The wooden cart dragged by the Ox-Scarab shuddered faintly, and the old man perched upon it vanished without a trace. Qian Jin’s sharp senses immediately detected a blast of intense force generating wind behind him, and his backside felt distinctly locked onto.

“Here again?” In his mind, Qian Jin recalled the time the old man kicked him into the Blazing Lake. He instantly analyzed what was happening behind him, channeled the full power of his one hundred and eight Dantian apertures, and exploded forward, sending mud and snow scattering everywhere, charging desperately toward the waters of the Frigid Lake.

The old man’s foot struck empty air, freezing him mid-stance: “How can this be? That single kick was executed at the limit of his strength from yesterday!” Has his Dou Qi rotation increased again? The density of his Dou Qi during that explosion seemed significantly greater than yesterday! Does this brat train relentlessly even in his sleep?

Relentlessly? Qian Jin, airborne, chuckled inwardly: Sleeping isn't relentless training, is it? Uncle, when I sleep, I’m fighting for my life! That strange potion from Oulala nearly killed me. But fortunately, the tempering of the body, which used to only work from the outside in via the Blazing Lake, was reversed by that potion, training me from the inside out. This dual tempering has made my body much tougher, and my Dou Qi rotation has gone from its limit of sixty rotations to sixty-five, making the Dou Qi much denser.

Splash! As Qian Jin’s body entered the water, his hair instantly sprang up like steel needles. The cold of the Frigid Lake was even more intense than he had imagined; his entire body felt like it was about to be instantly frozen solid.

The intensely cold lake water caressed the blood vessels beneath his skin, beginning to rapidly cool the surging blood. If this continued, there was a real possibility his blood would completely freeze into ice.

His Dou Qi, operating at the limit of sixty-five rotations, immediately dropped to the level of fifty-five the moment it entered the water. The extreme cold wasn't just freezing his blood; it was simultaneously freezing his rotating Dou Qi.

“This…” Qian Jin shivered. He executed the Iron-Forging Breathing technique, moving his limbs wildly beneath the surface, which quickly restored warmth to his body. His Dou Qi swiftly recovered from fifty-five rotations back up to sixty-five.

The old man’s face once again registered profound shock and surprise. What kind of monstrous anomaly is this kid? I expected the icy cold of the Frigid Lake to drop his Dou Qi rotation below thirty, yet it seems only to have pinned it to the floor of fifty rotations. His Wind-Cloud Golden Body—Stone Body realm shouldn't afford him such terrifying defensive capabilities. Unless… he has some other secret method of body tempering that has made his physical form exceptionally robust?

Huh? Merely moving his limbs slightly in the water, and his body rotation returned to normal so quickly? The old man scratched his grizzled hair, his face etched with incomprehension: “How exactly did this kid manage this?”

“I say, boy, you seem quite comfortable in the water,” the old man called out, nodding toward the deeper part of the lake. “Stop bathing in the outer layer and swim deeper in.”

Qian Jin glanced at the stone platform where the old man stood, remembering the lesson from the Blazing Lake. The old man, seeing him hesitate to swim into the depths of the lake, once picked up a stone half a person’s height and hurled it at him in the water. Faced with the danger of being crushed by a falling stone versus advancing into the lake's depths, Qian Jin wisely chose to swim deeper.

Shui Lian Ying’er curiously touched the icy surface of the lake. Her finger bones instantly began to tremble violently. She had to channel her Dou Qi several times in succession just to barely disperse the chill in her fingers.

“Cold, isn’t it?” The old man, retrieving an egg from seemingly nowhere, gently placed it in the lake water for a few seconds before taking it out and cracking the shell. Before the two girls lay an egg, the entirety of which was a lump of orange-yellow ice.

“Let me show you something else.” The old man flicked his wrist, and the yolk of the ice egg struck a small pebble on the shore. Where the two collided, it was the small stone that shattered.

“Impressive, right? If you toss a rabbit into this lake water, within a few breaths its blood will completely freeze, resulting in death,” the old man said with a genial smile, explaining this to the two girls whose eyes were fixed on the completely stunned scene in the lake. He then noticed their expressions were off and followed their line of sight.

Two hundred meters out! The old man saw how far Qian Jin had managed to swim from the shore and nearly jumped out of his skin.

“This brat—if he doesn’t scare my heart out of my chest, he won’t be satisfied, will he?” The old man rubbed his forehead. That was two hundred meters! Doesn’t this kid feel uncomfortable unless he’s courting death?

Two hundred and twenty meters… two hundred and thirty meters… two hundred and seventy meters! The old man’s eye twitched repeatedly. This distance was far greater than calculated. Could his body truly withstand it? In the freezing lake water, the difficulty of every meter advanced was nearly doubled, yet he had swum seventy meters further! Was he insane?

“Can this water get any colder?” Qian Jin’s lips, frozen from red to white, then white to purple, could no longer maintain the Dou Qi rotation at sixty-five rotations; it had been forcibly pressed down to just over forty rotations. The mysterious potion that had tormented him so fiercely from Oulala was finally exerting its powerful effect, allowing him to hold out to the distance of two hundred and seventy meters.

“Any further, and I estimate I’ll truly be returning to the embrace of the Great Stars.”

