From Abyssal Invasion to Bursting Stars with a Single Sword-Chapter 162 - 135 The Second Variation, Skill Crystal Core [Metal Enhancement]

Clang!

Early in the morning, in the training room by Qionghua Tianglu Lake, the sound of sword practice rang out with a ding-ding-dong-dong.

Last night, Lu Heng had slept soundly, and upon waking up in the morning, he felt very spirited. After breakfast, he came over to start practicing his swordsmanship.

Due to the previous events, having defeated a master swordsman from the Fusang Kijima Shinto stream, it was considered a slap in the face for that school.

If that Sword Saint from Fusang's Kijima Shinto stream wanted to reclaim his honor, it was likely he'd come looking.

However, that Fusang Kijima Shinto stream's Sword Saint had been renowned for a long time and might not actually issue a challenge.

After all, challenging a young person thirty years his junior would look bad, and if he lost, it would look even worse.

No matter if the Kijima Shinto stream's Sect Leader would come to challenge him or not, practicing swordsmanship was definitely the right choice.

Lu Heng's Sword Skill Realm had already stepped into the Fourth Realm, the Conception Level.

However, he had only just entered the Conception Level and just crossed that threshold, with much room for improvement.

Additionally, for the variations of the Step Sword Seven Styles, he had so far practiced only one.

So, Lu Heng began practicing the second variation.

In his past life, there was actually one variation of the Step Sword Seven Styles that he had only half-mastered, and that was the variation of the "Zhenyue Style."

The variations of the Step Sword Seven Styles were all individually designed so that each person's variations would be unique.

The second variation of the "Zhenyue Style" that Lu Heng had contemplated himself was named "Returning Wind," but it could only be considered half-mastered.

The "Zhenyue Style" itself was a powerful chop with a heavy force, aggressive in attack, but exposed flaws on both the left and right sides when executed. If one encountered a swordsmanship expert, they might seize the flaw to counterattack.

Therefore, Lu Heng wanted to use a variation to compensate for the flaws of the "Zhenyue Style," hence the creation of the "Returning Wind" variation.

However, the difficulty of executing this variation was too great when it was initially imagined, and upon attempting to perform it, he found it quite challenging.

In the end, he never truly mastered it and could only consider it half a variation.

Now, with the lessons learned from his past life, he had two choices: redesign the variation for one that wasn't as difficult and could be mastered more quickly, or brute force it and master the move by sheer determination.

Given the complexity of executing the "Returning Wind" variation, Lu Heng had also considered how exactly it could be executed.

The answer was that it required a highly skilled movement technique for coordination.

The "Returning Wind" variation was about swiftly changing from "Zhenyue Style" and slashing a circle of whirling sword light to lock the vulnerabilities on both sides of the body.

Thus, if an opponent tried to attack the vulnerabilities on both sides, they would be blocked by the sword path of "Returning Wind," achieving a balance of offense and defense.

The idea was indeed good, but the transition from "Zhenyue Style" to "Returning Wind" was extremely difficult.

After much thought, Lu Heng ultimately decided to master the "Returning Wind."

If the difficulty was high, then he would break through the Body Technique Realm and force this variation into existence.

Having been reborn with the experience of two lifetimes, what was the point if there weren't challenges to tackle?

...

So, from the morning, Lu Heng was in the training room, cultivating the "Returning Wind" variation of the "Zhenyue Style."

He even brought over the Mechanical Tiger for paired practice.

As per Lu Heng's instructions, after being hit by the "Zhenyue Style," the Mechanical Tiger would randomly attack from the left or right with its tail.

Machine language was indeed very mechanical, as Lu Heng's command was for random attacks on the left or right.

The Mechanical Tiger truly attacked at random without showing any signs, and after being chopped by the "Zhenyue Style," it would randomly select a lucky direction and whip its tail over.

At that moment.

Lu Heng started to execute "Returning Wind," slashing out the swirling blade light, and sealed off the tail being whipped over by the Mechanical Tiger.

