The Second Layer

The pace of the hunt was much faster than Lin Yun had anticipated.

The harvest from the first to the third day was already astonishing, but Lin Zheng was clearly not satisfied with this. On the morning of the fourth day, he gathered everyone for a short meeting.

"Next, we are heading deep into the West Lake District." Lin Zheng drew a simple map on the ground with his short blade. "Based on our experience from the last few times, the middle section of the canal has the highest density of monsters, especially snakes. The skin and fangs of a Mutated Water Python have always been in short supply on the market; the materials from a single adult Intermediate Beast General level python can sell for over thirty million."

Everyone nodded, having no objections to the captain's arrangements.

On the fourth day, the squad continued deeper along the canal.

The river surface grew wider, and the buildings on both banks became more dense. Collapsed high-rises, capsized ships, and streets submerged in water—everything here spoke of the tragic devastation during the Great Nirvana period.

"There's a water python." Liu Xu, who was walking at the front, suddenly stopped and said in a low voice.

Everyone followed her gaze. On the river ahead, a Mutated Water Python as thick as a water barrel was coiled on the wreckage of a sunken ship, lazily basking in the sun. Its dark green scales shimmered with an eerie light under the sunlight, and its triangular head was slightly raised, as if it were wary of something.

"Primary Beast General." Lin Zheng judged. "Lin Yun, you take it."

Lin Yun gripped his Blood Shadow Battle Blade and approached silently. After the practical training of the past few days, his stealth skills had undergone a qualitative leap—his footsteps were as light as a cat's, his breathing was even and long, and he even kept his heartbeat at the lowest possible frequency.

The water python seemed to sense something, its head snapping toward Lin Yun's direction. But before it could react, Lin Yun's blade had already slashed out.

Arc Blade Technique—this was one of the most practical skills he had learned from Liu Xu. The battle blade drew a graceful arc in the air, bypassing the python's fangs to strike precisely at its vital spot.

The blade cut into flesh, and dark green blood gushed out. The water python let out a sharp hiss, its body twisting violently as its thick tail swept over. Lin Yun was prepared; while dodging to the side, his second strike was already unleashed—this time a direct overhead Chop, with two layers of force stacked, fully erupting with the power of the first layer of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade.

The water python's head was severed upon impact, and its massive body twitched a few times before it stopped moving.

"Good!" Shen Yang cheered in the communication channel.

Lin Yun sheathed his blade, his expression unchanged. This was already the fourth Primary Beast General level water python he had killed; from his initial nervousness and clumsiness to his current fluidity, his progress was visible to the naked eye.

"Your blade technique is becoming more and more proficient." Liu Xu walked over and checked the water python's carcass. "However, there is still room for improvement in your force exertion. You are already very skilled with the first layer, but the second layer... have you touched upon the threshold yet?"

Lin Yun shook his head. The key to the second layer of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade lay in the stacking of three layers of force—building upon the two layers of the first, and then triggering a third. He had tried many times, but he could never find that feeling.

"Don't rush." Liu Xu patted his shoulder. "Take it slow."

Over the next two days, the Thunder Blade Squad launched a targeted hunt against python-type monsters in the canal area.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, they discovered two Intermediate Beast General level Mutated Water Pythons beneath an abandoned bridge. These two pythons were a full size larger than the previous ones, their scales covered in dark red patterns, and their aura was far more ferocious.

"Lin Yun, you handle the one on the left." Lin Zheng assigned the tasks. "Leng Bao, Luo Fang, provide support. The one on the right is for me and Liu Xu."

"Understood."

The battle erupted in an instant.

The water python on the left reacted extremely quickly, launching its attack almost the moment Lin Yun approached. Its body lunged out, its open mouth large enough to swallow a person whole, and its two fangs glinted with a cold, blue light in the sun.

Lin Yun dodged to the side and slashed with his blade. But the water python's scales were more than twice as thick as a Primary Beast General's; the blade only cut in two inches before getting stuck. Feeling the pain, the python coiled its body, its thick tail wrapping around him.

