137: Chapter 137 Desperate Situation, Transcendence

Chapter 137: Desperate Situation, Transcendence

Exercising at the bottom of the sea is not an easy task.

Due to the existence of water resistance and pressure, it will cause additional load challenges to the body and increase the difficulty of the exercise.

Moreover, the deeper one dives, the more this difficulty increases exponentially.

What needs to be overcome is not just the water pressure problem, but also hypoxia, claustrophobia, and the many dangers brought by surging undercurrents.

Among the training programs of free divers, there are exercises of carrying weights and rapidly diving and climbing up through a guide rope.

What Fang Cheng wants to do is not this simple.

He plans to dive deep into the sea and use this high-pressure environment to perform routine physical exercises just like on land.

That is to say, carrying out "Prisoners Six Arts" training at the bottom of the sea.

The headland splits the waves and stands tall.

The surging waves below beat against the reefs, shattering to pieces.

Then they surge over again, repeating in an endless cycle without a moment of rest.

A flock of seabirds circles near the headland, sometimes flying low across the water surface, and sometimes flying high into the blue sky.

The cries of "ou", "ou" intertwine with the roar of the waves, as if playing a symphony.

Standing at the top of the cliff, one can overlook the entire sparkling bay and feel the majestic power contained in the ocean.

An inexplicable emotion surges in Fang Cheng's heart, and he lowers his head to gaze at the surging waves at the bottom of the headland.

The world record for high diving is roughly around 50 meters.

And the height of this headland from the water surface is visually estimated to be at least over a hundred meters.

Jumping down from this height and plunging headfirst into the water at a speed of nearly two hundred kilometers per hour.

For a Mortal, there is not much difference from directly crashing onto a concrete ground.

For those with extraordinary physiques, it also requires immense courage.

"Those monsters can do it, and I can do it too!"

Fang Cheng mutters to himself, his gaze becoming incomparably firm after making the decision.

He immediately takes off his clothes, pants, shoes, and glasses, and hides them under a rock.

Then he walks to the edge of the cliff, takes a deep breath several times, and adjusts his bodily state.

Then, with a step forward with his right foot and a light push with his left foot, his whole body darts out like an arrow shot from a bowstring.

Leaping several meters away from the cliff, the sea breeze blows against his face, as if gently lifting his body.

In this feeling of weightlessness, Fang Cheng adjusts his posture, his gaze falling on the sea surface.

Immediately afterwards, the leaping body rapidly falls downward under the action of gravity.

The howling wind continuously pours into his ears, and the whole world seems to be tilting downwards.

A flock of startled seagulls flaps their wings and sweeps past him.

The speed of free fall is getting faster and faster.

Seeing that it is about to reach the sea surface.

Fang Cheng's whole body muscles are tense, and he immediately twists his waist and back, making a continuous body-rotation rolling movement.

After lingering in the air briefly to ease the falling speed.

He then plunges headfirst into the rippling blue sea with the standard posture of a diving athlete.

Splash!

Gurgle——

Accompanied by splashing water, his entire body quickly sinks into the seawater.

The external sound is completely cut off, turning into a series of churning bubble sounds.

Fang Cheng keeps his mouth shut, opens his eyes, looks around the scenery under the sea surface, and adapts to the new environment completely surrounded by water.

Then he lowers his head to look at the grayish-white gravel presented at the bottom of the sea.

Then he swings his arms, uses muscle strength to adjust his posture in the water, and dives straight down.

Sunlight shines through the water surface, and the light at the bottom of the sea reflects a shimmering aquatic color.

Fang Cheng treads with his web-like flexible feet, constantly diving downward.

As if passing through a partition layer, he enters a familiar yet unfamiliar fantasy world.

Colorful schools of fish swim around him, shuttling back and forth, making gurgling bubble sounds.

Below, there are patches of sea anemones shaking their soft tentacles, as if welcoming the joining of a new partner.

All the scenery around creates a tranquil and mysterious atmosphere.

As the depth increases, the water pressure increases, and the oxygen content is also rapidly decreasing.

The surrounding creatures gradually decrease and begin to completely fall silent.

When reaching a depth of about ten meters or so.

Fang Cheng's feet are already stepping on the seabed gravel, stirring up a burst of grayish-white water mist.

If under equipment-free conditions a Mortal can reach this depth, the oxygen carried in the lungs must have been consumed to almost nothing.

Unable to persist for long, he would need to resurface and replace with fresh air.

Yet Fang Cheng holds his breath, appearing more than adequate,

He first calmly swings his limbs, feeling the magnitude of the resistance brought by the seawater.

Then he bends down, lying flat on the seabed ground where volcanic ash and fine gravel are deposited, and begins to practice the first style of Prisoners Six Arts.

Standard Push-up with both hands.

Bend arms and elbows, lean forward close to the ground.

Extend arms and straighten elbows, puff out chest and lift back.

Seawater wraps around the body, giving people an unusually bloated feeling.

Every movement made appears relatively slow, like in slow motion.

Because when muscles resist the resistance brought by seawater, they must also bear additional loads and perform more work.

