Chapter 167: Condensing A Fishtail
Zen was not mobile in the heavy water.
One reason was the pressure of heavy water, and the other was the irregular turbulence and vortexes.
Whenever Zen tried to move, he would not only encounter turbulence, but his movement would cause more disturbance. As a result, the flow of water around him became even more chaotic.
“The current...”
Zen focused on the demonic life vitality.
Out of Zen's control, the demonic life vitality began to drift with the currents.
As it spread, it revealed the turbulence that was invisible to the naked eye.
'I will either advance or go back if I swim against the current. Perhaps it's better if I follow the current.'
With this idea in mind, Zen decided to stop moving against the currents and instead followed them exposed by the demonic life vitality.
Around Zen, the current carried the demonic life vitality away. There was a sudden rush of water. As the yellow Murloc's long spear drew nearer and nearer to him, Zen, without hesitating, moved a little and was pulled into the current.
When Zen was sucked into the swift current, he was propelled by the force of the heavy water, and in a flash, he swam seven or eight meters.
The yellow Murloc was very fast, but Zen was dragged away by the current, which helped him avoid the blow.
The yellow Murloc was familiar with the currents in the lake. When he couldn't hurt Zen, he turned into the current and followed it toward Zen.
Murlocs were more flexible in water than Zen. Since the yellow Murloc was now in the same current with Zen, he was faster than Zen again!
“Alas! If he and I both take advantage of the current, the Murloc will still swim faster than me!”
Zen lowered his head and swam straight down. When he looked back, he saw that the yellow Murloc was moving twice as fast as he was, and charging at him with the long black spear.
In the midst of the turbulence, Zen had no place to hide. Helplessly he watched as the long black spear was thrust at him.
At this crucial moment, a vortex suddenly came up behind Zen. It cut off the current behind him and caught the Murloc.
Once in the vortex, the Murloc could only stare helplessly at Zen as it dragged him farther and farther away from his target.
Seeing this, Zen sighed, 'That was a close call. Thanks to the timely vortex.'
Avoiding this Murloc was a sign of Zen's good fortune. However, the underlying problem remained unresolved.
To refine in Lake of the Magical Fish necessitated that the master moved freely in the heavy water. Otherwise, even a top master would not be able to display his strong power.
'Everyone else would have experienced the same issues. I wonder how they overcame this difficulty.' With that in mind, Zen regretted not consulting Roger about the problem beforehand.
Zen was far behind the noblemen when it came to information. They had a huge network of contacts and were far more informed than Zen. Before coming to the lake, they would have asked others about basic skills and methods to deal with difficulties.
'Although these noblemen could learn such skills from others, the first person to get into Lake of the Magical Fish was definitely not as fortunate. If the first person to enter the lake could figure out how to deal with such issues, so can I!'
Thinking of this, Zen slowly released his life vitality again. Then, the demonic life vitality dispersed along with the current, looking like oil floating in the water.
At this point, his life vitality didn't play a big role beyond protecting him to a certain extent.
When Zen released his life vitality, he noticed a group of small fish swimming nearby. The fish were silver except for a reddish tinge on their heads.
They were red daces, which were so common that every family in the Eastern Region could afford them.
The fish swam freely. By contrast, they were more flexible in the water than Murlocs. They seemed to be unaffected by the flow of water.
For them, moving from one current to another required them to swish their tails.
'Swish? Tails?'
Looking at the way the red daces moved, Zen had an idea.
The swish of a fishtail created thrust, which allowed the fish to move deftly through the water.
The yellow Murloc used the power that his legs produced to move through the water. However, his speed and agility were not as good as those of the red dace.
Zen, on the other hand, moved awkwardly through the water on his hands, feet, and even used his body to propel himself forward. When under attack, Zen was so frantic in his movements that he failed to move forward. Instead, he went backward...
He did not have the yellow Murloc's frog-like legs, but he could imitate the red dace's tail.
Since Zen had broken through to the nature level, it was not hard for him to turn his life vitality into something substantial.
