Mira, Maria, and Celaine soon found themselves free-falling into the middle of a massive ocean. There was water as far as the eye can see with no land in sight. They also couldn't see the bottom of this massive ocean.
They didn't panic, but this scene was a bit daunting knowing that they will soon fall into the middle of some random ocean with nothing in sight.
"Of course we'd get sent to a place like this! We just came from a fiery hell so it only makes sense to drop us in an ocean! Gah!" Maria yelled while she was still falling.
Mira was also a bit confused by Kayda's decision to drop them in the ocean. She didn't know if this was just the start of the path that she set them on or if this place held any significance, but it didn't matter. This place was inside the Secret Realm where treasures and danger go hand in hand, so even if they are in the middle of the ocean that doesn't mean they are less likely to find something.
Mira started trying to come up with ways to take advantage of this place and quickly came up with some ideas. She was going to wait until they land to voice them out though.
*SPLASH*
The three of them made a massive explosion when they hit the water.
"Gather near me," Mira said and quickly started making a platform out of ice.
After a few minutes, Mira made a huge chunk of ice that was half a meter thick and was 5 meters wide in every direction. Creating this chunk of ice caused Mira to exhaust quite a bit of her Qi and mental energy since she not only had to make it huge but condense the ice as well to make it sturdy enough against attacks.
The three of them climbed on, but Maria and Celaine found themselves freezing.
Mira sat down, unfazed by the cold, and started talking about her thoughts.
"I don't know why Kayda brought us here, but it doesn't really matter. This place is probably full of treasures and has plenty of potentials as it is. If I were to guess, I'd say that if we want to find anything our best bet is to dive underwater. Of course, there might be landmasses on the surface, but there is nothing as far as we can see. We should take advantage of this opportunity and get used to fighting in the water along with improving our breathing." Mira suggested which caused the girls to contemplate.
This is a tough decision because there are so many different possibilities with each one of them being just as likely as the other. It's possible that there are landmasses above the water and they just got unlucky.
It's also possible that those landmasses have been cleaned out and are just large chunks of rock in the middle of a vast ocean.
The same goes for under the water, there might be treasures down there, but they will be much more difficult to reach and also might be looted or claimed by any unknown sea creatures.
They could also just try and head towards their next destination, but it'd be a huge waste of time if they just gave up on looking for treasures.
They already knew Mira's answer even if she didn't say it. She wanted them to stay and train while also looking for any places that stick out. If they think about things rationally and objectively, this is the best decision. Even if they find nothing, at least they didn't completely waste their time and they can say that they tried but were just unlucky.
"As much as I hate to admit it, I think we should follow your suggestion, Mira… Ugh!" Celaine groaned just thinking about the drowni… Training that Mira is going to put her through.
"Even though I'd rather not, this is the best course of action and who knows? We might find something amazing like we did in that desert! Maybe we can even find something like a 'Sea God Body' or 'Oceanic Hydra Body'! Wouldn't that be amazing?!" Maria said while full of positivity.
Mira and Celaine just smiled wryly at her. As much as they wanted to dissuade her, they too wanted something like that as well especially Mira.
"Very well. I have come up with a brief training schedule, but if I'm being honest I don't know much about breathing exercises for cultivators. I know quite a few of them, but they are meant for mortals and I don't know what sort of benefits they'll bring to us." Mira said and then started explaining the things she knew.
She taught them things like circular breathing, 4-7-8 breathing, Diaphragmatic breathing, and various other breathing techniques that will not only help increase their lung capacity but also help them last longer while underwater. She even explained to them why breathing is necessary and what it actually does for the body so they can help come up with ideas or their own techniques.
Of course, these techniques weren't meant for cultivators who can survive hours or even days without breathing to survive.
Mira then shared her theories on how these techniques might be able to be improved for cultivators to use. Things like how Qi might be able to be used to circulate oxygen throughout the body or maybe even drinking the seawater, try extracting the oxygen within, and circulating it throughout the body.
Maria and Celaine were surprised by Mira's weirdly complex yet vast knowledge on the subject and were somewhat excited to try it out.
This is one benefit of reincarnating on different worlds is that she's not as narrow-minded and can fuse ideas to improve upon them.
Mira only wished that she had a breathing technique that an actual cultivator came up with since that'd be much more efficient than trying to create one from scratch.
Mira's goal in all of this is to be able to last several days or even up to a week underwater without breathing. She also wanted to get used to fighting underwater as well, but these can be done at the same time.
The three of them sat down and started trying out different breathing techniques to help expand their lung capacity and tried meditating on ways to survive longer without the need for breathing.
Mira also wanted to test out their absolute max or staying underwater, so she hopped into the ocean under the ice block and waited until she felt like she was about to drown.
Mira found that her absolute max for staying underwater, not even under pressure or moving is around 18 hours. That's if she filled up her lungs with oxygen and did absolutely nothing.
Mira also let herself start drowning, but found that this ocean is not like a normal ocean and found herself drowning much quicker than she thought she would. In fact, Mira felt like if it was normal water on a planet without cultivators or Qi then she should be able to survive for a while with her new body, but no, this ocean was drowning her rather quickly.
This caused a bit of unease as she knew that if they get stuck underwater and aren't close to a source of oxygen, then death will come for them very quickly. Especially if they are being chased by something or are in the middle of a fight.
Mira shared her findings with her companions and they also felt that they needed to be serious about this.
***
One Month Later
Mira and Maria were in a fierce spar several kilometers underwater with each other underwater as they shot through the water like mad.
Mira added artificial fins and flippers with her ice to help her maneuver while also propelling herself with Qi to boost her speed.
Maria was not like Mira and was taking advantage of her extremely flexible body to produce movements similar to how an eel would swim through the water.
They were both wielding their normal weapons, but Mira was holding her scythe much differently than how she usually would. She'd often switch between having her hands closer to the blade to allow faster swings or closer to the end to allow for longer reach.
Maria was using her sword, but her motions were a bit different as she was trying to use it in tandem with her eel-like movements.
Celaine, on the other hand, was currently fighting a school of fish that were mostly Rank 3 and Rank 4.
The way she moved was similar to Mira but was swifter and more refined. She had a pair of wind flippers to help with control, but would also use her wind affinity to help propel herself through the water. She was slightly faster than Mira and Maria underwater, but the degree of control she had over her movements was much higher, especially now after they've been practicing for around a month.
Not only can Celaine fight and move better underwater than the other two, but she can last much longer as well. She's probably much better than people that actually have a water affinity since she's figured out a way to use her Wind element to help extract oxygen from the water and circulate it through her body.
Even if there is no oxygen, at worst she can use her wind affinity to produce something similar that will help her survive for much longer.
Mira will sometimes think back to what she's learned about human evolution and how they evolved from fish. Occasionally, she'll look at Celaine and think that she regressed back to being a fish and can't help but chuckle a bit in her mind.
Needless to say, all three of them have come up with their own unique ways to stay underwater longer without the need for breathing.
The three of them have been underwater for an entire week now and haven't stopped moving or fighting.
Once Celaine finished killing off the school of fish, she made her way over towards Maria and Mira.
The two of them noticed Celaine and stopped fighting. The three of them went back up to the surface to discuss their plans for the future. It didn't take them long to reach the large ice block above the water.
"I guess it's time to start exploring while traveling towards our destination, huh."
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