Chapter 169-170: Vibration
The steward had asked the question out of instincts. However, he remembered clearly that he had registered the disciple card for Zen for the first time today, which meant that this was surely the first time that Zen had entered the Lake of Magical Fish.
Compared to Roger, the steward's shock was even higher!
Nature creatures weren't the sole people to practice in the lake. It had faced its fair share of disciples.
There were different levels of difficulty inside the lake ranging from the surface to a depth of three hundred meters.
However, generally speaking, the most a nature creature could penetrate was the first five levels, i.e. from the surface to a depth of 150 meters. They almost always lost beyond that.
Besides, the water of the lake was also heavier than the usual ones, added to which, was the fact that the deeper you went inside, the greater the pressure you would encounter.
At a depth of ten meters, the water pressure had only the weight of 500 pounds. However, at a depth of thirty meters, it could reach as much as 2000 pounds. And if one were to venture down to one hundred meters, the force he would encounter would be more than 10, 000 pounds. It was a horrible experience!
A depth of 150 meters was already the limit that the nature creatures could reach.
In addition to those horrific levels of water pressure, the practitioners had to face the Murlocs in the magic array each time they got cultivated inside the lake.
And the power of the Murlocs was supposed to increase with increasing depth.
The uppermost Murlocs were the weakest among all and were called as the fourth-grade Murlocs. Though not that hard to beat, they were no less powerful than a human being half-step into the nature level.
Between 30 meters to 60 meters, the yellow and light blue Murlocs would show up. The blue Merloc was smaller in size than the yellow one, but was more agile and moved faster.
So in a way, its competence was that of a first grade nature creature.
Beyond the 60 meters mark, more Murlocs with higher abilities and competence would appear.
Therefore, even if a nature creature had reached the ninth-grade of the nature level, he couldn't break the limit of 150 meters.
However, there was no shortage of gifted man in the Cloud Sect.
It was said that two hundred years ago, a gifted nature creature had dived to a depth of 190 meters under the lake. This was an accomplishment that usually could only be made by the practitioners of the Illuminating Soul Realm.
No one had ever approached or broken this record till now. However, that person was at the eighth-grade of the nature level, which was so much higher than Zen's level.
After he had killed the three Murlocs, Zen didn't stay afloat in the same position for a long time. Instead, he kept diving downwards.
He could dive at a rapid pace easily in his current condition by waving the fishtail on his back.
However, his intentions for visiting the lake were not the mundane practice of diving but to hone and cultivate himself.
As he reached a depth of over 60 meters, some blue Murlocs appeared in his surrounding waters.
The weapons they held were axes made of animal's bones. These blue Mulocs were a little smaller than the yellow Murlocs and their heads were flat and sharp.
Also, they moved faster than the yellow ones and were more offensive.
If Zen hadn't condensed that fishtail, he might not have been able to keep up the fight with the blue Murlocs for more than a single round.
However, when he faced the blue Murlocs, he could still maintain a certain advantage in speed.
Currently, there were six blue Murlocs chasing closely after him.
Although he was moving much faster than them, it wasn't easy for him to outrun them completely.
“Bang! Bang! Bang...”
The Murlocs had known that they couldn't keep up with Zen's speed and therefore had thrown the axes they held in their hands towards him.
When these axes rushed towards Zen, they rotated and produced several tiny bubbles as they rent their way across the water.
Three out of the six axes hit Zen from behind, and the rest of them went on and blocked his way.
'These blue Murlocs are far more aggressive than those yellow ones, and they are acting very swiftly. It seems that I can't get rid of them if I depend solely on my advantage in speed. I should try something else!' Thinking of a plan, Zen took out the broken flying knife from his space ring.
Ever Since he had dived into the lake, Zen hadn't used any weapon yet.
After all, the environment in the water was totally different from that in the air. His flying knife had always been fast in air but in water, he wasn't so sure.
If it lost any speed here, the impact of his flying knife would be decreased greatly.
