Nearly a hundred li beneath Crouching Ox Island.
Inside a vast cavern hundreds of yards long and wide, over a thousand people in ragged clothes had gathered. Some were practically naked.
Almost every inch of their exposed skin was covered in scars.
Some carried mining picks on their backs or slung over their shoulders; others had bulging animal-hide bags strapped to them. All of them watched the man standing with his arms spread wide atop the Lotus Dharma Altar, their eyes blazing with fervor.
"My family! The Holy Sect's messenger has brought us new word!"
The man on the Lotus Dharma Altar wore a black robe riddled with patches. Yet with his arms thrown wide and his head held high, he looked as though he were dressed in the most magnificent ceremonial robe.
"The Holy Sect has not abandoned us! Those damned Green Flood Dragon Army soldiers will sink forever into Red Lotus Hell, repenting for their sins as the holy flames burn them!"
"When the Blood Lotus Flame blooms, the time for our counterattack will come. The great Holy King will stand with every one of us!!"
Hraaah!
Over a thousand miners thrust their arms into the air at once, fists pumping toward the sky.
"Let the holy flames blaze and burn away all evil!"
"When the Blood Lotus Flame blooms, the Holy King shall descend!"
Frenzied roars burst from every throat. The terrifying waves of sound surged through the cavern's many deep passageways, carrying far into the distance.
On Crouching Ox Island, Zhou Hao walked down the mountain path.
"Commander!"
At the ridge's crest, where it resembled an ox's back, many Xiantian Lifeforms from the Jade Dragon Army spotted Zhou Hao and bowed respectfully.
Zhou Hao saw that the Xiantian Lifeforms who weren't on duty had all chosen their residences, and some had already begun cultivating. He gave a slight nod and continued down the mountain.
He had come to inspect the place.
He had given Deputy Commander Hu Yong his orders, but unless he made the rounds himself and let the Xiantian Lifeforms know that he was taking their welfare seriously, he couldn't be sure the orders would be carried out to the letter.
"Haha... Nan Ming, even though you cultivate a fire-based body-tempering technique, you're still no match for me when it comes to braving the cold!"
As soon as Zhou Hao reached the foot of the mountain, he heard a smug laugh from the beach.
He didn't need to see the speaker. Just hearing the voice brought the image of Shangguan Yun grinning from ear to ear into his mind.
"What do you mean, braving the cold? Why aren't you two cultivating? What are you doing here?" Zhou Hao headed toward the beach.
From Ox-Head Mountain's peak, Zhou Hao had thought the beach was white because its sand was white.
But when he got closer, he saw that a thick layer of frost covered the shore, radiating bone-deep chill.
On the beach, Shangguan Yun and Nan Ming wore nothing but their underwear, their upper bodies bare. Both were still dripping with seawater.
Water ran down their muscular bodies, freezing into ice pellets in midair before it could even reach the sand.
"Commander, Nan Ming and I made a bet. We bet on who could last longer in the sea. I won!"
Shangguan Yun laughed broadly, but his face had turned ashen, and his lips were purple with cold. He looked rather comical.
Nan Ming was in even worse shape. He shook like a sieve, and his hair and eyebrows were coated in frost. He was so cold he could barely speak.
Whoosh!
Seeing them, Zhou Hao's Golden Crow Solar Divine Pattern lit up on his back. The fire-element energy of heaven and earth gathered, forming a Fire Dragon out of thin air that wrapped around them.
It took nearly half an incense stick's time of basking in the scorching flames before Nan Ming finally recovered.
"Why would you make a bet about something like that?" Zhou Hao said, exasperated. "You knew the water around Crouching Ox Island was bitterly cold, yet you still had to go try it. What are you, children?"
"It was Old Yun," Nan Ming said, glaring at Shangguan Yun. "He said that before joining the Jade Dragon Army, he used to dive to the bottom of the sea near his home island to cultivate, using the water pressure to train.
"He said it made his body-tempering technique advance much faster, and even improved his qi cultivation and circulation compared to training on land. I didn't believe him, so he insisted I come and try it. Then he goaded me, saying I was afraid of the cold..."
"And you took the bait just because someone provoked you?" Zhou Hao laughed. Shangguan Yun looked honest and simple, but he had a cunning side to him. He even knew how to use reverse psychology.
But training with the help of water pressure?
Zhou Hao's thoughts raced.
It did seem to make sense.
When he had first cultivated the Chiming Nine Heavens Map, the Nine Cloud Seal Secret Patterns had devoured the divine power within his cells at a frenzied rate. As a result, the technique's circulation had sped up dramatically, allowing him to leap from the Post-Heaven realm to a Xiantian Lifeform in a single bound.
