Great Demon Feather

In the water, a slender figure darted swiftly back and forth.

The crab on the reef waved its Dual Pincers, adding to its imposing display.

Two quarters of an hour later, the figure swiftly surfaced to breathe, then returned underwater after catching its breath.

"Activity time has extended to roughly two quarters of an hour."

Liang Qu estimated the time, his heart surging with excitement.

In his previous life, the record for holding one's breath underwater was twenty-four minutes. That was achieved while remaining perfectly still, with an extremely low heart rate, practically a state of "turtle breathing," and it was already one in a million.

Yet while swimming rapidly and consuming oxygen at a high rate, he could easily go half an hour without breathing. It was completely inhuman—Martial Masters could not do it.

"My rough sensing range has increased to ten meters, while my detailed sensing circle is five meters. The range has grown considerably, and my concealment is much stronger too. Unless they come within a meter, fish cannot detect me at all."

The greater his sensing range, the greater his Water Control range. Within the detailed sensing circle, Water Control moved as readily as an arm or finger. Thus, an expanded sensing range was equivalent to an improvement in Water Control.

Liang Qu spread his five fingers. Under the command of his thoughts, invisible currents of water shifted through all kinds of forms above his palm.

He controlled the water to form a vortex in his palm. The smaller it became, the faster it spun, shrinking from half a person's height to the size of a human head.

Even so, he was still a world away from water-blade cutting.

At first, Liang Qu had believed that developing a water blade would make for an extremely powerful move. Later, he discovered that was not the case. It was a skill with an abysmal cost-performance ratio.

The force of the water he could control was roughly three hundred jin. If compressed into ten liters of water and released, that was thirty jin of force per liter. It sounded impressive—more than enough for Object Manipulation or catching fish—but it was still a hundred thousand miles away from a water blade.

A low-pressure water blade at thirty megapascals could only cut foam and wooden boards. Even that required applying three hundred kilograms—six hundred jin—of force over one square centimeter.

To cut flesh required at least fifty megapascals, while cutting steel required one hundred megapascals, with fine sand mixed into the water.

It was completely impossible.

Mixing blades and steel needles into a vortex should provide some killing power, but the cost was far too high. There was no mechanical processing in this era. Several thousand blades in a few minutes—all of them had to be ground out piece by piece by hand.

Liang Qu suspected that even the Green Marsh Spirit Marsh Monkey could not simply compress water into a water blade. It would take the Purple Marsh Spirit Water King Ape.

But if he could reach that level, he might as well crush the enemy with raw force and use water pressure to squeeze them apart alive.

Unless the Marsh Spirit would transform after reaching a certain stage and gain usable skills.

Liang Qu felt that was something he could look forward to. He could vaguely sense that once the fusion rate passed halfway, the Marsh Spirit would undergo some changes.

As for controlling blood, which was eighty-five percent water, Liang Qu actually had some ideas—and had even put them into practice once.

At the Martial Arts School, he had successfully counterattacked by controlling an attacker's blood to reverse flow.

Unfortunately, the blood he could currently control was limited to the most concentrated area: the heart's aorta. Even the spleen was impossible. Though it stored a great deal of blood, that blood was not concentrated, but spread throughout tiny blood vessels.

Liang Qu had also noticed that whenever he met Senior Brother Hu or Senior Brother Xiang, he could not sense the flow of blood within their hearts inside his sensing circle.

What could not be sensed naturally could not be controlled.

Senior Brother Xiang had yet to break the Blood Barrier. Was it because of the first three barriers? Did the Skin Barrier block his senses? There was no way to know for now.

Liang Qu had even considered whether he could control his own blood to achieve an effect similar to stimulating his qi and blood, but he had not dared try it.

It was too dangerous. One careless mistake and he could ruin himself. Even if it worked, it might shorten his lifespan.

He practiced martial arts and fished because he wanted to live longer and better. Playing with something like that was not worth the loss.

He connected to the Ze Cauldron.

