Unprecedented, Never Before Seen, the Greatest in History!
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
During that time, Chen Du stayed on the reefs along the East Sea shore, keeping the old fisherman company as he studied the "Nine Swords of Heaven's Inquiry" word by word.
Though the old fisherman had lost, he held no resentment. Instead, every day he rowed out to sea, caught fresh fish, lit a fire on the beach to roast them, and shared them with Chen Du.
In his spare time, Chen Du would offer him a few pointers.
The old fisherman had been stuck at Xiantian Peak for decades. What he lacked was not accumulated strength, but direction.
Chen Du used his Martial Arts Myth realm to help him adjust his meridians and correct a few points of stagnation in the circulation of his sword intent.
After only a few days, the old fisherman felt the bottleneck that had held him back for years begin to loosen. He was even more wholeheartedly convinced of Chen Du's abilities.
As for Chen Du himself, while reading the "Nine Swords of Heaven's Inquiry," he once again sank into that state of deduction where he forgot both himself and the world around him.
Unlike the elegance of the "Cloud Sea Heart Sutra" and the unyielding force of the "Mahavairocana True Scripture," the core of the "Nine Swords of Heaven's Inquiry" lay in the word "inquire."
Inquire of Heaven, inquire of the Dao, inquire of oneself.
The nine forms of swordsmanship each posed a question. There were no fixed moves, only the flow and changes of sword intent.
This was the hardest of the three Xiantian absolute arts to comprehend, but also the one that came closest to the Dao.
Half a month later, the panel deep in his consciousness finally lit up again.
[You read the Xiantian martial arts manual "Nine Swords of Heaven's Inquiry." Combining it with your prior experience in Martial Arts Creation, your heaven-defying comprehension is triggered, and you comprehend the Martial Arts Myth-level martial art "Heavenly Question Thirteen Swords"!]
Chen Du opened his eyes and stood up from the reef.
He did not draw a sword. He merely joined his fingers together like a sword, pointed them toward the sea, and gave a light slash.
The first sword produced no flash of light, no sword cry, and did not even stir the slightest breeze.
Yet the sea before him, from the beach all the way to the horizon, suddenly froze completely.
Water droplets hung suspended in the air, and the sea breeze stopped flowing.
The roasted fish fell from the old fisherman's hands, but he did not notice. He only stared blankly at the sea before him, frozen in place.
Then Chen Du swung his second sword, and the still sea suddenly rolled backward.
From the shore to several miles away, all the seawater retreated at once, exposing reefs on the seabed that had not seen daylight for decades.
Immediately after, he swung the third sword, and in an instant the retreating seawater flowed back together, returning to normal. Waves once again pounded the reefs, and the sea breeze resumed its course, as if everything that had just happened were an illusion.
Of the thirteen swords, he stopped after swinging only three.
Because he knew the remaining ten no longer needed to be demonstrated.
These thirteen swords were created on the foundation of the "Nine Swords of Heaven's Inquiry." He combined the stillness of the Wisdom King Vajra Art, the all-encompassing radiance of the Great Sun Tathagata Divine Palm, and the formlessness of the Cloud Sea Heavenly Scripture, then deduced the result anew from the realm of a Martial Arts Myth.
The first nine swords inquired of Heaven and the Dao; the last four were his own answers to the Martial Dao...
Once the sword was drawn, there was no regret; once it fell, it left no trace.
With three Martial Arts Myth-level martial arts at his disposal, Chen Du did not hurry to seek out any new manuals.
He understood very well that the Martial Dao system of the Xuanye Realm had basically reached its ceiling at the Martial Arts Myth level.
The Hanging Temple had stood for eight hundred years, the Yandang Yun Family for eight hundred years, and the Sword Pavilion had passed down its mantle through a single disciple at a time... Yet the sect-defining arts of these martial forces at the very top of the Xuanye Realm only reached the Xiantian level.
He had forcibly deduced myth-level martial arts through his heaven-defying comprehension. The Xuanye Realm itself had never given rise to cultivation arts of that level.
