The light inside the corridor is darker than it looks outside.
Qin Tiexin took the first step, and the moment he stepped on the bluestone, the entrance behind him closed silently. He swept his eyes across the entire corridor, which was flanked by dark blue stone walls on both sides. The walls were rough, without any patterns or runes carved on them. Only a dark green crystal was embedded on the wall every five steps. The light was dim but enough to see. There was a blurry halo at the end of the corridor, which was about fifty steps away by visual inspection.
He takes the second step.
A dull pressure came from all directions at the same time. It was not Gravity from top to bottom, but the force of squeezing inwards from six directions at the same time, front, back, left, right, up and down, as if the whole body was grasped by an invisible giant hand. The chest was the first to feel the change - every breath took twice as much effort as usual. The muscles of the limbs also tightened at the same moment, instinctively resisting this external force.
Qin Tiexin stopped in place for a moment and moved his fingers. When the joints flexed and extended, he could feel resistance, as if they were stirring in a thick liquid. He looked at the halo in front of the corridor.
"So that's it." He whispered to himself and took the third step.
With every step you take, the pressure is increasing. By the time you reach the tenth step, the pressure on your body has increased to one and a half times that when you entered the corridor. This kind of pressure is different from the simple Gravity crushing in the Primordial Unity Secret Realm - Gravity is one-way. As long as the pile work is stable enough and the bones are hard enough, you can carry it. It is not difficult to exert force in one direction. But the pressure here is multi-directional, squeezing the body from every angle. Qin Tiexin had to tighten all the core muscles and use the strength of the waist and abdomen to maintain the stability of the trunk. The shoulder blades and latissimus dorsi also continued to exert force to support the chest from being compressed. The pressure was not great, and it was completely within the tolerance range for him.
Qin Tiexin looked to the right and saw a stone wall.
I don't know what's going on over there at Duan Xuan.
Duan Xuan's speed route determines that when she Body Tempering, she will not deliberately hone her ability to withstand pressure like a power-type monk. This kind of multi-directional pressure may be very difficult for her. However, since the rules of the tunnel are to pop up instead of kill, it should not be fatal.
He kept walking forward.
The moment the twelfth step fell, the pressure was still increasing, but a new force seeped in silently - temperature. The scalding heat enveloped the body from all directions and penetrated evenly from every angle, as if it was immersed in a pot of heating oil. The bluestone slabs under the feet also began to heat up, and the leather on the soles of the boots soon gave off a burnt smell.
Qin Tiexin took two steps and felt that the spiritual power in his body was suppressed by a force in Dantian. He tried to adjust the spiritual power to protect the body. The spiritual power only advanced less than three inches in the meridians before being pushed back by an invisible resistance. After trying twice, the spiritual power could only be pushed to three inches below the surface of the skin at most, and it could not be pushed further.
It is forbidden to release spiritual power to protect the body in this corridor.
A pure flesh and blood body, not relying on spiritual power, not relying on talismans, not relying on Law Artifact. He understood what happened to those who were ejected from the corridor - if they were Body Refining monks who practiced both law and body, they would be treated as if they were here. Half of the strength is wasted; if the foundation at the Body Tempering stage is not solid enough and the spiritual power is used to protect the body, once the spiritual power is pressed back to Dantian, the physical body will be directly exposed to heavy pressure and high temperature, and it will not be able to withstand even a few breaths.
Qin Tiexin didn't spend too much time on the temperature. His Body Tempering foundation was stronger than most monks of the same level, and the heat was not as intense as before when Wind and Snow Pass was consuming the essence of ice and fire. He adjusted his breathing rhythm and continued to move forward.
When I reached the twentieth step, the pressure began to change again.
The direction began to become chaotic. At the same moment, he felt his shoulders being pushed back, his right hip being pushed to the left, his left leg being pulled forward, and his head being pushed downwards. The forces conflicted with each other, and the directions changed very quickly. The downward force before half a breath may have turned into a pull to the side after half a breath. This feeling was extremely strange - there was obviously no wind in the corridor, but every step he took seemed to be against a group of transparent things hitting from different directions.
Qin Tiexin's steps swayed for the first time, and his center of gravity continued to be disturbed. The moment his right foot landed, a lateral force suddenly pushed from the outside of his ankle, almost overturning his ankle. After he stabilized himself and was about to step forward with his left leg, a backward force grabbed his shoulder, as if someone was grabbing his collar from behind and pulling him back.
He did not carry it hard. His previous experience in practicing pile skills told him that relying on brute force is the stupidest way to resist the chaotic multi-directional force. He lowered his center of gravity slightly, spread his feet slightly wider than shoulder width, and touched the ground with his heels first when he took each step. His toes grabbed the ground, locked his ankles, and fixed his heels on the bluestone. Then he moved his center of gravity and took the next step.
