The lake was deep.
The moment his body was submerged, the clamor on the lake's surface was instantly cut off.
The light around him dimmed, and his heartbeat was endlessly amplified, as though he were the only person left in the entire world.
A sense of isolation, cut off from the world, suddenly swept over him.
For many people with thalassophobia, the main reason was that water could shut out the sounds around them. In such extreme silence, people could easily become panicked and afraid.
Yet the cold, lonely lakebed gave Li Changqing no sense of estrangement.
Once he entered Heaven-Man Resonance, everything in nature became his friend and his aid.
His powerful five senses allowed him to clearly perceive everything around him even while wrapped in the current.
He opened his eyes. His vitality surged upward to form a thin film, shielding him from the lake water's erosion.
Three meters underwater, countless fish darted about, their bodies flashing with multicolored scales.
They were not afraid of Li Changqing. After the transformation brought about by his breathing technique, Li Changqing's aura had completely merged with the surrounding lake water.
The aura of an apex predator at the top of the food chain had been perfectly concealed.
Ten meters underwater.
For the vast majority of ordinary people, this was already their limit.
Underwater, every additional ten meters increased the pressure on the body by one atmosphere.
At this depth, a person would feel short of breath, and their ears might even ache faintly.
But Li Changqing completely ignored this level of change and continued descending.
Twenty meters. Thirty meters.
As he went deeper and the light above grew dimmer, Li Changqing finally reached the lakebed.
He raised his wristwatch and glanced at it.
Depth: 42 meters.
Water pressure: five standard atmospheres.
His vitality circulated once through his body without issue. This little pressure was nothing to Li Changqing.
People of the Old Era could dive a hundred meters without equipment. With his physique, the pressure at forty meters was child's play.
What Li Changqing truly needed was the aid this vast quantity of lake water could offer his cultivation.
As well as the terrifying oxygen-free environment.
He had no intention of going back up for air.
Legend had it that ancient Martial Artists could circulate their inner cycle through their bodies and remain active underwater for several shichen.
Why couldn't he?
Li Changqing drew arcs with both hands. The instant he assumed his stance, he sensed the difference.
Previously, the water had only reached his waist when he practiced his fist techniques.
That could not be mentioned in the same breath as the environment at the lakebed.
Water was more than eighty times denser than air. Compared to practicing on land, where he could borrow the force of raging winds, borrowing the force of heavy flowing water was far more difficult.
Even having comprehended Flowing Water True Meaning, he still found it difficult to completely eliminate the resistance.
Most importantly, the oxygen he had stored was being rapidly consumed as he practiced his fist techniques.
At this pace, it would not be long before the oxygen contained in his vitality was exhausted.
This sudden predicament seemed to bring Li Changqing back to the days when he had first begun practicing martial arts.
It had been just as difficult, just as painful.
But the growth gained from overcoming it all was enough to make him forget every bit of pain.
The corners of Li Changqing's lips curved upward. He smiled soundlessly at the lakebed.
"Yeah. This kind of pressure is what martial arts training should be!"
The sinews and bones throughout his body rang in unison.
Bzz!
Tiger Roar Thunder Sound.
He did not hold back his fist techniques at all. Every move and every stance contained one hundred percent of his strength.
Would he lower his standards just because he was in a predicament? How could that be possible?
His eyes were sharp, and his hands evolved yin and yang. As his fists moved, the vitality within his dantian used Embracing the Core and Returning Strength, likewise evolving into Yin-Yang Qi that collided and stirred up terrifying force.
Boom!
It was as though thunder had exploded beneath the water.
While mobilizing all the vitality in his body, Li Changqing gritted his teeth and directly cut more than half of his oxygen consumption.
If there was not enough oxygen, then he would force himself to use less—or none at all.
In an instant, an unnatural flush surfaced on his face.
The lactic acid produced by anaerobic respiration was distributed throughout his body through his vitality and rapidly broken down.
In his mind, the Tai Chi formed by the Tai Shang Gan Ying Pian slowly revolved, and a faint spark of inspiration rose within him.
Tai Chi (Heaven-Man Resonance): 15%
Sure enough, the effects brought by immense pressure were equally remarkable.
Li Changqing's pupils shone. The pitch-black lakebed was illuminated by two crimson jewels.
