When the Heavenly Craft Pavilion's "Return to the Void Secret Realm" opened, the commotion was astonishing.
The massive teleportation array, like a greedy maw, swallowed thousands of disciples along with the surrounding air.
Shen Qingqiu felt a sudden dizziness, and that nauseating feeling of weightlessness returned. Immediately afterward, an immense pressure, enough to crush a person, instantly enveloped his entire body.
There was no expected landing, no sense of security from solid ground.
Only endless—water.
"Glug..." Shen Qingqiu instinctively tried to inhale, but the cold, salty seawater instantly forced its way into his throat. A burning pain shot through his lungs, and the fear of suffocation overwhelmed his reason like a tidal wave.
This was the deep sea.
An abyss devoid of sunlight, oxygen, and only endless, deathly blue.
Shen Qingqiu frantically struggled with his limbs, but against the vast ocean, it was like a mayfly trying to shake a tree. Her vision blurred, her consciousness fading. In that darkening perspective, she saw countless enormous, ghostly, glowing jellyfish (or some kind of patrolling deep-sea probe) slowly swimming overhead.
Was she going to die?
Die in this unknown depths of the ocean?
Just as her consciousness was about to sink into eternal darkness,
a hand grasped her wrist.
That hand was cold and hard, the familiar metallic touch. Then, a tremendous force pulled her abruptly into a firm embrace.
Seventeen.
Shen Qingqiu barely opened his eyes.
In the dark seawater, Seventeen's black hair was spread out in the water, tangled like seaweed. The silver mask on his face had been washed away by the water pressure, revealing a handsome, almost eerie face, yet with a half-metallic coldness.
He didn't need to breathe.
His core reactor could function normally in a vacuum, the deep sea, and even magma.
But he saw her pain.
[Warning: Bound subject's vital signs are rapidly declining.]
[Cause of Death: Asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen.]
[Environmental Analysis: Water pressure 1000MPa. Oxygen content: 0.] Seventeen's electronic eyes flashed red wildly. His logic library instantly scanned tens of thousands of rescue plans, finally locking onto the only feasible one.
He pulled out the "Water-Repelling Bead" distributed before entering the secret realm.
It was a blue crystal with an independent force field generator.
Activating it would create a three-foot-diameter, waterless space.
But Shen Qingqiu had now lost the consciousness and spiritual power to activate it.
There was only… this was the only way.
Seventeen didn't hesitate. He put the Water-Repelling Bead in his mouth, his tongue pressing against the crystal, mobilizing his core energy to forcibly activate it.
Buzz— A thin blue film, centered on his mouth, slightly opened a crack. But this wasn't enough, far from enough.
He looked at Shen Qingqiu, pale-faced and no longer struggling, in his arms, a resolute glint in his eyes.
He lowered his head, one hand cupping the back of her head, the other (his burning, golden right arm) tightly encircling her waist, pressing their bodies together without a single gap.
Then, he kissed her.
The instant their lips touched.
Shen Qingqiu felt a cold, metallic touch.
Immediately afterwards, a cool, slightly minty breath (the smell of Seventeen Coolant) was forced from his mouth into her lungs.
It was oxygen converted from the Water-Repelling Pearl.
It was the only life he, as a "non-human" being, was giving her.
Huff— Shen Qingqiu, like a dying fish finding water, instinctively and greedily inhaled that breath. Her hands unconsciously climbed onto his shoulders, her fingers gripping his shirt tightly, as if grasping the only piece of driftwood in this vast, deep sea. Seventeen's body stiffened.
This wasn't a kiss.
In his logic, it was just a "gas exchange procedure."
But...why?
Why did his core reactor suddenly tremble violently when her soft tongue accidentally touched his?
Why did the previously smooth data stream instantly become chaotic and violent, even breaking through the firewall's restrictions?
[Warning: Sensor overload.]
[Tactile signal amplified 1000%...Temperature rise...]
[Unknown error: I want to...bite?] Seventeen forcibly suppressed that dangerous thought. He opened his intact left eye, looking closely at Shen Qingqiu.
Her eyelashes trembled slightly in the water, like butterflies resting on coral. Her skin glowed white against the seawater, so fragile it seemed it would shatter at the slightest touch.
Below this abyss, in this absolute silence and darkness.
Through a kiss, they shared each other's breath and life.
This was a silent, suffocating, yet exquisitely romantic symbiosis.
As oxygen was injected, Shen Qingqiu finally regained consciousness.