The pace slowed down, but became steady. Every step after that was a fixed procedure - falling, stepping, locking, moving, lifting, stepping. It was as slow as walking in the mud at the bottom of the water, but every step was firmly stepped on the bluestone. Where he walked, a series of shallow footprints were left on the bluestone.
Step 30, Step 35. The halo at the end of the corridor has turned into a clearly visible semicircular aperture, with a translucent water film in the middle. The scene behind the water film is blurry, and only a few swaying light pillars can be vaguely seen.
There are only ten steps left.
Qin Tiexin took the thirty-sixth step. As soon as his feet were firmly planted, an unprecedented heavy pressure crashed down from all directions. This force was much more intense than the pressure accumulated in the previous thirty steps. It had gradually increased before, but here it suddenly nearly doubled. His knees bent, and the muscles of his calf trembled violently in an instant. His whole figure seemed to be sealed in a cooling mold, and even blinking became laborious.
He gritted his teeth and straightened his knees again. The muscles and bones made a fine friction sound under the heavy pressure. He did not rush to take the next step, but stood in this position for a moment to let himself adapt to the new pressure. Just five breaths later, his thighs and calves began to heat up. It was not the heat brought by the external temperature, but the heat energy generated by the muscles under continuous extreme exertion. This heat was conducted along the muscle fibers, seeped into the blood, and merged with the food essence accumulated in the blood.
Qin Tiexin's eyes lit up.
Most of the Demon Beast flesh and blood essence refined by Cauldron Eating Art has been accumulated in the blood and muscles and cannot be completely transformed. But at this moment, under the continuous pressure from the outside world, the food essence accumulated in every corner began to be squeezed out, like the medicinal materials placed in the grinding trough, being crushed, released and integrated bit by bit.
He felt a hot stream of heat rising from the depths of his bone marrow - it was the essence of the bear's marrow; and there was a stronger warmth spreading out from his abdomen - it was the flesh and blood essence of the bear's paw. There was also the essence of the spiritual cow and Ironback Pig he had eaten before, which had been accumulated in the gaps between the muscle fibers and had not been fully refined. At this moment, it was also being forced out bit by bit under the heavy pressure.
These essences merge into a warm current, which flows throughout the body as the blood flows, blending into every muscle fiber that is working hard to resist heavy pressure.
A faint blood-red color appeared on the surface of his skin, and his body temperature rose sharply. The blood rushed faster in the blood vessels, making a faint gurgling sound. The pores all opened, evaporating white mist, shrouding his whole body in a hazy blood-colored halo. The bones made a fine crisp sound, and the sound of bone density slowly increasing.
Click.
A crisp and weak sound came from the center of the spine, as if something was being pushed away. It was followed by a series of subtler crisp sounds, spreading from the spine to the shoulder blades, ribs, arm bones, and then to the wrists and fingertips. A stream of warm air surged from the depths of the bone marrow and poured into the gaps of each bone, pushing the density of the bones upward inch by inch.
Qin Tiexin took a breath. When the chest expanded, the ribs had more room to resist the pressure than before. He attributed this change to a clear feeling - his strength had exceeded the limit of 20,000 kilograms.
This number is the threshold that only Early Stage of the Qi and Blood Realm monks can reach.
The pressure around him was still there, but it no longer felt like being sealed in a casting mold. It was more like walking in deep water wearing heavy armor - it was still heavy, but no longer to the point where he couldn't move. He lifted his feet again, walking more steadily than before, and walked towards the end of the corridor step by step.
Step 49. The touch under your feet is completely different from before. The bluestone slab on the soles of your feet is no longer solid, but a barrier like a water film. When you step on it, it will sink slightly and then bounce back. The translucent water film at the end of the corridor is there. In front of him, the light pillar and the outline of the main hall were already vaguely visible. The water film under his feet reached a certain balance with the heavy pressure in the corridor - the greater the pressure he endured in the corridor, the thinner the barrier under his feet, and the more obvious the offset effect between the two.
The final step.
Qin Tiexin stepped through the water film, and stepped into the main hall from the heavy pressure of the corridor. All the pressure suddenly disappeared the moment he passed through the water film, and the Great Strength that was squeezing him from all directions seemed to be taken away. Likewise, his body was violently unbalanced at the moment when the pressure disappeared. His muscles could not relax from the state of extreme exertion for a while, and there was a feeling of swelling in his chest, like the discomfort of having his lungs forced to expand after emerging from deep water. He swayed for a while before standing still.
Before his vision was completely clear, there was a cold touch on his neck.
A long sword was placed across his throat. The blade was close to his skin, and his Adam's apple could already feel the coldness of the blade.
"Don't move." A deep female voice came from the side. The voice was not loud, but every word was pressed very firmly. "If you want to survive, do as I say."