Duncan fell into a short period of contemplation while listening to Tirian's story. After half a minute, he raised his head and said thoughtfully: "So, in order to satisfy her desire for exploration, she started a "Dive Plan", and the essence of this plan is actually not to explore the warp at all, but just... literally 'dive into the deep water,'?"
At this point, he paused, and felt that there were many strange things about this matter: "But if that's all, how can this plan be related to the Lost Homeland? The warp that the Lost Homeland went to and the deep sea that the Frost Queen wanted to explore are two completely different concepts. Those rebels should not be unable to even distinguish this..."
Tirian did not answer directly, but suddenly asked a question: "Don't you find it strange? If it is just diving into the water to explore the sea conditions deep in the city-state, how can it be called a 'taboo'? The port builders and offshore fishermen of the city-state often dive into the water for work. It is very common to dive more than ten meters or even dozens of meters in safe waters. Why did the Frost Queen's 'Dive Plan' become a taboo?"
Duncan's eyes gradually became serious: "... How deep did you dive?"
"Very deep. I don't know how deep the queen finally dived, because I am not a scholar. I only participated in some peripheral assistance as a naval commander, and I was no longer directly involved in the operation in the second half of the plan. But as far as I know, when the plan began to become... "Something is wrong. Before, their manned submersibles had reached a depth of at most one thousand meters underwater, and they were constantly breaking that record."
One thousand meters underwater...
Duncan quickly sorted out the knowledge he knew in his mind - on Earth, that seemingly insignificant number is actually not yet the maximum diving depth of many advanced military submarines, and the diving depth of most military submarines is only four or five hundred meters. As for these "extreme deep diving records" of thousands of meters or even nearly ten thousand meters, they are basically completed by special submersibles over a long period of time. The equipment requirements are extremely high, and often only unmanned equipment can be used.
At that time, the Frost Queen's manned submersible had not yet reached the "one thousand meters" threshold. Considering the industrial level of that world half a century later, even with the assistance of some extraordinary powers, this is still an astonishing achievement.
And behind this astonishing number... there is obviously something even more "astonishing".
Tirian had mentioned earlier that the plan was gradually becoming "wrong" towards the end, and Duncan did not ignore this word.
Duncan expressed his doubts, but Tirian just shook his head. "We also had doubts about this, but in the end we could not figure it out. And compared with what happened later... 'How the city-state floated on the sea, this question is irrelevant."
The huge city is placed on this "round cake".
"Of course, up to this point, this is all within our expectations. Exploring the unknown requires facing challenges in terms of willpower. Scholars who explore the spirit world and distant seas often encounter this kind of trouble. So we are still continuing, but we have strengthened the explorers' mental protection according to the most meticulous standards.
"Submersible No. 8 suddenly sent out a signal to slowly ascend, and then it emptied its water tank and rushed up like crazy. The explorer inside didn't seem to care that this rapid ascent would cost him his life. After rushing to the surface, the explorer went crazy. The hatch opened, and he screamed in the sun, as if he was desperately trying to describe something terrible to us. After a lot of incomprehensible and confusing words, he said the only clear words:
"What happened next?" Duncan couldn't help but wonder, "What happened next? What did they see in the deep sea?"
Frost frowned tightly. I didn't say anything, but slowly outlined the whole structure in my mind according to Tirian's description.
Structure--
As Tirian described it: The entire structure floats in the sea water.
"Of course, compared to the radius of the city-state itself, this pillar, which is at least 400 meters long, is actually still very long in proportion. Rather than being a pillar, it is more like a regular disc-shaped base.
A seat with an island on it.
"Yes, at least that's not the case with Duncan," Tirian nodded, "So what's the problem?" But after imagining this model, a huge doubt emerged in Duncan's mind -
"…Except for Duncan's dive, the conventional depth of human diving, or 'special depth', is 170 meters, and is confined to the coastal area - our project also ended at this depth, and it went smoothly until 800 meters.
