High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

The Golden Crow Illusion let out a long cry, and the flames scattering from its twin wings merged into the heart of the great marsh like a rain of stars.

At that moment, the breathing rhythm of the entire great marsh reached an unprecedented level of coordination and unity. The amplitude of its contractions and expansions doubled!

HUMMM—

Xu Wuyi opened his eyes, raising a hand and making a grasping motion in the air.

Above his palm, a fist-sized, dark-gold sphere of water rapidly condensed and took form.

The sphere’s surface was as smooth as a mirror, and the undercurrents swirling inside were nearly fifty percent faster than before. Its dense, heavy quality, which felt as if it could collapse space itself, had reached a new height.

’Compression ratio...’ Xu Wuyi perceived the changes in his sea of consciousness and understood. ’Twenty percent.’

’A breakthrough, at last.’

This meant he could now take the Heavy Water from one-fifth of his great marsh and compress it to its limit into a single sphere.

The Mental Realm of ”heaviness” contained within each unit of volume was several times greater than before.

More importantly, after reaching the critical point of twenty percent, he felt that the Heavy Water’s compression had triggered some kind of qualitative change.

The undercurrents inside the sphere no longer just swirled; they had begun to form a miniature, self-sustaining Energy circulation structure, which greatly increased the stability of its compressed state.

’The duration has increased from the previous ten seconds to about thirty.’ Xu Wuyi dissipated the sphere of water, assessing the changes. ’And it’s easier to control. The load on my Heart and Spirit has been reduced by twenty percent.’

He immediately contacted Ye Guanlan.

「Half an hour later.」

The two met in the laboratory.

Ye Guanlan pulled up the latest monitoring data and quickly scanned it, a look of satisfaction in his eyes.

”A 20% compression ratio, 42% increase in Energy structure stability, 21% reduction in the load on your Heart and Spirit, and a duration extended to 32 seconds.” He looked at Xu Wuyi.

”The basic framework is nearing perfection. Now we can start considering specific forms for combat application.”

”Specific forms?” Xu Wuyi asked.

”Yes.” Ye Guanlan brought up a three-dimensional simulation interface, displaying the data model of the dark-gold sphere of water.

”Your ’Heavy Water Sphere’ is, in essence, a high-density compressed body of Energy. Its core Trait is ’extreme heaviness.’ But in actual combat, this heaviness can manifest in two different lethal modes.”

He manipulated the model, and the sphere of water began to change.

”The first is to push the Trait of ’heaviness’ to its absolute limit through continued Compression.”

The sphere in the model rapidly shrank, going from the size of a fist to an egg, then to a walnut. Finally, it condensed into a single, nearly transparent, dark-gold Water Drop.

That Water Drop hovered in the center of the holographic screen, the surrounding data streams jumping wildly, displaying the terrifying Energy density within.

”If you were to compress the Heavy Water from twenty percent of the great marsh down to the volume of a single drop...” Ye Guanlan said slowly.

”Then the ’heaviness’ of that single drop would reach an inconceivable level. It wouldn’t explode or disperse. It would simply ’fall’ in the purest way possible.”

”Imagine a drop of water heavier than the core of a star, falling from high above and piercing straight through its target.”

”Any defense would be as fragile as paper before it, because it relies not on impact force or an Energy burst, but only on the most fundamental ’weight’ to crush and penetrate.”

Xu Wuyi stared at the model of the Water Drop, the scene playing out in his mind.

’Extreme Compression, extreme heaviness, extreme penetration.’

”This form of attack is suited for single targets with high defense, or for critical nodes that require a precision kill,” Ye Guanlan summarized. ”One strike to pierce through anything.”

He switched the model.

The sphere of water no longer compressed; instead, it began to deform and extend.

It gradually elongated and flattened from its spherical shape, finally forming a square, dark-gold Seal Platform about a meter to a side.

The bottom of the Seal Platform was flat, with ancient-looking patterns flowing around its sides. On top, a vague, beast-shaped illusion coiled indistinctly—a natural manifestation of the Golden Crow’s Mental Realm.

”The second approach is the opposite,” Ye Guanlan explained. ”Instead of pursuing ultimate point-piercing power, you disperse the ’heaviness’ over a relatively large area to create area-of-effect suppression and crushing.”

”It’s like smashing someone with a mountain. It might not be able to pierce armor like a needle, but it’s more than enough to crush the armor and the person inside into a paste.”

He enlarged the Seal Platform model. ”We designed this form in the shape of a ’seal’ for several reasons. First, the flat bottom provides a large contact surface, maximizing its area-suppression effect.”

”Second, the form of a seal itself carries the imagery of ’authority’ and ’suppression,’ which naturally complements the ’heavy’ and ’stable’ Traits of your Heavy Water Heart Image. Third, by incorporating the silhouette of the Golden Crow Illusion into the seal, we can try to draw out a trace of the Power of Heart Fire, adding a burning effect on top of the suppression.”

Xu Wuyi looked at the dark-gold Seal Platform, imagining the power it would unleash as it smashed down from the sky.

’Not speed, not finesse. Just pure power, pure weight, crushing everything in the most domineering way possible.’

”Both of these forms are essentially variant applications of the ’Heavy Water Sphere,’ but their development paths are completely different.” Ye Guanlan closed the model and looked at Xu Wuyi.

”You can try both, or you can choose one to specialize in. Based on the data simulations, the power of both forms has met, and even exceeded, our expectations.”

Xu Wuyi was silent for a moment.

In his sea of consciousness, the dark-gold great marsh breathed slowly, the Golden Crow Illusion rising and falling within it.

”I’ll take them both,” he said.

Ye Guanlan wasn’t surprised. ”That’s fine, but it will require more time. The research institute will optimize the Energy architecture for both forms, but that means you’ll have to master two different sets of power-generation techniques and Heart Image control methods.”

”No problem.” Xu Wuyi’s tone was calm. ”I have time.”

Ye Guanlan smiled. ”I knew you’d say that. Then the project’s direction is set. We’ll divide it into two sub-Martial Arts, both under the ’Heavy Water Sphere’ system. You can give them names.”

”The former can be called ’Water Drop,’ and the latter... how about ’Returning Ruins Seal’?”

”’Water Drop’... ’Returning Ruins Seal’...” Ye Guanlan repeated the two names and nodded. ”Guixu, the place where the waters of the eight directions converge. Very fitting.”

Water Drop: infinitesimally small yet supremely heavy, piercing through all methods.

Returning Ruins Seal: suppressing the eight poles, annihilating all foes.

...

「For the next ten days.」

The pace of Xu Wuyi’s life quickened once again.

In the mornings, he entered the virtual intranet to practice the condensation, control, and release of ’Water Drop’ and ’Returning Ruins Seal’.

The difficulty with ’Water Drop’ lay in its extreme Compression and control.

To compress the Heavy Water from twenty percent of the great marsh down to the volume of a single drop required control over his Heart and Spirit with pinpoint precision, as well as a deeper understanding of the Gravity Rules.

In his first few attempts, Xu Wuyi either failed to compress it enough, or the resulting Water Drop was so unstable that it would dissipate on its own in less than a second.

But with Ye Guanlan’s guidance and the auxiliary models from the research institute, he progressed quickly.