Chapter 547: Minor Achievement
When the twelfth second passed, the rice-grain-sized droplet trembled slightly, then dissipated, transforming back into the formless Power of Heart Image and returning to his sea of consciousness.
The first attempt was over.
He didn’t pause, immediately beginning the second.
Compression, condensation, maintenance, dissipation.
And again.
A third time, a fourth, a fifth...
Each complete cycle was judged by the Martial Arts Diligence Record as one session of "effective Cultivation."
Xu Wuyi was completely immersed in his Cultivation. When he completed the one-hundredth Compression, a familiar, cool torrent once again swept through his consciousness.
[Effective Cultivation sessions today have reached one hundred. You have gained one "Enlightenment".]
All the details from the past hundred Cultivation sessions surfaced, collided, and reassembled.
Many key points that would have originally required repeated trial and error to grasp were now suddenly clear.
The Enlightenment lasted for about eight minutes.
When Xu Wuyi opened his eyes again, the data on the Bronze Ancient Volume in his sea of consciousness had been updated:
[Martial Art: Water Drop]
[Current Realm: Entry Level (31.7%)]
[Martial Arts Traits: Infinitesimally small, infinitely heavy; pierces all things.]
[Martial Art: Returning Ruins Seal]
[Current Realm: Entry Level (32.3%)]
[Martial Arts Traits: Seals the eight extremes, crushes all foes.]
A single Enlightenment had increased his proficiency in both Martial Arts by over 30%.
"As expected."
Xu Wuyi understood completely.
These two Martial Arts were born from his own Heart Image, making them a perfect fit for him. Combined with the research institute’s preliminary optimizations, the bottlenecks of the Entry Level stage were practically nonexistent.
As long as he completed enough standard Cultivation sessions to trigger an Enlightenment, he could advance at incredible speed.
Moreover, since both Martial Arts stemmed from the same source, a single Enlightenment benefited them both.
"I’ll continue."
Xu Wuyi didn’t leave the virtual environment. He simply regulated his breathing for a moment before immersing himself in Cultivation once more.
One hundred effective Cultivation sessions triggered one Enlightenment.
Although he could only trigger it once per day for the same Martial Art, he was now advancing on two fronts, and the two Martial Arts happened to complement each other.
...
Time flew by as he cultivated.
By the end of the first day, his proficiency in both "Water Drop" and "Returning Ruins Seal" had surpassed 50%.
On the third day, they reached Entry Level (82.1%) and Entry Level (83.4%) respectively.
On the evening of the fifth day, upon completing his ninety-seventh Cultivation session, Xu Wuyi felt a change.
In his sea of consciousness, the characters representing the two Martial Arts shimmered simultaneously. The Realm column blurred for an instant before refreshing:
[Martial Art: Water Drop]
[Current Realm: Minor Achievement (0.3%)]
[Martial Arts Traits: Infinitesimally small, infinitely heavy; pierces all things. A constant drip wears away stone; relentless and unceasing.]
[Martial Art: Returning Ruins Seal]
[Current Realm: Minor Achievement (0.5%)]
[Martial Arts Traits: Seals the eight extremes, crushes all foes. The seal suppresses mountains and rivers; its lingering might is enduring.]
New Traits had appeared.
The "constant drip wears away stone; relentless and unceasing" Trait of "Water Drop" meant that after the compressed Water Drop hit a target, if its energy wasn’t fully depleted, it could recover a portion of the Heavy Water’s power, reducing the cost of the next condensation.
As for the "seal suppresses mountains and rivers; its lingering might is enduring" Trait of "Returning Ruins Seal," it referred to how after the Seal Platform crashed down, its Mental Realm of "heaviness" would linger in the impact zone for a time, continuously suppressing enemies within the area.
"Very practical Traits."
Xu Wuyi assessed, but the movements of his hands didn’t stop.
’Minor Achievement isn’t the end, just the beginning.’
He continued his Cultivation.
