Layer upon layer of Xuanming Heavy Water pressed down, causing every inch of Zhang Yu's skin to resist the pressure from all directions.
Under this pressure, he had to both exert his muscle strength to resist the water pressure and protect his body structure, and use his muscles to drive the flow of air in his body's cavities, maintaining the pressure difference between inside and outside to avoid damage to fragile areas such as the eardrums, sinuses, and eyeballs.
Especially as the simulated depth of the Xuanming Heavy Water continued to increase and the surrounding pressure grew, Zhang Yu needed to constantly unleash even more formidable physical strength.
But it was at this simulated depth of -1300 meters that Zhang Yu's diaphragm, which was originally driving the gas in his chest cavity, suddenly weakened slightly, causing his breathing to slow by half a beat.
"Hmm?"
Sensing this, Zhang Yu was slightly startled, as this was the first time he had encountered this situation since he had gained such a high degree of control over his physical body.
And the simulated depth of the Xuanming Heavy Water was still decreasing.
-1305 meters
Zhang Yu's throat muscles deformed slightly, and he felt a burst of stinging pain between his eyebrows due to the pressure difference between inside and outside, so he quickly exerted his muscles to accelerate the flow of gas in his body.
But as Zhang Yu's attention focused on his neck, a burst of pain came from his knees, as the surrounding muscles had failed to protect the joints under the water pressure.
Zhang Yu exerted force fiercely, immediately using his muscles to protect his knees.
-1312 meters
As the simulated depth continued to decrease, Zhang Yu felt more and more subtle pain coming from his body, and he knew that many fragile parts of his body were being damaged by the squeezing of the Xuanming Heavy Water.
Zhang Yu had to exert force again and again to resist the Xuanming Heavy Water and protect his physical body.
But as the depth continued to decrease, Zhang Yu felt that the pressure from the Xuanming Heavy Water was becoming more and more fierce, and the number of easily injured parts of his body also began to increase.
At this moment, he felt as if he had become a submarine sinking into the deep sea, constantly being squeezed and deformed.
Although he resisted this deformation with his physical strength again and again, as more and more positions could not withstand the pressure, he gradually began to feel a sense of panic.
Deformed exertion, muscle weakness, flesh twitching, insufficient reaction...
Zhang Yu felt a sense of loss of control like never before.
He clearly had a body full of strength, but he found it difficult to exert it to the limit, and even more difficult to coordinate his whole body to perfectly resist the pressure from all directions from the Xuanming Heavy Water.
And it wasn't that his skills in controlling his body were insufficient, but a lack of mental strength.
"This is..." A flash of understanding flashed in Zhang Yu's mind, and he remembered what the teacher had said in the Dao Heart class.
"Dao Heart is the key for cultivators to control all their own power, to use their thinking to drive their mana and body, and to use their spirit to deal with various distortions."
"When the power exceeds the level that Dao Heart can control, the consequences can range from cultivation deviation to loss of control of power."
He glanced at the data displayed on the feather book: Dao Heart Level 7 ()
Zhang Yu thought to himself, "In the past few months, my physical strength has improved by leaps and bounds, but the progress of my Dao Heart has been too slow in comparison."
"Especially taking advantage of today's cultivation conditions, my physical strength has soared in one fell swoop, and my Dao Heart has become even more unable to keep up."
"It's just that the simulated depth was not low before, and I could resist the Xuanming Heavy Water by exerting a portion of my power."
"But as the depth continues to decrease, and I gradually need to exert my limit strength to resist the Xuanming Heavy Water, I can feel the lack of Dao Heart even more."
-1321 meters
When Zhang Yu was unable to perfectly protect all parts of his body with his physical strength, it meant that his body began to show obvious wear and tear, and the pain on his body began to become intense from subtle.
Just then, another examinee chose to give up, leaving only Zhang Yu, Meng Tao, and Ye Lingxiao still continuing.
Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Try to hold on to second place, so that I can steadily enter the top two in the total score, guarantee entry into the next round, and have the opportunity to compete for the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate."
Thinking of this, Zhang Yu suddenly detonated the toxins accumulated in his body by the Spring and Autumn Endless Zen.
As the Zen character on his chest quickly disappeared, Zhang Yu's body was greatly stimulated, constantly squeezing out the potential of his life, and began to unleash physical strength beyond his own limits to help him resist the pressure of the Xuanming Heavy Water.
At the same time, on the other side, as the simulated depth continued to decrease, Ye Lingxiao's body underwent various magical changes, as he began to circulate one body protection technique after another.
His body shape shrank continuously as the depth decreased, and each shrinkage increased Ye Lingxiao's body density, giving him greater compressive strength, which was the Level 10 Expert-level body protection technique, Wishful Exquisite Bone.
Soon after, strange patterns appeared in the undulations of his muscles, turning into pieces of dragon scales, resisting the Xuanming Heavy Water with a better structure, which was the Level 10 Expert-level technique, Great Heavenly Dragon Divine Power.
And when the depth reached -1400 meters, Ye Lingxiao's skin began to change color, from the original normal flesh color to a cyan-black color as his fascia expanded, giving his body greater toughness and elasticity to resist the Xuanming Heavy Water, which was the Level 10 Expert-level body protection technique, Elephant Demon Entangling Tendon Transformation.
The combination of this Elephant Demon Entangling Tendon Transformation and the Great Heavenly Dragon Divine Power from just now made Ye Lingxiao look like he was covered in black dragon scales.
After circulating three Level 10 Expert-level body protection techniques in a row, Ye Lingxiao stood steadily in the sea-stabilizing pillar with his arms crossed, his face still full of indifference.
