Fusion of Techniques

Night hung low. Pearl Village lay silent, with only the occasional bark of a dog in the distance and the dull crash of waves against the shore.

Inside Chen Yue's low, cramped shack, the oil lamp had long been extinguished. Father Chen and Mother Chen slept soundly in the next room, their breathing even and steady.

Chen Yue sat cross-legged on his crude bed, wide awake, staring at the lines of technique statuses on the panel.

Iron Mountain Fist (Limit Broken), Iron Mountain Saber (Limit Broken), Roaming Mountains and Rivers (Limit Broken), Wave-Turning Breathing Technique (Fifth Layer)—the three external techniques and one enduring internal-breathing method had all reached their current peaks.

Watching this, Chen Yue's gaze flickered slightly, and a thought surfaced in his heart:

"The Iron Mountain Fist mainly tempers the sinews, bones, skin, and flesh. Its force is fierce and mighty, forging the body from the outside in. The Wave-Turning Breathing Technique mainly regulates qi, blood, and inner breath. It is long and profound, nourishing and strengthening one's foundation from the inside out.

"One is external and one internal, one hard and one soft. Now that both have reached their ends... could they... be fused?"

Internal and external cultivation complemented each other. If they could truly be fused, would it produce an effect where one plus one was greater than two?

Would it give birth to an entirely new and more powerful technique?

The instant that thought of fusion arose, the panel seemed to sense Chen Yue's intent and need.

The words [Iron Mountain Fist] and [Wave-Turning Breathing Technique] simultaneously began to glow with a faint golden light, as though kindled by invisible flames, slowly flowing and shifting.

Chen Yue froze at first, then understanding suddenly dawned on him. Almost instinctively, he seized the two spheres of light with his mind and slowly brought them together, overlapping them...

"Bzzzz!"

It was as though a great bell had rung in the depths of his consciousness, while the sound of endless tides and collapsing mountains intertwined! In an instant, two torrents of martial insights surged out of the panel and completely flooded Chen Yue's awareness.

On one side was the Iron Mountain Fist's endlessly tempered, fierce force, along with its subtle control over the exertion of muscle and bone. On the other was the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique's long and distant pathways of qi and blood circulation, its resonant nourishment of the five viscera and six bowels.

The two torrents did not clash. Instead, they rapidly collided, merged, and reassembled, stripping away repetitive and even conflicting elements while preserving and strengthening each other's essence and advantages.

The fierce force of the fist found the support of deeper, more enduring inner breath, while the circulation of that inner breath gained a more explosive path of guidance through external techniques...

A wholly integrated new image of circulation slowly unfolded in Chen Yue's consciousness like a painted scroll.

Who knew how long passed? Perhaps a few breaths, perhaps the time it took for an incense stick to burn. The storm in his mind gradually settled. Chen Yue's awareness returned, and the first thing he did was look at the panel.

The positions once occupied by [Iron Mountain Fist] and [Wave-Turning Breathing Technique] were now completely empty. Replacing them was a line of text emitting a faint, lustrous golden radiance:

[Mountain-Climbing Art (Mastery 5861/10000)]

"Mountain-Climbing Art..."

Chen Yue murmured the name, his heart filled with shock and delight. The panel could actually fuse techniques. And this fusion was not a simple addition—it was truly a process of discarding the dross, preserving the essence, and bringing forth the new from the old!

He carefully sensed the changes in his body and the new technique insights in his mind. In terms of current power, the newborn Mountain-Climbing Art was not much different from using the limit-broken Iron Mountain Fist and the fifth-layer Wave-Turning Breathing Technique together.

But its upper limit had been raised enormously!

Both the Iron Mountain Fist and Wave-Turning Breathing Technique had previously reached their respective limits. Yet as long as Chen Yue raised the Mountain-Climbing Art's proficiency again, its power would surely far surpass that of either technique before the fusion!

