The atmosphere inside the underground cave suddenly fell silent. The frantic breathing of workers and soldiers echoed back and forth. If the material of these pillars was older than the oldest rocks on Earth, then the early history of human civilization written in modern academic textbooks was nothing more than a very neatly crafted lie. Xinghe stared at the base of the bronze furnace, which was made of rusted green metal.
On the bottom of the furnace visible from below, there was an incredibly complex circuit pattern of carvings. The pattern converged on a disc-shaped metal protrusion in the center. If one looked closely, the shape of the furnace's base and the layout of the eight stone pillars around it looked like a mechanism of a key and a keyhole.
This cave was not merely a landing pad. It was a receiving vessel. The furnace had anchored itself precisely in the position designed specifically for it. Suddenly, a loud cracking sound echoed from the cave walls. It was not the sound of stones breaking, but the sound of an incredibly heavy shifting mechanism. Ancient dust fell from the ceiling of the room.
"Aftershock!" shouted the military sergeant, immediately raising his weapon even though no enemy was in sight. "Everyone take cover near the dirt walls!"
However, the ground did not shake. The vibration originated only from the eight giant stone pillars. The surface of the Jiaguwen carvings on the eight pillars slowly began to emit a very faint pale blue glow. The light traveled along the carved lines like blood flowing back into dead veins. Chu Xinghe stood frozen. His eyes watched the blue light moving up the pillars.
At the same time, he felt his jacket pocket heating up aggressively once again. The bronze watch left by his grandfather was no longer just warm; it was literally burning his skin. Xinghe reached into his pocket quickly and pulled out the watch. The watch hands, which had been dead for two years, spun at a frantic speed, producing a mechanical ticking sound that rang loudly in his ears.
"Xinghe, what is that glowing in your hand?" Li Wei asked with a panicked voice, his eyes fixed on the bronze watch which now emitted an aura of golden-green light.
Before Chu Xinghe could answer, a very low-pitched hum echoed from the base of the giant bronze furnace above them. The disc-shaped protrusion at the base of the furnace shifted open, and the altar pillars vibrated violently. On the ground above, the five dragons and four phoenixes suddenly moved their bodies stiffly, making the ocean churn slowly once more.
The sound of giant bones grinding echoed through the earth, overpowering the roar of the excavator engines above. The military sergeant standing near the tunnel entrance immediately pressed his radio communicator in a panic.
"General! Target is moving! I repeat, target is active again!" the sergeant screamed, his face deathly pale as the falling dust grew thicker.
From the radio communicator attached to the sergeant's shoulder, sounds of gunfire and chaotic shouting from the troops on the surface could be heard. "Hold your positions! The black dragons are rising! Fire! Use the anti-tank rocket launchers!"
"This isn't a normal earthquake, Professor Chen!" one of the research assistants shouted while tightly gripping the scanning computer tripod that began to shift from its position. "These pillars are creating a magnetic resonance that is increasing exponentially!"
Professor Chen ignored his assistant's shouts. His old eyes widened behind his thick glasses, staring directly at the base of the bronze furnace which was slowly opening like the petals of a giant metal flower. The pale blue light from the eight stone pillars now became blindingly bright, dazzling the eyes of anyone inside the underground cave.
"This is a gate," Professor Chen murmured, his voice trembling violently. "An energy transfer mechanism. This thing isn't a weapon; this thing is a ship!"
"Everyone out of this room right now!" barked the commander of the military engineering squad. The armed troops began to forcibly pull the researchers and civilians who were still transfixed by the phenomenon.
"Xinghe! Run! What are you doing there?" Li Wei shouted from the tunnel entrance. The chubby youth was already halfway to the exit, but he stopped when he realized Chu Xinghe was not following him.
Chu Xinghe could not move. The bronze watch in his hand now emitted an incredibly bright golden-green light, resonating directly with the blue light from the stone pillars. His feet felt as if they were nailed to the ground. There was a very strong pull originating from the open base of the furnace above his head.