The pressure at a depth of ten meters should be equivalent to about 2 atmospheres.

That is, per square centimeter of area, it will receive a pressure of about 9.8 to 10 kilograms.

Under such an environment, even doing the most ordinary exercises on land is like carrying ultra-high weight on the whole body and conducting extreme workouts.

Fang Cheng lies on the seabed, continuously doing double-handed Push-ups.

After spending nearly two minutes, when doing the 35th one.

A prompt message immediately emerges in the seawater before his eyes.

[ Push-up Experience + 1 ]

In the agitated grayish-white water mist, a few hermit crabs crawl out from the gravel beside him and rapidly drift into the distance.

Fang Cheng stands on his tiptoes, slowly stands up, and a string of bubbles gushes out from his nostrils.

The first attempt to conduct physical exercise in the seabed environment is indeed more efficient than on land.

If it were during ordinary morning exercises.

With his own physical fitness wanting to increase 1 point of experience, he would need to complete at least 60 one-handed fist Push-ups to achieve the same effect.

However.

This still hasn't reached the degree he imagined.

Fang Cheng frowns slightly, holding his breath and thinking.

Because in seawater, while the body is subjected to resistance, it also enjoys the buoyancy lifting it upwards.

When the body moves downward, it indeed bears greater pressure load and needs to overcome more resistance.

But when straightening the body upward, it borrows to some extent the buoyancy of the seawater, reducing a lot of burden.

"The current depth is still not enough..."

For a Mortal, perhaps it is already the limit.

For his body like a monster, it is still far from reaching the strength it should have.

Fang Cheng raises his head and gazes far into the depths of the ocean.

The light brightness here can already be considered relatively dim.

Along the downward-sloping and extending seabed geological structure, volcanic ash mud and plankton float everywhere.

Appearing hazy and not very real.

And a few hundred meters away, it seems to be completely swallowed by darkness, faintly revealing a mysterious aura.

Fang Cheng's eyes flash slightly, using Eagle Eye Vision to remove the obscuring mist.

An extremely magnificent landscape immediately presents itself ahead.

That is impressively a huge crack broken off from the seabed.

Deep and unfathomable, stretching across, like a scar left on Yongan Island, hiding unknown mysteries.

After looking at this scene, Fang Cheng's heart moves slightly, and he immediately paddles his limbs and swims toward that side.

The closer he gets to the crack, the less silt and dwelling creatures accumulated on the seabed become.

Until stepping on a grayish-white rock formed by the accumulation of volcanic ash.

Fang Cheng feels the forward-surging water flow, slowly walks to the edge of the crack, and probes his head to look down.

In the pitch-black and silent trench abyss, besides black, there is only black.

Even using Eagle Eye Vision cannot see the end.

Like a bottomless pit, it reveals a deep cold that pierces the heart.

And under this seemingly calm and silent surface, unpredictable undercurrents are hidden.

Affected by some huge suction force, the surrounding seawater never stops and endlessly pours into it.

This natural wonder is like the work of ghosts and gods.

If a person with deep-sea phobia is fortunate enough to see it, I'm afraid their heart will palpitate and they will faint on the spot.

Fang Cheng doesn't have much fear; instead, his adrenaline surges.

The whole person becomes exceptionally excited, and his gaze reveals a strong sense of expectation.

Standing on a volcanic rock protruding abruptly toward the seabed crack.

Fang Cheng stabilizes his figure with both feet, and slowly spreads his arms.

Looking at them one by one!

He looks up at the sea surface tens of meters away from here, which is like the clouds.

The light shines down hazily and weakly, as if summoning the great power of nature to help the body break through its limits again.

The water from all directions thus rushes toward the body along with the summons.

Heavily squeezing every inch of skin and every cell, causing an obvious sense of oppression in the chest and ears.

This pressure not only causes physical discomfort, but also brings a feeling of suffocation and dizziness, as if imprisoned by water and difficult to move.

"Let's do a set of Squats to warm up."

Experiencing the resistance brought by the huge surrounding water pressure, Fang Cheng silently activates the Focus Skill, officially throwing himself into the workout state.

Beside the dark and deep trench, rocks are rugged and cliffs protrude.

A naked, muscular figure stands in this desperate situation that ordinary people cannot reach, doing weight-bearing exercises that surpass human limits.

"..."

"35."

"36."

The figure steadily bends his knees to Squat down and slowly straightens up to stand.

Suddenly, his shoulders shake slightly, and his figure leans backward, as if knocked out of balance by the water current.

But in a flash, his waist and back exert force, and he forcefully twists back, standing firm again.

Then, he continues to steadily and powerfully practice Squats.

"37."

"38."

"..."

"50."

Persisting to do 50, he successfully completes a set of exercise.

Fang Cheng exhales slightly, and a string of fine bubbles emerges from his nostrils.

Like a grayish-black curtain, the seabed panel flickers with light blue light, presenting the harvest of the skills practiced just now.

[ Squat Experience + 6 ]

Although the number of times done is relatively small, the efficiency is more than ten times that of normal training on land.

