Fang Hao began the most difficult inhale he had ever taken, and after he felt he could not draw in another sliver of air, he jumped into the water.
The river water gradually rose above his head, and he laboriously squeezed the last bit of air from his mouth into his lungs; at this moment, his blood received a large supply of oxygen, as if burning, and he had never felt so full of power.
Then, he swung his nichirin blade, chopping, hacking, thrusting, lifting, parrying… He repeated one movement after another. Underwater, he frantically adapted to his submerged body and the nichirin blade in his hand, performing basic sword techniques.
Soon, he felt the strength within him rapidly draining away, the oxygen in his blood greatly decreasing without replenishment. He instinctively fought against his body's urge to breathe, standing firmly in the mud at the bottom of the water, repeating his movements.
He underestimated the pressure he felt underwater; this pressure was not the water pressure itself, but rather his body and his breathing. After he had achieved Total Concentration Breathing: Constant, his body had long adapted to that breathing rhythm and method. Changing his breathing for a short time was fine, but stopping his breathing as he was now, the discomfort his body produced far exceeded his imagination.
"I can't do it anymore," he thought, instinctively wanting to leave the riverbed, but his reason told him, "You can still hold on." He ignored his body's cries of protest; after a year of training, his willpower was no longer what it once was.
Finally… "Ha, ha, ha…" He surfaced, gasping for air. His arms were already incredibly sore, and every bone in his body felt as if it had broken.
He had never breathed fresh air so greedily as he did now. After a while, he submerged himself again…
Fang Hao yawned, skillfully pushing a stone from the bank into the river. "Plop," he watched the splash, then began to breathe, and then leaped in.
The river water quickly went over his head. He quickly found the stone submerged at the bottom of the river, used his legs to clamp the stone tightly, and then began to swing his nichirin blade.
He didn't use any techniques, just swung his nichirin blade again and again. If Tanjiro were nearby, he would surely exclaim in surprise. Every strike by Fang Hao was like the Danku he used to slay the Temari Demon, only the power wasn't as strong, and the speed wasn't as fast.
The familiar resistance made Fang Hao's swings exceptionally difficult, but he paid no attention to this, just one strike after another, his incredibly swift nichirin blade moving underwater. At this moment, the surface of the water was being cut by wave after wave.
After chopping for a while, Fang Hao felt he had reached his limit. He released his legs that were clamping the stone and rapidly shot towards the surface. "Splash," he surfaced, took a deep gulp of air, and then submerged again…
Fang Hao slowly swam out of the water. He was already exhausted, yet he had no choice but to swim out. Finally, he returned to the bank…
Fang Hao no longer knew how many times he had trained like this, but his eyes were much brighter than before, and his tired body could hardly conceal his increasingly excited spirit. He could feel himself improving every day, whether in swordsmanship, Breathing, or even his physical body.
"Open the panel." As the legendary compendium turned, Fang Hao saw the familiar panel again. He widened his eyes, looking at the changing data before him, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Host: Fang Hao
Strength: E++
Agility: E++
Constitution: E++
Perception: E+
Charm: D+
(Note: For a healthy adult male, all values except Charm are E)
"Tsk, I'm not convinced that Perception and Charm haven't increased. And why haven't they reached D yet? Are you going to keep adding + indefinitely?" Although he was already smiling so wide his mouth couldn't close, Fang Hao still complained vigorously.
"Eh?" He suddenly realized something. Why are there so few values on my panel? "Is there no magic or anything? And values like luck, why are they all missing?" Although he had owned the legendary compendium for a year, Fang Hao had never noticed this until today.
"Is it because this is a magic-less world? Or because I don't have energy like magic? Or is it…" His expression kept changing, then his whole face fell. "It can't be that this function doesn't exist, can it? No, I hope it's my previous guess." He prayed to himself.
After thinking for a while longer on the bank, he shook his head, no more guessing. He patted the dust off his clothes and submerged himself again to move the stone back to the bank. He didn't want the aquatic creatures to make a home on the stone.
Fang Hao, emerging from the water, skillfully switched his Breathing to Sun Breathing. As air entered his body, a large amount of heat radiated from him, and the result was…
The heat emitted by Sun Breathing dried Fang Hao's clothes. Presumably, Yoriichi would also be pleased in the afterlife to see Sun Breathing spread among the people, playing an important role in daily life.
"Hmm, I'm getting more and more proficient." He was very satisfied with his progress in Sun Breathing. The only pity was that his progress in fusing Breathing was stuck. Sun Breathing truly lived up to its name as the original Breathing, and the difficulty of fusing it was much greater than Fang Hao's previous fusion of Thunder Breathing and Water Breathing.
Fang Hao's idea has always been to learn from others' strengths and compensate for his own weaknesses, integrating the advantages of various Breathing into Thunder Breathing. This is not only because Thunder Breathing is what he is most familiar with, but also because he wants to try to develop electromagnetism after further progress in Thunder Breathing. After all, it is one of the four fundamental forces, and it is the ability with the greatest potential that Fang Hao can access.
"I've only been on vacation for a few days, this is a black-hearted company."
"Big brother, let's go, we need to meet up with the other swordsmen at that mountain," the Tool Bird urged Fang Hao.
By the way, Fang Hao could accept tasks because his nichirin blade arrived yesterday, and of course, the swordsmith also came. Although they were somewhat familiar, Fang Hao seemed very reserved in front of the swordsmith. He really couldn't say anything in the face of his resentful gaze, and those who understand, understand the reason.
Fortunately, although the swordsmith cherished his work, he didn't chase Tanjiro for over an hour with a nichirin blade after learning that Tanjiro's nichirin blade had broken, like Tanjiro's swordsmith in the original story.
However, even with just that simple resentful gaze, Fang Hao couldn't bear it and immediately apologized three times: "I'm sorry, I was wrong, I won't do it again."
The swordsmith only instructed Fang Hao to take good care of his nichirin blade, and Fang Hao was very grateful for this.
"Then let's go."
"Caw!"
Spider Mountain? Twelve Kizuki, Rui, I'm coming.