Rowan sat in deep thought, eyes closed, brow furrowed.

Suddenly, a memory surfaced — the feeling of lying in the ocean during a vacation long ago.

The waves had come one after another, endlessly overlapping.

Waves…

A spark of insight flashed through his mind, but it was still just out of reach.

His heart tightened. He could feel he was on the verge of grasping something important.

If he could catch hold of it, the results might be beyond anything he had imagined.

Waves… waves…

Inside the training room, Rowen threw himself completely into his blade practice, mind focused entirely on the image of the ocean.

He tried to recall the exact sensation of water surging around him.

The Ninefold Thunder Blade — one slash carries seventy percent of my strength. That leaves only thirty percent of my energy unused. But to unleash another seventy-percent force right after… how could that be possible?

Waves… one pushing the next, the next driving the one before it. The front wave crashes onto the sand, then flows back…

Gradually, Rowen began to catch the essence of it.

Perhaps "simultaneous release" in the Ninefold Thunder Blade didn't mean perfectly simultaneous.

Why not allow a slight delay between the bursts, like the timing of waves, where the back force pushes the front?

And maybe… the seventy-percent power from the first strike could be recycled, just like the pull and push of seawater?

In that moment, Rowen understood.

Hum!

He swung his blade, this time deliberately using the "reserve" thirty percent as follow-through force.

It didn't work.

Again!

Another slash — still not quite right. But Rowan knew instinctively he was on the correct path.

The blade sliced through the air over and over, the flash of steel constant, the wind from each swing sharp and loud.

Half an hour passed. Suddenly, Rowen unleashed an exceptionally fast strike. The wind pressure was stronger than before, the sound distinctly different.

That's it!

His eyes snapped open, a gleam of excitement in them.

That last slash had carried seventy percent of his strength — and an additional layer of internal force, weaker but real, riding atop it.

That follow-up force was like a crest of foam pushing the wave forward, stacking the power together.

Although it hadn't yet reached the full seventy percent, it was still a huge breakthrough.

If he could master this technique and gradually raise the follow-up force to seventy percent, then the first stage of the Ninefold Thunder Blade would be complete.

Keep going.

Rowan's eyes were full of energy.

He hadn't expected that a stray flash of inspiration would put him right at the threshold of the technique's first stage.

Most warriors — more than seventy percent — never even achieved this stage after buying the Ninefold Thunder Blade manual.

The first stage alone stopped countless people in their tracks.

Immersed in joy, Rowen continued swinging.

The wind from his blade grew stronger and sharper.

An hour later, he could clearly feel that the power of his hidden force was now nearly equal to his visible strike — both about seventy percent of his strength.

The first stage of the Ninefold Thunder Blade… was his.

He set down his Dragon-Patterned Saber and tried it with his bare fists. To his delight, he could still release a burst of hidden force.

Let's test it.

Rowen stepped to the punch-force testing machine, his face lit with anticipation.

Taking a deep breath, he struck like a meteor.

Clang!

The target rang out sharply.

The display quickly lit up — 10,213 kg.

Exactly as he had guessed, about 1.4 times his previous punching power.

Rowen was thrilled.

He had actually done it.

From this point onward, his power output was no longer at rookie level.

He might still be behind others in the Elite Training Camp, but that didn't matter. He'd only been here for a single day — there was plenty of time to catch up.

Seems my comprehension isn't bad at all.

He smiled to himself.

He had thought the first stage would take a month or more to master, yet here it was, unexpectedly completed.

Once the Ninefold Thunder Blade's entry stage was secured, the second and third stages would follow the same logic.

Ding-dong.

Just then, a notification sounded from the nearby laptop.

Rowen glanced over — the compressed file had finished downloading.

He disconnected the laptop from the internet, then linked it to Friday.

"Friday, copy all these files into your database."

"Yes, sir."

The AI quickly carried out his command, absorbing the massive collection of data.

Rowen's lips curled into a satisfied smile.

The high-level instructional videos from the Elite Training Camp would now be complemented by the basic knowledge and reference material provided by Norris and Howard Zhou. Friday's database was becoming complete.

His stomach growled.

A glance at the clock told him it was already past 1:00 p.m.

Time had flown while he trained.

Pulling out his phone, he opened the camp's dining service app and placed an order — five dishes and two nutrient supplements.

To save students' training time, the camp offered direct delivery to rooms. Meals under 1,000 credits were covered by the camp; anything beyond that was self-funded.

This lunch cost Rowen 8,200 credits — worth about 28,700 in standard currency.

Every dish was made from monster meat, something the camp had in abundance.

Half an hour later, the food arrived, still steaming hot.

After eating, Rowen felt his blood surging and energy renewed.

The quality was far higher than what he'd eaten before — likely the meat of a warlord-class beast.

The spreading warmth in his stomach reminded him why the camp's trainees advanced far faster than fighters outside.

The conditions here were simply unmatched.

After digesting for a while, Rowen resumed practicing the Draw Slash technique.

He wanted to master the Thunderclap Draw Slash as soon as possible.

With that trump card, he'd be much safer when hunting monsters.

First, perfect the Thunderclap Draw Slash. Then merge the Ninefold Thunder Blade's power release into it.

If he could succeed, one full-force slash might even kill a weaker high-tier beast general.

The afternoon passed quickly.

By then, Rowen could use the draw technique to boost his strikes to 1.3 times their normal power.

According to the manual, that counted as initial entry into the skill.

The next step was to integrate his mental focus into the slash.

There was no rush.

Training was never about instant results — persistence was the true rhythm.

Time to head back.

He picked up the two small wooden boxes containing the jade marrow.

In a swirl of black-and-blue light, Rowen vanished from the training room.

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