Chapter 337: The Underwater Civilization

Chapter 337: The Underwater Civilization

On the fifth day, the Dragon Ascendant Special Operations Team received a mission report from the Abyssal Squad, who had successfully located the oceanic rift.

The density of deep sea monsters near the rift had increased, leading to an intense battle between the Special Forces and the abyssal creatures.

Even a large deep sea monster over fifty to sixty meters in length appeared, causing significant damage to the escort warship.

After nearly an hour of fierce combat on the sea surface, the Special Forces managed to defeat the giant abyssal creature.

With the rift located, the Southern Theater Command immediately contacted Lu Heng, requesting his presence for the battle plan.

Now that the rift had been found, the next step was to destroy it, but as it was located deep in the ocean, a comprehensive action plan was necessary.

When Lu Heng arrived at the Southern Theater Command, officers and staff officers of various ranks were already discussing the plan of action.

Upon seeing Lu Heng, Li Guining waved him over and instructed his deputy to set up a chair beside him.

Once seated, Staff Officer Qi Jinghui pushed a laptop towards Lu Heng and explained, "This is footage captured by the Abyssal Squad underwater. According to the data they sent back, the rift is located 1200 meters below the surface, which is quite deep."

Lu Heng watched the video, and the scene matched his memory.

In the video, the ocean floor was pitch-black, illuminated only by the lighting equipment carried by the Abyssal Squad.

Then, one of the squad members activated a lighting skill, brightening the surroundings and improving the video quality significantly.

In the video, one could vaguely see a two-meter-long area where bubbles were gushing out.

The bubbles rose and spread, clouding the seawater and making it murky.

As the bubbles emerged, seawater was also sucked into the rift, creating a gurgling sound as if a giant beast was swallowing it.

While the deep sea rift spread the mist, it did indeed absorb seawater.

Not only seawater but also air would pass through the rift and flow into the abyssal world.

However, compared to the vast amount of seawater and air on Bluesphere, the rate at which the abyssal rift consumed them was not considered fast. It would take an incredibly long time for the seawater on Bluesphere to dry up.

Therefore, the loss of seawater was not a concern for this era.

The real threat remained the mist spreading from the rift, constantly compressing humanity's living space.

After watching the video and reviewing the report from the Special Forces, Lu Heng found that the data was satisfactory. All that was needed was to formulate an action plan to destroy the rift, and the mission would be considered a success.

The staff officers involved in the discussion had already proposed several plans, and they were currently debating which one to choose and how to optimize it.

There were typically two methods to destroy an abyssal rift: using spatial abilities to close the rift or employing explosive power.

For instance, Lu Heng's Second Stage Source Essence ability, Rift Slash, could sever the rift.

However, none of the Special Forces members possessed sufficient spatial abilities to damage the abyssal rift, so they had to resort to other methods.

If spatial abilities were unavailable, the primary method was to use explosives to destroy the rift.

The required explosive power to annihilate the rift was immense, at least on the scale of a nuclear bomb.

Moreover, different mediums required varying degrees of explosive power.

Generally, the higher the density of the medium, the higher the critical value of explosive power required.

In a vacuum, where no medium existed, the critical value of the explosion was the lowest.

Water, with its much higher density than air, required an almost highest critical value of explosive power among common mediums.

The Xia Academy had conducted relevant research on the critical values required to destroy rifts in various common mediums.

However, due to the stringent conditions required for the research, the obtained sample values were limited.

To achieve the desired blasting effect, the explosive power often needed to be significantly higher than the critical value.

The plan currently under discussion at the Command Center involved using nuclear bombs to destroy the deep sea rift, but the specific blasting method was still being debated.

Given that the medium was seawater and the rift's diameter exceeded two meters, the calculated yield of the nuclear bomb was quite substantial.

Due to the presence of deep sea monsters, the delivery of the nuclear bomb required the involvement of Marine Ability Users.

However, the nuclear explosion posed a significant threat to the Marine Ability Users responsible for delivering the bomb.

The Command Center was seeking a method to ensure the safety of the Marine Ability Users.

After listening to the discussion among the officers and staff officers, Lu Heng coughed and said, "I have another plan. Please hear me out."

His words quieted the room, and everyone turned to him with curious eyes.

In truth, Lu Heng could go there immediately and use Rift Slash to destroy the underwater rift.