Back then, his body had sensed danger and instinctively fought to save itself.
Now that there was no inner danger, what about external stimulation?
Forget the pressure of the deep sea. The cold alone, powerful enough to nearly freeze two late-stage Xiantian body-tempering experts to death, would surely give the body plenty of stimulus to respond to.
Zhou Hao looked at the chill-shrouded sea. Its temperature was far below freezing, yet the water still hadn't turned to ice.
Even the frost on the beach hadn't formed from frozen seawater. It had crystallized slowly from the moisture in the air.
"I'll give it a try too." Zhou Hao followed their example, taking off his Black Jade Dragon Armor and revealing his well-built physique.
Compared to Shangguan Yun's bulging muscles, Zhou Hao's own physique was nothing special.
But the perfect Innate God and Devil Body, nurtured by Solar True Fire and Lunar True Water, gave Zhou Hao a body whose every line seemed to follow the golden ratio.
Far away, Shangguan Yu stood at the edge of the beach, keeping an eye on them, afraid her brother would stir up trouble again.
When she saw Zhou Hao take off his armor, baring his chest and abs, she quickly covered her eyes with a little squeak.
But judging by the gaps between her fingers, it seemed she had covered her eyes only to make a show of being shocked.
"Commander, this seawater is strange." Nan Ming looked worried. "My God and Devil Body may not compare to the perfect God and Devil Body nurtured by your Chiming Nine Heavens Map, but I still use a fire-based technique. Please, please don't venture too far out."
"Don't worry. I know my limits. As soon as I feel I can't last any longer, I'll come straight back." Zhou Hao smiled at them, then turned and walked into the sea.
"Nan Ming, how long do you think Commander will last?" Shangguan Yun sent him a telepathic message.
"When Commander entered the Xiantian realm, he was nurtured by Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire." Nan Ming thought it over, then said uncertainly, "He should last at least a quarter of an hour, with the water over his head."
The water had only reached Nan Ming's chest earlier. When a wave slapped him in the face, he had nearly frozen stiff and toppled over.
Shangguan Yun might have looked smug, but he had only gone a few steps farther than Nan Ming, with the water barely reaching his neck.
"Want to bet? I say Commander can last more than a quarter of an hour," Shangguan Yun said.
"Get lost!"
Zhou Hao had no idea his two subordinates were guessing how long he could endure the bone-chilling seawater.
He could feel his Xiantian True Essence moving through his meridians much faster than usual, and he was delighted.
"It really works!"
The sea near the beach was relatively calm, unlike the turbulent currents and whirlpools farther out.
Zhou Hao waded deeper, step by step, and soon disappeared beneath the surface.
Xiantian Lifeforms had shed their mortal bodies, and their meridians were fully opened. Underwater, they could hold their breath and switch to internal respiration, absorbing oxygen from the seawater through the countless pores in their skin.
Of course, Xiantian Lifeforms were still living beings. They couldn't go without food or breathing entirely. But thanks to their powerful bodies, they could easily last a day or two without breathing.
However, the waters around Crouching Ox Island made it impossible to do so as easily as in ordinary seas.
Splash... splash...
The farther Zhou Hao moved from shore, the more he realized that beneath the seemingly calm surface, the sea was full of currents.
He felt countless powerful forces tugging at his body from every direction, trying to drag him into the depths.
Bloop...
A string of bubbles rose as Zhou Hao took the Red Gold Copper Rod from his storage space and gripped it in his hand.
The two Red Gold Copper Rods weighed a combined twenty-seven thousand jin. As soon as they appeared, Zhou Hao planted himself in the sea like a deeply rooted tree, unmoving.
Fortunately, the seabed was made entirely of hard rock. If it had been ordinary sandy shore, the weight of the rods alone would have sunk him straight into the sand.
Once he had steadied himself, Zhou Hao tried circulating the Water Source Sutra. Heaven and earth energy, so dense it was almost tangible, immediately surged through the pores all over his body.
"What dense energy! It's almost as rich as what you'd find in a High-Grade Origin Stone." Zhou Hao was overjoyed.
Compared with the pure heaven and earth energy inside a High-Grade Origin Stone, the energy drawn in through cultivation contained more impurities and had to circulate through his body once to be refined. Even so, it was enough to make anyone leap for joy.
High-Grade Origin Stones were limited, but the energy in the sea was endless.
He could get nearly the same cultivation results without spending High-Grade Origin Stones. It just didn't get any better than this!
"Absorb as much as I can. Every extra breath I take in now is one less breath I'll have to draw from a High-Grade Origin Stone." Zhou Hao circulated his technique at full speed, thinking happily.
The constant shortage of High-Grade Origin Stones had left him so poor, he'd grown desperate!
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