Longevity by Grinding Skills

’You practiced the Flying Leg technique diligently. The blood and qi in the soles of your feet felt like a blazing fire, and every step made the earth tremble slightly. When accelerating, you were as ferocious as a surging tsunami. When decelerating, you were as steady as a placid lake. Your Flying Leg Skill Level has increased.’

’You...’

’Your Flying Leg has reached Perfection.’

’Flying Leg (Perfection)

Effects: Walking on Water Without Sinking, Shrinking Inches (Pseudo), Light Splitting Shadow, Tendons and Veins Thunder Sound, Iron Plow Earth Splitting, Lingxu Stepping the Stars, Wind from the Hundred Bone, Stepping on the Swallow’s Tail, Reverse Flow of Broken Waterfall’

In an instant, immense streams of warmth surged through his body, rushing toward the Great Tendons. They began to strengthen rapidly. As the Great Tendons twitched, they unexpectedly hummed like a drawn bowstring. Over time, twelve spiral-shaped collagen fibers rose within him like dragons coiling around pillars, gradually altering the original layout of his meridians.

Seven sharp cracks suddenly erupted from his spine, like a heavy crossbow being drawn.

His blood took on a metallic tang as it was pumped under increased pressure, and the network of fascia throughout his body proliferated and restructured at a visible rate.

Twelve pairs of spiral-shaped collagen fibers grew wildly along his kinetic chains, weaving his once-loose tendons into a composite armor-like structure.

Suddenly falling from the branch, he staggered and steadied himself against a stone lock, his knuckles pressing five indentations into the bluestone surface.

The fascia of his arches spasmed violently as they underwent a jade-like transformation. In the moonlight, his pale-green blood vessels looked like veins of blood-marrow embedded in ice-type jadeite.

Better for exerting force, better for explosive power, better for endurance.

He could clearly see the fascia in the soles of his feet unfurling layer by layer like Hundred-refined Steel Threads, evenly distributing the impact force across the 287 bones in his feet.

The feeling was like replacing his old, worn-out springs with the latest super-alloy, high-tensile spring steel.

Xu Yunfan raised his arm, clenched his hand into a fist, and jabbed forward gently. His body acted as a bow, his Great Tendons pulling taut and then snapping.

BOOM!

The distinct sound of a sonic boom suddenly echoed in the courtyard.

’Success!’

Xu Yunfan took a long, deep breath, his face filled with joy. He shook his head repeatedly, digesting the cultivation memories that had appeared out of thin air in his mind.

His Great Tendons had reached Perfection, forming a Jade Net. In those memories, it had taken him a full twenty years of arduous cultivation to achieve this, and he’d even resorted to all sorts of extreme methods just to barely make the breakthrough. He couldn’t even bear to look at the scenes of his daily cultivation.

’It was too miserable.’

What frustrated him the most was that, according to the memories, it had taken a full twenty years to reforge his body into this Jade Net.

’Too long.’

Looking at the roof thirty meters in front of him, Xu Yunfan moved. A spiderweb crack silently spread across the bluestone brick beneath his feet, and the air let out a sudden shriek.

The next instant, Xu Yunfan was already standing on the roof as if he had been there all along. He looked up at the heavy, thick clouds. The peak of Guniu Mountain resembled Thunder Accumulation Mountain, with bolts of lightning flickering and snaking down from time to time.

"Arriving like a thunderclap that stills all rage, departing like the sea and rivers condensing into a clear light."

In just two months, he had reached Muscle Refinement Perfection again!

Just as he was about to leave the city and let loose to test his maximum speed, the clang of metal striking metal suddenly echoed from the depths of the Celestial Craft Cave, ringing through the sky.

VMMMM!!

Xu Yunfan’s gaze shifted. He turned just in time to see Fu Jin rushing over at full speed. With a stomp that left a crater in the ground, Fu Jin leaped onto the roof. His frantic steps sent tiles scattering everywhere, making the corner of Xu Yunfan’s eye twitch.

’If I have to get the disciples from the Celestial Craft Department to fix the roof, it’ll probably cost another few dozen or even a hundred taels of silver.’

Before he could speak, Fu Jin grabbed him by the wrist.

"Still trying to look cool on the roof? Hurry up and come with me! Master has finished forging your weapon."

