Chapter 246: “whale!”
“With the amount of explosives on the train, can we destroy the balance of the vortex?”
As the words fell, it was clear that several experts on the screen were all stunned for a moment.
Professor Ma said uncertainly, “The shockwave pressure in the water is three times higher than in the air, so it seems possible…”
The Factory Director pondered for a moment, “It might not be enough. The vortex’s energy is distributed across millions of cubic meters of water body. The explosives’ energy is concentrated but their range of effect is limited. It’s hard with the ammunition amount on the train.”
Su Huan licked the corner of his mouth, his eyes gleaming, “So the approach is feasible, it’s just that the yield isn’t enough, right?”
Several people had the students and assistants nearby quickly calculate, and acknowledged Su Huan’s idea.
“As long as the yield is sufficient, curbing the vortex in a short time is feasible. We can also take the chance to escape.”
Director Xu made the final conclusion.
At this time, a staff member shouted loudly.
“The train has already sunk two meters, estimated three more minutes to fully sink.”
“In one minute and fifty seconds, the train will be pulled into the vortex.”
Su Huan raised his eyelids slightly, “Then let’s do it this way. Have He Jie take people to bring out all the explosives from the armory.”
……
Armory Hall.
Five hundred soldiers were lined up inside, with a bear-like figure pacing anxiously at the front.
Several officers and familiar ones gathered together, roughly forming four small circles.
One was naturally centered on Goat, Qu Hang, and other Steel Council surrendered soldiers.
One was Tong Zizhan and Gao Yuan, the two of them isolated from everyone.
Then there was Lu Xiao, Jiang Rong, and the older passengers recently promoted.
They were considered the team cultivated by the armored train itself.
The last group was Yu Yue, Lin Jin, and others who had just arrived.
The four groups roughly constituted the situation of the Armed Corps.
It seemed a bit complicated, but in reality, it wasn’t as clearly divided as said.
Like Yu Yue, most of the time she was in the dining car cooking for the Train Conductor, basically not participating in Armed Corps management, so within the corps, He Jie was the absolute authority.
Goat, Qu Hang, and others had long since settled superiority with He Jie and wouldn’t waste time anymore.
Lu Xiao had been thoroughly resigned after being suppressed by the Train Conductor several times, no longer fantasizing about managing the train, but instead focusing his goal on elevating his status within the corps, and had become much quieter.
Jiang Rong never thought about these things at all.
Apart from training and doing tasks, she had almost no personal life.
As for Tong Zizhan, he wished he could dig a hole to hide himself in, and certainly wouldn’t stand out.
So a group of people with various identities got along surprisingly harmoniously.
Seeing Yu Yue, He Jie quickly came forward to greet her, not directly asking but giving an inquiring look.
The people behind all perked up their ears to listen.
They didn’t know the experts’ calculation results.
Nor did they know the armored train was about to be torn apart by the vortex.
Because of the recent experience of being pulled underwater, facing the storm outside the train, many didn’t take it seriously in their hearts.
They were just curious why the Train Conductor suddenly had them assemble.
The corps of over five hundred evolvers, if all pulled out, could fully fight a small-scale war.
Yu Yue’s downcast eyes swept over everyone, her usually gentle gaze now carrying a bit more clarity, “Within one minute, concentrate all the explosives on the train in the Armory Hall.”
Lu Xiao in the crowd heard explosives and inexplicably thought of that day crossing Mo Jiang, the figure on the train roof laughing madly amid the explosive flames.
This made his heart suddenly tighten.
Had the crisis reached this level already?
Lu Xiao carefully searched Yu Yue’s face but saw no trace.
He subconsciously glanced over the surrounding people, then found the same doubt in Miao Qi’s eyes.
‘What is the Train Conductor planning?’
But there wasn’t much time left for them to think.
He Jie, hearing the time limit, had no questions and immediately directed the officers to disperse and lead teams to carry out the task.
He Jie knew all the armory locations like the back of his hand, and had a clear idea of how much explosives remained where!
The Armory Hall immediately resounded with booming footsteps, and the train’s sinking speed increased a bit.
He Jie stood in place without moving, and only asked after everyone dispersed, “Is the situation very serious this time?”
Yu Yue’s tense complexion showed no sign of easing, “Come in together.”
He Jie’s hand reaching for a cigarette paused, and he bit the cigarette between his teeth as he followed into the front of the train.
It was like entering some large military command center.
Staff members were shouting various data one after another.
Water depth, temperature, train status, and so on…
A screen hanging on the wall was still flashing a countdown.
The time on it was down to one minute and thirty seconds.
