Chapter Nineteen: Minor Mastery of Swordsmanship

  With a loud "peng" sound, Lei Hao expressionlessly swung his knife to knock away the giant boulder on his head. After knocking it away, he continued to swing his knife, one stroke after another, and the snow-white blade energy ceaselessly stirred up the water flow rushing towards him.

  Lei Hao is currently under the waterfall of Huaguo Mountain's Water Curtain Cave, where he is further improving his basic knife skills with the help of the hundreds of feet high Huaguo Mountain waterfall. Although the last epiphany had raised his basic knife skills to a considerable level, Lei Hao knew that the previous epiphany, although long in duration, was more focused on the physical understanding of the knife, which would allow him to find the correct path when practicing later, but it could not make much progress in terms of knife moves. Any theory that cannot be practiced to the point where it becomes second nature is just an empty castle in the air.

  The power of "Ground Crack" is very strong, but Leihao can't fully grasp it now. The giant knife energy he swung out was scattered everywhere. Last time when fighting against Hu Daitong, although he had been teasing him with a cat-and-mouse attitude, Leihao still found the weakness of this move, which is that it consumes too much magic power and can only be used as a last resort. Moreover, he also discovered that if he were to fight against a higher-level demon king, "Ground Crack" might not work due to insufficient energy accumulation, and even if he swung out "Ground Crack", the huge consumption of magic power would leave him with little ability to resist and he could be easily defeated.

  Kor Raiho only has this one move, "Fissure", and no other sword techniques to use, so he still needs to continue practicing until the time comes when using "Fissure" won't affect his fighting strength.

  So now Lei Hao is still improving his basic knife skills, sweeping, chopping, blocking, slicing, brushing, enduring, cutting and piercing. He has spent half a year on these few moves, and now he can steadily swing out each move under the impact of a thousand-pound waterfall, without any chaos in his knife momentum. At the same time, he can also pay attention to the giant rocks thrown down by the little demon above from time to time, all of which made Lei Hao suffer before.

  Horizontal sweep, vertical chop, slanting slash... simple knife techniques were linked together in Leihao's hands, with a stable speed and rhythm added to the sharp knife momentum, making these knife techniques play out like a knife method.

  Lei Hao's expressionless face kept waving the large knife in his hand, countless knife auras rolled up the water flow rushing towards Lei Hao to the side, although still unable to achieve not a single drop of water sticking to him, but also completely relying on the knife aura to hold up a small space in the center of the waterfall.

  Only to see Lei Hao's eyes condensed, holding a knife in both hands towards the falling giant stone above, shouting: "Split the earth", one knife swung out, and the surging knife energy directly cut the incoming giant stone from the middle like cutting tofu, and the momentum did not decrease. The whip-like knife energy directly rolled up a huge water flow to rush into the sky. This magnificent Huaguo Mountain waterfall was actually intercepted by Lei Hao's move "Split the Earth".

  Looking at the only twenty-zhang-long condensed giant knife, Lei Hao's eyes lit up with joy. This half-year of tireless effort had not been in vain, and now he finally completely grasped this move.

  Lei Hao suddenly appeared beside the little fox who was watching from the side, ending his two-month-long bitter practice. He took over the cyan robe in the little fox's hand and pulled off the wet cyan-colored training clothes on his body, casually putting on the cyan robe. "How about what I entrusted to Da Niu before? Is it done?" Lei Hao asked casually. "Da Niu has collected enough heavenly iron and a small piece of Geng essence within this half year. For this piece of Geng essence, Da Niu directly attacked a tiger demon's lair that was guarded by an inner dan realm tiger demon." The little fox in white clothes stared at Lei Hao's expression and replied without thinking, as if she knew what he wanted to ask.

  Lei Hao naturally felt the fiery gaze of Xiao Huo Li, and his heart had long accepted Xiao Huo Li. He was already used to having her by his side every day. Since becoming a cow demon, perhaps due to the influence of his body or environment, Lei Hao became more and more like a cow demon. The memories of being human were almost gone after over a hundred years. He was sloppy and not good at taking care of himself, so Xiao Huo Li took care of everything around him, including his food, clothing, and shelter. Even the fifty brothers under him knew to find Xiao Huo Li when Lei Hao was in seclusion or not around for important matters. However, deep down inside, Lei Hao still remembered his parents, perhaps this was the last bit of humanity left in him. Traditional thinking made it hard for Lei Hao to start a family without his parents' presence in this world. He thought things were fine as they were, and everyone had plenty of time; when the time came, he would naturally be with her.