The broken flying knife was still as sharp as usual. It swished across the water easily.
However, it seemed that its impact had been reduced significantly by the resistance of the heavy water. The flying knfe that Zen had thrown hit only one ax. Then it was lost to turbulence.
Fortunately, since the ax had been split apart by his flying knife, an opening showed up in front of Zen, and therefore, he found a chance to break out and seized it.
Actually, Zen's strength was much greater than those blue Murlocs, so he was wondering why the broken flying knife he had thrown out was much weaker than the axes those blue Murlocs had thrown out.
He kept on pondering the question as he dodged the Murlocs.
He had already made sure that the axes were nothing more than some common animal bones.
However, after being thrown out, they had kept on rotating at a very high speed and produced countless tiny bubbles.
After being wrapped by those bubbles, their speed had seemed to be increased significantly. 'Bubbles?
How were these bubbles produced? Was it because of the rotation of the axes?
If so, I can make my knife rotate too!'
Zen thought to himself. Then he hooked his thumb slightly, and the broken flying knife which had been flushed away flew back immediately.
The next time he threw out the flying knife, it was rotating at a very high speed too.
However, although its rotating speed wasn't slower than that of the axes, all that appeared in the water were some swirls. And after a short while, the flying knife even stopped rotating because of the water resistance.
'It seems that the bubbles were not produced by the mere rotation of the axes. They must have used some other method!' Zen thought.
In order to find the answer, when those blue Murlocs attacked him again, Zen reached out and tried to grab an ax while dodging the attack of the other ones.
But the moment he touched the ax, he felt a sharp pain in his hand.
He was shocked and drew his hand back immediately.
He found that several tiny wounds had appeared on his hand.
If his body hadn't been as solid as a spiritual weapon, Zen might have lost his hand there and then.
'I got it!'
He suddenly understood why those axes could produce so many bubbles.
In the course of their rotating, they were vibrating at an extremely fast speed, which was why a large number of bubbles were being produced.
After being wrapped by these bubbles, the axes would rotate like in the air, so their rotation speed increased significantly.
However, how did they manage to vibrate those axes?
Now Zen wasn't eager at all to dive downwards. Since his purpose of coming to the Lake of the Magical Fish was to cultivate, if he could acquire some skills while in the lake, then the points he had spent would be worth it.
Taking the advantage of his speed, Zen had left those blue Murlocs far behind.
Although these axes were a threat to Zen, they were not enough to kill him. Moreover, since he was in a magic array, even if he was killed because of his own mistakes, he wouldn't die in reality, and would be merely sent back to the surface of the Lake of the Magical Fish instead.
After keeping a certain distance from those blue Murlocs, Zen began to attract the axes to attack him.
When a Murloc was just about to throw his ax, Zen suddenly saw his short but strong paw become a blur.
Meanwhile, the ax in his hand turned into a blur too.
'I didn't guess it wrong. The Murloc's paw was vibrating rapidly at the moment he threw out his ax!' Zen stared closely at the Murloc who was about to throw the ax.
With the rapid vibration, a lot of tiny bubbles appeared. After reaching a certain number, the bubbles wrapped the ax completely, and it was then that the Murloc thew the ax out.
The world was big and full of remarkably wonders. Flowers, plants, animals, and birds were all unique and they each had their own unique set of skills.
Strictly speaking, the blue Murloc wasn't a mighty creature. However, they still had their own specific skill.
There weren't many other creatures who could vibrate at such a high speed. However, the blue Murlocs had done it with their strong front paw.
The corporeal body of an ordinary man couldn't increase his vibration frequency to such a horrible level.
However, it wan't a problem for Zen.
Because first, his corporeal body was much tougher than that of an average man, he could bear the negative effects caused by such intense vibrations. Second, the Phoenix Crystal embedded in his right arm had increased his speed significantly.
After knowing what had caused the vibration, Zen flashed through the water and dodged the ax which was flying right towards him. Meanwhile, he pulled his broken flying knife back and held it tightly in his hand.
