They prepared three tracked snowmobiles, which were very large and could carry ten people each.
Wu Bolin rode in one car, while Kikuchi Kohei was the driver, and the other passengers rode in the other two cars.
Three snowmobiles sped out of camp and headed into the mountains hundreds of kilometers away.
Wu Bolin’s vehicle was in the middle of the convoy. He didn’t rush to meditate and practice. Instead, he sat in the passenger seat, looked out at the vast, ice-covered continent around him, and asked Kikuchi Kohei, “Kikuchi, how thick is the ice sheet in Antarctica?”
“Ice cap?” Kohei Kikuchi paused for a moment, then said, “You mean the ice cap, right?”
Wu Bolin waved his hand: “It’s the same. I just want to know how thick the ice layer between the ice sheet and the land actually is.”
Kohei Kikuchi thought for a moment and said, “Most of the flat land in Antarctica consists of an ice sheet formed entirely from frozen seawater, with an average thickness of over two thousand meters.”
“Two thousand meters…” Wu Bolin was a little surprised.
As the old saying goes, “It takes more than one cold day for the ice to freeze three feet deep,” and three feet is only about a meter.
However, the ice layer here is on average more than two thousand meters thick.
If the legendary Gate of Ascension is not in the ice sheet, but on the land beneath, wouldn’t we need to explore two thousand meters into the ice to find it?
Thinking of this, Wu Bolin felt desperate.
After looking at a map of Antarctica, he already knew how vast the continent was. He had initially thought the search for clues would involve ice sheets covering millions of square kilometers, but now it seemed he would be searching across a vast expanse of ice and snow, stretching millions of square kilometers across the surface and reaching depths of two kilometers. The difficulty level could be described as hellish.
However, despite the extremely difficult level, Wu Bolin still had no intention of giving up.
He knew full well that under Victoria’s command, he had no chance of escaping her control. If he couldn’t find a path to immortality, he might not even outlive Victoria. Therefore, Antarctica might be his best chance.
So, he secretly swore that as long as the legendary Gate of Ascension really existed, he would find it no matter where it was!
After a non-stop journey for a full 24 hours, the three snowmobiles finally arrived at the location designated by Wu Bolin.
This place is located on a north-facing mountain path, where the cold wind blows very hard.
After getting out of the car, Wu Bolin walked onto the glacier. After a few steps, he stopped, pressed his palms against the ice surface, and released his spiritual energy to explore and sense the situation and structure beneath the ice.
With Wu Bolin’s strength, if his spiritual energy spread through the air, no movement within a ten-kilometer radius would escape his perception. However, when faced with a layer of ice over two thousand meters thick, his transmission power was significantly reduced.
Let alone exploring the area under the ice layer within a radius of ten kilometers, even after his spiritual energy was released and penetrated the ice to reach the rocky ground, the range of its spread was only about three or four miles.
Seeing him stroking the ice with his hand and his brows furrowed, Kohei Kikuchi, who was loyal to him, couldn’t help but ask anxiously, “Masato, what are you doing?”
Wu Bolin said impatiently, “This is not something you need to worry about.”
After saying that, he stood up and said to Kohei Kikuchi, “Get in the car and drive straight south for two kilometers.”
Kohei Kikuchi immediately nodded and said respectfully, “I obey!”
Then he immediately called the others to get on the bus.
Wu Bolin returned to the car, sighing and clicking his tongue. He couldn’t help but think, “Each exploration only covers an area of about two kilometers. How long will it take to explore the entire Antarctic continent?”
“Furthermore, the spiritual energy consumed each time we explore depths of more than two thousand meters is enormous. If this continues, our spiritual energy will be depleted, and we won’t be able to replenish it. Won’t we have no choice but to give up?”
While driving, Kohei Kikuchi couldn’t help but ask, “Masato, is something bothering you? Why don’t you tell me and see if I can help you?”
Wu Bolin sneered: “Drive your car properly. This is none of your business. If you talk again, I’ll cut off your tongue!”
Seeing that Kikuchi Kohei looked a little angry, Kikuchi Kohei immediately didn’t dare to say anything else.
Wu Bolin was unaware that modern Antarctic scientific research already had something called ice radar.
This device has a detection depth of two to five thousand meters and can detect structures beneath the ice surface. It can detect numerous subglacial basins, bedrock, lakes, and even ice cracks.
This type of radar comes in two forms: ground-based and airborne. Ground-based radar, as the name suggests, is operated and used on the ground, while airborne radar is lifted into the air by an aircraft or drone. Both types of equipment were present at the Japanese research station, which is now the Wu Han Palace.
However, the use of ground-based ice radar is not hampered by the current winter, which prevents aircraft from operating.
If Wu Bolin had told Kikuchi Kohei about his needs, Kikuchi Kohei would have immediately recommended a ground-based ice radar. He would simply have to go back and install the radar on his vehicle, and he could conduct detection along the way, which would be much more efficient than Wu Bolin searching for it piecemeal himself.
Unfortunately, Wu Bolin, who had been in seclusion for a century, had not read many books, and lacked a deep understanding of modern technology, thus knowing nothing about these things. He even had an overwhelming sense of superiority, believing that other than spiritual energy, it was impossible for anyone to detect what lay beneath the ice layer more than two thousand meters deep.