Chapter 66 - 65: The Secret Place Sealed Underwater and The Dilemma
Chapter 66: Chapter 65: The Secret Place Sealed Underwater and The Dilemma
"What is that?"
"Does it look like a building?"
"Could it be the shadow of some seaweed?"
"Why does it seem so short?"
Everyone chattered at once, their conversation filled with questions, but none of their companions could provide an answer.
Philier’s heart began to pound. He took the camera from the young black man and replayed the footage several times.
This time, he set it to the slowest speed.
Everyone watched intently, and they could indeed make out a blurry outline.
It wavered, distorted by the dimness of the lakebed and the fluctuating currents.
But they could roughly make out a pointed triangle, with the faint shapes of smaller, sharp peaks around it.
"That can’t be right... It’s not a pyramid, and besides, it’s too short... Could it just be a rock formation?"
"Or maybe it’s some kind of old sculpture?"
Someone else chimed in with a less optimistic idea.
After thinking for a moment, a girl suddenly had an idea.
"Maybe that area underwater is a basin, a really deep one. If we want to figure out what’s really there, we should go back down and search in that direction."
Her words were exactly what Philier was thinking.
From the moment he saw the footage, the only thing on his mind was going back down one more time.
"Exactly! Lisa’s right. We have to go down again. Let’s go now!"
Philier immediately tried to stand up to get back in the water.
But he was quickly stopped by his companions.
The visibility at the bottom of the reservoir was poor to begin with, and now night was falling. Besides, they were exhausted. It was too dangerous to go down now.
He was reluctant, but his companions were right. The underwater structure wasn’t going anywhere, but they only had one life to live.
That night, everyone tossed and turned, unable to sleep. They were all thinking, to some degree, about what lay at the bottom of the reservoir.
Philier had to practically force himself to sleep, counting sheep in his tent.
The next day, everyone woke up bright and early.
While perhaps not everyone was as worked up as Philier, the group’s shared passion was undeniable. Everyone was eager to investigate.
The oxygen tanks were filled. Five of the young men, fully geared up, slipped into the water.
It was difficult to get their bearings on the bottom, so it took them half an hour to navigate back to the vicinity of the previous evening’s dive.
There, an especially dark patch of water suggested a greater depth.
Perhaps due to the angle or the light, they still couldn’t see the fleeting outline from the video, even after reaching the area.
But after steadying their breathing, they dove straight down toward it without a moment’s hesitation.
Even their high-powered flashlights couldn’t penetrate very far into the gloom.
Schools of fish swam past, seaweed drifted, and the murky water churned with bubbles.
In these conditions, the divers were practically half-blind. A more timid person would not have dared to continue.
Philier, who was in the lead, made a hand signal to the others behind him, then gestured with his flashlight.
Everyone understood instantly. They focused their flashlight beams together into the distance.
Their hearts skipped a beat.
Not far off, tangled in seaweed, a building far grander than any other structure on the lakebed faintly revealed its form.
Even though it was still just a murky shape, they could vaguely make out the conspicuous spire, the small turrets standing guard around it, and its rich, ancient Gothic style.
A powerful feeling rose in each of their hearts.
’This is it! This is what we’ve been looking for!’
Their oxygen gauges showed about half a tank remaining. No need to surface for a refill. They slowed their pace and swam onward.
The closer they got, the more certain they felt they were approaching their destination.
Finally, they arrived before the structure.
Seaweed and moss covered the ancient stone walls, but they couldn’t hide the structure’s profound aura.
The original wooden Door had long since rotted away. The divers stared at the dark, gaping entryway for only a few seconds before pressing forward.
Other than a small school of fish that darted out in a panic, they encountered no surprises.
The moment they entered the main hall, they almost burst into tears.
On the wall directly facing them, a symbol carved in raised stone was still strikingly clear, even stained green by algae and moss.
Its dancing, fiery tendrils looked as though they had been burning for a millennium.
