The moment we entered the areal space of the Deeps, the world felt as if it had stagnated. Also, my sword was almost forced down to meet the sea, but with the sheer power of will, I took control back and guided us forward.
"That was unexpected," I mumbled.
"The gravitational pull here is pretty powerful, we should be more careful, this just makes falling down easier, and death far too close for comfort," Wu Di spoke.
"That scared me, I hope that doesn't happen often," Hua Yue said.
"We're good now, just buckle up," I said but before I could accelerate, Hua Yue spoke, "What does buckle up mean?"
"Ah, it's an expression, don't mind it. Anyway, I'm accelerating, grab on to something," I said, but before I could enter into an argument about what to grab on since we were on a flying sword, I pumped more poison Qi into the sword and had the treasure speed forward.
Though I said blast forward it was more like a sudden throttle, and then slow sail.
"Huh, this is really annoying," I commented, annoyance clear on my face.
"What's going on? Cough!" Wu Di spoke and instantly coughed out a splatter of blood.
"Damn, your condition is worsening, have more," I said as I handed Wu Di a few more pills.
Worry was clear in Huang and Hua Yue, but I couldn't do much for Wu Di right now, we're already going blind into this Palace of the Deep hoping to get their treasured Sealing Technique which was already not common, and they could probably not have left it laying around.
But if there is hope, there is a way.
"The gravity from the sea is constantly trying to bring me down, I can manage it to an extent, but I'm unable to accelerate. If the Palace of the Deep is still too far, then we'll probably be stuck at this slow speed for days." I explained.
"Is there a way to help?"
"Not that I can think of, using Qi here will definitely be problematic, look," I said as I pointed down at the sea.
The moment the group looked down, their faces turned white as paper sheaths.
A beast of a monster that we could only see the shadow of, swam casually near the surface, it dipped down further than up. Its massive size was nothing short of trouble, as it meant that it was strong enough that it survived and fattened up nicely within the sea.
"And this is just the peripheries of the Deeps. Things like this, as big as this are pretty intelligent, and I'd bet they can sense the usage of Qi, if we try something, we'll alert it and I can bet that this thing isn't even the alpha of this place." I said.
The group's morale dropped severely, which was normal.
"The disciples of the Palace of the Deep crossed this distance without ever surfing at the hand of these beasts, I wonder how they did that." Wu Di said.
"Don't speak, you'll only exhaust yourself," Hua Yue said in concern.
"Don't worry about me, I'm feeling better after taking brother Shen Bao's pills." Wu Di replied.
With the two in their own little world, I turned to Huang and explained, "They probably had a tool, or used some sort of item to conceal their presence. Also since they used boats, I suppose that boats can easily cross this seawater, but we can't have the same luxury as the Disciples of the Palace of the Deep, if we arrogantly move about in a boat without the secret of passing through the Deeps safely, we'll end up in one of those thing's stomach, we might as well keep going at this pace." I said and funneled as much Qi as I could.
I sat crossed legged as I guided the flying treasure and closed my eyes.
Because here, though it was dangerous, there was an opportunity for me to learn something. Gravitational Law.
I slowly released my Divine Sense and made sure that it was sticking to m at first like a thin sheath of paper. Expanding the divine sense to the sea without regard to the dangers that lurk within it is no better than lighting a flame in a dark jungle, it's only asking for predators to come over for a bite, and the bite would usually be you.
As my divine sense stuck to my body, I felt the pull from the Deeps, it was coming at me at an angle, meaning that the center of this mass that was creating this gravitational field was still far away.
And seeing that the pull was this strong while we're still so far away, I'll probably have been exhausted when I arrived there and would have gotten pulled to the deeps.
So, it was a great idea to have tried to learn gravity law. Since with even minor understanding, I should be able to alleviate the pressure a bit.
I then slowly spread my divine sense to a bit more than a meter around me, trying to have more area of contact with the gravity field. With a sphere of Divine Sense around me, I could feel the tendrils of law branched like a spider web that had its center compounded upon what I believe to be the center of the gravitational field.