"I can't move my feet, Wei!" Chu Xinghe replied with gritted teeth. His leg muscles tensed against the invisible pull.
Hearing that, Xin Yan, who was being pushed out by a soldier, suddenly struggled and broke free. The girl ran back into the cave, ignoring the military sergeant's warning. "Xinghe! Grab my hand!"
"Don't come closer, Xin Yan! Stay there!" Chu Xinghe shouted in warning. This gravitational pull was not normal. He could feel the air around him becoming very heavy, as if he were at the bottom of the deepest ocean.
But Xin Yan did not care. She ran closer and stretched out her hand. The exact moment Xin Yan's fingers touched Chu Xinghe's arm, the pull from the bronze furnace surged tenfold. Xin Yan's body was instantly jerked upward, her feet lifting off the muddy ground.
"Aaaah!" Xin Yan screamed in terror, her hands tightly clutching Xinghe's jacket.
"Xin Yan!" Zhao Lin, seeing the incident from afar, suddenly felt his pride provoked. He could not let the girl he pursued die with his rival. Without thinking, Zhao Lin ran into the center of the room.
"You two, help me pull them!" he ordered his two guards.
The two guards hesitated, but they still ran to catch up with their master. Li Wei, Han Dong, Fang Hua, Lin Mei, and Yun Hai, who were still at the tunnel mouth, looked at each other with faces full of terror.
"We can't leave them!" Han Dong shouted. The school athlete ran fast, pushing through the line of soldiers, followed by Li Wei and the others.
"Get back here, you foolish kids!" the military sergeant shouted angrily, trying to chase them but being stopped by the increasingly wild tremors of the ground.
In the center of the room, the eight ancient stone pillars now emitted pillars of blue light that shot straight toward the base of the bronze furnace. When the eight pillars of light converged at the center of the open metal disc, a flash of silvery-white light exploded, illuminating the entire cave. The earthen altar beneath Chu Xinghe's feet cracked. Gravity in the center of the formation completely reversed. Chu Xinghe's body was lifted into the air.
"Hold on tight!" Chu Xinghe shouted to Xin Yan, who was now floating beside him.
Zhao Lin managed to grab Xin Yan's ankle just before the girl was sucked higher. As a result, Zhao Lin's body was also lifted. His two guards jumped and hugged Zhao Lin's waist, trying to hold their master down with their body weight. Han Dong jumped and managed to catch the jacket of one of Zhao Lin's guards.
Li Wei, running behind Han Dong, tripped over a stone and drifted forward, crashing into Han Dong's back. Yun Hai, Fang Hua, and Lin Mei, who were holding hands, were also sucked into the radius of the white light vortex. Within seconds, the group of youths was hanging onto each other, floating in the air against the earth's gravity, being pulled slowly toward the dark, gaping hole at the base of the bronze furnace.
"Help! Someone help us!" Fang Hua screamed, her tears falling heavily but moving upward, toward the furnace hole.
"Xinghe! What is happening to us?" Li Wei shouted with a hoarse voice. He closed his eyes tightly, his hands gripping Han Dong's belt until his knuckles turned white.
"This furnace is sucking us in!" Chu Xinghe answered, his eyes staring sharply at the giant metal hole above them. "This is an artificial vacuum. Do not let go of your grip or you will be thrown against the furnace walls!"
Down there, Professor Chen looked up with a gaze of horror and amazement. "That light... that is a distortion of space and time. That furnace is performing a biological matter collection!"
"Fire! Destroy the altar mechanism!" the engineering commander ordered his troops. Dozens of soldiers aimed their assault rifles at the eight stone pillars and fired brutally.
The sound of bursts of bullets echoed deafeningly. However, the sharp bullets stopped in mid-air, exactly one meter before touching the stone pillars, as if hitting an invisible wall, then fell to the ground without leaving a single scratch. "Firearms are useless!" shouted a soldier.