The rules of this world were not high enough.
But Chen Du felt no regret.
This time, he had descended in his true spirit. He could not take his physical body or the manuals with him; the only things he could take were his realm and memories.
And for him, that was enough.
What was more, his mind already held several thousand martial arts manuals, from Third-rate fist and foot techniques to myth-level absolute arts. The essence of several hundred years of martial arts in the Xuanye Realm was all stored in his mind.
When he returned to Blue Star, even if he went empty-handed, it would be as if he carried a mobile treasure trove of martial arts with him.
Over the following months, he did not seek out any more opportunities. Instead, he settled by the sea.
Every day, he faced the rising and falling tides, repeatedly tempering the three myth-level martial arts and comparing them against one another.
In between his cultivation, he also repeatedly examined the differences between the Martial Arts Myth and Xiantian realms.
He himself had crossed over from Xiantian Peak, so he understood this threshold more deeply than anyone.
The core of the Xiantian Realm was transforming true essence into astral energy, which could be released up to a hundred paces away. Even a falling flower or plucked leaf could injure someone. In essence, it was still the utmost use of one's own strength.
The Martial Arts Myth was entirely different. It began to make extensive use of Spiritual Power, transcending the body as its medium.
It was like changing from a pawn who could only be moved by others into a player who could alter the board in a limited area.
He faintly felt that this insight was more important than any martial art.
One morning,
He sat cross-legged on the reef as usual, and several thousand martial arts manuals opened simultaneously in his mind.
From introductory fist techniques to myth-level absolute arts, they flowed through his consciousness like a rising tide.
Just then, a long-awaited series of notification chimes rang out deep in his consciousness:
[Divine Revelation Reading · Martial Arts Creation Experience +1]
[Current progress: Martial Arts Creation Lv7 (124/124) → Martial Arts Creation Lv8 (1/248)]
[Martial Arts Creation upgraded to Lv8. Your comprehension when reading martial arts books has greatly increased, and your ability to create martial arts based on martial arts manuals has greatly increased.]
Chen Du's figure trembled slightly. This was the first time Martial Arts Creation had advanced a major level in four years.
With such heaven-defying comprehension, the several thousand martial arts manuals in his mind suddenly ceased to be isolated works and began to merge with one another.
All the martial arts, including the three myth-level ones, ultimately fused together into a single whole, forming a cultivation art that became the highest crystallization of the Xuanye Realm's Martial Dao.
[Combining the three Martial Arts Myth-level martial arts, you comprehend the transcendent-level martial art "Martial Canon"!]
[Martial Canon: Transcendent-level martial art. It gathers the great achievements of the Xuanye Realm's Martial Dao and fuses ten thousand methods into one. All things under Heaven can be martial arts; every gesture and movement is a martial art. This martial art has surpassed the limits of the Xuanye Realm's Martial Dao system and cannot be measured by this world's standards.]
[The host has comprehended a transcendent-level martial art. The realm barrier has loosened!]
[Would you like to break through to a higher realm?]
Chen Du took a deep breath. The sea breeze filled his chest, carrying the East Sea's distinctive salty tang.
He knew what this "higher realm" meant! It was the domain above the Martial Arts Myth, one no one in the Xuanye Realm had ever set foot in.
Once he took this step, he would be the only martial artist in the history of this world to stand at this height.
"Yes."
The instant the word fell, Heaven and Earth changed color.
Clouds rushed in from all directions across the sky above the East Sea. Lightning exploded within the swirling clouds, every bolt of it golden.
The seawater hung upside down, countless schools of fish leaped from the surface, and the sea breeze stopped flowing. Time seemed to freeze in that moment.
The old fisherman knelt on the beach, trembling all over and not daring to raise his head.
Chen Du sat cross-legged at the center of the vortex, his expression as calm as ever.
He felt himself breaking free of a certain constraint—not the constraints of his physical body, but the restrictions that the rules of this world imposed upon him.
He had broken through the Xuanye Realm's ceiling!