High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

”Your Water Drop compresses ’heaviness,’ but where does that ’heaviness’ come from? Is it the ’heaviness’ from your Heart Image, or your own understanding of the concept?”

”And the suppression of the Returning Ruins Seal—does it suppress form, or Intention? If it’s Intention, how do you make that Intention ’alive,’ rather than an inanimate object?”

Liang Sixian’s questions came one after another, forcing Xu Wuyi to constantly dig deeper into his own understanding.

After each conversation, he would return to the Cultivation Room, his mind buzzing with thoughts, and practice his revisions again and again.

In the afternoons, he would return to the side of the pool, not for Visualization, but for Cultivation.

He alternated between Water Drop and the Returning Ruins Seal.

Cultivating by the cold pool had a peculiar effect.

The settled spiritual imprints there felt like silent ’examiners.’ With every execution of his techniques, Xu Wuyi could vaguely sense invisible ’gazes’ scrutinizing his Martial Arts.

He could feel where his form wasn’t fluid enough, where there was still stagnation, where his Mental Realm was lacking... The feelings were faint, but they were real.

In this environment, his rate of progress far exceeded the usual.

More importantly, the twice-daily moments of ”Enlightenment” were especially effective during these three days.

On the Martial Arts Diligence Record’s interface, the proficiency for Water Drop and the Returning Ruins Seal rose steadily, but Xu Wuyi was more concerned with comprehending the essence of his Heart Image.

He was, in fact, using the state of Enlightenment to help himself better grasp his Heart Image.

Each Enlightenment allowed him to see the relationship between ’heaviness’ and ’life’ a little more clearly.

On the morning of the fourth day, after finishing his Visualization, Xu Wuyi did not immediately leave the side of the pool.

He stood on a rock, his brow slightly furrowed as he stared at the calm surface of the pool.

After three days, he had a vague inkling of the problem.

’I’ve been too fixated on ’combining motion and stillness’.’

The moment this thought surfaced, understanding dawned on Xu Wuyi.

He had always believed ’heaviness’ was stillness and ’life’ was motion. Therefore, he needed to ’combine motion and stillness’ to give his Heavy Water both the Trait of sinking and the vitality of flow.

But his insights over the past three days told him that the ’combination of motion and stillness’ was, in itself, merely an abstract concept.

A true ’combination’ didn’t necessarily mean the intermingling of absolute ’stillness’ and absolute ’motion’.

It was like this cold pool: its surface was perfectly still, yet deep below, there were undercurrents. And though the undercurrents moved, the pool as a whole maintained an absolute ’stillness’.

This was a higher level of harmony.

’I’ve been pursuing ’life’ within ’heaviness’ and ’heaviness’ within ’life,’ but maybe... I should try a different approach.’

Xu Wuyi took a deep breath, having made his decision.

For the next three days, he would practice only Water Drop.

It wasn’t that the Returning Ruins Seal was inferior, but that the Traits of Water Drop were closer to the path he wanted to test.

Extreme Compression, extreme ’heaviness.’ How could ’life’ manifest within that extremity?

On the first day, Xu Wuyi trained from dawn until deep into the night.

To an outsider, the Cultivation of Water Drop would seem mind-numbingly dull.

It was nothing more than an endless cycle of condensing, compressing, maintaining, and dissipating, only to begin anew.

But Xu Wuyi was completely absorbed.

He no longer deliberately tried to ’imbue’ the Water Drop with the trait of ’life.’ Instead, he focused on the Compression itself, immersing his Heart and Spirit completely into the Mental Realm of ’heaviness’.

After a hundred rounds of Cultivation, he triggered an Enlightenment.

During the Enlightenment, all the details of his past Cultivation surfaced and collided in his mind.

Xu Wuyi suddenly realized his previous understanding of ’life’ had been too superficial.

’Life’ isn’t about flow or change... It’s about ’existence’ itself.

’A drop of water, so long as it exists, has its own ’state’ of being. This state can be stillness, flow, evaporation, or freezing.’

’And for his Heavy Water, its ’state’ of being is ’heaviness’.’

’So, where is the ’life’?’

’It’s in the *change* of ’heaviness’.’

’Weight isn’t constant. It can increase or decrease, be concentrated or dispersed. Aided by a Heart Image, changing a substance’s mass is a natural consequence.’

’And this ’change’ *is* ’life’.’

As he came to this realization, the dark-golden marsh in his sea of consciousness trembled slightly.

On the second day, Xu Wuyi continued.

The number of his repetitions increased from one hundred to two hundred, then three hundred.

Practicing over and over, he focused all his attention on a single point: the ’change in weight’.

During Compression, the weight increased.

During maintenance, the weight remained constant.

Upon release, the weight exploded outward.

In every phase, the weight was ’changing,’ and this change itself was the manifestation of ’life’.

By evening, Xu Wuyi had completed seven hundred repetitions.

Beads of sweat dripped from his temples and his breathing was a bit ragged, but his eyes only grew brighter.

He felt he was on the verge of grasping something.

「On the morning of the third day.」

Instead of going to the pool for his usual Visualization, Xu Wuyi went straight to the Cultivation Room and sat down cross-legged.

The Martial Arts Diligence Record hovered in his sea of consciousness.

He glanced at his proficiency with Water Drop: Minor Achievement (87.3%).

’Still a little more to go.’

But Xu Wuyi wasn’t anxious.

He closed his eyes and began his Cultivation.

Once, twice, ten times, fifty times...

His movements were precise, his Heart and Spirit focused. He strove for perfection with every single Compression.

Upon completing the one hundredth repetition, Enlightenment descended.

A cool torrent swept through his consciousness, integrating the insights from his hundreds of previous repetitions.

His proficiency with Water Drop jumped to Minor Achievement (92.1%).

Xu Wuyi didn’t pause. He continued.

Two hundred times, three hundred, five hundred...

The tedious repetition was a huge drain on his Heart and Spirit, but his movements remained flawless.

Seven hundred times, eight hundred, nine hundred...

Sweat soaked through his clothes and his breathing was as heavy as a bellows, but Xu Wuyi’s gaze was as clear as the surface of the pool.

He could feel it—he was just one step away from the tipping point.

The one-thousandth repetition.

The moment the final Compression cycle completed, ancient characters slowly materialized in his sea of consciousness:

[Today’s effective Cultivation has reached one thousand repetitions]

[Thick Accumulation and Thin Emission. Today’s effective Cultivation has reached one thousand repetitions. You have obtained one ’Great Enlightenment’.]

’It’s here!’

Xu Wuyi’s Spirit surged.

The next moment, a torrent of insight—far more vast and majestic than any ’Enlightenment’—crashed into his consciousness!

This wasn’t a simple improvement in skill, nor a deepening of some partial understanding. It was a complete re-evaluation of the entire Water Drop Martial Arts, and even the very essence of the Heavy Water Heart Image!

All his past confusion, his trials, his errors, and his corrections—at this moment, they all connected, forming a single, clear thread of understanding.

’Heaviness’ is the essence.

’Life’ is change.

’And the manifestation of that change lies in the fluctuation of ’weight’.’

’Why must Heavy Water ’flow’? Why must I pursue ’motion’ in its form?’

’True ’life’ is an internal, essential ’vitality’.’

’A single drop of water can be as heavy as a mountain or as light as a feather. This very variability of ’weight’ is its greatest ’life’!’

The instant this realization dawned, the dark-golden marsh in his sea of consciousness thundered and quaked!