About forty kilometers west of Tokyo, in the Tama River Mountains in Yamanashi Prefecture, 300 meters deep underground in Thunder Valley, there is a red underground river called "Aka Onigawa". Its temperature is close to human body temperature, and its color is that of blood.
The general red color is like a mixture of hematite and blood.
Hidden in this underground world are the remains of the mixed-race civilization of the Gods thousands of years ago. At that time, they built cities with bricks mixed with stone powder and metal, and cast a city with special metals containing bronze and iron.
A huge tower built a glorious ancient country.
However, time flies by and the years are ruthless. Under the huge disaster, all these have been completely buried. Those once magnificent buildings are now only ruins, washed away by underground rivers and changed beyond recognition.
The streets paved with metal square tiles have long been eroded by water flow, but signs of the past prosperity can still be discerned. Huge copper wind chimes are inlaid on the rock wall, occasionally being impacted by the water flow, in the claustrophobic space
It emits a low and distant echo.
And those iron houses were distorted and deformed by the squeeze of the rock formations, as if they were prisoners of time, frozen in that moment forever. They witnessed the prosperity and decline of the hybrid civilization of the Gods, and now only their cold outlines remain, telling the story of
Reminiscent of the glory and tragedy of the past.
Also in this underground place where chaos and order intersect, Yamata no Orochi, this weak "god", is now covered in white filaments and is swimming slowly in the Akagui River in an almost curled-up posture.
Or maybe walking around the streets of yesteryear.
Its body is huge and deformed, with eight heads each connected to a slender neck. The cervical vertebrae are like tangled vines, twisting and growing from different parts of the trunk, showing an unnatural beauty and a bit of a heart-stopping feeling.
fear.
The silver-blue shimmer flickers in the blood-colored waves. It is the group of ghost-toothed dragon vipers swimming silently. Their scales reflect the cold light in the dark river, and the python-like shadow also flashes in the blood-red river.
, which are the mutated basilisk and blind eel.
In the dark underground place, dragon subspecies reproduced at a rapid rate, and all became the food of Yamata no Orochi. The dragon viper group was completely suppressed by fear in front of the majesty of the ancient dragon, and they only deserved to share the leftovers left by the god.
At this moment, a sudden change broke the tranquility of the underground world. The Yamata no Orochi suddenly stopped swimming, and its eight heads seemed to be pulled by some kind of force, gathered together, and stared at an inexplicable appearance in the underground world.
uninvited guest.
There, a handsome boy sat on a rusted and broken bridge in front of him. Although his figure looked thin, he seemed to be incompatible with this dark underground world. His existence itself was a miracle, a kind of transcendence beyond common sense.
Harmony and abruptness.
He calmly took out a strong flashlight from his arms, and the beam instantly illuminated the eighteen dark golden giant pupils of Yamata no Orochi, causing the ancient "god" to shrink his pupils slightly. It was a kind of
It comes from instinctive vigilance and fear of unknown forces.
I saw its figure moving backwards, and the bone sword "Tiancongyun Sword" at the tail was naturally drawn out from under its body. The blade was shining with a faint cold light, pointing straight ahead. Its muscles were tense, ready to go, completely
It is a magical weapon that can be unsheathed and struck at any time.
It is hard to imagine that this deformed ancient dragon, which is fifty or sixty meters long, would actually look like a formidable enemy in its own territory.
Although Yamata no Orochi has long lost the ability to release word spirits, it can still control a wide range of elemental power by instinct. For example, it can create a major earthquake or tsunami, just like the 7.3-magnitude earthquake nine years ago.
Hanshin Earthquake.
This is the authority given to it by the holy bones that possessed it, turning Susano'o, one of the most powerful descendants of the White King in history, into a huge monster wandering outside the human world, infinitely close to the bloodline of the ancient dragon.
, but it is a sad existence that cannot completely complete evolution after all.
The surrounding ghost-toothed dragon vipers felt an unprecedented tense atmosphere. Although they did not smell any powerful bloodline power in the boy, they all stopped swimming and kept a safe distance. They seemed to be even cautious about breathing.
One person and one dragon, the two sides looked at each other like this. Time seemed to have frozen, and the invisible spiritual realm twisted to form bursts of elemental turbulence, eroding and shattering the nearby rugged rock walls.
Finally, it was the boy who broke the silence first. The ancient dragon text was like an ancient spell. The sound echoed in the red water. Every syllable contained irresistible power. It meant asking the other party if they wanted to conclude an ancient contract with him.
The eight heads of Yamata no Orochi swayed slightly, as if listening and thinking, and finally issued a series of long and deep syllables as its answer, but no outsider could know all of this.
…
At the same time, Kuimen in the Three Gorges was also a bronze city 300 meters underground. After a simple exchange with Zhao Qing, Constantine activated the central alchemy matrix. This city that had been sleeping for two thousand years was reawakened. Countless people
The mechanical structure begins to operate.
Because the emergency recovery consumes too much, he is currently staying in the house to replenish energy from the field of the alchemical matrix, and has entered a short-term dormant state. His whole body is wrapped in a white silk cocoon, and is guarded by Samson. And here is Zhao Qing
, and under the leadership of another dragon attendant, they took a leisurely tour of the city.
As she had expected, there was indeed a large space for alchemy production in the Bronze City. After passing through several portals guarded by living creatures, many small snake-faced sculptures were rotated and moved along the way. One person and one dragon finally arrived.
The factory area here.
