Chapter 8: Introductory Stage of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade

“Haha…” In the large training room of the Fighter mansion, a small 7 year old boy was panting from utter exhaustion. But even as he panted, the large blade in his hands did not stop moving. Sweat dripped down his tiny body as he frantically struck down the rubber bullets raining down from the Reaction Testing Machine with his heavy sword. Like before, he wasn’t standing in the same place and blocking. Now, the boy was dodging the bullets with agile motions as he struck down the rubber bullets with his heavy sword!

Around a minute later, the rain of bullets from the reaction testing machine stopped and Yulian was finally given the opportunity to rest.  His body immediately splayed down on the hard ground. Immediately, Yulian began using the Spirit Immersion technique to cultivate Genetic Energy.

“Aah…” Yulian’s whole body was immersed in the cosmic energy of the world.  Using the ‘Spirit Immersion’ technique, Yulian drew a large amount of Genetic Energy and circulated it through his body into his Dantian. As his body was recovering its strength, Yulian’s pool of Genetic Energy also rose. 

15 minutes later, Yulian finally rose up from the ground and stretched his body. Crackling sounds rang out as he did a few simple motions. Seeing this sight, anyone would be hard-pressed to believe that it was a 7 year old boy practicing martial arts.

“As expected, when I train my movement and sword technique simultaneously, my entire body is trained to its limits. When I do this, I can use the ‘Spirit Immersion’ technique to its full potential!” Yulian had made an important discovery about the Spirit Immersion technique. This technique operated by absorbing Genetic Energy and dispersing it throughout the body. Since it was like this, obviously the best way to train was to equally exhaust every part of the body while training!

Yulian had searched the internet on ways to equally train the body. In this world of cultivation dominated by ferocious beasts, there were naturally many ways of fully training the body. However, most of these methods were restricted to Elite Martial Artists and Prospective Fighters. Since Yulian’s strength was lacking, if he tried these methods, the only result would be him getting crippled!

After some research, Yulian had set the Reaction Testing Machine to ‘Beginner Warrior’ level. The impact, speed and amount of the bullets had been increased so that it would only sting a Beginner Warrior-level Fighter, yet the impact of the rain of bullets would be just enough to train Yulian’s body to the pinnacle! The rain of bullets would only fall for 60 seconds. Anymore, and Yulian’s seven year old body would probably fall apart from the stress. Using this rudimentary technique, Yulian somehow managed to equally train every part of his body.

Yulian picked up his practice heavy sword and attacked one of the training dummies. His sword technique was based on the ‘Nine Yang Thunder Fist’ and thus was a simplified version of the ‘Nine Stage Thunder Blade’. He naturally turned the disadvantages of the heavy sword into advantages with his technique. His muscles operated perfectly, building his strength to its limits. After all, the Nine Stage Thunder Blade and thus the Nine Yang Thunder Fist operated by strengthening and coordinating the muscles in the body.

“Haah… this is too exhausting. Just when will I reach the stage where every sword swing causes my muscles to perfectly synchronize with each other?” Yulian knew that using the Reaction Testing Machine to train his body was only a rudimentary and imperfect way of training. That’s why he was aiming to coordinate his heavy sword technique and Nine Yang Thunder Fist technique to create way to mobilize every muscle in his body.

“The Nine Stage Thunder Blade controls every muscle in the body to maximize the strength of the Fighter. Since the Nine Yang Thunder Fist is the simplified version of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade, I don’t believe that I can’t reach the level of controlling every single muscle in my body by building off it!” Yulian’s eyes glinted with determination to fulfill his goals.

…

At dinnertime, Yulian was enthusiastically eating the delicious Monster Beast meat. Seeing this amusing sight, Martha the maid who was serving him faintly laughed. “Calm down. The meat isn’t going to disappear.” Paying no attention to the laughing maid, Yulian continued eating.

Fifteen minutes and four wiped plates later, Yulian’s hunger was finally sated. He drank some water to aid his digestion. “Hey Martha, let’s have a quick spar in the training arena.”

Hearing Yulian’s words, Martha gave a wry smile. Yulian always had a quick spar with her after lunch. Even though she handily beat him every time, he would continue to request her. Even though he never overdid it, it still caused her to be worried. After all, most kids weren’t used to repeatedly losing!

“Yeah, let’s go. I have been at a bottleneck for a long while, so it isn’t like wasting a few minutes will be a huge loss…” Martha smiled as she muttered these words. Yulian’s hearing had risen due to his cultivation, and hence he clearly heard the softly muttered words. He simply frowned as he walked alongside Martha to the training arena.

…

“So, the same rules as always. No attacking vital points and head, this is training match, blahblahblah. Are you ready?” Yulian brandished his heavy wooden sword at Martha as he waited for her answer. Martha simply nodded as she held her slim wooden sword.

