The darkness was almost complete at a depth of one hundred meters.
Dan stood on the tenth step, surrounded by water on all sides; the pressure was overwhelmingly crushing. Dan reached this level through gradual and continuous training over two years, moving from the 50-meter level to his current depth.
The pressure at a hundred meters deep is much more crushing than at fifty meters. Every movement required double the effort—every punch, every kick, and every held breath was a battle against nature itself.
In the early days, the pain was unbearable. His muscles were burning, his joints ached, and his lungs screamed for air after just a few minutes. But he did not give up. Every day, he dove to this depth, forcing himself to continue, pushing his body to its limits and then beyond them.
And now, after a while, he had adapted.
Dan released a series of rapid punches in the water. His fists cut through the resistance powerfully, creating small bubbles that rose toward the surface. Then came a powerful sidekick, his leg muscles exploding with energy. The movements were much faster than they were a while ago. Stronger. More precise. His physical strength was improving remarkably.
Dan noticed how his muscles became harder and denser. They were no longer just defined muscles; they became like steel—solid and capable of withstanding immense pressure. His entire body became stronger. His bones were more solid, his joints more flexible, and his ligaments more powerful. He could now hold his breath for twenty minutes at this depth and train at full strength throughout this period. Being at a depth of 100 meters is much different from when he first started this type of training; the deeper he went, the harder the pressure became and the more oxygen his body needed, so these were amazing results, at least for him.
Dan formed two chakra daggers in his hands and began a series of stabs and cuts. The daggers moved with lightning speed, cutting the water sharply. He maintained their shape, solidity, and sharpness despite the immense pressure. His chakra control also continued to improve with training to an incredible level.
One day, while training, something unexpected happened. Dan was trying to expand his sense of the environment around him underwater, trying to feel the water flows and small movements. Without intending to, he spread his chakra around him. It wasn't an ordinary layer. It was a very thin, invisible web extending in all directions from his body.
Suddenly, he felt everything. Every movement in the water, every flow, every small vibration. He could sense a fish swimming meters away from him and the water movement caused by the waterfall above him. It was an amazing sensation.
Dan ascended to the surface quickly, excited to test this new technique. On land, he tried again. He spread his chakra around him in a wide circle. Two hundred meters. He could sense everything in a circle with a diameter of two hundred meters around him. Trees, animals, birds, even small insects. Every movement, every existence, everything.
Dan smiled excitedly. He called this technique "The Web."
He hadn't planned to develop it; it happened by chance as a natural result of his strong chakra control. The ability to spread it with extreme precision, to make it very thin yet wide, and to sense any disturbance in it while consuming very little of his chakra reserves. For Dan, this was a perfect sensing technique. It would warn him of any approaching danger and allow him to see what cannot be seen with the naked eye. He decided to train on it more, improve it, and make it a core part of his abilities.
But the real development he witnessed was in the field of seals. After all this time of experiments, Dan finally succeeded in developing a seal that binds chakra alone, without hindering movement. He had tested it countless times, sealing a portion of his chakra into the target without any movement obstruction, unlike the original seal that binds both movement and chakra simultaneously. It was a great achievement for Dan; he had carved his path in this field alone without a teacher, only with incredible persistence and a mad obsession.
But it wasn't the final goal. He had an idea—an idea of how to use this seal to achieve what he wanted.
Dan sat in his hut, looking at his notes. He had drawn diagrams of the human body: bones, blood, and organs. The idea was complex, but it was clear in his mind. He would apply a seal to the bones—a seal that seals his own chakra in them, but in a light way. The goal would not be to prevent the chakra from flowing, but to direct it. He would seal the chakra in the bones and then try to fragment it very precisely to feed the bone marrow.
Bone marrow is responsible for producing blood cells. If it is continuously fed with chakra, it will start secreting blood saturated with chakra and more vitality. This vital blood will travel through the body and reach the heart. And the heart, when it pumps blood full of diligent and integrated chakra, its cells will become stronger. They will be fed and evolve to become more powerful and resilient. At the same time, the nourishing chakra will spread throughout the body via the circulatory system. It will reach every cell, nourish it, and strengthen it.
The final result would be a body saturated with chakra at the cellular level. A stronger body, more resilient, and longer-living. This was his first step toward immortality.
But the idea was only theoretical. He still needed to test it. So Dan began experimenting on different animals from his flock or what he hunted. He chose one of the small sheep and began working.
First, he studied the sheep's anatomy carefully. He identified the main bone locations and understood how blood flows in its body. Then he applied the seal. It was a complex seal, requiring extremely precise control of the chakra ratio. Since the animal before him did not possess chakra, he used his own. He had to direct the chakra to the bones, seal it there, and make it flow toward the marrow in a specific way.
In the first attempt, he failed. The seal did not stabilize and dissipated after minutes. He tried again with adjustments. He failed again. And a third time. He continued for weeks, experimenting on different animals, modifying the seal, and improving his technique. Some animals died from the experiments. The seal was too strong, or wrong, or applied in the wrong place.
But Dan did not stop. He learned from every failure, understood the problem more, and got closer to success. Finally, after two months of continuous experiments, he succeeded. He applied the seal to one of the sheep—a perfect, precise, and stable seal.
After days, he began to see the results. The sheep became more active, more vital, and its eyes brighter. Dan examined the sheep carefully many times every day. He sensed his own chakra in its body melting and draining and strengthening its body until it disappeared in a few days. Then he repeated the experiment again because he had to reach a higher level of certainty by knowing all the changes that occurred in the sheep's body. After a while, the seal managed to drain all the chakra again, and the sheep's body witnessed a series of changes and improvements.
So Dan wrote down his observations in his hut on a piece of leather, happy with what he had reached. He smiled with excitement. He succeeded. The idea was correct, at least so far.
So what next? Should I try it on myself now? No, he wasn't ready to apply it to himself yet. He still needed more experiments and more data to ensure the seal was safe in the long term. He continued experimenting on different animals. He watched them for weeks and months to see how they evolved and changed. Some animals improved remarkably; they became stronger and healthier. But some faced problems. The seal was draining the sealed chakra, and instead of strengthening them, it was causing a malfunction in their bodies.
Dan learned from every case, modified the seal, and improved it. At night, Dan sat in his hut daily before entering his chakra refining session, looking at his notes full of diagrams and data. He had made massive progress. His physical strength reached a new level thanks to training at a depth of a hundred meters. He developed "The Web" technique, a powerful sensing technique that would protect him from dangers. And he succeeded in developing the chakra seal, his first step toward immortality. Everything was going according to a pre-planned scheme.
He looked through the window at the hole filled with water.
"Soon, just a little more, and I will apply the seal to myself."
"Step by step, toward immortality."
He smiled, and the fire in his chest burned more than ever before. Because he knew he was on the right track.