Body Tempering

So, how could water and fire coexist?

Very simply: he only needed to change where water and fire existed.

Hide the fire within the water. As long as the pressure in the water was high enough, like in the deep sea, excessive pressure could raise water's boiling point. The fire would not evaporate the surrounding water, and water and fire could coexist perfectly.

Bian Chunchou felt that cultivation needed to respect science, but there was no need to be overly strict about it. It could be materialistic, or it could be a little idealistic. Spiritual energy was not a product of science, so it could accomplish things that scientific experiments could not.

So what he needed now was to find a balance point for his Waterborne Flame cultivation art—a balance point where both his Fire-Water Spiritual Root could flourish.

Isn't this just conducting an experiment? Bian Chunchou thought. I've finally reached my comfort zone!

Bian Chunchou, still in enlightenment, continuously experimented with the balance between water and fire in his mind. Outside, Wen Xu's patience was already nearing its end. What was a blockhead? He had never had much of a concept before, but now he had seen one.

This head was growing, alive and well, right on Chen Zui's shoulders.

"Could it be that when you saw the cultivation art, you had no insight at all?" Wen Xu did not understand. Wen Xu could not comprehend it. Wen Xu was greatly shaken.

Chen Zui scratched his head. A T is a T, and an oval is an oval. Why did there have to be insight? Cultivation was truly difficult. No wonder his mother had been unwilling to teach him and had insisted on driving him out of the Household, sending him to Yonglu Mountain to study.

"No. Why did I have to gain insight?"

Wen Xu: ...

"Don't you think cultivation arts are too complicated? They explain so much, like when my mother cooks. All flashy tricks and flourishes, yet the food still comes out this terrible. Is there any need for that? Might as well just eat Grain-Repelling Pills."

Wen Xu rubbed his forehead. "Then is there a possibility that if it weren't your mother cooking, but the greatest chef in the world, the same preparation could produce the most delicious dishes?"

Chen Zui had his own unique line of thought. "But if he were the greatest chef in the world, then even with the simplest ingredients, he could still make the most delicious dishes."

At last, Wen Xu had managed to draw something out of him. He called Chen Zui's name with great seriousness.

"What is it?" Chen Zui looked up.

"So, when you cultivate arts, do you want to become your mother? Or do you want to become the greatest chef in the world?"

Chen Zui thought about it. Become his mother? That would not do. His mother would beat him to death.

Become the greatest chef in the world? No, that would not do either. He did not know how to cook at all.

So he said, "Why should I become someone else? I only want to be myself. I only want to walk my own Dao of the Blade."

That was right. He only needed to be himself. Since he could not understand it, then he would stop looking at it!

"I'm going to practice my blade."

After tossing those words behind him, Chen Zui swiftly disappeared from before Wen Xu. Judging by his hurried steps, by the time they met again, his cultivation would surely have made a breakthrough.

That was right. Wen Xu had discovered that ever since he wore the ribbon his master had given him, even if he secretly opened his eyes to observe others, as long as that person's cultivation had not surpassed his master's, they would not notice his gaze.

Moreover, no one seemed to have noticed that the power of an Integrated Body Great Talent was attached to this ribbon.

This was practically a cheating tool that helped Wen Xu pretend to be blind. Yet Wen Xu did not intend to open his eyes when interacting with others. First, he did not like seeing other people's faces. Since he could not remember them, they always reminded him that his eyes were different. Second, he was a cautious person. What if something happened? He liked to take everything to the utmost extreme.

Besides, a cultivator being unable to see did not affect normal life or cultivation. To Wen Xu, this was what he liked most about cultivation. Furthermore, cultivators' Divine Sense was unique. If he cultivated Divine Sense in the future, he could rely on it to distinguish others and would no longer need to deliberately observe everything about them.

Wen Xu greatly looked forward to that day. Therefore, he would cultivate with every ounce of his strength.

Bian Chunchou was still cultivating in enlightenment and would not wake anytime soon, so Wen Xu first went to the Scripture Repository Tower on the neighboring Disciple Peak to search for sword arts.

Unless cultivators seriously walked the sword path, most would not deliberately comprehend sword intent. But swords truly were weapons better suited for cultivators just starting out, so sword arts had become the choice of most cultivators who were not Sword Cultivators.

Wen Xu was a scholar, and a learned one at that. Naturally, he had also studied the Six Arts of a Gentleman.

The Six Arts of a Gentleman were rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. Of course, the academy did not require students to master every subject. No matter how gifted Wen Xu was, he could not excel at every course. But he truly was quite good at archery, and his sword dances were also passable.

The standard for this "passable" was the beauty of flashy, impractical movements, not any supposed combat effectiveness.

Basic sword arts were all kept on the second floor of the Scripture Repository Tower. Wen Xu swiped his disciple token to enter, then quickly went upstairs and found the sword arts related to wind. Most sword arts here were arranged according to the five elements. Single-element sword arts were placed on the far left, while sword arts universally suited to all five elements were on the far right. Looking up, there were truly... so many sword arts.

Wen Xu took one look, then silently closed his eyes. Wind and Water Rising, Golden Sand and Scattered Rocks, Wind-Breaking Sword Art, and so on and so forth. For the first time, he found reading jade slips exceedingly tiring.

Yonglu Mountain truly deserved to be a great sect that had endured through generations. Its foundation was indeed abundant.

After spending most of the day, Wen Xu finally picked out two jade slips that suited him fairly well. One was the Wind-Breaking Sword Art, which used a sword to command the wind. The other was rather unusual. It was not actually a sword art, but a jade slip explaining how to use wind to lay formations.

He thought that perhaps the two could be combined: use the sword to command the wind, use the wind to lay formations...

"Is the Windfold Fan not easy to use?"

Wen Xu jumped in fright with a "whoa." He truly had not sensed the newcomer's approach.

"My apologies for startling you, Little Martial Granduncle. It was my fault." Zheng Jin spoke words of apology, but showed no sign of remorse in his actions. He even leaned closer to inspect the jade slips. "Little Martial Granduncle, your idea is very good, but..."

Wen Xu tensed and stepped back. "But what?"