  These words were something that Lei Hao couldn't say to Xiao Hu Li, but Xiao Hu Li was even more familiar with her own heart and had long since understood. She never said anything or asked for anything, in her eyes, Lei Hao was just not mature enough yet, when he wanted to settle down, the one he would think of would naturally be her, Xiao Hu Li. Having all this was enough. Xiao Hu Li was willing to silently accompany Lei Hao by his side, watching him fight valiantly, watching him focus on his training, watching him with a sly expression as he played and joked around with his brothers, watching him in the evenings standing alone at the top of Mount Huaguo with tears in his eyes, staring blankly into the distance. Xiao Hu Li felt very satisfied, this was her Lei Hao, she was willing to just watch over him like this, she wanted him to be good and happy, didn't want to restrain him.

  "Alright, you tell Da Niu to bring all the materials to Huaguo Mountain, and then tell Xiang Ya to get all the water-impurities from the cave over here." Lei Hao said to the little fox with a flickering gaze.

  The little fox looked at the person in front of her with a flickering gaze, and Lei Hao's face was written all over with "don't look at me, I'm very embarrassed". She felt both angry and amused in her heart. She just wanted this silly cow to say a few soft words, and see his awkward appearance. With a flip of her almond-shaped eyes, she gave Lei Hao a big sanitary ball. "Alright, my great leader, I'll go now..." The little fox said to Lei Hao with an unkind tone, and towards Lei Hao, the little fox was no longer so polite.

  Lei Hao felt even more embarrassed when he heard the little fox say that. In his past life, he was just a single man and an otaku, but in this life, he faced a group of rough and boorish demon clansmen. What emotional experience did he have? His practical experience came from learning from Xiaoye XXX since childhood, so even if he understood the little fox's kindness, he didn't know how to treat her well. "How did those beasts in my dormitory do it in my past life? Watch movies? There are no movies here! Go shopping? This is all wilderness and mountains! Give flowers?" Lei Hao thought secretly in his heart, and a scene flashed before his eyes: he was wearing a pair of large cow horns, holding flowers with a 'shy' face, giving them to the little fox who looked like a flower. Lei Hao couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine, and he shuddered all over, blurting out: "Damn, this taste is too heavy!" Fortunately, the little fox had already turned around and didn't hear him.

  The little fox finished speaking and turned around, bringing up a fragrant breeze as she left. The afternoon sunlight shone on the little fox's white dress, emitting a soft glow that highlighted her absolutely beautiful face, leaving Lei Hao momentarily stunned, even drooling without realizing it.

  "Damn, such a beautiful girl, not inferior to those international superstars from my past life! If I had met you back then, would I have stood a chance? What are you hesitating about now? Such a lovely little white radish has been placed right in front of you, why don't you open your big mouth and take a bite?"

  Lei Hao scolded himself, his eyes dull and his two long horns on his head turning into... cowlicks.

  Lei Hao collected materials for what? Of course, to cast a handy weapon. He has now tasted the sweetness of practicing martial arts and feels that he can defeat his previous three selves, which is still under the premise that he hasn't learned a complete set of knife skills. At least he understands that his previous self would not be able to withstand this move at all.

  What is personal strength? In Lei Hao's view, the strength of this world consists of magical power, magical artifacts, and martial arts. Magical power is fundamental; without it, everything else is empty talk. When two monsters with a large gap in their magical power boundaries engage in a one-on-one battle, the one with lower boundaries will definitely lose unless they have an extraordinary artifact or far surpass their opponent's martial arts. However, the more extraordinary the artifact, the greater the magical power required to activate it. If the magical power is insufficient, it can easily be drained by the artifact.

