It's the same as on land. You stand by a river and you can see the other side, but whether you can swim across, whether you'll drown or be swept away by the current, is another matter entirely.
As Zhou Xuan descended further, he slowed his descent even down, feeling the pressure in the water with his body. At the same time, his superpower was probing deeper into the water. Of course, the underwater detection light was also on, and seeing the depth with the naked eye was a completely different experience!
The deeper you go, the smaller the area at the bottom of the pool becomes. The rock walls slope towards the center, so judging from this, it must be almost at the bottom.
However, Zhou Xuan's ability to probe downwards still couldn't reach the bottom. Looking at the depth gauge on his wrist, the electronic display showed 627 meters.
Adding the 200-meter distance detected by my supernatural abilities, the depth is almost 830 meters, yet we still haven't reached the bottom of the water!
Zhou Xuan was both surprised and astonished. If the pool in this abyss was so deep, then he must have wondered how deep it had gone underground!
Fortunately, Zhou Xuan was quite satisfied with his physical condition. Although he was worried and somewhat fearful, he did not feel uncomfortable, his heartbeat was normal, and he did not feel any pressure or discomfort.
In the past, when Zhou Xuan dived to the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean, he only reached a depth of 320 meters. However, at that time, his ice-energy ability had not yet increased dramatically, and his power then was less than one-tenth of what it is now, so there is no comparison.
Zhou Xuan's superpower is not much different from the level of martial arts training. Just like going to school, when his ice energy superpower first started, it was like being in the first grade of elementary school. But now his level can be described as university level. The difference between the level of university and the level of the first grade of elementary school is beyond words.
Volume 1, Chapter 397: A Lotus Bud Just Begins to Emerge – Seemingly Possible Yet Unattainable
As Zhou Xuan continued to dive deeper, he made a call to the people on the surface, but he didn't mention the depth he had reached, only that he was still searching.
After diving another forty meters, Zhou Xuan suddenly detected a cave entrance about 170 or 180 meters to his left. Since the underwater entrance was roughly parallel to his current depth, the cave was about 710 meters deep.
Zhou Xuan was so excited that he immediately felt immense pressure on his heart from all directions!
If this continued, Zhou Xuan could foresee that his body would be crushed by the immense pressure and he would explode and die. He immediately calmed himself down, withdrew his superpower, and protected his body. Only then did he eliminate the squeezing feeling of the deep water pressure.
Given the current situation, Zhou Xuan estimated that he could only dive to a depth of about 200 meters at most. At this depth, the creatures detected by his ability were flat-bodied fish, which were suitable for withstanding the enormous pressure in deep water.
Zhou Xuan swam in the direction he had just detected. Due to the excessive pressure, he began to breathe oxygen, which relieved some of the pressure in his body. After all, it was difficult to be distracted by two things at this depth while holding his breath.
Feeling a bit lighter, Zhou Xuan swam towards the cave entrance. As he got closer, he realized that the cave was about three to four meters in diameter, and water from the pool was flowing out of it, though not very fast. Judging from the flow rate of the waterfall above, this flow rate was not enough to reduce the large amount of water rushing down from the waterfall, so there must be another water outlet at the bottom of the cave.
However, Zhou Xuan, who is currently at a depth of 710 meters, has not yet reached the bottom even after exploring another 200 meters. It seems unlikely that he can reach the other underground river entrances, and he probably cannot withstand the pressure of water deeper than 1,000 meters.
Because the current wasn't strong, Zhou Xuan thought it best to go in and explore first. If he felt something was wrong, he should come back immediately. Logically, there shouldn't be any monsters or anything like that. If there were, they would have run out long ago instead of waiting until now. The only thing to worry about was whether there would be a waterfall like the one in the underwater river again. If he encountered that kind of environment again after going in, he would fall into that situation again and there would be no way he could come back here. Although this place was also a dead end, Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoyu were here. They were people he couldn't abandon. Even if he had to die, he would stay with these two girls.
But the best outcome would be for him to find the Nine Star Pearl, for everyone to escape this hellish place together, and then use the Nine Dragon Cauldron to return to a year in the future and go back to their original lives!
However, if he couldn't find a way out, his wish would be in vain. So after hesitating for a while, Zhou Xuan swam into the cave and used all his superpowers to probe ahead.
The water flowed naturally, gently and smoothly into the cave, without any rapids, allowing him to easily maintain his balance. The path ahead was almost parallel, and Zhou Xuan could detect that the underground river channel was still about two hundred meters away. Because it was almost straight, he was able to detect what lay ahead. However, after swimming three or four meters into the cave, Zhou Xuan discovered that his special ability could not penetrate the rocks here.
On the pool, Zhou Xuan's ability could probe into rocks up to a depth of five meters, but here, it could only probe into rocks a little over one meter. So, once his ability encountered rocks, it could no longer probe into deeper depths. In the water, however, it could be detected directly, but the maximum distance of his ability was only two hundred meters. This was the result of him condensing his ability into a beam. If he spread his ability out in a 360-degree range, he could only detect a distance of fifty meters.
Slowly moving forward in the underground river, to be honest, it would be a lie to say I wasn't afraid. In such deep water, having dived dozens of meters into the underground channel, if anything went wrong, I would truly be doomed. In such an environment, no one could turn back. Even the fastest diving expert would take nearly two hours, or even longer, to get back to the surface of the pool.
However, Zhou Xuan had a booster, and the power supply to the spinal support device was still full. He hadn't used it even once. When he went down, Zhou Xuan used his superpower to make his body heavier, so his descent speed far exceeded that of others. Even with the spinal support device, no one could reach his speed. But he couldn't swim upwards. He could only swim up meter by meter. The booster was able to work.