Yulian immediately attacked Martha with a powerful swing of his heavy sword. Martha casually backed away to dodge the powerful attack. When Martha took the opportunity to attack, Yulian maneuvered his heavy sword so that her light blade only struck the flat of the heavy sword. With a quick movement, Yulian attacked Martha’s waist with his blade. Martha hurriedly backed away.

“I didn’t expect you to take the upper hand so quickly… Even with that ridiculously large sword, your sword technique is amazing.” Martha gave a wary smile as she prepared to attack. In response, Yulian simply took a guarding posture.

Like this, the two continued to spar. Ten minutes passed by in a blink of an eye.

A sheen of sweat covered Yulian’s forehead. Meanwhile, Martha was incomparably relaxed. “Are you done yet?”  She calmly asked with a gentle tone. Inwardly, she was rather impressed. His movement, speed and strength had made a vast improvement since their previous spar. Actually, she was having trouble holding back now…

Yulian simply shook his head before taking a stance. His body arched forward, Yulian gripped the heavy sword with his two hands, with most of the weight resting on his right hand. Then, with an extremely fast motion, he attacked.

At that movement, all the muscles in his body synchronized with each other. The power behind the sword was incomparably strengthened. Facing his sword, Martha felt a hint of danger. She braced herself and hurriedly held the flat of her slim blade to guard.

When the practice blades struck each other, the power behind Yulian’s sword did not snap Martha’s sword into half. In fact, Martha was surprised to find out that the impact of the hit on her blade was even lesser than usual! Needless to say, Yulian was even more surprised by this. Taking advantage of Yulian’s state, Martha instantly disarmed Yulian and won.

“That previous sword strike was extremely weird. Forgetting about that, you have certainly made improvements. Getting personal instruction from that Warlord seems to be rather effective for your training.” Martha smiled as she said that. Actually, Martha had gained some advice from her seniors in the HR Alliance, yet nothing proved effective in helping her breakthrough her bottleneck. Yet, Yulian’s weird sword technique which appeared strong yet was rather weak had given her some insight…

Yulian didn’t reply to Martha’s words, as his astonishment hadn’t worn off. Yulian wasn’t stupid; he recognized the reason why the strength behind his blow had suddenly decreased.

If an ordinary person uses 100% of his strength while attacking, a person training with the Nine Stage Thunder Blade uses 70% strength in his attack! After unleashing the first stage of the attack, they will force themselves to unleash another stage, also at 70% of the attack! Like this, the total strength behind the attack will be 140%! Since Yulian’s blow held the strength of only 70%, Yulian had succeeded in using the Introductory Stage of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade!

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…

After this incident, Yulian found out that the coordination between his muscles had risen by a lot. However, he could not recreate the technique he used again. He frantically trained and tried to recreate that state, yet it was impossible. Soon, hours passed by and it was 6:00 PM, evening.

The small figure of a 7 year old was holding a comically large sword and smashing it on a training dummy. There was no real skill behind the attacks, and every attack was used to relieve frustration. Just then, Martha entered the training arena.

“Your attacks have gotten rather sloppy now. Looks like you are pretty frustrated, huh?”

“Yeah, just relieving stress. Why are you here? Interested in another spar?” Hearing Yulian’s words, Martha simply laughed. “I came to check my fist strength out.”

Yulian recalled Martha’s words. “I thought you were stuck on a bottleneck?” Martha smiled. “I was stuck on a bottleneck before this. Now I have broken through!”

‘Wasn’t she on the peak of the Elite rank before this? Does this mean… that she has crossed over to the realm of a Prospective Fighter?’ Only this single thought filled Yulian’s mind. The difference between an Elite Rank and a Prospective Fighter was as wide as the gulf between Heaven and Earth. Most genius martial artist’s fist strength would hover between 750-850 kg at the age of 18, yet they would only end up breaking through to a Fighter before the age of 21.

Martha walked up to the Fist Testing Machine and attacked with a firm punch. ‘922 kg!’ Unexpectedly, the fist strength was firmly above 900 kg! “Congratulations, Martha! It looks like you can be a Fighter now!” Yulian smiled as he spoke.

“This isn’t enough. I’ll have to train my reaction speed and agility before I can become a certified Prospective Fighter… though the biggest hurdle has been crossed. It won’t be difficult to avail special training from the HR Alliance. From what it looks like, I won’t be able to be a maid here for much longer.” Martha smiled as she replied.

