First Form of the Ninefold Thunder Blade

County-level City No. 0349.

Whoosh! A streak of blade light like flowing fire cut through the air at a precise angle, flashing across the neck of a Green Scale Wolf that stood three meters tall and was covered in green scales.

As Wang Yi viciously slashed open the neck of the Green Scale Wolf before him, he suddenly seemed to catch his foot on something. He stumbled, his body dipping just enough to evade another Green Scale Wolf pouncing from behind. At the same time, he spun around, and the bloodstained Flowing Fire Battle Blade in his hand became another cold streak of light, slicing upward through his ambusher's soft belly. Blood and entrails instantly poured out.

"Nice!" The members of the Storm Squad watched from nearby. None of them intended to intervene as a pack of Green Scale Wolves surrounded Wang Yi in the street.

There were roughly twenty Green Scale Wolves, each at the Advanced Beast Soldier level. They moved like the wind, coordinated seamlessly, and were both vicious and cunning. Even an ordinary Elementary Warlord Level fighter would have been thrown into a scramble by their combined assault, yet Wang Yi handled them with ease.

In the blink of an eye, more than half the Green Scale Wolves were dead or wounded. The remaining wolves seemed frightened too. With a howl, they turned and fled, no longer daring to surround Wang Yi.

One Green Scale Wolf was a little too slow to escape. A figure darted to its side, clinging to it like its own shadow, impossible to shake off. A chilling streak of blood-colored blade light flashed, and the next instant, the wolf's head flew off.

"Awoooo!" The other Green Scale Wolves scattered in terror.

Wang Yi did not pursue the monsters. Instead, he stood where he was and began cleaning the Flowing Fire Battle Blade in his hand, seemingly unconcerned about the materials on the monster corpses scattered across the ground.

"This kid." Captain Jiang Feng shook his head. Behind him, Zhao Wei and the other squad members had already walked over with grins and begun harvesting the materials with practiced ease.

Although materials from Advanced Beast Soldier level monsters were worth far less than those from Beast General level monsters, small amounts added up to a considerable fortune.

The materials from the Green Scale Wolves Wang Yi had just killed alone could sell for over a hundred thousand when they brought them back.

Wang Yi had only earned a few tens of thousands a year tutoring in the past.

And how little time had this taken?

So it was no exaggeration to say that martial artists were wealthy. The stronger a martial artist was, the greater their haul in the Wilderness Area, and the more money they could earn.

However, their spending on weapons, combat suits, medicines, secret manuals, and the like was also astonishing.

At that moment, Wang Yi had his head lowered, pondering the finer details of the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade techniques he had used in the battle.

He kept turning them over in his mind.

Vague threads of insight began to emerge.

He had to admit that actual combat really did help tremendously with understanding blade techniques!

And most astonishingly powerful secret manuals and ultimate techniques had, in fact, been conceived and refined through actual combat.

Originally, the Storm Squad had planned to bring Wang Yi into the Wilderness Area to hone his skills.

But they later discovered that this kid was far more monstrous than they had imagined!

In the end, Wang Yi spent his time refining his blade techniques in the Wilderness Area, while the Storm Squad became actual babysitters.

Still, every member of the Storm Squad was perfectly willing.

Seeing that Wang Yi seemed to be staring into space, Jiang Feng did not disturb him. Only after his teammates had collected most of the monster materials and packed them into their backpacks did he approach the contemplative youth and say, "Wang Yi, it's about time. We should go."

Wang Yi emerged from his thoughts and looked around. He noticed faint signs of monsters nearby, drawn over by the commotion of the battle and the heavy smell of blood.

Wang Yi nodded. The entire Storm Squad moved forward in silence, exchanging only an occasional quiet remark as they quickly left the street where the slaughter had just taken place.

That night, a bright moon hung high in the pitch-black sky, casting down pure moonlight. The entire abandoned city seemed draped in a thin veil of silver.

In a corner beneath the rooftop eaves of a fifteen-story residential building in the eastern part of the city, a young man sat quietly in the shadows, his head raised as he gazed at the moon. Beside him lay two gleaming battle blades that gave off a faint red glow.

