Unable to Transcend Form and Concept, Emptiness and Selflessness

The current grew more and more turbulent. Yi Yun knew he was already very close to the waterfall.

He constantly adjusted his breathing, keeping his body in the best possible condition.

On Earth, some people had challenged sixty-meter-high diving platforms and survived. East River's waterfall, however, was more than a hundred meters high.

Although Yi Yun's physical abilities far surpassed those of ordinary people, he had never received professional diving training. Moreover, he was not currently at his peak. Jumping straight down like this still posed a tremendous challenge.

"Rumble!"

Yi Yun could already hear the sound of the waterfall crashing into the deep pool. The rushing current pulled him straight toward it.

After tumbling several times in the water, Yi Yun suddenly felt empty space beneath him. A violent sensation of weightlessness surged over him, and his vision was instantly filled with splashing water, becoming a vast blur of white.

And so, he leaped from the waterfall more than a hundred meters high.

Seen from afar, the majestic cliff stood there like a giant, while the waterfall cascading from the cliff resembled the longsword in the giant's hand. The giant seemed to be propping himself up with the sword, its tip pointing downward, exuding an indescribable presence.

As for Yi Yun, on this practice-sword-like giant blade of water, he was merely an insignificant black speck, hurtling downward at tremendous speed!

"Splash!"

A massive spray erupted, like a blooming white lotus.

The impact of Yi Yun emerging from the water struck his internal organs, bones, and muscles with tremendous force. It felt as though his body had been placed on an anvil and hammered by an iron mallet.

This heavy blow seemed to loosen Yi Yun's muscles. After the intense pain spread throughout his body, it left him with an indescribable sense of comfort.

Yi Yun held his breath and dived straight down with practiced ease!

His entire body was burning with heat now. Immersing himself in the icy pool water instead made him feel incomparably comfortable.

Just like that, he quietly dived deeper, reaching a depth he had never attained before.

Until he...

reached the bottom!

This was the first time Yi Yun had dived to the bottom of the deep pool!

Beneath the deep pool lay pure sand and gravel, as though they had been polished from jade. Yi Yun curled up, wrapping both arms around his legs, and seemed to have fallen asleep beneath the water.

Time seemed to lose all meaning. Yi Yun did not know how long had passed. He only felt waves of coolness coming from his chest, keeping him from suffocating despite his inability to breathe.

The heat in his meridians was also slowly cooled by the icy pool water, while the pressure from the water continued compressing and tempering Yi Yun's internal organs...

At that moment, Yi Yun felt as though he had returned to the womb. He felt like a baby in the womb, cut off from everything in the world...

His body was like a raging fire. Yi Yun had only one thought: to digest this energy as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the energy would burst his meridians, with unimaginable consequences.

Beneath the deep pool, where the water temperature was close to zero degrees, Yi Yun's body heat dissipated rapidly. If a person were naked in air at zero degrees, they would be difficult to freeze to death as long as they did not fall asleep. But if they jumped into ice water at zero degrees, they would be completely frozen stiff in less than ten minutes.

The low temperature, immense pressure, and lack of oxygen—this harsh environment accelerated the consumption of the energy essence within Yi Yun's Savage Bone. The process of expending energy was also a process of improving Yi Yun's constitution and cleansing his marrow.

Time passed. Silence reigned beneath the water, and the pool itself did not flow in the slightest. Yi Yun seemed to have entered a completely independent spacetime. In this spacetime, he could hear only his own slow and prolonged heartbeat.

"Thump!" "Thump!" "Thump!"

Again and again, each beat was spaced with the precision of a pendulum.

Slowly, Yi Yun's soul seemed to leave his body. The final thought in his mind also fell asleep, and his entire person seemed to have been sealed in ice.

For a person in a deep dive, losing consciousness meant certain death.

Yet although Yi Yun had lost consciousness, the Purple Crystal in his chest slowly pulsed, sending energy to every part of his body.

Yi Yun had completely entered a state of ethereal selflessness. Every cell in his body absorbed the energy of the Savage Bone, resisting the cold and the astonishing pressure beneath the water!

In fact, even a supreme body-tempering fist art like the Dragon Marrow Tiger Bones Fist found it difficult to temper every inch of flesh and blood comprehensively. Whether it was Fierce Tiger Descends the Mountain or Dragon Soars Through Nine Heavens, body refinement always left some areas untouched.

Wherever the omissions lay, those places could become weaknesses in a martial artist's body.

As for the only technique, Dragon Dances on the Vast Ocean, it borrowed the tremendous pressure of liquid and applied it evenly to every part of a martial artist's flesh. In theory, it could indeed temper every inch of a martial artist's flesh and blood.

However, despite that, constrained by the limits of the physical body, almost no warrior could truly cultivate Dragon Dances on the Vast Ocean to perfection.

To temper every inch of flesh and blood, one first had to enter a selfless state. Otherwise, the body would always be regulated by the consciousness of the human brain. People would subconsciously use the body parts that were stronger and more familiar. For example, if someone pushed a stone with all their strength, they would instinctively pour more force into their dominant hand.

Only by emptying the self-awareness and allowing every cell to rely on its instincts to resist the pressure and cold of the water could the body be thoroughly tempered. In this state, the human body obeyed instinct. This was what was known as "Unable to Transcend Form and Concept, Emptiness and Selflessness"!

Entering a selfless state was already difficult. Entering such a state beneath deep water was even harder, because losing consciousness beneath deep water was essentially suicide!

Yi Yun had now lost consciousness, but as the energy of the Origin Purple Crystal surged into his blood, his brain, meridians, and bodily organs were nourished by that energy. The reason the human body needed to breathe was because its tissues required the energy released through respiration. Now that the Origin Purple Crystal was supplying energy, oxygen no longer seemed important.

And so, Yi Yun unknowingly remained beneath the deep water for an entire day and night!

His bones, internal organs, and every cell seemed to come alive. They appeared to possess consciousness of their own.

It was not until the following day, when the sun had risen high into the sky, that Yi Yun slowly floated up from beneath the water. Like a drowning man, he drifted to the surface...

Yunhuang was one of the twenty-four savage lands of the Tai'a Divine Kingdom. Normally, apart from the Spiritual Grounds guarded by the various major tribes, scarcely a human could be found in its wilderness!

Within Yunhuang, besides the Spiritual Grounds where humans gathered, there was another kind of place known as the "wasteland"!

The wasteland was rich in Savage Power, and the truly powerful desolate beasts all lurked within it!

If a martial artist whose strength was insufficient accidentally entered the wasteland, death was certain!

But... at that moment, on the edge of a wasteland in Yunhuang, an old man had appeared with a young girl.

The old man wore a yellow robe. He was somewhat plump, with white hair and a youthful complexion, but his eyes were a little small, making him look plain and unremarkable.

The girl beside him was slender and appeared to be sixteen or seventeen years old. Her eyebrows were gracefully curved, and her eyes were narrow and long. Her pupils were as clear as autumn water, exceptionally pure.

The girl wore hemp clothing. Beneath the sleeves of the coarse garment, a section of her arm showed, white as a lotus root.

The girl's skin was so pale that the veins beneath it could be seen.

Generally speaking, fair skin with a rosy glow was considered beautiful and was also a sign of health. With skin as snowy-white as this girl's, she gave off the impression of an ailing Xi Shi, so frail that even clothing seemed too heavy for her.

However, if one looked at the scene before them, they would not feel that way at all.

The girl's hand, originally as beautiful as jade, was now a vivid crimson. It had been dyed red with blood. In front of the girl lay a dead vicious beast. The beast was the size of a young calf and had been slain by the girl alone!