Every time the tail collided with the Aurora Blade, a loud clang of metal clashing against metal resonated.

Every strike by Lu Heng was with full force, chopping upon the Mechanical Tiger's head and leaving deep sword marks that were as wide as a palm.

But for the Mechanical Tiger, sustaining attacks of this level only meant cracks opening up on its liquid metal exterior, which would recover after a short while.

As long as its Mechanical Core was not damaged, the hits were essentially ineffective.

After an afternoon of sparring practice, Lu Heng only successfully executed "Returning Wind" once.

After practicing, he calmed down to reflect and realized it was still the movement technique that couldn't keep up, just marginally off.

At the moment, the level of his movement technique was at the In-depth Level (1852/3000), still some distance away from the next realm.

During sparring practice, it wasn't just the swordsmanship that was being cultivated—his movement technique was also improving simultaneously.

The cultivation of basic skills had always relied on laying a solid foundation step by step, with no shortcuts to take.

Every day during training, as he watched the steady increase in Sword Technique Proficiency and movement technique proficiency, his confidence in mastering "Returning Wind" grew.

Clang!

Another chop landed on the Mechanical Tiger's head, almost breaking open half of its skull.

At that time.

Lin Zeyu came in from outside and, seeing this scene, couldn't help but remark, "You're really going hard, aren't you? How did such a handsome big tiger become your punching bag?"

After practicing all morning, Lu Heng, too, felt a bit tired and put away his sword to rest for a while.

The Mechanical Tiger, after being chopped with the sword, only seemed a bit brutal, but within a few seconds, the liquid metal had reverted to normal.

"Jealous?" Lu Heng retorted casually.

"Jealous! How about next time you bring it along for me to use as a target practice for shooting, what do you say?" Lin Zeyu propsed a novel idea.

Anyway, the Mechanical Tiger was immune to cuts and slashes from swords, as well as basically bulletproof, so using it for target practice wouldn't really make a difference.

"Sure, as long as you can run faster than it," Lu Heng said with an indifferent expression.

Lin Zeyu glared and said, "I'm talking about being a stationary target, not moving at all."

"I didn't make it stay still when I was sparring. How come there are restrictions when it comes to you?" Lu Heng gave him a sidelong glance.

The Mechanical Tiger, having intelligent consciousness, understood Lin Zeyu was treating it as a target for a game and bared its teeth with a roar.

Lin Zeyu shivered and almost fell off the stool: "Pretty fierce!"

"What did you come to the Training Room for?" Lu Heng asked.

"I've already moved in, so this is my Training Room too. If there's nothing else, I can spar with you," Lin Zeyu said, warming up his neck, ready to show his stuff.

"Are you sure?" Lu Heng looked at him with a bemused expression, like he was sizing up a punching bag.

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...

Bang!

Ah!

With an overhead throw, Lin Zeyu hit the ground hard, nearly falling apart, and then shouted, "Stop! Stop! No more fighting, you're hitting too hard."

He rubbed his buttocks and quickly crawled behind a pillar to hide.

He had originally wanted to spar with Lu Heng to enhance his basic Fighting skills but hadn't expected to be on the receiving end of a beating from the get-go, which was no help at all in training.

His durability, on the other hand, improved steadily.

"I only used twenty percent of my strength," Lu Heng held up two fingers.

"I'm almost falling apart here, stick with the Mechanical Tiger for your practice. That thing won't fall apart," Lin Zeyu promptly called off the sparring request.

"Tired of sparring, time to go home for a meal," Lu Heng stretched his limbs and muscles, looking as if he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

"Hold on, I almost forgot, my 'Source Energy Flash' proficiency is full, help me with my Skill Upgrade," Lin Zeyu remarked, nearly forgetting the important matter.

Lu Heng helped him unlock the Skill Lock, allowing him to manage his own Skill Upgrade.

Lin Zeyu fiddled for a while and then suddenly widened his eyes, "Something doesn't seem right, it didn't fail the Upgrade, did it?"