"They all died here." "It was very dark under the sea. The sunlight on the surface could not penetrate such a thick body of water. The high-power lamps carried by the submersible could only illuminate a small area. In order to explore the appearance of the city-state island below and to avoid some individual creatures in the distant sea area as much as possible, such as deep-sea offspring, we let the submersible dive along the coast and move close to the offshore area of the island. I still remember the scene described by the explorer after he came up...
"The entire structure is floating in the sea water."
People in the deep sea era lived in city-states. Duncan initially had the impression that those isolated islands on the sea were crowded and small. But in fact, as fully functional and self-sufficient places of residence, these city-states were destined to have a certain "size basis". Although there were some large islands, the "base radius" of most of the big cities that could be named had reached more than ten kilometers or even dozens of kilometers. As the largest city-state in the Leng Leng Sea, its scale would not be smaller than this number.
It seemed that because he had answered a lot of questions and was not used to this kind of communication, Tirian did not speak for too long this time. He was lost in his memories and slowly spoke in his memories:
Duncan shook his head: "... No problem, go ahead."
"You said that the island is like a beautiful, smooth pillar underneath, covered with thick limestone sediments, and that some strange creatures live in the pits of the sediments. Apart from the 'pillar,' there is nothing around, only darkness."
The pillars beneath the city-state are actually only 470 meters long, and there is nothing below.
"Then they built the eighth submersible - due to technical limitations, the improvement of that submersible was far less than that of the seventh. It had to dive carefully to challenge the record of the seventh submersible. While diving slowly meter by meter, they discovered something.
“The problem came when we were challenging 1,000 meters from 840 meters.
Tirian sorted out his thoughts and continued his previous recollection: "This is the scene seen at a depth of about 800 meters, which is also the limit depth of the first submersible. After realizing that this depth is far from enough to explore the deep sea, the Frost Queen ordered scholars to build a second submersible. This submersible was very successful. It dived to a depth of 400 meters in one breath. Through the half-meter thick high-strength glass, the explorers saw... It was still a pillar, a straight pillar.
Surely every city-state is like that, a "floating object" without foundation, so how are they so stable? Surely the "stability" of the city-state itself is due to its large size, so how can the relative position of the city-states be so stable
Tirian paused and looked up into the Duncan's eyes. "Now you understand why I said it was more like a disk than a pillar?"
"Is there a pillar beneath the island?" Duncan interrupted Tirian. "Not a gradually expanding support structure, but a pillar?"
"Later... Submersible No. 8 continued to challenge the ultimate depth. It took us nearly two years to push this record from 470 meters to 470 meters. As you can imagine, during this dive, the submersible was gradually moving away from the city-state's 'base' - remember what I said at the end? In order to avoid problems in the open sea, we let the submersible dive in the 'offshore danger zone' close to the coast. During this whole process, the submersible was actually always close to the city-state and the city-state's underwater "structure", but as the dive continued, the explorer moved away from this 'base', and something was wrong.
He looked at Tirian, his eyes becoming deep: "I want to know the details of the entire exploration plan.
Situation—tell me as much as you were involved in.”
Corresponding to this huge underwater structure is its "base" which is "only" 470 meters deep underwater. When the explorers first saw the underwater part of the city-state extending straight into the deep sea at a depth of 800 meters, they intuitively imagined that it was a pillar reaching "to the bottom of the sea", but in reality, in terms of proportion, the shape of this "pillar" is more like a thin round cake.
Is this true in every city-state
“Hallucinations, visions, inexplicable lights in the water, someone knocking on the hull, and even someone turning the handle of the gate. The deeper we go, the more serious these situations become. Even explorers with special training and strong wills end up feeling tremendous pressure every time they dive, and the protective effects of the holy oils, sacred books, and scriptures they carry with them become less and less obvious.
Amid the rolling waves of the vast ocean, these "floating islands" have never changed their positions. Why is that