Inside the huge factory building, bronze pillars supported the entire space like towering ancient trees. They were hundreds of meters high. Each pillar was engraved with intricate dragon patterns. Golden and silver light wandered uncertainly on the pillars, extending to the bottom.
The bronze wall on top looks like a living thing.
"There should not be much ore left in the city, and we need to find new mineral sources... Copper ore, iron ore, tin ore, lead ore, and mercury ore are all indispensable. If you have these minerals on hand, you can
Use the best price in exchange for the alchemy products in our city."
The 15-meter-long dragon spoke in a rough and unpleasant voice, quickly bypassed several giant pillars, and came to a sculpture of a snake-faced man holding a scepter. He spit out a silver-gray key from his mouth, and used his wings to
He gently grasped it with his hand and inserted it into a gap at the top of the scepter.
With a soft "click" sound, the sculpture's eyes suddenly lit up, and two bright rays of light intertwined into complex runes, instantly spreading through the alchemical circuits between the bronze pillar walls, activating the alchemical matrix of the entire factory.
, the blazing white light illuminates every corner.
The first thing that catches the eye is the armillary sphere-like three-dimensional multiple wheels. They are cast from more than a dozen bronzes with slightly different colors, and their surfaces are covered with intricate patterns, as if they are the epitome of the stars in the universe.
These wheels rotate slowly driven by the power device, making a low and rhythmic sound. They not only bear the important task of transporting materials and energy, but also seem to echo the natural forces of heaven and earth in some ancient way.
.
The giant alchemical furnaces are the core of the production line. They take on the form of Suzakus, but they are weird versions with scales and feathers. Their size is unbelievable. Each statue is hundreds of meters high, occupying almost half of the entire factory.
space.
Inside the furnace, flames burned blazingly, melting the metal raw materials put into it into a scalding liquid, but there was no trace of smoke. Only pure light and hot energy surged inside, overflowing from the translucent side screw cap.
Whenever the Suzaku Furnace spits out fierce flames, the upper and lower rows of protruding scales will flow out of the softened metal black mass and bright mass respectively. The former is the impurity in the ore, and the latter is obtained by purification.
of "fine gold".
Thousands of alchemy puppet craftsmen shuttled between the flames and light. They had different shapes. Some held iron tongs and skillfully grasped the red-hot metal ore in the furnace; some held carving knives.
, ancient dragon inscriptions are meticulously carved on the vessel that is about to be formed.
Others climbed and jumped onto giant hammering machinery and cutting machine tools tens of meters high, using complex joysticks and dials to control the processing process; alchemical reactors of different colors and densely distributed pipes
On both sides of the assembly line, numerical signals input remotely by craftsmen are received.
The movements of these puppet craftsmen are precise and efficient. They seem to be able to sense every subtle change and adjust their operations in time to ensure the production of the most perfect products. Everything is in order, as if the entire production line follows some ancient and traditional method.
Strict rules.
Zhao Qing jumped onto the walking path that was constantly rotating on the edge of the Huntian Wheel, and soon came to a production line that seemed simple, but was currently the main product. The spirally rising and falling reaction kettles poured down colorful unknowns one after another.
The solution, after a series of complex chemical reactions, becomes clear and transparent.
"This is the most needed rust-removing alchemical potion in Bronze City right now."
The dragon attendant turned his head and introduced: "According to the values ​​of the perpetual pendulum and the alchemy dial, this place has experienced corrosion for nearly two thousand years, and the oxygen has long been completely exhausted... Therefore, in addition to the requirements for rust removal,
, we must restore the normal composition of the air as soon as possible.”
Continuing to dig deeper, Zhao Qing quickly saw the production line of air separators, water pumps and other items. Their function is to maintain the environment of Bronze City, pump out excess water in the city, and extract pure oxygen for use in furnaces.
Pressure burning.
Next, she was taken to the core area of ​​the alchemy factory - the production line of mass-produced small alchemical cores, and witnessed with her own eyes the entire process of alchemical cores from raw materials to finished products.
I saw rows of delicate mechanical arms dancing in the interplay of light and shadow. They accurately manipulated various materials, from the initial injection of liquid metal into the mold, to fusion, compression, and reshaping. They went through countless processes of tempering and carving.
, eventually becoming alchemical cores that shine with strange light.
These cores are undoubtedly the pinnacle of dragon alchemy technology, equivalent to the status of chips in modern human technology.
Their material properties can spontaneously and periodically change over time, including hardness, toughness, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, etc., thereby displaying different functions and characteristics, making the complexity of mechanical processes increase hundreds of times.
.
Next to the production line of the alchemy core, Zhao Qing also saw the assembly lines used to manufacture various common mechanical parts.
Gears, bearings, connecting rods, bushings... although these parts are small, they form the basis of the entire Bronze City mechanical system. With the blessing of alchemy, they appear to be extremely strong and precise.
Zhao Qing noticed that, perhaps because of the Dragon Clan's pursuit of artistry, all large-scale devices and products not only have exquisite craftsmanship and perfect design, but also have exquisite decorations and patterns, mainly in the style of the Han Dynasty.
Influenced by local humans.
On a bronze musical instrument that automatically plays according to the rhythm of the alchemy production line, in the elegant and melodious ancient music, they are dancing with dragons and phoenixes, or are surrounded by auspicious clouds, and there are also jade rabbits, golden osmanthus, nine-tailed foxes, three-legged crows, and feathered birds.
To be continued...