On this day, amid the bamboo scaffolding of the Illusionary Realm of the Great Void, Li Xiuwen flew out like a cannonball, smashing through section after section of bamboo before plummeting from the fourth floor and landing flat on his back.
His form dispersed and re-formed. He gazed at the vast puddles pooling across the street under the pouring rain.
A nimble energy surged upward from the tips of his toes, like strings on a marionette, weaving into thousands of threads that enveloped his body. With light, deliberate taps of his feet, swift and buoyant as a swallow, he skimmed across the water for over thirty paces without once sinking to the bottom.
"Thousand Waves Drifting Light—it's done."
Within his mind, without him even realizing it, another stick of incense in the burner had burned to ash.
A thicker, larger one sprouted in its place.
[Thousand Waves Drifting Light: Minor Success (1%)]
Li Xiuwen carefully observed the shifts within his body. With the technique reaching minor success, the nimble force rising from the Yongquan acupoints on the soles of his feet became even more concentrated and vigorous. The bottoms of his feet grew slightly hot, and his muscles and sinews flexed and rippled like fins—just like a... shark.
"Flowers in a mirror and the moon in water are empty illusions; once a thousand waves pass, not a trace remains."
"Master said Patriarch Jiulong created Thousand Waves Drifting Light after gaining an epiphany from watching ferocious sharks hunt in the sea."
"Once perfected, not only can one tread on water, but one can also fight submerged like a White Streak in the Waves, without combat strength suffering in the slightest."
"Brother Ji's Bear Mountain Style made him look more and more like a bear..."
"Every gesture of Gaojiao Qi's brings an aquatic bird to mind..."
"Many martial arts in this world truly emulate the forms of living creatures."
Reining in his wandering thoughts, Li Xiuwen tapped the ground and drifted gracefully back up onto the bamboo scaffolding, plunging into battle against Za Jiu once more.
Having reached minor success, that agile energy allowed him to glide across the scaffolding like a ghost. Powerful though Za Jiu's punches were, they could not touch him for quite some time.
It took a full hundred exchanges before Za Jiu managed to slam him into a wall with a palm strike, claiming his life.
"The results are immediate! If I had possessed this kind of movement technique before that alley fight, Za Jiu would've been eating my dust!"
"Seizing an opportunity to trade wound for wound with the Armor-Binding Art, pulling off a counter-kill isn't out of the question either."
Za Jiu's cultivation was indeed higher, but without training in a movement technique, he was not necessarily faster. With Za Jiu's ordinary talent, practicing both fighting and training methods simultaneously stretched him to his absolute limit; how could he have spare energy like Li Xiuwen to practice a movement technique on top of that?
"Keep going. Once I enter Flood Dragon Muscle, when the two gangs clash, I'll fish in troubled waters and strike Za Jiu down!"
***
The next day.
Four Seas Martial Arts Hall.
With light, breezy footsteps, Li Xiuwen headed up toward the second floor.
Watching from below, Huang Sihai asked in a low voice, "Ah Wen, how goes your movement technique?"
Li Xiuwen thought for a second and smiled. "Master, I've reached minor success."
After four months together, he felt Huang Sihai was actually a decent fellow—apart from being greedy for money, he had no major flaws and possessed clear boundaries. Showing a reasonable amount of talent was advantageous for securing resources.
Huang Sihai paused, then chuckled. "Not bad, not bad at all. Less than two months of training, and you've already attained minor success."
"Master, is my progress considered good?" Li Xiuwen asked, feigning ignorance.
Huang Sihai replied calmly, "Mm, pretty... pretty good. Even though both are fighting techniques, movement techniques are slightly harder than fist and foot methods of the same tier. The people on the second floor have far better innate physiques than you, and their comprehension isn't lacking either. Putting aside Ao Jiu, who reached perfection long ago, the fastest learner right now is Lu Yu. She also reached minor success in Thousand Waves Drifting Light in under two months... Though Lu Yu's family background isn't something you can match. When she goes home, she has the family's resident enforcer sparring with her. That's a luxury you don't have. Don't look down on yourself just because you have middling aptitude. In my eyes, you're only... a tiny bit behind those blessed with superior aptitude."
***
Upon reaching the second floor, Li Xiuwen found a partitioned room and began his cultivation.
