The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 722 There's a Dragon Gate at the bottom of the sea? Can you take me to see it?

Dragon Palace...

The entire city fell silent for a moment.

Xuan Yuan, Wenxiu Gong, Moying Jun, Huanyue Ji—that is, the great mirage demon—several powerful demons, all instantly lowered their auras.

The young sirens were still chattering. A jellyfish, its tentacles twirling a small fish, was offering it to the rocky platform, where a flying fish and a lobster were jostling for space…

However, the pressure dissipated from the great demons in stages, and they quickly quieted down.

They lowered their heads, crouched down on the seabed, and quickly dispersed. Soon, a large area of ​​beach and rocky ground was cleared around Shen Le, and not a single little demon dared to intrude.

"what's wrong?"

The special affairs bureau guy who was in contact with Shen Le lowered his voice and asked. Shen Le waved his hand and pointed at Yun Kun.

The next moment, with a few whooshing sounds, long ribbons flew out from inside the ship, wrapping up the group of people, along with the equipment and goods, and packing them all back onto the deck.

Things have changed. Go to a safe place and don't stay outside!

Having just sent a few ordinary people back to the ship, Shen Le felt the pressure mounting. The Embroidered Crab, wielding eight metallic crab legs, charged over aggressively, then circled halfway before fixing its gaze on Shen Le.
Beside it, Mo Yingjun's soft body writhed, its tentacles spreading out, seemingly covering the entire "sky";
Although Princess Huan Yue did not move, she opened her seashell, and a faint silver light shone from the mirage pearl, illuminating the entire sea city as if it were another world.

what happened?
Is it forbidden to mention the term "Dragon Palace"?

Shen Le also quietly moved two steps to the side, ensuring that if anything happened, he could jump onto the boat immediately and let Yun Kun carry him upwards.

After ensuring his safety, he spread his arms wide, palms facing forward, making a gesture of "no hostility," and looked earnestly at Xuan Yuan:

"Madam, what's wrong? Would you mind telling me?"

Xuan Yuan's massive body paused slightly. The mirage pearl shifted with silver light, and Shen Le even saw a complex and unfathomable emotion in the shark's deep black eyes.

A moment later, she wagged her tail and swam away.
"This isn't the place to talk... Come with me..."

Shen Le and Yun Kun followed closely behind. The surrounding demonic energy fluctuations seemed to stagnate somewhat, becoming rather sluggish as they moved.

Shen Le followed Xuan Yuan across the plaza and swam deeper into the canyon, swimming further and further away, until the surroundings grew darker and darker.

A commotion arose behind them, indicating that the lesser demons had resumed their normal trading activities. Only a few greater demons followed silently, making rustling and crackling sounds.

As Shen Le walked through, he looked around in all directions, trying to memorize the surrounding scenery.

This canyon doesn't seem to be naturally formed; at least, there are many places where it doesn't appear to be naturally formed. For example, on several high platforms on the side of the canyon, Shen Le could vaguely see tall, upturned eaves.

For example, deep inside the canyon, there are several cave entrances of different sizes, all of which are neat rectangles, and the distance between them is also very regular.

At first glance, it looks like a palace or hall inhabited by humans; in any case, it should not have been naturally formed.

After walking a long way, the water around him suddenly became violent. If Shen Le hadn't immediately stood still and used his mental power to communicate with the water veins, he would have been swept away!
"Dragon Palace..." Xuan Yuan's voice came at this moment, carrying a distant sigh, echoing in the deep sea:
"The Dragon Palace is gone... It disappeared a long, long time ago..."

In other words, has this happened before?
Shen Le quickly turned his head to look. Xuan Yuan rose slightly, its fins swaying, and its enormous head tilted downwards, gesturing for Shen Le to look down:

"Look there..."

Shen Le looked in the direction she pointed. The canyon was already deep beneath the sea, but the place Xuan Yuan pointed to was even deeper than the underwater canyon, almost bottomless.

If it were the Jiaolong manned submersible, or the newly designed "Fendouzhe" manned submersible, it could probably explore to that depth.

However, it's not necessarily true. Although the Striver can dive to depths of 10,000 meters, it may not be able to withstand the changes in spiritual energy and the remaining power of the Dragon Palace.
Shen Le sighed silently, channeling the heat to his eyes and straining to look downwards. Upon looking, he immediately noticed something unusual:

In the almost bottomless abyss, multicolored lights drifted back and forth like the aurora borealis. Red, orange, yellow, and green intertwined, clashing and surging, occasionally emitting tiny explosions—

"Down there? The Dragon Palace?! -- Have you ever been down there? What's down there?"

