Finally, after the Goldfire Gorilla completely recovered its strength, it roared out a challenge as it bounded towards Yulian. A golden energy revolved around its arms as it ran to attack. Yulian carefully observed the revolving force as he prepared for the gorilla’s attack.

Yulian prepared for the coming blow by pushing his palms out. Even though Yulian had a preference for blade techniques, he would only gain further insights into the fist technique used by crossing fists with the gorilla.

The gorilla’s large fingers were jutted out. Like mountains piercing into the sky, they emitted a powerful golden aura, capable of piercing the Heavens. As they moved to strike, Yulian welcomed the strike with his new Burning Palm technique.

The piercing might of the fingers. The powerful heat exuded by the palms.

As they collided, sparks of electricity danced in the air.

After taking on the piercing finger strike, Yulian ignored the pain piercing through his palms and concentrated on the revolving energy inside the gorilla’s fingers. Finally, he backed away and started using the Hun Yuan Dao Yin technique to heal himself.

Due to the impact of the injury he had sustained being lower, he was able to heal it in no time at all. The gorilla once again moved to attack, fingers like golden mountains. Yulian fingers glowed with a shaky golden aura as well.

Two sets of fingers collided!

Bang! This time, he couldn’t understand the technique on the first try. He had not filled his dantian with gold elemental energy yet, having struck a bottleneck in his cultivation. However, his primary attacking technique was the Nine Stage Thunder Blade, and his comprehension of ‘lightning’ was quite good.

Fire and gold unite, giving birth to lightning. As such, his understanding of gold was not shabby.

Once again, Yulian clashed blows with the Goldfire Gorilla. He matched his comprehension with the gorilla, trying to accumulate insights with every blow. Whenever his fingers were broken, he would dodge around the gorilla’s blows while healing them. The fear of pain was superseded by his desire to grasp the technique.

Finally, the golden aura around his fingers condensed until it held might similar to a mountain. The flow of energy was too overwhelming to be contained in his body, and made his fingers burn.

Ignoring the pain, once again Yulian ran to match blows with the Gorilla. Fingers once again struck each other. Unlike before, the energy condensed within the fingers seemed to pierce out into the beast’s fingers. No harm was sustained by Yulian’s fingers but the gorilla’s fingers were reduced to a pile of flesh.

The energy within Yulian’s fingers shattered the bones of the Gorilla’s fingers!

The gorilla roared out once more. Once again, the fingers began to regenerate. Meanwhile, Yulian concentrated on healing himself as well. The battle came to another momentary standstill.

As he revolved energy to heal himself, Yulian pondered about the next technique that the beast would display.

“The first palm was of fire and the next finger was of gold so the succeeding technique must be…”

As if to answer him, the gorilla roared out after recovering energy. Forming a palm, it tucked in the fingers inside to create a fist. This fist was formed of fire and metal uniting.

Boom! The sound of thunder resounded as sparks of electricity condensed to form lightning. Crackling with power, a gust of wind was formed as the blow struck air.

The fist was so powerful… Yulian smiled as he imitated the technique to strike the air. The power was lacking and the technique was rudimentary. Even so, the power of the blow was exceptional.

Now, it was time to refine this technique by clashing against the original. Once again, Yulian braced himself, prepared to endure broken bones.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yulian couldn’t help but be surprised when he his bones weren’t broken by the technique. This technique seemed innately suited for him, and he could progress in this technique easier than ever.

After a final clash with the gorilla, his fist shattered the gorilla’s arms. After understanding the third technique, Yulian felt that the technique was completed. However, he still decided to wait for the gorilla to recover. This time, Yulian did not take any major injuries, so he healed himself in short time.

This time instead of using his fists, Yulian drew his blade once again. The sword started glowing with golden blade light, a light cutting through the darkness.

Without waiting for the gorilla to make a move, Yulian slashed out.

His first blow was intercepted by the flaming palms of the gorilla. Piercing fingers tried to gouge Yulian’s heart out. Using footwork, Yulian backed away. The gorilla used its own brand of footwork to chase Yulian.

