Not until the air in his chest was exhausted, and his lungs felt like they were about to explode, did Fang Bai discard the stone and quickly surface, greedily gasping for air in great gulps.
Refining the body underwater, though more difficult, yielded better results. By the time Fang Bai had walked five li on the riverbed with the stone, he felt that he had touched the barrier of the third layer, the "Xingyuan Realm."
In the blink of an eye, it was Saturday. That morning, Fang Bai had walked several li under the Bihe River and swam against the current for ten more li. Just as he was about to head back downstream, a tremendous sound of rushing water reached his ears.
Following the sound, Fang Bai saw that hundreds of meters to the north of the riverbank, on a mountain, a waterfall poured down, creating a thunderous roar.
The waterfall flowed into a stream at the foot of the mountain, which meandered and connected to the Bihe River, becoming one of its tributaries.
