On the way to the ministry area, Zhou Xuan confirmed the direction, but then became a little confused. What did An Guoqing mean? Was he not going to explore the sunroof?
Zhou Xuan was filled with doubt, but then he suddenly thought that An Guoqing was too cunning, and he didn't have Ma Shu's mind-reading ability to see what An Guoqing was thinking. It was possible that An Guoqing had been lying before and hadn't revealed the true location of the Nine Star Pearl. This was very likely true!
Since that's the case, Zhou Bin calmed down. If he asked the driver, he probably wouldn't say anything, or he might not know anything at all.
It wasn't convenient to give instructions to Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying at this time; these words had to be spoken when they were alone together.
When the car passed the lime kiln the previous time, the driver showed no intention of stopping, and the other car did not slow down either. It seemed that An Jie did not ask the driver to stop. However, after passing the checkpoint of the gold mining area, the driver drove the car onto another side road instead of the gold mining area that An Jie had taken Zhou Xuan to last time.
Zhou Xuan remained calm and didn't speak, but Wei Xiaoyu couldn't hold back any longer. Looking at the increasingly treacherous mountain road outside the car window, she asked the driver in front, "Brother driver, where are we going? Aren't we going to Sanmenhai?"
The driver replied respectfully, "No, Mr. An only instructed me to take Mr. Zhou and the two young ladies to Black Dragon Pool to meet him. I don't know what they are going to do or where they are going."
"Black Dragon Pool?"
The name was obviously unfamiliar to Wei Xiaoyu, Zhou Xuan, and Fu Ying. They had no recollection of it and had no idea what Black Dragon Pool was!
But the driver didn't seem to be lying, and Zhou Xuan was certain of that. If he asked him again, he wouldn't be able to answer anything, so he could only wait.
Volume 1, Chapter 386: Exploring the Black Dragon Pool
The car finally reached the end of the road.
Two minibuses were parked along the riverbank. The driver of Zhou Xuan's minibus stopped the car and said, "Chairman An and the others arrived a long time ago!"
Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoyu each opened the car door and got out. Zhou Xuan got out of the car and looked around the place.
On both sides are endless mountain ranges, and in the middle is a river more than 20 meters wide with a somewhat rapid current. The riverbank is full of pebbles, obviously eroded by the water over many years.
Zhou Xuan casually picked up two pebbles, which were about the size of eggs and felt incredibly smooth to the touch.
The pebbles along the riverbank were so large that several people couldn't wrap their arms around them, and so small that they were smaller than a little finger. Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying also picked up a few pebbles and played with them, finding them very novel.
It was June, and it was supposed to be very hot. The car had air conditioning, but as soon as I got out, I was hit by a wave of heat. But now, by the river, there was a cool breeze coming from the water, which was even more effective than the air conditioning. I no longer felt hot at all.
Grandma An and the two drivers got out of the car. An Jie walked over to Zhou Xuan and said, "Mr. Zhou, Chairman An and the others are waiting at Black Dragon Pool ahead. It's about half a mile from here, but Miss Wei, Miss Fu and Miss Wei will need to change their shoes to walk this way!"
Zhou Xuan glanced at Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying and noticed that they were both wearing high heels. Walking this road must have been exhausting for them. Then he looked at An Jie and realized that she was wearing sportswear and sneakers, looking very neat and tidy.
However, Zhou Xuan was puzzled. An Jie was only asking Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying to change their shoes at this time. Where could they buy shoes in this remote mountain forest?
Grandma An smiled, opened the trunk lid, took out two new pairs of Nike women's sneakers and handed them to Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying, saying with a smile, "I don't know if they'll fit!"
Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying naturally wouldn't stand on ceremony. If they didn't change into their sneakers at this point, they would be making things difficult for themselves. However, they were surprised to find that the shoes fit perfectly. This was rather strange. An Jie probably didn't know the two of them, so how would she know their shoe sizes?
Zhou Xuan wasn't surprised. He had already experienced An Jie's intelligence. Indeed, as she said, this was the job of a secretary. If you weren't good at judging people, you would be fired sooner or later.
After Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying changed their shoes, An Jie and two drivers led the way. They had almost no luggage, except for Zhou Xuan who was carrying a backpack. The other five people were empty-handed.
Walking along the chilly riverbank, the coldness of the water grew more and more biting. Reaching the foot of the mountain and turning a corner, I looked up to see a mountain blocking my path.
Below the mountainside, the entire area is composed of gleaming cliffs. Below the cliffs, there is a circular pool of water. Fifty or sixty meters above the pool, a waterfall cascades down the cliff face, crashing into the pool and sending up plumes of steam.
