Longevity by Grinding Skills

As Xu Yunfan’s Adam’s apple bobbed, he let loose a shout with his Thunderous Tongue technique. The Thunderfire Qilin Hammer in his hand instantly radiated a scorching heat, and a visible wave of Qi Force erupted from him, vibrating with his surging Blood Qi.

The two streams of Qi Force collided. For a moment, the Hammer Force and the spear’s light intertwined and swelled. The ground of the Martial Arts Arena, already torn to shreds, erupted as earth and stone went flying. The ricocheting pebbles caught the spectators in the front rows off guard, causing them to cry out in pain as they were struck.

Although the Sect Leader of the Cyan Simurgh Sword Sect kept her longsword sheathed, a few casual flicks were all it took to pulverize the incoming pebbles and deflect the dust.

Her expression was one of shock. She turned to glance at the Jiuyao Sect emissary, who occupied the seat of honor on the viewing platform.

Only a top-tier major sect like the Jiuyao Sect would have the audacity to interrupt another Sect’s True Inheritance Ceremony. If any other Sect had dared to humiliate the Celestial Craft Cave in such a way, a serious feud would surely have been ignited after the ceremony.

Just then, Xu Yunfan used the recoil to launch himself thirty feet into the air. With a flick of his wrist, a mechanism in the handle clicked. The chain of the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer pulled taut like a fully drawn bow, and the Thunder Pattern Steel head became a crimson meteor, plummeting downward.

Teng Lingchuan’s feet moved in the pattern of the Seven Stars, while his spear tip danced through the Nine Luminaries. His muscles bulged, stretching his loose robes taut. As the spearhead flicked, the sheer force of its passage carved the pattern of the Big Dipper into the bluestone ground, and the pulsing spear qi faintly coalesced into a celestial image.

"Break!"

The shout erupted from Xu Yunfan’s throat as he twisted at the waist, putting the force of a thousand-jin plummet into his strike.

The instant the hammer head struck the formation’s Tianquan position, a brass mechanism snapped out from the butt of the handle. An immense force instantly recoiled back through the weapon. The entire Big Dipper formation collapsed with a deafening roar. Shattered bluestone bricks were blasted into the air by the shockwave, and the very ground beneath Teng Lingchuan’s feet fractured and bulged upward from the pressure.

VMMMM!

Teng Lingchuan’s face instantly flushed crimson. The crushing weight of the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer—now being wielded as a Chain Hammer—was so immense that it completely suppressed the light radiating from his Pole Star Spear.

His arms were numb from the impact. There was no finesse to that strike whatsoever, yet the sheer force carried by the hammer head was impossibly heavy—more than he could withstand.

His feet were driven deep into the earth, and the force that bled off from the impact tore spiderweb cracks across the surrounding ground.

A single strike like that could easily crack iron and shatter steel.

The jade-like veins of the Jade Net throbbed in the web of Teng Lingchuan’s hand. With a furious roar, he abruptly shifted his grip on the Long Spear, and its tip blossomed into a torrent of strikes like a sky full of stars.

Xu Yunfan’s eyes were deep and focused. His pectoral muscles swelled, ripping his shirt apart. Amidst the dark golden sheen of his bronze musculature, his Great Tendons began to glow with the same jade-like luster as Teng Lingchuan’s, pulsing visibly beneath his skin!

Off to the side, the Jiuyao Sect emissary shot to his feet, his eyes locked on Xu Yunfan in utter disbelief.

On the high platform, Hong Baichuan also strode forward to the edge, his face a mask of shock and delight.

"Fall!"

Teng Lingchuan roared, his Blood Qi condensing like a crimson python. The light from his spear surged another ten feet, exploding into a cascade of starlight that mirrored the heavens as his spearhead danced.

Each thrust could easily pierce gold and shatter stone.

Facing the storm of spear-strikes, Xu Yunfan’s right arm suddenly swelled to three times its normal size, his forearm muscles bulging like an enraged Dragon Raising Its Head.

