High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

She glanced at the time. ”Let’s stop here for today. The academy has arranged accommodations for you in the instructors’ apartment area.”

”Over the next few days, you can come find me to talk anytime, or you can check out the academy’s library and Cultivation Areas. Black Stone Academy’s style is different from Star Martial’s, but it has its own unique strengths.”

Xu Wuyi stood up. ”Then I’ll be imposing on you.”

Fang Fu walked him to the door and handed him a key card. ”This is a temporary access pass, valid for three months. You can go to most areas, but a few confidential locations require a separate application.”

”Understood.”

After leaving the Meditation Room, Xu Wuyi stood in the hallway for a moment, digesting their conversation.

Fang Fu didn’t say much, but every word cut right to the heart of the matter. Her ”Static Water” Heart Image, that Realm of unity between internal and external, of balance between motion and stillness, had opened up new avenues of thought for him.

’Heavy Water... does it need to flow, too...’

He murmured to himself as he walked toward the elevator.

Outside the window, the sky of the Northern Lands had already darkened. The academy’s lights began to turn on one by one, casting a warm glow in the cold night.

「...」

The residence Chen Zhang had arranged for Xu Wuyi was located in the instructors’ apartment area on the west side of Black Stone Academy.

It was a detached, two-story stone house. The exterior walls were made of the dark gray basalt common in the Northern Lands, and the roof was covered in a thick layer of snow.

The interior was fully furnished, with a heating system that kept the temperature at a pleasant twenty degrees Celsius, a stark contrast to the world of ice and snow outside the window.

Xu Wuyi put down his simple luggage and walked to the window.

Although it was July, a light snow was drifting outside. The flakes weren’t large, but they were dense, silently blanketing the stone path and pine trees in the courtyard.

Night came early in the Northern Lands. It was only five in the afternoon, but the sky was already completely dark. Only the distant lights from the academic buildings and dormitories diffused into warm, yellow halos in the snowy curtain.

He found this cold, quiet, and heavy atmosphere very comfortable.

The *Hundred Refinements Melting Furnace* technique operated on its own, and his Qi and Blood slowly circulated through his body, resisting the chill seeping in from the window.

In his sea of consciousness, the great, dark-gold lake was calm and waveless. The Golden Crow Illusion floated above it, the flame runes on its feathers faintly shimmering.

’Heavy Water... flow...’

Xu Wuyi mulled over Fang Fu’s words as he sat cross-legged by the window.

He didn’t deliberately activate his Heart Image. Instead, he simply let his consciousness sink into his sea of consciousness and quietly observe the great, dark-gold lake.

In the past, his focus had always been on ”heaviness”—how to make the great lake heavier, how to make the Gravity Rules more condensed. But now, he tried to look at it from a different angle.

Was the great lake truly still?

Observing closely, he discovered that it wasn’t.

The dark-gold ”water” wasn’t a dead thing; it was flowing, albeit with extreme slowness.

It wasn’t the flow of a surging river, but a deeper, more hidden surge, like the movement of tectonic plates, like magma churning deep beneath the earth.

It was just that this flow was masked by its ”heavy” Trait, making it seem too slow, too restrained.

’External Calm and Internal Movement...’ A spark of understanding lit up in Xu Wuyi’s mind.

Perhaps his Heavy Water Heart Image shouldn’t blindly pursue superficial ”stillness.” While maintaining the essence of ”heaviness,” he should also allow the internal ”motion” to become more active, more orderly.

Just like Fang Fu’s Static Water, calm as a mirror on the surface, but with raging undercurrents within.

As he came to this realization, the great lake in his sea of consciousness suddenly rippled.

It was a very slight ripple, but it caused Xu Wuyi’s Spirit to jolt.

’This is the right direction.’

He didn’t rush to achieve results. Instead, he slowly withdrew from his Introspection and stood up to stretch his slightly stiff limbs.

The Cultivation Room was on the first floor. It wasn’t large, but it was big enough.

Xu Wuyi briefly tested the strength of the walls. Black Stone Academy had clearly considered the needs of Martial Artists when preparing the instructors’ apartments; the wall material could withstand the normal Cultivation fluctuations of an Innate Martial Artist.

He nodded in satisfaction and went downstairs to the kitchen.

The refrigerator was already stocked with ingredients characteristic of the Northern Lands: dried meat jerky, durable root vegetables, hard cheeses, and several bottles of strong liquor from the region.

Xu Wuyi had the smart assistant prepare a simple pot of meat broth, which he ate with a warmed naan-like flatbread until his body was thoroughly warmed up.

After his meal, he opened his personal terminal to check his access permissions on Black Stone Academy’s internal network.

The temporary pass granted him access to most areas, including the library, recordings of public lectures, and the ability to reserve spots in some of the Cultivation Areas.

Xu Wuyi browsed for a while and found that Black Stone Academy’s Martial Arts System was indeed unique, especially its proficiency in Spirit-related Techniques.

And Spirit-related Techniques were, in essence, Techniques developed specifically for Heart Images.

This was why members of Black Stone Academy often had the highest promotion rate to the Innate realm.

’I can check out the library tomorrow,’ he thought.

「...」

For the next three days, Xu Wuyi’s life was disciplined and fulfilling.

He woke at six in the morning to practice a set of Basic Spear Technique in the courtyard.

The cold air of the Northern Lands had a special effect on the Refinement of Qi and Blood. Every time he finished, steam would rise from his body, and his Qi and Blood would be exceptionally active.

In the mornings, he went to the library to read through Black Stone Academy’s collection of Martial Arts manuals and cultivators’ notes.

He mainly focused on texts related to ”heaviness,” ”water,” and ”the balance of motion and stillness.” Although most of the content was too elementary for him, he would occasionally discover some unique perspectives and ideas.

In the afternoons, he would go to the academy’s public Cultivation Area and rent a quiet room to contemplate his Heart Image.

He spoke with Fang Fu every other day. The successor of the Static Water lineage didn’t speak much, but every conversation hit right on the mark.

Xu Wuyi would demonstrate his new understanding of the flow of Heavy Water, and Fang Fu would offer suggestions for adjustment from the perspective of ”stillness.”

”Your flow is still too ’deliberate’,” Fang Fu said, her observation piercingly accurate during their third meeting. ”You are actively forcing the great lake to flow. It’s like stirring a lake with your hand. It seems to move, but you’re actually destroying the water’s natural rhythm.”

A ball of pale blue water condensed in her palm once again. ”True flow is spontaneous and free. What you need to do is not ’make’ it move, but ’allow’ it to move.”

Xu Wuyi carefully sensed the perfectly natural flow within the ball of water, and a new understanding dawned on him.

”I’ll try.”

He closed his eyes, and in his sea of consciousness, the great, dark-gold lake began to ripple slowly.

This time, he didn’t deliberately guide it. He just relaxed his Heart and Spirit, withdrew all artificial interference, and allowed the Heart Image to manifest naturally.

At first, the great lake remained slow and heavy.

But gradually, within that ultimate ”stillness” and ”heaviness,” a deeper rhythm began to emerge.

It was a rhythm like the pulse of the Earth, the path of telluric fire flowing beneath layers of rock, the most fundamental way all things move under the pull of Gravity.

The great, dark-gold lake began to flow.

It wasn’t a surface of surging waves, but a slow, firm, and unstoppable surge from its very core.

Every drop of ”Heavy Water” moved along a profound trajectory, pulling on and resonating with one another, forming a vast and intricate whole.