Looking out over the edge of the pool, there were about ten people, some sitting and some standing.
This waterfall and this pool are the source of this river. Those people in front must be An Guoqing and his group.
It didn't look far, but it took about ten minutes to walk there. The pebbles along the riverbank got bigger and bigger closer to the source of the water, with some stones being at least the size of a house, which slowed down the walking speed.
Upon reaching the waterfall and the large pool below, the chill was even more biting. The spray from the waterfall felt like frost on everyone's skin, and they could feel the distinct cold.
The pool was quite spacious. An Guoqing's group of fourteen people and Zhou Xuan's group of six who had just arrived made a total of twenty people. Standing there, they looked like a few ants, incredibly small.
From a distance, Zhou Xuan looked at the waterfall pool and thought it wasn't very big, only about two or three hundred square meters in size. But now that he was closer, he realized it was much larger than that, definitely not less than two thousand square meters, more than ten times bigger than he had estimated.
An Guoqing smiled and said to Zhou Xuan, "Mr. Zhou, I'm sorry I haven't been able to explain it to you clearly. I haven't been able to come and keep you company these past few days because of these things!" He pointed to a large pile of items on the ground.
Zhou Xuan glanced at the equipment and saw that it was all diving gear. The diving suits were similar to those Fu Ying's family had bought in the United States, while the other items were even more advanced. It seemed that An Guoqing had really gone all out.
An Guoqing led Zhou Xuan and the others forward to look at the equipment he had bought. In addition to the sealed diving suit, oxygen tank, diving light, diving pressure gauge, and so on, there were some items that Zhou Xuan had never seen before.
An Guoqing smiled and introduced, "Xiao Zhou, these devices are not ordinary devices; they are imported high-tech new products. This type of oxygen cylinder can support a person to breathe underwater for up to six hours, and this diving suit allows stronger divers to dive to about 120 meters. Of course, there are even stronger people who can dive to more. These diving helmets contain communicators, which can be used to communicate through obstacles at a depth of 200 meters underwater. If there are no obstacles, the communication distance can reach more than 2,000 meters, which is more powerful than land-based walkie-talkies."
Zhou Xuan could also see clearly that these devices were not something ordinary people could buy. The diving mask also included an infrared dark vision function, as well as an underwater diving light with an ultra-long duration and ultra-large power reserve. These lights could be used continuously for twenty hours after being fully charged. If the diving light ran out of power, the infrared night vision mask could still be used.
However, although these devices are very high-end, they do not contain any underwater weapons, not even a single dagger.
Zhou Xuan had experienced the horrors of subterranean creatures during his two trips to the United States and Luoyang. Fortunately, he had the Ice Qi ability to protect him. If it weren't for his ability, even if he had weapons, he would still have died on those two occasions. Those things were not something that ordinary weapons could deal with.
Didn't An Guoqing consider what terrifying things might be underwater or underground?
Seeing that An Guoqing didn't seem too worried, Zhou Xuan immediately used his special ability to scan him again, and found that An Guoqing and the others really didn't have any weapons on them.
However, when Zhou Xuan was using his special abilities to detect people, he discovered two familiar faces!
These two familiar faces turned out to be the Wolf and Daniel brothers, the two German brothers that Fu Ying met during her trip to the United States!
Why was An Guoqing invited? I wonder if this has any connection to future history? If Wolf and the Daniel brothers had died in this dive, would that trip to America have been different? Would he still have been able to meet and fall in love with Fu Ying?
Zhou Xuan was somewhat confused.
Read books here. Eight of An Guoqing's group of fourteen people were his subordinates, carrying backpacks and supplies. The other five were diving experts he had hired. Apart from the Taifu brothers, the other three men were all Asians, and Zhou Xuan did not recognize any of them.
"Xiao Zhou, let me introduce you to these guests. They are all top-notch diving experts that I invited: Long Zhengjiang and his nephew Long Guo, who grew up on the banks of the Yangtze River; Zhang Ya Ge; and the brothers Tiff and Daniel from Germany."
An Guoqing introduced the five diving experts he had invited to Zhou Xuan, and then introduced Zhou Xuan to the others: "Everyone, this is Mr. Zhou Xuan, and he is my friend, Miss Wei, and Miss Fu!"
Long Zhengjiang looked to be about fifty years old, with a weathered face and half of his hair white. His nephew, Long Guo, however, was a dashing young man in his mid-twenties, full of vigor and vitality. Zhang Ya, who was in his thirties, was an extraordinary man who made a living by herding ducks. He was an excellent swimmer and often went into the water barehanded to catch big fish.