Dragon Clan: Start by obtaining the Sett panel

Chapter 174 The Bronze City Comes to Life

"Is this... Norton's palace?" Ye Sheng stared at the surrounding scene with wide eyes. He had never imagined that a palace from a thousand years ago would be so... exquisite.

Yes, it is exquisite. Countless bronze statues are scattered on both sides of the passage, like guards protecting the emperor, and behind them are towering walls covered with incredible bronze objects. They are round in shape, surrounded by a circle of sharp structures like wolf teeth. The first sight reminds people that if it is thrown out, it will whistle in a strange arc, bite the enemy's neck and spin.

"Is this... a weapon?" Ye Sheng muttered to himself.

"No...it should be gears." Gu Ye signaled Ye Sheng to move away. Ye Sheng swam a little further away and finally took the entire wall in his eyes.

One, two, three... countless metal discs covered a giant bronze wall tens of meters high. The bronze teeth interlocked with each other like precision machinery.

"I now feel like we are swimming in a mechanical watch." Ye Sheng murmured to himself.

"My oxygen is enough for about an hour. How about yours?" Gu Ye looked at the meter in his hand and asked Ye Sheng.

"About 50 minutes left..." Ye Sheng said.

"Then let's hurry up... We have to find the real Dragon King's Tomb as soon as possible." Gu Ye swam towards the depths, but Ye Sheng stood there in a daze.

"what happened to you?"

"Look..." Ye Sheng raised his head and shone the flashlight upwards, looking up at the hole. The space was so huge that it seemed like a giant's palace. The dome was engraved with ancient patterns. They were the scattered branches of a giant tree, and the leaves and branches were bent into undecipherable characters.

"Dragon text?" Gu Ye immediately understood what the characters in front of him were, and Ye Sheng had already taken out the waterproof camera from his pocket, cut the dome into small pieces, and started taking pictures. At the same time, he turned on the camera on the mask and connected it to the water surface.

"Backup! Backup! This is an unexpected gain!" Mans rubbed his hands in surprise as he looked at the sudden images. This was the first time that humans had obtained such a huge amount of dragon text information since Nicholas Flamel.

Although it seems impossible to decipher for the time being, it is an extremely precious thing to the dragon clan who convey power through words.

Complex patterns continuously entered Ye Sheng's viewing window. These patterns reminded him of what he saw during his clairvoyance in the 3E test, but the patterns were even more complex. The leaves gathered together looked like human faces, but when separated, they were indeed ancient characters that had disappeared many years ago, rotating counterclockwise on the dome.

"It's almost time. The oxygen is running low... We have to hurry." Gu Ye urged Ye Sheng. He found that this man was just like other professors, full of desire for research. No wonder he insisted on following him in.

"Wait a moment! I'll collect some sculpture fragments here and bring them back, maybe there will be new discoveries..." Ye Sheng took out a folding knife from his waist and wanted to pry off a part of the statue on the side, but he felt resistance and a sharp pain in his arm.

"What are you doing?" Gu Ye spoke to Ye Sheng in a cold tone. Ye Sheng lowered his head and found that he had been by Gu Ye's side and had not left!

Moreover, the folding knife in his hand was about to cut the lifeline on Gu Ye's body. He didn't know when his own lifeline was untied. Fortunately, Gu Ye seemed to be prepared and grabbed the rope the moment it was separated from his body.

"What...what's wrong with me?" Ye Sheng was a little confused. He was clearly trying to pry the statue open just now?

"It should be because of those dragon characters." Gu Ye pointed to the dome and tied Ye Sheng's lifeline again.

"You take photos continuously, which is equivalent to reading the dragon text in a certain order. It will cause you to have clairvoyance and your mind will be out of control... So let's get out of here quickly."

"I understand..." Ye Sheng nodded and followed Gu Ye to swim inside.

In the dim passage, only the searchlights above their heads emitted a faint light. After swimming for an unknown amount of time, the two men arrived at an empty hall.

Unlike the European-style statues just now, the statues in this empty hall were only a few dozen centimeters tall, and could not be compared to the human-sized statues they saw when they entered the Bronze City.

The statue is wearing an ancient Chinese robe, holding a Chinese-style ivory tablet, and standing on a bridge-shaped bronze pole. He lowers his head slightly, looking respectful and polite like a nobleman, but his head is shaped like a cobra, with a slender neck sticking out from the collar of his robe, which is extremely abrupt.

