As the depth of their descent continued to increase, the pressure of the seawater reached an appalling level.
Xu Tianhao and Long Aotian felt their internal organs shifting, and every inch of their skin and every bone endured a tearing pain.
Even holding their breath became incredibly difficult, as waves of suffocating pain radiated from their chests.
Their consciousness blurred in the darkness and Chaos, their mental will eroded by endless pressure and strange interference, inching closer to the brink of collapse.
Just as both felt they could no longer hold on and instinctively wanted to channel their power to flee upward...
...they discovered with horror that an invisible, terrifying suction force emanated from the depths of the ocean floor, locking onto their bodies and preventing them from moving upward even a fraction of an inch.
They were forced to continue falling downward, enduring increasingly horrific pressure.
They couldn't escape, couldn't avoid it, and had nowhere to retreat.
Their only choice was to rely on their iron-like will to withstand this extreme oppression.
If they couldn't endure it, what awaited them was being crushed into pieces by the power of the undersea tides.
Xu Tianhao gritted his teeth, his muscles tensed to the limit, cold sweat mingling with the seawater.
He felt as if he were being constantly eroded and pulled by a distorted dark force.
Even though his mental force far surpassed Spirit Masters of the same rank, he struggled to maintain absolute clarity in the face of this endless darkness and terrifying pressure.
That deathly sense of powerlessness spread continuously, eating away at his willpower and birthing a hint of despair in his heart.
But every time his will was about to collapse, images of his family, his dreams, and his determination to change his fate against the heavens would surface in his mind.
"I cannot give up!"
Xu Tianhao roared in his heart, forcibly gathering his last bit of mental will to resist all the oppression and interference around him.
Above the grotto, Poison Immortal stood with his hands behind his back, calmly gazing at the pitch-black seawater below.
His mental force was like a great net, firmly locking onto Xu Tianhao and Long Aotian in the depths of the sea, monitoring their condition at all times.
Sensing that although the two were in agony, they were still tenaciously resisting without any sign of giving up.
The corners of Poison Immortal's mouth slowly curled up, revealing a gratified smile.
He knew very well that the talent and will of these two disciples far exceeded those of ordinary people; they would surely make it through this ordeal.
Meanwhile, Xu Tianhao and Long Aotian had long since lost all concept of time, struggling to endure in the endless darkness and pain.
What they didn't know was that from the moment they fell into the seawater until now, three full days and nights had passed.
And this was only the beginning.
The pressure beneath the deep sea was like a ten-thousand-ton boulder, squeezing Xu Tianhao and Long Aotian's physical bodies and wills at every moment.
Every tide that surged brought a tearing pain, and their breaths had long since become extremely weak.
Their Meridians felt as if they were being burned by fire, and a terrifying force crashed wildly within their bodies, yet was suppressed firmly by the invisible pressure of the deep sea.
But every time they were on the verge of collapse and their consciousness was about to sink into darkness, the Origin power from the deepest part of their Spirits would quietly awaken.
Like a warm current, it slowly enveloped the damaged Meridians, repairing their nearly shattered physical bodies, pulling them back from the edge of death time and again.
Over time, the repeated tempering and reshaping brought both of their bodies and Spirits to their limits.
Every repair after breaking through a limit made their physical bodies tougher and their Spirit Foundations more stable.
Who knew how much time had passed? Perhaps several days? Perhaps several weeks?
Xu Tianhao only felt that something in his long-dormant Spirit Origin had completely loosened.
It was a tremor from the depths of his Soul, as if a Divinity that had slept for ages was about to awaken.
An indescribable power surged wildly within his Spirit Origin, sweeping through his entire body along his Meridians.
His eyes snapped open, devoid of any confusion, only the brilliant radiance of gold and silver colors bursting forth, piercing the darkness of the deep sea.
The gold was like a magnificent sun, scorching and domineering; the silver was like a bright moon, cool and holy.
The two lights intertwined and wound around each other, forcibly raising a blazing sun and a bright moon in the depths of the gloomy seabed.
The sight of the Sun and Moon Under the Same Sky shook heaven and earth, causing even the surging undersea tides around them to come to a standstill.
The sealed spirit power, at the moment his Spirit was fully released, was like a flood breaking through a dam, suddenly bursting through layers of Seals and roaring through his body.
Xu Tianhao's body was gradually covered in a faint light.
This light was initially a dull black-iron color, then it flowed rapidly, shedding the darkness of iron to become a heavy bronze color.
Then, the bronze transformed again into a dazzling silver color, the light becoming more condensed and flowing with a nimble luster.
Finally, the silver light began to condense and sublime bit by bit, shifting toward an ultimate brilliant gold.
That gold was pure and dazzling, without a single impurity; every strand of light contained majestic power, causing the surrounding seawater to boil and evaporate.
Seeing this, Poison Immortal, who had been watching, felt his heart skip a beat, and a look of surprise and joy burst from his cloudy old eyes.
He stared intently at the golden light on Xu Tianhao's body, his voice trembling slightly:
"Gold-level! It really is a Gold-level second awakening! Good boy! It wasn't in vain that I passed the sub-seed of the seed of the body to you!"
He had been willing to give the sub-seed of the seed of the body originally to gamble on Xu Tianhao's potential.
Now, this kid had indeed achieved the highest-tier Gold-level second awakening for a Body Martial Soul.
This point alone was enough to satisfy Poison Immortal.
He then turned his gaze toward Long Aotian, and seeing that the light on Long Aotian's body ultimately stopped at a silver color, he couldn't help but sigh.
A Gold-level second awakening is something that can be sought but not easily found; obtaining even one is already a stroke of great fortune.
Meanwhile, once the light on Xu Tianhao's body had completely turned into a brilliant gold and fully stabilized, his mental force suddenly surged.
His mental force, which was already far beyond his rank, now expanded infinitely like an eagle soaring through the clouds.
His sea of consciousness continuously widened and strengthened, and the purity and intensity of his mental force reached a whole new Realm.
The five spirit rings on his body—three purple and two black—pulsated in unison, their light reflecting against the brilliant gold on his skin.
Behind Xu Tianhao, a pair of giant Sun Moon Divine Pupils suddenly snapped open.
The divine pupils were several meters in diameter; the golden sun pupil and the silver moon pupil fit together perfectly, bursting with a dazzling divine light.
Wherever the divine light passed, the deep-sea pressure vanished instantly, and even space rippled slightly.
"Gold-level second awakening!"
A majestic Domain power suddenly expanded with him as the center.
Within the Domain, the darkness in the depths of the undersea tides was completely dispelled, transforming into a magnificent scene of the Sun and Moon Under the Same Sky.
The golden blazing sun hung high, shedding endless light and heat, while the silver bright moon suspended in the air, flowing with cool moonlight.
The powers of the sun and moon intertwined, forming a Domain of absolute control.
This time, the Domain was no longer overwhelming as before, but was instead compressed to its extreme within a range of about a hundred meters in diameter.
Though the range seemed smaller, its power was actually superior.
The sun and moon power within the Domain was infinitely concentrated, with every inch of space containing terrifying pressure, making it several times stronger than his previous Domains.