He retrieved a small porcelain bottle containing four refined fish balls: three gifted by Senior Brother Xiao, and one from the monthly allotment for second-floor disciples.
Li Xiuwen gingerly poured out a single refined fish ball. Milky-white in color, it gave off a foul, fishy stench when brought to the nose.
"What kind of fish does this extraordinary creature look like anyway? Old Huang is always so secretive, and there isn't even a pond in the Walled City. Where on earth does he raise them?"
The moment the milky-white fish ball entered his mouth, it dissolved into a scalding stream of heat plunging straight toward his solar plexus, setting his heart pounding furiously. Throughout every pore and aperture, vitality and blood surged forth, coursing through the eight extraordinary meridians and sweeping through every limb and bone.
Li Xiuwen had only ever felt this sharp prickling sensation the very first time he refined a regular fish ball.
He immediately operated the Sea Sand Stake, smoothing out the violent energy and transforming it into gentle vitality and blood that nourished his flesh, membranes, and skin. Fine, dense granulations of muscle sprouted and multiplied. On his arms, the thick, heavy black sheen flared in abundance, continually compressing, undergoing qualitative transformation, and interweaving with the vitality and blood.
Within the black, a faint red gradually began to show.
Li Xiuwen spent the entire morning maintaining the stake stance, digesting the terrifying medicinal potency.
By noon, his face was flushed an unnatural crimson, his lips trembling. Only after a long while did he finally catch his breath.
[Sea Sand Stake proficiency increased by 9%...]
Li Xiuwen withdrew his consciousness from the incense burner.
"Taking medicine really does feel fantastic... No wonder some prodigies with top-notch innate physiques get addicted. This sensation of unearned gain is far too intoxicating."
The potency of the refined fish ball was formidable indeed.
One had to realize that an ordinary fish ball could not even grant a single percentage point to the current Li Xiuwen—it was barely distinguishable from his own painstaking practice. If the effect had simply been poor, that would be one thing, but thirty percent of the pill's toxicity was still pumped right into his belly without the slightest discount.
Huang Sihai had mentioned that everyone possessed a different constitution, varying willpower, and distinct tolerance for medicinal toxicity.
If medicinal toxicity could be quantified, accumulating one point might be enough to warp some people's temperament, plunging them into the depths of greed, anger, and delusion. For others, the limit might be ten points.
Yet one thing was certain: it was a ticking time bomb. Once it exceeded a critical threshold, it would detonate!
That was why Li Xiuwen had already stopped taking ordinary fish balls.
"In just a few days, the Sea Sand Stake will reach perfection, and I'll be able to attempt the gate."
***
Meanwhile.
Inside a bathhouse on Guangwang Street.
Za Jiu soaked in a hot spring, enjoying the attentive service of two naked women.
"I really don't get what Brother Ming is after with his martial arts. He has such high status and rakes in so much cash, yet he never relaxes for a single day—just trains like his life depends on it."
"Isn't the whole point of practicing martial arts to enjoy life? He's putting the cart before the horse."
A subordinate knocked, walked in, and whispered something with his head bowed. Za Jiu's brow furrowed, and he waved the man away.
"His entire family actually moved near Four Seas Martial Arts Hall? Looks like Huang Sihai genuinely wants to groom the kid. And from a man as stingy as him, no less."
"The kid's innate physique is trash. Just because his comprehension is slightly above average, is he really worth Huang Sihai placing such a bet? Or could he be hiding some other secret?"
***
The following day.
On the second floor of Four Seas Martial Arts Hall, Li Xiuwen and Chen Jia were sparring with palm techniques—both using Flipping Sand Palm.
Chen Jia suppressed his vitality and blood to roughly the same level as Li Xiuwen's, entirely refraining from hard qigong.
Relying purely on palm forms, Li Xiuwen was defeated in under thirty moves.
Looking at the steady, poised Chen Jia, Li Xiuwen felt as though a boundless, surging ocean faintly loomed behind the man.
Recalling Gaojiao Qi's water bird and Xiao Laba's lion-headed great Buddha, Li Xiuwen asked humbly, "Senior Brother, am I hallucinating from training? Why do I feel like there's an ocean rising behind you whenever you execute your palm strikes?"
Chapter 63