 “That’s good... though it will be difficult to move to another maid. Also, I think Jack will be a bit disappointed…” Thinking about Jack Whitney, Yulian muttered a few words. It appeared that Martha didn’t catch Yulian’s mutterings. She continued to speak. “Well, since I had breakthrough today after I sparred with, I’ll give you a treat. Instead of the usual evening snack, I’ll take you to a mid-class restaurant. Order anything you want, I’ll buy!”

…

Needless to say, Yulian quickly accepted. Both of them quickly got dressed and they set out for a nice restaurant. Instead of ordering a driverless car, Martha decided to walk. Under the light glare of the setting sun, Yulian and Martha walked through the roads of the metropolis of New York.

This world was an anomaly where the ancient martial arts and advanced technology could exist together. The city of New York had changed in many ways. Giant electronic billboards flashed advertisements. All kinds of people walked the roads of the city. Some of them were teenage students. Some of them were middle aged workers. Few of them were fighters. All of them had a hidden edge, a wariness that had been engraved deep into their bones.

This was something common to soldiers. In this chaotic world where the threat of monsters invading cities and massacring was a possibility, military discipline had been engraved into every single citizen. Even if you can’t fight against monsters, at the very least, you should not obstruct those who fight them and rescue you. Based on this thought, every single person here had been trained and disciplined.

Yulian explored his beloved city with new eyes. Almost everything had changed.

“Back in the Grand Nirvana period, New York was a harbor city. Of course, the ‘original’ New York was completely devastated by sea monsters during the Grand Nirvana period. This city of New York is quite a distance away from the original New York’s location. Currently, the area where the ‘original’ New York stood has turned into an extremely dangerous location with Commander and Horde Leader level snake-type monsters covering it.” Seeing Yulian’s inquisitiveness, Martha gave him some random tidbits.

Martha’s words brought Yulian back to reality. The New York he was exploring wasn’t the New York he had been born in. But that was something he knew already. Martha’s words brought another fact to his mind. Among the original residents of New York were his friends and family. If he had been sent to another world then his friends and family will be safe in his original world. But if he was actually sent to the future…

Yulian’s thoughts wandered to his family. He had a mother, a father and an elder brother. This was the stereotypical American nuclear family. If he had been sent to the future then it was likely that his family had died either when the RR Virus spread out or when New York was destroyed by the chaotic monster horde…

Yulian immediately stopped his thought process. ‘No matter what, I’ll think about it after I break through to a Fighter and solve the disaster that my Spirit Force has brought upon me.’ If he couldn’t save himself, it would be meaningless to think of other things!

…

Finally, they arrived at the restaurant. It looked somewhat posh, and Yulian knew that the dishes here would be somewhat expensive. However he didn’t hold back. Martha was going to be a Fighter and even a beginner Fighter could make millions.

Instead of meat dishes, he ordered vegetarian. He tried out numerous dishes, determined to leave Martha with a poorer purse. Martha too ordered some expensive dishes to celebrate. She focused more over desserts.

Two hours later, Yulian had eaten until he could eat no more. Martha paid the bill with her credit card.

“It wasn’t too expensive, was it?” With a wry smile, Yulian asked Martha. “I… blew away months of my salary on these dishes. You went really overboard.” Martha’s smile was extremely cold.

“You’ll be a Fighter in no time at all. When you will be making millions, such small expenses will be the last thing on your mind.” With a childish smile, Yulian reminded Martha.

“Hopefully…” Martha muttered this lightly, yet her cold gaze did not cease.

…

After hiring a driverless car, Yulian and Martha made their way back to the house. Unexpectedly, it was already 8:30 PM. Their ‘date’ had taken a surprisingly long time.

Martha drew a keycard from her wallet and inserted it into a slot on the door.  After a short ‘beep’, the door opened up. Near the door, there was a small chair. A small black bag was messily thrown on it.

“Looks like Jack has already arrived home. How unexpected, I am usually the person who greets him home…” Just as Martha faintly muttered these words, Jack came over to greet them.

“Had fun, both of you?”  Jack said these words with a half-smile on his face.

“Yeah, Martha took me to a restaurant for free! I ate lots and lots of tasty foods with weird names like penne cotta, pizza… You should have come too.” Yulian spoke like an ordinary, excited child. However, both Jack and Martha knew that this was a façade. Jack clearly remembered the day he was maneuvered by this child into becoming his guardian. Martha knew that any child who could bitterly train for more than 12 hours could not be normal.

But, both of them thought that Yulian was simply more intelligent than his peers, a genius. They could never have thought that Yulian was actually a reincarnated soul.

Yulian casually smiled. “Well, I ate so much that now I am completely filled with energy! I’ll return to my room to train and burn this energy off!” Completely ignoring Jack and Martha’s bemused expression, Yulian ran off. Tomorrow, his last training session with Zhang Wei would arrive. He had to be at his peak condition tomorrow, to take complete advantage of it!