"Ah…um…Sir?" Prakash hesitantly called out as he saw the expression of the old man who hadn't uttered even a single word till now.
"Just call me grandpa. No one cares about honorifics anymore" Replied the old man in his grumpy voice.
"Then grandpa, where is this place?" Inquired Prakash.
"Can you move?" Questioned the old man who seemed to have completely ignored his inquiry.
"Uh, no. I'm unable to accumulate any strength in my limbs" Said Prakash with a shake of his head.
"Okay," Said the old man and quietly left the room without further mention.
"Eh?" Prakash could only stare at the entrance of his room with a dumbfounded expression as the old man left as abruptly as he had arrived.
After a few seconds had passed, the old man once again entered into the room, this time with a wheelchair in tow.
"Eh…Grandpa….Sir?" Exclaimed Prakash in confusion as the old man suddenly took hold of Prakash in a princess carry and calmly seated him atop the wheelchair.
"Don't worry. I'm strong" Said the old man as he slowly pushed the wheelchair out of the room and into a corridor.
The corridor looked quite messy with multiple damaged cables that occasionally sent out electric sparks, pipelines that lay bare and leaked out water and internal coolant, and with broken metal plates that lay sprawled across the walls. It was a messy corridor.
"I'm still repairing these parts. Sorry for the messy display" Apologised the old man as he opened the door leading to another room and entered into it along with Prakash in tow.
The moment Prakash entered into the room, an intense stench that was a mixture of blood and disinfectant smashed onto him that overwhelmed his olfactory senses.
In the room that was somewhat similar to the one in which he woke up in but was filled with medical tools, he witnessed Aurella who was sweating bullets as he tried to restore the lower half of Akiko.
"That child has been at it for the past four hours ever since he woke up," Said the old man.
"Akiko!" Exclaimed Prakash, as he gazed at the pale face of Akiko who had only survived till now due to the immediate treatment that Aurella had administered upon her while they were within the mouth of the Black Dragon.
"I'll show you the other parts of this place," Said the old man as he slowly pushed the wheelchair out of the room.
"Wait….but I…" Prakash wanted to help Akiko in her treatment.
"There is nothing that you could do for her at the moment in your current physical condition. Moreover, that child's powers have already healed the vital organs that were necessary for her survival" Replied the old man.
"But I…"
"Just leave them to their own devices. Unlike you who worried about your surroundings first after you woke up, the first action taken by that child was to look for her and began her treatment without a single care as to his well being. You, on the other hand, have a long way to go" Said the old man whose words seemed to pierce straight through Prakash's heart.
Until now, every time Li Qiu got hurt while trying to save him, his first reaction was to care for his own survival and later worry about the others.
It wasn't like he was a cold hearted person or anything. But unlike how both Li Qiu and Aurella could instinctively put the lives of their companions before their own, Prakash's instinctive reaction was to first ensure his own survival.
Sure, he could risk his life for his companions, but it wouldn't be a spontaneous decision on his behalf but one that was spurred by his emotions and the situation.
"Now, now. I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you. Things like these take time to get used to. It's just different for different people" Said the old man as he patted Prakash's shoulders.
It was at this time that they reached a wide open space where multiple monitors were playing out various scenes, sensors and display units that displayed various measurements and also a huge compass that was situated in the middle of the room.
"Wha-what is this place?" Exclaimed Prakash, as he gazed at the various devices around him that were constantly analyzing and displaying numerous complicated data that were beyond his comprehension.
"Ahem" the old man cleared his throat as he stated with a prideful expression, "Welcome to my submarine"
"A submarine? T-this is a submarine?" Exclaimed Prakash in shock, as he couldn't believe his eyes.
The various monitors displayed the ocean full of colourful gigantic fishes that have all seemed to have had a growth spurt after the emergence of Ari.
"If we are still underwater, then..." Suddenly Prakash felt a shock pass through his brain as he shouted at the old man,"Black Dragon, the creature that protected us. Where is it?"
"Ugh, don't shout. My ears are quite sensitive at this age" The old man reprimanded Prakash in a stern voice.
"B-but…" Prakash struggled to get up from his wheelchair to search for the whereabouts of the Black Dragon when he began to worry about its well being.
