Fifty miles east of the coast, at the forty-eight-mile mark on the rim of the Ten-Thousand-Fathom Deep Trench, the front drill-shield of the Undersea Panorama Train Tunnel came to a smooth stop.
With a low mechanical hum, the glass tube expanded into a grand, dome-shaped underwater terminal: Deep-Trench Panorama Station #1!
Glowing golden Glow-Pearl Chandeliers lit up the hundred-foot-wide crystal dome, illuminating the dark ocean floor for a mile around. Inside the station, rows of red velvet benches, a ticket booth, a souvenir stall, and a steaming branch of Old Guo’s Underwater Noodle Bar were already set up along the platform.
Suddenly, the station’s outer sonar array let out a rapid series of chimes.
PING! PING! PING!
“My Lord! Massive movement detected in the coral forests north and south of the trench!”
General Tie Zhan rushed up to the front observation glass of the station dome, hoisting his heavy black-iron halberd as three thousand Furnace-Blood Guards formed a tight shield-wall in front of the main underwater airlock door.
“How many enemies?” General Tie barked, squinting out into the deep blue gloom beyond the station lights. “At least five million signatures! Did the Kraken Sea-King send his elite royal guards?”
