When An Guoqing introduced the three people on Zhou Xuan's side, he didn't mention the "diving expert." He only said that they were his friends, clearly not considering Zhou Xuan to be a diving expert, but just a business partner.
Long Zhengjiang and Zhang Ya glanced at Zhou Xuan and his two companions, but didn't seem to care. Wolf, the Daniel brothers, and Long Guo, on the other hand, were very interested in Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying.
Daniel even gave a thumbs up and said in heavily accented Chinese, "So beautiful!"
Long Guo stepped forward with a flourish, extended her hand to Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying, and said, "Miss Wei, Miss Fu, my name is Long Guo, it's a pleasure to meet you!"
However, neither Wei Xiaoyu nor Fu Ying reached out. Wei Xiaoyu even ignored Long Guo, while Fu Ying simply replied, "Hello!"
After saying that, he just looked at the diving equipment piled up on the ground and ignored the dragon fruit.
Longguo was embarrassed but didn't dare to make a scene. Wei Xiaoyu's eyes were only on Zhou Xuan, so she must have someone she liked. Fu Ying was indifferent. These two girls were truly like celestial beings. I didn't expect to meet such beautiful women here!
Longguo squinted at Zhou Xuan again, but couldn't see anything special about him. He wasn't as handsome as Zhou Xuan, nor did he seem as dashing. He probably wasn't as rich either. What could possibly make such a beautiful woman like him?
Zhou Xuan completely ignored Long Guo's jealousy. This young man with no background posed no threat to him; he was just young and impetuous, unaware of his own limitations.
It was cold standing by the pool; Anjie's lips had turned a dark purple. And this was June! The water had just risen from the ground, so the temperature was probably very low, no more than two or three degrees Celsius, maybe even lower.
Zhou Xuan didn't feel much. The ice energy he used to have was cold, and the chill was of the same nature to him, so it didn't harm him. But his new superpower, the solar flame energy, was a powerful heat energy. After the cold and hot energy combined, his body felt more comfortable. Whether it was extremely cold or extremely hot, within a certain range, he didn't feel much.
Zhou Xuan used his supernatural ability to probe the pool. When his supernatural aura entered the water, he was taken aback.
His supernatural ability could detect things up to fifty or sixty meters away, but this probe didn't reach the bottom. Was this pool really that deep?
Zhou Xuan immediately condensed his supernatural power into speed, so that the longest detection distance could reach more than 200 meters. However, when he condensed the supernatural power into a beam and continued to probe, he was even more surprised!
The bottom of the pool in the center is only 80 or 90 meters deep, and the front half is only 30 or 40 meters deep. The middle part was carved out by the huge impact of the waterfall on the rock wall, while the bottom of the pool that is close to the rock wall is undetectable. The depth is also sloping into the foot of the mountain. Even after a detection distance of 200 meters, the bottom was not reached. Zhou Xuan did not know how deep it was.
Could this be the hiding place of the Nine Star Pearl?
However, Zhou Xuan immediately felt something was wrong. This place was hundreds of kilometers away from Poxin Village. If it was where the Nine Star Pearl was hidden, then where did the molecular aura of the Nine Star Pearl's energy come from in the well in Poxin Village?
However, there were no Nine Star Pearl energy molecules in the water in this pool, which Zhou Xuan found very strange. Look at An Guoqing, he was still admiring the pile of equipment, which had taken him a lot of effort.
"Mr. An, is this the place where we're supposed to explore the Nine Star Pearl?" Zhou Xuan couldn't help but ask.
An Guoqing paused, then looked at Zhou Xuan and smiled, "Little Zhou, I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you. This isn't where the Nine Star Pearl is located. The Nine Star Pearl is in Poxin River, Sanmenhai. We're here to test the equipment I bought. I had the first few skylights in Sanmenhai explored a few years ago. The deepest point is 110 meters. The first five skylights are interconnected. Three of them can be reached by boat, but the sixth and seventh are inaccessible to humans. We're going to explore those two places because they're funnel-shaped sinkholes. The distance from the air alone is over 400 meters deep. We've been to the bottom of the sixth skylight and explored it. The water depth there exceeds 150 meters. We can't dive any further because it exceeds our diving limit. Moreover, the instruments scanned it, and the distance extending further in is far more than 200 meters. We can't explore it!"
An Guoqing looked at Zhou Xuan with a wry smile and said, "Because we've already explored the previous few skylights, they weren't too difficult, and the water wasn't deep enough. If we tested them there, we wouldn't be able to determine the withstand capability of the equipment I bought. But this Black Dragon Pool, hehe..."
At this point, An Guoqing pointed to the pool in front of him and said, "This pool is unfathomably deep, and no one has ever gone down into it because the water is too cold. No one dares to go down, and no scientific research experts have come to investigate it either, because there are no necessary scientific research projects. No experts have come to explore it. According to the locals, there is a black dragon in this pool, which comes out to cause trouble whenever the water level rises or there is heavy rain. More than 20 years ago, a local girl jumped into this pool and committed suicide. The villagers rowed wooden boats in the pool for six or seven days to search for her, but they found nothing. The girl's body has never floated up again."