The power of the Phoenix Crystal came out from his arm and spread all over his arm along the meridian of it.
“Vibration?”
Zen narrowed his eyes and began to swing his right arm up and down.
At the beginning, he swung his arm in a large range, as if he was waving it.
However, soon his swing range became smaller and his strokes became shorter.
With the smaller swing range, his speed became faster.
After a short while, his arm started turning into a blur gradually. Because of the extremely high vibrating speed, one couldn't even distinguish that it was an arm!
At the same time, a large number of tiny bubbles came out along his arm.
With the sound of gurgles, his arm started looking like it was covered by boiling water. As soon as the bubbles came out, they started floating upwards in the lake.
In addition to Zen's arm, the broken flying knife in his right hand was also vibrating at an extremely high speed.
“Hit it!”
With the high speed vibration, Zen suddenly thew the broken flying knife out.
“Glug! Glug...”
Of course, no sound of air breaking could be heard in the water. However, a string of intense and tiny bubbles appeared when the broken flying knife flew out.
With the technique, the speed of the broken flying knife had increased more than tenfold!
It flew only a little bit slower than it did in the air. And in the heavy water, such speed was already an amazing horror.
Now Zen's broken flying knives had dwarfed the axes thrown out by those blue Murlocs.
The blue Murloc not far away could never have expected that Zen would have copied their method in such a short time. As soon as he saw the flying knife coming towards him with a string of bubbles, he thrust forward with his frog-leg like legs, trying to run away.
Of course Zen wouldn't let go of him. Although the Murloc had already dodged the flight route of the broken flying knife, as soon as Zen pulled it, the broken flying knife arced in the water and cut at him who was immediately transformed into bright spots.
*****
Chapter 170: Argument
It was much easier for Zen to deal with the remaining blue Murlocs once he had mastered the trick of raising his speed through vibrations.
After shuttling a few more times, he killed the remaining five of them.
As the flying knife glided back into his hands, Zen continued to swim in the lake quietly. He looked down into its depth contemplatively. Without wasting another breath, Zen dived in.
He seemed to have forgotten that his reserve time was almost up.
“He killed each of the six blue Murlocs...” the steward mumbled grimly, seated on the stone bench next to the shores of the Lake of the Magical Fish. His face had turned dull in the state of shock.
On the other hand, Roger was mostly calm when he saw what happened.
He had gone for training once he returned from the south. Now that he was confident that he had greatly improved in his skills and strength, he came to the Lake of the Magical Fish for further practice.
When fully prepped, he could only dive in about seventy meters deep into the water. He knew there were many more blue Murlocs in the lakebed. He couldn't fight so many of them at once.
However, Zen, on his first go itself, dived deeper than even Roger could. He even killed six blue Murlocs! Roger didn't know what to make of Zen. The only word he could think of to describe him was 'extraordinary'.
There was no feeling of frustration in Roger's heart, even though Zen had clearly rattled quite a few of the others. He was good friends with Zen, and the latter had come to owe him a favor back when they were in the south.
Looking at the speed of his cultivation, Roger was sure his friend would become a man of great power. He thought of what Zen had promised him in the south, and figured that he would come to the Meng family's aid in the future.
The better Zen performed, the higher Roger's expectations would be with regard to him.
Just then, a group of people walked up to the slate.
There were about seven or eight of them, all dressed in jet-black robes, indicating that they were inner disciples.
Truth be told, almost all disciples who came to the Lake of the Magical Fish were inner disciples, most born and brought up in the noble clans.
Outer disciples were not powerful enough to dive down the lake at all, and there were only a few inner ones who could afford the points to practice in the Lake of the Magical Fish.
“Cao, is there anybody in the Lake of the Magical Fish currently?” asked one of the disciples from a distance.
The steward's last name was Cao, so everyone referred to him as that.
As soon as he saw the inner disciple, steward Cao got up and greeted them with a smile. “Hello, Bob. There is still a disciple in the Lake of the Magical Fish. He has it reserved for two hours. He should come out anytime soon.”
