Chapter 84: Chapter 83: Bottom of the River and Mysterious Black Shadow
Translator: 549690339
The next day.
Chen Sheng woke up early.
He looked towards Zhou Li’s bed and found that he was nowhere to be seen.
The aroma of rice wafted in through the window.
He took a deep breath and immediately felt hungry.
Grabbing his washing utensils, Chen Sheng headed to the riverside to freshen up.
He scooped up a cup of water, planning to rinse his mouth.
However,
Spurt–
The water barely entered his mouth before it spurted out.
“Holy shit! ! ”
Chen Sheng gritted his teeth in pain, feeling a sudden sourness in his mouth. The coldness of this water far exceeded the waterfall’s stream.
The moment it entered his mouth, Chen Sheng felt like his brain was freezing.
“Hahaha. ”
Seeing Chen Sheng’s reaction,
Zhou Li burst out in hearty laughter from not too far away.
Zhou Li, who had been sleeping since yesterday afternoon, seemed a lot more energetic.
Chen Sheng glared at him, but didn’t say a word.
He just scooped up another cup of water from the river and stood up to walk towards Zhou Li.
Seeing this,
Zhou Li’s laugher suddenly ceased.
“Let’s talk it out.”
“My old bones can’t stand your rough handling.” Zhou Li signaled Chen Sheng to calm down.
He picked up a kettle beside him.
“Use this to wash.”
This was water that he had boiled earlier this morning.
The river water was ice-cold to the bone, but after boiling, it could be used for drinking and washing.
Chen Sheng took the kettle, finished his washing and sat down by the fire.
In the iron pot, the rice porridge was simmering, and the fragrance that he had smelled earlier was coming from it.
A fried egg and pickled vegetables were also placed on the ground nearby.
Chen Sheng served himself a bowl of porridge and began to eat, along with the pickled vegetables and fried egg.
“Old man.”
Chen Sheng suddenly spoke during the meal.
“Haven’t you ever thought about investigating the source of strangeness of this river?”
The river encircling Zhou Family Village was bone-chilling cold, and its weight greatly exceeded that of normal rivers.
Also, the colder it got, the closer it was to the downstream.
Now, Chen Sheng had long accustomed to the water flow at the upper end of the waterfall.
But when the water had entered his mouth just now, it had managed to catch him off guard still.
“Of course, I’m not stupid.”
Zhou Li looked at Chen Sheng with a strange expression on his face and said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“You don’t think I got this illness out of the blue, do you?”
“I had already explored every nook and cranny of the river bed over a dozen years ago.”
“N0tmng was round.”
Hearing this,
Chen Sheng suddenly envisioned a scene in his mind.
This old man who couldn’t even sense Qi, threw himself into this ice-cold, weighty river time after time, trying to find the truth about his loved one’s death.
However, he came back empty-handed time after time, and in the end, fell ill and is now living on borrowed time.
He fell silent.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
However, Chen Sheng was silent but contemplating.
Given his current attributes, he should barely manage to stay in the river for a few minutes without any impact, if he entered into the Breathing Method state.
Now that the tide rising period had arrived, there might be new clues at the bottom of the river>.
Chen Sheng planned to explore the bottom of the river after finishing his training for the day.
Maybe he would find some new clues.
With this in mind,
Chen Sheng stood up to start tidying up the leftovers.
Zhou Li started picking out herbs from his bag to cook with the spirit medicine.
After ten minutes.
“What are you doing?
Chen Sheng was about to head up the waterfall.
He glanced at Zhou Li, who was standing next to him, closing his eyes and mentally preparing himself, and asked with bafflement. “I’m going up to cook the spirit medicine soup for you!”
“If it’s not cooked properly, the effect won’t be as good.”
“And the herbs chosen for the blend have certain requirements like this one is cold, and you are training in the water…”
“Stop!”
Zhou Li, droning on and on, was abruptly interrupted by Chen Sheng before he could finish speaking.
“I wanted to say this yesterday.”
“Why don’t you cook down here, and call me down when it’s ready? Why do you have to go up there and suffer?”
Upon hearing Chen Sheng’s words.
Zhou Li’s expression froze instantly.
He opened his mouth as if to explain.
But he couldn’t utter a single word for a long time.
“You couldn’t have….never thought about that, could you?”
Chen Sheng’s eyes widened in surprise.
He had thought yesterday that the old man had some unspeakable difficulties or other considerations.
As it turns out, the old man was just simple-minded??
“Cough cough….
Zhou Li coughed dryly, pretending to be unperturbed, he poured water into the iron pot, getting ready to cook the spirit medicine.
Seeing Chen Sheng still standing on the spot, looking at him with an amused expression.
The old man glared back. “What are you looking at?!” “Aren’t you going to practice?!”
Hearing these words,
Chen Sheng shrugged his shoulders.
Immediately,
He quickly entered into the Breathing Method state.
Within a few jumps, he had smoothly reached the top of the waterfall.
After securing the rope,
This time, Chen Sheng didn’t immediately jump to the rock where he had practiced yesterday.
His attributes had improved by nearly half compared to yesterday.
