Chapter 525: Is the Dragon Hole a Prison?

At this moment, countless people were tuning in to Ning Fei's livestream.

Marine experts, casual onlookers, archaeologists, and scientific research departments alike.

Viewers overseas were also admiring this miraculous scene.

This was the South China Sea of Huaxia, home to the deepest blue hole in the world.

At this moment, the outside world was engaged in heated discussions about the event.

"He's already passed through the hydrogen sulfide layer!"

"Is he going to be okay?!"

"There's no oxygen beneath the hydrogen sulfide. It's completely dead water; no large marine animals could survive there."

"Not necessarily. The ocean still holds many secrets humanity has yet to explore."

Ning Fei continued his dive.

The seawater grew darker and darker.

A sense of claustrophobia washed over everyone watching.

This place looked even more terrifying than the Krubera Cave.

The netizens knew the seawater here was toxic.

Every passing second, Ning Fei faced immense danger.

Watching Ning Fei dive deeper on the screen, everyone instinctively tensed up, finding it a little hard to breathe.

Ning Fei, however, remained incredibly calm as he descended.

His Diving Suit was specially made. The seawater couldn't penetrate it, so the toxicity had little effect on him.

"I'm still inside the hydrogen sulfide layer."

"I'm not sure how deep this water layer goes."

"It's possible that this water continues all the way down to the seabed at three hundred meters."

"Or there might be a completely different body of water beneath this hydrogen sulfide layer."

Ning Fei said.

Hearing his voice allowed the netizens to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, this claustrophobic deep-sea environment was far too quiet.

It inevitably left people feeling suffocated.

His surroundings were pitch-black, devoid of any species, like a land of absolute death.

Ning Fei continuously swam downward.

"It feels like a prison in here."

"I don't think this is the place where Sun Wukong pulled out the Sea-Calming Divine Needle."

"Instead, it looks more like a place where the Heavenly Court would imprison a Dragon King."

Hearing Ning Fei's words, the netizens strongly agreed.

"This reminds me of the Dragon King from the movie 'Ne Zha'."

"It really does look a bit like it."

Ning Fei continued his descent, having now reached a depth of roughly two hundred and fifty meters.

Any further, and he would soon reach the bottom of the Yongle Dragon Hole.

Just then, Ning Fei's eyes lit up.

"Look over there! What is that?"

The netizens followed his gaze and saw that at the very bottom of the Yongle Dragon Hole, a small fish was actually swimming slowly.

Since it was the seabed, and the hydrogen sulfide layer blocked out most of the sunlight, the depths were incredibly dark.

The Bionic Tuna and the Bionic Flying Fish both turned on their lights.

Under the faint illumination, the netizens clearly saw a fish swimming along the bottom of the Yongle Dragon Hole.

"It's a fish! There's actually a fish at the bottom of the dragon hole!"

"That means the bottom isn't dead water! There's other marine life down there!"

"This is an absolutely massive discovery!"

The netizens burst into eager chatter.

Outside the dragon hole, the researchers at the Huaxia Oceanic Administration were just as shocked to see this.

"Temple Master Ning has discovered signs of life at the bottom of the Yongle Dragon Hole. Hurry up and record it!"

"The presence of fish at the bottom of the Yongle Dragon Hole proves that it isn't a pool of dead water down there!"

"This is a huge discovery!"

It wasn't just the Huaxia Oceanic Administration; even the personnel from the Huaxia Special Department were startled by the sudden appearance of the small fish.

Lin Tao said in a deep voice, "There really are living creatures at the bottom of the Yongle Dragon Hole! How did we fail to detect this before?!"

"Looking at it this way, it might truly be hiding in the deepest depths of the Yongle Dragon Hole!"

Lin Tao stared intently at the livestream footage.

Ning Fei had once again achieved what no one else could.

He had risked his life to dive into a deep-sea dragon hole filled with hydrogen sulfide.

Even Lin Tao couldn't help but admire such courage.

Ning Fei continued his descent.

The light emitted by the two Bionic Fish illuminated his surroundings.

He switched his specialized Diving Suit to infrared mode so he could spot surrounding creatures even in the pitch-black environment.

"It's obvious that the bottom of the dragon hole isn't completely sealed."

"There must be an underground undercurrent circulating here."

"Otherwise, covered by that thick layer of hydrogen sulfide water above, it would be absolutely impossible for any living creature to survive in this sea area!"

Through the infrared mode, Ning Fei spotted a few more scattered small fish.

These fish were extremely small, only about two fingers wide.

He guessed there had to be a tiny fissure along the walls at the bottom of the Yongle Dragon Hole.

A fissure just barely large enough for these small fish to pass through.

Thanks to the underground undercurrent, plenty of coral still grew at the bottom of the Yongle Dragon Island.

At this moment, Ning Fei finally reached the bottom of the Yongle Dragon Island.

The bottom wasn't flat; it was a complex, interlocking maze of coral reefs.

"He hit the bottom!"

"The deepest part of the dragon hole looks so terrifying!"

"Could there really be a dragon down here?!"

The netizens immediately grew nervous again.

At that moment, Ning Fei squatted down and gently pushed aside some of the coral reefs, revealing the true seabed underneath.

"Are these... stalagmites and stalactites?!"

Ning Fei exclaimed as he carefully examined the seabed's structure.

Several knowledgeable netizens were filled with confusion when they heard him.

"Stalagmites and stalactites? Don't those only exist in karst caves?"

"Yeah, just like the stalactite cave Temple Master Ning found in the Qinshan Mountain range before."

"Can there really be stalactites on the seabed?"

"Usually, stalactites take tens of thousands of years to form and basically never change after that."

"How did stalactites end up at the bottom of the ocean?!"

The netizens eagerly discussed the matter.

At this time, Ning Fei said, "These are indeed stalactites. I'll bring some back for the people at the Oceanic Administration or the Geological Bureau to study."

"The presence of stalactites proves that this sea area was once dry land."

"Millions or even tens of millions of years ago, this was a massive cavern on land, like a wide-open shaft."

"Later, the glaciers melted and sea levels rose. The seawater flooded into the shaft, forming this miraculous blue hole phenomenon, like a lake embedded in the sea."

By exploring the depths of the dragon hole, Ning Fei had essentially found the scientific basis for its existence.

But the cause of the dragon hole's formation wasn't the only thing he was looking for.

The System had told him there was a divine beast here.

This left him feeling rather excited.

Ning Fei was very curious to find out what species this divine beast would turn out to be.

The diameter of the Yongle Dragon Hole's bottom wasn't very wide, only about forty meters across.

In other words, Ning Fei could quickly finish exploring the entire bottom of the hole.

Just then, the Bionic Tuna sensed something and swung its camera toward Ning Fei.

The netizens saw a long, scale-covered creature swiftly swim past right behind Ning Fei.

Witnessing this scene, every single viewer in the livestream froze in pure shock.

"What was that?!"