Longevity by Grinding Skills

These weren’t cuts from a blade, but carbonized patterns from intense heat. Dark red cracks spiderwebbed across his skin as fiery energy poured down his windpipe and into his lungs, forcing him to cough up mercury-like blood laced with sparks.

Before the beads of blood could even hit the ground, they were vaporized into a silver mist by the heat radiating from the mace’s body, creating an eerie halo in the moonlight.

Xu Yunfan’s muscles bulged in the heatwave, his steps crushing the earth and stone beneath his feet.

The Gilded Mace rode his momentum in a horizontal sweep, smashing into Chen Tiangang’s blocking right elbow. A sharp crack, like shattering porcelain, echoed from his Refined Steel and Iron Bone frame. The break actually melted into a translucent, orange-red gel that dripped down like molten glass candy.

Chen Tiangang staggered back violently as thick, mercury-like blood spurted from the wound on his elbow. The hiss of it corroding the stone slabs on landing mingled with the spreading stench of something scorched.

Before the third breath was even finished, Xu Yunfan had already spun behind Chen Tiangang.

The fiery energy accumulated in the Gilded Mace’s tip over three breaths condensed into a single, incandescent point, stabbing straight toward Chen Tiangang’s back.

As the fiery energy accumulated over three breaths penetrated his core, his body instantly vaporized, triggering a vacuum collapse. Chen Tiangang’s entire form exploded from the inside out.

Xu Yunfan withdrew the mace with a backhand motion, flinging off liquid, glass-like residue that burned honeycomb-like holes into the bluestone slabs.

The residual heat on the battlefield had yet to dissipate, and the shimmering air made the scattered body parts look as if they were behind a curtain of boiling water.

Thirty paces away, half a glass-like finger was embedded in the scorched earth. Inside the coral-shaped cavity left after the blood had evaporated, a beetle, burned to charcoal, lay curled up.

He returned the Gilded Mace to its box. The golden, fiery veins on its surface gradually cooled, and soon it looked no different than before.

Xu Yunfan immediately wrapped the box in black cloth. As he exited the Linn Character State, he collapsed to the ground, panting heavily as waves of extreme exhaustion washed over him.

His muscles ached, his bones were riddled with hairline fractures from the overexertion, and his entire body was covered in dense, dark purple patterns that made him look grotesque and terrifying.

’I can’t get into another fight for a while. I need to rest and recover.’

’You fought a life-and-death battle, wielding a Heavy Hammer and unlocking your potential. Your Skill Level in the Red Rope Copper Body Cloak Hammer has increased significantly.’

’You have used the Celestial Cicada Force and comprehended the method of high-frequency bone vibration. Your Skill Level in the Celestial Cicada Force has increased.’

’Your Great Tendons snapped, allowing you to move like a thunderclap. You continuously advanced, dodged, strode, and twisted, blocking with perfect ease. Your Skill Level in Flying Leg has massively increased.’

’...’

The Skill Level notifications on his Attribute Panel were practically flooding his vision.

After just one battle, his Skin Cultivation Skill Level was only two or three hundred points away from Perfection.

He looked back at the distant Thunder Accumulation Mountain. Even from this far away, he could still see flames soaring into the sky from its peak, with thick smoke billowing up to join the clouds.

Shouldering the Iron Box again, Xu Yunfan picked up his broken Heavy Hammer. ’Maybe I can get it reforged once I find a suitable place.’

He stroked the Iron Box on his back. ’Is it just my imagination, or did the Gilded Mace feel smoother to wield this time?’

Just as he was about to leave, Xu Yunfan froze. He had caught a red glint in his peripheral vision. Turning, he walked over to a pile of mangled flesh.

He picked up a branch and pushed the gore aside, revealing a palm-sized iron plate.

He picked it up and took a look.

Heavenly Cicada Body Refining Technique.

Those five words were inscribed at the top of the iron plate.

Xu Yunfan stroked the grooves on the iron plate, unsure of what material it was forged from. A faint, tingling sensation spread from his fingertips.

Under the wash of the heavy rain, the seemingly chaotic patterns on its surface were revealed to be the lines of muscle tissue.

WHOOSH!

A Whistling Arrow shot past his ear, embedding itself three inches deep in an ancient cypress tree behind him.

Xu Yunfan looked up. He knew at once that the sounds of his battle with Chen Tiangang had alerted the patrolling Hu Ben Xuan Armor Army at the foot of Thunder Accumulation Mountain.