He thought that he could attempt a position slightly lower down.
After observing for a few minutes,
Chen Sheng quickly aimed for a stone platform in the middle of the waterfall.
The reason it was called the stone platform was that the surface of the stone was flat, and the space was significantly larger than the place where Chen Sheng practiced yesterday.
Without hesitation.
Locking onto the target, Chen Sheng jumped down.
Slap!
He successfully landed on the stone platform.
The vast weight of the water suddenly covered him, causing Chen Sheng to stagger.
Luckily enough, he adjusted his breathing in time to stabilize his form.
Standing on the stone platform,
The gravity accompanied by the water flow and the icy cold were both much stronger than above.
However, after only a few minutes of adjustment, Chen Sheng was already accustomed to it.
He immediately took up his stance and began practicing the Eagle Body Breathing Technique.
Time slips away.
Noon came quickly.
During this period, aside from going to the riverside to drink spirit medicine soup, Chen Sheng stayed in the waterfall.
Luckily,
The effects of the training were remarkable.
[Chen Sheng] [Strength: 14.1] [Agility: 14-9] [Constitution: 14.1]
[Skill points: 15.1]
[Eagle Body Breathing Technique Level 2: 179/20000] Strength and Constitution have each been increased by 1.5.
Agility has been increased by 1.6.
Even though the improvement wasn’t as much as when he had first broken through with the Eagle Body Breathing Technique.
But Chen Sheng had anticipated this.
Only half of the day had passed.
By tonight, or at the latest tomorrow morning,
He would be able to further enhance the breathing technique, and with the help of spirit medicine, his strength would once again leap forward.
At this moment,
Zhou Li was cooking by the fire.
Having just trained all morning, Chen Sheng also wanted to relax a bit before continuing his training in the afternoon.
With nothing to do, he went to the riverside and dipped his hand into the river.
The chilling cold immediately climbed up his arm.
Even though Chen Sheng had prepared himself mentally, his body involuntarily shivered.
“Inhale—”
A deep breath.
Chen Sheng’s body quickly expanded.
On the panel, all three attributes instantly increased by one-third, averaging to eighteen points.
“Exhale—”
Chen Sheng breathed out a long sigh.
The chilling sensation that had filled his body didn’t seem as unbearable anymore.
He also dipped his feet into the water.
Half an hour later.
After Chen Sheng’s repeated attempts,
He successfully calculated how long he could stay in the river with his current physical strength.
Five minutes.
That was the absolutely safe time limit.
During this time, no matter what happened, Chen Sheng could quickly get back to shore.
Going over that time limit might result in a decrease in his strength or heat loss, leading to slowed movement and various crises.
After completing the test.
Chen Sheng squatted by the riverside, pondering.
To tell the truth,
He was somewhat curious about what happened in the Zhou Family Village.
What could have happened that caused the entire village to drown without any resistance, with no water stains left behind?
The more Chen Sheng thought about it, the more curious he became.
In the end, he gritted his teeth slightly.
He decided!
Not to dive today!
Wait until the Breathing Technique has broken through to the third layer first.
Curiosity aside,
Chen Sheng’s life principle is never to fight an unprepared battle.
When facing an enemy, never settle for an evenly matched fight if you can crush them instead.
The same principle applied to dealing with situations.
Five minutes was too short for Chen Sheng.
At least wait until he could completely adapt to the cold and pressure of the riverbed before diving back in.
With this thought in mind,
Chen Sheng cleared his mind and returned to the fire to have lunch with Zhou Li.
“You whippersnapper, don’t make any careless moves.” During lunch, Zhou Li warned Chen Sheng.
He had also seen Chen Sheng’s testing actions earlier.
“The people of the Zhou Family Village are dead. After all these years, I’ve come to terms with it.”
“But if you were to die, I’d be slapping myself awake in the middle of the night.”
Hearing this, Chen Sheng laughed.
“Old man, I didn’t expect you, of all people, would actually feel guilty if I died?” “Not really.”
“Mainly regretting meeting you, a damn troublemaker, fearing you’d cost me merit and affect my reincarnation.”
“I’ll bet you’re going to reincarnate into a cockroach in your next life.”
“You little rascal!”
Amid the tumult, the two finished their lunch.
Zhou Li went back to the wooden house for a nap.
After a short rest, Chen Sheng once again returned to the waterfall, not willing to miss out on a moment of training time. As time went on,
The sky was covered with a layer of dawn.
The sun gradually sank beyond the horizon.
Chen Sheng was still practicing in the waterfall, trying to upgrade his breathing technique sooner.
“Hmm?”
Suddenly,
Chen Sheng’s gaze became fixed.
The enhanced vision brought by the Eagle Body Breathing Technique allowed him to clearly see the scene several hundred meters away.
At this moment, he could clearly see that in the distant woods, where there should have been no signs of life, two shadows were moving swiftly among the trees, quickly approaching this way.
Were they human?
Or…..
Taking advantage of the shadows’ distance, Chen Sheng stopped his movements.
Whoosh-
He instantly leapt to the edge of the cliff and lay down on the ground to observe the situation..