章 48: Chapter 48: Tempering the body! (1)

Crap!

Did he fell into the lake?!

Feelings of panic struck at their hearts as they floated over the cliff in a rush.

When they reached over, they each squinted their eyes to see if there were any bubbles forming onto the surface of the lake, only to find none.

"It cannot be that his physical body was so weak that he immediately got vaporized the moment he fell into the lake?" they thought.

Suddenly, just as they were about to head down to take a better look, a voice called out to them.

"Eh? Are you guys going to temper your body inside the lake too?"

This voice belongs to no other than Duan Li as he approached them from the distance. It seems that he had just came back after a short tour around the sides of the lake and they happened to not notice his disappearance before, due to being too absorbed in their conversation. The cub was also still tucked closely inside his clothes with its tongue sticking out.

Pu!

Bloody hell! We thought that you fell into the lake!

"It's nothing!" they both shook their head as they exhaled in relief. How could they have made such a blunder and mistake in their judgement?

Although the other party was a handicapped genius, he was still a cultivator as well whom had the flight ability. If a cultivator were to fall from a cliff and not engage their flight ability, then they really do deserve to die as a dimwit.

"By the way brat, do you still plan to temper your physical body inside this lake now? You see how potent it is? Not to mention you, even my limit on this realm would only be about fifteen metres deep!" explained the old man with a sneer on his face.

He was waiting for Duan Li to give up and ask for his guidance instead. If the other party relented on such foolhardiness, then he would give the other party all the proper ingredients and material to properly temper a physical body which would be strong enough and suitable up until the core formation realm!

Naturally, as an expert of the first shackle, he had an abundance of resources at his disposal. Jacking up the cultivation realm of someone with Duan Li's realm could be done with extreme ease. In fact, if he willed it, he could even raise Duan Li's cultivation realm to the Foundation establishment realm in the blink of an eye!

What more when it come to just resources to temper the physical body?

However, contrary to the old man's expectations, the other party just nodded its head.

"En! I will give it a try!" replied Duan Li confidently.

Hearing his answer, the old man's face turned livid once more as he pressed his forehead with his fingers.

You will give it a try? Do you think that once your remains were liquefied inside this lake, you can still be alive for a second chance?

Hais! I shall not bother with your decision any longer!

The old man just shook his head and let Duan Li do whatever the latter wants now. The mother wolf by the side couldn't help but to worry the end result for this. However in the end, they have no rights to stop whatever Duan Li was about to do.

After all, a cultivator had to walk their path relying on themselves, luck and affinity.

If his path as a cultivator ends here, then that is naturally part of the fate and destiny that governs all things.

Duan Li lifted out the cub from inside his clothes as he put the cub down besides its mother. With a smile, he patted on its head. Then, he floated gently over the cliff as he slowly head down until his feet was just inches above the surface of that deep red lake.

"Arrff! Arrff!" the cub called out to Duan Li feeling worried.

Gulp!

Swallowing his saliva, Duan Li lowered the tip of his toe slowly to touch the surface of the blood lake. The duo above him had fixed their gaze onto him as they too felt nervous on what the result would be.

Dip!

The cub closed its eyes in fear while the mother wolf and the old man sucked in cold breathe to prepare themselves for the next scene.

After a few breaths...

"..." everyone.

"Eh? Nothing's happening?" said Duan Li as his brows creased together.

Feeling suspicious, he dipped his feet deeper into the lake until it reached both of his knees. But to his surprise, he still felt nothing from it!

How strange!

"H-how could this be?!" exclaimed the old man whom was floating above him in disbelief.

When the other party's toe had dipped inside the blood lake, he expected that what should have followed suit would be a shout full of Duan Li's agonized moans howling to the sky dramatically!

Yet, what is with this situation here? Did the lake somehow loses its potency? But that should be impossible!

Duan Li then slowly plunged himself deeper until it reached his waist, then abdomen and finally chest. But he still felt nothing from it!

"Brat... Did you really never tempered your physical body before?" asked the old man suspiciously.

This is because when one's body has already been tempered, the skin and nerves would become more tolerant to pain and resistant to any sorts of damages.

