Chen Mo looked at the data displayed on the tablet in his hand—the thickness of the ice layer, the depth of the aircraft's submersion, and the damage to the aircraft's body were all clearly shown.
After understanding the Valkyrie's situation, Chen Mo directly stored the tablet in his spatial storage, turned, and walked toward the ice cliff where the ice field met the seawater.
"You head back first. Everything according to plan."
Chen Mo said as he walked forward.
"Yes! Sir!"
John immediately stood at attention and responded.
Under his gaze, Chen Mo strode to the ice cliff, glanced at the sea surface below scattered with numerous floating ice chunks, then directly leaped forward, jumping down from the over twenty-meter-high ice cliff.
"Splash!"
Chen Mo's descending body precisely avoided the scattered floating ice and fell into the icy seawater, splashing up a high wave.
Witnessing Chen Mo leap from the ice cliff, John's expression showed no change. He directly followed Chen Mo's orders, turned back, and boarded the fighter jet.
The opened cockpit canopy slowly closed. The Hydra fighter's engines once again jetted pale blue flames. The accumulated snow on the ground was blown up by the powerful airflow, dancing through the sky.
The Hydra fighter slowly left the ground and began accelerating upward, soon rising to a height of dozens of meters. It turned its nose toward the direction it had come from.
Then the thrusters at the fighter's tail, pointing vertically downward, slowly rotated backward while jetting even more intense flames, propelling the fighter to accelerate forward. It soon flew into the sky and disappeared from view.
At this time, Chen Mo, who had fallen into the sea, was continuing to dive down along the ice cliff.
Underwater, the massive blue glacier was like a magnificent giant city wall extending infinitely to both sides, blocking the seawater outside the ice wall.
Below the ice wall extended down toward the deep seabed. Chen Mo dove along the ice layer for nearly twenty meters before finally reaching the bottom of the ice layer.
Stopping his descent, Chen Mo changed direction and swam toward the underside of the ice cap. Being beneath the ice cap was like being in an inverted world—the craggy ice surface like a rugged land occupied Chen Mo's entire field of vision. At a glance, one couldn't see the end at all.
Chen Mo's body moved like a swimming fish through the water, traveling at extreme speed toward the depths of the ice cap.
Actually, for ordinary people, what Chen Mo was doing now was extremely dangerous.
The ice cap above his head was dozens of meters thick—impossible to surface directly to leave the sea. To breathe, one could only return the same way. So the deeper one went beneath the ice cap, the greater the danger.
Not only did distance increase, but the world under the ice was monotonous and vast, with no reference points to indicate direction. It was easy to get lost underwater. When trying to retreat, one might find they couldn't find the way back and instead swim farther and farther away until oxygen ran out and they suffocated to death underwater.
Even without getting lost, one had to return in time while oxygen was sufficient. Once too deep under the ice cap, if one only started returning when discovering insufficient oxygen, they might not be able to hold on until swimming out from under the ice cap and suffocate to death on the return journey.
However, Chen Mo had prepared for this early on. Not to mention his own formidable physical constitution was enough to support long-term activity underwater—his spatial storage also specially prepared enough oxygen tanks for emergencies, sufficient to ensure he had adequate oxygen supply.
After swimming forward under the ice cap for several hundred meters, the monotonous scenery finally changed. A large expanse of black metal structure appeared before Chen Mo's eyes.
"The Valkyrie!"
Back then, Chen Mo had piloted the Valkyrie to crash near the glacier and sink into the sea, frozen in the ice layer.
However, it hadn't been completely encased by the ice. Just as Chen Mo now saw, an enormous section of wing over thirty meters long protruded diagonally from the ice cap above, slanting down into the seawater below.
This was part of the massive Valkyrie's enormous wing.
After discovering the target, Chen Mo swam directly toward this section of wing.
Swimming several circles around this massive wing section that was like a tall building, Chen Mo soon discovered a damaged opening at the lower part of the wing.
Taking out a waterproof high-intensity flashlight from his space, Chen Mo turned on the switch. A bright, dazzling beam shot from the flashlight, instantly making the somewhat dim space much brighter.
Then, without any hesitation, Chen Mo swam directly toward this breach and entered through it.
The pitch-black aircraft interior was illuminated by the beam from the high-intensity flashlight. Chen Mo could clearly see the scene ahead.
Inside the wing, already filled with seawater, enormous steel frames crisscrossed, supporting the wing structure.
Chen Mo passed through the solid steel framework, entered the aircraft interior, and swam along the passage toward the cockpit above.
Soon, Chen Mo was blocked by an ice wall. Above this ice wall was the Valkyrie's cabin.
With his path blocked, Chen Mo had to temporarily stop.
