(note: azure crystals are water rocks [I forgot to rename them] Sorry!)
Tu Syaoran tried his best to maintain his conscious. He was no longer swimming. Instead, he relaxed his body to conserve energy.
Despite this, the coldness was getting to Tu Syaoran. His fingers were completely numb. The only part of his body that he could felt was his chest.
Tu Syaoran pressured his brain to work 110%. Despite, the horribly cold environment, his head began warming up.
Simultaneously, possible solutions were generated. However, as Tu Syaoran tested these solutions, his face had only got darker and darker.
They had all failed.
All of a sudden, Tu Syaoran remembered something; energy. The reason why his body was beginning to shutdown was not only due to the constant movement but also due to the cold temperature.
The fuel to keep him warm was energy. The fuel that allowed him to contract his muscles was energy.
Tu Syaoran was out of energy; out of chemical energy. But he still had another source of energy: core essence.
Although, he didn't know what type of energy store it was, he was sure that it was still a form of energy. Even though Tu Syaoran had figured out something, there still posed a major problem.
Core essence, the energy in a cultivators core, can only be utilised by a core symbol. Once it leaves the core, it assimilates into the essence in the surrounding.
Tu Syaoran attempted to absorb the spiritual essence in the air. It worked... but not in the way he wanted.
It had only helped replenish his core.
Tu Syaoran racked his brain as he looked for a solution. He combed through the memories in a hurry.
Luckily, he found a piece of information that was of use:
'First place your core symbol in your body. By using your core symbol as a medium, transfer the core essence into the core symbol. Ensure transferred core essence does not reach the required amount for the core symbol to activate. As the time goes by, the core essence will dissipate into the body supplying it with rich, high-quality energy to use.'
Tu Syaoran was thrilled, though there was some downsides. He only had one core symbol (3-sided) and that was 'Behead', which was of the offensive type.
In the information from the memory, it was highly recommended that the cultivator should not use an offensive type core symbol as one mistake would lead to severe injuries with an extremely high chance of fatality.
The other downside was that it would damage the core symbol. However, this wasn't a problem for Tu Syaoran since over time core symbols would heal. It would only become a serious problem if the core symbol is overused. By that point, the core symbols would sustain permanent damage that cannot be healed through time.
Rapidly, Tu Syaoran moved 'Behead' from his core into his heart with precision. Next, he began transferring the essence slowly to the core symbol. Whilst, he was transferring the essence he had also paid attention to the saturation level of the core symbol.
With each second that had passed, the core symbol 'Behead' gleamed more brightly. Tu Syaoran ensured that each time he transferred the essence they were roughly the same in proportion.
Once 'Behead' was crazily illuminating a crimson colour, Tu Syaoran immiediately stopped transferring essence.
Tu Syaoran breathed out a sigh of relief. He felt that if he had continued transferring the core essence for one more second, 'Behead' would of activated, obliterating him from inside out.
As Tu Syaoran felt the warm energy that was dissipating from the core symbol, he suddenly thought about earlier: he felt something wasn't right.
His mind was clouded with confusion. He had many unanswered questions: why did he suddenly forget that his body was frail and weak? Why was he so confident that he could swim 650m? Was there someone behind this? How did they brain-wash him? When did it all started?
However, the more he thought about it, the more clouded his mind became.
At this point, Tu Syaoran sensed something was seriously wrong and to make matter worst, he was helpless to do anything about it.
Instead Tu Syaoran set his eyes on the inheritance. He hoped that the inheritance could help solve this unknown problem.
Although there was no evidence, Tu Syaoran speculated that someone was behind this, causing him all sorts of problem. In fact Tu Syaoran had a strong feeling he knew who it was.
Luckily, Tu Syaoran realised that although the perpetrator could affect his mind and memories, he was sure that they couldn't read his thoughts; he was so sure because there seemed to be no backlash.
For example, right now he was speculating who the perpetrator was. The results? There was no backlash.
He believed that the only time he would get a backlash was if he began to think about the matters earlier.
According to Tu Syaoran theory, every time he thought of that particular topic it would be 'notified' - just like a fire alarm - and as a result his mind would mysteriously become more clouded.
As Tu Syaoran gradually returned to the peak of his physical state, he rapidly approached the destination. He estimated he was only 120m away.
Even though his sight was blurry, he still noticed something moving in the far distance. It was as small as a speck of dust, but its bright orange colour that glowed weakly stood out in the dark.
The closer he got, the bigger the moving thing became.
Soon, a long glowing orange fish the size of a small shark was swimming in front of Tu Syaoran. It was then that he recognised the fish. Its species was called the 'Orange Venom' fish species. Just like its name, it was a venomous fish.
The bright and orange skin, was where most of the venom resides. Tu Syaoran had no doubt that if he were to touch it, even his bone would melt under the venom: it was extremely strong. If one didn't have a peak-level 3-sided core that was of the protection category, they would suffer the same fate; the part that touch would completely melt. It would melt so fast that to it would seem as if it had suddenly vanished.
Despite that, not many people had died or suffered a grievous injury cause by these 'Orange Venom' species. They were herbivores and in contrary to many peoples thoughts they were also very timid; Once it spots an entity approaching it would rapidly swim away.
The venomous skin was only to deter predators away. From a modern perspective, Tu Syaoran found it strange that the venom didn't diffuse out of the skin and pollute the surrounding water.
This fact made him understand that some principles worked similar to his previous life but there was also differences as well.