However, with a diameter of over two meters, completely destroying it would be challenging and require multiple strikes, consuming a vast amount of Source Essence energy.

Furthermore, this is a mission for the Special Forces.

Lu Heng wanted the Special Forces to be capable of carrying out missions independently, rather than having to solve every problem personally.

Additionally, this would send a signal to the military's senior leadership to expedite the cultivation of Psionic Warriors with spatial abilities.

Thus, Lu Heng intended to provide the Special Forces with an alternative solution. He opened the Special Forces' files, verified the combat data of several key warriors, and then spoke:

"I've reviewed the abilities of several Special Forces warriors. In fact, by changing the medium from seawater to air, the required equivalent can be reduced to one-tenth."

"We can combine Jiang Shaoran's Tide Summoner ability, Jian Qing's wind control, and the abilities of several other warriors to create a direct underwater vortex, forming an air environment. Then, Chen Zihan can deliver the nuclear bomb to the designated location and detonate it."

After a discussion among the staff officers, they believed that this plan had a chance of success, but it placed extremely high demands on Jian Qing and Jiang Shaoran's abilities.

Lu Heng had confidence in Jian Qing's abilities, so he was certain this plan would succeed.

After Li Guining and several senior staff officers exchanged opinions, a decision was made to proceed with Lu Heng's proposed plan.

The plan was optimized and then orders were issued to the Special Forces at the front.

Now, all that was left was to wait for the report after the operation.

With the battle plan arranged, Li Guining stood up, patted Lu Heng's shoulder, and then walked out.

Lu Heng followed him into the adjacent office, sitting in the sofa area to drink tea.

After Li Guining's adjutant served the tea, he exited the room and closed the door.

"The Special Forces completed this mission beautifully, locating the rift in just five days," Li Guining praised.

After all, the Malacca Strait's fog crisis had been ongoing intermittently for half a year, and many developed countries, including the White Eagle Federation, lacked the capability to clear the fog, and they couldn't even find the rift point.

The Abyssal Squad within the Special Forces had located the rift point in just five days, which was already a significant success.

"We still need to wait for the final result; we can't consider the mission complete yet," Lu Heng said, maintaining his confidence in the Special Forces but feeling that they should be more rigorous.

"Once the rift point is found, destroying the rift is just a matter of time. If it doesn't succeed the first time, we'll just try again," Li Guining wasn't worried about this.

As long as this fog crisis could be resolved, using a few more nuclear bombs wasn't a big deal.

Moreover, after resolving this crisis, the Southern Theater would construct a naval base in the Andaman Sea.

In the future, Daxia could control the most important strait of Bluesphere.

Through this deep-sea fog mission, Li Guining had realized the importance of marine-type warriors.

If not for Lu Heng personally training this Abyssal Squad, even if the Special Forces were deployed, it would have been difficult to locate the underwater rift.

After all, ordinary marine-type warriors, without skill upgrades, even with underwater acceleration skills, could at most only reach the speed of dolphins. They would still be treated as snacks by the abyssal beasts in the deep sea.

It was only because this Abyssal Squad had Lu Heng's support that they were able to form underwater combat power in just a few days.

Therefore, Li Guining had been pondering a question these past few days: "Lu Heng, do you think we should vigorously cultivate marine-type Psionic Warriors?"

By "vigorously cultivating marine-type Psionic Warriors," he meant not just dozens or hundreds of individuals but the formation of an entire marine fleet.

After listening to his question, Lu Heng took two seconds to respond: "I believe we should vigorously cultivate them, and no amount of resource allocation would be excessive. The current number of marine-type Psionic Warriors is too small. Without resource allocation, it's difficult to cultivate a sizable marine warrior force."

The enhancement route for marine-type warriors had a very difficult starting point, requiring the Underwater Breath and Water Flow Acceleration skills from the beginning.

Of course, other similar skills could also work, but that wasn't the main point.

Because marine-type skill prices were generally not high, acquiring crystal cores for these skills wasn't difficult. The challenge was with the skill slots.

Two skill slots were required from the start, and these two skills had zero combat power on land.

In other words, to become a powerful marine-type Psionic Warrior, three initial skill slots weren't enough. Only with four skill slots at the beginning could one initially form a certain level of underwater combat power.

