Chapter 534 - 420: The First Battle, A Success!

What is the direction of this suction?

As Fang Huai tried to discern it, his sense of direction faded away again.

He checked his air pressure gauge, which read less than 6 megapascals—almost at the warning level.

It was time to ascend.

He wasn’t particularly worried, but he was concerned the people onshore might be getting anxious. In the span of a few minutes, they had sent him several feedback signals through the safety rope.

His breathing rate was much lower than that of an average person. Now that his air supply was down to 6 megapascals, he figured He Zhijun and Lian Xu had probably surfaced a while ago.

With no clear sense of depth or direction, Fang Huai could only attempt to ascend slowly and as vertically as possible.

The ascent took a long time.

Nearly six minutes to reach the surface.

When a person moves quickly from a region of high pressure to one of low pressure, their body acts like a shaken carbonated beverage—the tissues containing liquid release a large number of air bubbles.

In the blood vessels, lymphatic system, muscles, especially the arterial system, the rapid movement of bubbles can cause ischemic necrosis due to the lack of blood and oxygen supply to tissues.

This is decompression sickness.

Therefore, during the ascent, one must not exceed 10 meters per minute, and there should be a three-minute stop at a depth of five meters underwater to allow the body to acclimate before emerging onto the shore.

Actually, Fang Huai felt that, given his physical condition, he didn’t need to be so meticulous about these precautions, but as these abnormalities aren’t immediately detectable, he dared not take the risk.

"He’s out, he’s out!"

"Breathe..."

He shook his ears and performed an ear pressure equalization to expel the water, making the surrounding sounds, including his own breathing, clearer.

He was over twenty meters away from the kayak.

As he swam towards the kayak and climbed aboard, He Zhijun shouted from another kayak.

"Fang Huai, did you find anything?"

Fang Huai removed his breathing apparatus, raised his hand to shield his eyes from the somewhat glaring sunlight, and gathered his thoughts before asking,

"Did you find anything on your side?"

He Zhijun shook his head.

Lian Xu, however, raised his hand, pinching something between his fingers and shook it.

"Found two rings; it seems one of them is even made of gold."

Fang Huai: ...

You’ve got to be kidding me, treasure hunting now?

"Did you feel any whirlpools?"

Fang Huai shouted, and this time, both of them shook their heads in unison.

A wave of disappointment washed over him, wondering if what he had felt earlier was just his imagination.

But, seeing the anxious crowd on the shore and considering this was the Squadron’s first support mission outside the provincial city, Fang Huai decided to give it one more try.

Standing up, he called out,

"Switch to fresh air tanks, rest for five minutes, then come over. We’ll head to where I just surfaced to look again! Focus on finding the whirlpool! I felt the suction force just now!"

"A whirlpool?"

"You mean to say someone was sucked in?"

The conversation on the water stirred noticeable commotion onshore, sparking a flurry of discussion.

Detachment Captain Li raised his voice to remind everyone again, "Whirlpools are extremely dangerous! Pay attention to safety!"

In such a vast body of water, underwater whirlpools had ample space to grow, and once a large whirlpool formed, the suction force would be astonishing.

Fang Huai looked out at the vast expanse of water and sighed, "Regardless, let’s give it a try! If we can’t find anything here, there’s enough work for us today! The person is down there. Since we’ve come this far, we must find him!"

He Zhijun and Lian Xu exchanged glances, understanding Fang Huai’s intent.

"Alright!"

...

That was the plan.

But after three patrols, they found no trace.

The small area that Fang Huai randomly marked off was about the size of a building foundation, just a few hundred square meters.

However, with a depth ranging from thirty to forty meters, the area transformed into a colossal three-dimensional space of water the size of a large building.

Below fifteen meters, the range of visibility from diving lights was merely two to three meters, and with no points of reference, they weren’t even sure if they had reached the space Fang Huai had encountered earlier.

Nevertheless, after several trips, everyone gained a clear understanding of Fang Huai’s endurance. While others needed a new tank every forty minutes, he could last an hour!

The sun was high, and the temperature was growing hotter.

The victim’s family had arrived, and their cries grew louder.

"Our Old Zhong couldn’t be here! He knew how to swim! He would have made it back if you hadn’t gotten him drunk, confused him, and caused him to drown! He must have swum farther away, washed away by the water! You... are responsible!"

The police had spent the day questioning several colleagues, and now, informing the family that the victim had decided to urinate by the lake and accidentally fell in, the family got the impression that the responsible party was avoiding accountability, which led to more uproar and blame on the problem of intoxication.

"Our Old Zhong is missing, what are we, a widow and orphan, to do... He followed the company’s instructions to work here, and now he’s lost his life and we can’t even find him. No one from the provincial city has come to offer a word, what are we to do?"

"Sister-in-law, our superiors have already notified us to provide full cooperation. All our personnel are here, along with people from the Xingyi government, Firefighting, and Public Security. We will definitely try our best to find him, please don’t worry!"

The shore was abuzz with noise.

Underwater, Fang Huai changed his headlamp and dove down again, carrying thin, oily paper in his hands. As he swam sideways, he tore the paper into shreds, scattering them around, then observed from all directions.

Only these paper fragments could most sensitively reflect the surrounding pulling forces.

The paper fragments floated in the water along with tiny particles.

When almost the entire stack of paper was torn, at last, there was a subtle clue.

On the right, some paper fragments started to spin slowly, converging in one spot—a small handful of fragments outlined what appeared to be a passage.