Bob Pei? Roger, who sat on the bench next to where they stood, frowned as he heard the name.
The top seven noble clans always schemed against each other. They were well-versed in backstabbing and betrayal.
But no matter how fierce their secret battles were with each other, they pretended that all was good on the surface, never revealing their venomous thoughts.
Besides, the Pei family and the Meng family had always loathed each other.
This man, Bob, was a direct descendant of the Pei clan. He had the same status as Roger. However, Bob was several years older than Roger, so he was undoubtedly stronger too. He had already reached the nature level consummation, which was only one step away from the Illuminating Soul Realm.
Presumably, Bob had been making the best use of his time lately. Roger was sure that Bob was ardent in his endeavor to reach the Illuminating Soul Realm.
Despite the friction between the two families and Bob's obvious strength, Roger didn't feel threatened on seeing him. With an expressionless face, he sat silently by himself, avoiding Bob as if he hadn't noticed his arrival at all.
The young man named Bob Pei walked toward steward Cao, his footsteps hitting the ground with force. He stared at the magic array plate in the steward's hands. “How much longer would it take?”
“Bob, the disciple went into the Lake of the Magical Fish at two o'clock. He reserved it only for two hours, so he should come out at four. Look, the clock says the time is nearly up. He should be out soon,” steward Cao replied politely, respect for Bob evident in his voice.
He was deferential toward Bob only because many elders of the Pei clan occupied important positions in the Cloud Sect. One of them was a superior he answered to. Cao needed to be in the good books of Pei clan if he hoped to get a promotion in the future.
Glancing at the clock, Bob huffed, “Time is already up. Call him out now!”
“Bob, please wait for some time. You only need to stand by for fifteen more minutes,” steward Cao tried to persuade him. He knew Bob was an impatient man, but he couldn't pull Zen out of the lake right now when the boy was obviously training.
At the steward's words, Bod nodded and asked the group behind him to take seats.
After a while, steward Cao looked at the magic array plate and murmured, his brows drawn together, “Time is almost up. Why hasn't Zen come out yet?”
Roger glimpsed at the magic array plate and found that Zen was still underwater. He had encountered a few Murlocs, then it seemed he dived more than ninety meters into the depths. Did the boy have a limit at all? The pressure of the waves was very high at that kind of distance downward.
If Zen hadn't been exceptional, he would have been flattened into a meat pie by the intense pressure.
It was difficult for even a nature creature to fight the indomitable pressure faced down at ninety meters, but Zen looked like he strove to dive even deeper.
Roger was eager to know how much more Zen could get to. “Perhaps he wants to test how deep he can go!” he exclaimed.
“But the time is up, and there are some others waiting here...” steward Cao retorted in an anxious voice.
As a steward of the Cloud Sect, he had a good eye.
He knew well about Zen's potential, whose performance at the Lake of the Magical Fish was exceptional and rare amidst the talents at the Cloud Sect. With time, Zen would only get better. He was a boy to watch out for, as he would certainly rise through the ranks in the future. Cao was aware that soon he would need to curry favor with Zen.
However, he knew better than to test the temper of the young man, Bob.
The disciples from the noble clans would never listen to someone they thought was beneath them.
Moreover, he knew that Bob had gotten into fights before regarding who should be prioritized to enter the Lake of the Magical Fish. His disputes always led to more trouble. Bob had an infamous temper.
Today, he found it distasteful to wait for fifteen minutes for someone. That said a lot about him.
Bob pulled a long face, his lips twisting with disdain. Usually, he was the man who was waited upon, even at odd hours of the day. How dare they ask him to wait for someone else for so long?
“Hasn't the disciple come out yet? Cao, you said he would come out at four p.m., didn't you? It's already four now,” Bob reminded him in an unpleasant tone.
Steward Cao straightened sheepishly, a reassuring smile on his face. “Please wait for a minute. Just one more minute. He should come out soon.”
