Volume 2: Jade Promise Chapter 92: Persistence is victory
When Tang Zheng blasted out the extremely powerful Double Kaio-ken and it collided with the huge column of water splashed by the boulder, the moment the two opposite forces collided, a huge air wave erupted, which shocked Tang Zheng's rapidly falling figure and stopped him. His already injured body was hit hard again.
However, after being swept up by this huge air wave, Tang Zheng's falling speed was finally greatly slowed down.
However, this was the last struggle Tang Zheng could make. He was like a rocket that was about to fall. Before crashing, he suddenly sprayed out a section of air downwards, like a last-gasp flame and high-speed airflow. He escaped the tragic scene of being broken into pieces, but could not escape the final fate of falling.
With a "splash", Tang Zheng's whole body shook violently again. His eyes went dark and he was completely surrounded by the cold and fast-flowing river water. He was dizzy from the current and could not control his body at all.
The only thing that made Tang Zheng feel fortunate was that after his efforts, the impact force he received when he fell into the water was much smaller than he had imagined. Although his injuries worsened again, fortunately Tang Zheng did not faint.
However, the crisis has not been resolved.
Tang Zheng fell into the river. The only oxygen left in his lungs could not keep him going for long. If he could not get rid of the turbulence at the bottom of the water and float to the surface as soon as possible, he would soon suffocate to death underwater.
Apart from the sound of undercurrents in the water, my ears were filled with dead silence, like the netherworld.
There was not even a glimmer of light in front of my eyes, as if I had fallen into endless darkness.
Faced with this dangerous situation, Tang Zheng did not give up nor panic. He endured the pain all over his body, mobilizing the little star power left in his body, and swam rapidly towards the surface of the water.
"Hu——" With the help of the buoyancy of the water, Tang Zheng finally floated to the surface before exhausting all his strength and oxygen, and took a long breath.
At this moment, Tang Zheng felt for the first time that just being able to breathe again was such a happy thing.
It was not until then that Tang Zheng had the chance to open his storage bag, take out the water-repellent beads he had bought in order to practice controlling star power at the bottom of a mountain river, and hold them in the water.
With the water-repellent beads, he no longer had to worry about the danger of drowning for the time being. However, Tang Zheng was almost exhausted at this time, and was swept downstream by the fast-flowing water.
"Li Xiaoren said before that there is a big waterfall not far ahead on this tributary of the Nulong River. If I can't escape before then, given my current condition, once I'm washed into the waterfall, I'm afraid I'll be dead." Tang Zheng was floating on the water, being tossed up and down by the rapids, thinking about the next way to escape.
"The water flows too fast and there are cliffs on both sides. It is extremely difficult to return to the shore in this section of water. We can only wait for the water to become wider and the water flow to slow down before we have a chance to swim back to the shore." Tang Zheng thought as he observed the terrain.
But he soon discovered that the further downstream he went, the faster the water flowed, perhaps because there was a large waterfall ahead.
Tang Zheng could already hear the loud sound of the waterfall from afar, but he still couldn't find a chance to swim back to the shore. Every time he wanted to swim to the shore, the rushing water would always push him back to the center of the tributary.
"No, I can't wait any longer. I don't have much time left." Tang Zheng used the Cloud-Stepping Steps and tried hard to jump out of the water. He observed the environment of the entire tributary, trying to find a way to escape from danger.
Although the Cloud-Stepping Step allowed him to jump to a very low height in the rapids, after several attempts, Tang Zheng discovered a small protrusion in the middle of a tributary not far away. When he took a closer look, he found that it was a river stone.
Tang Zheng was delighted. Although the stone in the middle of the river was still some distance away from him, it was still much closer than the shore. As long as he could swim to the top of the stone, Tang Zheng could use the Cloud-Stepping Step to jump onto the stone when the current brought him not far from the stone, thus avoiding the danger of being washed into the waterfall by the current.
"A little to the left, a little more to the left!" Tang Zheng gritted his teeth, relying on only one arm, and swam diagonally towards the top of the stone in the middle of the river, little by little.
With every stroke, Tang Zheng's shoulder that was injured by the gravel felt extremely painful. Every time he took a deep breath, the injury to his lung also took his life. From time to time, the splashing waves would choke him with a mouthful of muddy water.
Every time he tried, he could only get a tiny bit closer. The next moment, a huge wave came and even the distance he had previously gotten was shattered into thin air.
In such a difficult situation, Tang Zheng even felt depressed: "It's really hard, I can't swim anymore, the wound hurts too much, just give up, anyway, I may not survive if I try hard, maybe giving up will make me feel better..."
But soon, Tang Zheng suppressed this depressed mood.
No, I haven’t spent all the purple gold yet!
No, I'm not famous yet!
No, I haven't seen the peak of martial arts yet!
No, I'm still a virgin!
…
In his heart, there are still countless obsessions and wishes that have not been fulfilled. Coming to Xingyao Continent, he is betting his dreams, so how can he bear to die?
It has to be said that Tang Zheng is a greedy person, and greedy people tend to live longer because he will grit his teeth and persevere to the end and will never give up halfway.
"Who am I? I am Tang Zheng, the persistent one who won't give up until he achieves his goal!" Tang Zheng kept roaring in his heart, roaring at the goals he had not yet achieved, roaring at the persistence of his past and present lives, paralyzing himself to forget the pain, forgetting that every effort he made could only bring a tiny reward.
The only thing in my eyes is the direction of progress, and the only thing I care about is persistence.
Once, twice, and just like that, Tang was like a severe insomniac who fell asleep by mechanically counting sheep. He was also counting the number of times he paddled to motivate himself to persist to the rock in the middle of the river.
Hard work pays off. It was not until Tang Zheng counted to fifty-seven times that he finally swam to the rock in the middle of the river and seized the opportunity at that moment.
Step on the clouds and start.
In an ungraceful posture, Tang Zheng jumped out of the water and almost fell sideways onto the stone in the middle of the river. He grabbed the life-saving stone tightly with his only remaining hand, his fingers almost deeply embedded in the slippery stone. Finally, he broke free .
This was probably the worst performance of his martial arts since he had been practicing the Cloud-Stepping Step day and night in the past few days, but it was also the most successful performance of his martial arts since he learned the Cloud-Stepping Step.
Because this time, the Cloud-Stepping Steps truly saved his life.
Using his hands and feet, he climbed onto the stone in the middle of the river. Without saying a word, Tang Zheng took out the fan dagger and inserted it directly into the stone in the middle of the river. Then he tied the other end to himself with a silk string. In this way, he fixed himself firmly on the stone which was less than two meters wide. Then he lay down softly on the stone, not caring about the water splashing on his face from time to time, and gasped heavily.
He squinted his eyes and glanced at the waterfall that meant death, which was less than a hundred meters in front of him. He tilted his head back, looked at the blue sky, and grinned.