"This is..." Ye Sheng was a little confused. He had never seen such a strange thing before. It looked like a human but had the characteristics of a snake.

"The statue of Deadpool..." Gu Ye was very familiar with it. After the bloodline is unbalanced, the hybrids will move closer to dragons, and the creatures closest to dragons are snakes. Most Deadpools will become like this.

"Deadpool?" Ye Sheng looked at the statue carefully. It turned out that the legendary Deadpool looked like this...

"It looks like we have arrived at the right location." Gu Ye spoke into the headset.

"Professor Mance, did you see that?"

"I saw it..." Mance said softly, looking at the empty hall on the screen.

"This should be... Baidi City."

"Baidi City?" Gu Ye recalled the word carefully. There was such a city, a city built more than two thousand years ago. It was still exposed to the air a few decades ago. Due to the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir, the water level rose and the main body of the ancient city was submerged. Only the Baidi Temple on the island remained.

The man who founded this city was named Gongsun Shu. More than two thousand years ago, in order to rebel against the legendary time traveler Wang Mang, he established his own country here and called himself Baidi.

"You mean...Norton is Gongsun Shu?" Gu Ye asked.

"No, it was someone hiding behind Gongsun Shu. Before Gongsun Shu proclaimed himself emperor, he claimed to have seen a dragon rising from a well and lying in front of his mansion. Chinese history records say that a dragon appeared in front of the palace, which was considered a good omen by Gongsun Shu." Mance said softly.

"Sichuan was in the west on the ancient Chinese map, and Gongsun Shu believed that his luck came from metal, which is white, so he called himself the White Emperor."

"If white means metal, then Baidi is the king of metal? It really fits the title of Norton, the king of bronze and fire..." Gu Ye said.

"Poor guy, he probably didn't know he was being used by Norton until he died. But why did Norton let Gongsun Shu build such a bronze city?"

"I don't know about that. If we want to figure out what the dragon clan is trying to do, we have to first figure out what dragons are and their relationship with humans. This is an academic problem. We can't come to a conclusion just by analyzing dragon fossils. We may have to capture a living dragon king and interrogate him." He paused.

"Tonight is an opportunity! Dragon King Norton hasn't awakened yet. The goal is to find his eggs, but if you can't, just destroy them!"

"He hasn't woken up yet? That's such a pity..." Gu Ye interrupted the communication with a hint of disappointment on his face.

He thought he would see the truly awakened Dragon King today, but he didn't expect that it was just an egg now. However... even if it is an egg, it still has the blood of the Dragon King. It will definitely be studied when he brings it back. It should be no problem to take some blood himself, right?

Anyway, Jörmungandr's blessing would allow him to absorb dragon blood. With just a little bit of the dragon king's blood, he should be able to awaken his ultimate skin. "Let's go. Your snake should be able to sense where the eggs are, right?" Gu Ye glanced at Ye Sheng behind him. It was a correct decision to let him come. If it was the eggs, it would be troublesome for him to find them by himself.

"Well, just now the snake stopped at a place that made it a little scared. Maybe it was the location of the eggs. Now I can feel that the place where the snake was circling is very close to me." Ye Sheng said.

"Let's go..." Gu Ye nodded, but Ye Sheng suddenly looked behind him with a dull look.

"Be careful!" Ye Sheng warned loudly.

"What?" Gu Ye turned his head and saw a snake-faced man sculpture floating beside him. Its silver-inlaid eyes were flashing, its fang-baring mouth seemed to have a mocking smile, and the sharp claws of its arms grabbed towards Gu Ye.

"Heh... you're overestimating yourself!" Gu Ye grabbed the statue's neck and crushed it mercilessly, but the next moment...

There were creepy sounds coming from all around, as if someone was holding two pieces of rusty iron and rubbing them hard against Gu Ye's ears. At this moment, similar sounds were amplified hundreds and thousands of times.

Only then did Gu Ye see that in addition to the snake-man sculpture behind himself, there was also one behind Ye Sheng, and it was pushing the lever on the wall beside it. A lonely silver light flashed on the dark bronze surface, as if it was blinking.

On the bronze walls all around, tens of thousands of bronze gears slowly began to turn. The sound of a huge bell echoed inside the cave. The rust on the bronze gears began to peel off, and they bit together and made a rattling sound.

Gu Ye raised his head suddenly. In the darkness, a huge bell of a shape never seen before rang. The bronze pendulum oscillated back and forth around the bearing. The snake-faced people on the bronze wall moved at the same time, raising the ivory tablets in their hands, bending their slender snake necks, and looking up at the dome, like an ancient pilgrimage ceremony.