"Relax, it's still alive," Said the old man as he pressed his hand on the shoulders of Prakash.
The eyes of Prakash widened in shock as he felt the massive amount of pressure that was being transmitted from his shoulders which instantly immobilized him.
"Your body's injuries are more severe than you think. Just sit tightly for now" Said the old man as he slowly pushed the wheelchair out of the control room and into the messy corridor.
They slowly moved along the corridor towards the other end of the submarine and finally entered into another room that was situated just before the very end of the corridor.
The moment they entered into the room, Prakash gazed at a weird 3-metre long creature that looked like a python that grew scales and a pair of claws.
'Grrr'
Immediately upon his arrival, the weird creature immediately dropped the piece of meat that it was gobbling with its mouth and slithered towards Prakash.
"B-black Dragon?" Prakash hesitantly inquired upon seeing its current weird form that looked no more than a pitiful snake, as compared to its previous majestic self.
'Grrr' The Black Dragon made a small sound in response as it lifted its head to a metre in height like the stuff usually done by cobras so that its eye level was at the same height as Prakash.
"It became like this to regenerate its body and conserve its energy expenditure" The old man chimed in.
"What about big bro?" Prakash suddenly inquired as he gazed at the Black Dragon with expectant eyes.
The eyes of the Black Dragon dimmed in response as it slowly lowered its head and shook it sideways.
"I see. Continue with your recovery" Said Prakash as he activated his innate ability and moved out of the room on his wheelchair.
"Grandpa Sir, please give me some time. I'll properly thank you later" Said, Prakash, as he gave a wry smile towards the old man.
"Yeah, sure. Take your time" Replied the old man in a gruff voice.
"Thank you," Said, Prakash, as he went into his room and closed the door shut behind him.
"These poor kids had to go through such horrible encounters. What the hell happened to this damn world?" The old man murmured as he slowly walked into another room.
"It'll be your turn to go into action soon my child. The pride and fear of humanity" Said the old man with a complicated gaze as he carefully caressed a certain object within the room adjacent to the room that Prakash went in.
The old man slowly traced his aged fingers over the name that had been carefully printed upon the object.
"Dongfeng" Murmured the old man as his eyes clouded a little when he gazed at the name printed upon the object, then slowly closed the door to the room and walked towards the monitoring room.
Meanwhile, after Prakash closed the door of his room behind him, he slowly tried to get up from his wheelchair.
As he struggled to allocate the necessary strength in the muscles of his leg, his leg spasmed which in response which made him lose his balance and fall down onto the cold hard floor.
"Shit why?...Why dammit…Why?" The floor started to vibrate in response to his turbulent emotions due to his innate ability being active as tears started to flow out of his eyes.
'Bam' 'Bam'
Prakash smashed his head onto the floor as he felt frustrated about the helplessness of his pathetic self. Every time he got hurt, Li Qiu was there to cover for him but when the situation called for it, Prakash was helpless as he left Li Qiu to bring up the rear.
"I'm always a dead weight, no matter what…sob" Like a dam that broke down, tears flowed out of Prakash's eyes as he bit his lips in frustration and in self-mockery. Due to the state of his body, all Prakash could do was lay paralyzed on the floor and blame himself in regret.
At the next moment, Prakash and Aurella were once again knocked unconscious when the same overbearing aura once again washed over them and disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. If it had existed for a couple more seconds, the overbearing pressure exerted by the aura would have killed the trio who were only at the Practitioner Stage.
The old man, who sensed the arrival of the expert with the overbearing aura calmly walked over to his control room.
'Tap'
The old man tapped on the metallic floor with his foot once when, all the control panels, monitors, pipelines, etc all disappeared as if they never existed there to begin with.
Once they disappeared, all that was left behind at the control room was a translucent barrier that had apparently been formed with the old man's innate ability.
Instead of the ocean, all the old man could observe through the translucent barrier was a pitch black darkness all around him that seemed to even devour the very essence of light.
At the next moment, a huge eye that was almost twice as big as him popped into existence in the middle of the darkness and immediately, a telepathic message reverberated in the mind of the old man.
"Chai Wenhe! You dare to intrude into my territory?"