Lin Yun did not panic. He yanked his blade out, leaped backward, and simultaneously exerted force from his waist—the first layer of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade at 1.4 times the force!

The blade chopped toward the python's head; the python let out a shrill hiss, its body twisting crazily. Lin Yun took the opportunity to stab his blade into the python's vital spot, pulling hard to open a long gash on its body.

Dark green blood gushed out, and the water python's strength drained away rapidly. Lin Yun did not give it a chance to catch its breath; he unleashed a third strike, directly severing its head.

The entire process took less than twenty seconds.

"Beautiful!" Shen Yang's voice came through the communication channel. "A bit messy, but you won."

Lin Yun caught his breath and looked down at the blood on his body—he was splattered with the python's blood, which smelled foul. He gave a wry smile and took out his canteen from his backpack to rinse it off.

On the other side, the battle between Lin Zheng and Liu Xu had also ended. Lin Zheng's short blade had severed the other python's head, clean and efficient, with barely any blood on him.

Lin Zheng walked over and gave a rare, proactive critique. "The core of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade is the technique of force exertion." Lin Zheng sat down on a nearby stone pier and signaled for Lin Yun to sit as well. "Do you know why it's called 'Thunder Blade'?"

"Because it's fast?" Lin Yun said.

"Speed is the result, not the cause." Lin Zheng shook his head. "The reason it's called Thunder Blade is because the way it exerts force is just like thunder—first comes the lightning, then the thunder. Lightning and thunder are two phenomena produced by the same electrical discharge, but they reach your ears at different times. Why?"

Lin Yun thought for a moment. "Because the speed of light is faster than the speed of sound."

"Correct." Lin Zheng nodded. "The force exertion of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade is the same. The first layer of force is the lightning, and the second is the thunder. What you need to do is not to emit the lightning first and then the thunder, but to have them generated simultaneously, only reaching the target at different times. The first layer is fast, the second is slow—the slow layer is not delayed, but is already on its way the moment the first layer is emitted; it just 'travels' slower, so it arrives later."

Lin Yun was stunned.

He had never seen this analogy in any tutorial on the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade. It wasn't in the secret manuals of Thunder God, nor in any discussion threads online. This was something Lin Zheng had realized himself—an understanding he had traded ten years of time and one leg to obtain.

"You have mastered the first layer, but your method of force exertion is 'first emit the first layer, then catalyze the second'." Lin Zheng's gaze fell on the river in the distance. "That is wrong. The correct approach is—within a single exertion of force, create two different paths for the power. One takes the fast road, the other takes the slow road. The fast road arrives first, forming the first layer; the slow road arrives later, forming the second. Two layers of force, same origin, same launch, just different arrival times."

He stood up, drew his short blade, and demonstrated a strike.

The blade light flashed, and two crisp sounds came from the air—the first sharp, the second dull, ringing out almost simultaneously, yet clearly distinguishable in sequence.

"Did you hear that?" Lin Zheng sheathed his blade. "That is two layers of force. If you use the 'first emit, then catalyze' method, the second sound would be much later than the first, and its power would be greatly diminished."

Lin Yun listened intently, replaying the sound of Lin Zheng's strike in his mind. Two sounds, almost at once, yet distinct in layers.

He suddenly remembered the Thunder Element magic in the Coiling Dragon World. When lightning strikes, there is also light first, followed by the sound of thunder. But the light and the thunder are produced by the same discharge, not one discharge after another. The essence of lightning is the instantaneous neutralization of positive and negative charges, a process that produces both light and sound simultaneously.

If one were to compare the body's strength to electrical charges and the exertion of force to a discharge—then a single exertion should produce multiple layers of power simultaneously, rather than catalyzing them one after another.

"Captain, I think I understand." Lin Yun stood up and gripped the Blood Shadow Battle Blade.

He closed his eyes and built the paths of power in his mind. Not one path, but two. One took the fastest route, from foot to leg to waist to arm to blade; the other took a slightly slower route, passing through the same parts, but deliberately creating a tiny "delay" at every joint—not a pause, but letting the power linger for a fleeting moment to build momentum.

