and bowed deeply: "Welcome to the Young Master's visit to the Sumerian Seat for an inspection!" Their voices echoed in the huge enclosed space, shaking people's skulls.

The door-shaped crane moved over and lowered the drawbridge, and Genji led Caesar's group, escorted by the crows and nightcrawlers, onto the elevator to the upper floors. Lu Mingfei only felt the humming sound of rotating fans in his ears, the smell of seawater was everywhere in this huge floating building, and the stagnant water gurgling from nowhere was pumped away by the ubiquitous pumping system. The floating platform ebbs and flows with the waves, even when walking on the flat pavement paved with steel plates, it seems like stepping on a soft slope, Lu Mingfei holds on to the railing and does not dare to let go, fearing that a big wave will hit him and he will roll down the stairs.

"Do not worry, Sumeru is fully digitally controlled, if the waves are large enough below the diversion valve will open to remove the thrust of the waves." Gen Wakizashi said.

"The depth of this sea is more than 8 kilometers, you can not anchor at all, so how do you fix these Sumeru seats?" Caesar asked.

"Still using anchors, but the anchor chains don't have to be as long as 8 kilometers. The Japan Trench was formed because of the collision of two plates, and is only extremely deep in the polar abyss where the plates meet, other than that the seabed is not that deep." Wakayoi Gen said, "A total of 16 iron anchors anchor this floating platform to the sea bed."

They reached the top of the Sumeru, and standing here looking down was like standing at Seijinsa Temple overlooking Shinjuku, with overlapping waves lapping at the base of the Sumeru, and occasional white spray from the sky, and the Sumeru connected by steel cables, which were as tight as strings when the wind came, and then slackened and sagged when it passed. At the top of each floating platform stood men in white combat uniforms, the rotors of the all-weather helicopters whipping up winds no less than the sea breeze, blowing their hair close to their scalps, it was like an army waiting for a parade.

"So many people?" Lu Mingfei was taken aback, "Does the logistics team need to be this large?"

Genchisei took the loudspeaker from the crow and ascended to a high place: "Tonight's matter, please all of you!"

The voice spread far out over the sea, and all the men on the floating platform responded in unison, "Do your best to complete the task entrusted to you by the family!" The voices of thousands of men overlapped, overpowering the sound of the ocean tide for a moment.

"In this operation, the Kansai branch forms the wind group, and their job is to review the entire sea from the air. If someone tries to sabotage the deep dive, the wind group will launch a counterattack, and in addition, they will drive away unrelated ships." Genchiyo said.

Crows shot blue flares into the air and the all-weather helicopter group took off, the giant black birds going in different directions and shining searchlights on the sea.

"The Kanto branch forms the fire team, and their job is to be on fire alert. We have equipped them with small marine police boats, but they have been retrofitted with twin large-caliber machine guns and man-portable missiles, as well as a Type 97 light torpedo. With them on guard, the cruisers will be held up too."

The red flares rose into the air, the various floating platforms opened the dock gates, and the water police ships undulated forward across the sea, the twin-linked machine guns in the bow of the ship spinning and sweeping across the surface.

"A forest crew made up of elite members of the Wind Demon family has been positioned on our perimeter. They are piloting fishing boats that are equipped with undersea listening devices and climate monitoring equipment, they are responsible for monitoring the conditions of the nearby waters and will warn us if the weather deteriorates to the point of danger."

The crows fired green flares, and in all directions were vague flashes of light, that was the forest team that was positioned far away with searchlights in response to Gen Wakusei's call.

"As for this platform we are on the mountain group, the mountain group is under my charge, and all the group members are the elite of the Iwarui Institute. The job of the mountain group is to provide direct support to the deep submersible, the mountain group will float in this position during the whole process of your dive, no matter whether the wind is force 8 or 12, the wave height is 2 meters or 20 meters, ready to rescue you and also ready to welcome you back. This is the meaning of the mountain group, immovable as a mountain." Genwakusei said, "The family has sent a team of a thousand people to escort your dives, so please feel free to leave the rest of the work to us, except for manning the deep submersible!"

"Is that necessary?" Caesar smoked his cigar, "It's just a dive, why does this preparation look like a war?"

"Someone said to me that the teacher of killing swords always says to the student who holds the sword for the first time, "Have you thought about holding the hilt? Since you hold it, hold it tightly and don't let go, the day you let go of the hilt is the day you die." Wakako Genji said lightly, "You can interpret this as the Japanese way, everything is a battle, always forcing yourself to stand on the edge of a cliff, one step back and you will fall into the abyss of ten thousand feet so that you can live instead. This is not to catch coral or shells, that may be the ancient dragon level of fierce things if it is allowed to float to the surface, even the wind forest volcano four groups at full strength may not be able to obliterate it."

The sea broke open, and the crane lifted a heavy refined sulfur bomb, it was painted a conspicuous yellow, the shape is not like the usual concept of the bomb but rather like a thick and short cigar, the narrow tail also does not match the stout body.

"It's a q-tip." Lu Mingfei said.

"This shape is more resistant to pressure, you surely don't want the sulfur bomb to be burst by seawater midway, right?" Gen Wakizashi said, "It has a very limited power system and guidance function, and can only go about 1 km underwater. After all, it doesn't rely on explosive power to kill dragons, but on the penetrating corrosion of refined sulfur and mercury. Oh yes, its code name is 'Momotaro'. Now there are 30 minutes left before the scheduled time, the Rockflow Institute will finish the final inspection and warm-up of the Dirigiste in 30 minutes, this 30 minutes is free time for you, you can chat or take a nap, but my suggestion is to go to the bathroom, there is no space to build a toilet in the deep submersible."

He took out his cell phone and dialed, "Professor Schneider, this is Genwakusei reporting from the Japanese branch. The dive team has arrived at the designated position and we are waiting for instructions from the headquarters."