The panel did not display a prompt asking whether to simplify it, as it did when he acquired a new technique. With a slight movement of his thoughts, Chen Yue tried taking one long breath according to the original circulation path of the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique.

In an instant, the Mountain-Climbing Art's proficiency on the panel twitched slightly:

[5861/10000 → 5862/10000]

"It works!" A smile appeared in Chen Yue's eyes.

He rose to his feet and, within the narrow space, performed a few opening movements of the Iron Mountain Fist with the smallest possible motions. The moment his fist stance moved, the Mountain-Climbing Art's proficiency increased by another point.

"So it seems that I can cultivate the Mountain-Climbing Art by either using the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique or performing the Iron Mountain Fist!" Chen Yue realized.

He then tried ordinary breathing and casually waving his hands, but the Mountain-Climbing Art's proficiency showed no reaction at all.

Having found the correct cultivation method, Chen Yue no longer hesitated. He sat cross-legged again, cast aside all distracting thoughts, and began circulating the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique with all his strength.

With every breath, faint sounds of wind and thunder seemed to echo through his organs. More refined methods of exerting force for the Mountain-Climbing Art, deeper principles of internal and external coordination, and even insights into the nature of force and qi streamed back into Chen Yue's consciousness like an unceasing trickle, which he swiftly understood, absorbed, and made his own.

On the panel, the Mountain-Climbing Art's proficiency began to rise steadily at a visible rate.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

When Chen Yue awoke from another deep cultivation session, he looked at the panel:

[Mountain-Climbing Art (Limit Broken)]

In just three days, Chen Yue had pushed the Mountain-Climbing Art from Mastery to the Limit Broken realm!

Chen Yue took a deep breath and gently clenched his fist.

Without circulating any move at all, merely making the simplest fist-clenching motion caused his knuckles to crackle softly. A sense of power, far more condensed than when he had cultivated the Iron Mountain Fist and Wave-Turning Breathing Technique separately, filled his entire body.

What delighted Chen Yue even more was that after the Mountain-Climbing Art reached Limit Broken, not only had its power increased greatly, but its quality of cultivating both internal and external aspects also produced a shocking catalytic effect on the rate at which his overall martial cultivation improved.

Previously, relying solely on the fifth-layer Wave-Turning Breathing Technique to nourish and temper him from within, his daily progress in the Skin Refining Realm could rise by around two to three points.

But now, by circulating the limit-broken Mountain-Climbing Art, his internal and external aspects exerted force simultaneously, complementing one another, and his efficiency soared. Chen Yue roughly estimated that his Skin Refining Realm cultivation progress could now increase by around seven points in a single day.

At this rate, instead of needing more than a hundred days to accumulate enough qi and blood to touch the threshold of the Muscle Refining Realm, he would only need a little over forty days before attempting to break through into the next major realm.

This discovery greatly lifted Chen Yue's spirits. The Martial Examination's County Examination was imminent, followed by the Prefectural Examination and the Academic Examination. Every bit faster meant another bit of assurance!

However, such efficient cultivation brought with it an obvious side effect: an astonishing consumption of food.

Chen Yue's appetite began growing at a visible pace. Where one portion of coarse grain porridge had once been enough for him, he now needed to eat three portions just to feel barely seventy percent full.

The rapid strengthening of his qi and blood required an enormous material foundation to sustain it.

Fortunately, his previous trips into the sea to gather pearls had brought in substantial gains. The family still had a fair amount of silver, more than enough to support Chen Yue's current astonishing appetite.

Although Mother Chen felt pained over the food, when she saw her son's increasingly robust body after practicing martial arts and the ever more resolute look in his eyes, she still gritted her teeth and exchanged most of the family's savings for brown rice, mixed grains, and the occasional cheap dried fish or salted meat.

But a new problem soon followed. Pearl Village was not large, and every household more or less knew the circumstances of the others.

The Chen family's sudden, frequent purchases of grain would inevitably draw the attention of their neighbors, and perhaps even the Sea Shark Gang.