Da Xuan Martial Saint

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[Martial Techniques: Raging Wind Blade Technique (Perfection), Gale Blade Technique (Perfection), Spirit Wind Sword Technique (Perfection), Chasing Wind Blade Technique (Perfection)]

[Experience: 11 points]

[Deduction Attempts Available: 1]

...

When all four blade and sword techniques reached perfection, culminating in four different momentums, a new command 'Deduction' suddenly appeared below the skills section on the system panel, but there was only one deduction attempt available.

Chen Mu looked at the changes on the system panel and couldn't help but reveal a thoughtful expression.

As expected, after mastering the various momentums of the same school, it was like assembling building blocks to complete a staircase; the system then directly presented him with the path to a higher level without needing him to accumulate a large amount of experience, instead giving him one opportunity to deduce and integrate all his skills upward.

"Artistic Conception, huh..."

Chen Mu murmured to himself.

His understanding of artistic conception had also grown much greater than before.

Compared to 'momentum', artistic conception was yet another completely different level. There were rumors that artistic conception was like an invisible blade—the stronger one's own strength, the greater the power that the artistic conception could exert.

There were also rumors that artistic conception was like another realm, already detached from the techniques themselves. In front of artistic conception, any 'momentum' seemed as insignificant and fragile as a floating cloud, not on the same level.

However, these statements were also very vague.

After all, looking across the entire Yu City, those who could comprehend and master artistic conception could be said to be few and far between.

Not to mention individuals in the Tendon Changing Realm, even those great figures standing at the pinnacle within the Inner City, those who had stepped into the Bone Tempering level, the number who had mastered artistic conception was still a minority.

He had longed for the level of artistic conception for some time, and now he finally had the chance to touch that height.

Chen Mu closed the system panel, first calmed his thoughts, then bathed and changed, ate and drank his fill before returning to his bedroom. He adjusted his mindset to the utmost tranquility, and only then did he summon the system panel once more.

[Prompt: Would you like to use 1 opportunity to deduce and integrate all martial techniques?]

The system panel popped up the prompt.

Chen Mu calmly confirmed.

As the thought fell, an invisible force began to spread from the depths of his consciousness, swiftly encompassing his entire body. Wherever it passed, his physical body seemed to vanish inch by inch like a bubble.

In just a brief moment of mental distraction, when he came back to his senses, Chen Mu could no longer feel his body, nor could he hear or see; it was as if only a tiny bit of consciousness remained, floating in the vast emptiness of the world.

This was completely different from the past improvements in his blade technique skills.

Chen Mu was caught off guard in his heart, but he still maintained calmness. Soon, he felt a faint sensation; in the pitch-dark and unknown void that seemed utterly empty, a wisp of 'thread' appeared and wound its way towards him.

This 'thread' was wild and ferocious, giving him an extremely familiar sensation

—that was the momentum of the raging wind.

Following that,

came the second thread, the third thread... Join the journey at m-vl-em-py-r

Threads wound around his intangible consciousness, giving off violent, lively, and various other kinds of sensations. As they twisted and entangled with each other, they wrapped around his entire consciousness in circles.

At first, Chen Mu could only sense the four momentums he had mastered, but as time passed, the bit of consciousness he possessed seemed to slowly merge into those four threads, becoming indistinguishable from them.

Then,

his vision suddenly broadened!

The originally pitch-black, hazy and vague world suddenly brightened, with countless threads appearing before his eyes, each crisscrossing and interconnected, entwined and enmeshed.

Every thread was a breeze, a different kind of breeze.

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"This is what artistic conception is,"

Chen Mu realized in this moment.

Or rather, from the instant he "saw" those thousands of winds transform into endless threads, he had understood what artistic conception was. It indeed was not the so-called technique he had imagined, but rather pointed towards something far more essential, directed at the very nature of this world itself.

It's like a fish in water, the force it can exert is utterly different from when it is stranded on shore.

When he grasped the artistic conception, it was as if he gently lifted a wisp of the hazy and chaotic veil that shrouded the world, allowing a glimpse of its true nature. Before that, it seemed he had always been a fish stranded on the beach, but afterward, he leapt into the water and from then on, he sensed two entirely different worlds.

"No wonder they say artistic conception and momentum are two completely different realms, a qualitative transformation..."

Chen Mu murmured.

Blade Momentum and Sword Momentum, even when practiced to the ultimate, no matter how skillfully mastered, remain on the surface of mere 'techniques,' always seeking how to perfectly exert one's own strength, how to perfectly borrow and guide the enemy's force.

But artistic conception already stands at another height, contemplating a new world through a different perspective, no longer pursuing the exertion of one's strength, but how to make one's strength more in tune with the 'world' itself, transforming the decayed into magical.

There is a fundamental gap between the two.

"To lift this layer of the veil, to see this layer of the world, means I have already grasped the artistic conception,"

Chen Mu's consciousness floated along with those threads of a thousand winds, and suddenly, with a thought, he tried reaching out with an invisible hand, aiming to grasp those unseen threads swirling around him.

However, as this hand reached out, it grabbed nothing but air, and with that attempt, all the threads began to dissipate and disappear, afterward, the world before his eyes plunged into darkness.

When he opened his eyes again.

Everything had returned to the bedroom.

Chen Mu slowly lifted his hand, clenched his fist, and for a moment felt out of place. Although his consciousness had returned to his own body, it felt so heavy and lethargic.

When he had become one with the myriad winds, it had seemed as though his body merged with the world, unobstructed by anything. That agility and freedom, so light it seemed like a fish entering water, but now he had once again ended up stranded on the dry beach.

It took him a while.

But gradually, Chen Mu recovered the feeling of his body.

He took a deep breath, rose to his feet, and walked out into the courtyard, looking up at the sky, finely sensing the wisps of breeze that occasionally swept across the world.

To an onlooker, he might appear unchanged from before, but having seen the world of artistic conception, even just a glimpse, he was already at a completely different height.

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

He turned his hand into a blade and lightly slashed downwards towards the ground.

Whoosh!

It was as if he had plucked a string; a mere wave of his bare hand produced a slice of wind, seemingly material, that when it hit the ground, it split the dirt open with a crack!

Looking at the mark his hand blade had made in the ground out of thin air, Chen Mu was momentarily stunned, and then silently marveled. After mastering the artistic conception, he indeed found himself in a completely different domain—the transformation far exceeded his expectations.

It was safe to say that the gap between artistic conception and momentum was much greater than the gap between Tendon Changing and Body Refinement.

It was simply immeasurable.

First, every gesture and motion naturally conformed better with the essence of the world, the power he could wield far surpassed his past by several folds, and he could easily execute attacks that were almost like invisible Qi Force.

Secondly, he was no longer confined to the blade itself. Anything—grass, wood, bamboo, stone—could be utilized, reaching a level where the rotten is turned into something wondrous, and every plucked flower or leaf could harm an enemy.

"I wonder how my strength now compares to that of Xu Hongyu,"

Chen Mu looked up at the sky again.

He has yet to begin the practice of Tendon Changing, and his Body Tempering Method is still only at the Body Refinement Realm, but the changes brought by the artistic conception were so dramatic that he couldn't clearly judge his current level of strength.

After all, looking across the entire Yu City, only a handful have mastered the artistic conception, and almost all of them are above the Bone Tempering Realm.