Water Pressure Body Forging, Level 20 Soul Power

Ji Wuming surfaced for a breath, feeling incomparably refreshed. He had thought of this excellent body-tempering method back when he fought the Sea Spirit Brothers.

By using the immense water pressure produced by the high-speed movement of certain Sea Soul Beasts, he could achieve the best possible body-forging results. Not only could it make his skin rougher and tougher, but the pressure could also strengthen his internal organs, ultimately producing exceptional body-tempering effects.

Wasn't this even better than the Tide Body Tempering from the Sea God's Third Trial?

After steadying himself, Ji Wuming dove underwater once more. Seizing the right moment, he grabbed the dorsal fin of a tuna with little intelligence.

"Be a good body-forging tool for me, and I promise I'll give you tasty food!"

The tuna naturally did not understand what he meant. It only knew that this human who had climbed onto its back for the second time was utterly detestable. It sped forward, intending to use the same method as before to fling him away.

This time, as expected, after barely holding on for six or seven minutes, Ji Wuming could no longer endure and was flung away again.

The tuna had become enraged by now. This human had provoked it again and again; it simply could not tolerate it any longer. It immediately accelerated toward Ji Wuming, intending to knock him unconscious.

"Perfect timing!"

When the tuna was less than a meter away, Ji Wuming circulated the Soul Power within his body, twisted aside to evade its fierce charge, and swiftly grabbed its fin.

"Come on, I told you to help me train my body. I'll give you something good to eat afterward. We humans are the most trustworthy!"

One fish and one human tormented each other like that for an entire day. By then, the tuna was exhaustedly floating at the surface, gulping down the air contained in the seawater.

At the same time, Ji Wuming lay sprawled atop a boulder, gasping for breath. He was utterly exhausted, yet as he ate whale meat, a pleased smile rose on his face.

He also tossed some high-year Soul Beast meat around the tuna. The moment it smelled the fish meat containing such dense Soul Power, it immediately swallowed a slice.

A yearning appeared in its fish eyes. Its life as a fish seemed to have reached its peak. When it saw other small fish coming to snatch the food, it swiftly swam over and claimed every slice for itself, swallowing them all without leaving a single piece behind, aside from a few scraps it spat out.

By then, the rising tide had completely submerged the shallow bay, yet the tuna kept its head above the water, gazing at Ji Wuming on the boulder and refusing to leave for a long time.

"Who said ten-year tuna have no intelligence? Isn't this a textbook intelligent Soul Beast?"

When Ji Wuming returned the next day, the shallow bay looked just the same, but that tuna was gone. He sighed faintly.

"Ah, what a pity. The tacit understanding that good fish and I built yesterday is gone. It seems that tuna either died or forgot what happened yesterday. After all, a fish's memory only lasts seven seconds."

However, Ji Wuming was not disappointed. There were still many fast-swimming Sea Soul Beasts trapped in the shallow bay. Without the tuna, there were still swordfish!

They were simply far more aggressive, especially the fifty-to-sixty-centimeter-long spines extending from the fronts of their heads. This only excited him more. He circulated Soul Power beneath his feet and brazenly provoked the swordfish.

When it charged at him at high speed, Ji Wuming ran wildly across the water's surface, dodging the swordfish's attacks. In doing so, he exhausted the Soul Power within him and further increased the time he could run on water, thereby tempering his Soul Power.

Just as the rapidly swimming swordfish drew closer and closer to Ji Wuming, he performed a backflip and firmly grabbed its fin.

"Got you!"

Just like the tuna from yesterday, the swordfish immediately accelerated, trying to throw the human off its back. Yet in the end, it still became the perfect fish tool for his body forging.

Thus, during his school days, aside from his regular Martial Soul instruction, Ji Wuming would spar with the Sea Spirit Brothers every so often. Their wager was fifty jin of Whale Rubber or various kinds of high-year Sea Soul Beast meat.

Ji Wuming never grew tired of this efficient method of acquiring resources. To preserve the Sea Spirit Brothers' drive to improve and create a sustainable arrangement, he had deliberately tied with them many times, resulting in more draws than wins.

During holidays, Ji Wuming tempered his body through water pressure and by fighting ten-year and even hundred-year Soul Beasts. Every three days, he ate Whale Rubber to replenish his body. Although the body-tempering effects of hundred-year and thousand-year Whale Rubber gradually weakened over time, he continued eating it and sold the excess.

Although Whale Rubber was cheap along the coast, it was still far beyond the means of ordinary commoners. One jin of hundred-year Whale Rubber cost ten Gold Soul Coins.

In this way, after only two years, eleven-year-old Ji Wuming had become even stronger. His skin was bronze-colored, his height had reached an astonishing 1.7 meters, and his Soul Power had reached the Level 20 bottleneck.

More importantly, by selling Whale Rubber and other high-quality Soul Beast meat, he had accumulated a fortune of fifty to sixty thousand Gold Soul Coins.

"Brother Ji, we'll graduate in a few months. Before then, the two of us are definitely going to defeat you."

"Come on, spar with us!"

Ji Wuming waved them off and shook his head. "No. I've reached the Level 20 Soul Power bottleneck and need to obtain a Soul Ring!"

"What? That fast? We seriously suspect you've been going easy on us in our duels for the past two years." Hai Bai and Hai Gui said in unison, utterly shocked.

Ji Wuming chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Not at all! Your Martial Soul Fusion Skill is very powerful. Besides, haven't you been cultivating much faster these past few years because you wanted to defeat me?"

"Hai Bai, your Soul Power has already reached Level 18 and a half, while Hai Gui's has reached Level 18. You should be happy."

Hai Gui raised his head and thought for a moment, suddenly feeling enlightened.

"That's right! At our usual cultivation pace, there's no way we could have raised our Soul Power by six levels in two years. Our parents even keep praising us for having the drive to improve and the potential of Soul Saints!"

Ji Wuming smiled faintly. Potential of Soul Saints—if they continued cultivating as diligently as they had recently and followed his example by eating some Whale Rubber, they would become Soul Emperors within twelve years at most. If they wanted to become Soul Saints, they could only go to Sea God Island and undergo its trials.

"Then I'll be off first. When I come back another day, I'll treat you two to a meal!"

Ji Wuming happily waved to them before heading toward the Dean's office. He pushed open the door and said with a smile,

"Dean, I'd like you to help me obtain a Soul Ring. My Soul Power has already broken through to the Level 20 threshold."

"Level 20? Each Soul Ring takes less time than the last. You surpassed the cultivation time for your first Soul Ring by half a year. That cultivation speed would be impressive even for someone with Innate Full Soul Power!"

Dean Shui's heart raced wildly. After calming himself, he immediately asked, "Judging by how you used Cross-Level Absorption for your first Soul Ring, how many years are you planning for your Second Soul Ring?"

"Dean Shui, you know the special changes brought about by the Cross-Level Absorption of my first Soul Ring. Naturally, I intend to use Cross-Level Absorption for my Second Soul Ring as well. Its age should be around thirteen hundred to sixteen hundred years."

Ji Wuming was still being somewhat conservative. Given his current physical condition, another one or two hundred years would not pose much of a problem. But to be safe, it was better to lower his requirements a little.