Qian Jin submerged himself completely. The surrounding chill formed a vast net of cold air that enveloped him tightly, tightening, and tightening… like a great net contracting, contracting, and contracting further!

The Dou Qi operating at forty rotations spread throughout his body, following the method used in the Blazing Lake, attempting to disperse and guard the exterior of his body.

Soon, Qian Jin realized that the survival method used in the Blazing Lake was completely useless in the Frigid Lake. The extreme heat of the Blazing Lake continuously assaulted the net of Dou Qi covering his body, and once it breached the net, it attacked the body’s interior.

However, the chill of the Frigid Lake did not simply assault; instead, it actively helped the Dou Qi enveloping his body to increase in strength—except that its goal was to freeze both the Dou Qi and the blood into solid ice!

If that moment truly arrived, the net of Dou Qi would instead become the assassin that murders its master! The Dou Qi spread throughout his body already showed faint signs of being frozen solid by the chilling air.

The icy flow of air seemed capable of freezing even one’s thoughts. Qian Jin found his cognitive abilities rapidly slowing down, as if everything around him was decelerating.

Wind is formless; blades and swords cannot wound it. Clouds are shapeless; gathering and scattering are unpredictable.

Qian Jin’s mind replayed the same words, yet he experienced them differently. Back in the Blazing Lake, the high temperatures were destroying his defenses, forcing his unpredictable gathering and scattering to turn back into a Dou Qi net. Today…

He shattered the net he had set up with his own hands! And then instantly reassembled it! It was almost the same action, but with an added step. The rotation of the Wind-Cloud Dou Qi suddenly ceased! The Dou Qi net was instantly invaded by the chill, about to be frozen even more solidly, when the Wind-Cloud Dou Qi within the one hundred and eight Dantian apertures began spinning independently again. The tearing rotation from one hundred and eight points instantly ripped apart the frozen Dou Qi net, sending a thread of warmth spreading through every corner of his body.

Freeze… rotate… tear… then freeze again… then rotate again…

Qian Jin was immersed in the water, repeatedly performing this monotonous, near-self-mutilating task. His Dou Qi, which had dropped to forty rotations, had unknowingly recovered to forty-four rotations.

The old man watched as Qian Jin occasionally surfaced for a deep breath before sinking back into the icy water to continue tempering his Wind-Cloud Golden Body. The hands that had been clenched tightly into fists slowly relaxed.

Such an excellent disciple was a rarity that might not appear in several lifetimes. The old man did not want Qian Jin to push himself too hard and truly return to the embrace of the stars.

A massive, golden tail, larger than half a person, rose high above the lake surface not far from Qian Jin and slammed down heavily onto the tranquil, clear water, splashing up a colossal spray meters in diameter and taller than a man.

The old man, standing on the distant bank, clearly heard the sharp crack as the fish tail struck the water—a sound like dozens of bull-whip lashes cracking simultaneously in the air.

The water, struck by the fish tail, immediately sent ripples spreading outward, and currents of undercurrents scattered beneath the surface.

The old man stared at the tail disappearing back into the lake, startled, and cried out: “Damn it! Why is it here?”

Qian Jin, submerged, felt an abrupt thunderclap explode in his ears. His Wind-Cloud Golden Body instantly surged to full power, and with a kick of his feet in the water, he floated to the surface. He watched the giant spray descend from the sky.

“What is this…?” Qian Jin’s eyes darted as he stared at the golden fish, easily three meters long, in the water. “A Demonic Beast!”

A dangerous aura swept through every nerve ending in Qian Jin’s body. This massive, strange golden fish exuded a dangerous aura, in no way inferior to the Moon Demon Flower Spider he had encountered in the mountains. The sharp teeth exposed when its mouth opened and closed were like expertly ground daggers, complemented by a powerful lower jaw.

Qian Jin had no doubt that if this monstrous thing bit him, the outcome would be far worse than just a few extra holes; having his bones snapped cleanly would be entirely plausible.

The golden monster fish whipped its tail, its immense body moving through the water like an arrow shot from a bow on land! It split the water and carved a path, trailing golden light and stirring up a turbulent undertow as it lunged forward.

The massive surge of water struck Qian Jin before the fish even arrived. He felt as if something was forcefully shoving him backward repeatedly. This was a battlefield completely different from land. If this kind of powerful impact happened on the ground, relying on his rooted stance, he wouldn’t fear such a push at all.

But here, in the water! There was absolutely no leverage point!

The surge arrived swiftly, but the golden monster fish’s speed was even greater. It didn't open its mouth; instead, it used the hardened protrusion bulging on its forehead to ram him.

Unable to exert force in the water, Qian Jin punched the hard lump on the creature's strange head, feeling as if he had struck hard granite. The two hard objects collided underwater, generating a tearing force that churned the surrounding water, creating a dull thud.

The golden monster let out a strange cry in the water, its body recoiling slightly. It violently shook its head, its eyes fixed on Qian Jin’s fist with surprise and uncertainty. That little thing could actually hurt my invincible cranial bump?

I think I can probably write a few thousand more characters today. I wonder if you all can blast out my fourth chapter? Right now, the Monthly Tickets are not far from the threshold for a guaranteed push or even a long push. Monthly Tickets! Come on! Let’s see how far you can blast me! F