His powerful irises gathered and reflected the light, allowing Li Changqing to see even at the lakebed.
Continue!
His fist techniques constantly changed as he practiced. The greatest function of Heaven-Man Resonance was to borrow nature and follow nature.
Submerged at the lakebed, trying to use his fist techniques to disperse the currents so they would not affect him at all was simply a wild fantasy.
And Li Changqing had never intended to do that.
He had come to the lakebed to temper himself. Without resistance, what would there be to temper?
Since he could not use his fist techniques to dissolve the resistance of flowing water.
Then I'll do the opposite!
The next instant.
Li Changqing suddenly changed. Force surged and contracted within his body. Not only did he stop drawing upon the water flow, he instead used his vitality to thoroughly stir up the undercurrents at the lakebed.
As his fist techniques changed, the resistance he suffered decreased rather than increased.
Boom!
Driven by his force, a vortex several meters across appeared at the lakebed.
"That's exactly the effect!" Li Changqing's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
He continuously adjusted his fist techniques.
The vortex steadily expanded.
Five meters, eight meters, ten meters...
Finally, as his force began circulating at the lakebed.
He stirred the entire lake into motion.
A vortex more than ten meters in diameter was churned by his Tai Chi Force, multiplying the pressure, while Li Changqing stood firm at its center.
Tiger Roar Thunder Sound echoed within him, shaking his marrow. Once the vibrations passed through his body into the lake water, the resulting force of vibration continually churned the vortex, pressing against his body.
It actually formed an inner-and-outer counterpart with the Tiger Roar Thunder Sound generated by Li Changqing's fist techniques, tempering his physique together with it.
In an instant, the flowing water that had once hindered Li Changqing was transformed into his aid once more.
There was no need to dissolve the resistance. At this moment, Li Changqing instead wished the current were heavier and swifter.
The heavier the water, the better its tempering effect on him.
That was his true purpose in entering the water.
Using the weight of the lake water to temper his physique.
Li Changqing closed his eyes and began grasping his Heaven-Man Resonance state.
He practiced his fist techniques over and over. Gradually, his force began to reach completion, no longer spreading outward without restraint.
The vortex began to contract, and the churning lake surface gradually calmed once more.
At the lakebed, a perfect spherical vortex took shape.
The surging current actually gave off the sound of thunder as well.
His force circulated back and forth, forming self-circulating waves that continuously tempered Li Changqing at their center.
Under Li Changqing's Tai Chi Fist, the lake's flowing water was finally driven by him into a repeating cycle, completely becoming his helper in tempering his body.
Physique +3 Vitality Concentration: 24%
He had not broken through his limit. For the current Li Changqing, breaking through his limits had already become difficult.
The steady, natural work of tempering his body could likewise earn him Physique points.
His body grew ever stronger, and the strength surging through him actually dispelled the discomfort of oxygen deprivation. Muscles fatigued by anaerobic respiration returned to their peak.
Li Changqing's eyes lit up. Borrowing the replenishment gained from his increased Physique, he practiced his fist techniques again. He even forced the vitality that was already being constantly consumed out through his body, madly squeezing every last drop from himself.
Stirred by his vitality, the undercurrents at the lakebed went completely wild and expanded once again.
Fifteen meters in diameter!
The rushing currents turned into little hammers, fiercely striking every inch of Li Changqing's flesh.
Internal refinement, external tempering.
His body, cleansed by Tiger Roar Thunder Sound, entered nature's alchemy furnace.
Growing ever clearer and more radiant.
Abruptly, Li Changqing's fist techniques halted.
The Yin-Yang Qi within his body surged, while the undercurrents of the lake outside churned. Following the practice of his fist techniques, they in turn helped temper his body.
"Heaven and earth are the furnace, Creation the craftsman; yin and yang are the charcoal, and all things the bronze."
Wasn't my body precisely the peerless divine weapon within that furnace?
With the yin-yang vitality of his dantian as furnace fire, natural Creation as the craftsman, and wind, rain, thunder, lightning, and all things as bronze, he would temper himself.
A great awakening dawned within his heart, and that powerful resonance manifested in his fist techniques.
Heaven and earth were the furnace; yin and yang were the charcoal.