This bronze city... has come alive! The snake-faced people around them dropped their ivory tablets and came to the two of them one after another, surrounding them.

"Interesting... You don't think these few things can stump me, do you?" Gu Ye assumed a fighting stance.

"No... they are not the biggest problem..." Ye Sheng's voice was a little dry, and his eyes looked towards the closed passage behind him.

"We're going to be locked up here."

On the water, Mance's face suddenly turned ugly when he heard this, and he quickly gave orders to the first mate.

"Reel in the line! Reel in the line! Pull them back!" The engine at the stern turned again, retrieving the lifeline of the two people.

"I'll go and deal with them, you see if there is any way to shut down this mechanism!" Gu Ye swam quickly, the water waves around him kept shaking, and the group of statues turned into pieces as soon as they touched him.

Ye Sheng tried hard to bend the lever back, but it was no use. The passage was still closing in at a rapid speed until Gu Ye smashed the last statue and the entire palace was completely closed.

"There's no tension on the engine," Selma looked up, the color drained from her face.

"Their lifeline is broken!"

"The lifeline is broken..." Ye Sheng looked at the lifeline that was cut off because the passage was closed, and a trace of paleness appeared on his face.

"There's no other way. We can only hurry to where the snake is." Gu Ye sighed and spoke to Ye Sheng, while untying the half-remaining lifeline around his waist.

"Professor Mans, you should be able to hear me, right? After we find the eggs, can you help us plan an exit? I'm counting on you now." Gu Ye spoke into the headset.

He didn't know how big this palace was, but if it was built in the mountains as the legend said, then Ye Shengdi's snake definitely didn't have such a large range. The only thing they could rely on was Mans's sound wave scanning and the school's cracking of the exit location, so that they would have hope of escaping.

"I understand. I will plan a route as soon as you find the eggs. Please be careful..." Mance nodded, and Selma on the side quickly contacted Cassel headquarters.

"Gu Ye, our oxygen is running low." Ye Sheng spoke only after Gu Ye finished the call. He already felt a little difficulty breathing.

"Ye Sheng... dragons should breathe with lungs, right?" Gu Ye asked suddenly.

“Yes… that’s right.”

"That means it can't stay in the water for a long time... In other words, there must be an isolated area of ​​water nearby where it can breathe." Gu Ye said.

Since he was locked up here, he has been thinking rapidly: if the Dragon King puts the eggs here, how will it breathe after it hatches?
In this underground palace, there must be a place where water cannot enter, which means... the place where the egg is can definitely breathe normally.

"So it depends on your snake to find that place." Gu Ye said to Ye Sheng.

"I understand..." Ye Sheng nodded, closed his eyes and carefully felt the snake's position, and finally got in touch with it again.

"Right there..." Ye Sheng just opened his eyes and pointed in a direction, but suddenly he froze and looked towards the dome.

"There shouldn't be any lights to light up in the water, right?"

"Are you scared silly? How is it possible to light a lantern in the water?" Gu Ye turned his head and looked at Ye Sheng and spoke helplessly.

"In that case...what is that?" Ye Sheng pointed to the dome in the distance, where two round objects shining with golden light were floating.

"There is also an unexpected gain..." Looking at the huge golden eyes, Gu Ye felt like he had met an old friend.

"But it is more important to find a place where you can breathe, so are you ready to escape?" Grabbing Ye Sheng, Gu Ye swam quickly in the direction he pointed.

At the moment when Gu Ye was holding Ye Sheng and swimming, a creature as big as a hill quickly rushed towards here, and the surrounding pillars collapsed. Ye Sheng finally saw the thing clearly with the help of the light above his head.

Covered with blue-gray scales, it is clearly a giant dragon!
"Zizizizi..." There was a sound of electricity coming from the communication equipment. Mans looked at the huge golden pupil that finally appeared on the screen. His face suddenly turned ugly and he kept shouting into the microphone.

"Gu Ye! Ye Sheng! Can you hear me?"

Behind him, Jiude Aki, who had already come up, fell to the ground. She didn't expect that this separation would end like this. Was it the Dragon King? Could Gu Ye and Ye Sheng come back alive?
"Hurry! Contact headquarters as soon as possible!" Mance could only urge Selma while clenching his fists.

Principal Ange, you have never made a wrong decision. I hope I can trust you this time...

(End of this chapter)