Just as Tu Syaoran arrived within 10m of the 'Orange Venom' fish, it suddenly opened its dark obsidian eyes and quickly swam away.
Once again, the fish had became a glowing orange 'speck of dust' in his eyes.
Tu Syaoran paid no heed to the 'Orange Venom' fish. Instead, he took out a large piece of azure crystal about the size of his hands. He lifted his head above the surface of the water and took in a large mouthful of air before plunging his head back into the water.
This time, with the large piece of azure crystal, he could see all the aquatic animals. Although, this was a solution to the pitch-black water, it also created another problem at the same time.
With this bright azure crystal lighting up the area around Tu Syaoran, he had ultimately put himself into the spotlight, attracting potential danger.
However, he had no choice. He couldn't see anything.
He came here with the goal of obtaining some water-based core symbols. The best way to obtain them was to kill the aquatic animals. Therefore he needed light.
If he were to try hunt in the dark, there would be no difference between that and throwing a dart in the dark.
The good news were that Tu Syaoran had seen his target. As the azure light illuminated water, it revealed around 40 aquatic animals. Out of these 40 aquatic animals, 7 of them brighten Tu Syaoran eyes; they were his target.
The bad news was that, the moment the light had shined on these aquatic animals, they scattered into the dark.
Though, Tu Syaoran was slightly annoyed about this, he wasn't too worried: he had a plan to kill the 'Sweepfin' fish.
The 'Sweepfin' species were part of the fish family. Unlike the 'Orange Venom' fishes, the 'Sweepfin' fishes were more proactive. This was because they got their source of food from eating leftovers. Whether if it was leftovers stuck inside a larger fish mouth, or leftovers that had sank to the bottom of the river bed, it would eat them all.
Likewise, many of the less aggressive bigger fishes maintained a cooperative relationship with the 'Sweepfin'.
The 'Sweepfin' were also omnivores, but despite eating 'meat leftovers', they did not prey on other fishes. This was primarily due to their weak offensive methods.
Weirdly enough, their teeth were brittle and miniscule. This made it difficult for them to bite a large chunk off from their prey and severely injuring it.
On the other hand, they had a very sturdy body. This was proven through their ability to swim freely at the river bed without bursting open from the water pressure.
Although a part of the reason that allowed them to do this was due to their immensely strong body, by itself it wasn't enough to resist the pressure of the water.
The other component that worked compatibly with its strong body to resist the pressure was a core symbol; 'Water Pressure'.
The fact that it had a water-based core symbol ('Water Pressure') wasn't the only reason why Tu Syaoran had decided to hunt the 'Sweepfin' fishes.
What made them so special was that 90% of the 'Sweepfin' fishes has the innate core symbol 'Water Pressure'.
The idea of 'Survival of the fittest' had eventually lead to most of the surviving 'Sweepfin' fishes to have innate core symbols; without it, they would end up starving to death within three days and in a week if they were lucky to chance upon some of the bigger fishes.
Even though, the primary innate core symbol found in the 'Sweepfin' specie was 'Water Pressure', it wasn't the only core symbol they were born with.
A few rarer 'Sweepfin' fish would have strong bodies, enough to resist the pressure of the water by itself, so they would awaken a different innate core symbols such as 'Water Swift'. A characteristic of innate core symbols was that it usually awakens a core symbol to fill in the gaps.
For example, although some of the rarer 'Sweepfin' fish had strong bodies, they were slower than other 'Sweepfin' fishes, however to counter this disadvantage established by the body, they would awaken 'Water Swift' - a water-based speed type.
This was also true in humans with cores above the A-grade rank (Tu Syaoran core is B-rank). The only exception to all of this was the special constitutions and physiques.
Tu Syaoran hoped to obtain multiple 'Water Pressure' core symbol as well as a core symbol that differed to 'Water Pressure' such as 'Water Swift'.
He had devised a plan to capture and kill these 'Sweepfin' fishes. The plan was to quietly approach the 'Sweepfin' fish and then quickly release 'Behead' to severely injured it or perhaps even instant kill it.
However, whilst sneaking up to the fish, he had to be careful: careful not to alarm the fish.
Simultaneously, he had to ensure he was prepared so he stored the azure crystal away and swam to the surface of the water.
As he popped his head above the surface of the river, he was assaulted by the cold air. To guarantee nothing went wrong, Tu Syaoran decided to replenish his bodies energy through the method earlier.
This time he was even more meticulous than before taking the process slowly but steadily.
After he had finish instilling 'Behead' full of energy, he checked the amount of core essence stored, which was at 74%.
This was close to the maximum of a non-core-expansion cultivator (80%)
Once he had made sure that everything was prepared, he took a deep breathe, taking in as much air as possible before diving back into the water.
However, this time round it was different. He had controlled the light intensity of the azure crystal so it would only light up Tu Syaoran surroundings, which had a radius of 5m.
He managed this feat by controlling the amount of core essence he poured into the azure crystal.
Since the azure crystal was the size of his hand, at maximum power it would drain 2.5% of his core essence every hour.
Therefore, to minimise consumption of his core essence he dimmed it down.
Currently, it was only consuming about 1.3% of his core essence per hour.
But the main reason why he had dimmed it down was to make sure he wouldn't scare the 'Sweepfin' fish away.
As Tu Syaoran continued diving further down, he had finally saw his target.
In the far distance where the light barely reached, he could see a fish that was the size of a new-born baby.