High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

The beating of their wings grew slow and labored, and every step forward required tremendous effort. Their once-fluid charge formation now looked like ants trapped in a bog—chaotic and almost comical.

”What... is this?” a Feathered People commander exclaimed in shock from deep within the fortress.

They had never seen an ability like this.

It wasn’t Flame, Sword Qi, or any known form of Energy attack. It was a more fundamental suppression, something closer to the level of the Rules themselves.

Xu Wuyi, of course, had no intention of explaining.

He strode forward, his Quicksand Step Body Technique making him a phantom on the battlefield as he arrived at the fortress entrance.

He thrust his long spear.

There were no flashy Techniques, just the simplest of straight thrusts.

But empowered by the Gravity Field, the spear’s speed was extreme, its weight immense.

The spear’s tip pierced the chest of the first Feathered Warrior. Dark gold Flame erupted from within, instantly incinerating him.

Xu Wuyi withdrew his spear and swept it wide. The Gravity Field distorted wherever the shaft passed, crushing the bones of five nearby warriors and making them vomit blood.

He moved through them as if unopposed.

The combination of Gravity Manipulation and his Spear Technique created a marvelous chemical reaction.

Every thrust created a miniature ”gravitational collapse” just ahead of the spear’s tip, actively ”sucking” enemies onto it.

Every sweep produced a zone of ”gravitational turbulence” around the spear’s shaft, distorting his enemies’ movements and creating openings in their defense.

Combined with the phantom-like movements of his Quicksand Step, Xu Wuyi wove through the flock of Feathered People. Flesh and blood flew in his wake.

In just thirty seconds, over a hundred Feathered Warriors had fallen to his spear.

While his kill rate wasn’t quite as high as it would be if he directly used Golden Crow Burning Heart, it wasn’t much slower. He was far more effective than any other Martial Artist at his level.

The Gravity Field had ensnared all his enemies, leaving these low-level warriors with no means of escape. They could only watch helplessly as he continued his slaughter.

Against anyone else, even a Quasi-Grandmaster, the Feathered People could at least flee if they were outmatched. An entire force of a thousand wouldn’t be trapped for an instant slaughter.

The commander inside the fortress could finally take no more.

”Second and third squads, deploy! Kill him, no matter the cost!”

More Feathered Warriors surged from deep within the fortress. This time, they abandoned their formation and spread out, surrounding Xu Wuyi from all sides.

At the same time, the Priests hidden in the shadows began to chant.

Pale blue threads of Energy wove through the air, forming a complex arcane diagram. At its center, a single point of dark violet light began to glow.

”It’s the Heart-Eroding Curse,” Lu Wenquan’s voice came over the comms, tinged with gravity. ”The signature Spiritual Attack of the Feathered Priest Corps. It’s designed to target the Power of Heart Image. Wuyi, be careful!”

Xu Wuyi glanced up at the arcane diagram.

He could feel the spiritual fluctuations emanating from it. They were intensely corrosive, like countless fine needles trying to pierce the defenses of his sea of consciousness.

Previously, he might have chosen to evade it.

But now...

He wanted to test whether his newfound understanding of the Gravity Rules could be applied on a spiritual level.

The Power of his Heart Image circulated, and within his sea of consciousness, the Dark Gold Mountain Body glowed with an earthy yellow light. He extended the concept of ”Gravity” from the physical plane to the spiritual one.

’If ”weight” can suppress the body,’ he thought, ’then ”heaviness” should be able to suppress the Spirit.’

Xu Wuyi closed his eyes, concentrating all the Power of his Heart Image on the defenses of his sea of consciousness.

He wasn’t constructing a barrier, but ”adding weight.”

He projected the concept of ”heaviness” onto the outer layer of his Heart Image, making the entire thing ”heavier,” like a towering mountain—indestructible and immovable.

The violet light at the diagram’s center finally finished gathering, transforming into a beam as thin as a hair and shooting toward the space between Xu Wuyi’s eyebrows.

The beam struck its target.

And then... it vanished.

Like a drop of water falling into the ocean, it didn’t even cause a ripple.

Deep within the fortress, the three Priests conducting the ritual simultaneously coughed up blood, their eyes filled with utter disbelief.

”Impossible... The Heart-Eroding Curse... was absorbed?”

Not blocked, not deflected, but absorbed.

Like a mountain absorbing a gentle breeze, or an ocean absorbing a single drop of water.

Xu Wuyi opened his eyes, a flash of understanding in his dark gold pupils.

’So that’s it. A conflict between the Powers of Heart Images is, at its core, a battle of perception and will.’

’As long as your ”perception” of yourself is firm enough—”heavy” enough—then any external Spiritual Attack will be crushed and absorbed by that ”weight.”’

”My turn.”

He looked up at the three Priests, and a thought crossed his mind.

The Gravity Field changed.

It wasn’t targeting their bodies, but their Spirits.

He projected the concept of ”heaviness” in reverse, mapping it onto the Heart Images of the three Priests.

The three Priests collapsed to their knees, clutching their heads and letting out bloodcurdling screams.

They felt their thoughts suddenly become incredibly heavy. Every single idea was like dragging a boulder, and every memory felt as if it were filled with lead.

Their consciousness began to crumble, and their Spiritual Power dissipated uncontrollably.

Three seconds later, all three stopped breathing and died.

Gravitational crushing on the spiritual plane was even deadlier than on the physical one.

The Feathered Warriors in the fortress were utterly terrified.

Flame couldn’t kill him, curses couldn’t harm him, and he even turned their own Spiritual Attack back against them.

’How are we supposed to fight this?’

”Retreat! Fall back into the fortress! Activate the shields at maximum power!”

The commander’s hysterical roar echoed across the battlefield, amplified by some spell.

As if granted a great pardon, the Feathered Warriors scrambled into the air, fleeing toward the fortress entrance.

But Xu Wuyi wasn’t about to give them that chance.

His Heart Image’s perception locked on, and the Gravity Field shifted once more.

This time, it was ”attraction.”

He amplified the concept of ”Earth Gravity,” projecting it onto the space around the fortress entrance.

The Feathered Warriors trying to flee into the fortress felt a terrifying pull from behind, as if an invisible giant hand were dragging them back.

Their movements slowed once more.

Seizing the opportunity, Xu Wuyi swept his Liaoyuan Long Spear.

Dark gold Flame spread along the Spear Momentum, becoming an arcing wave of fire that engulfed over thirty Feathered Warriors simultaneously.

Screams rose one after another.

The sea outside the fortress had become an Asura Field.

Charred corpses floated on the water’s surface, still burning with dark gold Flame. The air was thick with the foul stench of scorched flesh and blood.

Xu Wuyi stood with his spear, his chest rising and falling slightly.

The continuous, high-intensity battle had consumed nearly forty percent of his Power of Heart Image.

But the results were significant. Over four hundred Feathered Warriors had been killed, three Priests were dead, and the outer defenses were almost completely destroyed.

And all of it had taken less than five minutes.

”Nice work, kid!”

Tie Zhan’s booming laughter echoed from high above.

He was locked in a fierce battle with two Feathered People Second Kings. Every swing of his warhammer carried the power to shatter mountains and crack stone, forcing them into constant retreat.

The greatest advantage of the Feathered People was their ability to fly, but at the Innate level, the weakness of their individual combat power was exposed.