Su Huan stood alone on the highest command platform, his eyes having turned an eerie blue-white color at some point, his black hair slightly floating, the terrifying pressure making people’s hearts sink.
If any evolver were cultivating beside the Train Conductor now, their promotion speed could increase by thirty percent!
Seeing him like this, He Jie felt something was wrong.
He turned back to look at the panoramic screen, and the cigarette in his teeth was directly bitten off!
“Holy shit!”
The pitch-black water flow rotated counterclockwise madly, containing terrifying giant force, while the train was infinitely approaching the whirlpool edge.
The barometer needle in the carriage trembled violently, and under the drastically changing pressure on the car body, it emitted creaking sounds.
“Crack—crack—”
The front of the train, which had been diving relying on the weight of the Hammer of the Alps, was instantly squeezed out by the water pressure, propping up high above the water surface, being dragged toward the whirlpool by the vortex.
Over a dozen high-altitude hovering drones were like birds with their feet tied, screeching as they were pulled into the vortex’s upper storm.
The connection between the front of the train and the rear carriages emitted overburdened groans.
Inside the train, all the staff who had been holding on were thrown into the air, and with the front of the train propping up, they tumbled violently like food in a frying pan.
Only Su Huan, He Jie, and other high-level evolvers could stand steadily in place.
Liang Kuan sat in the wide chair, gripping the control stick tightly, the dashboard alarm lights in front of him lighting up a piece of blood red.
The Factory Director’s shout came from the screen, “Don’t fight the vortex, that will prematurely tear the train apart! Also separate the two trains, there’s too much air in the Armory Hall, affecting the sinking speed!”
“How much longer for the explosives?”
Su Huan suddenly turned to look at He Jie below.
The latter shivered, gritted his teeth and said, “Ready thirty seconds ago!”
“Have them delivered to the front of the train, not through the Armory Hall.”
“Understood!”
He Jie decisively turned and rushed out.
The blue light in Su Huan’s eyes dissipated, and the front of the train, which had still been struggling, immediately lost its resistance.
The train carriages were swallowed by the vortex one by one, and the Factory Director on the screen was also flung out of the frame by the giant force.
Liang Kuan also gave up manipulating the train and began to yield to the vortex’s terrifying power.
The Armory Hall’s connection began to disconnect. The two trains that hadn’t separated since Shun’an were like a pulled zipper, instantly splitting into two.
From sixteen meters wide to two trains five meters wide.
The pressure they bore immediately lessened a lot.
Because the cultivation pods were attached to the main train, the descent speed became much faster.
Armed soldiers carried box after box of explosives to the front of the train. Amid the front of the train’s mad swaying, though somewhat panicked.
But seeing the Train Conductor standing on the command platform, they silently returned to work.
“Bang bang bang…”
When only ten seconds remained, box after box of explosives had already filled the entire front of the train.
The staff watched these explosives with pounding hearts.
Not knowing if the next second they would be blown up or torn apart by the vortex.
“General energy reaction under the vortex has strengthened—”
“Boom!”
The armored train was like hitting something, shaking violently in the water.
The steel weighing tens of thousands of tons wasn’t “sucked” down, but “pressed” into the water by some force.
Just like a giant pressing a coin into asphalt, slow, resolute, irresistible.
The train, which had been at the vortex edge the previous second, was sucked into the exact center of the whirlpool by a terrifying force.
The riveted armor of the entire train began to groan. The bolts that hadn’t loosened in the acid rain were now visibly twisting and deforming, then being forced back by another immense force.
The explosives in the front of the train also didn’t smash into the carriage ceiling due to inertia.
Instead, they floated in mid-air.
An electric wheelchair squeezed in from the gap in mid-air.
The ammunition boxes floated like in space, pushed aside by the wheelchair.
Suddenly, the train front emitted a shrill wail, a high-pressure water jet shooting into the front of the train, smashing a monitor to shattered pieces, even the panoramic screen on the front of the train starting to flicker.
Xiao Ba, sitting in the wheelchair, raised a hand, metal color thick as iron in their eyes, and the high-pressure water jet abruptly stopped.
“The vortex suction has strengthened. Even blowing up the entire train now can’t interrupt the vortex!”
Professor Ma arduously climbed up from the ammunition box behind Xiao Ba, shouting loudly at Su Huan on the command platform.
A prolonged “Woo—” sound vibrated the carriage, interrupting Professor Ma.
This sound didn’t enter the eardrums but crushed over the ribs directly, forcing people’s hearts to beat to its rhythm.
Everyone subconsciously looked at Liang Kuan in the driver’s seat, but he made no move to sound the whistle.
