"You're calling this a leisure dive? why chose from here?" Seeing the seascape, Hye Won asked, adjusting her law energy bands with practiced precision to Yue Lan who chose this on map.
Yue Lan grinned as she twisted her hair into a tight bun. "Whether it's the Underworld Devil's Eye or its anus, it's worth seeing. Besides, didn't you notice those researchers camped right above surface of those trenches?" She smirked. "They've already got enough to handle just being down here - no need to give them a heart attack by popping up unannounced."
The trio dropped like falling stars into the unknown, the vortex carrying them down at first, before they accelerated past its lazy pull. The first few hundred meters were wonder incarnate ~ lanternfish that blinked like living constellations, jellyfish that pulsed with ethereal light, rays that glided through the water like silk scarves caught in an gentle breeze.
At 500 meters, the last traces of sunlight began to fade. By 1,000 meters, they were in a world of absolute darkness, where only their body-shields provided illumination ~ dim gold, cobalt blue, and pale violet lights that turned them into living beacons in the void. The vortex is still having some rotational influence here.
The water grew colder as they descended. Large forms moved at the edge of their perception ~ creatures that belonged to the deep, going about their business with neither fear nor curiosity.
By 4,000 meters, they reached the abyssal plain. The area around didn't have any human presence in millennia, but humans have indeed reached even further, even the deepest in their vessel exploration, but just not everywhere. The pressure was immense now, a living weight that pressed against their shields with increasing intensity. Temperature was rising.
This was a desert of volcanic chimneys and mineral hazes, where creatures didn't swim so much as drift like living ghosts. Some extremely large ones resembled krakens from ancient legends, but these were likely unchanged for millennia ~ living fossils in this unexplored underwater museum. What would happen if this ever where to resurface?
Not that it ever would. These creatures thrived in the abyss; dark and high pressure bodily adaptations in water. Not to sunlight.
Not that the surface world would care much ~ humanity had its own self-made worse tragedies, after all. One more horror would hardly tip the scales. And if it did? Well. A nuke would suffice. The surface had solutions for monsters, just it was made for itself originally.
The beings Han Chen sensed here defied human classification. Creatures with qi-infused cores approaching peak Grandmaster level strength, beings that could tear through conventional submarines like paper if they chose to. They don't have a demonic core, but a similarly operable biological one. Humanity had never seen or sensed them, but sightings and myths suspected their existence in these crushing depths.
"The ladies are getting tired," Han Chen noted, sensing the growing strain on Yue Lan and Hye Won's mental reserves as they maintained their sea breathing and law energy control.
"We can handle it," Yue Lan insisted, though her voice carried the first hints of fatigue.
"No shame in accepting your hubby's help" Han Chen replied gently, taking over a major portion of the control to ease their burden but didn't forgot to leave a jab, " Besides, call it self-interest - if you collapse down here, I'll have to carry you both back up."
Beyond 8,000 meters, the pressure reached 1,100 atmospheres. Molecules compressed tighter than human bone, the water itself becoming something approaching liquid metal unless you are in sync with ambient pressure. Through their spirit sense, they could now perceive the bottom ~ a sight that was both anticlimactic and profound.
The terrain was largely undisturbed, marked only by the occasional probe sent down by human explorers. Titanium shells half-buried in sediment, testament to humanity's reach into the abyss.
And then, the final descent.
Challenger Deep ~ eleven thousand meters below the surface. The deepest known point on Earth, where the Pacific Plate slowly surrendered to the Mariana Plate in a geological dance that had been playing out for millions of years, almost the age of Han Chen himself.
"This trench isn't just a hole," Han Chen explained, his voice soft in the soul transmission that connected them. "It's a play between tectonic plates. Every hundred thousand years, it deepens a little more. The land tells stories older than continents. But I can sense nearly 30 sub-seafloor volcanoes and judging by its activity it will erupt in a dozen years at-least deepening here further..."
Their shields dimmed as they touched down on the seafloor. A soft, powdery plain of gray sediment spread out before them ~ the accumulated remains of countless eons. Dead plankton, volcanic ash, microscopic bones, the dust of ages compressed into a carpet that sighed under their feet.