As he was dragged along at a sprint by Fu Jin, Xu Yunfan couldn’t help but ask, seeing his senior brother’s ecstatic expression, "Senior Brother, what was that sound just now?"

"A Treasure Artifact! When a Treasure Artifact is successfully forged, it spontaneously lets out a resonant clang that pierces the heavens to announce its birth."

Fu Jin’s face was a mixture of shock and delight, and he burst into loud laughter.

"You lucky bastard! Master hasn’t forged a Treasure Artifact in years. I can’t believe he made one for you within two months of your arrival. You’ve got some amazing luck. Your senior brother here is still just using two Lower Fourth-Grade Sharp Blade Level Weapons, and that’s only because I have connections in the Weapon Casting Hall."

Xu Yunfan was both shocked and overjoyed at this news. He naturally understood just how rare a Treasure Artifact was.

Below Divine Weapons were Treasure Artifacts. In terms of tiers, it was only one step away from being a Divine Weapon.

As Fu Jin dragged Xu Yunfan past the Seventh Level Bronze Gate, a wave of scorching hot air washed over them, making it painful to breathe.

On both sides of the corridor, thirty-six bronze statues were pulling on iron chains as thick as a bowl’s mouth. The roar of meshing gears, thick with the smell of sulfur, assaulted their senses.

When they burst through the final curtain of water, Xu Yunfan’s vision was instantly filled with crimson red.

A boiling Thunder Fire Pool, drawn up from the depths of the earth, lay before them like a flame dragon prostrated upon an Earth Vein. Three ten-zhang-high cast-iron bellows were being pumped by twelve bare-chested Craftsmen from the Weapon Casting Hall. The gusts of air they produced made the golden-red molten iron in the pool surge like a Furious Tide.

Above the Thunder Fire Pool hung a Refined Steel pillar as thick as a water bucket, with one end suspended over the pool and the other reaching straight to the cavern’s dome.

"Steady yourself!"

Fu Jin suddenly gripped Xu Yunfan’s shoulder. As they tapped their toes across the suspended iron chain bridge, the steel pillar unexpectedly conducted a bolt of lightning down into the Thunder Fire Pool. The electricity that filled the air instantly made Fu Jin’s hair and beard stand on end.

His body tensed and his foot slipped. Just as he was about to fall into the pool of fire below, Xu Yunfan grabbed his arm and stood firm.

"Good kid!"

Fu Jin came to his senses and stared in astonishment at Xu Yunfan, who stood perfectly still on the swaying iron chain bridge.

"What an excellent Lightweight Skill."

Xu Yunfan grinned. "The muscle refinement technique I practice happens to be a Lightweight Skill."

He looked down at the sole platform below. The surrounding temperature was so high that even he found it unbearably hot, yet the bare-chested Zhan Yan on the platform seemed completely unaffected.

Zhan Yan’s thunderous shout exploded from the Weapon Forging Platform over the Thunder Fire Pool, reverberating throughout the entire cavern.

"Lift the hammer!"

His spine tensed like a bowstring. His exhausted expression was mixed with a unique excitement. The hammer handle, gripped by the profound iron tongs in his hand, was covered in pale, frost-like patterns.

The hammer’s head was a streamlined cone, with the distinctive silver flecks of Meteorite Iron visible between twelve spiral forging lines. Even more astonishingly, the face of the hammer was densely covered in Dragon Scale-like grooves. Whenever magma from the churning Thunder Fire Pool splashed onto it, it would spark with purplish-blue electricity.

By the time Fu Jin arrived at the Weapon Forging Platform, Zhan Yan was just taking hold of the Heavy Hammer.

"Three hundred and forty-eight catties, seven taels."

Zhan Yan swung the hammer. The head unleashed an invisible wave of Qi Force that, as it tore through the air, carved a trench in the molten iron three zhang away. He couldn’t put the weapon down, his expression filled with unconcealable joy.

After a long moment, he finally turned to Xu Yunfan and said, "You’re just in time. This Treasure Artifact just came out of the forge. The handle is six chi and three cun long, with seven Meteorite Iron Beads inside to balance its center of gravity."

As his finger triggered the mechanism at the end of the handle, the entire Warhammer suddenly split into a three-section Chain Hammer. The Fine Steel Chain links shimmered with a dark blue light in the fire’s glow.