Su Huan at the highest point suddenly raised his head to look at the forward panoramic screen, his narrow eyes squinting to the extreme.
Under the current he infused, the screen stopped flickering.
Everyone in the front of the train who saw this simultaneously gasped, chill spreading from the chest cavity to the whole body.
The terrifying scene assaulted everyone’s nerves.
Even the usually refined Professor Ma opened his mouth wide, unable to speak.
Only to see on the screen, in the deep water heavy as an abyss, two lonely light beams leaning on each other, extending deeper and deeper toward the vortex bottom, strands of light diffused by the water, illuminating the massive “flat beach” under the vortex.
The line of sight followed the extremely smooth “flat beach” forward, even exceeding hundred meters.
The slightly undulating “flat beach” converged downward at the edges.
Though unbelievable.
But when this information fed back to their brains, everyone’s minds simultaneously outlined a colossal behemoth.
“Whale!”
“Woo————”
The sound rose like from the abyss, as if striking a bronze bell sunk at the sea bottom with a giant hammer.
Visible ripples spread layer by layer in the water, and when reaching the train, the metal emitted glass-like crisp sounds.
The monitors and lights inside the train went out one after another like dominoes, extending all the way to the command platform.
The entire train instantly plunged into darkness.
Heavy, dead silent.
Two points of eerie blue cold light suddenly lit up, scattered electric arcs like a spiderweb torn open by some mad joy, outlining a pair of eyes with a chilling smile.
“So the real deal is here…”
The vortex center, surging with undercurrents, instead fell into absolute silence.
The “slender” armored train held high the Hammer of the Alps, facing a colossal behemoth no shorter than itself.
That whale cry seemed to be probing the armored train’s position.
The giant whale slowly raised its head.
In an instant, the entire water area boiled.
And the eerie blue electric light also bloomed suddenly around the armored train.
The giant whale manipulating water and the flood dragon mastering lightning simultaneously issued declarations of war to each other.
Whale-dragon battle for the sea!
“Liang Kuan, speed up!”
Suppressed laughter seeped from the train into the entire water area.
Under the pitch-black water area, lightning surged.
The shadows of the two colossal behemoths collided together, terrifying energy rolling out layer by layer from the depths.
In the vortex center, a water column suddenly erupted from the water surface.
Soaring straight into the sky, electric light entwining the water column rushing up nearly hundred meters.
Stirring the dark clouds in the sky.
Instantly, a heaven-piercing thunderbolt fell into the water.
……
Jingchao Lake, Lake Heart Island.
Amid the storm and raging rain, a group of tiny figures knelt prostrate at the island’s edge.
Several figures in black hooded robes stood at the very front. Hearing the earth-shaking thunder, the Second Priest with oil paint smeared on his face raised his head.
Just in time to see the water column connecting heaven and earth.
He shouted in a fanatical and high-pitched voice, “My god has shown its spirit! It’s the perfect time to offer the sacrifice. The sacrifice formally begins!”
The many shadows kneeling behind reverently kowtowed toward the water column, then got up and left.
The remaining people gathered toward the priests in black hooded robes.
Dividing into three distinct groups.
A sturdy woman with horns growing from her head quickly came to the side of the smallest group of priests, helping him up, worriedly saying, “High Priestess, the sacrifice has already begun…”
The High Priestess gripped the woman’s sturdy arm to stand, adjusted her wide hood, and looked toward the distant water column.
Her turbid milky-white eyes turned, muttering unintelligible ravings.
“A’duo, just wait, wait and it will be fine. God’s proxy will appear at the sacrifice. This is the revelation my god gave me.”
“Then how should I find him?”
The woman asked unwillingly.
“…No need to look. When he appears before me, I will naturally recognize him!”
The High Priestess muttered mysteriously.
The woman looked up at the Second Priest whose people were increasing beside her; the other was also looking at her at this moment.
It was a gaze full of determination, like a jackal selecting his prey, eyes cold.
A’duo curled her lip, baring fangs like a beast to intimidate him.
But fear uncontrollably arose in her heart.
If the sacrifice hosted by the Second Priest went smoothly, the High Priestess’s line would completely fall into disadvantage.
Others could leave, but she, as the chief warrior, had no chance of surrender.
The Second Priest had been “coveting” her for a long time.
(Going to pick up a new car today, tomorrow also going to future father-in-law’s house to prepare for the engagement, lots of things, running around, messing up my mentality a bit, owed several updates. Actually, the outline was written earlier planning to burst update, can only do it next month.)
(By the way, begging for votes!)