"It could," Lu Heng said, nodding earnestly.

"Divine Evolution" unlocks the Skill Lock, indeed allowing the use of Divine Energy for upgrading Skills or performing Skill Fusions, but indeed, there's the possibility of upgrade failure.

"Damn it! I thought it wouldn't fail. Now what?" Lin Zeyu's eyes bugged out.

"Failed upgrade isn't a big issue. Just add double the amount of Divinity energy and continue upgrading," Lu Heng reminded.

Lin Zeyu, not wanting to be distracted, hurriedly added twice the Divine Energy and after a moment, he managed to upgrade successfully: "Done, it worked this time."

Lu Heng helped him lock the Skill and asked, "What did it upgrade to?"

"'Source Energy Shock Bomb.'"

Lin Zeyu, while answering, read the Skill Effect description: "Huh... The effect of the Skill has gotten a lot stronger; this is even more powerful than a Flash Bomb."

The "Source Energy Shock Bomb" does indeed have a formidable effect; it's a C-Level Skill, after all.

The Skill involves compressing Source Energy into a Shock Bomb, when thrown, the effect is stronger than that of a Flash Bomb.

In modern weapons, a "Flash Bomb" can be seen in games, and one may think it's just for flash.

In reality, a "Flash Bomb" is a type of grenade, also known as a "Shock Bomb," "Stun Grenade," or "Flash Grenade."

When it explodes, it does indeed emit a blinding light, preventing people from opening their eyes.

Directly looking at such a flash, even if you aren't blinded, it can make you blind for a while, with tears streaming down all day and vision blurred.

Furthermore, a "Shock Bomb" is accompanied by a loud explosion, causing dizziness and confusion, or even knocking someone out.

Getting hit by a "Shock Bomb" up close, forget continuing the fight, being able to crawl back to your position is a sign of superior Constitution.

Therefore, the "Source Energy Shock Bomb" Skill is indeed very potent.

Throw it, and if it explodes in close proximity, it can directly incapacitate targets within the blast radius.

Of course, Superpower Users have a better physical Constitution than normal people and higher durability, so their recovery from a Shock Bomb is quicker.

If they are farther from the blast, they can indeed regain fighting capability more quickly.

Even so, the tactical role of the "Source Energy Shock Bomb" is still very substantial.

"Not bad. You could think about finding some soldiers who've come out of the military to practice the usage techniques," Lu Heng suggested.

"I've been learning for a while now. I'm telling you, I'm pretty skilled at throwing grenades," Lin Zeyu bragged.

Afterward, he took out his laptop, logged into the Crystal Core Dark Network, and pointing to a listing, said, "Oh right. I saw a Skill Crystal Core last night. Take a look and tell me if you want to buy it."

Lu Heng glanced at the name of the Skill Crystal Core and knew its effect without even looking at the specifics.

The listing for the Skill Crystal Core was named "Metal Enhancement."

Lu Heng initially thought Lin Zeyu was choosing a Skill for himself, but seeing the name, he asked, "Isn't this meant for you to use?"

"Of course. It would be useless for me. What, make bullets a bit harder?" Lin Zeyu replied as if it were obvious.

"If it's for the Mechanical Tiger, this Skill would indeed be very appropriate," Lu Heng evaluated.

"You want it? If so, I'll make the purchase," Lin Zeyu was ready to act.

"I'll buy it myself. I have to put together the skills for this tiger on my own," Lu Heng said, waving his hand and heading out the door. Then he used his own laptop at home to log into the Crystal Core Dark Network and selected to purchase the "Metal Enhancement" Crystal Core.

No haggling. For a C-Level Skill, the asking price of 8 million was a bit higher than the market price, but still within a reasonable range.

And in the case of a suitable Skill, even a several-fold increase in price is worth it.

So Lu Heng didn't bargain, confirmed the purchase directly, and then used his Offshore Bank account to transfer the money to the seller's specified account.