Yulian had returned to his room, carrying a box containing six electric-yellow crystals. These were the crysoprase stones necessary for cultivating his Nine Stage Thunder Blade to the 6th Stage. Yulian temporarily put the box aside. For now, the most important matter was meditating on his master’s guidance!

Closing his eyes, Yulian went through his masters words and immersed himself. After going through the memory in his mind, he could help but be awed by his master’s presence. He forgot about his awe inspiring presence in the dream, but when he looked back in his memories, he could not help the awe in his heart. It was like a personal domain; as if he had torn out a part of space-time from the world and bound it to himself! Dominating and repressing the world, the only person allowed within his demesne was Yulian!

“There are two great paths of cultivation and two types of cultivators in this world: Martial Cultivators which cultivates the physical body and yuan qi and Symbol Masters who cultivate the soul and mental energy. The Blazing Nirvana Rebirth is to take rebirth as a dragon, embarking on these twin paths is only natural!” After his meditation, only this sentence struck out for Yulian.

“He called Fighters as Martial Cultivators and Spirit Readers as Symbol Masters… he referred to genetic energy as ‘yuan qi’ and spiritual force as ‘mental energy’… Why?” Countless thoughts entered Yulian’s mind. What was his master’s origin?

“That said, it isn’t unnatural for the names of these important cultivation terms to be changed. In 2016 when the world was recovering from the apocalypse, genetic energy was called ‘mana’, spirit force was called ‘psychic force’, Fighters were called ‘Knights’ and Spirit Readers were called ‘Espers’.” As eras rise and fall, knowledge of cultivation is also lost and regained. Thus, terms about cultivation might change but the knowledge remains the same.

“Maybe my master is from an earlier era… Anyway, I will stop thinking about this for now.” Yulian knew that these questions were impossible to answer; he could only find out about his master by growing stronger and accepting his legacy.

Just then, Yulian casually flicked a finger and a streak of fire shot out. It burned through the air in an instant before disappearing.

“I haven’t even comprehended this Earthfire Seal, yet it is this amazing…” Yulian couldn’t help but marvel about the technique given to him by his master, the Five Way Heaven Seal. This was real magic!

“And this isn’t even the maximum power of the technique. To use this technique to its full potential, Nine Yuan Prayer Beads are needed…” This Nine Yuan Prayer Bead wasn’t a powerful artifact from a long gone age. Its blueprints were given to him by his thoughtful master and it could be created in the current era.

The only problem was… that it was too costly! Creating this item would require too many beast materials.

“I can’t expose the blueprint to the world. Exposing it would be the same as telling that he had gained the Dragon Sovereign’s legacy…” After becoming a Fighter, he would scour the world for monsters, slaughter them and refine these Nine Yuan Prayer Beads from their corpses!

“That said, I can use these prayer beads to practice this technique for now. I need a weapon for my Spirit Force in the first place.” Yulian played with the chain of beads he had picked up from the Training Room. He had simply picked up the set that looked the most durable from the Training Room. It had 108 beads strung on it, and the beads had the proper heaviness. Genetic energy would cause the length of the rope to change, and could increase the attack power of the beads.

Yulian’s spirit reader technique, 108 Star Diagrams was best at controlling beads. Its attack techniques required beads as well. Yulian was planning on converting to throwing knives due to their attack power, but it seemed that it was best to stick with prayer beads for his secondary weapon.

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Before the apocalypse, prayer beads were quite popular among Buddhists. After the apocalypse, the many powerful martial artists of the Shaolin Temple came together to innovate new techniques using their foundation of kungfu. Quite a few attack techniques using prayer beads had been created as well.

The Five Way Heaven Seals included a basic prayer bead control technique. It was quite basic, and was primarily created as an introduction to hand seals and swinging the prayer beads to attack.

“As for fixing my deviation and breaking through… I’ll master the Nine Stage Thunder Blade before that. My deviation resulted with me getting an increased talent in lightning techniques instead of fire techniques, might as well milk it.” After analyzing the complete Five Colored Stones technique, Yulian completely understood the changes created by his deviation.

“The biggest problem for now is the battle against Catalan. He is an Advanced Wargod and I can’t think of a single way to hurt him. I can use the footwork technique to dodge and blade techniques to attack, but spears are hard to circumvent and are best at defense.” Even if Yulian’s strength rose, he still wouldn’t be capable of beating Catalan. Pure strength could not surpass the skill honed by several years of battle.

“The only way for me to win is…” Slowly, Yulian began thinking out a plan that would bring him victory.

…

Yulian once again appeared in the VR world. The blue screen displaying [Area 2: Rainforest] slowly faded away. This time, instead of going out to hunt, Yulian called out. “Equipment Exchange!”

