novelThe Third Floor of the Stone Tower
| ← Ch.167 | Ch.169 → |
It was like an ancient knight storming into a bandit's den, or Zhao Zilong storming into the Cao's army camp alone.
At more than 80 meters long, the electric eel looked like a terrorist monster holding a long steel wire. The 120 crocodile dragons immediately roared in panic. They put their heads down and with their two horns in a straight line, dashed towards the electric eel.
When the electric eel was still more than 50 meters away from the crocodile dragons, the crocodile dragons saw only stars in front their eyes and a steel wire covering their heads. The crocodile dragons, of course, did not know the power of the steel wire and they continued charging like cattle.
Boom!
A bright blue light burst out from the electric eel and was immediately transmitted to the wire where it spread like a virus.
Ang... Ang... Ang... Immediately, the crocodile dragons were roaring at the top of their lungs and a crackling electric light burst onto their bodies. Because the voltage had formed a strong electromagnetic field around them, the crocodile dragons in contact with the earth formed a natural circuit where the charged steel wires clung to their bodies and could not be shaken off.
Steel wire could not cover all the crocodiles, but this group of crocodiles was unable to stop inertia. They knocked into each other one by one and were immediately electrocuted.
Crawling backwards at full speed while pumping out the high voltage prevented the howling crocodile dragons from crashing into the electric eel. After about half a minute, the electric eel stopped releasing the voltage and looked condescendingly at the crocodile dragons.
The ones in front, including the giant crocodile dragon leader, were lying on the ground, their bodies trembling once in a while. As for the crocodile dragons that were in the back, they sobbed and walked around but none dared to go near the electric eel.
Humph! The electric eel raised the front half of his body steeply and with his mouth wide open, he let out a haunting roar.
The electric eel was regal but the roar certainly was not regal at all. The roar was meant to shock the crocodile dragons and make them surrender. The crocodile dragons immediately turned their heads and started howling while dashing into the lake.
Ho! Without further ado, the electric eel dropped the steel whip from his claws. When several crocodiles slid into the water, the eel gave them a lively "political lesson" in an aquatic setting.
It was not a problem for the electric eel to detect distances of up to two kilometers when his electromagnetic induction was fully released. The lake, which was 10 kilometers long and nine kilometers wide, was not deep. With a speed up to 170 knots, it wouldn't take long for the electric eel to survey the surroundings.
Within seconds of swimming, the electric eel tracked down a 30-meter-long crocodile dragon that was scared as h*ll to see the electric eel swimming in its direction.
Outwitted by the electric eel on the bank, it would not have a chance in the water. With just 20, 000 volts of high pressure electricity released by the electric eel, the crocodile dragon struggled painfully. Its body appeared to be stuffed with bubbles as it gurgled and rose to the surface of water.
The electric eel snapped his tail up, smashed it down and then tracked his next target without stopping.
He swept back and forth. Including the giant crocodile, the electric eel did not let any go. After raging for a long time, more than 120 large crocodiles all quickly ran away when they saw the electric eel, like when rats meet cats.
The jackal, though carnivorous, runs for its life when it sees tigers. The crocodile dragons, who were definitely not stubborn donkeys, had experienced the electric eel's attack three or four times and had imprinted in their minds that he was absolutely impossible to defeat.
The electric eel was tired and the crocodile-dragons were afraid. Chen Fan controlled the electric eel to climb onto the bank and curl up under the stone tower to rest. When he had rested enough, he would go and "impress" the crocodile dragons some more.
..................
At two o'clock the next afternoon, Chen Fan drove back to the dock, unloaded all the supplies in the trunk and secretly controlled the electric eel to swim to the dock.
After a few hours of mayhem the afternoon before, the crocodile dragons had transformed into good babies. With the electric eel in their territory, none of them dared to venture out. Chen Fan was going to dive into the cave in a sealed titanium alloy diving shell to visit the stone tower and make it a hiding place for himself.
The atmosphere there was about five ata. Humans in that pressure would easily suffer from decompression sickness; therefore, Chen Fan went to the diving equipment store and bought a diving helmet with a pressure-reducing valve seal.
