Chapter 553: "Water Drop" Great Success
The entire great swamp began to "breathe" with an unprecedented rhythm.
It wasn’t Xu Wuyi controlling its breath; the swamp itself had spontaneously begun to contract and expand.
And with each breath, the "weight" of the great swamp was also changing in a subtle way!
When it contracted, its weight condensed, and the heavy Intention deepened.
When it expanded, its weight dispersed, and the heavy Intention lessened slightly.
Although the magnitude of the change was small, the change itself was real!
Xu Wuyi opened his eyes and made a grasping motion with his hand.
A dark-gold Water Drop the size of a needle’s tip condensed above his palm.
But unlike before, this time, the "weight" of the Water Drop was not constant after it formed.
It fluctuated slightly with Xu Wuyi’s breathing.
When he exhaled, its weight increased by a fraction.
When he inhaled, its weight decreased by a fraction.
Though the change was minuscule, Xu Wuyi could clearly feel that his Heavy Water had truly come "alive."
Not alive in form, but alive in essence.
From now on, his Heavy Water swamp would "breathe" on its own, its "weight" changing naturally with it.
This change would become the most elusive variable in his Martial Arts.
At the window of the wooden house.
Liang Sixian and Fang Fu stood side by side, their gazes crossing the courtyard to rest on the closed door of the Cultivation Room.
From early morning until now, Xu Wuyi had been inside for a full sixteen hours.
Aside from someone delivering food and water, he had barely come out.
"What is he trying to break through?" Fang Fu asked softly.
"He’s not breaking through a Realm," Liang Sixian said, her gaze calm. "He’s using his Cultivation to comprehend the essence of his Heart Image."
She paused, a trace of approval flashing in her eyes.
"Three days ago, he realized he was fixated on the superficial aspect of ’combining motion and stillness.’ So he shifted his focus to the *Water Drop* technique, hoping to find the True Intention of ’life’ within the ultimate ’heaviness’."
"And now... I believe he’s close to finding it."
Fang Fu was silent for a moment before suddenly asking, "Master, do you think he can succeed?"
"He already has," Liang Sixian said slowly.
Fang Fu was stunned.
Liang Sixian looked toward the Cultivation Room, as if her gaze could pierce the walls and see the young man inside, drenched in sweat yet with eyes that remained clear and bright.
"His aura is changing. It’s very faint, but that ’living’ rhythm has already begun to emerge."
She withdrew her gaze and looked at Fang Fu.
"Do you know why the Federation calls him the number one Genius in a century?"
Fang Fu shook her head.
"It’s not just because his Cultivation is fast, nor is it just because his combat strength is high," Liang Sixian said softly. "It’s because he possesses a true Martial Arts Heart."
"He can quiet his mind, endure solitude, and search for that single spark of insight amidst endless, tedious repetition."
"That kind of Diligence, that kind of focus, is rarer than talent."
Fang Fu fell silent.
She recalled her own past, performing Visualization by the cold pond, sitting for long hours day after day.
But she doubted she could match Xu Wuyi’s decisiveness—to throw himself into it completely once he had a clear direction, hammering at the bottleneck with hundreds, even thousands, of Cultivation repetitions.
"Let’s go," Liang Sixian said, turning away. "Let him continue. By tomorrow, he should have a new insight to share with us."
The two of them left the window.
The courtyard returned to silence, with only the faint sound of long, steady breaths coming from the distant Cultivation Room.
...
「The next morning, at the crack of dawn.」
Inside the Cultivation Room, Xu Wuyi slowly opened his eyes.
After a night of quiet meditation, the dark-gold great swamp in his sea of consciousness had completely transformed.
If the great swamp before was "dead water that could breathe," barely alive, then now, the great swamp itself *was* living.
Each contraction and expansion was not just a change in form, but a fluctuation in its essential weight.
That "living" rhythm was now deeply imprinted on the core of his Heart Image.
Xu Wuyi raised his hand.
With a flicker of his thoughts, a dark-gold Water Drop the size of a needle’s tip condensed on his fingertip.
He didn’t deliberately compress it; it formed naturally. The Water Drop hovered, its weight fluctuating subtly with the rhythm of his breath.
On his exhale, it was heavy as a mountain.
On his inhale, it was light as a feather.
Although the range of change was only perceptible to him, it meant his understanding and control over "heaviness" had reached an entirely new level.
’This is... Great Success?’
Xu Wuyi gazed at the Water Drop on his fingertip, a realization dawning in his mind.
As his "Heavy Water Great Swamp" Heart Image reached Great Success, it brought his *Water Drop* technique along with it, catapulting it into the Great Success Realm and surpassing his *Returning Ruins Seal*.
And for the *Water Drop* Martial Arts, advancing from Minor Achievement to Great Success wasn’t just an increase in the compression ratio, but a deepening of the fundamental concept of "heaviness."
At Minor Achievement, he could compress Heavy Water, making a single drop as heavy as a mountain.
At Great Success, he had brought "heaviness" itself to life. Its weight was no longer a fixed value, but a variable that could fluctuate with his will.
And this was the change brought about by just one Martial Art, the *Water Drop*.
Xu Wuyi’s thoughts shifted again.
The Water Drop on his fingertip dissipated, and he brought his hands together in front of his chest.
An illusion of the dark-gold great swamp appeared behind him as a Returning Ruins Seal, half a meter on each side, slowly took shape.
The Seal Platform was simple and ancient, with a flat base and the silhouette of the Golden Crow on top, now thirty percent clearer than before.
But this time, the moment the Seal Platform condensed, a suppressive Intention naturally radiated from it!
It wasn’t something Xu Wuyi actively released; it was the Mental Realm of "heaviness" inherent to the Seal Platform itself, radiating spontaneously in time with his breathing rhythm.
After the Transformation of his Heart Image, the power of the *Returning Ruins Seal* had also grown stronger.
The floor of the Cultivation Room let out a faint groan, and the air within a five-meter radius around Xu Wuyi became as thick as glue.
Xu Wuyi could feel that the "weight" of this Seal Platform was also fluctuating.
When it contracted, the suppressive Intention condensed like iron.
When it expanded, the suppressive Intention spread out like a net.
The two alternated, creating a more complex and elusive suppressive effect.
’The *Returning Ruins Seal* is also close to Great Success.’
Xu Wuyi withdrew the Power of his Heart Image. The Seal Platform dissipated, and the Cultivation Room returned to normal.
He stood up and stretched his slightly stiff limbs.
After a night of quiet meditation, his body was tired, but his Spirit was exceptionally clear.
In his sea of consciousness, the dark-gold great swamp breathed steadily. The Golden Crow Illusion hovered over its center, the Flames on its feathers burning quietly.
But Xu Wuyi could clearly feel the "gap" between the two.
The Heavy Water aspect, after these few days of comprehension by the cold pond, had reached an unprecedented height.
Its "living" rhythm and the fluid changes in its weight made the might and Mental Realm of the Heavy Water surpass that of the Golden Crow.
And the Golden Crow aspect, although it was also growing, seemed to be "lagging behind" compared to the completely transformed Heavy Water.
This was the first time since Xu Wuyi had made achievements with his Heart Image that the Golden Crow part, representing "Flame," had fallen behind.
’First, I’ll go see Grandmaster Liang.’
Xu Wuyi washed up, changed his clothes, and pushed open the door of the Cultivation Room.
The Cold Pond Courtyard was exceptionally quiet in the early morning. The pond’s surface was like a mirror, reflecting the gray-white sky.