...
「The tenth day.」
Virtual Combat Zone, live-fire testing grounds.
Xu Wuyi stood in the center of a simulated desert. Three hundred meters in front of him stood three heavy alloy targets.
The targets were arranged in an equilateral triangle, and behind each one were three layers of Level 40 Energy Shields.
This was a simulation of the standard defensive configuration of an elite warrior from the Feathered People Civilization, based on data from the front lines.
"The test begins," Ye Guanlan’s voice came through the Communicator.
Xu Wuyi raised his hand.
He made a loose fist with his right hand. A transparent, rice-grain-sized droplet condensed on his fingertip—no, it was smaller than a grain of rice now, only the size of a pinprick.
At the Minor Success Realm, "Water Drop" had a compression ratio of five percent of the Great Marsh’s total volume.
"Go."
With a flick of his finger.
The pinprick-sized, dark gold Water Drop shot out silently.
There was no sound of it tearing through the air, no Energy Fluctuation, not even a visible flight path.
It was too small, so small it nearly blended into the background.
But the instant the Water Drop flew out, the air before it warped strangely, as if that patch of space itself was being "dragged" forward by something.
The first target.
The three layers of Energy Shields were pierced as if they didn’t exist, leaving only three barely perceptible pinholes on the surface.
Next was the target itself—half a meter thick of high-strength alloy—which was also pierced through.
When the Water Drop emerged from the back of the target, its speed had barely decreased as it continued toward the second target.
It pierced that one, too.
And then the third.
The entire process took less than 0.3 seconds.
The three targets still stood in place, appearing undamaged on the surface, with only a tiny hole on the front and back of each.
But the monitoring data showed that the internal structure of the targets had been completely destroyed. The energy circuits were severed, the alloy’s crystal layers had shattered, and they were only holding their shape thanks to their external frames.
"Penetration efficiency assessment: 94.7%," Ye Guanlan reported the data. "An increase of 2.7 percentage points from the Entry Level stage. The Water Drop’s flight speed has increased by approximately 40%, and energy dissipation loss has been reduced to 5.3%."
Xu Wuyi nodded, reasonably satisfied with this result.
He changed his stance, bringing his hands together in front of his chest without letting them touch.
A phantom image of a dark gold Great Marsh flashed behind him and was gone. A dark gold Seal Platform, roughly half a meter on each side, rapidly formed between his palms.
Ancient patterns flowed across the Seal Platform’s surface. Its base was as smooth as a mirror, and atop it, the silhouette of a Golden Crow was faintly visible.
"Fall."
Xu Wuyi pressed his hands downward.
The Returning Ruins Seal left his control, plummeting toward the area where the three targets stood.
The Seal Platform’s descent wasn’t fast, but as its altitude decreased, the Mental Realm of "heaviness" grew increasingly potent.
The air below was compressed, emitting a low rumble, and the sand on the ground began to shift outward on its own, despite there being no wind.
The Seal Platform landed.
THUD!
Amidst the dull, heavy sound, the three targets, along with the ground in a twenty-meter radius, collapsed downward a full three meters!
It wasn’t an explosion, not an impact, but the purest form of "pressure."
When the Seal Platform slowly dissipated, it left behind a deep, square pit with neat edges.
The bottom of the pit was as flat as if it had been polished. The three targets were gone; they, along with the sand and rock strata, had been compressed into a mixed, tamped-down base material.
The monitoring data refreshed:
"Suppression range: twenty-five meters in diameter. Peak pressure at the center: equivalent to forty-two metric tons of pressure per square centimeter. Estimated duration of lingering Mental Realm: nine seconds."
"Nine seconds..." Xu Wuyi mused.
’This means that for nine seconds after the Seal Platform hits, the area will be continuously suppressed by the Mental Realm of "heaviness." Enemies within the area will have their movements slowed and their energy circulation impeded.’
’In a real battle, nine seconds is enough time to do a lot.’