I focused my divine sense and spread it even wider but made sure that it didn't even touch the seawater.
This gave me an even clearer image as I was able to see this spider web not only on a two-dimensional diagram, but rather it was like a spider web that spread not like a sheet but like a soccer ball, with the centermost being too far away from me to even have my Divine Sense reach, but I could deduce from all of the tendrils and their angle where the center was.
'Now, what would happen if I do this,'
I mumbled as I touched one of the tendrils of law, then pulled it away from my sword.
Immediately, my flying sword was propelled forward with speed enough that Hua Yue tumbled and almost fell off the flying treasure if it was not for Wu Di's incredible reaction as he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back.
"What happened?" Wu Di asked.
"I think I fucked up…" I said. as I looked down and noticed that my actions were not best suited to this place.
The beast that was under us dipped then water opened up, like a massive wormhole, seawater dove into the jaws of an incoming beast that was about to swallow us whole.
"EVERYONE HOLD ON!" I shouted and immediately went back to the law lines and began forcing them away from the sword.
This was a chain reaction of doom and death, as the moment I spread apart the lines, my sword was no longer under the effects of the gravitational pull from the center of the Deeps, but at the same time, this sudden irregularity of the gravity law caused every creature to be alerted to our position.
The problem was since I started I couldn't stop.
I pulled three Soul Strengthening Pills because I knew damn well I'll be needing them then swallowed them immediately.
My hands moved like a master of the harp, plucking away the strings of gravity from our sword so it could move forward while the jaws of the beast clutched and locked at empty air behind us.
The calm seawater was no longer calm, as it now boiled with life, creatures of all sizes and shapes came rushing toward our location, jumping to the highest of the clouds then coming down with opened jaws.
My focus had to be on max, as I easily plucked string after string, constantly and continuously to increase our speed, I even dared and plucked other strings further away from us which caused space in a certain area to have no gravity for a fraction of a moment, which caused a flying creature to be stranded in space awkwardly.
Then I tried linking several lines together at one spot and this caused one of the creatures to have it's tail stuck in that point of space as it now became heavy enough to contend with the gravitational pull from the center. But that was only momentary, as I noticed that the lines I modified soon broke and other lines were reconstructed behind them.
Gravity can be modified, but cannot be permanently altered unless one applies a constant force to it.
Why the fuck am I deducing laws of physics right now? Get a grip, Shen Bao!
I kept plucking the strings away from us as we moved forward. For Wu Di and the rest, I looked like some mad man that was waving his hands haphazardly all over the place, but the more I waved my hands the more the strange events happened around them which led them to conclude that I was doing something related to what's going on.
My brain felt like it was on fire. This wasn't simple, understanding law while in front of a Law Slab is easy, but having to fly a flying treasure carrying fore while attempting to understand a new law, and apply it while knowing that a single misstep would mean death is on a whole other level.
Beast after beast came, and they were all repelled by graceful application of Law, stopping every creature was not as important as fleeting, but I knew well that this wasn't possible for the long run. Since we're still at the rims of the Deeps, the gravity was relatively not powerful, and there was a bit of distance between every line of the law, but the closer I got, the thicker the cobweb gets, and the faster my reaction had to be.
As currently, I almost caused our death, there were a few lines in front of me which I failed to completely remove, and the moment the flying sword touched the remaining line, our speed was forced to a halt, which almost threw all of us.
"Shit!" I cursed as I removed the line and sped back up, thankfully I did it fast enough that a swordfish bore through where we previously were.
I continued on plucking the strings of law, only this time much faster than before because urgency was of the essence.
Yet, soon as I adjusted myself to the new convolution of the Law Lines, even thicker, wider, and more compact lines showed up. Not only that, the moment I touched one of those lines trying to pluck it, my finger snapped, breaking from how strong the law line was.
"Well, fuck."