Hearing this, Mouse Treasure stepped forward without hesitation and activated the Earth Shifting Technique within its body.

Simultaneously matching the frequency of its own Green Treasure Breathing Technique, the soil churned beneath its feet, forming a shifting tray of earth that supported it as it walked.

As it walked on the water’s surface, a large amount of mud also surged up from the bottom, coating the soles of its feet and allowing it to walk normally, keeping the water from rising past its ankles.

Gu Ming turned to look at Teacher Zhong, who was cooling off in the shade of a nearby tree.

Teacher Zhong knew that the Foundation Establishment Platform inside Mouse Treasure was nearing completion, but he continued to observe and write his research report nearby.

By observing it a little each day, he had discovered that the Foundation Establishment Platform on Mouse Treasure’s body was changing daily, which he found amazing.

Incidentally, he also had to answer some of Gu Ming’s basic questions.

Seeing Gu Ming look his way, he said:

"The Earth Shifting Technique would indeed qualify for that exam. If you want me to give it a score, however, I’d have to see if the soil can keep up with its steps while it’s sprinting."

Gu Ming’s eyes lit up. "How does the scoring work?" he asked.

"If you only look at the surface-level requirements of the task, simply being able to walk on water is enough to solidly pass.

"But completing it that simply will only get you a B.

"If it can walk steadily, that’s a B+.

"Being able to maintain a steady posture while walking quickly on water can earn you an A or even an A+," Teacher Zhong said.

Gu Ming nodded. Mouse Treasure stopped its slow walk and broke into a run.

The soil beneath Mouse Treasure’s feet flowed rapidly, coating its soles and allowing it to sprint across the water’s surface.

Its running Speed reached about five or six meters per second.

For a chubby Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster, this was already a superior Speed.

Even Teacher Zhong had to nod in approval. "It definitely has an A score.

"But whether it can reach A+ depends on its performance in deeper water.

"If I’m not mistaken, the Earth Shifting Technique works by moving mud from the bottom to the surface to cover its feet.

"In deep water, however, the mud certainly won’t flow as quickly.

"Moving it will also increase the energy consumption, which will severely impact its subsequent travel speed and Endurance test."

Here, Teacher Zhong introduced the concept of multi-dimensional testing metrics for evaluating a Cultivation Technique.

These included comprehensive metrics like stability, Speed, durability, Power, and others—in short, it was quite complex.

Different Cultivation Techniques have different focuses; a Body Technique would certainly emphasize metrics like Speed and energy consumption.

The Earth Shifting Technique was clearly not a Body Technique. Rather, it was extracted from a more comprehensive Cultivation Technique for using Earth Element abilities, and it was specialized to enhance Mouse Treasure’s walking ability.

To truly let it leverage the advantages of an Earth Element Pet Beast’s Body Technique, it would need a specifically tailored Body Technique like the Earth Escape Technique.

"So it can’t get an A+?" Gu Ming asked.

"To get an A+, you’d have to improve the Earth Shifting Technique so it’s fully adapted for Walking on Water, allowing for low-consumption, high-speed running, and also being effective in deeper water.

"In fact, if you could continue to use Earth Element Power to walk on the surface of a deep-sea trench tens of thousands of meters deep, that would be truly incredible. You might even get a score higher than A+.

"For a true master, creating a Cultivation Technique is actually quite simple. The harder part is refining and specializing it—improving its various shortcomings and even its so-called ’strengths’—to meet the specific metrics of the task."

Hearing this, Gu Ming now had a general understanding of the level of Cultivation Technique required for the competition.

However, improving the Earth Shifting Technique to incorporate a deep-sea walking scenario was an incredibly difficult task.

While Gu Ming and Lu You were pondering, the system’s plot was quietly updating. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

With nothing else to do, Gu Ming glanced at it out of the corner of his eye and saw the system’s text:

Year 545 Competition Task: How to upgrade a Cultivation Technique for Walking on Water into a Cultivation Technique for Void Walking. Note: Use of Space Law or Spatial Arrays will result in a lower score.

’Damn,’ Gu Ming thought. ’Thirty-two years’ difference, and the task has been upgraded from Walking on Water to Void Walking.’

You recall various Attribute-based Body Techniques for Walking on Water, feeling very frustrated.

As a fifty-year-old Old Deng, you have never contemplated such things.

Fortunately, your female classmate with severe social anxiety is once again caught in your Gravity Field and becomes your competition assistant, providing various plans for Walking on Water.

Gu Ming: "..."

’So is there any other information about Walking on Water?’

That was exactly what Gu Ming was missing right now.

Gu Ming waited in silence, searching through the library of knowledge in his mind, but found nothing new.

Just then, he suddenly remembered how to use the system’s bug and turned to look at his female teammate, Lu You, beside him.

She was sitting there, her brow furrowed in deep thought.

"Um... could you help me compile a list of all the publicly available Body Techniques for Walking on Water," Gu Ming said. "Both free and paid ones, put them all together for me."

Lu You nodded and her slender fingers immediately began to swipe rapidly across her tablet.

Before long, she had compiled a detailed list of papers and sent it to Gu Ming.

Gu Ming opened the file with great interest and began to review them one by one.

He didn’t skim, but instead read every single paper Lu You had collected with great care, committing each one to memory.

Watching this from the side, Lu You felt a warmth spread through her heart.

’I didn’t expect Gu Ming to read them so carefully.’

"You know..."

Lu You muttered under her breath, "I’m still not very good at this kind of thing."

She realized that some of the information actually needed further filtering.

At this thought, she suddenly felt a sense of responsibility on her shoulders.

She couldn’t just let Gu Ming struggle alone; she had to take the initiative and help lower the barrier to creation for him.

Although they had the ready-made Earth Shifting Technique that could be directly applied to the task, the competition required creating something from scratch.

This meant that if Mouse Treasure had already learned this Cultivation Technique, they would have to find a new Pet Beast to learn and verify it.

If the Cultivation Technique was too complex, it would be difficult to stand out in the competition and get a good score.

As Lu You organized the materials, she pondered ways to improve the Earth Shifting Technique.

Suddenly, an inspiration related to "Arrays" surfaced in her mind:

’How to lower the barrier for a Pet Beast to learn an Array... that seems to be the key to saving time in future competitions...’

’It’s Arrays!’

She decided to bring up the idea after Gu Ming finished reading the materials.

"You’re right! This is it!"

Gu Ming finished reading everything, and inspiration struck. An image formed in his mind.

Now, his mind contained not only all the key points about Walking on Water, but also many additional solutions that were outside the scope of Lu You’s summary.

This was the information provided by the "Lu You" from the future timeline.