When Zhou Xuan swam to a distance of over 100 meters, he detected that the underground river had changed direction. His supernatural ability could not detect what was behind the bend, but the current was still gentle, so he was not too worried. He then tried the communicator, but communication with the surface was cut off here, as radio waves could not penetrate the rocks.
Zhou Xuan hesitated as he moved forward, feeling afraid. But then he thought that discovering this underwater cave entrance was already a major discovery, and their escape depended on this cave. If they turned back now, it would be a waste of all their previous efforts. Should they go back and bring everyone down to swim through this unknown underground river passage?
It's a very dangerous and unpredictable situation. Zhou Xuan can use his superpower to improve their physical condition, allowing them to dive to such a deep depth, but the problem is that the air in their tanks can only last for about an hour, which is the difficulty.
Of course, Zhou Xuan could use his superpower to help them last longer, but he also had to protect Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoyu. Under the same circumstances, he would only choose to help Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoyu. In this environment, if he had to focus on improving everyone's physical condition to help them survive, Zhou Xuan would probably have to exhaust his superpower, and he might suffocate in this deep water cave.
It takes more than an hour to dive down from the pool to get here, which will use up all the gas in the tank.
But Zhou Xuan had no time to think. He continued swimming forward. Now he could only keep looking for a way out. If he had no other choice, he would abandon An Guoqing and the other five people and only protect Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying to escape.
Zhou Xuan is not a kind person. He will only help others if it does not harm his own interests and there is no danger. The only people he would risk his life to protect are Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying.
Swimming to a bend in the current, Zhou Xuan carefully swam along the rocks to avoid encountering the same situation he had experienced at the top of the waterfall, so as not to repeat the same mistake.
However, after turning this bend, Zhou Xuan used his special ability to probe out and was suddenly stunned!
About ten meters ahead, the underground river branched off, one continuing forward and the other going upward. Zhou Xuan used his special ability to probe the direction; the underground channel that flowed forward was still filled with water, but the upward channel left Zhou Xuan puzzled!
Because Zhou Xuan detected that there was no water in the upward passage, it was empty, which was really strange. According to the principle of horizontality, at this height, it was not on the same horizontal line as the outside pool. Water pressure would definitely have flooded this place, but the place that Zhou Xuan detected was clearly empty, where air was present.
However, Zhou Xuan also detected that at the place where the air and water met, the air was filled with solar flame energy molecules, and the concentration was very high, far exceeding the amount of molecules in the well water of Poxin Village. It was also much more profound than the solar flame energy in Zhou Xuan's body!
Zhou Xuan was overjoyed. If he could detect the existence of such powerful solar flame energy molecules, then he must be not far from the Nine Star Pearl. Perhaps he could see it when he got there.
Zhou Xuan was extremely excited, but he tried to calm himself down and carefully swam over. When he reached the fork in the road, the hole in the water shone with a white light under the lamplight. There seemed to be an invisible, glass-like transparent substance blocking the water from flowing in where it touched the water.
If it were someone like An Guoqing, they might not understand, but Zhou Xuan did. The moment his superpower came into contact with this energy, he felt a sense of intimacy and excitement.
At this point of contact, it was undoubtedly the energy of the Nine Star Pearl that blocked the flooding and invasion of the water. Zhou Xuan could also estimate the energy of this underground water flow; it was an uncalculated pressure. Even if he used all his supernatural abilities, he could not possibly stop such a massive water flow from overflowing into the cave above. From this, one can imagine how strong the energy at this point of contact was.
But Zhou Xuan was also filled with doubt and unease. Such an energy setup could not possibly be the work of nature; it must have been the work of humans, or beings of a highly advanced civilization that he could not even imagine.
Zhou Xuan used his special ability to detect that this energy vent was not only powerful, but also had a temperature of at least 500 degrees Celsius. If it were a living being, no matter what kind of creature it was, as long as it passed through this energy vent, not to mention whether it could withstand the pressure of the energy, the high temperature alone could burn any living being to death.
However, Zhou Xuan possessed the power of the Sun's Blazing Flames, which originated from the same source as this energy. By using his special ability to protect his body, Zhou Xuan easily passed through the energy ring. After passing through the energy ring, Zhou Xuan was surprised to find that the cave in front of him was like the legendary Crystal Palace, with stalactites standing tall and all pure white. Every few meters in the cave, there was a white gemstone embedded in the ceiling.
From below, these glowing gems looked like luminous crystal lamps. Because they were so deep underground, Zhou Xuan knew they couldn't be luminous pearls. Most luminous pearls need to absorb a light source to emit light, and there couldn't be a light source at this depth. The only explanation was that these glowing objects were powered by some kind of energy.
Aside from the fact that the cave is natural, these glowing gems almost prove that this place is not natural. Coupled with the legend of the Nine Star Pearl and the Nine Dragon Cauldron, Zhou Xuan's heart became even more excited!
After walking a few steps, Zhou Xuan simply took off his hood. The cave became wider and wider, and the scenery became more and more beautiful. In addition to the luminous gems, there were countless diamonds and other gems on the cave walls, and their size was much larger than any natural diamond found in the world!
Zhou Xuan was stunned!
He could clearly detect that these diamonds were all materials from Earth. Apart from the luminous gemstones, he couldn't identify their material. Although these diamonds were larger than any other diamonds found in the world, they were definitely from Earth.
Zhou Xuan's special ability has always been limited to detecting matter on Earth. Of course, he may be able to detect some matter beyond space, but at least he cannot detect the Golden Stone and the Nine Dragon Cauldron.