This was the slow road.

The force of the fast path reaches the blade first, forming the first layer. The force of the slow path arrives later, but at the moment it arrives, the power of the first layer has not yet fully dissipated. The two forces overlap on the blade, creating resonance.

He opens his eyes and swings the blade.

"Ssh--"

A crisp sound echoes through the air. Only one sound.

Lin Zheng shakes his head: "Still not right. You only have one layer of force; the second layer didn't come out."

Lin Yun is not discouraged and continues to practice.

Once, twice, three times...

Liu Xu watches from the side, a hint of worry flashing in her eyes. But she does not speak, because she knows that no one can help with this kind of enlightenment; he must rely on himself.

Lin Zheng also says nothing more, simply standing there quietly, watching Lin Yun swing his blade over and over again.

The fifth time.

"Ssh--pop!"

Two crisp sounds echo through the air. The first is sharp, and the second... although very faint, it is truly there.

Lin Zheng's eyes brighten: "Again."

The sixth time. The seventh time. The eighth time...

With every swing of the blade, the second sound becomes a little clearer. By the fifteenth time, the two sounds ring out almost simultaneously, distinct and layered.

"Stop." Lin Zheng walks forward and grips Lin Yun's hand that is holding the blade: "Your force-exertion direction is off. The second layer of force shouldn't travel along the outside of the arm; it should travel along the inside. The muscle groups on the inside are shorter, and power transmission is faster, so the interval between the two layers of force will be smaller."

He adjusts Lin Yun's grip on the blade, letting his wrist rotate slightly inward.

"Try again."

Lin Yun takes a deep breath and swings the blade.

"Ssh--pop!"

The two sounds overlap almost perfectly, the sharp and the dull interweaving like true thunder.

A smile appears on Lin Zheng's face—this is the first time Lin Yun has ever seen him smile.

"It's done," he says. "The second layer of Nine-Layered Thunder Blade, mastered."

Lin Yun stands in place, gasping for air, but the light in his eyes is brighter than ever. The second layer—three layers of force overlapping, 2.1 times the force output. Although it is just the beginning, this is a qualitative leap.

"Congratulations." Liu Xu walks over and pats him on the shoulder, "Being able to break through in actual combat shows that your comprehension is truly excellent."

"Thank you, Sister Liu," Lin Yun says sincerely, "Thank you, Captain."

Lin Zheng waves his hand and turns toward the corpse of the Water Python: "Don't thank me; you realized it yourself. Continue cleaning up the battlefield; we need to reach the next campsite before dark."

That night, the squad settles into an abandoned hotel by the canal.

Lin Yun sits alone on the roof, practicing the newly mastered force-exertion technique over and over again. Under the moonlight, his figure is like a tireless machine: swing, retract, swing, retract.

After mastering the second layer, he can feel his blade technique undergoing a qualitative leap. With the three layers of force overlapping, although it is not yet smooth, every time he slashes, he can hear those two distinct sounds of the air being cut.

"Still practicing?" Lin Zheng's voice comes from behind.

Lin Yun turns his head to see Lin Zheng walking onto the roof with a cane. His pace is slow, but every step is steady.

"Captain." Lin Yun retracts his blade, "I want to take advantage of the feeling of the breakthrough and practice a little longer."

Lin Zheng nods and sits down beside him. The two remain silent for a while; neither speaks.

"Do you know why I was willing to bring you along?" Lin Zheng asks suddenly.

Lin Yun shakes his head.

"Because you have a certain spiritual quality," Lin Zheng's gaze rests on the distant canal, where the moonlight shatters into a patch of silver light on the water. "Of course, the most important thing is that you have a certain... stubborn drive."

He pauses and continues: "The Nine-Layered Thunder Blade, this skill—the hardest part isn't the force-exertion technique, but the persistence. Countless Warriors worldwide choose this blade technique, but those who can truly reach the fourth layer or higher are few and far between. It's not because of a lack of talent, but because they couldn't keep going."

