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To test his new well of knowledge, Ren decided to improve his existing martial arts first.

He started with the Nine Echoes Technique. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The Nine Echoes Technique, albeit only a cut above the very basics of martial arts, was an effective martial art, especially for those who’re only starting to get the hang of battle.

At the perfection stage of mastery, it allows the user’s next attack to ’echo’ nine times; the echo only carries about 90% of the first blow’s power. The second echo is 80% as strong as the first blow, and so on. But it doesn’t fall off below 50% of the first blow’s power.

It’s a simple concept and easy to use. Not the most stellar technique out there, but it’s good enough to teach someone how to harness and control chakra more efficiently.

Obviously, Ren had long mastered this technique to perfection. And while the technique cannot reach the Intent Stage or anything beyond, it’s all good; Ren didn’t think much of it since back then, he still naively thought that there would be better ones in the clan’s martial hall.

Well, he was wrong, and he was disappointed about that. But even so, no big deal. He could make something work.

Now, Ren returned his attention to the Nine Echoes Technique in an attempt to improve it as a test for his enriched martial arts knowledge.

At first, he was only thinking of removing the fall of the power of the echoes. He wants to make it so that all nine echoes will contain 100% of the power of the first blow, essentially upgrading the value of the Nine Echoes Technique.

It’s an appropriate challenge, he thought to himself.

He thought that since he could think of this, everybody else should’ve, at some point. And whether they succeeded and created a better version of it or changed the way it entirely works, essentially creating a new martial art in itself, it means that Ren should be able to do it as well.

And so he did. And the results were quite surprising.

During his comprehensive improvement of the technique, his thoughts wandered off in areas that had been overlooked. Areas that previously sounded inane, but upon closer look, he discovered that changing the ratios had some rather interesting effects on the technique itself.

This made him wonder: would it be possible to essentially make an evolved form of the Nine Echoes Technique?

Others must’ve tried it before and succeeded. After all, it wasn’t so difficult to understand the concept of this technique. And if they could do it, then who’s to say that he couldn’t do the same?

Once his thoughts go to this train, there’s practically no stopping him.

The results? Exactly what he wanted.

The Nine Echoes technique was improved, evolved, even! It became the Nine Echoing Canons Technique.

Alright, the name’s a bit weird and longer, but to Ren it made a lot of sense.

His version of the evolved form of the Nine Echoes Technique rose to the mid- to high-Mortal Grade martial arts technique.

The Nine Echoing Canons technique basically worked the same way as the previous technique; the difference is that the force and physical durability it demands are way higher, and the execution becomes slightly more complex.

In exchange, the new version could exert a surprising amount of power, akin to a canon being fired off. The sound it made mimicked that too; that’s why it was named the Nine Echoing Canons Technique.

Ren succeeded in keeping his original intentions. He erased the decay of power in the echoes. Meaning that the nine echoes that follow after the first blow landed will have the same strength without any fall-off.

This is why Ren estimated that its value had been raised from just slightly above the basics to a mid- or high-Mortal Grade martial arts technique.

Additionally, Ren also met some of his requirements with this improvement. He made something that could squeeze more out of him, one that demanded more skill to practice, and one that would hone his instincts even better.

The Nine Echoing Canons technique basically trumps every mortal grade technique the clan had in the martial hall.

What makes this even better is that it now has some range to it.

Using this technique allows the user to punch out compressed air through chakra and force manipulation. The projectile is a bit weaker compared to being hit directly, but the echoing effect is carried out.

The range of the projectile improves through mastery, but there’s no way it could be as long as a canon’s range. That is something that’s out of Ren’s depth currently.

But maybe in the future.

Suffice it to say, this endeavor was a success. Ren did exactly as he intended, and there were no mistakes. He even gave some additional advantages in the end, so this was, indeed, a great success.

Since he was on a roll, Ren also improved his defensive martial art, the Golden Fleece Technique.

Originally, this technique was a reactive type of defensive martial art. For it to take effect, the user must first be able to react to an attack. It demands the user to ’embrace’ the attack, basically absorbing its impact and the pain it brings. The technique dampens the strength of the attack received, but not completely. Then, the user could either choose to ’return’ the attack back to the sender or bear the burden for a bit more.

The user can eventually unload all the burden at once, but only through releasing it to the sender all at once. The counterattack will be amplified depending on how many attacks the user absorbed first, but the peak is nine times. Anything beyond that would be above what the user could handle, and failure to endure will cause a backlash.

Another restriction is that the only way to release the burden is through embracing another attack and then sending it directly back to the sender. It can’t be a manual release. The technique doesn’t work or behave that way.

Ren thought about several ways to improve this technique. He could adjust the chakra conversion formula to change how much burden the user could use before needing release. He could change the ’trigger’ to use this technique, or even outright remove it if he wanted to. He could also make it so that, instead of reactionary, it could turn into an automatic defense matrix by overhauling the chakra formula down to its core and building a completely different one that reacts on behalf of the practitioner instead.

In the end, he applied all of this since he could.

He could do and add so much more than this, but Ren held back. It’s unwise, and he’s afraid of going overboard with his editing that he might completely lose his way.

Because of the improvements he made, he created the Golden Fleece Technique 1.0.

Yes, he had gotten lazy and couldn’t be bothered renaming the improved technique, so he just added a 1.0 at the end to make the distinction. That would suffice.

Besides, he’s the only one who knows it exists, so there’s no need to go crazy about renaming.

The Golden Fleece Technique 1.0 now works a bit differently.

First, he applied the same concept as the one he used in the Green Lotus Core Technique and made it so that the user of the technique could condense a Golden Fleece Chakra—a defensively attributed chakra that would automatically sense an attack and flare up once the user was hit to absorb it, preventing unseen attacks from crippling the user.

This removed the technique’s requirement to ’embrace’ the attack in order to store it away. Once the Golden Fleece Chakra is created, it sticks to the user’s body like a second skin and will react on its own.

Obviously, it could be exhausted and will need reapplication, sometimes even at the thick of an intense battle. This was unavoidable. It’s already good that it’s completely autonomous; one just can’t have it all.

As for the burden...Ren made it so that instead of quantity, the new version will rely on qualitative quantity instead.

Previously, the Golden Fleece could only absorb attacks nine times before needing to unload the burden, and each of those attacks shouldn’t exceed what the user could handle.

The new version allows the user to basically store attacks that are within nine times what their body could handle instead, which certainly would make the user harder to kill in a single blow or an ambush. This is no longer a matter of how many attacks could be fended in a row before needing to release the accumulated burden. It’s now a true life-saving technique since it could handle things that should be way beyond what the practitioner should be able to handle.

And obviously, there’s the ’return to sender’ effect, which will be more devastating now since the pressure and burden the user could endure were much higher.

All in all, he’s happy with this.

Both the Nine Echoing Canons Technique and the Golden Fleece Technique 1.0 were more than suitable for his needs.

More importantly, it gave him the much-needed experience to build more of the framework of his incredible creation in the future.