Su Yu stayed near the base's water domain every day, patiently accumulating killing experience and combat experience, with his swordsmanship improving slowly yet steadily.
The Black Water Profound Pearl's water-repelling characteristic only repels water; once this invisible force field separates the lake water, it doesn't prevent oxygen in the water from coming in, so he can remain active underwater for extended periods.
A week later, he raised the Basic Qi Refining Heart Skill to the thirty-third level, spending 2.7 million cultivation points and 30 points of Dao progression.
This reached the upper limit of the Basic Qi Refining Heart Skill. To enhance further, he would need to listen to Dao or consume a Cultivation Manual to increase the max level of Dao techniques.
However, he had no money now, with only 62 silver in hand, not enough to buy a single Cultivation Manual. Thus, he could only focus on cultivation, accumulating cultivation points and Dao progression, and wait until he had money to instantly enhance his skills.
It wasn't long before Zhuang Zhuo, who had finished refining the Gu, rushed over.
Waving the Hundred Gu Banner, a total of 100 Red Flame Flying Centipedes, ranging from level 23 to 34, were released. Even a large monster of level 50-60 couldn't withstand their onslaught.
Although they might suffer damage, he had plenty of spares in his Gu Bag; whenever one died, he would bring out another.
This is the nature of unconventional powers, not requiring high cultivation levels, yet yielding extremely powerful combat strength in a short time.
The downside is that one's power is solely reliant on Gu insects; if an opponent breaks through them, it's game over.
Of course, Zhuang Zhuo was smart enough to test the waters with level 50-60 bosses to confirm they could be handled and subsequently switched to targeting level 30-40 elite monsters, which a hundred Red Flame Flying Centipedes could take down in a matter of moments.
Even when facing many-headed creatures, as long as there were fewer than twenty, he wasn't afraid, maintaining efficiency comparable to Su Yu.
However, as Su Yu's swordsmanship improved, the progress percentage of initial mastery unknowingly reached the full value. Upon breaking through to minor achievement, Zhuang Zhuo found himself lagging again.
Minor achievement: Sword Control damage +20%, attack speed +20%.
This is a substantial attribute bonus. Additionally, his swordsmanship made tangible progress after improvement, with a noticeable increase in damage efficiency.
Su Yu felt as though his Golden Finger ability digitized his talent—no barriers to learning, able to acquire knowledge as desired; no bottlenecks, as long as effort was made, progress occurred, advancing upon attaining the required progress, very mystical.
More refined swordsmanship further enhanced his killing efficiency. With a point of a finger, the Ice Soul Sword trailed shattered ice shards through the water, encircling the elite monster with agile movements, and a blood trail spiraled from head to tail, fully encircling it.
The Fish Spirit's Qi and Blood rapidly depleted along with the blood trail, reaching exhaustion by the tail.
Each sword stroke dealt six to seven segments of damage, with each inflicting about 450 damage. A level 40 elite or trash template monster had roughly 2500 HP, unable to withstand this smooth combo.
Su Yu practiced with Zhuang Zhuo and others for several days, but level 20-30 elite monsters floating on the water couldn't withstand his combo, the killing efficiency was too high, not enough monsters to split among them, so they separated, with Su Yu diving back underwater to seek out level 40-50 elite monsters.
While this swamp's waters were extensive, they couldn't compare to those of large rivers or proper big lakes. He reached the bottom at a depth of four to five hundred meters, and even in the deeper areas, it was only seven to eight hundred meters deep.
The lakebed ecology was simple; most areas were uneven silt grounds, with few stones and occasional water plants.
The mud housed many shellfish and crustaceans, as well as some unrecognizable soft-bodied worms.
Su Yu dared not dive to the very bottom, fearing a large creature lurking in the silt might ambush him unaware.
The aquatic elite monsters active at this depth were generally level 50-60, with level 70+ bosses occasionally appearing.
For Su Yu, this level provided some challenge and not a negligible risk, but the experience gained was quite abundant.
Cautiously drawing only one monster at a time, he managed to handle them.
Grinding until nightfall, he would surface to go home, continuing the next day.
After a period of time, he almost cleared out the elite monsters on this section of the lake bottom and would move to another location to continue.
Time gradually passed, and his training points unknowingly moved far from the island where the base was located, into a vast water domain.
With no islands for thousands of kilometers, the lake was incredibly deep, well beyond a thousand meters, with some recessed areas going two to three thousand meters deep.
Early one morning, Su Yu woke up early, circled this water domain from the air, then dived into a region he'd never visited before.
Within a minute, he descended to the lake bottom, hovering about a hundred meters above it, summoned the Ice Soul Sword to hover above his head, glanced around, and set his sights on a cyan-backed weed carp spirit, seven to eight meters long, level 66, with a trash template, swimming not far away. With a flick of his finger, the sword light of Ice Soul flashed, trailing a sword rainbow of over ten meters to strike.
A seamless combo encircled the weed carp spirit in a smooth arc, slashing away nearly half its health, and when the Sword Control reversed for a second combo, more than half its health was gone.
At this moment, the cyan fish spirit finally reacted, turned, and with a mighty swipe of its thick tail, dark currents surged, its massive body shooting forward like a torpedo.
Su Yu smiled slightly, ready to activate the flying sword, when a slight sense of danger suddenly warned him.
He reflexively leapt skyward, just in time to witness the depths below explode into cloudiness, with a massive shadow emerging, latching onto the cyan-backed weed carp spirit and dragging it down.
"BOSS?"
With just a fleeting glance, Su Yu saw the shadow of the creature.
Mutated Two-headed Worm (Elite): Level 82, Aquatic Race, Insect category.
Attributes: Qi and Blood 82000, Demonic Power 2000, Attack 2800, Speed 36 km/h. Skills: Rapid Recovery.