Because the water depth at Fang Cheng's current location is a full forty-something meters, equivalent to a pressure of five atmospheres.

This kind of exercise method is not simply like carrying hundreds of kilograms of weight on land to move.

Instead, every inch of muscle, bone, and even internal organs of the body is constantly enduring the sense of oppression caused by huge water pressure, overcoming this unimaginable resistance for ordinary people.

While efficiency is greatly improved, exercising in such a place also has great dangers.

For example, occasionally being attacked by surging undercurrents, one might be swept away by accident and fall into the abyss below the crack.

This is precisely the reason why Fang Cheng did not choose to do single-leg Squats.

Of course, in the process of adapting to the instability of the water flow, it is actually exercising the body's coordination and balance ability.

After completing a set of Squat training.

Fang Cheng rests for only half a minute, then extends both hands, bends down to grab the protruding part of the rock beneath his feet.

Then he slowly lowers his body into the crack, using the rock as a support point, and begins to practice one-handed Pull-ups.

If in that kind of normal position before, due to the buoyancy of seawater offsetting part of the body weight, the effect of practicing Pull-ups would definitely be greatly discounted.

Fortunately, this trench produces a suction force, greatly reducing the upward buoyancy and giving the body a sensation similar to suspension.

In this way, amidst surging undercurrents, Fang Cheng tenses his arm and shoulder-back strength, continuously lowering and stretching.

After completing 50 times, he then uses the same method to practice Hanging Leg Raises.

Afterwards, Back Bridge, Handstand Push-up, Push-up, one by one skills of Prisoners Six Arts are deployed, gradually testing the exercise effect.

When all movements successfully complete five sets, about an hour or more has passed.

Possessing the talent of Water Breathing allows Fang Cheng's breath-holding time in the water to far exceed the limit of a Mortal.

Although he didn't grow gills to directly filter and absorb oxygen from seawater like fish.

It also makes him like a whale, possessing an extremely efficient breathing method.

Whales are mammals and likewise rely on lungs to breathe.

They have large vital capacities, and their hemoglobin and myoglobin concentrations are also higher than those of humans, which enables them to complete oxygen reserves within a few minutes and then maintain long-term diving activities.

For example, an adult blue whale can breathe underwater for nearly 30 minutes, while a sperm whale can even hold its breath underwater for two hours.

During the exercise process, Fang Cheng never returned to the sea surface to replace the air in his lungs.

Instead, he kept persisting in training, testing where his own limits lie.

As the exercise volume increases, blood circulation accelerates, and body surface temperature rises.

Fang Cheng even faintly has a feeling.

The pores opened all over his body seem to also begin to participate in breathing, able to extract weak oxygen from the seawater.

Only when conducting the sixth set of Push-up practice.

Suddenly he feels as if a thousand-jin boulder is pressing on his chest, making it a bit hard to breathe.

Immediately after, his heartbeat slows down, and his limbs begin to turn soft.

Fang Cheng realizes he is close to his limit, so he immediately exits the Focus state.

Then holding his breath, he uses both feet to push hard against the seabed rock, utilizing buoyancy to control the rhythm and slowly swimming upwards.

As he gets closer to the water surface, the surrounding light becomes brighter, and the seawater gradually fades from grayish-black to become as clear as emerald.

External sounds also gradually become noisy; the sound of bubbles bursting and the fluctuation sound of schools of fish swimming past appear exceptionally clear.

Until charging headfirst through the rippling sea surface, all sights and sounds instantly magnify several times, as if returning to a vibrant and dynamic world of light and shadow.

A large flock of seagulls circles in the sky, emitting clear cries.

The bustling tide and bird calls rise and fall alternately, entering the ears one by one.

"Hoo——————"

Fang Cheng takes a deep breath of fresh air, feeling the freedom and exhilaration from extreme oppression to liberation from bondage.

Before his eyes appear the azure sky, the towering headland, and a flickering panel also emerges.

[ Focus Experience + 3 ]

[ Push-up Experience + 36 ]

[ Squat Experience + 32 ]

[ Leg Raise Experience + 21 ]

[ Pull-up Experience + 23 ]

[ Back Bridge Experience + 20 ]

[ Handstand Push-up Experience + 27 ]

Looking at the experience points harvested from this seabed weight-bearing training.

Fang Cheng wipes his wet face and hair, revealing a gratified smile.

Especially the progress of the Push-up skill is particularly eye-catching.

[ Push-up Lv2 (347 / 500) ]

According to this efficiency, in just a few days, he should be able to smoothly advance to Lv3 Grandmaster level.

The high efficiency is as if returning to the time of initial exercise, even far surpassing it.

And there is another advantage: it can completely isolate the prying eyes of outsiders.

Feeling the enhanced fatigue of his body due to changes in air pressure, Fang Cheng raises his head to look at the height of the rising sun.

It is already noon, and he does not plan to dive back to the seabed to continue exercising.

"Let's come again tomorrow."

Fang Cheng murmurs to himself, a new idea forming in his heart.

Next time, he might be able to try practicing Stance Training and Breathing Technique underwater.