Above the earth's surface, the scene was far more terrifying. The military forces standing by around the impact crater ran in all directions. The five giant black dragons began to lift their heads, which were as large as train carriages. Their movements were very stiff, with the sound of incredibly loud bone snaps heard every time they shifted their giant joints. The eyes of the dragons were still tightly closed. They still appeared as frozen corpses.
There were no signs of life or blood flow. They moved solely pulled by an occult force from the iron chains binding their necks and backs. The four black phoenixes began to spread their wings, which sliced through the highways and surrounding buildings. The first flap of the four dead birds' wings created a wind storm as strong as a category-five hurricane.
Military trucks were tossed into the air like plastic toys. Dozens of soldiers and civilians who didn't have time to seek shelter were swept away by the fierce wind. The ancient iron chains tightened once more. The sound of metal grinding overpowered the sound of the storm. The dragons lifted their bodies from the mud of the Guangzhou coast, forcibly pulling the giant bronze furnace out of the formed crater.
"That thing is flying again! It's flying!" shouted Zhao Lin, who was still hanging below. Through the cracks in the cave roof, he could see the grey sky outside.
The ground shook violently. The walls of the underground cave began to collapse. Giant granite stone blocks fell upon the soldiers and research equipment below. The giant bronze furnace was completely uprooted from the ground, carrying along Chu Xinghe and his friends, who had now been sucked past the opening of the furnace base.
Once they passed the threshold of the metal door, the noise from outside suddenly vanished completely. Absolute darkness enveloped their vision. Chu Xinghe could not see his own hands, but he could still feel Xin Yan's grip on his arm. The room inside the furnace did not feel hot; instead, it was very cold and hollow. The air felt very thin.
"Wei! Han Dong! Zhao Lin! Are you still there?" Chu Xinghe shouted, his voice echoing strangely in the darkness, as if this room had no walls.
"I'm here! I can't see anything!" Han Dong's reply came from below, but his position felt like it was constantly shifting.
"Xinghe, I'm scared," Xin Yan sobbed beside him. The girl pressed her face against Xinghe's shoulder, her breath coming in gasps due to the lack of oxygen.
"Don't talk much. The air here is very thin. Save your breath," Chu Xinghe instructed, trying to remain rational. His hand still held the bronze watch, which was now the only source of light in that darkness.
The golden-green glow from the watch was only able to illuminate a one-meter radius around Xinghe and Xin Yan. The watch hands continued to spin wildly without stopping.
"What is that glowing object in your hand, Xinghe? Why is it shining?" Zhao Lin asked. The wealthy youth sounded as if he were not far from them, his breath also heavy with panic.
"This is my grandfather's watch. I don't understand how it works either," Chu Xinghe answered honestly. He was truly blind to the current situation.
"Then what is going to happen to us now?" Lin Mei's voice trembled from the darkness. "We are going to die from a lack of air in the belly of this thing."
Suddenly, a massive vibration struck the entire body of the furnace. Chu Xinghe and the others were tossed about like dry leaves blown by the wind in an empty room. Outside, the nine giant corpses had fully taken to the air. They flew straight through the overcast clouds, leaving behind the now-devastated city of Guangzhou.
The flying speed of the dead dragons and phoenixes far exceeded the speed of the fastest fighter jets ever created by humans. Friction with the atmosphere again created a glow of black fire enveloping the bronze furnace's body. They were moving toward outer space. Inside the furnace, air pressure suddenly returned to normal. A soft whirring sound was heard from the direction of the invisible walls.
A dim light began to appear, not from Xinghe's watch, but from the floor where they stood. Chu Xinghe realized they were no longer floating, but standing on a circular platform made of a dark crystal material. The room inside the furnace turned out to be very vast, much larger than the physical size of the furnace they had seen from the outside. The ceiling was covered in a thick, dark purple mist.
"Gravity is back to normal," Han Dong murmured as he released his grip on Zhao Lin's guard's jacket. He fell sitting on the crystal floor while catching his breath.
Li Wei, Fang Hua, Lin Mei, and Yun Hai fell around him. They were all coughing violently.
"What is that light?" Zhao Lin pointed toward the edge of the crystal platform.