Nine Heavenly Thunder Manual Chapter 39 – Grinding Before The Battle

Ch 39 – Grinding Before The Battle
“You kiddo really did it!” Lei Yu laughed, “but don’t get too carried away with a bit of progress, you still need to continue working hard on cultivating, got it?”
“I know! Master, today I’m going to be the host, treating you and sister Ying Ying to a meal. The first to welcome sister Ying Ying home, the second to celebrate my rise in rank.”
“Ok, then let’s eat dinner together.” Lei Yu smiled, his eyes covertly glancing over Cui Ying Ying’s body, twice.
During lunch, Lei Yu told them about the upcoming battle in a little over a month and how Martial Sect’s reputation was on the line. The two naturally told Lei Yu that they weren’t going to bother him while he was undergoing training and cultivating.
Through his observation, Lei Yu found that Cui Ying Ying had really changed dramatically. Not only did she become quieter than before, but whenever she spoke, she would occasionally blush. Compared to the previous rich princess who did not fear the heavens or the earth, she was currently like a completely different person.
Meeting Lei Yu again, Cui Ying Ying had a new plan. In her heart, she had never given up on the idea of being together with Lei Yu. Perhaps two years ago, she fell in love with Lei Yu for naive and ignorant reasons, but this ignorant fascination with him until now had not diminished one bit, one could say it was even more intense. But deep inside her heart, she was holding onto the remark Lei Yu made that day before leaving. Cui Ying Ying will not become too persistent because that could lead the relationship between the two them into an uncomfortable territory.
Lei Yu returned home and entered another section of the house, the training area.
“My specialty is in speed; inaction to counter an opponent’s action; at the precise moment deliver an instant fatal blow to the opponent and cause a short-term paralysis on them. But only relying on this to beat Cai Zhong, I’m not expecting it to be easy or enough.” Inside Lei Yu’s heart, Cai Zhong was his rival. Although three years ago his battle with this rival was a draw, there’s no guarantee that some fortuitous event may have happened. It’s possible that his cultivation had improved at a pace much faster than his own, but Lei Yu could not give up.
His feet were continuously shifting around, allowing his body to become more nimble and flexible. Inside his mind, he was constantly thinking about how he could take advantage of his main strengths when it was time to face an opponent in battle.
Inaction in order to counter an action was indeed a relatively good strategy. Catching an opponent off-guard with a surprise attack, in the face of weaker or evenly matched opponents, the effects were not bad. But if your opponent was really strong or much stronger than yourself, then this strategy would not cut it. There’s a possibility that you could not react fast enough and by the time you did, you would be a flattened already.
It’s fortunate for Lei Yu to have experienced the [Body Refining] stage, because his own body had developed to the point where his melee ability was regarded quite high. The [Integration] stage had these abnormal characteristics so Lei Yu was carefully pondering, how could he combine these strengths together in order to produce an extraordinary effect?
Meanwhile in Lei Yu’s heart, he had always been thinking about his mother’s enemies and the person that murdered his grandfather. Nuo Yi Long and his grandfather both said that he was still too weak and insignificant to his enemies, so these statements made Lei Yu want to become stronger more and more. Sometimes hatred can blind a person, blocking common sense, and making a person violate human decency. But it could also become a driving force, and this force could drive a person to towards a road of success. Obviously Lei Yu was a person of the latter, and at least he did not ever lose his cool headed reasoning.
In another part of the city, within a huge villa.
“Cai Zhong, you really did not let me down.” A person clothed in black with a thin stature said this to Cai Zhong with a smile.
“Thank you for the praise, Sect Leader!” Cai Zhong stood in the main hall of the villa, bowing respectfully.
“Very good, since you have reached the Fourth Stage of the Demonic Realm, I have a treasure as a gift for you.” After saying that, the person in black clothing waved one hand slightly shaking it, a black light flashed briefly, then immediately, a small black knife appeared in his hand.
“Wow! Thank you Sect Leader!” Cai Zhong hurriedly bowed in appreciation.
“You must remember, this small knife is named Blood Edge, and it contains a powerful evil force. It will accompany you while you grow stronger so that it may gradually bond with you. If you are able to care for it with all your heart, then it’s possible that you and the short sword will be able to become as one. However, it is necessary to feed it with blood in order for it to show its true abilities, do you remember everything I’ve said?