Occasional movements caught their attention. Snailfish drifted nearby, translucent and nearly boneless, perfectly adapted to the crushing environment.
"Look at them," Hye Won whispered in wonder. "They don't fight the pressure ~ they've learned to ignore it."
"They'd die if we brought them to the surface," Yue Lan observed. "They're too perfect for this place."
They walked carefully across the seabed, leaving footprints that would likely remain undisturbed for decades. Han Chen's enhanced senses detected the fossil remains of ancient marine creatures buried deep in the sediment ~ bones intermixed and transported by tectonic movements over geological time.
Unlike what the women had imagined, there were no dramatic mysteries here, no hidden temples or ancient secrets. Han Chen's spirit sense had already mapped the entirety of the ocean during their journey, cataloging life forms that humanity had never encountered. By his estimation, more than 80% of the species he'd observed remained unknown to science.
Yue Lan withdrew a staff, from her storage ring ~ ring is the wedding gift from Han Chen ~ and unfolded staff's base. Using her strength drilling it further. She drove it into the sediment without sound, and a tiny flag unfurled at its top. Bare silk, undyed and simple. They took care not to bring earth pollution or microplastics down here. As a result, the item will break down harmlessly or be eaten by local marine life in a relatively short period.
"We were here," she read aloud, tracing the words stitched into a fabric beneath their intertwined initials. "Not to claim, but just to witness."
With effortless grace, they snapped a few pictures - their forms pristine still at the bottom of Mariana trench. They spend quite time and then left unceremoniously, leaving with fulfilled wishes. Even if they show photography to someone, they will think it is a low effort image editing.
They began their ascent slowly, then with increasing speed as the water itself seemed to part around them like a living bubble. Sunlight returned in layers ~ first as deep violet, then blue, then the dazzling white of the surface world.
Behind them, the Hadal Eye continued its eternal spin, unmoved by their passage.
"Everything feels smaller now," Hye Won said as they floated on the surface, looking back at the innocent-seeming waters that concealed such incredible depths.
Han Chen didn't reply immediately. Through his spirit sense, he could still perceive the flag they'd left behind, a tiny marker of their presence in the deepest place on Earth. Throughout their entire journey, not a single drop of water had touched their skin, yet they had moved through the ocean depth.
A normal human could never comprehend the depth they had just experienced, the weight of water that had pressed against their shields, the alien world that existed in the crushing darkness below. Beings within it.
But they had been there. They had seen it, touched it, become part of it for a brief moment in time. The ocean would keep its secret.
Now, as the sun painted the sky in shades of amber and gold, it was time to leave the deep places behind and return to the world above. The final joys of this reality is coming to an end, months would pass by very soon.
***
The Preparation
His wives had returned to their families for final farewells, choosing to spend these last months among their kin. Han Chen found himself alone ~ a solitude that suited his purpose perfectly. The next Qi realm beckoned, and his body cultivation demanded preparation.
He could have remained in the outer world for this refinement, but the spiritual energy requirements were astronomical. Years might pass in such endeavor, and during that time his passive law comprehension would climb several more layers ~ triggering exactly the situation he sought to avoid.
The numbers told their own story. His domain had exploded from mere miles to 1.3 light years, reaching the outer edge of the planetary system while his spirit sense remained locked at 1000 miles. His law sense had become ridiculous ~ already spanning more than 11,200 light years and accelerating. For perspective, radio waves from Earth throughout all history had only traveled 225 light years. He'd already encountered dozens of planets bearing bio-signatures, yet his senses couldn't detect anything beyond that thousand-mile barrier.
This was the exact predicament facing any ascender with excessive comprehension.
Into the Chamber
The world bead's silent expanse welcomed him back. Han Chen climbed the spiraling staircase of the cultivation tower's temporal chamber ~ each step steady, a declaration of ambition. He'd long surpassed foundational trials. His soul cultivation approached nascent rebirth's cusp, yet his body ~ spiritual in nature, gates interconnected, forged in law itself ~ called out as the realm neared before entering the next life level.