She opened her eyes and met a pair of deep, ocean-like eyes.
She understood the panic and restraint in his eyes.
She also felt the trembling of his lips.
Shen Qingqiu didn't push him away.
Instead, she reached out and gently stroked his half-metallic cheek. In the water, her movements became slow and tender.
She closed her eyes, deepening the kiss.
It was no longer simply a matter of survival, but a response.
She gently traced the outline of his lips with the tip of her tongue, soothing this killing machine that was bewildered by "system overheating."
Seventeen's pupils suddenly dilated.
He felt like a piece of scrap metal thrown into a furnace, being melted away by her little by little.
He was no longer passively receiving oxygen.
He began to respond clumsily and tentatively.
The golden right arm tightened instinctively, as if wanting to meld her into its very bones, ensuring she could never leave its embrace.
The two remained entwined, slowly sinking into the deep blue sea.
Around them lay the tranquil depths.
Swarms of luminous jellyfish, like a sky full of stars, swirled and danced around them.
Beneath their feet, a colossal underwater ruin, dormant for millennia, slowly revealed its grotesque and magnificent outline.
It wasn't the Dragon Palace.
It was a series of collapsed skyscrapers, a rusty steel jungle, neon signs long since extinguished.
A massive whale skeleton lay between the buildings, covered in glowing barnacles.
This was the tombstone of the previous era.
And they were the only two visitors.
Finally.
Seventeen, holding Shen Qingqiu, gently landed on the rooftop platform of a building.
The force field of the water-repelling pearl finally expanded fully, forming a three-meter-diameter spherical, waterless space, enveloping the two of them. Seventeen released her lips.
But he didn't let go, maintaining the embrace, forehead to forehead, noses touching.
Shen Qingqiu gasped for breath, her face flushed from lack of oxygen, her eyes glazed.
Seventeen, on the other hand, was like a computer that had just finished a high-load program, frantically cooling down. His breath was scalding hot.
"Qingqiu..." His voice was incredibly hoarse, tinged with a lingering, confused feeling.
"Want more... breath?"
Shen Qingqiu paused, then chuckled.
She reached out and poked his burning cheek.
"Silly girl."
"That's called kissing, not breathing in." Seventeen tilted his head, seemingly updating a definition in a database.
"Kissing...is it a way to replenish energy?"
"Sort of." Shen Qingqiu hooked her arms around his neck and pecked his lips again, her eyes mischievous. "It specifically replenishes 'love' energy." Seventeen's eyes lit up.
His red electronic prosthetic eye darted around faster.
"Then...I don't have enough."
He looked at her with utmost seriousness. "I need...a lot more energy."
Shen Qingqiu was amused by his earnest, roguish manner.
But before she could speak, strange noises suddenly came from all around.
Crack, crack.
It was the sound of metal scraping against seabed rocks.
Seventeen's expression changed instantly.
His previous soft, pleading look vanished without a trace, replaced by extreme coldness and murderous intent.
He pulled Shen Qingqiu behind him, and the scales on his golden right arm instantly opened, spewing forth crimson-gold flames that illuminated the surrounding darkness.
"Something."
"A big one." Shen Qingqiu activated [Overclocking Vision].
Beneath the abandoned building where they stood, in the bottomless abyss of darkness.
Two enormous, searchlight-like "yellow lanterns" lit up.
They weren't lanterns.
They were two eyes.
Following them, a colossal body, hundreds of meters long and constructed from countless bronze gears and armor plates, slowly moved through the darkness.
[Warning: Super-large mechanical life form detected.]
[Model: Deep Sea Cruiser · Jiaolong (Modified).]
[Status: Awakened.]
"Looks like our time together has been interrupted." Shen Qingqiu looked at the behemoth, feeling no fear, but rather a hint of excitement.
She patted Seventeen's burning right arm.
"Perfect, use it to test your newbie skills."
"Seventeen, take it apart." Seventeen glanced back at her.
In that look, there was the lingering warmth of their kiss, and even more so, a furious rage at the intruder.
"Yes, sir." He flashed, transforming into a streak of black and gold light, and plunged headlong into the abyss.
The seabed, a deep blue.
Ruins, deathly silent.
Before the colossal mechanical dragon, his figure was as insignificant as dust.
But the glance he gave Shen Qingqiu was like the only beacon in the abyss, telling her:
Don't be afraid.
The deep blue, I will lock it for you.
Gods and demons, I will slay them for you.