"I've been training in the Wilderness Area for almost half a month, and we'll be heading back soon. I've gained some insights and made some progress with the First Form of the Ninefold Thunder Blade during this time, but I still can't figure out how to master it and make my body produce an extra burst of hidden force. I'm still stuck where I started."

Wang Yi felt troubled.

The Nine Heavens Thunder Blade was one of the finest secret manuals in the world, and one of the strongest ultimate techniques among human martial artists!

Its creator was Thunder God, the second-strongest person in the world!

The Nine Heavens Thunder Blade was also known as the ultimate technique with the most difficult first step. Practicing it required exceptional talent and comprehension; even many War Gods might not succeed in mastering it.

Wang Yi kept recalling the contents and explanations in the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade.

The power of the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade's techniques came from a remarkable method of exerting force.

An ordinary person might slash with all their strength, using one hundred percent of their power! But a practitioner of the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade would use only seventy percent when slashing. While releasing that first burst of force, they would strive to make their body produce a second burst, also at seventy percent. The two bursts combined would amount to one hundred and forty percent!

The Nine Heavens Thunder Blade had nine layers in total. The first layer allowed the user to release one extra burst of hidden force, delivering one hundred and forty percent of their strength!

The second layer allowed two extra bursts of hidden force, delivering two hundred and ten percent of their strength!

The ninth layer allowed nine extra bursts of hidden force, delivering seven hundred percent of their strength! That was a full seven times their original physical strength.

But it was easy to describe and harder than climbing to heaven to accomplish. Otherwise, the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade would not have been known as the secret manual with the most difficult first step!

Even across the entire world, few people had successfully mastered the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade.

How exactly did Luo Feng master the First Form of the Ninefold Thunder Blade in the original story? Wang Yi racked his brains, but those memories were too old and had already grown hazy. He could not possibly remember every detail of the original story clearly. He only remembered that Luo Feng had grasped the third layer after killing Li Wei, when a sudden peal of thunder inspired him as he practiced his blade techniques alone at night in a city in the Wilderness Area. As for the fourth layer, he had abruptly grasped it in a desperate burst during a life-or-death duel against another student in the Virtual Space. Wang Yi did not even want to complain about that kind of protagonist treatment.

But no matter how hard Wang Yi thought, he could not remember how Luo Feng had mastered the first and second layers.

"Looks like I really don't have a protagonist's luck..." Wang Yi felt a little wistful.

The golden panel appeared in his mind.

"Sign in."

The golden panel did not budge.

Just as he had expected.

Wang Yi pursed his lips.

He picked up the Flowing Fire Battle Blade at his feet and stood, his gaze growing resolute.

Whoosh! He slashed, swift as racing thunder.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh... Wang Yi's figure shifted across the rooftop as his battle blade slashed again and again. He freely executed the eighteen blade moves of the First Form of the Ninefold Thunder Blade, which he had practiced until he knew them by heart. Under the moonlight, ribbons of pale red blade light seemed to appear.

Suddenly, immersed in the artistic conception of blade technique, Wang Yi happened to lower his head and look at his own shadow. A spark of inspiration flashed through his mind, and he froze.

My shadow?

He seemed to have grasped something and thought furiously.

The blade, the shadow, hidden force...

Merge the two into one...

As his train of thought grew clearer, the fog that had shrouded his mind dispersed, and Wang Yi's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Whoosh!

He sprang high into the air, simultaneously bringing the Flowing Fire Battle Blade in his hand down in a fierce slash.

The instant he unleashed the first slash, his body trembled slightly and generated another burst of force. The two bursts fused into one, making the power of Wang Yi's strike surge!

"Hahahaha..."

Wang Yi could not help laughing.

After more than twenty days of practice, he had finally mastered the First Form of the Ninefold Thunder Blade.

The joy that came with this sense of achievement was even stronger than what he had felt upon receiving the First Calamity of the Nine-Calamity Secret Manual as his first reward from the Sign-in Panel.