Unity had been achieved. But the cosmos within him remained incomplete.
Eight sacred gates pulsed in perfect harmony. Baihui's celestial bridge, Shenmen's quiet strength, Qinglin's endless vitality ~ no longer gates but flowing essence, a divine circuit bound in rhythm. His body had shed mortality, grown semi-spiritual, capable of periodic self-refinement and adaptation. Gone were crude expulsions of waste or instability. The awakened flesh sensed his will before words formed, beginning refinement the moment he entered the chamber.
Yet rivers without guidance meander; stars without command drift. So he began anew ~ not with elixirs, beast blood, or celestial marrow, but with his sutra's declaration.
The Scripture's Call
Essence burn, yin yang flames, incinerating mortal bones and flesh.
Even golden sinews and jade marrow shall be reforged within the cauldron.
The Trinity Refinement Sutra's words reverberated through chamber walls and cellular structure alike ~ each cell now capable of perceiving law and echoing back his intent.
In past refinements at Foundation Building, he'd required sustenance ~ food and water. Not now. His sacred flesh could sustain itself for years. Still, transformation wasn't automatic. Essence must burn, gang qi be scoured, pain welcomed.
This was where others failed ~ where the rare few walking the body path halted at Unity. The cost became too great.
Those without qi roots found their road forward blind. They lacked treasures, comprehension, often will and ability itself. They stalled, sometimes for centuries, desperately seeking resources to touch the next layer's edge or using Unity realm cultivation to repair themselves and switch to Qi cultivation.
Han Chen was no brute stumbling toward borrowed light. Calling his wisdom roots divine would be understatement. His comprehension soared beyond immortal realms, limited only by life level. He possessed refinement, wisdom, and now ~ celestial tools in his treasure chamber.
The Immortal Pill
For the first time, he brought forth an immortal pill. The Dragonbone Tempering Pill ~ its very presence released floods of vitality, literally reforging bodies with draconic resilience. Its aura alone bent air, braided from refined immortal qi saturated in life, fire, yin, and yang laws. He couldn't even hold it in his hands, using the tower's array to restrain the sentient pill in place.
Refinement began externally. The refining essence traced its path to him. He consumed it not with hesitation but reverence ~ his realm so far below that formations were needed to hold what he'd once casually refined in his prime.
The Torrent Unleashed
Zaohai Gate erupted. Medicinal torrent surged, twisting meridians, cracking open latent layers within marrow and flesh. Golden blood spilled only to be drawn back, alchemized into concentrated life essence. The attribute-less spirit root at his core guided everything ~ absorbing without distortion, translating law into body. His flesh tore and healed repeatedly.
He didn't resist the change ~ he commanded it. Life Gate roared open, forming a law vortex within itself and Zaohai. Death Gate mirrored it in silence. Across each sacred node, purification began ~ months of burning, elemental reshaping, spirituality becoming tangible.
Gang qi within him ignited ~ not merely refined but sublimated into law-born matter. His biological flesh became something else entirely. It breathed life. It exuded life's law. Fire no longer destroyed ~ it tempered, living within Death Gate as eternal flame, constant in purification and extraction.
Yin and Yang flowed through his veins as pill residuals, balancing extremes. Were his body still bound by nature's laws, it would have collapsed under such duality. Instead, it became a transmutable vessel ~ able to shift from flesh to tangible energy and back, condensing law directly into structure.
This wasn't soul nature but body nature ~ a new spirituality capable of law-energy conversion independent of mind. The spirit root had long fused with this principle; now the body followed.
Sacred Evolution
In that moment, Han Chen's physique evolved. What was once kingly in talent now stood sacred in quality ~ its law affinity near-limitless. The transformation crowned him not just in qi cultivation but in form itself.
He didn't pursue immortality through genderless purity, nor seek spirit detachment as body cultivators often chose at this stage. He walked his own path ~ one guided by Trinity, sealed by scripture. His body followed his will in every aspect.
The medical essence surge remained endless. After his entire skeletal structure saturated with Unity level refinement, the next phase began.