Several minutes had passed since Chen Mo jumped into the sea. Although he didn't feel oxygen-deprived and could continue for some time, Chen Mo still took out an oxygen tank from his space and replenished his body's oxygen.
Putting away the oxygen tank, Chen Mo again looked up at the ice layer above. At the same time, his right hand extended forward, and the Sword of Kings instantly appeared in his hand.
Next, Chen Mo began chiseling ice. Under the incomparably sharp Sword of Kings, the hard ice was cut away in large chunks like tofu, then collected by Chen Mo into his space. Soon he had carved out a passage over a meter in diameter, continuing to penetrate deeper into the ice layer above.
This ice layer located inside the Valkyrie was very thick. Chen Mo dug upward for nearly ten meters before finally reaching the end.
As Chen Mo's final sword struck down a large block of ice, the passage finally broke through. Above this thick ice layer, there was no seawater.
When the Valkyrie had originally sunk into the sea, its overall seal hadn't been greatly compromised. Seawater had poured into the aircraft through damaged areas like the wings but hadn't completely filled the plane. Instead, an air pocket had formed at the upper cabin area.
Later, after the plane was frozen in the ice layer, the seawater below the air pocket froze as well, forming the ice wall Chen Mo had just encountered, completely sealing off the cabin section.
Seeing the passage open, Chen Mo put away the Sword of Kings, climbed up through the opening, and entered the cabin interior.
The high-intensity flashlight's beam illuminated the cabin interior. Chen Mo carefully examined his surroundings and, after confirming his location, stepped on the smooth ice surface beneath his feet and walked in one direction.
Coming to the edge of the ice surface, what appeared before Chen Mo was a slope of nearly thirty degrees. This was the cabin's original floor, but because after the plane sank into the sea, the aircraft had tilted—one wing lifted up while the other sank down—the floor inside the cabin had formed a slope of about thirty degrees.
Frozen at sea for seventy years, the bulkheads and floor had all accumulated a thick layer of ice. Combined with the slope created by the aircraft's tilt, it wasn't easy to walk on. However, for the agile Chen Mo, it posed no difficulty.
But he didn't walk forward directly. Instead, he stopped before the slope.
Taking off his soaked tactical suit and storing it in his space, Chen Mo changed into Adamantium alloy armor and a black tactical suit with battle traces. He also equipped the original M1911 pistol, vibranium shield, and other equipment, completely restoring himself to the state when he had originally left.
After confirming nothing was missed, Chen Mo stepped onto the slope and walked along the passage toward the Valkyrie's cockpit.
The frozen, tilted floor still affected Chen Mo's movement speed. It took several minutes before Chen Mo finally reached the control room.
Not much different from the scenes he'd encountered along the way, the entire aircraft control room was also completely covered in frost. The trap Baron Strucker had set to confine him was still there, but the original steel cage had now become an ice cage, and the several sections of steel pillars he had cut were frozen to the floor.
After surveying this familiar yet strange environment, Chen Mo carefully approached the control console.
The wide pilot's seat was now also covered with a thick layer of frost.
Chen Mo cleared all the frost from the seat into his space, then sat down.
Immediately after, Chen Mo took out a backpack-sized black box from his space and casually tossed it into the air.
Flying through the air, after leaving Chen Mo by about a meter, a blue light point suddenly lit up on top of the box. Then its four corners rapidly extended outward, stretching out four arms.
As it unfolded, the undersides of the four arms' ends also began jetting pale blue flames, propelling it to hover steadily in the air.
It turned out to be a folding-type small aircraft.
After throwing out the aircraft, Chen Mo took out another tablet computer from his space and began operating it.
The aircraft hovering in the air turned direction under Chen Mo's control and flew back along the route they came, soon returning above the ice hole Chen Mo had carved.
As Chen Mo issued the command, a scanning device slowly extended from beneath the aircraft, emitting a red light grid that scanned the ground below.
Then a folded mechanical arm extended from the front of the aircraft. After the mechanical arm unfolded, it reached toward the ice hole below.
Just a few minutes after Chen Mo left, the seawater in the ice hole had begun refreezing. A thin layer of ice had already formed on the surface, just slightly lower than the original ice surface.
The aircraft's slender mechanical arm extended to where the thin ice met the ice surface. Its tip then began jetting a stream of white cold air. Upon contacting the thin ice, it rapidly condensed on its surface, gradually increasing its thickness until it was soon level with the adjacent ice surface.
Then the mechanical arm moved continuously over the ice hole, soon repairing the entire ice hole flat, completely level with the surrounding ice surface.
But it didn't stop there. Next, the cold air jetted from the mechanical arm's tip changed, directly condensing into frost in the air and scattering onto the new ice surface.
By the time the aircraft finished repairs and flew to Chen Mo's footprints to begin scanning, the ice hole from before had completely disappeared, with no trace visible on the surface.