Hearing the Guardian's question, Duan Li shook his head and replied "Never..." and then thought inwardly while feeling baffled, "I remembered that time when I tempered my physical body in this lake before, the cascading pain boring through my body as if a million needles were trying to rip me apart was so horrendous that I almost went insane!"

The him previously was a nascent soul realm expert when he tempered his physical body inside this lake. At that time, he could plunge to about 5 metres in depth, but that was because his physical body had already been tempered numerous times before!

Now, he is only a but a mere Qi condensation realm without any prior body tempering. So, why did he not feel any sorts of pain?

"I will go down deeper!" said Duan Li.

"En! Be careful brat! Even I don't know what is inside this lake!" replied the old man as he watched Duan Li's head went below the surface with trepidation.

2 metres...

5 metres...

10 metres...

...

30 metres...

"The brat is still going deeper? At this rate, my heavenly senses wouldn't be able to detect him!" said the old man as his face turned serious.

This was because Duan Li had already reached a depth of more than 30 metres, even he, someone from the immortal ascension realm would have long been vaporized if he dived to such a depth!

"My heavenly senses could probably still detect him as long as he didn't reach a depth of more than... What?!" exclaimed the mother wolf in a horrified voice.

Hearing the sudden change in the Fenrir's tone, the old man got panicked as he asked, "what happened?! Did he die?!"

"No! H-he... he suddenly chose to dive even faster and has went past the 50 metres depth in the blink of an eye! My heavenly senses couldn't detect him any longer!" cried the mother wolf.

That reckless brat!

In reality, their heavenly senses could actually reach a few hundred kilometres with extreme ease. However somehow, the blood lake could supress their heavenly senses so much that, they could only scan a few dozen metres below the surface!

...

Meanwhile, Duan Li had reached a depth of more than 100 metres now and there were still no pain to be felt. He checked whether his body was actually already being tempered by the lake, just that it was somehow without the pain by pinching at his forearm. He then yelped out a bit as he felt the pain!

Suddenly, Duan Li could feel an extremely weird gut feeling! This feeling was as if there was something familiar to him deep inside the recesses of this lake!

"This... What is this feeling? It's calling out to me..." said Duan Li as he felt himself to be in some sort of a trance.

He then dived deeper into the lake as he soon reached a depth where no lights could penetrate any further. His surrounding right now is extremely dark, as if he was going straight into the abyss! If it was not because of the pull of gravity, he would have long lost his sense of direction.

Tap!

Right at this moment, Duan Li's feet seemed to have touched a solid surface. "It appears that I have reached the bottom of this lake..." thought Duan Li.

He then turned his head left and right as he walked forward towards the direction where the sense of familiarity was the strongest.

As Duan Li walked further, a glimpse of red light on the distance could be seen as Duan Li squinted his eye.

"T-that... It cannot be!" exclaimed Duan Li in shock with wide eyes. He then rushed forward towards the source of this red light.

...

Meanwhile, above the surface of the lake, the sky was getting darker as black clouds started to coil around together.

"The human is still alive... I could feel his lifeforce through the thunder essence that I gifted him." said the mother wolf with a serious expression to her face. If Duan Li died, then her thunder essence would dissipate.

"The brat better hurry it up! I can feel that something is about to happen now!" the old man said as he looked towards the sky, his expression extremely grim.

"These coiling dark clouds... It is as if a thunder tribulation from the heavens is about to happen... But at the same time, it seems different than the normal thunder tribulation that I had experienced before..." thought the old man.

Rumble!

The dark clouds were now getting thicker as rain began to fall down. Even thunders and lightning could be seen to flash once in a while above it. The situation now looked extremely dire.

Just what in the world is going on?!

Suddenly, the surface of the blood lake began to undulate and rippled. It didn't took long for this undulating ripples to turn into furious waves as the lake started to circulate and spiralled towards the centre like the forming of a typhoon!

Fierce gales of winds shattered the many withering bones that were protruding out from the lake.

BOOM!

Thunders started to struck the lake continuously as the duo watched these unfolding scene with pale and grim countenance.

...