The helmet was simple in construction and the only technology on it was an electric relief valve with a pressure gauge.
At five atmospheric pressures—the equivalent of 50 meters diving depth—the pressure change value was not too big. He only needed to adjust the pressure valve and slowly let the pressure inside the helmet slowly rise from zero to five, or descend from five to zero.
The sealed titanium alloy diving capsule had been completed. It was welded with titanium alloy steel up to 13 centimeters thick, which could resist the water pressure at a depth of 1, 000 meters.
The capsule was a ball two meters in diameter that distributed pressure evenly over every inch of titanium alloy. If there was a problem, the big electric eel could swallow it in his mouth. The only problem was that it would be just a little disgusting.
Stuffing everything into the capsule and then putting on the diving helmet, Chen Fan closed the capsule door from inside.
The diving capsule did not look good. It would definitely be looked down upon if seen by technical divers. It had no auxiliary equipment except for a bare iron case and there was no electric light in it, either.
The electric eel grabbed the diving pod and moved slowly into the tank. It then pushed the dock door against it and moved into the reef.
Arriving at the reef, Chen Fan deliberately controlled the diving speed of the electric eel to see if the pressure-resistant shell would have any flaws due to quality problems. Chen Fan, however, was clearly overcautious. There were no quality problems with the pressure-resistant shell, even when it reached the entrance to the cave.
More than 20 minutes had passed. In the narrow chamber, air gradually began to become turbid. The electric eel quickly swam through the kilometer-long channel and put the capsule in a place not far away from the stone tower. Chen Fan turned the valves from the inside.
Hiss... hiss... Due to the pressure, the external air immediately entered along the gap into the cabin. With a splashing sound, the helmet relief valve also showed a slight jump and started to work.
At five atmospheres of pressure, there was no discomfort except for the slight strangulation of the rubber seal on his chin.
Looking through the glass at the stone tower in front of him, Chen Fan was in complete dementia. From the electric eel's point of view and from the human point of view, there were two different kinds of feelings.
It looked tiny in front of the electric eel but huge in front of the human.
The surface of the golden stone tower was filled with the depiction of ancient times and the vicissitudes of life. Just like magic lines full of color, it was a kind of magic that made people feel unconsciously intoxicated by it.
He bit his tongue and struggled out of the dementia. Chen Fan sighed at the wisdom of the ancients. He briskly walked to the capsule and pulled out the sheets, tableware, benches, pots and pans, some articles for daily use and so on from it. The space in the cabin was too small, so Chen Fan did not dare to bring too much at once.
As the cave was never a dark space, he did not consider bringing the lighting equipment. However, electricity was a thing that people living in the 21st century could not leave behind, so Chen Fan was ready to bring a battery set on the next trip and then get a voltage regulator. He could then use the electric eel to replenish the battery's energy. In this way, he could use the electromagnetic cooker to cook food or use the computer to play some single-player games.
After moving the things into the stone tower, Chen Fan stroked the stone wall, admiring it. Someone must have polished the inside of the stone tower, as the texture was not as rough as he thought it would be. Except for being a little empty, the whole tower looked very good. It was very atmospheric and beautiful.
Stepping up the stairs to the second floor, Chen Fan wiped the dust off with a towel and then spread the bedding on it. He took the pottery on the stone table and placed it gently to one side, replacing it with modern white porcelain.
Standing from the window, which was half a human's height, he could see the blue lake in the distance. He could see the crocodile dragons rolling and splashing in the water. However, they were all far from the stone tower and were afraid to approach it because an electric eel, more than 80 meters long, was crouching at the foot of the tower.
It was quite a wonder that this stone tower could still exist today. The crocodile dragons, which were over 20 meters long, could knock down the stone tower with a savage blow. The stone tower apparently did not suffer this disaster and even after countless years of wind and frost, it still stood intact near the lake.
Looking around, Chen Fan withdrew his sight and began to look at the stairs leading to the third floor.
There were no windows on the third floor, so the electric eel could not see anything in it at first. Now he was inside the stone tower and was able to go up and see what was there.
