Xia Huna and Guagua spent a full day cutting this large crystal. It truly lived up to the saying: "A rope can saw through wood, and water can wear through stone." After enduring many Flying Water Shurikens, the crystal was naturally penetrated.
Looking at the crystal pieces before him, Xia Huna nodded with great satisfaction. "Next up is the delicate work of carving."
Xia Huna produced his hand-drawn blueprint and handed it to Guagua. "Guagua, our goal is to shape these small crystal pieces into this."
Guagua gazed at the blue shuriken on the blueprint. Water droplets rapidly condensed in his hands. Xia Huna asked, "How is it, Guagua? Can you understand it?"
Guagua shook his head, indicating he didn't quite grasp it. Although he knew the desired outcome, he still struggled with the specifics. Xia Huna then extended his hand and showed Guagua the bracelet on his wrist. "Guagua, see? It just needs to fit perfectly inside here."
Guagua carefully examined the dimensions of the groove on the bracelet and then nodded in confirmation. However, just as Guagua was about to hurl the shuriken, Xia Huna suddenly called out, "Guagua, wait a moment."
With that, Xia Huna walked over and picked up a crystal piece. "Guagua, let's move to a different location to process this. It's a bit difficult on the ground."
Xia Huna was about to leave when Chu Xiaodie asked, "Boss Xia, where are you going?"
"I need to figure out a way to make this stone float. Processing it on the ground is too inconvenient."
"Then just hang it up with a rope. Why do you need to leave?"
"What's the use of a rope? It might get cut while we're working, causing more trouble. I'm heading off now, you keep training hard."
Xia Huna and Guagua moved their operation to the side of the swimming pool. Xia Huna nodded with satisfaction. "This is much better. There's nowhere more suitable for this kind of task."
The swimming hall in the training base was vast. A standard swimming pool is usually 21x50 meters, but the training base's hall boasted a pool measuring 40x100 meters, four times the size of a normal one. Xia Huna strongly suspected this pool was built for Yu Longdu, as no one else besides him had a Gyarados that enjoyed swimming and was so large.
Although Xia Huna had a water-type like Guagua, he mused that if he ever wanted Guagua to practice the "Water-Walking" technique, this pool would be the place to try it.
With a casual toss, the blue crystal arced through the air before falling into the water. However, contrary to Xia Huna's expectations, the crystal sank directly to the bottom upon hitting the water, not floating as he'd imagined. Xia Huna dove in and searched all around the pool, but couldn't find the crystal he'd just thrown.
He'd only thrown it less than five meters; it shouldn't have vanished. Why couldn't he find it? Could his dive have been that powerful?
Xia Huna surfaced and waved. "Guagua, come down and help me look."
Diancie, standing nearby, pointed in a direction to Guagua. After Guagua jumped into the water, he indeed found the crystal Xia Huna had thrown.
Xia Huna swam to the edge, his head emerging from the water with a puff. Diancie, finding Xia Huna's appearance, which resembled someone practicing a toad-like technique, interesting, tried to get closer. However, Xia Huna sprayed her with a blast of water.
Diancie wiped the water from her face and glared at Xia Huna. "What are you doing!"
Xia Huna pointed at Diancie. "Why didn't you point out the location before I jumped in?"
Diancie replied pitifully, "That's because you jumped in too quickly."
Just as Xia Huna was about to retort, he suddenly felt discomfort. His leg suddenly cramped. Fortunately, Xia Huna was already by the edge. He pressed down on the tiles to steady himself, and with the help of Guagua and Diancie, he managed to avoid drowning.
A relieved Xia Huna lay by the edge, catching his breath. He had been moved from the deep end to the shallow end. The shallow end was much safer, with a depth of just over a meter. Even if Xia Huna's leg cramped again from lack of warm-up, he wouldn't be in mortal danger.
Xia Huna, lying by the edge, submerged one hand in the water and swirled it around. As he swirled, his eyes lit up. "If I throw this thing into a whirlpool, will it float?"
Xia Huna was quite resourceful when it came to playing with water. He had Guagua find a basin and began stirring the water in it.
"The swimming pool is too big to stir up. I should be able to create a whirlpool in this basin, right?"
As he spoke, Guagua returned with a basin. It was unclear where Guagua had found such a large basin, with a radius of a full meter. Xia Huna looked at the basin, which was big enough to hold him. "Guagua, you got such a big one, it's more for bathing than experimenting."
