After being reborn, all I want to do is run away.

Chapter 18 Eight Waves

As the moon sets and the stars fade, the first rays of dawn emerge from the horizon. The rising sun, like a giant, blood-red sword, pierces the sky, dispelling the gloom and staining the distant sky and the nearby lake with a crimson hue.

Shen Xu watched quietly as his reflection on the lake surface changed with the undulations of the water. He slowly reached out and gently placed his hand into the lake water, feeling the slight ripples and the coolness and gentleness of the water itself.

With his action, the seemingly calm water surface was shattered in an instant, and his reflection broke into countless small pieces. Ripples spread across the water, light and shadow intertwined, creating a beautiful yet illusory scene.

As Shen Xu watched his reflection shatter and distort in the water, a strange sense of realization welled up within him.

But the lake quickly returned to calm, and his reflection reassembled on the shimmering surface, becoming clear and complete once more.

Shen Xu gently shook his head, took a few deep breaths of the fresh, cool mountain air to clear his mind, and then began practicing the Overlapping Waves Sword Technique by the lake.

"Rising waves, overlapping waves, wave killing!..." Shen Xu no longer pursued stacking up to five waves, but instead carefully felt the changes that occurred after each move of this sword technique was used.

When the waves first rise, a gentle breeze blows, the vital energy is the water, the sword dance is the wind, gently lapping and a light mist rises. At that time, the water is gentle and harmless.

One wave subsides only for another to rise. The waves do not disappear; instead, they accumulate power in the tiny ripples created by the wind, until a critical point is reached where they break free from their constraints and release the accumulated power all at once. At that moment, the water is violent and devastating.

Previously, he had been using strength and skill to control the waves on the sword. The slowly flowing water was gentle and controllable, and could be easily tamed.

But when the water flows fast enough and accumulates enough power, it becomes uncontrollable. It is a force that can destroy everything; it is inevitable, it is the inevitable trend.

Faced with such water, we can only guide it, go with the flow, and take advantage of the situation.

"Rising Waves, Rising Waves... Overlapping Waves!" Shen Xu's eyes flashed with a sharp light as he unleashed four consecutive Rising Waves techniques, finishing with Overlapping Waves, where an exceptionally solid quadruple wave appeared on Shen Xu's sword.

As expected, as long as the waves rise fast enough, it is possible to skip the wave stacking process. Moreover, it seems that because the energy loss caused by the wave stacking process has been reduced, the four waves that were condensed this time are more powerful than before.

But such a quadruple wave was clearly not his goal. Standing on the smooth, mirror-like lakeside, Shen Xu carefully felt the power of the quadruple wave on his sword.

However, the four waves did not last long. As the energy on the sword gradually dissipated, the momentum on the sword also disappeared without a trace.

Shen Xu reconstituted the four waves, then stared blankly as they disappeared. This process repeated itself over and over again, and when his vital energy was depleted, he would lavishly use Qi-Nourishing Pills to recover.

As night fell and darkness enveloped the sky, the air suddenly became heavy, a strong wind arose, and the calm lake surface instantly became turbulent. The once mirror-like lake was now whipped up by the wind, with huge waves rising one after another.

Waves crashed against the lake shore with a deafening roar, and the trees along the shore swayed violently in the gale, their branches creaking and groaning. Leaves fluttered down, dancing in the air, and the distant mountains were shrouded in mist by the wind.

But Shen Xu, who was sitting cross-legged by the lake, seemed unaware of his surroundings. He held a long sword shrouded in white mist with both hands, and as the wind blew, the white mist on the sword also drifted away with the wind.

What is wave?

"Waves are the force of water!"

Where does the water flow from?

"Force can create momentum! Wind, human power... all can create momentum. Small forces trickle, large forces surge, small forces converge into a great force..."

"As long as I can control every small force to converge in the same direction, I can ultimately determine the direction of the overall trend!"

Upon realizing this, Shen Xu instantly opened his eyes, as if sword light was shooting out from them.

In an instant, the sword light turned and the sword shadows flickered. Five gentle sword lights were reflected on the lake surface. With the execution of the "Layered Waves" move, the five sword lights instantly converged into a chilling killing intent, as if they wanted to seize the sword at any moment and kill the enemy with a single blow.