Cauldron Master: Liang Qu

Refine Marsh Spirit: Water Monkey (White) (Fusion Rate: 49%)

Marsh Essence: None

River's Favor: None

Commanded Water Beasts: Taihua Crocodile, Six-Whiskered Catfish, Stone Turtle Crab

Evaluation: The Water Monkey Marsh Spirit originated from the great Lord of the Huai River Waters. Its awakening is incomplete; a petty figure frail in nature and weak in fate.

After absorbing the Red Blood Perch, the Marsh Spirit's fusion rate had reached forty-nine percent and was about to pass halfway. Even the final evaluation had changed: no longer insufficient awakening, but incomplete awakening.

Above the white Marsh Spirit Water Monkey were the Green Marsh Spirit Marsh Monkey and the Purple Marsh Spirit Water King Ape. It was even possible that there was a higher level still: Wu Zhiqi.

At present, Liang Qu could only control an Ordinary Person's blood. But at the beginning, he had not even been able to control an Ordinary Person's blood. If he continued rising, the future held promise.

In two months, he had gone from an orphan on the verge of starving to death to a true disciple of a Hunting Tiger Realm Great Martial Master. In a few more days, he could even break through the Skin Barrier and become a true Martial Artist. Liang Qu was already deeply satisfied.

When the Summer Tax came in the Fifth Month, would that tax collector still dare kick his measuring scoop again?

A sense of pleasure filled Liang Qu's heart. After manipulating the water for a while and familiarizing himself with his abilities, he began checking on the lotus root's growth.

He had always been trying to cultivate the Treasure Lotus Root by breaking off A Section Of it and planting it elsewhere. Unfortunately, not a single one survived. They had all rotted in the water, wasting many Treasure Plants for nothing.

It seemed that only this nearby stretch of water could support its growth. Liang Qu had long wanted to dig up the silt and see whether something was buried beneath it, but he feared there might actually be nothing below. The Treasure Plant might have rooted there by coincidence, and in the end there would be no treasure while all the lotus roots died. Thus, he had never tried.

The Treasure Plant's healing effects had played an enormous role in Liang Qu's growth. The bodily deficits caused by prolonged hunger at the very beginning had been slowly replenished by the lotus root. Otherwise, nothing would have gone so smoothly.

Previously, aside from the Crab Monster's main pieces, Liang Qu had smashed its remaining shell and buried it in the silt to see whether it would help the lotus root grow.

For now, he could see nothing. Crab shells were too hard. Even smashed apart, they did not decompose easily. Three days had passed, yet they remained exactly as they had been when buried.

After making a circuit and confirming that the Crab Monster's previous destruction had not affected the lotus root's growth, Liang Qu began clearing away broken stones to expand its growing space.

When everything was done and he was about to surface for air, he suddenly saw a glowing speck light up in the distant darkness. It swayed as it drew nearer, looking exceedingly strange.

But the positional sense in the Mental Link told Liang Qu that the two beasts were there as well, and they too were rapidly approaching, as though chasing one another.

Holy shit, did these two idiots lure over something they couldn't beat?

Liang Qu turned to flee, but thoughts such as "scalding," "hot," and "cooked" suddenly came through the Mental Link of the two beasts.

That was not quite what he had imagined.

Liang Qu stopped and decided to take a look first.

Only when they came closer did he discover that the two beasts had not brought back an enemy, but a glowing object. The way they had brought it back was extraordinarily bizarre—they were tossing it back and forth with their foreheads.

The Fat Catfish received it and headbutted it to Cannot Move. Cannot Move received it, then headbutted it back to the Fat Catfish.

The sense of déjà vu was so strong that Liang Qu thought of how he ate roasted sweet potatoes, shifting them back and forth between his left and right hands.

The two beasts came before Liang Qu and flung down the glowing object. A massive red feather slowly sank to the bottom.

Liang Qu raised an eyebrow.

This was a feather from the Firebird Great Demon!?