239: Dripping strength

The thirty-seventh failure.

Su Ming panted heavily, his forehead covered in sweat, his face slightly pale.

Using water to simulate the properties of metal was far more difficult than he had imagined. Water is inherently soft; forcing it to become rigid was like carving a steel needle out of tofu—a little too much force and it would shatter.

"Wrong, the approach is still too narrow."

Lin Yu sighed, his phantom figure floating to Su Ming's side, looking at the puddle of water on the ground. "You've been trying to change the 'shape' of water, wanting to turn it into a saber, a sword. But are sabers and swords sharp because of their shape? No, it's because of the material's density and hardness."

"Your spiritual energy is too 'loose'."

Lin Yu pointed at Su Ming's Dantian. "The Ruoshui Art makes your spiritual energy long and continuous, but it also makes you accustomed to 'flowing'. Now, forget flowing. Imagine your spiritual energy as a bowstring stretched to its limit, or a spring compressed to its bottom."

"The moment this 'sharp' character is inscribed, what you need to do is not 'draw', but 'compress'."

"Compress?" Su Ming murmured.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and once again mobilized a ball of water spiritual energy.

This time, he didn't rush to outline the lines of the rune.

He controlled the ball of water spiritual energy, causing it to collapse inward.

Inch by inch.

The water orb, originally the size of a fist, was compressed to the size of an egg, and its color changed from transparent to a deep, dark blue.

Su Ming felt resistance; intense repulsion began to generate within the water spiritual energy, as if to push his Divine Sense away.

"Not enough! Press harder!" Lin Yu shouted from the side. "This little pressure isn't even enough to water Spiritual Plants! Want to kill someone? Press until you can no longer control it!"

Su Ming gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his neck.

Shrink... for me!

The egg-sized water orb shrank again, becoming the size of a longan. At this moment, this drop of water was deep blue, almost black, as heavy as a lead pellet, emitting a heart-palpitating fluctuation.

Now!

Su Ming suddenly opened his eyes, his fingers rapidly moving through the air, no longer with the smooth, flowing strokes, but with a decisive, ruthless intensity, as if to tear through the Void Realm.

"Sharp!"

As the last stroke fell, the water bead, compressed to its extreme, seemed to find an outlet.

Whoosh—!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only an extremely faint but sharp whistling sound that pierced the eardrums.

A faint blue thin line flashed across the air and disappeared.

Thud.

In the corner of the quiet room, a three-inch thick bluestone slab used to test the power of Spells silently gained a small hole.

The small hole was clear front to back, its edges smooth as a mirror, without any cracks or flying debris.

Su Ming stared blankly at the small hole, his fingers still trembling in the posture of inscribing a rune.

In that instant, he felt one-tenth of the spiritual energy in his body being drained, but the destructive power caused by this spiritual energy was more terrifying than ten 'Water Bullet Spells' he had cast before combined.

"This is... the 'sharpness' of water?" Su Ming murmured.

"That's right."

Lin Yu floated over, looked at the small hole, and nodded in satisfaction. "Although the accuracy is a bit off, and the compression efficiency is just passable, this is the threshold of 'offense'. Remember this feeling, my Disciple. True killing moves are never flashy light and shadow effects, but rather this—silent, piercing through in one strike."

Su Ming let out a long breath and plopped down on the meditation cushion. Although his body was exhausted, his eyes burned with unprecedented excitement.

He knew that he had finally nailed the first nail into the board called 'attack weakness'.

"Master, this move doesn't have a name yet." Su Ming looked at the small hole, a smile spreading across his lips.

"Since it relies on high-pressure penetration and is silent..." Lin Yu stroked his chin. "Let's call it 'Soul Piercing Sting'. Although it's a bit rustic, it sounds good for scaring people."

"No." Su Ming shook his head, his fingers gently caressing the water stain on the ground. "It originates from water, yet is extremely restrained. Let's call it 'Dripping Water Force'."

"Dripping water wears through stone, not in a day; but if this drop of water is as heavy as a thousand jun, it pierces stone in an instant."

