Bright Light Swordplay

Early morning.

As usual, Lin Yan woke at six o'clock, guided by his biological clock.

He got up and felt himself out, only to feel as though he had been reborn. Earth-shaking changes had taken place in his body.

He felt that if he took the test again now, his results might double. Yes, double—an unbelievable word.

His first absorption of cosmic energy had lasted a full six hours before his cells were completely saturated. Now, he felt endless power surging within him.

This was merely a cognitive discrepancy caused by the drastic increase in his strength.

He washed up, looked at himself in the mirror, flashed his pearly whites, and snapped his fingers. "I even got more handsome..."

Then he got dressed and left his room.

As he passed the conference room, he saw that the lights inside were on. Lin Yan poked his head in and saw Liu Mingxuan bent over the conference table, writing something.

Sensing Lin Yan's gaze, Liu Mingxuan did not even raise his head. "Did your attempt at sensing it last night work?"

"Of course." Lin Yan walked in and patted his chest. "I'm practically swelling with confidence now."

"That's fine." Liu Mingxuan arranged the documents in front of him and stood up. "Once you get beaten up by a monster, you won't be so puffed up anymore."

Lin Yan was somewhat surprised. "I didn't expect someone as aloof as you to make jokes."

Liu Mingxuan gave him a strange look and said seriously, "I'm not joking."

Lin Yan was speechless.

After breakfast, they put on their full sets of combat gear, brought along all kinds of supplies, and took a military vehicle to the military garrison closest to City 032.

Next, they would cross the Wilderness Area and head for City 032.

Lin Yan had also collected his full set of Series 5 combat equipment from the armory in advance. It was enough to defend against and deal with most mid-level D-rank Beast General monsters. His weapon was an A5 model from the Heavenly Gang series, not much different in style from Liu Mingxuan's, forged primarily from Level 2 Kro Alloy.

However, Liu Mingxuan's battle sword was pure black, while his was silver-white.

Lin Yan was a little worried that this silver-white color might be too flashy. Chen Lian explained that color could not confuse a monster's senses at all—unless he had long, glowing rainbow hair that changed color with his mood. In that case, his chances of dying would indeed be a little higher.

Lin Yan suspected there was something wrong with Chen Lian's reading habits, and he had evidence, but Chen Lian refused to admit it.

Lin Yan also picked up an M92 High-Precision Sniper Rifle—the dream gun his original self had always yearned for—which could kill E-rank monsters comparable to Beginner War Generals.

Even Li Tao came over to touch it a couple of times. He usually used machine guns and rarely used sniper rifles.

They were not martial artist squads that hunted monsters for their carcass materials in exchange for resources. Whenever they did not need to make a move, they would not; their full focus was on traveling.

The military was not a loose organization like a martial arts school. Even if martial arts schools had extremely many contracted martial artists, with some experts far surpassing those in the government and military, the schools were merely a bond connecting them, not a community capable of pooling strength in a systematic manner.

As for the government and military, they did not need military martial artists to enter the Wilderness Area to hunt monsters for corpse materials. They preferred to use their strength to maintain social stability and defend the inviolability of human territory.

As for monster materials, so long as they existed on the market, the nation was the buyer with the greatest means. Besides, every year, quite a few of Huaxia's base cities faced monster tides. Was there any hunt more efficient than war?

Still, the Wilderness Area was the Wilderness Area.

It was the monsters' domain.

They had no way to travel at a high speed, and they also needed suitable opportunities to temper the young warriors.

That's right, yours truly!

"Lin Yan, you handle this one," Liu Mingxuan ordered.

Lin Yan took a look. It was an F-rank Tiger Mastiff, its pupils blood-red. It kept growling at the group before it, yet it was wary and did not dare charge forward.

Without another word, he took off his firearm and tossed it to Chen Lian, who stood nearby. Battle sword in hand, he charged straight at the Tiger Mastiff.

Seeing Lin Yan rush directly toward it, the Tiger Mastiff's ferocity erupted as well. It lunged forward viciously.

Lin Yan watched its savage posture coldly. Every movement it made was broken down before his eyes, and he could even identify the point where the power in its body failed to flow smoothly through its movements.

"Heh."

He sneered, and as his sword fell, muffled thunder rumbled.

Squelch!

