Plunge into the Deep Sea

The next day, before the sky had fully brightened, Xiao Mu went to Wu Zhangkong's office to submit his leave request. Wu Zhangkong looked at the words "Second Awakening of Martial Soul" on the slip, remained silent for two seconds, and approved it.

He did not ask how long it would take. He knew there was no point in asking. Forty-nine days, or perhaps longer.

Given Xiao Mu's style of doing things, this likely wasn't the standard answer.

Just as the sun began to rise, the Red-Grade Mecha was already parked at the academy gate.

The engine hummed low, its red armor casting a matte sheen in the morning light, wings folded behind it like a bird of prey with its talons tucked away.

The hatch was open, and Mu Ye sat in the pilot's seat with a smile on his face.

Xiao Mu and Na'er walked up to meet him. Na'er's soul storage device was already packed with delicacies, completely unaware that Mu Ye was the number one chef in the Legend of the Dragon King.

The two boarded the mecha, the hatch sealed shut, and the engine's roar suddenly spiked. The ground beneath the mecha was kicked up into a ring of dust by the blast, sending pine needles and gravel scattering in all directions.

The next instant, the red body shot into the sky, dragging two pale blue exhaust flames as it pierced into the clouds.

"Let's go. We'll head straight for a thousand-meter trench to trigger your second martial soul awakening," Mu Ye said directly.

The mecha began its descent. The clouds outside the porthole shifted from white to gray, then suddenly parted, revealing a patch of deep blue sea.

Mu Ye's gaze swept across the flickering data on the main control screen—water depth, ocean currents, and seafloor topography.

He tapped a coordinate on the screen with his index finger.

"Little Red, lock onto the target sea area."

"Understood, Boss."

The mecha's intelligent system issued a confirmation tone. The fuselage tilted slightly and streaked off in one direction.

The sea surface retreated rapidly beneath them. The boundary between deep and light blue grew increasingly blurred, and the color of the water deepened, shifting from blue to ink-blue, finally turning into a deep indigo that bordered on black.

"Right here," Mu Ye said.

The mecha hovered above a stretch of the sea.

The surface could not be called calm; waves surged forward one after another, but the water was so deep that even the waves could not churn up white foam, instead rising and falling with a dull, heavy rhythm, like a giant beast crouching in the dark.

Sunlight could not penetrate such depths. Looking down from the porthole, one could only see an abyss of darkness.

Mu Ye did not intend to start right here. He pushed the control stick, and the mecha rose again, flying toward the edge of the horizon.

Ten minutes later, a green dot appeared on the sea. As they drew closer, the dot transformed into an island—not large, barely two kilometers in circumference, covered in low shrubs and a few coconut trees bent by the sea breeze.

A white sandy beach circled the island; aside from seashells and the footprints of seabirds, there was nothing else.

The mecha landed slowly on the sand, its landing gear sinking into the soft ground. The hatch opened, and the humid sea breeze rushed in, carrying salt and moisture, mixed with the raw, sun-baked scent of coconut leaves.

Mu Ye stood on the beach and scanned his surroundings.

The sea breeze blew from the east, making the coconut leaves rustle. Aside from a few lines of bird tracks and broken shells, the beach was empty. He set the mecha to standby mode and tilted his head toward Na'er.

"You stay here. There's no danger in the vicinity, and if there is, Little Red will protect you."

Na'er nodded, asking in confusion, "Can't I go?"

"No, this training is very dangerous. Only your brother's physical constitution can handle it," Mu Ye explained. "I'll catch you a deep-sea fish later to make soup."

"Really!" Upon hearing about food, Na'er's eyes lit up.

"Of course it's real."

After saying this, Mu Ye led Xiao Mu toward the shore. They flew out over the water, where the surface shifted from light blue to a dark, somber hue.

"Your Body Martial Soul is your physical form, right? The method for a second awakening is simple to describe, but difficult to execute." He pointed to the water beneath their feet. "Go down there and stay. The deeper, the better. The pressure of a thousand-meter trench will force your martial soul to its limit."

"I will test your limits again and again."

Xiao Mu looked at the black water. "What if you can't measure it?"

In truth, he was somewhat skeptical. Would he really not instinctively use his first soul skill?

As long as he used his first soul skill, no matter how great the pressure, he would be fine.

"Nothing succeeds on the first try. You'll have at least forty-nine days of testing, followed by escaping the pursuit of sea soul beasts in the ocean," Mu Ye said.

Xiao Mu stared at the sea, which looked like an abyss. The water was so deep that he couldn't even see his own reflection, only a void of darkness, like a pupil-less eye staring back at him.

Before he could catch his breath, Mu Ye's hand pressed onto the back of his neck.

"Don't dawdle."

Then, his entire body was forced into the sea.

The moment he hit the water, the freezing cold rushed in from all directions. The light vanished instantly. The surface of the sea shrank rapidly above his head, narrowing from a white ring of light to the size of a coin, then a needle point, and then, nothing at all.

Mu Ye kept one hand pressed on his shoulder, and the two of them sank straight down like two iron ingots tied together.

One hundred meters. His eardrums gave a dull thud.

Two hundred meters. The air in his lungs was compressed into a ball the size of a fist.

Three hundred meters. The sunlight gradually faded away. All around was absolute darkness, with only the faintest glimmer filtering down from the sky.

Xiao Mu could feel his skin screaming. Every inch of his body was enduring the crushing pressure from all sides, as if being slowly squeezed by an invisible hand.

Mu Ye did not stop. Four hundred meters. Five hundred meters. The descent continued.

Xiao Mu instinctively activated his first soul skill. The faint glow of his soul ring lit up in the darkness, but it only flickered once before a hand pressed down and extinguished it.

Mu Ye's palm covered his body, and a surge of even stronger soul power poured from his palm, directly suppressing Xiao Mu's soul power back into his body.

"You won't be able to use your soul skill." Mu Ye's voice came through, sounding exceptionally clear and ethereal in the silence of the deep sea.

Eight hundred meters. Xiao Mu gritted his teeth.

Every inch of his skin was bearing the direct pressure of the deep sea. His bones emitted faint cracking sounds, and his veins throbbed beneath his skin.

He could feel his blood being compressed until it almost came to a standstill, his heart fighting against a thousand-catty force with every beat.

One thousand meters.

The water pressure squeezed in from all directions, omnipresent and pervasive.

Xiao Mu could understand the water pressure, but his skin was undergoing subtle changes, as if he could control the vectors coming into contact with it.

Mu Ye let go.

Xiao Mu did not hesitate in the slightest. He bent his knees, kicked off, and shot straight upward like an arrow released from a bowstring.

The seawater parted around him, and the resistance was pushed to its minimum. One hundred meters, two hundred meters, three hundred meters—his ascent was abnormally fast, as if the entire ocean were dragging Xiao Mu along with it.

His eardrums began to adapt. His lungs expanded once more. The darkness above his head began to fade, and light leaked down from the surface of the sea like shattered glass.

Mu Ye hovered in the deep sea, looking up at the figure rapidly moving away, his eyes narrowing.

This kid's body actually managed to hold out this long on the very first try!