Taking a deep breath, Chen Fan stepped on the golden stairs and walked to the third floor.
F**k, you aren't kidding me, are you?
When Chen Fan went to the third floor, he was completely speechless and stunned by what he saw.
At the entrance to the third floor, a mass similar to amber completely blocked the surrounding area, leaving Chen Fan standing and staring at the entrance.
Standing closer and smelling it, Chen Fan was sure that this was made by the accumulation of turpentine but because of time and the loss of water, it had slowly coagulated into this texture.
The crisp echo of his hand hitting the yellowish turpentine wall made him realize that the wall was not thick and could be broken open with a hammer.
Chen Fan, of course, did not run back to the store to buy a hammer to smash the wall. Instead, he ran outside the stone tower, picked up a piece of gold mica from the ground and walked back to the amber wall.
Bang!
Chen Fan clasped the mica stone in both hands and hit the turpentine wall hard at chest height. In the pale yellow turpentine wall there immediately appeared a fist-sized broken part with white powder falling down from it.
The damage caused by the chisel was about three centimeters thick. Chen Fan blew off the powder and again swung the mica stone at the same spot.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After gouging the spot seven or eight times in a row, Chen Fan finally chipped through the turpentine wall. The tapered damage extended to a diameter of 10 centimeters and a depth of seven centimeters.
The result after the chiseling was unexpected.
There was no colorful light coming from the small hole, nor was there any clutter coming into Chen Fan's sight. There was only a stream of water with a strong scent slowly coming out from the little hole.
The throbbing aroma, like a wine that was sealed for 100 years and like lilac flowers in early spring, made Chen Fan's cerebral cortex immediately perk up. It was as if he took 10 milligrams of 100% pure opium. His whole body was gently fluttering like falling clouds. It really felt like embracing a pillow and laying in bed.
To resist the airy intimacy, Chen Fan ran to the second floor. He tore off a piece of cloth from the bed sheet with brute force, took the bowl on the stone table and ran back again.
He placed the bowl underneath the stream and let the fragrant liquid drain into the bowl. When the bowl was half filled, he immediately covered the hole with the cloth.
Carefully holding the porcelain bowl, Chen Fan sat down at the stone table on the second floor. Chen Fan stared at the clear, colorless liquid that looked like water in the bowl.
What was on this third floor?
Was it a wine of the ancients?
Chen Fan remembered he had seen a news item that said experts of Xi An archaeology protected cultural relics. When excavating early western Han dynasty tombs, they unearthed 17 pieces of bronze, including two bronze jugs with 51 kilograms of Xi Han Dynasty wine.
It was said that when it was first opened, the whole room immediately smelled sweet and refreshing, except that the wine was a slightly different color because it was in a bronze vessel.
According to scientists, the two jugs of wine were so low in alcohol that they couldn't smell the wine's scent. A wine tasting master came to taste it and immediately gave it a thumbs-up. He said, "Sweet! The alcohol degree is not high. This is the Han dynasty highly graded grain wine!"
But here's the problem!
Although China was the world's first country to produce wine, winemaking so far was only about 2, 000 years old. Prior to that, ancient distillation technology had not developed, so they were unable to produce liquid containing alcohol.
This stone tower was at least 10, 000 years old. It was impossible for human beings at that time to brew such delicious, watery wine.
Chen Fan carefully smelled. It was not totally like the fragrance of wine—nothing that could be described in detail. Only one word could describe this and that was, "fragrant!"
Taste it? Such a thought arose in Chen Fan's mind but was immediately reconsidered. Being sealed for 10, 000 years, who knew what it was.
After dabbing a bit with his finger and then applying it evenly to a plate, Chen Fan began to see if it would evaporate.
Alcohol was a rapidly volatile substance. When exposed to air, it evaporated at a rate visible to the naked eye. Even if the alcohol content was very low, it would volatilize in the air.
After waiting for two or three minutes, the liquid on the plate did not evaporate. That meant it was not alcohol.
| ← Ch. 167 | Ch. 169 → |