Lin Yan's figure slipped past the Tiger Mastiff's pounce. Silver sword light flashed like lightning as the sharp blade pierced through its body, then swiftly withdrew, sending up a spray of blood.

The Tiger Mastiff's heavy corpse slammed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"A monster!"

Bu Wenxing said blankly.

Although Tiger Mastiffs were not powerful among monsters of the same rank, he knew he could not have killed this monster so easily.

Was this really a Beginner Warrior?

Wasn't this actually a Beginner War General pretending to be one?

Lin Yan calmly wiped the blood from his blade on the Tiger Mastiff's fur, sheathed his sword, took the sniper rifle back from Chen Lian, and slung it over his back again.

Chen Lian stared at him in shock.

The others looked about the same.

Lin Yan scratched the back of his head. "You don't have to stare at me like that. At my current level, I can only kill things like this. Against E-rank monsters, my damage isn't enough—I'd just be scratching them..."

"Who told you to kill E-rank monsters?" Bu Xiangyang spat on the ground and patted Lin Yan on the back. "You brat really are a monster!"

"What Beginner Warrior kills a high-level Beast Soldier like they're slaughtering chickens?"

"Uh..." Lin Yan could not help glancing at the Tiger Mastiff's corpse. "Maybe change that to killing dogs. Saying slaughtering chickens feels kind of weird to me."

After all, he was a very rigorous person.

However, when his eyes landed on the battle sword in Bu Xiangyang's hand, his thoughts stirred again. "Brother Yang, what sword technique do you practice?"

"What?" Bu Xiangyang looked at him speechlessly. "Is the Po Jun Sword not enough for you to practice?"

Lin Yan smiled awkwardly. "That one's too difficult. I can't make heads or tails of it for now, so I thought I'd draw some parallels. Brother Yang, please give your little brother some pointers."

That was not a lie. Before setting out that morning, he had memorized the Po Jun Sword manual. It truly was complicated; every sentence seemed profound, and every sentence was incomprehensible.

It would probably take quite a long time before he could even get started.

"I practice the A-rank Thunderclap Sword. I exchanged for it in the military, so I can't teach it to you. I also know a D-rank Bright Light Swordplay, but your Thunderclap Sword is already at the fifth level, so there's no point in teaching it to you."

Bu Xiangyang said, "But if you really want to learn it, I don't have a problem with that."

D-rank sword techniques came from a wide range of sources and generally had no restrictions against being taught. They were not anything rare, either. If Lin Yan truly wanted to learn, Bu Xiangyang did not mind.

"Sure." Lin Yan responded, "A stone from another mountain can sharpen one's own jade."

Thus, Bu Xiangyang began teaching Lin Yan Bright Light Swordplay.

Because of his swordsmanship, swords like the Heavenly Gang Battle Sword were somewhat too long for Bu Xiangyang and could not fully bring out his strength. His battle sword belonged to the Seven-Star series.

Partway through, Lin Yan showed considerable interest in the Seven-Star Battle Sword. Using the excuse of wanting to inspect Bu Xiangyang's battle sword, he got hold of his weapon.

Seven-Star Battle Sword: A5 model, forged primarily from Level 2 Kro Alloy. It could fight most E-rank monsters without concern of damage.

Skill Inheritance:

1. Thunderclap Sword (A-rank) (Level 1), Skill Owner: Bu Xiangyang. Requires 30 points of Soul Power to learn.

2. Sword Skill: Bright Light (D-rank) (Level 4), Skill Owner: Bu Xiangyang. Requires 15 points of Soul Power to learn.

Lin Yan glanced at his own panel.

Soul Power: 46

Well, wasn't that convenient?

Originally, Lin Yan had planned to learn Bright Light Swordplay first. If he did not have enough Soul Power afterward, he would save up more, then use practicing Bright Light Swordplay with the Seven-Star Battle Sword as an excuse to borrow it again and learn Thunderclap Sword.

But it just so happened that he had exactly enough Soul Power.

The familiar warm current surged from the Seven-Star Battle Sword into every limb and bone of Lin Yan's body. Thunderclap Sword and Sword Skill: Bright Light appeared in his skill list.

Thunderclap Sword generated the trait "Lightning." Merging identical traits.

Sword Skill: Bright Light generated the trait "Blinding."