Hearing An Guoqing's words, An Jie was the most frightened. Already cold, her teeth chattered as An Guoqing described the terrifying situation. At this moment, none of her usual shrewdness and intelligence were visible.
Zhou Xuan then understood why An Guoqing wanted them to come here. The depth of the Black Dragon Pool suited him, and because it was on the surface, it was relatively easier to explore than underground rivers. Dark and unfathomable underground rivers were far more frightening.
Of course, Black Dragon Pool is not as difficult to reach as the underground river near the skylight, but it is just as terrifying, especially in the minds of the locals. This place is a forbidden area, and they are filled with nothing but fear!
Volume 1, Chapter 387: Danger
An Guoqing chose Black Dragon Pool for this reason: its depth is sufficient, because the underground river he intends to explore, the Sky Window, is over 150 meters deep, a depth most people cannot reach. The underwater atmospheric pressure would crush a person's heart. He specifically purchased a new type of decompression diving suit to test it in waters exceeding 150 meters in depth.
There is no sea here. If we went to the deep sea, it would be very convenient and easy to test it. However, although there are places in the ocean that are much deeper than Black Dragon Pool, in terms of being terrifying and difficult to explore, there are no underground rivers or places like Black Dragon Pool in the ocean.
Due to the limitations of inland rivers and underground currents, many diving equipment cannot be used. In fact, the best and safest diving equipment is the submarine, but it cannot be used in inland pools and underground rivers. Underground rivers contain too many unknown dangers, so in terms of difficulty and danger, these places are far more dangerous than the ocean.
To be honest, apart from the five diving experts that An Guoqing invited and Zhou Xuan and a few others, everyone else, including An Guoqing's men, those burly men, all showed the same fearful expression as An Lao.
Even if you surrounded these people with dozens of machetes, they wouldn't have this expression. But what they fear is the fear of the unknown. This dark, deep pool is like a demon hiding in the darkness, its mouth wide open, waiting for them to be devoured.
Black Dragon Pool, the name itself is Black Dragon, could there really be a black dragon inside?
An Guoqing waved his hand and was the first to put on his diving suit. He brought a total of twelve sets of diving equipment, but only nine people were going into the water, including An Guoqing himself.
Zhou Xuan didn't see Yang Huaiyuan, guessing that he was just working for An Guoqing and wouldn't go with him to explore the underground river.
Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying changed into their diving suits behind a large rock five or six meters high, while Zhou Xuan and seven others, including An Guoqing, changed into their diving suits on the spot.
The quality of these diving suits is similar to the batch that Fu Ying bought before. If a skilled diver is experienced enough, wearing these diving suits can generally help them reach a depth of about 150 meters. The more capable ones can go even higher, while ordinary divers can dive to over 100 meters.
In fact, among these people, apart from Zhou Xuan, the others, like Mu, can only dive to a depth of 60 or 70 meters at most if they are free diving. With diving equipment, they can dive to 120 or 130 meters. However, if they are in places like Black Dragon Pool or underground rivers, the chances of survival will be greatly reduced because water temperature and other factors will also reduce their diving ability.
If the water temperature is as low as in Heilongtan, ordinary diving suits won't keep you warm, and you'll be almost frozen. What kind of water can you dive in then?
After putting on his diving suit, An Guoqing instructed his men to be well prepared, to communicate immediately, and to be ready at any time. He also instructed them to maintain communication between those on shore and those underwater, so that they could be rescued in case of any accidents.
An Jie's face turned pale with fright. She was cold and scared, and said in a trembling voice, "Chairman An, you... I think you shouldn't go down. You've already spent money to hire so many people, so you don't need to take this risk yourself!"
An Guoqing smiled and ignored what An Lao said. What did she know? To be honest, paying a high price to invite these people was just to liven things up and lend them a hand. It's true that many hands make light work, but when it comes to diving ability, which one of these people can match him?
An Guoqing has a secret that none of these people know, and of course he certainly won't reveal it.
They put on a diving suit, carried an oxygen tank, and had a spinal cord support device.
A propulsion device can increase a diver's speed to a maximum of 120 meters per minute in the water. This propulsion device can be life-saving underwater. If a diver cannot withstand the pressure, they will not be able to swim at all. The pressure underwater can cause people to collapse. But the propulsion device is not a person. It can bring both the living and the dead to the surface.
This new type of diving suit can keep body temperature between 22 degrees Celsius. Of course, this also requires that the outside temperature not be higher than 60 degrees Celsius or lower than 0 degrees Celsius. Once the upper or lower limit of this temperature is exceeded, the function of the diving suit will be reduced.
At this moment, Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying also put on their diving suits and walked over with their hoods. Longbi smiled at Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying, then beckoned to Zhou Xuan with his finger, made a showing-off gesture, and jumped into the water first.
This dragon fruit is indeed a good swimmer; when it enters the water, there is only a tiny splash, just like a fish leaping into the water.
When Anjie saw the dragon fruit disappear into the water, she screamed in fright, covered her mouth, and took several steps back!
At this moment, An Jie finally lost her shrewdness and competence, and what remained was just the fearful nature of a weak girl.
Next, Long Zhengjiang and Zhang Ya went into the water, followed closely by Wolf and the Daniel brothers.