[Anyways, what did we miss?]
[So...Tuesday.]
[I thought today was Wednesday...]
[Don’t think that’s the point.]
...
For the better part of thirty minutes, Zhen Liu was simply chilling in a magic pool.
While his cousins, Jinju Ren, Jin Fang and Rianna were all busy focusing on absorbing as much power from the [Tempering Spirit Pond], Zhen Liu could do no such thing due to lacking the usual channels needed to absorb such power.
However, just because he couldn’t absorb, didn’t an he couldn’t sense the way it flowed.
Since Zhen Liu had nothing better to do, he figured he would try to sense how the aether in the pond flowed. By doing this though, he discovered sothing strange. Sothing that required a quick question to one of his older cousins, read: the only one among his older cousins who could be considered book smart and responsible. While Zhen Liu could’ve technically asked Logos and Pathos, he had the feeling that he was going to need so form of alibi for later.
And nothing makes a better alibi than a firsthand witness.
"Hey...Zhen Yue."
"Hmmm?"
"Is it safe to go deep diving in these [Tempering Spirit Pond] things?"
"Uh...last I checked, no."
"Why? Is the water super deep? Will I drown?"
"The aether of these ponds gets more and more concentrated the deeper one goes in one of these ponds. That sounds like a good thing, but without the proper techniques, the rich aether will cause a warrior’s aether channels to implode. Even as strong as grandfather would have a difficult ti swimming through this kind of water," Zhen Yue explained to her cousin.
For most aether cultivating warriors, this kind of warning would be enough to get them to just sit at about surface level and absorb whatever gains they can from the pond without risking lungs and implosions.
To Zhen Liu though...this sounded like a challenge.
Or, to be more specific, it sounded like this detrint built into the pond...had a loophole.
"I’m sorry, cousin. Could you repeat that last bit again? The one about the aether channels imploding? What’s that about?"
"Like I said, the aether concentration gets higher the deeper you go into the [Tempering Spirit Pond]. At so point, the surrounding aether gets so saturated and energetic that most cultivators end up imploding due to all of that aether rushing into those aforentioned channels. Doesn’t matter what kind of formula one cultivates, if they don’t got a way to mitigate the influx of aether, they’re fucked," Zhen Yue elaborated. "Or figure out a way to pass off the aether to another warrior entirely during the swim."
"Uh huh..."
To Zhen Liu’s ears though , this warning sounded like, "aether channels in this situation are a liability."
Which is why he asked a question that imdiately set off an alarm bell in Zhen Yue’s head.
"So...I’m assuming this implosion effect is known due to only aether warriors with hardened channels being the only ones to dive down there?"
"More or less, yeah."
"So...we don’t know what happens when soone without aether channels goes for a swim?"
"We...hold up. You’re not thinking of-"
Sound of soone taking a massive gulp of air...
"Fwooooop!"
Splashing sound of zero regrets.
KERSPLASH
"Of course..."
On the list of things Zhen Liu has done since he started cultivating, this wasn’t the dumbest thing he has ever done. It was, however, up there with the other tis he swallowed unusually energetic sources of aether.
Although, unlike those other tis, he had the kaijin on hand to help him mitigate the energy this ti around.
Granted, he had no idea if they were going to be needed for that this ti around.
...
’Well that explains the weird flow of aether...’
Shortly after Zhen Liu subrged himself into the waters of the [Tempering Spirit Pond], he imdiately got to work on figuring out where exactly the aether for this pond was coming from. After all, there had to be a reason why the aether distribution was more concentrated towards the bottom, as opposed to being homogenized with the whole pond.
Evidently, the term "pond" was a bit of a misnor.
’Holy shit...’
Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness and the water in his eyes, with the help of a small adaptation of [Chaos], Zhen Liu saw that the bottom of the pond was mostly solid, except for one thing: a giant ass hole that looked big enough to fit a grizzly bear with cubs.
The average pond was about six feet deep, this hole implied that the depth was much...longer.
’Wait a minute...did I ever test how long I could hold my breath underwater? If not, then I might actually be in trouble here.’
=You should be fine, milord. As soone with a freaky physique such as yourself and the technical cultivation level of an Aether Lord, holding your breath for a little over an hour should be an easy task.=
’Baller.’
’I didn’t. I was going off of my...wait a minute, are...are you implying that there aren’t any books in the library about this exact phenonon? Am I the first to do this, ever?’
’ What the fuck?!’
=To be fair, most people born without aether channels don’t get an opportunity like this. Historically speaking.=
’That... that’s fair...’
Most people would be ecstatic at learning they were the first to do sothing dangerous and/or potentially world changing, but for soone like Zhen Liu, he’d prefer it if other people managed to do it before him.
Confirmation scientist mindset and all that.
Regardless, now that Zhen Liu had already jumped into the pool, he might as well sink or swim.
’Alright, here goes sothing.’
Emboldened by pure curiosity, Zhen Liu proceeded to swim down, down to the bottom of the pond until he managed to reach the edge of the creepy dark hole.
He couldn’t see anything other than darkness, due to how far away this hole was relative to the surface, but he could sense a trail of strangely dense aether flowing out of it.
In other words, whatever was down there was probably incredibly valuable, powerful and probably the reason why that monkey turned dragon turned dragon demon monkey existed in the first place.
And all Zhen Liu had to do to find it was...swim.
’Aight...let’s fucking go.’
With his mind set, Zhen Liu proceeded to get ready to deep dive.
There was just one last thing he needed to check on.
...
’Wait, before I go deep diving in a place that probably has enough aether to choke an elephant with how dense it is, is it at all safe for the kaijin to co along with on this?’
[D’awww, you do care,] Hurricroak teased her maestro. [I thought you’d just go swimming and risk having us explode on your person.]
’That’s precisely why I’m asking.’
’I am aware.’
=But that stated...having the lot of you go through this energy rich environnt without reaping any benefits would be...less than ideal.=
’If you’re suggesting I take away a surefire way to empower the rest of my blood family in order to benefit my found family, I’d rather not do that.’
[Wait, do we count as a found family if he technically made us?]
[I perpetually see all of you as my younger siblings, other than Frosttusk that is.]
[Why...?]
[Because you’re way too level headed to be anything other than older than .]
[Oh...that...tracks...]
’Regardless, the statent stands.’
=Trust on this milord, you won’t have to worry about that particular phenonon occurring as you go deeper down that hole.=
’That’s an ominous statent...why?’
=Since you’ve been taking this long to determine whether or not to go down that hole, I managed to find so relevant historical docunts about [Tempering Spirit Ponds] that will be if interest.=
’So long? I’ve been floating here for like...two minutes!’
’I...honestly can’t tell if you’re screwing with or not on that statent. But fine, what do the docunts say? And don’t just download the contents into my brain right now, I don’t think it’s safe for to do that underwater.
=Wasn’t planning to do that.=
=Anyways, the docunts we found state that so [Tempering Spirit Ponds], not all, have a chance of developing sothing called a [Tempering Spirit Amber Pearl]. Which is basically the crystallization of several kilotons of aether into a convenient candy drop looking pearl.=
’Huh...I’m assuming the catch to finding one of these things is...’
=Which you have already taken care of.=
’Ah...sweet. In that case...’
Knowing that nothing could hurt him at this point, Zhen Liu imdiately dove into the hole.
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