48 Hours a Day - Chapter 917
Chapter 917: Deep Sea Terror
Ten hours ago, Zhang Heng’s Shadow Wings disappeared. And there were still several monsters hanging on to his body. After that, he fell into the sea again under the influence of gravity. His presence had caused those monsters beneath him to go into a frenzied mode as if they were waiting for the carnival to begin. The moment Zhang Heng dropped into the ocean, they started to rush at him like they had lost their minds. In less than half a second, Zhang Heng’s vision was blocked. His arms, chest, back, and legs were covered by those monsters.
Since the other monsters at the back arrived too late, they had no place to hang on. Hence, they could only grab onto their companions. In the end, Zhang Heng was completely wrapped in layers of monsters. Betty Shell wouldn’t be much help in such a critical situation because the monsters were too close to him.
The thing that surprised Zhang Heng the most was that the monsters did not immediately attack him after they pounced on him. On the contrary, they carefully put away their teeth and claws. It was as if they were afraid that they might hurt him accidentally.
At the same time, they took him all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. He could not check on his dive computer because his vision was blocked, but he could feel that he was going deeper and deeper into the ocean.
At the same time, Zhang Heng was doing a rough estimation of the remaining amount of compressed air in his diving cylinder. There were probably only a few bars of air left now. And this amount of air was enough for him to breathe for two more minutes at most.
Even after he counted the time he could hold his breath, his circumstances wreren’t looking too good. Although Zhang Heng remained very calm, he had to admit that his chances of survival this time weren’t great. After another minute and a half, his breathing had become a little laborious. At this time, even if the monsters let him go, there was not enough air left for him to swim back to the surface.
But at this time, Zhang Heng had given up on struggling completely, and he was calm. He relaxed his body and allowed the monsters to take him to an unknown location. After about half a minute, he had finally stopped moving. At the same time, the monsters that surrounded him seemed to be reducing as well.
When the monsters wandered away, Zhang Heng saw the familiar scene again.
He is now back in the underwater palace again.
But unlike when he came here just now, he was now leaning back against the dome in the center of the palace. Not far away were the two empty thrones, and behind him were the huge astrolabe-like stone carvings. The group of monsters that brought him here had now retreated to one side. All of them were looking at him from a spot that was lower than where he was. It seemed like they were afraid that Zhang Heng would escape. Hence, they were still surrounding him.
Zhang Heng felt that they were overthinking because his dive computer was beeping frantically. The compressed air in his diving cylinder had been completely exhausted. In other words, Zhang Heng could not go anywhere. All he could do right now was to stay in this huge underwater palace and wait for his demise to befall him.
The good news was that he was not going to die alone. There were a lot of monsters nearby him. The bad news was that he did not get to meet the real masters of the thrones at the final moment of his life. Zhang Heng suspected that at least one of them had something to do with his previous encounters in that hazy seaside town.But now, it did not matter anymore.
Due to the lack of oxygen, Zhang Heng’s consciousness began to fade out. He looked at the huge astrological map behind him and wondered if it was part of his hallucination before his death. Zhang Heng felt that the astrological map was slowly turning.
He wanted to take a good look at it again, but his body did not allow him to do so. So, Zhang Heng used the last straw of his strength to remove the respirator from his mouth and closed his eyes. The next moment, Zhang Heng felt like he was back in his mother’s womb.
It was a feeling of unparalleled tranquility and security. He no longer needed to breathe through his nose and mouth. It seemed like there was an invisible expectation that connected him to the sea; the entire sea had turned into his placenta.
Zhang Heng even started to think that the sea was where he came from but not the land. The azure water wrapped around him gently. All of his pores were stretched out in the water
He had even forgotten how long the time had passed.
Initially, Zhang Heng thought that this was his final hallucination before his brain went through hypoxia. It was said that all life on earth was originated from the ocean, and human beings were no exception. When death arrived, the person’s soul would return to the place where it all started.
However, when Zhang Heng opened his eyes again, he realized that he had neither entered heaven nor hell. Instead, he was still staying in this underwater palace. The only change that he noticed was that the strong suffocation feeling caused by a lack of oxygen had disappeared. And it was replaced by the wonderful feeling of being able to breathe again.
Zhang Heng hesitated and then took off the mask on his head. And his eyes did not feel any irritation or discomfort. Zhang Heng saw that the half-man and half-fish-frog monsters nearby him were smiling when they saw him reopened his eyes.
However, they had no intention to open a way for Zhang Heng. They still stood in a circle, enclosing Zhang Heng in the center. At the same time, the astrological map was still moving slowly. And Zhang Heng felt very different as compared to when he came to this water palace earlier.
Zhang Heng vaguely aware that the changes in his body were most likely connected to the astrological map that was rotating behind him. It stood to reason that this astrological map granted him the ability to breathe and move underwater. Zhang Heng thought that he should wait here until the astrological map completed its rotation.
However, Zhang Heng sensed that there was an imminent threat getting closer to him. If he waited until the astrological map stopped rotating, the bad things that he anticipated would probably happen right after that.
hence he made a decisive decision and decided to leave this underwater palace.
He took out Betty’s Shell from his pocket. Earlier, he did not have a chance to use it. But now, it finally came in handy for him.
Soon the calm sea became violent, and Han Lu, that was saying in the hotel currently was notified by the front desk, telling her that a storm might hit the island tonight. The staff asked her to close all the doors and windows tightly.
Betty’s Shell would consume the user’s anger and create a storm at sea. However, no matter how powerful a storm was, the destructive power would reduce gradually at the deeper part of the sea until it disappeared completely.
However, Zhang Heng realized that he did not need to provide too much anger to his Betty Shell when he triggered its effect. And its area of effect had expanded from the surface of the sea to the bottom of the sea.
Zhang Heng could even direct the ocean currents to sweep away a couple of the monsters nearby him. And there was an opening that appeared around the encirclement. Zhang Heng seized the opportunity and quickly left the siege through the gap with the help of the underwater current.