  Magical artifacts are "equipment" that allows one to challenge others beyond their level, but most of them are in the hands of immortals and Buddhas. The monsters only have a small portion of these artifacts, and their powers are not impressive, making them unattainable for Lei Hao at present. Although monsters at the Inner Dan stage can refine some basic magical instruments, neither Lei Hao nor anyone else in the Water Cavern knows how to do so.

  Martial arts are divided into armed combat and divine abilities, such as Sun Wukong's 72 transformations and staff techniques, which also grant one the ability to challenge others beyond their level. Sun Wukong was able to wreak havoc in heaven with his extraordinary magical power, high-level martial arts, and his heavy Ruyi Golden Cudgel, single-handedly holding off tens of thousands of opponents.

  He had a taste of the sweetness of the knife method, and now Lei Hao was thinking about how to get a handy war knife. Previously, he was thinking of stealing the knife from the Demon King of the Mixed World when he was going to challenge the Demon King alone, but after killing the Tiger Great General last time, he knew that this matter was definitely impossible. The large knives in the Water Cavern were simply unable to withstand Lei Hao's power at the level of a Demon King, and one move "Fissure" could render a large knife useless. Could Lei Hao carry dozens of large knives to challenge the Demon King alone? Even if Lei Hao wanted to die, he couldn't take his brothers with him. Moreover, only by using the "Fissure" move could Lei Hao fully utilize his strength.

  The Da Dao Shui Zang Cave didn't have many, and in the past half year, he had already ruined over a dozen of them, so getting a war knife was imminent for Lei Hao.

  Half a year ago, Lei Hao realized he needed a battle knife that could bring out his true strength under the pressure of Hun Shi Mo Wang. Later, after becoming the manager of Shui Xue Dong, he discovered that there were actually skilled craftsmen in Shui Xue Dong, a group of human blacksmiths from Ao Lai Guo who had been kidnapped by Hun Shi Mo Wang and taught to be demonic craftsmen. All of Hun Shi Mo Wang's great knives were made with their help. However, Lei Hao didn't know about the daily affairs of the cave since he became the leader, only focusing on improving his own strength. Even the demon army under him was brought out by Lei Wei's brothers. Despite this, Lei Hao didn't expect much from these demonic craftsmen, but they had been forging weapons for hundreds of years and could at least make something usable. Lei Hao just wanted something sturdy and substantial, he didn't have a better plan besides relying on them.

  After inquiring about the materials used to cast the knife from that group of demonic craftsmen, I finally learned that the knife of the Mixed World Demon King was cast from the heavenly meteoric iron. The heavenly meteoric iron is a kind of strange iron formed after the meteorites that fall from the thirty-three heavens every year undergo a terrifying high temperature, with high density and hardness. A fist-sized piece of meteoric iron weighs several hundred kilograms, and the Mixed World Demon King's large knife used five thousand kilograms of meteoric iron, weighing three thousand kilograms after casting, making it a truly precious sword. During the inquiry, one of the demonic craftsmen suggested to Lei Hao that if he could add the essence of gold to the casting process, the resulting knife would be even more durable and sharp. It wasn't until the craftsman explained that I learned that the essence of gold is the essence of gold, and it can only be obtained in large-scale gold mines.

  Lei Hao was going to retreat and practice his swordsmanship, so he handed this matter over to Lei Da Niu. Fortunately, the meteorite would appear every year, but neither Lei Jing nor Lei Hao had expected that Lei Da Niu would actually obtain it, although he had attacked a certain Tiger Demon Cave for this purpose. However, in Lei Hao's opinion, as long as it could enhance his strength, all of this was worth it.

  People are changing, the former Lei Hao had a cruel impulse in his bones, but he was still very kind-hearted. The first time on the battlefield, he didn't dare or want to kill the snake demon, but under the education of survival of the fittest for over a hundred years, he understood that this world is not like the previous life's river crab society, where might makes right and power is supreme. The saying "the weak are preyed upon" was realized faster than anything else. Lei Hao had to protect himself, his little fox companion, the brothers of Lei Wei, and his sworn brother Sun Wukong. So he had to work hard to become stronger.

  Before long, the little fox returned quietly and looked at Lei Hao from a distance, who had fallen into a natural daze again, and let out a soft sigh.

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