’It’s identical to the one on the map!’
They stared in a daze. Then, as if on a Pilgrimage, they slowly turned, gazing at the walls and ceiling around them, as if they could see the legendary figures who had walked these halls countless ages ago.
...
On the shore, the companions who remained at camp were waiting anxiously.
More than forty minutes had passed since the divers went down. They were waiting for news, but also growing concerned. The tanks they were using had a maximum capacity of one hour; any longer and it would be dangerous.
SPLASH... SPLASH...
The surface of the water splashed not far away.
Those on the shore breathed a collective sigh of relief. The divers were back.
Philier spat out his regulator and bellowed excitedly toward the shore.
"WE FOUND IT! WE FOUND IT! IT’S RIGHT DOWN THERE!"
The people at camp were stunned for a second, then erupted into cheers and hugs.
That had only been a preliminary exploration; low oxygen had prevented them from going deeper. But that did nothing to dampen their soaring spirits.
While eating to regain their strength, the divers gathered with the others around a bonfire to watch the new footage.
When they truly saw the Dawn symbol of the Day of Dawn in the footage, the breathing of those gathered around the camera grew noticeably heavier.
They looked at one another and saw the same fire and excitement in each other’s eyes.
’Since the markings on the map were real!’
’Then...’
’...could it be that some of the descriptions on the Scroll, including Philier’s grandfather’s stories, were also...’
The expedition team spent the next two days at the reservoir.
Although the underwater Dawn Secret Place was complex, two days was enough time for them to explore it from top to bottom.
Unfortunately, areas that looked like they might have held books or records were mostly empty. Forget records—any furniture not made of stone had long since rotted away without a trace.
The interior of the building was filled with algae and fish nests, which left everyone feeling slightly disappointed.
However, their search was not entirely fruitless.
Although they didn’t find the "Lost Power" they had been hoping for, they did make discoveries on the floors and walls of some chambers.
They found a series of murals.
Analyzing the images, they appeared to depict scenes of legendary figures branded with the Dawn symbol, "driving out darkness" in various locations around the world.
The images also revealed a specific detail.
One mural depicted a ceremony: a robed elder at the center held a Scepter, using it to brand the Dawn Seal onto a person whose hand was previously unmarked.
All of this was recorded in detail.
Philier couldn’t stop thinking about his grandfather’s unfinished sentence from his deathbed.
Now, on the night before they were to break camp, he completed the sentence for his companions by the bonfire.
"Perhaps the Branding Scepter is still held by ’Dawn’—the real ’Dawn’!"
This success greatly boosted the group’s confidence, motivating them to continue their search, even if it meant relying on the even more dubious parts of the Scroll.
"If the stories about Dawn are true, then the dangers ’in the darkness of night’ must be real too, right?"
Driven by a sense of French romanticism, their imaginations had already filled in the gaps of Dawn’s thousand-year history.
The question a female member suddenly raised touched upon the very reason for Dawn’s name—it related to the most famous hoax of the century, a story that circulated among the organization’s members and also served as one of the cornerstones of the narrative Qin Xiaoxia had constructed.
"According to the files Oliers and the others ’found’ (hacked) last time, those government types probably still have no idea what’s coming, do they?"
Her words were met with a brief silence.
They understood the implication.
But should they, or should they not, give those government people a warning?
The group, already thinking of themselves as the "Successors to Dawn," was caught in a dilemma.
PS: Thank you to my reader, Wooden Pear Pagoda, for the 1,000 coin donation; thank you to My Harem of 3000 Are Not Human for the 500 coin donation; and thank you to readers Blood Race Night Blade, A Certain Super, and The Silhouette of a Fingertip for the 100 coin donations~~
That’s right. The first major event to make the world’s leaders take notice and confirm the existence of a hidden Savior Organization wasn’t Qin Xiaoxia’s first move, nor was it the strange incident in the United States mine. It was a group of dorky, delusional kids from France!