Chapter 197: Creating a Wu Gong!

At a fork in the road along the border between Shannan Dao and Jianghe Dao.

"Brother Chen! Little Lu! From here on, we can't travel together. I wish you both a safe journey—I, Hongyao, take my leave. May we meet again!"

Xu Hongyao, cold and beautiful in a white robe, bowed to Chen Mu and Lu Ziyi in farewell.

"You must take care too, Sister Xu. Until we meet again!" Lu Ziyi returned the bow.

"Safe travels."

Chen Mu clasped his fists.

He watched until Xu Hongyao's figure vanished at the road's end, his gaze still fixed there.

"So, Brother Chen, you fancy women like Hongyao?" Lu Ziyi teased with a wink.

"If you don't speak, no one will think you're mute."

Chen Mu pulled his gaze back and said calmly, "I'm just thinking about a Wu Gong."

The cold, beautiful woman who traveled with him since the Half-Mountain Inn had a formidable background.

A true disciple of Fengyun Sword Pavilion, one of the Six Great Sword Sects, newly ranked eighty-ninth on the Potential Dragon List, known as the "Flowing Cloud Immortal," Xu Hongyao!

They'd traveled together for several days and gotten along well.

Master Xu Hongyao wasn't as cold or distant as she appeared.

Once familiar, she was just as playful, bonded quickly with Lu Ziyi, and called her sister.

Chen Mu spoke little, yet even so, Lu Ziyi no longer felt the nervous tension she had in Lincang Prefecture—no longer afraid to speak, no longer whispering.

This was the change brought by familiarity; Chen Mu was never a cold or arrogant man.

In Lincang Prefecture, he had to act brutally to adapt to the environment.

Lu Ziyi teased, but Chen Mu took it lightly.

Because he wasn't lying—he truly was thinking about a Wu Gong.

A skill card picked up from Zhang Li's corpse, used to obtain "Returning Wave Blade," a Qi Realm, primordial martial art.

Though the technique's power was formidable, in Chen Mu's view, its expandability, extendability, and external projection surpassed even its explosive potential.

In short—it was perfect for deduction!

Layered waves, breaking waves, slicing waves…

Chen Mu had collected similar sword techniques before.

But none gave him the same feeling as "Returning Wave Blade."

During these days of travel, Chen Mu had been pondering and comprehending this blade technique in his mind.

The more he thought, the more he marveled, the deeper he delved, the more excited he became!

Though he had no Insight Card or Training Card.

This time, Chen Mu wanted to try himself.

Try creating a Wu Gong!

Based on "Returning Wave Blade," create an entirely new blade technique!

So.

Continuing northward toward the Tianmen River dock, Chen Mu seized every spare moment to ponder.

At first, Lu Ziyi teased him, but seeing he was truly immersed in martial comprehension, she stopped disturbing him—instead, she handled chores and guarded him quietly.

Several days later.

The two arrived at Tianmen River.

Listening to the waves, watching the vast river surge toward the distance.

Chen Mu felt a sudden insight, leapt to the riverbank, sat cross-legged on a massive boulder, and used all the skill cards he'd collected on blade techniques and blade incantations—simultaneously achieving clarity, then in his mind integrating "Returning Wave Blade" to deduce and create a new Wu Gong.

……

"Shhh~"

"Shhh-lala~"

The waves rolled endlessly, splashing continuously.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Mu had sat motionless by the river for four days, his form as unyielding as a reef.

In his mind, dozens of refined blade techniques and incantations were being broken down and reassembled, using "Returning Wave Blade's" continuity and stacking as the foundation, absorbing the essence of each, evolving into a brand-new blade art uniquely his own.

The embryonic form of the blade motion grew clear in his heart-sea—it combined nine distinct power techniques: the suppleness of return, the stickiness of entanglement, the layered explosion, the brutal force of rupture… striving to manifest the myriad transformations of a surging river within the smallest space.

Yet, just as this new blade technique neared final formation, the evolution hit a bottleneck.

As if separated by an invisible film, Chen Mu felt the Wu Gong was on the verge of emergence, yet could not pierce the final mystery, could not perfect it.

A sense of stagnation clung to his heart, refusing to fade.

The sun rose and set, the tide rose and fell.

Chen Mu's spirit was utterly immersed, oblivious to the outside world.

Lu Ziyi remained quietly nearby, watching Chen Mu's motionless back—her eyes held curiosity, and a faint, barely noticeable worry.

On the seventh evening, the river tide rose higher than ever before.

"Shhh~"

A powerful wave crashed onto the shore, drenching Chen Mu's body and face in icy spray.

That sudden chill, like a lightning bolt slicing through darkness, instantly illuminated his confused spirit!

Chen Mu snapped open his eyes, a brilliant light flashing in his gaze—the lingering stagnation shattered in that instant.

"So that's it!"

"I've been fixated on the technique itself, forgetting its true essence!"

Chen Mu rose to his feet, his aura surging forth.

"What I'm deriving isn't a mere blade technique, but a combat art that stirs the power of Water in Heaven and Earth!"

"Water has no constant form; the blade has no fixed stance."

"The true core of this blade art lies in the Water Intent!"

Without the driving force of Water Intent, no matter how exquisite the framework of moves, it would be nothing but an empty shell.

At the instant of enlightenment, a sudden inspiration struck Chen Mu; the true qi of Duan Tianhe within his body surged forth, transformed by the Five Elements Spirit Conversion Art, and instantly resonated with the dense water vapor all around.

The churning river water before him seemed pulled by an invisible force, suddenly rising and condensing into a pale-blue translucent long blade composed entirely of flowing water!

This Water Blade was initially only about three chi long, solid as a real blade.

But as Chen Mu's mind stirred, water vapor from all directions converged madly, and the blade's body swelled at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Ten meters, thirty meters, fifty meters, a hundred meters!

Two hundred meters!

Three hundred meters!

……

In the end, a colossal Water Blade spanning the river and reaching five hundred meters in length took shape. Within its body, waves surged in secret, coursing with tremendous power, causing the surrounding air to tremble and hum.

Lu Ziyi, who had been waiting for seven days and seven nights, sensed this terrifying might and abruptly stood up, her beautiful eyes wide, her face filled with an incredulous shock.

"Slash!"

Chen Mu gazed forward, his eyes narrowing.

That five-hundred-meter-long colossal Water Blade instantly thundered down in a slash!

There was no ear-splitting shriek of tearing air, only a muffled roar like a breached dike on the Dajiang or the Duan Tianhe pouring backward.

"Boom—!"

The giant blade split the rolling river water, cleaving a brief vacuum trench a thousand meters long across the river's surface, and finally slammed viciously into a towering rock wall a hundred zhang high a thousand meters away.

No stalemate, no brittle crash of collision—only a world-shattering, earth-splitting boom.

"BOOM!!!"

Accompanied by the deafening sound, the hard hundred-zhang rock wall, under that terrifying strike imbued with Water Intent and the nine-layered force technique, was like smashed tofu—instantly disintegrating, turning into a skyfulth of fine powder, swallowed by the river water rushing back, and vanishing without a trace.

The sound thundered like thunder, echoing between the mountains on both banks, lingering for a long time.

The river breeze blew past, stirring Chen Mu's robes.

That Water Blade spanning Heaven and Earth also dissipated along with it, turning into a skyfulth of water mist, returning to the Dajiang.

Lu Ziyi stood where she was, unable to recover for a long time, the world-destroying boom still echoing in her ears.

She looked at that blue-robed figure by the river, and for the first time realized so clearly that this young Inspector, ranked seventy-seventh on the Hidden Dragon List, possessed potential and strength far more terrifying than she had imagined!