"Your Highness!" A row of aboriginals in neat leather armor greeted him respectfully. Kuangsha Literature Network
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Ren Baqian nodded with a smile and looked at the short and strong young man at the front of the group. He seemed to have thought of something, and his eyes were filled with reverie.
He smiled and asked, "One Piece?"
"Principal!" The young man smiled sheepishly.
This young man was Chao Zhong, the freshman who almost dropped out of school after watching "One Piece."
"More than 10 years have passed in the blink of an eye!" Ren Baqian lamented as if he could still vaguely see the scene of that young man standing in front of him and saying that he wanted to drop out of school.
Although his great dream of dropping out of school to become a pirate king didn't come true, it planted a seed in his heart.
Now, that seed had finally taken root and sprouted.
After learning that the imperial court wanted to build steel ships to explore the sea, he volunteered to join.
"Introduce them." Ren Baqian smiled.
"Yes."
"This is the Conqueror, and that's the Conqueror. It's 142 meters long, 12.9 meters wide, 3,380 tons of displacement, 3,760 tons of full load, 19 knots of speed … It can carry 122 people … It has a top speed of 19 knots, a range of 12 knots, and can last up to 30 days …"
As he listened to Chao Zhong, Ren Baqian walked closer and reached out to touch the steel shell of the Conqueror. It was cold to the touch and had a little fishy smell.
After boarding the ship along the gangway, the view in front of them suddenly widened.
The blue ocean extended to the end of their line of sight and gradually turned black.
"How much do we understand about the troposphere now?" Ren Baqian asked as he looked into the distance. The troposphere was a sharp blade in this world's ocean and also a barrier that blocked the footsteps of humans and confined them firmly on land.
The troposphere generally appeared a few kilometers to tens of thousands of meters away from the coast. From the outside, there seemed to be no trace of it at all. However, a few meters below the surface of the sea was full of chaotic and turbulent undercurrents, as if countless hands were tearing at it. Ships that entered the troposphere were almost unable to escape.
Even steel-hulled steamships would find it difficult to escape if they were caught in it.
Needless to say, there were countless strange marine creatures in the troposphere, which were also a great danger to ships.
"The observatory's research institute has placed observation devices underwater several times. Although they soon lost contact with the strange water, it didn't mean that they didn't discover anything."
"I don't know what the undercurrent in the troposphere contains, but it has a slight effect on the signal. Also, the undercurrent is very fast. In a short time, the observation device will be swept to a place where the signal can't reach.
Under the ocean, there seems to be something affecting the water flow. We found many whirlpools underwater, which is an important reason for the formation of the undercurrent …
The ocean is very deep, and there seems to be a huge crack under the water ten thousand meters away, as if it was cut by a sharp axe … "
"At present, we don't know the extent of the troposphere. The detection range on the surface of the sea has exceeded three hundred kilometers, but it still hasn't broken through the troposphere … Moreover, there are turbulent undercurrents in the air above the sea beyond three hundred kilometers, and some extreme weather often occurs … The observation station has sent several drones to explore the outer area, but they were destroyed beyond three hundred kilometers."
Ren Baqian had already understood most of the situation, but he still wanted to hear more from Chao Zhong.
"Let's go and take a look. Let me see how good you guys are," Ren Baqian said.
"Yes!" Chao Zhong proudly ordered everyone to prepare.
"Have all of you learned how to swim?" Ren Baqian suddenly asked with a smile.
Chao Zhong's expression froze for a moment before he embarrassedly said, "I suffered a lot in order to learn how to swim."
Most of the aboriginals were landlubbers and had the temperament of a steelyard. They sank to the bottom once they entered the water.
It was fine if they were close to the shore as they could stabilize their bodies and walk out of the water. Otherwise, they would die.
This batch of Marine pioneers suffered a lot on this and drank a lot of seawater.
Not long after, the Conqueror sounded its whistle.
"It's actually moving!"
"Tsk tsk, it can actually move without sails and oars!"
"Relying on the waves … It's all thanks to the waves …"
Many onlookers on the shore were surprised to see the ironclad warship, which had been docked for a few days, suddenly moving.
The ship didn't go too far, only about nine kilometers away. When they turned back, they could still see the shore, so the ship stopped.
At this time, the ocean had already taken on a dark blue color, and a little further ahead, the ocean had already turned black.
"Your Highness, the troposphere is just ahead."
Ren Baqian nodded and stared at the surface of the ocean in front of him. Apart from the change in color, he didn't see much difference. Although there were waves on the surface of the ocean, it seemed relatively calm.
"Release the marker," Ren Baqian instructed.
"Get ready to release the marker," Chao Zhong immediately shouted.
A moment later, a red wooden ball with a diameter of two meters was released from the ship. This wood was very dense and didn't reach the bottom of the water after being thrown into the water.
Soon, Ren Baqian saw that the ocean seemed to be enraged. Although there weren't many changes on the surface, the wooden ball under the water began to move rapidly and irregularly at a high speed.
This was the effect of the undercurrent under the water.
In just a moment, the wooden ball suddenly shattered as if it had been hit by a heavy hammer. It turned into countless pieces of wood that continued to float in the water.
This was the power of the undercurrent. Under the power of countless undercurrents, it could even deform steel.
Huge waves suddenly appeared on the surface of the ocean, and a huge object suddenly emerged from the water.
It looked like an octopus tentacle that extended more than 30 meters out of the water. It twisted and swayed on the surface of the water, and there was a huge mouth full of sharp teeth at the top.
"This kind of 'piece of firewood' is everywhere under the water," Chao Zhong said. "My strength isn't particularly strong, but there are too many of them."
This wasn't a tentacle of a huge monster, but its body looked like this.
After finishing his sentence, he picked up a bow from the side, drew it, and nocked an arrow. An arrow pierced through the air and pierced the swaying tentacle, immediately creating a big hole.
Blue blood sprayed everywhere.
The surface of the sea suddenly churned, and the tentacle frantically slapped in all directions.
Even a big hole wasn't considered fatal to this kind of creature.
Compared to its body size under the water, the body size of this huge monster on the surface only took up one-third of its body size.
"A piece of firewood?" Ren Baqian turned his head doubtfully. This name sounded awkward no matter how he listened to it.
"Hey, this is what we call them in private. The people at the observatory call them heterogeneous leeches. "Chao Zhong laughed.
"Are there many of these things under the water?"
"Yes, they are everywhere."
"With such a body size, they should need a lot of food, right? Do they have so much food? "
"There are more marine life under the water than expected, especially those undercurrents. Although they are turbulent, they also suck in a large number of fish from afar."
"How do these things not get torn apart by the undercurrents under the water?"
Ren Baqian listened to Chao Zhong's explanation and nodded gently from time to time.
He looked into the distance and sighed. It seemed like there was still a long way to go to solve the mystery of the ocean.
However, this wasn't the most important thing. At present, the most important thing was to find a route along the coastline.
As for whether they could achieve their goal, no one knew now.
Although the ocean looked very deep, there was a troposphere outside and a coastline inside. There was only such a curved path for ships to pass through, and no one knew if they would get stuck by a submerged reef somewhere.
Fupin Chinese
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