This time, the Goldfire Gorilla did not restrict itself to the powerful fist techniques that it used to battle Yulian. All sorts of dexterity and flexibility boosting martial arts that did not use genetic energy were used by it in combat.

Like before, Yulian held back and tried his best to force out the beast to use more and more powerful techniques, but all the techniques used by it were footwork and flexibility techniques that were simply unusable by humans due to their size requirements.

Finally, the battle came to its climax. The Goldfire Gorilla was completely exhausted and heavily injured by Yulian’s attacks. It was on its final breaths.

“Roar!” With a defiant roar, it once again attacked with a flaming palm strike. Seeing this, Yulian sheathed away his blade and went to meet that attack with his own palm.

Boom! The gorilla took a few steps back before attacking with a golden five fingered strike. Once again, Yulian met the attack with his own.

Boom! For the third strike, the gorilla attacked with a thundering fist blow. Yulian once again mirrored the attack!

Three strikes, three defeats. Finally, the Goldfire Gorilla accepted its death. Splayed on the ground, the corpse of the beast faded away into streaks of light.

A blue screen finally flashed in front of Yulian.

[Secret quest: Battle ‘Hidden BOSS’ Goldfire Gorilla complete!]

[Perception: Rank B+ [Goldfire Monkey Fist] complete!

[First Stance: Burning Muscles Palm

Second Stance: Golden Bone Fingers

Third Stance: Goldfire Thunderous Fist]

[Total reward being calculated…

Gained 25,75,000 star points]

[Dropped Item: Starburst Crystal]

[Perception has created a [SECRET] quest!

Begin quest? Y/N?]

Yulian quickly clicked ‘Yes’.

[Perception Quest: Cultivate a technique from the following list in limited time.

[Sword Techniques:

Dance of Cherry Blossoms - Rank A]

Yulian certainly didn’t expect this as a quest. The perception quest was the ability to choose and cultivate an A rank technique! The Goldfire Monkey Fist being a B+ ranked technique, the power of a A ranked technique would be something that would easily allow him to fight fighters of higher cultivation and win!

Quickly, he browsed through the blade techniques listed.

[Mountain Chopping Blade – A rank]

[Divine Wind Slicer – A+ rank]

…

After some searching, he found a saber technique to his liking.

[Blade Chopping Mountains and Seas

Rank: A+++

Three Stages]

[Heavy blade technique. Utilizes the force of the World in battle, controlling Heaven and Earth. Mastering the First Blade requires > level technique, mastering the Second Blade requires > level technique and mastering the Third Blade requires > level technique.]

[First Blade: Wooden Crushing Blade

Second Blade: Earthen Blocking Blade

Third Blade: Water Extinguishment Blade]

After reading more information about it, Yulian realized that this Blade Chopping Mountains and Seas was actually the most difficult blade technique available. It required good insights and comprehension about the three elements of Wood, Earth and Water.

There was also the problem of even the basic stances being contradictory and difficult to comprehend. ‘Wood’ stance was balanced, yet had tremendous forceful power. ‘Earth’ stance was defensive, yet had might as strong as a great mountain. ‘Water’ stance was flexible, yet boasted the strongest strength, capable of extinguishing all!

This was an extremely profound, top-tier technique. The A+++ ranking wasn’t simply for show.

As for now, Yulian only had insights into Fire, Metal and Lightning. But later on, due to the nature of his cultivation technique, he would require insights into the three elements of Wood, Earth and Water. Thus, it was a good idea to take this cultivation technique. Also, he wanted to train in a heavy blade. Zhang Wei, his first martial arts trainer in this world, had left him a heavy stone blade. He wanted to use his last gift in battle!

[You have chosen > , Technique Rank: Rank: A+++]

[Mission: Master > within the time of 90 + 15 days]

[Extra time has been awarded due to taking higher rank technique]

[Item received: > manual]

The manual suddenly appeared in Yulian’s hand. He tried to open it.

[Warning: Secret mission will immediately begin after reading manual. Proceed? Y/N?]

Seeing the notice, Yulian immediately chose ‘No’ and immediately put away the manual in his inventory.

