Days of Cultivation

It was a scorching summer day.

A blazing sun hung overhead, unleashing countless rays of intense energy that baked the earth! Only a few sparse white clouds remained in the blue sky.

On the barren ground below, two figures were locked in fierce combat amid a natural stone forest.

Swish, swish, swish!

Blade flashes and claw shadows crossed, accompanied by a great clamor of metal striking metal.

Amid the thunderous crashes, many of the surrounding boulders shattered under the shock waves of their battle. Neither fighter was even using the Cosmic Force to augment his strength... the air pressure stirred up by their clashes, driven by their powerful bodies alone, shredded everything within range!

Their destructive power was staggering!

Had the cultivators of Shangjing City been there to witness it, their jaws would surely have dropped!

The battle raged on. Both combatants were like humanoid tyrannosaurs, their stamina as bottomless as an abyss. They maintained the incredibly intense pace without even needing a moment to catch their breath.

After a long, fierce battle, they finally separated.

Once they drew apart, their speed plummeted... their blurred silhouettes solidified into visible human forms. At last, it became clear that the two who had been fighting all this time were Yang Yu and Zhao Zixuan.

"Master, I lost this match again." Zhao Zixuan looked rather dejected. This was already their one hundred and first match, and Yang Yu always had her on the back foot.

Aside from a few lucky wins at the beginning, Yang Yu's strength had grown steadier and more refined after just a few battles.

As Yang Yu's strength soared, Zhao Zixuan had never managed another victory.

Of their one hundred and one matches, Zhao Zixuan had won only nine!

Seeing Zhao Zixuan's disgruntled expression, Yang Yu smiled and consoled her. "Zixuan, it's not that I can always beat you. These fights only test our physical capabilities, and neither of us can truly let loose and fight to the death! In a real battle, with both of us unleashing our full strength and using our strongest trump cards, winning probably wouldn't be so easy for me. You aren't much weaker than I am. Don't sell yourself short."

"Hmph, Master, you always try to placate me with nice words." Zhao Zixuan curled her lip.

"I'm no match for you."

"Never mind that absurd trump card of yours, Life Source Burst. The moment you activate it, your physical strength temporarily surges to the level of someone who has just entered the Heaven tier. Even with your current blade mastery alone, if you pushed the unity of man and blade to its limits, I couldn't withstand your swordplay. And lately, you've even been practicing an immensely powerful blade art, one of the finest at the Acquired Lifeform level!"

"Once you use that blade art, your strength can double outright."

"A real battle? A fight to the death? How could I possibly be your match?"

"Please stop teasing me."

Zhao Zixuan knew Yang Yu's abilities better than anyone.

Every word he had said was true.

Yang Yu's blade mastery had improved considerably once again, advancing beyond the Human-Blade Unity he had first attained during his battle with Elder Xu. That improvement in mastery also had a substantial effect on his strength.

Yang Yu felt that, under normal conditions and without enhancement from any secret art, the power of his blade techniques had increased by a full seventy to eighty percent!

At this point, however, Yang Yu also felt that his blade mastery had reached its current limit.

When he tried to improve it further, he could clearly sense an invisible barrier standing before him... with that bottleneck in place, no amount of practice would improve his blade mastery even a little!

Only by breaking through it could his blade mastery enter another period of rapid advancement.

Yang Yu had a faint premonition.

If he experienced another brush with death like his previous battle, then with a little luck, he might break straight through his current bottleneck.

His blade mastery would advance again, reaching the legendary realm of "unity of heaven and man."

The unity of heaven and man was stronger than Human-Blade Unity!

At that level, skill already approached the Dao.

Among Acquired-realm experts, even long-established Heaven Tier powerhouses probably could not elevate their combat skills and mastery to such heights.

Du Xingze, the sect master of the Ghost Infant Sect, for example, ranked among the strongest Heaven Tier experts, yet his combat mastery had only reached a level comparable to Human-Blade Unity.

A nigh-insurmountable barrier separated the unity of heaven and man from Human-Blade Unity. Taking that further step was extraordinarily difficult.

Even among a hundred Heaven Tier experts who had mastered Human-Blade Unity, scarcely one or two could advance to the unity of heaven and man.

It required many fortuitous circumstances and profound insights into one's own techniques.

Talent, diligence... extraordinary opportunities. Not one could be lacking!

With the Insect Race's legacy, Yang Yu had a far better foundation than other cultivators... perhaps breaking through to that realm would be easier for him, but he still needed to gain many insights and endure many trials.

Setting aside his blade mastery, there was also the powerful secret blade art Yang Yu had been practicing lately.

Yang Yu held the Yama Battle Blade horizontally before him.

At that moment, a faint sheen of lightning flickered along the Yama Battle Blade's edge.

The secret blade art he had newly begun practicing was called "Thunder"!

After dismissing Zhao Zixuan, Yang Yu quietly practiced his blade techniques alone in the Wasteland Stone Forest.

He had practiced those techniques thousands upon thousands of times!

He had gained control over every inch of the Yama Battle Blade, wielding it as naturally as his own arm... every movement and pause held lethal power!

A full month had now passed since the Ghost Infant Sect's pursuit.

During that month, Yang Yu had even moved to new dwellings in the wasteland twice.

One of the Ghost Infant Sect's scouts had once stumbled upon him, but Yang Yu had detected and killed the man instantly, leaving him no chance to send word back.

Over that month, Yang Yu had spent most of his time cultivating.

He had not merely cultivated his Fate Soul power.

He also sparred regularly with Zhao Zixuan, honing their practical combat skills until they grew ever more formidable.

At the same time, he set aside at least four hours every day to practice the Thunder Blade Art!

True to its name, the Thunder Blade Art followed an immensely forceful, domineering approach... it had three stages of mastery and could push the speed of his strikes to the limit, unleashing successive blows in the same span of time and stacking their power!

Mastering the first stage would increase the power of Yang Yu's blade techniques by fifty percent! Moreover, it could stack perfectly with his blade mastery, Life Source Burst, and his other strength-enhancing abilities, allowing his power to surge for a short time!

The second stage would increase it by at least a hundred percent!

And once he fully mastered the third stage of the Thunder Blade Art, it could make his blade techniques a full four to five times as powerful!

Whoosh~~~~~~~

Whoosh~~~~~~~~~

In the Wasteland Stone Forest, Yang Yu kept practicing his blade techniques, going from slow to fast... the air pressure stirred up by his blade churned through the surroundings, whipping fierce winds through the stone forest. Sand and dust obscured all sight, shrouding the entire forest in a grayish-yellow haze.

Yang Yu's movements now left illusory afterimages in the eyes of anyone watching. He seemed to move slowly, but in reality, his speed was astonishing!

He slashed, swept, and chopped with ferocious force!

Every stroke sent a mass of phantom blade flashes through the Wasteland Stone Forest.

After more than a thousand repetitions, Yang Yu's momentum had built to its peak. His figure flickered as he arrived before a boulder weighing over a hundred tons.

"Hah!"

With a low roar, Yang Yu leaped high into the air.

Swish!

Swish, swish, swish!

The next instant, the Yama Battle Blade in his hand cleaved down with a flurry of afterimages. At that moment, Yang Yu's arms seemed to become those of the Thousand-Armed Guanyin.

One, two, three...

A full five phantom images of his arm and blade converged into one, and the Yama Battle Blade's aura abruptly surged.

Boom!!

As the blade descended, the hundred-ton boulder before Yang Yu split apart. It was torn vertically down the center from top to bottom, becoming two great halves.

The two halves toppled to either side with thunderous crashes, making the ground shake for a hundred meters around!