Er Gou stared blankly at the words on the letter, frozen in place. In a daze, he suddenly felt a fresh breeze scatter the morning mist upon the street. Su Mu caught the excitent and passion in Er Gou’s eyes; he must have chosen the right person. Sowhat satisfied, he nodded gently.
"Su Mu? You, you’re Master Su?!"
Er Gou was overwheld with excitent, but when he ca to his senses, the figure of the rice hat wanderer had already disappeared amid the alleys. Were it not for the letter in his hand, Er Gou might have thought all that had just happened was naught but an illusion.
As if afraid that all of it was truly but a dream, Er Gou clenched the letter even tighter, until it crumpled into a ball, and then all of a sudden let out a startled cry.
Face written with anxiety and panic, he hurried to smooth out the letter. But his pitch-black ironsmith’s hands, on top of being sweaty, only left a "vivid mark" upon the letter.
"Oh no, oh no!"
At this mont, the young woman could not help but laugh and cry at once, hastily stepping forward to snatch the letter, "Er Gou, stop fussing! Let do it."
She carefully smoothed the letter while gently wiping it with her sleeve, and as she did so, she asked about Master Su. Watching her usually taciturn husband beco talkative and enthusiastic upon ntioning Master Su, his eyes filled with longing and excitent—the woman’s gaze flashed with wonder; she had seldom seen her husband this way.
After a while, the woman suddenly asked a question.
"Er Gou, do you think there are really so many great masters in this world—and all of them skilled in forging..."
In the midst of hamring iron, Er Gou froze once more.
"You, you an... the last two tis, those were Master Su as well?!"
As soon as he spoke, Er Gou hastily put down the forging hamr, striding out of the smithy. Neither husband nor wife had seen from which direction Su Mu had departed; so Er Gou, facing in the direction of Qingyun City, bowed deeply.
"Dull as I am, many thanks for your guidance, Master!"
...
The bluestone archway of Baihe Town gradually faded behind him as thunder rolled along the sky’s edge.
The rice hat wanderer’s steps did not pause; he let the torrential downpour turn the dirt road into a muddy quagmire. Rainwater stread from the rim of his conical hat in silvery lines, drumming upon his rain cloak with scattered, fine splashes, like countless jade beads falling into a deep pool.
On rainy days, Heaven keeps its traveler.
The banners of the country tavern snapped and fluttered in the wind and rain. The laborers hurried ho, leaving the road deserted. Sky and earth lded into one; between heaven and earth, only mist and rain remained.
The wanderer’s coarse hemp raincoat was untouched by a single raindrop, his unremarkable cloth shoes unstained by a speck of mud upon the sodden road.
That lone figure walked ever slower, yet each step spanned several zhang across. About him, the song of cicadas could be heard, as well as the lant of a gentle breeze brushing by.
In the midst of this late spring and early sumr downpour, these two sounds wove together, born first of conflict, but then blending into harmony.
Amid the two, a faint new sound erged—the startled cry of a mountain sparrow.
Between the wanderer’s brows, the dragon of spiritual power surged. Now that the calamity of the Qingyun Three Counties was dealt with and, after battle upon battle, Su Mu’s taut nerves were at last released; his heart and mind flowed freely.
In this mont, his formidable comprehension—one hundred thirty-eight points, at dragon-and-phoenix level—burned hot. It was as if the wanderer lted into this heaven and earth, beca one with the pouring rain, like a sumr cicada about to burst in resplendent song, the spring breeze soon to fade, or a mountain sparrow’s lively spirit.
Tap, tap!
His cloth shoes fell again.
The fervent sumr cicada, the gentle spring breeze, and the startled mountain sparrow fused into one. Before the wanderer’s eyes, his comprehension panel surfaced. The three lightweight body techniques—Eight-Step Chasing Cicada, Feixu Skill, Startled Sparrow Step—all once perfected, now violently trembled. Their nas split inch by inch, light pouring forth from the cracks!
Crack!
With a crisp shatter in his mind, the shackles binding the highest level of lightweight body technique—two eighth-grade arts gained from the Qingfeng Gang Leader Gu Feng at the Banquet of Hongn, and the very first lightweight skill he had ever cultivated—were smashed aside.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Whirr! Whirr! Whirr!
Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!
The cicada and spring breeze sang together like zither and harp, while the sparrow’s voice joined like a bamboo flute, lively and nimble. The three sounds fused in perfect harmony; no discord remained.
Beneath the conical hat, the wanderer slowly opened his eyes. At his lips a faint smile erged, touched with delight and surprise. This mont of awakening ca unexpectedly—but Su Mu knew, even without it, if he had resolved to fuse these three lightness skills, it would not have been hard at all.
???:[Eight-Step Chasing Cicada (Perfection), Feixu Skill (Perfection), Startled Sparrow Step (Perfection)]
On the panel before him, the three original perfected lightweight body techniques vanished. In their place appeared a new and unknown Small-Success martial art. As Su Mu willed it, a brand-new entry ca into view.
"Not bad... Two Eighth Grades and a Ninth, fused into sothing that touches upon Sixth-Grade Martial Arts—just on the threshold."
Su Mu savored the sensation. Soon he was astonished to discover that this new martial art, born of fusing the three lightweight skills, had truly reached the sixth-grade level.
"Startled Sparrow Step as support, Eight-Step Chasing Cicada and Feixu Skill as the core... This sixth-grade martial art shall be nad Qingfeng Crossing Cicada."
Qingfeng, from Feixu; Cicada, from Eight-Step Chasing Cicada; Crossing, to represent the link and transition within Startled Sparrow Step.
With a single thought—
On his comprehension panel, the forrly indistinct body technique turned clear once more. The four characters "Qingfeng Crossing Cicada" glowed, and a faintly hot current of warmth spontaneously surged between his feet.
Qingfeng Crossing Cicada (Small Success 1%)
Comprehension: 140 (Dragon-and-Phenix Level)
Huh?
Just then, Su Mu uttered a light sound of surprise. Under introspection, he found that in his dantian, the slender wisp of Vast Qi—so feeble compared to the Gangjin Pill, like a coil of white smoke—was now trembling, carefully drawing in a thread of that comprehension warmth, and thereby grew noticeably stronger.
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