Chapter 58: Exploration
Since developing the technique to temper his body with Lightning Release, Baishi's training and evolution had returned to the proper course. Time seemed to fast-forward, rapidly passing by.
In the blink of an eye, three months had gone by.
In a certain part of the forest, Baishi stood with his fists clenched, the lightning around his body gradually fading. After calming his breath, he exhaled deeply, releasing a breath that shot out like an arrow, dispersing several snowflakes a meter away.
Catching a falling snowflake, Baishi murmured, "Is it winter again?"
Last winter, he had arrived here, and now it was winter again, exactly one year later. Reflecting on the past year, Baishi sighed, "Time really flies!"
With that, he activated the Flying Thunder God Technique, and his figure instantly vanished from the spot.
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At the central peak.
Next to a hot spring.
Baishi's figure quietly appeared.
He removed his clothes and entered the hot spring, lying back to enjoy the warm water while restoring his chakra.
Two hours later, with his chakra nearly fully replenished, Baishi planned to proceed to the next task. However, he suddenly remembered that when he first arrived here a year ago, he had been curious enough to explore deep into the hot spring. At the time, due to his low physique level, he had only dived 220 meters before giving up.
He had thought about exploring further once his physique was stronger. But as time filled up with other tasks, he gradually forgot about it. Now that he remembered, there was no need to wait.
"Best to strike while the iron is hot. Now that my [Physique] has broken through 70 points, I should be able to reach the bottom."
With that thought, Baishi swam to the center of the hot spring, took several deep breaths, and then dove into the water.
Unlike last time, he easily reached a depth of 220 meters. The surroundings were dim, and anyone else would have struggled to see anything. But not Baishi. Thanks to his level IV [Enhanced Senses], he could see clearly even in such an environment.
For example, the spring's eye, dozens of meters below.
Not wasting any time, Baishi immediately dove deeper. The further down he went, the narrower the space became, the whole hot spring funneling like a funnel standing on the central peak of Moon Island.
Soon, Baishi reached the eye of the spring, a dark opening about three meters wide, with scalding water gushing from it.
After observing for a while, he left a mark on the nearby rock wall, then activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
In the next instant, his figure disappeared and reappeared next to the hot spring.
A white mist steamed up as Baishi emerged, his body as red as if boiled, appearing quite unsettling.
This was because the water temperature increased the closer he got to the bottom of the spring.
Fortunately, Baishi's physical condition was strong enough to withstand the high temperature and pressure. After resting for a while and recovering, he locked onto the mark he left near the spring eye and activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
However, the instant he appeared at the bottom of the spring, Baishi's eyes bulged out, the sudden change in external conditions putting him under more pressure than before.
Suppressing the urge to activate the Flying Thunder God Technique, Baishi stood still, taking several moments to recover.
Even underwater, Baishi couldn't help but exhale a long breath.
Looking at the spring eye below, he no longer wasted time and swam directly into it. Although the temperature here was higher, his physique could handle it for a while.
After diving a few meters, Baishi's view suddenly cleared. As he had guessed, this was an underground river.
Uniquely, there was a large mound in the river. Though he didn't approach it, his keen senses told him that the temperature there was extremely high.
Baishi guessed this mound was the heat source of the hot spring. Together with the spring above, it resembled a broken hourglass submerged in the river.
As for what lay beneath the mound, Baishi suspected it might be something within a magma river.
With most of his curiosity resolved, Baishi made several marks on the nearby rock wall and then left the area using the Flying Thunder God Technique.
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Next to the hot spring, Baishi exhaled deeply and sat down, waiting for his body to recover.
At the same time, he pondered the usefulness of the unique environment below. After all that effort, he couldn't just ignore it.
After some thought, Baishi concluded that the high temperatures below were the most useful to him. Compared to his previous evolution of [Cold Resistance], the hot environment below was an ideal place to develop [High Temperature Resistance].
Unlike the somewhat superfluous [Cold Resistance], [High Temperature Resistance] was significantly more beneficial for him. Fire Release techniques were common in the ninja world, and if he could evolve a high-level [High Temperature Resistance], he might become immune to damage from these techniques.
Being immune to all Fire Release techniques would significantly reduce the threats he faced in the ninja world.
This alone was enough for Baishi to make up his mind.
Additionally, the high-pressure environment below could also be beneficial, although untested, Baishi felt that the high pressure could stimulate his body and accelerate the evolution of his [Physique].
Especially since stimulating his body with Lightning Release was becoming less effective as his [Physique] had broken past the 70-point mark and was struggling to keep pace with his [Strength] and [Agility].
Previously, he had been concerned about this, but his curiosity-driven exploration had unexpectedly solved the problem.
However, before proceeding, he needed to address one issue: how to stay underwater for extended periods.
Once the evolution started, it wasn't feasible to surface every few minutes. Even if each use of the Flying Thunder God Technique was not costly, the frequency would greatly slow his evolution, which Baishi couldn't accept.
Therefore, he needed to solve the problem of breathing underwater.
For others, solving this without physical modifications was nearly impossible, but Baishi was different. With the 'system' assistance, he could evolve a similar ability.
At a minimum, Baishi knew that human skin itself could breathe, though it was difficult to directly extract oxygen from water. However, he could enhance this ability to breathe through his skin.
Achieving this goal would not only solve the breathing issue but also expand his survivable zones because the ocean would no longer be off-limits to him.
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