Fifty yards away, the Profound Armor Cavalry had already formed a Yanling Array. The Nine-Ring Saber of the Captain in the lead glinted coldly in the rain as he broke away from the formation, charging forward alone on his horse.

"Are you Hu Ben Profound Armor soldiers always this reckless?"

Xu Yunfan couldn’t help but grin. As he tucked the iron plate into his robes, the Captain’s Nine-Ring Saber came chopping down at his head. Xu Yunfan spun and swung his arm, the motion creating a sound like wind and thunder.

’I shouldn’t be fighting,’ he thought, ’but my opponent is a Second Level Martial Artist at best. I won’t even need to muster a sliver of Blood Qi.’

CLANG!

The handle of his broken heavy hammer, though moving second, struck the spine of the blade first. The Heavy Iron Saber, weighing dozens of pounds, shattered on impact.

Even Xu Yunfan was stunned for a moment. He had subconsciously used the vibrational technique of the Golden Cicada’s Wing Flapping Technique from his Celestial Cicada Force to power that last strike.

The high-frequency vibrations from his bones could turn a person to pulp with a single punch, yet a Heavy Iron Saber had been snapped so easily with a simple poke.

The remaining seven riders thrust their Armor-Piercing Spears forward simultaneously, only to see the muscles on Xu Yunfan’s back ripple in a bizarre, wave-like motion.

The spear tips scraped across his skin, leaving nothing more than white marks.

He pushed off the arches of his feet and spun into the air, the Fine Steel Heavy Hammer Long Handle in his hand flicking out like a viper’s tongue.

The Adam’s apples of the seven approaching Profound Armor Army soldiers caved in almost simultaneously. The Profound Armor Cavalry clutched their throats and fell from their horses, their eyes bulging as their necks were snapped into grotesque angles.

After clearing away his opponents, Xu Yunfan didn’t hesitate for a second. Pushing off the arches of his feet, he shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, vanishing into the old forest at the side of the road.

The remaining Profound Armor Cavalry roared in anger, but ultimately, they could only watch helplessly as Xu Yunfan escaped.

Cavalrymen were already at a disadvantage when fighting dismounted, let alone trying to navigate an old forest with Long Spears. It would be a suicide mission.

Xu Yunfan didn’t stop until he reached a mountain ravine in a secluded area, far from any sign of human activity.

He was now over a hundred li away from Thunder Accumulation Mountain.

With his Hunting Skill, he had been covering his tracks the entire time, so he naturally didn’t have to worry about being followed.

He casually hunted a roe deer, cleaned it by the stream, and gathered a few handfuls of wild herbs for seasoning. He crushed them into a juice and rubbed it all over the cleaned deer, then built a campfire and began to roast it slowly.

Fortunately, he always carried some seasonings in his pouch; otherwise, his discerning palate would have made the meal difficult to swallow.

Once everything was prepared, Xu Yunfan took out the iron plate again and studied it carefully.

This Heavenly Cicada Body Refining Technique required a Celestial Cicada as a catalyst, followed by Thunder-Induced Body Tempering. Cultivation was only possible by harnessing the tingling sensation of electricity, which could temper the flesh and further enhance one’s Blood Qi and physical constitution.

"Celestial Cicada spins its cocoon, Thunder-Fire Forged Gold..."

’This is a Secret Martial Art!’

Xu Yunfan’s spirits soared.

Secret Martial Arts, unlike traditional Martial Arts, were not restricted by one’s Realm and could strengthen a person’s foundation and Blood Qi.

The reason any member of the Noble Clans and Major Sects was stronger than a Martial Artist of the same Realm from an ordinary Sect was that they also cultivated these potency-boosting Secret Martial Arts.

The Cultivation requirements for Secret Martial Arts were incredibly strict, and most ordinary Sects could never hope to meet them.

No wonder the Celestial Cicada Sect had chosen to build its home on Thunder Accumulation Mountain and erect a Thunder Tower on its peak.

If not for the systematic knowledge he had acquired from the Celestial Cicada Sect, he would have remained ignorant of this fact.

’Perhaps they really were a first-rate Sect in the Great Zhou once upon a time.’

What excited Xu Yunfan, however, was that beginning this Secret Martial Art didn’t require a Celestial Cicada catalyst or Thunder Tempering Body. He only needed to cultivate his Celestial Cicada Force to the Great Success stage, then vibrate his own bones and tune them to a specific, unusual frequency. This would tremendously strengthen his body and provide an exponential boost to the Horizontal Training for his Celestial Cicada Robe.

(Two more Chapters are scheduled for release this afternoon and evening.)