Chapter 1 Genius! Thirty-Six Hammers
Located 300 miles east from Heaven Dou City.
Nestled among the mountains, a village sits there, and to the untrained eye, it would seem like just an ordinary mountain village.
Before dawn, a boy walked out of the village and started running around it.
After running two laps, the boy rested for a while, drank a couple of mouthfuls of spring water, and then ran to the foot of a mountain and began to climb towards the top.
It wasn't until dawn that the boy finished his training for the day. He went to a stone platform, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes to meditate, facing the sun.
A short while later, several middle-aged people who had gone to work in the fields together came out of the village and saw the boy practicing meditation nearby.
"Look, Qin Mu is training by himself again."
"He's really hardworking! If my son were half as diligent as Qin Mu, he would have been a third-ring student by now!"
"Given how hard he works, his innate soul power must be quite high!"
The group walked away, chatting and laughing.
Qin Mu continued his meditation until the sun had fully risen and the morning sunlight had completely illuminated the earth. Only then did he emerge from his meditation.
The first few moments after sunrise each morning are when the spiritual energy is at its peak.
Qin Mu cultivates his spiritual power every morning, a method taught to him by a down-on-his-luck sect leader in the village.
Extending his right hand, Qin Mu's hand immediately emitted a golden light, which then gradually gathered and transformed into a hammer half a foot long.
Qin Mu discovered this by accident while using his spiritual power. By concentrating his spiritual power in his right hand, he could summon his spiritual form of Spirit, the Clear Sky Hammer!
It should be noted that Qin Mu has not yet awakened his Spirit, but he is able to release it in another form through his spiritual power.
With his palm open, the golden, illusory Clear Sky Hammer gradually disappeared, and Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief.
It's been six years.
Qin Mu has been in Douluo Continent for six years. Although he has not yet awakened his Spirit, judging from the fact that his spiritual power can only condense the Clear Sky Hammer, his Spirit is most likely also the Clear Sky Hammer.
Qin Mu was unaware of the current timeline. He only knew that he was at the foot of the mountain where the Clear Sky Sect was located, living with the few remaining affiliated sects of the Clear Sky Sect.
He had never met his father, Tang Qiang, since he was born, and his mother, Qin Yao, was just an ordinary Soul Master with three rings.
After giving birth to Qin Mu, Qin Yao spent her days doing housework and taking care of Qin Mu, and the rest of the time she would stand silently in front of her house, looking in the direction of Clear Sky Sect and silently shedding tears.
Ultimately, when Qin Mu was four years old, his mother fell ill and passed away.
But whether it was Qin Mu's birth or Qin Yao's death, Tang Qiang never showed up, a behavior that disgusted Qin Mu.
Even if Tang Qiang had his own reasons, he shouldn't have just abandoned Qin Mu and his mother like that.
This is the tradition of the Clear Sky Sect: whenever trouble arises, they will cower like a turtle.
This applies to Tang Qiang, Tang Hao, and the entire Clear Sky Sect.
That is why Qin Mu changed his surname to follow his mother's.
"Heh, I really can't feel any goodwill towards the Clear Sky Sect."
"It's just that because of my mother's death, I have to get an explanation from that man!"
If it weren't for wanting to investigate the man who had sneaked into the Clear Sky Sect and wouldn't come out, Qin Mu would probably have left long ago.
Qin Mu stood up calmly, appearing mature beyond his years, without the slightest hint of impetuosity, his face as serene as still water.
However, all of this was observed by an old man in gray not far away.
When the old man saw the Clear Sky Hammer that Qin Mu had condensed with his spiritual power, his body trembled slightly.
"This is actually... the intent of the Clear Sky Hammer! How old is he? How can he condense the intent of the Clear Sky Hammer?!"
Qin Mu was unaware of the old man's presence. He returned home, brought some steamed buns he had made the night before, packed some necessities into a cloth bag, and went to the back mountain alone.
This place is located within the territory of the Clear Sky Sect, so naturally there are no soul beasts here, only some wild animals that are not very dangerous.
After passing through the dense forest, a valley came into view.
In the valley, a crystal-clear pool of water gathers, and where the pool meets the mountain wall, a waterfall cascades down the mountainside with a thunderous roar.
At the very bottom of the waterfall is a huge round rock, whose surface has become incredibly smooth due to the constant impact of the water flow.
Qin Mu placed the cloth bag he had brought on the side of the pool, took out a wooden hammer from the bag and tucked it into his waistband, then jumped into the pool with a splash and swam toward the waterfall.
While Qin Mu was doing these things, the old man was still following behind him. After seeing Qin Mu's actions, his expression was one of surprise, and then he muttered to himself in disbelief.
"What is he trying to do? Impossible... He's so young!"
Qin Mu's actions soon confirmed his suspicions.
Qin Mu skillfully climbed onto the round rock, stabilizing his center of gravity as his body sank, and then began to swing his hammer under the dozens of meters long waterfall.
Qin Mu's hammer swings were not smooth; almost every three or five swings he would lose his balance and fall into the pool.
But he did not get discouraged. Instead, he kept trying to maintain his balance while swinging the hammer.
The elderly man, who had witnessed the entire process, was now filled with shock.
If it were just about swinging a hammer under this waterfall, the old man, with his title of Douluo, could easily do it.
Without using soul power, even many third-generation disciples of the Clear Sky Sect would find it difficult to cultivate under a waterfall using a wooden hammer like Qin Mu.
But Qin Mu, who looks like a five or six-year-old child, actually did it!
The old man asked himself, when he was five or six years old, let alone swinging a hammer under a waterfall, even standing under a waterfall would have been a difficult task.
Then, something even more shocking happened to the old man.
Suddenly, Qin Mu found the knack, quickly finding his balance point under the waterfall, and then began to swing the wooden hammer in his hand rhythmically.
One hammer blow, two hammer blows...
Soon, Qin Mu had already swung more than a dozen hammer blows.
The old man then realized that something was wrong.
"How come his hammer blows are so powerful... each strike is stronger than the last?"
By the time he had swung the hammer thirty times, Qin Mu had already created an impenetrable space beneath the waterfall!
"It's about using the force of the waterfall against it! By using the force of the waterfall's cascading water to create a counterforce on the waterfall, you can create space beneath it that blocks the impact of the water flow!"
"This is actually..."
As the old man murmured, Qin Mu had already swung the hammer thirty-six times.
With the final blow, Qin Mu collapsed onto the round stone. The force of this blow caused the waterfall to flow backward, colliding violently with the cascading water several meters in the air and creating a huge splash.
"It's a success!"
When Qin Mu saw that he had successfully swung the hammer thirty-six times, a smile finally appeared on his usually calm face.
"The combined power is simply too great. If I hadn't strengthened my body since childhood, those thirty-six hammer blows would have torn my own body apart first!"
"Unfortunately, my physical limit is probably only thirty-six hammer blows now."
Qin Mu lay flat on the round stone, the swelling and soreness in his limbs making him not want to move at all, letting the waterfall pound on his body.
Suddenly, Qin Mu, who had been relaxed, jumped up and stared intently at the forest not far away.
"Who's there?!"
[end of the chapter]