Water Walking

The members of the Hunting Team looked at one another, confusion written all over their wind- and sand-weathered faces.

Biao stood at the front, scratching the back of his head with a palm as broad as a cattail fan. In a gruff voice, he asked, "Um... Lin, do you really have a way?"

Lin Yi had long grown used to these rough men's straightforward temperaments. Without beating around the bush, he turned and lifted his chin toward the direction beyond the tribe. "Follow me."

As for improving his clansmen's control over their qi and blood, that was still quite simple for Lin Yi.

After all, before he transmigrated, he had seen plenty of training methods for improving control. For example, the classic Water Walking and tree climbing from Naruto.

Though everyone was full of doubts, they obediently followed him.

Thirteen broad-shouldered, thick-waisted men formed a line and followed Lin Yi down the tribe's dirt road. Along the way, several women drying beast hides looked up at the spectacle and could not help whispering among themselves.

"The Hunting Team is heading out together? Are they going hunting again?" "Doesn't look like it. They didn't even bring weapons."

Lin Yi led them all the way to the narrow stream outside the tribe. The water was not deep; even at its deepest, it only reached an adult's chest. The current was gentle, and the riverbed was carpeted with smooth pebbles.

He walked to the water's edge and glanced back at them. "Watch carefully."

Then he raised a foot and stepped onto the water's surface.

The instant his sole landed, a thin, even layer of qi and blood flowed from beneath his foot, spreading across the surface like a nearly invisible film.

The water surface dipped slightly, but did not break. Lin Yi stepped up with his other foot, standing firmly atop the water. The stream flowed slowly past his feet without even wetting his shoes.

A suppressed cry of astonishment erupted from the Hunting Team.

"Holy shit!"

"He's standing on the water??"

Lin Yi clasped his hands behind his back and took several steps across the water. As he walked, he turned his head to explain, his voice as steady as if he were taking a stroll through his own living room.

"The principle is simple. Continuously release a thin, even, uninterrupted layer of qi and blood beneath the soles of your feet, creating a small supporting force to hold them up. There are two key points."

He lifted one foot to demonstrate. "First, the qi and blood cannot be too strong. If the output is too fierce, it will blast apart the water's surface and kick up spray. The recoil will knock your foot off course, and your whole center of gravity will scatter.

"Second, it cannot be too weak either. If the output is insufficient, it will not support your weight, and your foot will sink straight to the bottom."

He turned around atop the water to face the group. "The current is constantly striking your feet. You must make minute adjustments to your qi and blood output at every moment, dynamically correcting it so that the supporting force always stays at exactly the level needed to hold you up.

"This training exercises your control over the explosive force of qi and blood, as well as the precision of your fine adjustments."

His gaze fell on the tower-like figure, and he deliberately stressed his next words. "Brother Biao, you especially need to practice carefully. Your qi and blood are the most abundant of everyone's, but as for the precision of your control..."

He did not say the rest, but that expression alone made Biao's ears begin to burn.

"Alright, everyone can get into the water and start practicing."

The group looked at one another. In the end, they gritted their teeth and entered the stream.

The first team member to try confidently copied Lin Yi and stepped onto the water. Then, with a SPLASH, he toppled straight into it, sending up a huge spray.

The second team member learned from that lesson and used less force, but still failed to steady himself. He landed on the streambed flat on his backside, and the water instantly rose over his shoulders, making him choke and cough several times.

The third, the fourth, the fifth... The thirteen men took turns entering the water and taking turns getting drenched. Before long, the streambank was soaked as if a localized rainstorm had swept through.

Biao was the last to try. He took a deep breath, carefully spread his qi and blood beneath his feet, and tentatively stepped forward.

The water surface swayed twice. He remained standing for about two breaths.

Then the qi and blood beneath his feet suddenly lost control and exploded. Water sprayed in every direction as his eighty-thousand-jin body smashed directly into the stream, throwing up a column of water taller than a man.

Standing on the bank, Lin Yi watched Biao surface from the water, drenched from head to toe, his rugged face full of indignant unwillingness. The corners of Lin Yi's mouth could not help curling upward.

But he did not laugh aloud. Instead, he cleared his throat and said in an instructor's tone, "Not bad, Brother Biao. You stood for two breaths. That's progress. Everyone, continue."

With his hands behind his back, he paced back and forth along the streambank, his mouth not idle either.

"If you want to master the Savage Bull Diagram, this training must be completed.

"If you cannot even walk steadily on water, forget about condensing complete Divine Markings on your skin. When you can run back and forth across this stream without falling in, I'll teach you the next step."

The effect of those words was immediate.

The hunters who had been somewhat discouraged reignited with fire in their eyes the moment they heard the words "martial technique."

After all, every one of them had been thinking about that blood-red Divine Markings diagram these past few days. No one wanted to be left behind right at the starting line.

Thus, the sounds of people falling into the stream became even more frequent than before, but after falling in, they climbed back up even faster.

Three days.

Over the next three days, Lin Yi guarded the streambank early every morning.

At first, he would enter the water himself to demonstrate several key movements. Later, he mostly just sat on a rock by the bank, slowly chewing a piece of roasted jerky in his hand while watching a group of grown men flounder in the stream like calves that had only just learned to walk.

Whenever someone was about to succeed, he would offer a timely pointer: "Steady your left foot a little more," or "Make the output from your right foot half a fraction more even."

Whenever someone fell especially miserably, he would silently cast over a meaningful look. That person would then grit his teeth, climb up, and continue trying.

But he had not been idle during those three days either.

While he watched everyone train during the day, his mind never stopped for even a moment.

The framework of that new cultivation method, combining the Savage Bull Divine Markings with the Bluestone Blood-Transporting Method, grew more complete day by day under the push of his steadily increasing comprehension.

He had originally estimated that it would take three days to finish, but in reality, after only two and a half days, he had opened up and sorted through every part.

On the third night, Lin Yi sat cross-legged on his stone bed and, for the final time, deduced the qi and blood pathways of the entire cultivation method from beginning to end. The routes by which the Savage Bull patterns adapted to human meridians had all been calibrated; the activation conditions and maintenance rhythm of the self-circulating system had all been established; its fusion with the original incantations of the Bluestone Blood-Transporting Method was smooth and unobstructed.

Every node connected end to end, forming a complete cultivation method.

It was done.

He opened his eyes, clenched his fist, and could not suppress the smile at the corners of his mouth.

The core logic of the new cultivation method was exactly as he had expected.

It used the inscribed Savage Bull Diagram patterns to form permanent qi-and-blood circulation pathways, allowing qi and blood to oscillate and scour through the body on its own, tempering the flesh day and night.