"Fivefold Waves!"

Before Shen Xu could even feel joy at the sight of the Five Waves sword, which had transformed from its usual gentle appearance into one filled with murderous intent, the Five Waves on his sword instantly dissipated.

Clearly, although he successfully condensed five waves, they were not so easy to control. Even if he strictly controlled the direction of each wave, when the five waves successfully converged, they could only be maintained on the sword for a very short time, unlike the four waves, which could be maintained on the sword for a long time if he continuously injected energy.

However, being able to successfully master the Five Waves technique was already a very gratifying thing for him. After swallowing a Qi-Nourishing Pill, he was already eager to see the power of this sword.

Night fell, the wind howled, dark clouds rolled in, waves surged, and leaves fluttered, creating a wild and unrestrained scene.

As the five sword lights condensed once more, Shen Xu no longer hesitated and unleashed the final move of the Overlapping Waves Sword Technique.

"Wave Slaughter!"

In an instant, a white wave of energy surged from Shen Xu's sword, flying out of Shen Xu's sight in the blink of an eye. It effortlessly destroyed a tree and then struck a boulder behind it.

Shen Xu rushed over to check and saw that the tree had been cut in half, with a jagged break. The huge rock behind the tree had also been smashed by the force of the impact, leaving a long crack that almost went through half of the rock.

"Its power is very high! It's far stronger than the Fourfold Wave. No wonder the book says that the Fivefold Wave is equivalent to a sword technique at the Human Rank. It certainly lives up to that title, and the energy consumption isn't unacceptable." Feeling that he still had half of his Yuan Qi left in his dantian, Shen Xu nodded in satisfaction.

The energy consumption of the "Rising Wave" move in the "Layered Waves Sword Technique" is not high, but the energy consumption of the "Layered Waves" move is very high. By reducing the number of times Shen Xu uses the "Layered Waves" move, he can naturally save a lot of energy.

If he were to stack the waves one by one in a step-by-step manner, the vital energy in his dantian would definitely not be able to handle it. After all, the fourth wave already consumed half of his vital energy, and the fifth wave would definitely drain him dry.

Although he has now simplified the Overlapping Waves Sword Technique, the difference is only that he can use it once or twice. However, the power of the five waves is enough to serve as his killing move. There is a fundamental difference between being able to use a killing move once or twice.

Having mastered the Five Waves technique, Shen Xu felt relieved of a great burden. He stood by the lake, watching the black water being whipped into raging waves by the gale, his jet-black hair falling loose in the wind.

A bright flash of lightning occasionally streaked across the dark sky, illuminating the entire lake surface. The normally calm lake surface was now transformed, becoming restless and turbulent, as if some prehistoric beast was lurking beneath the surface.

Shen Xu closed his eyes tightly, focusing his mind on everything around him. He felt as if he had merged into the lake, becoming a part of it. He was trapped in a situation similar to that in the blood pool, except that what submerged him was no longer blood, but water, colorless water.

This time there was no pain, no hatred, no feeling of suffocation, only water, endless water.

"What is water?" A vague voice suddenly appeared in Shen Xu's mind. With the appearance of this voice, he fell into deep thought, and the scenes that had happened in the past few days kept flashing through his mind.

Water is the gentleness he feels in the lake, the lake surface that has been broken and then reformed, the calm when there is no wind, the surging under a gale, the overwhelming force after the waves have piled up, the composition of blood, and the necessity of life.

A sudden realization dawned on Shen Xu's mind: water is both the softest and the strongest, benefiting all things without contention. It is so gentle that it can take any shape, yet so strong that it can wear away stone with a single drop of water. A torrent formed from trickles of water can break through the barriers of countless mountains and rivers.

Water possesses the capacity to encompass all things, reflecting everything within it. Blood is one form of this inclusiveness, and it is this inclusiveness that creates all living things in the world. The power of water lies not only in its surging surface but also in its inner tranquility and inclusiveness.

Shen Xu opened his eyes and felt the moisture around him moving around him. He stretched out his palm and used his mind to control the moisture to gather on his hand. Gradually, his palm became wet out of thin air.

"Is this the meaning of water?"