The Record of Unusual Creatures

4The Petrachelys descended silently and quickly into the water, leaving the storm behind. The footage from the external monitor was converted to several large holographic projections, which formed an immersive scene. It was as though the heavy armor around the bridge had disappeared, and they could directly experience the feeling of being in the deep sea.      1

The waves above them faded away and soon they could only see some light flickering from above, the endless lightning thunderstorm of Io illuminating the stars. The first new energy that the sirens of Io came into contact with in the "Air World" was lightning. But it was more than 1,000 years after Ewenna discovered the starry sky and the sirens experienced "sunlight" for the first time.     

Unfortunately, these historical details had been submerged in the surging waves of Io. Maybe no one would ever know again.     

As they got deeper into the deep sea, the turbulence of the currents began to calm down and the violent waves seemed to be isolated in another world. The darkness grew more and more heavily from all directions, but there was a wonderful sense of relief as the darkness poured in. Lily put her arms around her shoulders, jumped around Hao Ren and said, "Ah, ah… It's triggering my deep sea phobia…"     

Vivian pushed her aside and said, "Stop acting. Your simple brain can't even process such a complicated thing."     

"The deeper the sea, the calmer it is..." Shaqira sat at the front end of the bridge, gazing into the deep darkness. "When was the first time our ancestors swam up from the deep sea? Why would they think of leaving this safe and peaceful deep sea? How did it feel to see the storm on the surface of the sea for the first time? Were they surprised? Or terrified?"     

"Races with history can touch the path of their ancestors through their own history books, but even when we get back to our homeworld, we can only guess how we used to live here," the siren queen said and shook her head. "Now that I've returned here, there's no surprise, only emptiness."     

"Maybe you'll feel better when you see the remains in the deep sea. I think the relics there should be similar to the scenery in Nasaton," said Vivian as she looked at the siren queen. "Actually, sirens are better than those living on the land. At least you're trying to keep your culture and think about where you come from. Those living on land don't care about that anymore. For more than 10,000 years, everyone has lived like wild animals."     

Hao Ren looked at Vivian oddly and asked, "Vivian, are you sure it's okay to keep criticizing them like this?"     

Vivian crossed her arms and said, "As an elder and someone who's older than them, can't I be disappointed in them?"     

Hao Ren was speechless. He could only turn to the MDT and say, "Leave a detector for every kilometer we pass as we go deeper. We can't waste this chance. We have to do some ecological research on this planet or something."     

A hatch opened at the top of the Petrachelys and a small detector rushed out of it, leaving a tiny light in the deep, dark sea. At this moment, the spacecraft (maybe it's more suitable to call it a submarine in this case?) had submerged into complete darkness. Not a single source of light was present except for the light on the spacecraft. However, the spacecraft's external monitor was not built on a regular optical basis, so the darkness in the sea did not affect the observation of their surroundings. After the spacecraft descended deeper, creatures of odd shapes began to appear in the water. Some of them were slender fish, and some were like triangular crustaceans. These creatures had been living peacefully there for many years, but they were suddenly disturbed by a silvery-white monster from far, far away. They were frightened and immediately scattered in all directions. However, there were also some small, daring aquatic animals that moved closer to the Petrachelys. Perhaps they thought that this huge thing was edible?     

Nangong Wuyue looked at the scenery outside with eager eyes, moving her tail unconsciously and sayinh "I want to... go out for a swim."     

The siren queen and the other sirens were immediately intrigued by this idea. Sorma raised her tail happily and said, "Oh, that's a good idea! Maybe swimming in the water of our homeworld for a while would give us a different feeling!"     

Hao Ren tested the quality of the water there, confirming that there were no toxic substances in it. He then agreed to their request. The Petrachelys opened its door, and four slender figures quickly rushed out from it.     

Nangong Wuyue swam merrily in the water, dragging her long tail and circling the spacecraft. The other three sirens were curiously chasing the grotesque deep-sea creatures in the water. The faint glow of the Petrachelys shone upon the graceful shapes of the sirens. It seemed like a wonderful scene that only existed in a fairy tale. Hao Ren turned on the communicator and heard Nangong Wuyue's cheerful voice. "Hey! Landlord, these crustaceans are chewing on the spacecraft's numbers…"     

"Don't swim too far. Be careful and don't get lost." Hao Ren smiled and asked, "Katreina, how do you feel now?"     

"This water… It's incredible. I can feel a wonderful intimacy from it. I don't know how to describe it to you, but only a siren can feel the magic here. It's really good!"     

Shaqira sped down before she turned to the spacecraft and waved. "Light! There's light down there! We're arriving at the bottom of the sea!"     

The Petrachelys hummed and began to travel deeper quickly. A faint halo soon appeared beneath the ship.     

What appeared in the halo was a vast expanse of man-made ruins.     

On the flat expanse of the deep sea floor, the endless buildings extended as far as the eye could see. The buildings were of high and low heights, but they were distributed in an orderly manner. They were constructed in white and light green man-made material, and they had shapes like they were piled up with a variety of shells as well as corals. They looked elegant, exquisite, and full of inexplicable mystery. A large number of glowing algae shone between the buildings. These algae grew luxuriantly in the crevices of the buildings, which had been abandoned for more than 10,000 years. They emitted a soft, mysterious pale blue, and pale pink glow. The entire city of the sirens, and even the entire seabed was thus far from darkness.     

More than 10,000 years after the sirens' artificial lights were extinguished, the primitive light from nature had once again illuminated the deep sea.     

This was an ancient kingdom hidden in the deep sea. Its endless stretches of land almost covered the outer rock layers of the entire planet. The ocean over the kingdom was deep with an average depth of more than 10 km. The kingdom in the deep sea was far beyond the descriptions you would find in many fairy tales and myths. For a moment, Hao Ren did not know how to describe the place.     

All he knew was, when looking at this planet from the sky, no one would have expected such a lost kingdom to be hidden beneath the endless storms and greyish-blue ocean.     

"According to the database records of Nasaton, this place should be the capital," the MDT said as it matched the information. "Evadurant. It looks like the teleportation portal was opened in this place."     

"The energy environment in this place is really chaotic." Hao Ren turned on the radar and found that there was a large energy vortex in the area. However, there was interference from a strong background noise. "The two worlds must already be interfering with each other. The radar signals here are very confusing. It's like sleepwalking between two worlds."     

The MDT was operating other devices. "It should be around here. Start the conventional wave radar with optical observation. The whirlpool's so big, it's not going to be too hard to find."     

"Let us help you," the queen's voice came from the communicator. "Don't worry, if we encounter a dangerous situation, we'll return immediately."     

The four sirens swam in four directions to the depths of Evadurant (the ancient capital in the deep sea). At the same time, the Petrachelys also slowly began its search. The teleportation portal seriously interfered with the nature of the place. The distortion involved the origin of the world, so even if Hao Ren was navigating a super advanced spacecraft, he would not dare act recklessly.     

"Actually I can also help to explore…" Vivian muttered to herself.     

Lily looked at her in surprise. "Oh, Battie, your little bats can swim too?"     

"Can't you two just sit quietly for a while?"     

Suddenly, Nangong Sanba saw something on the holographic projection and shouted, "Look! What's that?!"     

The holographic projection immediately magnified the picture, and a huge, dark, strange object appeared before them.     

Hao Ren was shocked when the picture became clearer. "It's… a spacecraft?"