"Captain, your fourth layer... how was it trained?" Lin Yun asks.

Lin Zheng is silent for a long time, then says: "In a hospital bed."

Lin Yun is stunned.

"After my leg was broken, I lay in the hospital for three months." Lin Zheng's voice is very flat, as if telling someone else's story. "During those three months, I couldn't do anything; I could only practice in my mind. Imagining the process of force exertion over and over, correcting the errors in my movements over and over. When I was discharged after three months, the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade had broken through from the third layer to the fourth."

He turns his head to look at Lin Yun: "Do you know what this means?"

Lin Yun shakes his head.

"It means that the cultivation of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade doesn't rely on the body; it relies on the mind." Lin Zheng points to his own head. "No matter how strong your body is or how great your power, if your mind is not clear, you will never break through. Conversely, if your mind is clear, your body will naturally follow."

Lin Yun nods thoughtfully.

"Your second layer has been mastered." Lin Zheng stands up. "For the next month, what you need to do is not pursue the third layer, but practice the second until it is as natural as breathing. To what extent? To the point where you can execute the two layers of force even with your eyes closed, and to the point where you can instinctively execute them even if you are ambushed in your sleep."

"Only then should you think about the third layer."

"I understand," Lin Yun says solemnly.

Lin Zheng nods and walks off the roof with his cane. When he reaches the stairwell, he stops and looks back.

"Get some rest early, we have to travel tomorrow."

"Yes, Captain."

Over the next two days, the Thunder Blade Squad continued to hunt python-type Monsters in the canal area.

On the fifth day, they hunted three Primary Beast General level Water Pythons and one Intermediate Beast General level Water Python. Lin Yun took down the Intermediate Beast General one solo, using the second layer of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade he had just mastered. Three layers of force stacked together, severing the Water Python's spine in a single strike; it was clean and efficient, leaving the opponent no chance for recovery.

"Rapid progress." Liu Xu's evaluation was only two words, but the approval in her tone was undisguised.

On the sixth day, they encountered a group of Water Pythons—seven in total, gathered near a collapsed bridge. Among them were four Primary-level, two Intermediate-level, and one that was exceptionally large, with golden patterns on its scales and an aura far more ferocious than the others.

"High-Level Beast General." Lin Zheng's voice was very low. "Everyone, be careful."

This time, Lin Zheng did not let Lin Yun face the High-Level Beast General alone. He and Liu Xu teamed up to deal with the largest one, while Leng Bao and Luo Fang were responsible for the two Intermediate ones, and Lin Yun and Shen Yang handled the four Primary ones.

The battle was more intense than any before. The High-Level Beast General Water Python was not only massive, but its scales had extremely strong defense; Lin Zheng's short blade only left a white mark when it struck. The venom it spat was highly corrosive, and the concrete ground hissed with white smoke wherever it splashed.

Lin Zheng used the fourth layer of force three times in succession before he and Liu Xu managed to cut through the Water Python's scales. Liu Xu's sword plunged into the wound, piercing the Water Python's heart.

On the other side, Lin Yun had already finished off three Primary Water Pythons. The power of the second layer of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade was fully displayed at this moment—every strike produced two distinct sounds, and every strike hit the Water Python's vital spot with precision, killing it instantly without a hint of hesitation.

The fourth Primary Water Python tried to escape but had its head pierced by a shot from Shen Yang.

The battle had also ended on Leng Bao and Luo Fang's side. Of the two Intermediate Water Pythons, one was pinned to the ground by Leng Bao's spear, and the other had its throat slit by Luo Fang's short blade.

Seven Water Pythons, all dead.

"A High-Level Beast General Water Python's materials alone are worth at least one hundred million." Shen Yang calculated as he processed the carcasses. "Adding the others, this haul today is worth at least three hundred million."

The group breathed heavily, but the smiles on their faces could not be hidden.

Lin Yun stood by the river, watching the Water Python carcasses floating on the water, yet a faint sense of unease stirred in his heart.