"No. I didn't." Xuan Yuan glanced down, then retreated several feet in awe.
“I don’t have any, neither does Master Wenxiu, none of us have any—this is not a place we can go down to…”

Her voice was indistinct, as if the deep-seated fear had traveled through time and was firmly etched into her.

Behind him, a rustling sound appeared, and an old tortoise, ten times larger than the hawksbill turtle Shen Le had seen in the South China Sea, with strange patterns covering its shell, crawled over and approached Shen Le.
“I heard my father say that… my father, and his father, said that this place was once the site of the Dragon Palace.”

At that time, my father's father's father served in the Dragon Palace, counting the fish for the Dragon King. It was because of the Dragon King's reward that our clan was able to produce my father and me one after another..."

Ah, it seems this group of sea turtles didn't even reach the level of a turtle prime minister... at most they're just low-ranking civil officials or something.

But then again, he can't even say "grandfather" or "great-grandfather," and can only say "father's father's father." With that level of education, he should be thankful if he can become a low-level civil servant.
Shen Le nodded to it and bowed slightly:

"And then what? Did you... your father's father's father, attain immortality?"

"...I don't know." The old tortoise remained silent for a long while before softly saying:

“My father’s father said that one day, his father disappeared… The Dragon King, his sons and grandsons, all disappeared. The entire Dragon Palace was gone, not even the palaces were left…”

"there is none left?!"

Shen Le was surprised: Does the Dragon Palace include the ability to ascend to immortality? Does the Dragon King take his dragon sons and grandsons, along with his shrimp soldiers and crab generals, and also pack up the Dragon Palace to take with him when he runs away?
As he spoke, he unleashed his spiritual power, straining downwards. Ten zhang, one hundred zhang, two hundred zhang, five hundred zhang…

After descending an unknown number of feet, suddenly, a chaotic and sharp force, like a giant turbine, began to spin, instantly ensnaring Shen Le's mental energy.

Caught off guard, Shen Le was twisted and severed by that force, and he fell forward, almost flying out of the air.

Just then, Xuan Yuan blocked his way, raised his tail and slapped it hard, causing dozens of colorful ribbons and countless strands of long hair to fly out from the skirts, desperately binding him.

That still couldn't stop him. Luckily, a huge, thick rope flew out from the side, wrapped tightly around his waist, and tied him back to the side of the boat.

Shen Le slowly landed, reached up and wiped his nose; blood was already gushing out, and his head was throbbing with pain.

"Well……"

"We can't go down there!" The sound of splashing water and muffled shouts came together:
"My great-great-great-grandfather... went down to investigate once, with eight clones, and killed seven of them, but still couldn't reach the bottom! If he didn't have clones, he would have been finished long ago!"

What kind of monster can create clones...? A flash of colorful light followed, and seven or eight healing spells rained down on him, finally calming Shen Le down a little. Looking down, he saw a bright blue ring around his waist, expanding, shrinking, expanding again, shrinking again...

"Mo Yingjun..." He didn't dare to move an inch, not even daring to raise a finger, leaving the slightest gap between his hands and body:
"I'm alright, let me go..."

With a whoosh, the enormous rope...tentacle... swiftly retracted. Shen Le let out a soft sigh of relief, finally relaxing a little:
Sure enough, it must be an octopus demon, or a cephalopod demon, that is best at creating various clones to explore and then send the information back!

If it were a shellfish, crab, or other vertebrate that became sentient and created multiple clones, it would probably die...

"Did your...dear ancestors see or hear anything back then?"

He asked with a hint of awe. Mo Yingjun paused for a moment, then the bright blue ring flashed even faster:

He said there were still some things down there... crooked, slanted, pitted, broken...

The more things there are, the more dangerous it is. Several of his clones were inexplicably killed in places with such things...

Alchemy room?

Armory?
The foundation of formations?
Shen Le guessed several possibilities, but to no avail. The inheritance of monsters is not as good as that of humans; as it is passed down orally from generation to generation, too much information is lost.

Unlike humans, even if the people who erected the barrier between heaven and earth have disappeared, the most valuable information is still written on the barrier so that future generations can understand it at a glance.

