After his breakthrough, Yulian reached the perfected 1st Layer of the 108 Stars Diagram. After consolidating his spirit force, Yulian decided that it was time to complete his original aim and modify the Nine Stage Thunder Blade’s techniques for his personal use!

The Nine Stage Thunder Blade’s Dao Yin technique, Nine Stage Hun Yuan was the base of the technique, and did not need to be changed according to the wielder. However, modifying the blade and footwork techniques was important.

Yulian had trained the blade and footwork techniques of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade to the 3rd Stage while the Dao Yin technique had reached 5th Stage. To train the 4th stage of the blade and footwork technique, he would have to reconstruct the Nine Stage Thunder Blade from scratch, and adapt it for his personal use.

He had memorized the entirety of the technique manual and watched every accompanying video demonstration. Since it was like this, going through the manual again would be meaningless. So, the only path was to train by himself and create a new Nine Stage Thunder Blade from its essence that he had comprehended! Yulian took up his favored 7 foot blade and began slashing out!

Horizontal slash, vertical slash, piercing strike, backslash, sweeping slash, overhead slash… all kinds of blade techniques were utilized. These techniques were the entire repertoire of blade forms in the Nine Stage Thunder Blade. Yulian’s blade flashed with golden bladelight, something formed when his blade technique surpassed the Intermediate realm.

With his spirit force, he analyzed every single motion of the blade countless times, weeding out all imperfections and minute problems. At the same time, he cross-referenced it with the Nine Stage Thunder Blade manual he had memorized. All techniques were analyzed from the base to perfection. Finally, he completed his analysis of the blade technique.

“So the base of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade technique is ‘vibration’. Even the basic blade techniques which are the simplest include ‘vibration’ within them. To reconstruct the blade technique to my taste, I have to use ‘vibration’ as the base…” Saying this, Yulian slashed out a single blade strike.

The blade vibrated, as if trembling with fear as it slashed out. Like this, Yulian began slashing out countless blade forms, all imbued with a type of vibration. The essence of ‘vibration’ was the foundation of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade, and Yulian imbued every blade form with vibrating attacks. One vibration, two vibrations, four vibrations, eight vibrations… the number of vibrations with each blade slash began to double, finally stopping at 32 vibrations.

“This isn’t enough. To create my first blade technique, I need an ‘element’ to accompany the vibrations as the base. An element that can be used to create lightning and can complement the ‘vibration’ of the blade…”

After some pondering, Yulian decided on fire as the foundation for his technique! He had the highest comprehension of fire, with metal and lightning coming second. Since fire and metal combined to give birth to lightning in his dantian, he had gained an innate understanding of lightning as well. Using this innate understanding of lightning to create the technique would make his Nine Stage Thunder Blade a completely unique technique!

Yulian imbued his blade with fire, drawing from the pure fire energy of the Fire Stone in the depths of his dantian. The fire energy was circulated in various ways, sometimes thin and sharp, sometimes thick and bursting, sometimes a flash of light, brilliant yet short-lived… Yulian had built up a good comprehension of fire in cultivation. All that comprehension was drawn into the various blade strikes slashed out.

Yulian soon entered a tempo as he slashed out the blade strikes. While creating a blade technique, the most important thing is building up the momentum of the blows. The first strike should link to and build up on the force of the second strike which should build up to the third strike… He also began to simultaneously use his footwork to move while using the Dao Yin technique to circulate energy.

The Dao Yin technique controlled the breath. The blade technique controlled the hands. The footwork technique controlled the feet. Like this, the Nine Stage Thunder Blade controlled the entire body to burst out its full potential! While retrofitting the Nine Stage Thunder Blade, Yulian had to be careful to maintain this!

Time passed by like water as Yulian went all out to refine his own version of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade. The Dao Yin technique was the foundation for the blade technique which further served as the foundation for the footwork technique. The movement of the breath, hands and feet had to be synchronized perfectly. To reach this perfect state, Yulian drove himself into practice!

12:00 AM

Hours passed by, until it was night. The maid of this Fighter Mansion, Stella had noticed Yulian’s lengthy practice. “He usually practices for three hours a day… yet he has been practicing for more than 12 hours now. Did he get an insight of some sort?” She didn’t worry about him starving due to his cultivation; the special state he was in would allow him to commune with the world, allowing him to draw energy with ease.

However, Yulian had not entered any special state… he was simply analyzing the Nine Stage Thunder Blade to retrofit it for his own use. The only reason he was able to train for this long was due to his large pool of energy and durable meridians. He even referred to the energy circulation paths of the Fire and Metal Stones that refined every single cell of the body to create his blade technique. However… all his efforts were unfruitful. After hours of bitter training, he had gained insight into some paths… however, all these paths were lacking in some or the other way.

“This feels like one of those times when I would get stuck on some assignment in college… I used to get drunk on some cheap beer and smoke some Marlboros to get buzzed up…” An unexpected memory entered Yulian’s mind, causing him to suddenly burst up with laughter. His friends always thought of it as a copout, but Yulian liked the buzz that came with cheap cigarettes and beers… he could more or less control himself after getting into such a state, and he wouldn’t end up doing something crazy that he would end up regretting later.

“Stella, are you hearing me? Get me six 6-packs of cheap beers and some packets of Marlboro cigarettes! I need it to breakthrough!” Without thinking further about it, Yulian decided to ask Stella to fetch the cheap addictives for him.