However, an Ability User with four initial skill slots already possessed top-tier aptitude. If they chose other enhancement routes, they could become top-tier Ability Users. Who would give up such an advantage to become a marine warrior?

Therefore, without a substantial resource allocation, very few Ability Users would be willing to take the marine-type enhancement route.

Li Guining's reason for discussing this with Lu Heng was to explore the future prospects of Marine System Warriors and subsequently decide on the allocation of resources.

Resource allocation was undoubtedly necessary, but the question was to what extent.

Li Guining wanted to discuss this very issue: "What scale do you think the training of Marine System Warriors should reach?"

Lu Heng pondered for a moment before replying, "The more, the better."

Li Guining was slightly taken aback by this response.

'The more, the better' implied that the more Marine System Warriors were trained, the better it would be.

However, humans were ultimately land-based creatures, and the training of Marine System Warriors wouldn't reach the point of 'the more, the better'.

Lu Heng's answer wasn't a casual remark but a genuine belief that the more Marine System Warriors were trained, the better.

This belief was because his memory contained additional information.

The event that influenced the path of Marine Ability Users was the Abyssal Descent, which began in June of the second year. From this point on, the role of Marine Ability Users would become increasingly significant.

Because... an undersea civilization would emerge.

Indeed, Lu Heng's memory clearly indicated the appearance of an undersea civilization, a wondrous civilization akin to Atlantis, an underwater world.

This undersea civilization first appeared in June of the second year of the Abyssal Descent.

However, when the undersea civilization initially emerged, it didn't immediately capture humanity's attention. It was only as the Abyssal Battlefield in the deep sea appeared more frequently, and the role of Marine Ability Users grew, that it gradually gained the attention of various nations.

It was for this reason that Lu Heng advocated for training as many Marine Ability Users as possible.

Regardless of the number of Marine Warriors trained, there would be a place for them to contribute.

Moreover, the Abyssal Battlefield's Summoning would be based on the Ability Users' capabilities.

Yuan Yaoyao was a prime example of this. Due to her Life Tree Vine route, she had been Summoned to the Siks Civilization multiple times.

When the undersea civilization emerged, the Summoning to the underwater world would also primarily target Marine Ability Users.

Of course, this was a preference based on abilities, not a complete exclusion of other skill types.

All this information was in Lu Heng's mind, but he couldn't openly share it with Li Guining.

After careful consideration, Li Guining asked, "You seem to place great importance on Marine System Warriors. Is there a particular reason for this?"

Lu Heng smiled and replied, "When I was in the Queldorei world, I heard some information from the Tree of Knowledge. There is an undersea civilization, and the Elven Race was once Summoned to an underwater world.

"If the Elven Race can be Summoned to an underwater world, then humans might also be Summoned there.

"When that time comes, the value of Marine System Warriors will become evident.

"Before other nations prioritize Marine System Warriors, we can proactively train a sufficient number of them to establish a powerful force in the underwater world."

Li Guining's eyes lit up as he listened.

He understood that if Lu Heng's information was accurate, it meant that Marine System Warriors would play a crucial role once the underwater world appeared.

Rather than waiting until then to train Marine System Warriors, it was better to start now.

After careful consideration, Li Guining nodded and said, "Your proposal is excellent. We should indeed initiate a training plan for Marine System Warriors."

Lu Heng's memory of his rebirth provided crucial information, and it also perfectly explained the source of this information.

As for whether this claim could be exposed, it was almost impossible.

To uncover this claim, it wasn't a matter of being Summoned to the Elven world.

Firstly, one would have to enter the Moonshadow Forest, gain the approval of Forest Elder Serien, enter the Tree of Knowledge's space, and then obtain the Tree of Knowledge's approval and cooperation for questioning.

Among humans, only one person could meet the Tree of Knowledge, and that was Su Muyu, the possessor of the Life Tree Vine.

Aside from Su Muyu, no one else could even meet the Tree of Knowledge, let alone ask it questions.

As Lu Heng pondered these issues, a piece of information suddenly popped up before his eyes, causing him to stare in surprise.

[Abyssal Battlefield: Summoning Countdown - 7 days.]



Shortly after, there was a knock on the door, and Li Guining's adjutant reported from outside, "Sir, the Special Forces have successfully destroyed the rift point underwater. Additionally, they have brought back information that six members of the Abyssal Squad have received Summoning notices."

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end