Li Changqing's fist techniques abruptly changed. Beginning with the inheritance of Flowing Water True Meaning, his fist techniques, which had leaned toward soft water—
For the first time, underwent a fundamental transformation.
Blazing flames scorched the heavens, aggressive as fire!
Boom!
Li Changqing lashed out with a single whip of his right arm. His fist intent was resolute, no longer possessing that former endless, ceaseless vitality.
There was no room left, no retreat spared.
One punch staked everything.
What he wanted was exactly this Artistic Conception: as unrestrained as blazing flames, once gone, never returning!
The lake water was directly scattered by that punch.
Infused with vitality, his fist force thunderously punched through the massive fifteen-meter vortex.
Violent waves spread in every direction. The next instant, Li Changqing slowly drew his left arm inward.
His fist techniques underwent another earth-shaking transformation.
Stripped of all yang hardness, the converging Tai Chi Fist retained only yin softness, effortlessly gathering all the water that had spread outward.
It gathered the force with which his fiery, yang-hard fist techniques had stirred the water, then used it to temper his body anew.
Using water and fire to transform into yin and yang.
With this move.
Li Changqing was no longer merely using his fist techniques and the lake to temper himself. He was also using the force created by his own punches against the water to continue tempering himself in return.
One fish, three meals.
Tai Chi (Unity of Heaven and Man): 30%
Once he heard the Way, the proficiency of his fist techniques directly doubled.
Before this, Li Changqing's use of nature had always relied on Tai Chi's soft yin aspect for transformation.
Only today did he thoroughly create the opposite of Tai Chi's yin softness: an utmost yang, utmost hard fist intent, aggressive as fire.
Yin and yang were finally both complete.
With this enlightenment, the already scarce oxygen within Li Changqing's body was about to run out.
Was it time to go up?
The corner of his eye swept over his wristwatch.
Only half an hour had passed.
His oxygen was about to be exhausted, yet he still had not found a path toward internal circulation.
Physique +3 Vitality Concentration: 26%
Under the threefold tempering of the lake's weight, the expenditure of his fist techniques, and his own force, Li Changqing's Physique rose once more. The replenishment brought by his abundant vitality restored his stamina and temporarily eased his oxygen crisis.
The strength brought by his increased Physique allowed Li Changqing to expand the range over which he stirred the lake again.
Twenty meters!
The twenty-meter vortex imposed terrifying water pressure upon him. The pressure on Li Changqing now was far beyond what a hundred meters of deep water could compare to.
The increased fist force brought by greater strength would likewise act back upon Li Changqing himself.
Back and forth, the speed at which his physique was tempered accelerated again. Yet the oxygen he had just replenished once more fell into a crisis of depletion.
Without a method of internal circulation, he would have to surface sooner or later.
Boom!
Compared to air, water was a better medium for transmitting force.
Li Changqing struck the flowing water, and it was no different from striking the strange rocks at the bottom of the lake.
The immense force churned without end.
Boom!
At last, the balance was broken.
The direction of the current changed abruptly, and the whirlpool Li Changqing had formed with his own strength was disrupted by this sudden shift.
He fixed his eyes on the angle of the lake beside him.
A massive hollow had appeared there.
Lake water poured back into it, the enormous force seeming as though the entire lake had come crashing down upon him.
Even Li Changqing could barely keep his footing.
"Such pressure..."
He stared at the gap in the lakebed, a mad thought repeatedly rising in his mind.
If one spoke of extremes, what place could be more extreme than this?
The path of martial arts was meant to be like this!
The vitality in his feet loosened, and Li Changqing was swept away by the current, hurtling toward that enormous hole.
Bang!
He sank into a horse stance, both feet embedding directly into the rocks at the bottom of the lake.
The surrounding currents battered him so fiercely that even he found it difficult to stand firm.
Inside the enormous hole, jagged rocks bristled everywhere. With the powerful rush of water added to the mix, anyone who fell in would certainly die.
Now, even Li Changqing himself could no longer break free.
Under the scouring currents, if he dared relax for even an instant, the merciless water would immediately sweep him into the hole.
Yet faced with such a dead end, Li Changqing smiled.
"This is cultivation!"
The climb along the martial path ought to be like this.
Azure Waves Temper the Heart—Live Toward Death, Be Born Again!