As the owner of a perfect bloodline, he had a natural and unparalleled control over his body, and he could learn any technique with just one look and master it with just one study.
In addition, with his Level 10 Dao Heart, he could freely master that Level 10 physical strength and various Qi Refining stage techniques.
And from the first year of high school to the current first semester of the third year, the number of techniques he had mastered had long exceeded the imagination of ordinary people, and his body had been tempered by one technique after another, and was even evaluated by the Oasis Group as the most perfect body in Kunxu First High School.
The current simulated depth was far from his limit, allowing him to continue his thinking with a carefree expression.
"That Dao Dissolution Sustained-Release Capsule does not simply reduce IQ, but divides my thinking into two, as if there is another person in my mind."
"If there is a way to control these two ways of thinking at the same time..."
Ye Lingxiao thought to himself, "Hmph, the company that developed the Dao Dissolution Sustained-Release Capsule may have created something good."
As a descendant of the Immortal Capital Ye Clan, Ye Lingxiao knew that many drugs sometimes yielded results that were completely different from the planned goals during the development process.
This Dao Dissolution Sustained-Release Capsule was obviously like this, and in Ye Lingxiao's view, its blessing effect on Dao Heart was not as valuable as its side effects.
"I can try to get the family to participate in the investment of this Dao Dissolution Sustained-Release Capsule when I go back."
After reaching a conclusion in his mind, Ye Lingxiao raised his head and observed the performance of the other examinees.
And Ye Lingxiao's key observation target was naturally Zhang Yu.
Looking at Zhang Yu's current appearance of constantly adjusting his body shape and struggling to resist the Xuanming Heavy Water, Ye Lingxiao thought in disbelief, "Hmm? This guy... has actually reached his limit?"
To be honest, Ye Lingxiao was a little shocked after seeing Zhang Yu's performance in the previous round.
From that time on, he attached great importance to the other party and had already regarded Zhang Yu as the biggest opponent in this competition for the Foundation Establishment Qualification Certificate.
After all, Ye Lingxiao's own drug absorption, tolerance, and metabolism capabilities were already at the top level in the Immortal Capital High School world.
The smell of the potion he exhaled on weekdays could cause mortals to die suddenly, and the only excretion he had each year could be sold at a high price and was considered by the Oasis Company to be of great research value.
In Ye Lingxiao's view, Zhang Yu, who could surpass him in terms of taking medicine, was definitely a man of unfathomable strength.
In addition, his performance in learning an eight-star difficulty technique in half an hour in the previous round of exams was also quite good.
Ye Lingxiao had already recognized Zhang Yu's great strength.
But Ye Lingxiao never expected that after showing such terrifying drug metabolism ability in the first half, the other party in the second half would perform so... so ordinary.
"Is he hiding his strength?"
Depth -1422 meters.
Not long after Ye Lingxiao circulated the triple body transformation, Meng Tao, who was next to him, could no longer support it and chose to give up.
At this moment, only Ye Lingxiao and Zhang Yu were left on the field.
Through continuous observation, Ye Lingxiao gradually confirmed one thing.
"This No. 55 (Zhang Yu) is not hiding his strength, his physical body is indeed much weaker than mine."
The Xuanming Heavy Water's test of the physical body was very comprehensive, and Ye Lingxiao not only confirmed through observation that Zhang Yu was not hiding his strength, but also gradually figured out the other party's details in this observation.
"He has neither mastered enough body protection techniques, nor even completely mastered his physical body. Is it because there is a gap between his Dao Heart and his physical strength?"
"But in this case, why did he have such a strong drug load and metabolism ability in the first half?"
What could be the reason why a person has a performance that does not match his own strength?
For Ye Lingxiao, the answer to this question was obvious in Kunxu.
"Some kind of new Immortal Dao technology? Has his body been modified in some way?"
Ye Lingxiao frowned slightly when he thought of this conclusion.
From a personal point of view, he could be sure that the other party was far inferior to him in terms of overall physical qualities and was not qualified to compete with him for the Foundation Establishment Certificate at all.
But from the perspective of the company and the family, the technology that the other party may possess was very important.
Ye Lingxiao thought to himself, "I should get someone to investigate and see if there are similar technologies in other places."
On the other side, Zhang Yu glanced at Ye Lingxiao, who was standing still and whose strength was still not exhausted.
Feeling the bloody smell in his chest cavity, feeling the gradually weakening body after stimulation and explosion, he thought to himself, "Although I have stronger drug metabolism and absorption ability than him by virtue of the High School Sacred Body, from the perspective of overall strength, there is indeed still a gap between me and this top Immortal Capital young master."
"How much are those techniques alone worth? He's a damn rich man."
"It's not just the number of cultivation techniques that is far behind, my physical strength has not reached the Level 10 limit, and my Dao Heart is still insufficient."
However, Zhang Yu was glad that he had managed to get second place. Counting the results of taking medicine in the first half, he was confident that he had enough to win the top two in the total score, so he also chose to give up.
At this moment, only Ye Lingxiao was left in the entire examination room to continue.
Looking at the other party, Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Next time... next time I will definitely catch up with you and then surpass you."
Under the gaze of Zhang Yu, Yu Xinghan, Meng Tao and others, Ye Lingxiao always stood in the Xuanming Heavy Water as if nothing had happened, but as the depth continued to decrease, his body continued to undergo various changes.
Ye Lingxiao understood that what he had to do next was very simple, which was to continue standing until his total score could surpass everyone and become the first place in today's Foundation Establishment exam.
He squeezed his fist slightly and thought to himself, "I will always stand in the first position until I reach the peak of the Immortal Dao that I can reach."