Brusquely, Bob got up. “I won't wait for him any longer! The time is up. You should force him out now by using the magic array plate.”
“I-I...” steward Cao stammered, his mouth gaping, not knowing what to say. Bob left him in a fix. He would undoubtedly offend Zen if he pushed him out through the magic array, but it would vex Bob if he didn't listen to his command.
It wouldn't be too consequential if he offended Zen now, who was just an outer disciple at present. He wouldn't pose a threat to Cao's position. But if he offended Bob, and Bob told his elders about the incident, he could make Cao's life at Cloud Sect difficult.
Appearing to think for a moment, steward Cao came to a decision. Neither of his options was likable, but he must choose the one that would bring him less harm. He would have to displease Zen today.
He opened the magic array plate, about to reach out to pull Zen out of the Lake of the Magical Fish.
But before he could do so, Roger, who was next to him, halted him in his action. “Steward Cao, you don't need to be in such a rush.”
Steward Cao widened his eyes. “But, but...” Roger's words made his head spin. Roger was always friendly and courteous to him, but he was also a disciple from one of the top seven noble clans. If Cao could not afford to offend the Pei clan, he could not afford to do the same with the Meng clan either.
Bob threw Roger a cold look. He had spotted the Meng boy as soon as he got here.
The two families were always at odds with each other. The elders always had control over their tempers and they were cordial outwardly. They only expressed their displeasure and disagreements in hushed whispers and backhanded wisecracks.
However, the tempers of the younger lot were not easy to restrain. There had been many brawls between the young members of the families on several occasions in the Imperial Capital.
Bob had turned a blind eye to Roger when he saw him first.
He came here to train today, so he had no reason to argue with Roger. He had hoped that Roger would stay quiet so neither of them would have cause to encroach on the precincts of the other.
But he hadn't expected Roger to provoke him by interrupting steward Cao when he was about to use the magic array. Was Roger so eager to get into an argument with him?
Bob knew Roger's strength was far inferior to his. If a fight were to happen between them, Roger would undoubtedly be at a disadvantage. An image of the arrogant faces of the Meng family members rose up in his mind. It would do him good to teach Roger a lesson today, for the mere fact that he dared to argue with him!
“Roger, you know it's time for me to train. I can't wait for the boy forever if he has no plans of coming out,” Bob said, his voice slightly shaking with anger.
Roger shook his head indifferently. “The disciple in the lake is my friend, and he has no intention of taking up your time. He reserved two hours, but it seems that the time did not end up being enough for him. Don't worry. I will pay for the extra hours on his behalf. I have enough points that can be docked.”
Bob stilled, and the look he threw Roger was chilling. “Your points? You think you can pay for the extra hours he uses? Cao, is this permissible?”
Steward Cao had an anxious look on his face. He glanced at Bob before speaking to Roger, “Roger, I think I need to ask your friend to come out now. After all, the time he reserved is over.”
“What? Can't I add more time on his behalf? I have plenty of points. You can take as many as you want. Not just two hours, my points are enough to pay for twenty more! You can keep docking them until Zen comes out of the lake,” Roger said, his face hard.
He was always polite and kind, but when someone angered him, he could get quite overbearing.
Steward Cao was in an awful dilemma. He had no clue about what to do. He wanted to start the magic array and pull Zen out, but looking at the expression on Roger's face, he dared not to do it. On the other hand, it was not possible for him to dissuade Bob either. He knew all about Bob's terrible temper.
“They say that the Meng family members are good at assessing a situation and judging what to do, but I don't think you are quite adept at it,” sneered Bob, a look of hatred in his eyes as he stared at Roger. Momentum slowly built up in his body as the words escaped him. He had reached the nature level consummation, which was only one step away from the Illuminating Soul Realm.
Roger stood up the moment he heard what Bob said, his eyes too darkening with malice. “You dare to fight me on the Cloud Sect grounds? Do you know the price you'll pay for that transgression?”