‘Boom!’ The sound of a powerful Warlord level fighter using her well trained agility technique to maximize her speed was heard. And the reason she was running was to buy some cheap beer and cigarettes for a 7 year old. If this story was told to any fighter, they would be left in disbelief!

Meanwhile, Yulian was stunned as well. He didn’t even specify the brand of his cigarettes or beer! That said if Stella had actually asked, he would be unable to reply. This was because all the brands Yulian knew were dated to 2013!

‘I need it to breakthrough!’… These words caused Stella to run off without even waiting for Yulian to speak. All fighters have the chance of entering a wondrous state of enlightenment. The reasons for the enlightenment could be mystical, like applying a powerful body tempering medicine like Dragon’s Blood. Of course, a completely random event like getting dead drunk might also lead to spontaneous enlightenment!

That said, it was known that Spirit Readers had a greater chance of enlightenment. And Yulian had been training like a madman since the morning, something that occurred once a blue moon! If Stella did not get him the cheap cigarettes and beer, Yulian might fail to complete the enlightenment he gained. If he complained about it to Catalan like a brat, she might wind up losing her head!

Only two minutes had passed before six cardboard boxes filled with beer and some cigarette boxes appeared before him, dumped by Stella who was still wearing the maid outfit. Before she disappeared, she left a lighter and a beer cap opener.

Yulian quickly opened up a beer bottle and gulped down a beer. It tasted like water, and was barely alcoholic. It was cold, though. The beers he drunk by mooching off his friends in university were rarely cold, he would have to spend his own cash to get them cool.

After that, he tore open a cigarette box and took out a cigarette. Twirling it between his fingers, he caused it to spontaneously light up. “Using the Nine Stage Thunder Blade to light up a cigarette, isn’t this using an ox-chopping blade to kill a chicken?” After bastardizing a Chinese idiom, he laughed crazily and began smoking.

The cold beer complemented the heat of the cigarette entering his lips. Misty white smoke gently danced, blown out of Yulian’s lips. The combination caused Yulian to buzz up a little. He took another bottle of beer, blew off the cap with a flick of a finger and drank the whole bottle in a single gulp. After that, he took out another cigarette, lit it with a touch before smoking it as well!

Drink and smoke, drink and smoke, drink and smoke! Yulian would always take cheap beer and cigarettes due to his large, unpaid student loans rendering him a poor guy. He would have to take a job immediately after graduation and slog through if he wanted to live free without debt collectors hounding him… however, Yulian had died! His student debts? The ***king debt collectors could interrogate his ghost!

Like this, countless thoughts about his past life as a student came and went, resolved by the ice of the beer and fire of the cigarette. The countless worries of his previous life disappeared, and he was left with only excitement for his new life.

Yulian finally drank through his last beer. Even though these beers were cheap and tasted like water, they still had a hint of alcohol in it and Yulian had drunk 6 packs containing 6 beers each! Yulian was quite drunk now. He still had some cigarette packs left, so he took out a cigarette, lit it and quietly observed the smoke drift into the air.

“Cold beer… and hot cigarettes… perfect. This cigarette’s heat… cannot be appreciated… without cold…” As he drunkenly blabbered on, Yulian smoked one cigarette after another. The smoke drifted about, going out of the window leaving the closed room to the starry sky outside.

Yulian looked out of the window, at the starry sky hazed by the smoke. Seeing this, in his drunken state Yulian had a strange enlightenment.

Outside the window, the stars outside were fiery masses of heat. Yet their heat could not be felt. A star was hot, yet cold as well.

Picking up his 7 foot blade, Yulian began swinging it. The blade was covered by flames, radiating heat. As if dissatisfied, Yulian tried his best to control the heat of the fire, to make it colder. But how could a fire ever be cold?

Swing, swing, swing.

The blade did not shine and was not heated. Even though genetic energy was poured into the blade blow, it did not augment the power of the blade blow.

But this ‘ordinary’ blade strike was more profound than any of Yulian’s earlier blade strikes. The invisible heat radiating off the blade created a mirage, confusing the opponent with myriad blade shadows. However, seeing this Yulian was rather dissatisfied. There was no power behind this blade blow.

Yulian began to practice his new blade technique. Hours passed on, yet there was no great change in the technique. However, Yulian’s was still rather drunk and wasn’t willing to give up yet. Soon, the time came for the stars to fade and the moon to give way for the sun.

A single ray of violet sunlight flashed, and Yulian was struck by sudden inspiration. His sword slashed out like the sunray, a streak of violet light. One, two, three consecutive strikes were slashed out, all building up on the power of the preceding blows. The fourth strike returned the color of the blade edge to dull white.

“The first violet ray of sunlight is weak, yet it brings warmth and illuminates the world. The successive rays build up on the heat produced, but their charm cannot be compared to the first ray! This blade technique is the 1st stage of my own Nine Stage Thunder Blade! This move… shall be called Violetsun Radiance!”

The Violetsun Radiance was created from sudden enlightenment, fusing hot and cold. Like the first ray of sunlight, it served as a weak but fast technique for building up momentum in battle for later, more aggressive techniques. It was also mirage-based and illusionary, capable of confusing the enemy. It could be used for three successive strikes, building momentum and boosting the power behind every blow!