And it has the keen edge of martial arts!" Muhammad opened the "Global Pattern Digital Platform." On the screen, a video showed Batu leading a herd of reindeer on migration, treading along frost-carved patterns. Its caption read: "We are all 'flying foxes' of the snowy mountains, and guardians of global patterns!" West Lake's winter snow fell on the heritage monument, while Leifeng Pagoda stood in the snow in the distance, bearing witness to this passing on of heritage that spanned snowy mountains and rainforests, the flash of blades and the glow of stars. Muhammad knew that wherever their next stop might be, the moral principles of "A Deadly Secret," the keen edge of the Hu family saber techniques, and the warmth of global patterns would remain forever clear, like Changbai Mountain's ice patterns and veins of snow, forever guiding human civilization along the path of coexistence with nature and writing new cultural chapters that would never end. A new chapter of A Deadly Secret: coexistence with the water-network patterns of Jiangnan's canal towns (traveling with Hu Fei). Three months after the Snow Mountain Pattern Festival on Changbai Mountain ended, Muhammad received an invitation from Zhouzhuang, a canal town in Jiangnan-the local intangible cultural heritage protection association hoped to revitalize "water-network patterns" and "oar patterns." These patterns, painted on the oars of black-canopied boats and the railings of stone bridges, held the canal townspeople's navigational wisdom: "Water-network patterns" recorded river depths and navigable routes, while "oar patterns" marked the force needed for each stroke and the direction of the current. But the younger generation mostly relied on navigation systems and had long since lost the ability to read these "codes on the water." Muhammad immediately wrote to invite Hu Fei along. Upon receiving the letter, Hu Fei set out at once with the Cold Moon Saber: "If snowy mountain saber techniques can protect ice patterns, surely they can blend with canal-town patterns too. Let's see what blade light looks like reflected in the water!" As the black-canopied boat entered Zhouzhuang's waterways, Hu Fei gazed at the "water-network patterns" on the stone bridges lining both banks and could not help remarking, "These lines look just like the cracked-ice patterns of the snowy mountains, only ice patterns hold a chill, while water patterns have a lively grace." Granny Wang, an elder of the canal town, came toward them, plying her oar. The "Propeller Pattern" on its blade swept across the water, leaving a ripple: "My grandfather passed this oar pattern down to me. Rowing clockwise saves effort, and rowing counterclockwise slows you down, but what child these days knows how to read it?" Hu Fei took the oar, hefted it, and exchanged a smile with Lin Xiaowu: "Why don't we turn the 'Ice Pattern Treading Snow Step' into the 'Water-Network Boating Step' and let the saber techniques follow the water patterns!" One, a fluid fusion of martial arts and water patterns: making oars "reflect blade light." Working together, Hu Fei and Lin Xiaowu combined the balancing techniques of the "Ice Pattern Treading Snow Step" with the boating stances of the canal towns to devise the "Water-Network Boating Step": guided by the river lines in the "water-network patterns," boatmen stood at the bow and shifted their feet lightly, as though performing "Treading Snow Without a Trace." In shallow water, where the water-network patterns were dense, they took small steps to adjust their center of gravity; in deep water, where the patterns were sparse, they took larger steps to steady the boat. At the same time, they held the oar in both hands and imitated the sweeping arcs of "Willow-Sweeping Return Wind" from the Hu family saber techniques, their strokes resembling blade light skimming the water, both reducing resistance and allowing precise control of direction. A Shun, a sixteen-year-old boy from the canal town, had thought rowing was "boring," but while practicing with Hu Fei, he discovered that following the "oar patterns" made his boat thirty percent faster than usual and let him nimbly avoid submerged rocks. He shouted excitedly, "So oar patterns aren't decorations-they're Grandpa's way of teaching us to 'talk to the water'!" Hu Fei also adapted the "Ice Hunting Defense Fist" into the "Waterborne Bodyguard Fist": when striking, practitioners faced their palms toward the water and used its buoyancy to cushion their force, pushing out like a saber cleaving the water's surface to scatter waterbirds approaching the boat; when drawing their fists back, they pressed lightly on the surface to sense changes in the current and anticipate submerged rocks. After practicing it, Kuito said with a smile, "This fist technique has both the power of the snowy mountains and the softness of the canal towns,
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