“Cai Zhong has remembered everything in his heart, thank you Sect Leader for the reward!” Cai Zhong’s eyes brightened up while staring at the lustrous black colored Blood Edge in his hands. “Sect Leader, in a short period of time will be my duel with Lei Yu, have you decided yet?” Asked Cai Zhong as he put away Blood Edge.
“Ah, that’s right; I’ve already arranged it, notifying the other two major forces of this match. I believe on the day of the match, there’ll be unexpected results. As long as you can defeat or even kill this brat called Lei Yu, our Ming Sect’s reputation in the Tenglong country will no doubt rise to a whole new level!”
“Your subordinate understands!”
After hearing the instructions from the Sect Leader of Ming Sect, a room was arranged for Cai Zhong within the villa.
Holding Blood Edge, Cai Zhong slowly closed his eyes, concentrating on Blood Edge in his hands. Suddenly, a fearsome force of resentment flowed out from Blood Edge, flooding the entire room. And this force began invading into Cai Zhong’s body bit by bit, and because of this, his personality underwent a complete change. A torrential force of resentment began scouring throughout every corner of Cai Zhong’s body.
From the beginning of Blood Edge’s invasion, Cai Zhong felt a wave of fearsome killing intent, showing how much blood this tiny weapon had encountered in its life.
A short while later, Cai Zhong threw up a mouthful of blood and clutched onto his chest hard. And the Blood Edge in his hand miraculously disappeared. The next moment, Cai Zhong opened his eyes, a look of shock on his face. “I never expected this tiny Blood Edge actually contained such a powerful force. In just a few short hours, my strength had actually increased so much! Already attaining the late-stage of the Fourth Stage Demonic Realm.”
The two of them were both training hard in preparation of the match. While in another area, inside the main hall of the Lei family household.
“There was actually such an event!” A hot energy wavered above Lei Yun Tian’s hand, burning a red invitation in his hands into ashes.
“Master (of the family), I would never have thought little Yu would represent Ming Sect in dueling against the Ming Sect’s main hall leader. This… this was really unpredictable. However, we can see that little Yu has indeed been considered someone of importance within Ming Sect, but unfortunately… *sigh*” The Elder helplessly said this on the side.
“Whatever we say now is too late, but I, Lei Yun Tian will not give up, even though he doesn’t want to return to our family, if we have to, we will forcefully tie him up and take him back!”
“Once the duel starts, we will figure it out and play it by ear right? If we make a move too early, the variables would be too great!”
“What you’ve said is correct, since we’ve missed the chance that day, you cannot mess up a second time. In these short few years, little Yu had actually become so valued by Martial Sect; therefore his genius talent must have been revealed. Our Lei family’s root and lifeline must not be stolen by others for profit!”
Within the forest of a mountain lies a huge mountain villa. Inside the mountain villa, the construction of the building was mostly made up of wood or bamboo, looking like an image you would see in a beautiful painting. The antique ambience was clearly felt throughout every part of the villa. On top of the mountain villa’s main gates, large eye-catching characters revealed those inside each had a special identity, “Celestial Court.”
“Elder, the Court Master is currently not here, are we going to attend their dueling match?” An old man with a head full of white hair wore a long white robe politely asked a middle-aged man sitting on top of a high platform, who gave of an artistic feeling of an immortal.
“We’re attending, why would we not attend? We will take a good look at their dogfight, maybe some unexpected surprises may happen” laughed the middle-aged man.
“Yes, this disciple understands” nodded the old man. This seemingly middle-aged person regarded as an elder did not appear more than 40 something years old. But due to him cultivating mystical and immortal-like methods, it made his face look younger than he really was. It’s no wonder that this old man with a head full of white hair would actually claim to be his disciple.
One and a half months went by. But it was actually a month ago that a stadium was taken over. After a whole month of arrangement and preparations, the original huge stadium had completely changed its appearance.
Because it was currently in the hot weather period, several pavilions were setup at the four corners of the stadium seating area. It appears that those pavilions were set up in preparation for the important people from the four major forces of the country.
A 400 meter large sports field becoming the stage of a match would make people feel a bit shocked. In a typical martial arts competition, the largest stage would only be a distance of fifteen steps from one side to the next. Such a large stage was indeed difficult for people to understand. But for cultivators, they clearly knew in their heart that for some practitioners, merely activating or using their powers would create turmoil of ten plus meters. So in their eyes, such a large stage was a normal thing.
For this current match, ordinary people were not qualified to attend. Only the members of the four major forces would be allowed to enter. Even the few people at the doors acting as security were the ranks of a Second Order Warrior. From this, one could see how much emphasis they regarded this important match to be.