Guagua scratched his head and went to get a smaller basin. After filling it with water and placing it before Xia Huna, Xia Huna dropped the blue crystal into the basin and began stirring rapidly with both hands. A whirlpool quickly formed in the water, lifting the crystal from the bottom of the basin.
Xia Huna withdrew his hands. "Hmm, excellent. Next, we need to create a whirlpool in the water."
Saying this, Xia Huna looked at Guagua. "Guagua, throw a Flying Water Shuriken horizontally into the water. Do you understand? Like skipping stones."
Guagua tilted his head. Xia Huna then had Diancie make a stone for him and demonstrated skipping it across the water. "See, Guagua? Like this. Throw the shuriken, and make it spin in the water."
Guagua threw a shuriken. It cut through the surface of the water, plunged to the bottom of the swimming pool, and began to spin at high speed, creating a whirlpool in the pool. Xia Huna, aiming at the whirlpool, tossed the crystal in. "Guagua, aim for that crystal, use Flying Water Shuriken!"
Shortly after Guagua threw a shuriken into the water, Xia Huna scratched his head. "This... I don't even know if I hit it. I need to add a high-speed camera."
After installing a high-speed camera, Xia Huna finally confirmed the result of the second experiment: he missed completely. Not only did he miss, but he was miles off target.
Xia Huna pondered for a long time. He finally concluded that the missed shot was due to the whirlpool's rotation and speed. For such a problem, one simply needed to aim ahead of time.
Xia Huna quickly had Guagua throw a third Flying Water Shuriken. The high-speed camera clearly showed the Flying Water Shuriken grazing the edge of the crystal before dissipating. Xia Huna retrieved the crystal from the water and, touching its corner, found a scratch.
Based on the experience of attacking the crystal all day yesterday, Xia Huna could tell at a glance that this attack was far more effective than the previous ones. He wasn't sure if the Flying Water Shuriken's damage had increased, or if the whirlpool had reduced the crystal's special defense. But as the old saying goes, "Constant dripping wears away a stone." Water truly had a special effect on all sorts of stones.
Xia Huna then had Guagua throw a few more Flying Water Shurikens. While the accuracy wasn't perfect, he successfully cut off a piece of the crystal.
"Good! It's successfully cut off," Xia Huna exclaimed, clenching his fists in excitement. Guagua was also happy. But when they both went into the water to retrieve the crystal, Xia Huna scratched his head, and Guagua scratched his head too. While a piece was successfully cut, the corner Guagua cut off extended from one side to about a third of the way across to the other. It wasn't possible to create the cross-shaped pure crystal Xia Huna had envisioned. However, if they lowered their standards, they could still try to make a regular pure crystal.
Xia Huna nodded. "Guagua, since that's the case, let's try again. Just make it the size of the pure crystal we saw before."
Xia Huna and Guagua cooperated and attempted another cut. This time, it directly split the crystal in half. It was completely ruined for processing. They couldn't just cut it twice more and glue it back together.
Xia Huna scratched his head. "This won't do. In the whirlpool, I can guess the crystal's position, but once it's hit, it's a different story. The crystal's posture is unstable. What can we do?"
If the whirlpool was too slow, the crystal wouldn't float. But if the whirlpool's rotation speed increased, he wouldn't be able to aim. It was a dilemma.
Xia Huna frowned, but no solution came to mind. Although he tried a few more times, based on the principle of practice makes perfect, none yielded good results.
Xia Huna and Guagua shook the water off their bodies. "Forget it. I think we should rest for a bit. We still have time, so let's go have some afternoon tea."
Xia Huna and Guagua left the swimming pool and returned to the training grounds. They saw Yu Longdu and others gathered around a table, seemingly waiting for something.
Xia Huna walked over and asked, "What are you all waiting for here? You seem so excited."
Yu Longdu had a sly smile on his face. "You know Xiao Rui is here?"
Xia Huna was surprised by this news. "What did you say? Yu Rui is here? Wasn't it supposed to be a secret? How did this happen?"
Meng Tianya explained, "This is because classmate Yu Rui's application has been approved. She's been specially permitted to enter as support staff, serving as a chef."
Yu Longdu chuckled proudly. "How about that, Old Xia? Now it's my turn to show off my affection here."
Xia Huna looked at him and shook his head. "Don't get too smug. If I wanted to bring my girlfriend in, it would only take an excuse. Who knows who will end up teasing whom then."