After suddenly understanding the Rank B+ [Goldfire Monkey Fist] technique, he needed to consolidate his gains. Not only that, his understanding of ‘Fire’ had pierced through the bottleneck and it was possible for him to make a breakthrough in cultivation. Only after finishing everything would he begin this quest.

…

After logging off the VR console, Yulian immediately put on training clothes and left to the training room. Clad in a sweatshirt and loose pants, he immediately began practicing the movements of the Goldfire Monkey Fist. Without using any genetic energy, he simply practiced the movements of the Goldfire Monkey Fist. Slowly, he began infusing energy into his stances and blows, increasing power bit by bit.

The Goldfire Monkey Fist was originally a technique designed for monkeys to use. There were all kinds of monkeys: apes, macaque, baboons, gorillas… Even humans were considered a type of ‘monkey’ as well.

After defeating the Goldfire Gorilla, Yulian gained some insights into the Goldfire Monkey Fist which completed it and allowed him to more effectively train in it. Even though the Goldfire Monkey Fist had been created for the Goldfire Gorilla’s use and its full might could only be unleashed by this beast… Yulian now understood the techniques to retrofit it for his own use.

Burning Muscles Palm, Golden Bone Fingers and Goldfire Thunderous Fist… these three techniques all had different ‘limits’ to them. The Burning Muscles Palm would be a technique that could be part of the 3rd Stage of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade. Golden Bone Fingers would be a technique that could be part of the 6rd Stage of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade. While the Goldfire Thunderous Fist… would be a technique that might be on par with the 9rd Stage of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade!

This was the limit of the power of a B+ rank technique. In fact, the Nine Stage Thunder Blade had also been evaluated as a B+ rank technique by the AI in the VR game.

To begin with, Yulian began training in the Burning Muscles Fist. The initial stages of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade emphasized on training the muscles, so Yulian had built up a good foundation in training his muscles. Yulian focused on pushing out the full power of his muscles via the Burning Muscles Palm.

Soon, a strange trembling filled his muscles as a burning hot force converged in them. As Yulian pushed out his palms, two red hot windblades shot out. The surrounding air seemed to increase in temperature.

Yulian’s muscles slightly ached, but he did not care about it anymore. The way of using this technique… had filled him with excitement! To create the burning hot force that was the foundation of that blow, he had to vibrate his muscles. The foundation of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade was vibration!

He might even be able to advance his Nine Stage Thunder Blade technique to the Fourth Stage with this technique!

It must be understood that the first Three Stages of the Nine Stage Thunder Blade were only the foundation of the technique. They could only display a hint of the technique’s magnificence! Only the Third Stage Dao Yin body tempering technique was renowned. The Third Stage blade and movement techniques were quite lackluster.

However, from the Fourth Stage onwards, all three Dao Yin, blade and movement techniques would rise in power! The power of the second ‘Legendary’ rank technique of Earth would be fully displayed!

However, the bottleneck from Third Stage to Fourth Stage was too wide. To leap over it, a long amount of time would be needed! However, Yulian understood that training in the Burning Muscles Palm would allow him to leap over in no time!

Even though Yulian had only reached the 3rd Stage in a week, he had spent a month consolidating it in the VR Game. Thus, he had a solid foundation, ideal for a breakthrough!

Yulian immediately began his training. When he felt hungry, he would ask the maid to cook him food. Other than the basic needs, he wouldn’t budge from training. Finally, Yulian reached the point where he was a single inch from stepping into the Fourth Stage.

Sitting in the lotus posture, Yulian began using the Dao Yin technique to vibrate his muscles. As the amount of vibrations increased, a rumbling sound began to arise from Yulian’s body.

‘HONG!’ A booming sound marked his breakthrough. Yulian immediately got up from his sitting posture and began to move himself in martial stances. As expected, all the parameters of his body had grown more powerful. Also, he gained the surprising power to control every movement of his muscles, even the slightest twitch!

After his breakthrough, it was time to solidify his foundation. Yulian immediately resumed his training, not content to let a single moment escape.