A list of weapons and equipment came out in front of him. There was quite a large amount of equipment, and Yulian carefully looked at the bonus statistics before choosing his pick. Finally, after some deliberation, he chose a set…

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A treasure chest flashed in front of Yulian.

It was an equipment set that contained a heavy saber, a light blade and a chain of prayer beads. The three weapons were at a discount in a set, so purchasing them together was beneficial for him. They also provided a set bonus, but it wasn’t too useful. It required the ability to wield all three items at the same time.

While wielding the prayer beads with the light blade or the heavy saber required a comparatively low level of skill, dual wielding the blade and saber in tandem required more skill. Wielding the three at the same time… it required high level of dexterity with the fingers, spirit force and powerful willpower. It might be possible for Yulian in the future, but reaching this stage was impossible in 6 days. Even if the time was multiplied by 10x in the VR console, it would still be impossible…

That said, Yulian still intended to reach this stage someday. For now, it was time for the first step on the long road to be taken… Mastering the wielding of the prayer beads.

…

Swing!

Yulian was swinging a set of prayer beads in the empty air. Of the 108 prayer beads, 96 were clung around his fingers like a gauntlet while 12 struck the empty air. With a flick of his fingers, the 12 beads returned around his fingers. With another flick, they shot out to strike.

After two hours of training, Yulian had reached a basic level in the ‘Basic Seals’ technique of the ‘Five Way Heaven Seals’ technique.

For a normal warrior, reaching this stage would require several months or even years… yet he had reached this level in no time at all. This was due to one reason… muscle control! The Nine Stage Thunder Blade made learning the foundations of various martial arts quite easy.

But the ‘Basic Seals’ was not a simple manual. To reach perfection with it, the ability to control every single one of the 108 beads was needed. This level of control was too far off.

But fortunately, there was no need for comprehension. As long as he kept on training, muscle memory would build up and he would eventually master this technique.

Once again, the 12 beads shot out, whipped out by a flick of the finger.

…

Eight more hours had passed by. In total, ten hours had passed in this virtual world. That meant that one hour had passed by in reality.

The prayer beads on Yulian’s fingers shot out like black bullets. One, two, three, four… In a single minute, all consecutively 108 beads shot out to strike like a barrage from a machine gun.

With another flick of a finger, the beads wrapped around Yulian’s hand like a glove. Yet another flick of a finger, and the beads shot out once more.

This time, 27 beads shot out. Genetic energy caused the rope to lengthen and the 27 beads surrounded a decently sized rock, wrapping around it. With another flick, the rope was twisted and the force of the 27 beads increased. The rock was crushed to pieces in one blow!

The beads returned, wrapped around his finger once more. Yet again, 54 beads shot out to shatter a larger rock. Then, 81 beads shot out to destroy yet another boulder!

Finally, Yulian’s eyes fell on a decently sized 2 foot long boulder. He once again controlled the prayer beads to wrap around the boulder… but this time, 108 beads wrapped around the boulder! The genetic energy circulated through the rope and into the beads, increasing and converging the total power of the beads… Until finally, the boulder shattered into dust!

This was the final technique of the ‘Basic Seals’ technique and symbolized his mastery of controlling the prayer beads. With this technique, Yulian was now ready to take on this [Area 2: Rainforest] by storm!

…

Yulian was once again facing against a weasel. Left hand holding his chain of prayer beads, Yulian’s 7 year old figure seemed like a monk in training. Meanwhile the weasel, called as a Browndust Weasel, gave a intimidating growl to scare away Yulian, a meaningless action. The fingers on Yulian’s right hand flickered and contorted, causing the prayer beads to heat up with fiery flames.

“Five Way Heaven- First Heaven Seal, Earthfire!” The prayer beads struck the ground, causing it to tremble. Suddenly, the ground under the brownish furred Browndust Weasel opened up, spewing out flames! Instantly swallowed by the earth and burnt to dust, the weasel did not even gain a single chance to attack!

Yulian had burnt around 8 such weasels to death with this technique. As expected, none of them had a chance to fight back. This technique was too overpowering!

“I have some vague understanding, but there is nothing concrete enough to base a blade technique on. Looks like I’ll have to battle some more.” Saying this, he wrapped up the prayers beads around his palm. His solemn figure explored further into the forest, searching for more prey to slaughter.

While creating the First Three Stages of his Nine Stage Thunder Blade, Yulian decided to have ‘Fire’ as his foundation. If he gained insight into the profundities of Fire while training this technique, he would certainly be able to create a stronger blade technique, a blade technique capable of making even a Wargod bleed!