Su Ming stood up, once again mobilizing the remaining spiritual energy in his body.

"Again!"

...In the side hall of the Logistics Hall, the afternoon sun, filtered by thick window paper, lost its intensity, leaving only a dim yellow glow that illuminated the dust floating in the air.

Su Ming sat behind a long desk piled with scrolls, his fingertips dampened with water, turning a yellowed ledger page.

This was his thirteenth day as a probationary Executive of Formation Peak.

There was no expected summoning of wind and rain, nor was he immediately entrusted with important tasks like repairing some ancient grand formation.

Before him were summary reports on the material consumption of the three external halls under Formation Peak—'Refinement', 'Forging', and 'Talisman Drawing'—for the past six months.

"Executive Su, this tea is cold. Shall I get you a fresh cup?"

The speaker was an old clerk from the Logistics Hall, surnamed Chen, with a round face and eyes that crinkled into slits when he smiled. His hands were habitually tucked into his sleeves.

Su Ming didn't even lift his head, his gaze still fixed on the dense rows of numbers. "No need. Uncle Chen, why was the 'Fire Essence Stone' consumption of 'Class C Refinement Room' in March three-tenths higher than in February?"

Old Clerk Chen's facial muscles twitched, then he chuckled apologetically, "Oh, Executive Su, you don't know. There was a cold snap in March, and the earth fire veins were unstable, making it difficult to control the heat during Ore Refinement. The scrap rate naturally increased a bit. This is customary, customary."

"Cold snap?"

Su Ming tapped his finger twice on the desk, making a crisp 'thump-thump' sound. "But I see from the records of 'Class D Room' during the same period that their consumption actually decreased by one-tenth. Does this earth fire vein recognize people, only freezing Class C but not Class D?"

A fine layer of oily sweat seeped onto Old Clerk Chen's forehead. He hadn't expected this new young Executive to ignore the leisurely tea and instead quibble over these tedious numbers. In the past, which probationary Executive didn't just come here to gain experience? Who would actually check accounts item by item?

"This... perhaps Class D Room got a new batch of good furnaces..." Old Clerk Chen stammered, his gaze beginning to wander.

Su Ming finally looked up and glanced at him.

That gaze wasn't sharp; it was as calm as still water, yet it made the lies on Old Clerk Chen's tongue get swallowed back down.

"Write it down." Su Ming pointed to the blank Jade Slip next to him. "The consumption of Class C in March is questionable. We need to review the operation logs and slag weighing records of the Disciples on duty for a secondary comparison."

Old Clerk Chen chuckled dryly, slowly picking up the pen. "Executive Su, this... isn't this being too serious? We are all fellow Disciples. When the water is too clear, there are no fish..."

"I am an Executive; auditing accounts is my duty." Su Ming's tone was calm as he lowered his head again and turned a page. "I don't care if the water is clear or not, but this account of mine must balance."

In his Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yu whistled, "Tsk, this old fox, trying to fool our 'data fanatic' with such a low-level excuse? Disciple, look at the reimbursement number for 'Crimson Copper Powder', five hundred jin? Is this stuff for Artifact Refining or for mixing with rice?"

Su Ming replied mentally, "Crimson Copper Powder is used as a combustion aid; normal proportions shouldn't exceed five percent of the main material. Here, they reported fifteen percent. The excess was either embezzled and resold, or their production process is rotten to the core."

"Clearly the former." Lin Yu lazily lay in the ring space. "This isn't an account book; it's clearly a 'Sect Rat Distribution Map'. But aren't you afraid of offending people by investigating like this?"

"Finding it out is one thing; reporting it is another." Su Ming carved a line of symbols that only he could understand onto the Jade Slip. "Having leverage makes things easier to discuss later."

It wasn't until sunset that Su Ming closed the last ledger.

He rubbed his slightly aching temples and put the summarized list of questionable items into his Storage Pouch. Old Clerk Chen had long since slipped away on some pretext, leaving only him in the entire side hall.

This day's work was tedious, dull, and full of dust and calculations.

But this was exactly what Su Ming wanted—to understand how the veins of this vast Sect pulsed.