While practicing, a refiner could transform life vitality into a useful object simply by thinking about the object he wanted to mimic.
After practicing a refinement technique, many refiners often visualized a certain thing according to the methods of their refinement technique.
For example, Vale had practiced the Lotus Scriptures, a tier-4 cultivation method. And, so he visualized a lotus flower. In this way, his life vitality would be condensed into the same shape as the lotus flower, which was real and enchanting.
And Hugh, a master in the Illuminating Soul Realm in White Emperor City, had practiced a refinement technique about dragons. Since it was impossible to find a dragon, Hugh visualized the dragon sculpture. Then his life vitality turned into a dragon.
However, according to the immortal in the fairy palace, it was not a smart method.
It didn't matter what the life vitality would be after visualization. The important thing was whether the life vitality was improved in nature. According to the Sun Moon Stars Picture that Zen got from the fairy palace, Zen didn't care what his demonic life vitality could be turned into after he contemplated the picture, but he cared for the ascension of his demonic life vitality itself!
The longer the time of visualization, the more real the object that transformed from life vitality would be.
If the refiner visualized something that was about to mimic for a shorter time, the object would not only be less real, but it would lack form or power.
Zen wanted to turn his life vitality into a fishtail.
However, he had no reference because the red daces had gone. Zen could only visualize it from memory.
“Condense!”
Zen closed his eyes and released the demonic life vitality. Then he immersed himself in a deep fantasy, trying to imagine a fishtail.
Under Zen's control, the demonic life vitality gathered quickly and turned into the shape according to Zen's imagination.
Soon, Zen opened his eyes and looked behind to see what the tail that he had condensed looked like.
But the first glance left him speechless.
It didn't look like a fishtail at all.
Zen had spent a short while visualizing a fishtail because he just needed to imagine its general shape. As a result, the fishtail was just a black piece, not to mention being lifelike.
In addition, the edge of the fishtail was pitted, as if bitten by a puppy. What was more, the tail also had several big holes in the middle.
Zen started trying to manipulate the tail. To his disappointment, as the tail moved, the water flowed through its irregular edges and holes.
This tail didn't work well!
While the wobbling of this crude tail did create a small push, it was insufficient to solve Zen's current problem.
Therefore, Zen decided to meditate again.
Just then a shoal of red daces appeared on Zen's left and swam toward him.
These fish were not afraid of him. They almost enclosed Zen.
The red daces were to Zen's left, right, and flanks.
Looking at the fish, Zen thought, 'Since visualizing the fishtail from memory didn't work, I might as well use a red dace!'
Thinking of this, Zen gingerly reached out for the red daces.
Fish are extremely sensitive. Luckily Zen didn't release an intent to hurt them. Instead of avoiding Zen's hand, many fish darted past him. Some even touched Zen's skin.
Zen saw a chance, suddenly reached forward and grabbed a red dace.
The red dace swished its tail and tried to break free from Zen. But how could its struggle compare with Zen's strength?
The other red daces scattered when Zen caught one. The dense school soon disappeared, leaving only the one fish in Zen's hand.
Zen stared closely at the red dace that he had caught and took the opportunity to meditate again.
He emitted the demonic life vitality out of his body, and once again, tried to turn his life vitality into a fishtail.
Now that he had a reference in front of him, Zen's visualization naturally went smoothly. In a short while, the demonic life vitality slowly condensed into a fishtail behind Zen.
Although this tail was only purple-black, and the appearance was still miserable, it looked much better than the previous one.
Zen moved the tail a little and felt a huge push behind him!
As the tail swished more frequently, the thrust increased, and Zen moved quickly through the water, just like the red dace.
Once accelerated, Zen could move unimpeded through turbulence and vortexes.
Zen's face broke into a smile. He quickly adapted to the tail by swimming through the water.
After about half an hour of moving through the water at high speed, Zen felt as though his body was quite flexible. Although he still could not swim as fast as the red dace, he was much faster than the Murloc!
Then he swished the tail faster and dove deeper.