If you want to know where the East Sea Dragon Palace went, and where the dragons in the palace went, you might as well ask the Dragon Lord at the bottom of Poyang Lake; you might get more information that way.
"Ms. Xuanyuan, and everyone else," Shen Le clasped his hands in a fist and bowed in a circle to the surroundings.
"The Dragon Palace has vanished, what will become of you aquatic creatures...?"

“It’s very difficult…”

"It's really difficult..."

The great demons groaned in unison. An old fish demon with long, dragon-like whiskers swam closer and spoke up:
"The Dragon Palace collapsed, and the spiritual energy dissipated... The path of cultivation for our aquatic race has become far more difficult. In the past, one fish would awaken its spiritual power every hundred years, but now, it might not happen even once every two hundred years..."

His scales were damaged and dull, some even curled up, indicating he was indeed very old. He paused, then suddenly his whiskers twitched and swung downwards forcefully:
"But there is still a way! Although the dragons are gone, the Dragon Gate they left behind has not completely disappeared!"

"Longmen?!"

Shen Le stiffened, his back instantly straightening:

"Is there a Dragon Gate at the bottom of the sea?"

All he knew was that at the border of Shanxi and Shaanxi, there was a Dragon Gate on the Yellow River, with towering cliffs and surging waters, a vital passage since ancient times.

According to ancient legend, carp leaped upstream here, transformed into a real dragon, and flew away with their tails burning—could there be a Dragon Gate in the sea, a passage left by the Dragon Palace for aquatic creatures?

“It’s not a real door,” Xuan Yuan explained.

"It's not that you can actually turn into a dragon... It's like when the Dragon Palace still existed, you could jump over there and become a dragon. But, if you went there once and came back alive, you would become much stronger!"

“Yes! Yes!” the other monsters echoed.
"That place is extremely dangerous! If a hundred people go there, ninety-nine of them will be blown up!"

"I almost didn't make it back last time! I lost one of my clones!"

"I destroyed one of my mirage pearls and barely managed to escape!"

"But... although that place is a place where you're almost guaranteed to die, it's the only place where we ordinary aquatic creatures can glimpse a higher realm!"

Shen Le's heart pounded. For some reason, he suddenly recalled the strange sight he had witnessed near Ryukyu when the copper piece summoned him to fill the crack in the barrier between heaven and earth—

That time, countless fish rushed towards the crevice like madmen. Carnivorous fish didn't care about hunting, and fish that were usually preyed on didn't care about hiding.

As they race forward, they inexplicably grow larger and stronger. Further on, they begin to mutate and deform in a chaotic manner, finally exploding in the sea with a "bang"...

"A hundred years ago, I successfully made it through that place and came back, which is why I'm so strong now!"

Xuan Yuan gave his concluding remarks. Shen Le thought for a moment, then cautiously asked:
"Recently, in the vicinity—I mean the entire East China Sea—have there been any places similar to Lungmen? The kind where you disappear as soon as you appear?"

The sirens were silent for a moment. Then, invisible ripples spread far and wide, as if they were using various methods to send messages, inquiring about their clansmen and other lesser sirens.

Soon, feedback came back:

"Yes Yes!"

"That place is quite far... It's very, very far, all the way south and southwest from here..."

"It flashed by and then disappeared... I didn't hear anyone come back..."

"They're all dead...all of them are dead..."

Shen Le closed his eyes slightly. He was basically certain. He thought that this was another crack in the barrier between heaven and earth, probably mainly facing sea monsters and not affecting humans. The copper sheet hadn't urged him to repair it.

However, since we're already here—

He took a deep breath and asked as calmly as possible:
"Ms. Xuanyuan, everyone, I wonder where exactly that rift is? Could you show me around to see it from a distance?"

"no!"

"No! It's too dangerous there!"

"You'll die!"

The demons spoke in unison. The rings on Mo Yingjun's body flashed even faster. Shen Le helplessly shrugged:
"I will observe from afar, not approach. Wherever you go, I will go, but I will never come closer—"

He reached out and pulled out seventeen or eighteen jade bricks, five bottles of secret-recipe pills from the Special Affairs Bureau, five jars of spring water from a secret realm, and several strings of fruit:
"Please, please, can someone take me to see this? If you don't believe me, you can block my way and prevent me from moving forward!"

The demons exchanged words again. Finally, Embroidered Demon stepped forward, clicking her pincers a few times:

"Honored guest, come aboard my back. Hold on to the coral on my back and never leave—as for your spirit, go straight back and don't come any closer!"

(End of this chapter)