Chapter 73: Artistic Conception

[Martial Arts: Wild Wind Blade Technique (Perfection), Fierce Wind Blade Technique (Perfection), Spiritual Wind Sword Technique (Perfection), Wind Chasing Blade Technique (Perfection)]

[Experience: 11 points]

[Available Deduction Attempts: 1]

…

When the four blade and sword techniques reached perfection, and combined to form four types of momentum, a new command ‘Deduction’ appeared below the Techniques section of the system panel. However, there was only one available deduction attempt.

Looking at the changes in the system panel, Chen Mu couldn’t help but show a thoughtful expression.

Indeed, after mastering multiple momentum techniques from the same lineage, it was like assembling building blocks to form a ladder. The system directly opened a path to a higher level for him. It seemed he didn’t need to accumulate a large amount of experience anymore; instead, he directly had one opportunity to comprehensively deduce all his techniques upward.

“Artistic conception, huh…” Chen Mu murmured.

Now, his understanding of artistic conception was much deeper than before.

Compared to ‘momentum’, artistic conception was on a completely different level. It was rumored that artistic conception was like an invisible blade, and the stronger one’s own strength, the greater the power that artistic conception could unleash.

There were also rumors that artistic conception was like another realm, already detached from the techniques themselves. Before artistic conception, any ‘momentum’ seemed as illusory and fragile as floating clouds; they were not on the same level.

However, these statements were all vague.

After all, throughout Yu City, those who could comprehend and master artistic conception were few and far between.

Not to mention those at the Tendon Transformation realm, even those who stood at the top in the Inner City, those who had reached the Bone Forging realm, only a minority had mastered artistic conception.

He had long yearned for the level of artistic conception, and now he finally had the opportunity to reach that height.

Chen Mu closed the system panel, first calmed his mind, then bathed and changed clothes, and after eating his fill, he returned to his bedroom. After adjusting his mentality to its calmest state, he summoned the system panel again.

[Prompt: Do you wish to consume one opportunity to comprehensively deduce all martial arts?]

The system panel popped up with a prompt.

Chen Mu calmly confirmed.

As the thought fell, an invisible force spread from the depths of his mind. In an instant, it spread throughout his body, and wherever it passed, his body seemed to disappear inch by inch like a bubble.

After only a brief moment of mental blankness, when he regained consciousness, Chen Mu could no longer feel his body. He couldn’t even hear or see, as if only a trace of consciousness remained, floating in the empty space between heaven and earth.

This was completely different from the past when he improved his blade techniques.

Chen Mu was stunned, but still remained calm. Soon he felt a weak sensation. In this pitch-black and unknown, seemingly empty void, a ‘thread’ appeared, coiling toward him.

This ‘thread’ was chaotic and violent, and felt very familiar.

It was the momentum of the Wild Wind.

Then, a second thread, a third thread…

One thread after another wrapped around his formless consciousness, exuding fierce, agile, and various other different sensations. As they twisted and tangled, they wrapped his consciousness in circles.

Initially, Chen Mu could only sense the four momentum techniques he had mastered. But as time went on, his own consciousness seemed to slowly merge into these four threads, becoming indistinguishable.

Then.

The vision suddenly widened!

In the previously pitch-black, hazy, and indistinct world, everything suddenly became bright. Countless threads appeared before his eyes, each one intersecting and connecting, tangling and winding around each other.

Each thread was a wisp of breeze, a wisp of breeze with different properties.

“This is artistic conception.”

At this moment, a sense of understanding arose in Chen Mu’s heart.

Or rather, from the moment he ‘saw’ the endless threads formed by the Thousand Winds, he understood what artistic conception was. It was indeed not the so-called techniques one might imagine, but it pointed to something more essential, toward the very heaven and earth itself.

It was like a fish in water, whose power was completely different from when it was stranded.

When one understood artistic conception, it was like gently lifting a veil from the hazy and chaotic world, catching a glimpse of its more essential features. Before this, one seemed to be a fish stranded on the beach, but after this, one leapt into the water, experiencing two completely different worlds.

“No wonder they say that artistic conception and momentum are two completely different realms, a qualitative change…” Chen Mu murmured.

Blade momentum and sword momentum, even when honed to their peak, when one mastered many techniques, they would still only remain on the surface of the ‘techniques.’ They would always seek to perfectly unleash one’s own power, to perfectly borrow and guide the enemy’s power.

But artistic conception was already at another height. It was about viewing the new world through different perspectives. It no longer sought to unleash one’s own power, but rather how to make one’s own power more compatible with ‘heaven and earth’ itself, to turn the decayed into the magical.

There was an essential difference between the two.

“Being able to lift this veil and see this level of heaven and earth, I have already mastered artistic conception.”

Chen Mu’s consciousness floated with those strands of Thousand Wind threads, and suddenly, with a thought, he tentatively stretched out an invisible hand, wanting to grasp the formless threads that surrounded him.

However, this hand only grasped at nothing. In fact, with this grab, all the threads shattered and disappeared, and the world before his eyes fell into darkness.

When he opened his eyes again.

Everything had returned to the bedroom.

Chen Mu slowly raised his hand, clenched his fist, and for a moment felt a kind of unfamiliar sensation. Although his consciousness had returned to his body, he felt that this body was so heavy and sluggish.

Before, when he had transformed into a strand of the Thousand Winds, he seemed to be merged with the world, unhindered by anything. The agility and ease, the lightness felt as if he was a fish in water. But now, he had suddenly returned to the stranded shore.

It took him a while to gradually readjust to his body.

He took a deep breath, slowly got up, came to the yard outside, and looked up at the sky, carefully feeling the wisps of breeze that occasionally passed through the world.

It seemed that he had not changed compared to before, but the world of artistic conception, even if he had only seen it, was already at a completely different height.

Chen Mu looked up at the sky for a while, and then suddenly raised his right hand.

He held his hand sideways, like a blade, and gently slashed at the ground.

Whoosh!

As if plucking a string, despite only being a bare-handed slash, he released a gust of wind, as if he were holding a blade. This gust of wind was also substantial, and when it landed on the ground, it cut a crack in the soil!

Looking at the mark left on the ground by his hand-blade, Chen Mu couldn’t help but feel slightly stunned. He then sighed inwardly. After mastering artistic conception, one indeed stepped into a completely different realm. The changes were far greater than he had expected. It could be said that the gap between artistic conception and momentum was far greater than the gap between Tendon Transformation and Flesh Training.

It was simply immeasurable.

First of all, the moves he casually displayed now were more in line with the essence of heaven and earth. The power he exerted was several times greater than before, and he could more easily unleash attacks like this, akin to formless qi strength.

Secondly, he no longer needed to be bound by the ‘blade’ itself. It could be said that grass, wood, bamboo, and stone could all be used, having reached the level of turning decay into magic. He could injure people with a flick of a petal or a falling leaf.

“I wonder how my current strength compares to Xu Hongyu now.”

Chen Mu looked up at the sky again.

He had not yet begun Tendon Transformation training. His Body Tempering Method was still in the Flesh Training realm, but the changes brought about by artistic conception were too great, so that he could not clearly judge his current level of strength.

After all, throughout Yu City, there were only a few people who had mastered artistic conception, and they were basically all at the Bone Forging realm or above.