"Connect!"

The chain of the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer snapped taut, straight as a spear. The hammer head descended, shattering the illusion of a thousand spear tips with unstoppable force and smashing forward like a venomous dragon striking for the heart—aimed directly at Teng Lingchuan’s chest.

He could hear the hum of the air being torn asunder by the approaching Heavy Hammer.

’How can this be?!’

The young prodigy’s expression changed drastically. His waist twisted at an unnatural angle, supple as a snake. As he executed the Jiuyao Sect’s secret technique, the Jade Net Soft Form, his joints let out a series of sharp cracks, like popping beans.

This was the exact moment Xu Yunfan had been waiting for!

The chain of the hammer snapped again, this time whipping around to entangle the shaft of the spear. Using the centrifugal force, the hammer head swung out in a wide arc, a move capable of sweeping through an entire army.

Just as Teng Lingchuan tried to retreat, he felt as if his feet were rooted to the ground. He didn’t know when, but Xu Yunfan had stomped his left foot, shattering the earth and using the chain of his Chain Hammer to clamp down on his deerskin boots like an iron vise.

He snapped his head up to see Xu Yunfan holding the chain taut, the head of the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer plummeting down on him from above.

"Ling Chuan!"

The Jiuyao Sect emissary, Yin Hong, shot to his feet, his face an icy mask. His body launched forward like an arrow from a taut bowstring. His robes billowed as he charged, and the force from his bulging, knotted muscles tore a human-shaped, turbulent white wake through the air, as if invisible hands were crushing all the moisture out of the atmosphere in the Martial Arts Arena.

He was also a master at the realm of a Bone Marrow Cleansing Grandmaster.

"Elder Yin, wait!"

Hong Baichuan’s pupils contracted. Yin Hong’s five fingers had already formed an Eagle Claw, aimed at Xu Yunfan’s throat. His knuckles glowed crimson, and the searing aura emanating from them was so intense that even nearby onlookers felt their breath catch in their chests.

He stomped his foot on the bluestone tiles, which exploded into a spiderweb of cracks. His body shot forward to intercept, moving like an iron ball launched from a catapult.

Before his furious shout had even faded, the two had already clashed violently in mid-air.

Yin Hong shifted from a claw to an open palm. The lines on his palm began to glow dark red from the sheer friction, and his hand—a hand said to be able to melt gold and iron—crashed down, carrying with it the stench of sulfur.

Veins bulged on Hong Baichuan’s fist. The instant he put force into his punch, his knuckles emitted a crisp crack, like the sound of metal being forged. It was unmistakably the Celestial Craft Cave’s secret technique: the Thousand Forged Mountain Shattering Strength.

The instant the fist and palm met, the resulting shockwave was like a Heavy Hammer smashing into the ground.

Within a thirty-foot radius, all the stone slabs were flipped over, and ricocheting fragments of stone struck sparks against the roiling Qi Force the two men had stirred up.

Yin Hong was thrown back seven steps, the soles of his boots gouging deep furrows in the ground. Each step branded a half-inch-deep impression into the solid rock below.

Hong Baichuan’s sleeve disintegrated, revealing the Quenching Copper Scale Armor that covered his forearm. The individual scales of the armor were already twisted and warped from the immense force of the blow.

BOOM!

The wind from the hammer’s final blow kicked up a thirty-foot dust storm. When it finally settled, the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer was hovering just three inches from Teng Lingchuan’s face.

The muscles in Xu Yunfan’s arms were still vibrating at a high frequency, and a molten, lava-like light flowed just beneath his skin.

As for Teng Lingchuan, his clothes had been utterly shredded. Not even his shorts remained. Tattered strips of fabric drifted away on the breeze, leaving him stark naked. This was the effect of the Celestial Zen Force’s high-frequency vibrations; with nowhere else to go, the energy had simply disintegrated his clothing.

The representatives from the other seven Cangzhou Sects were stunned at first. They didn’t dare make a sound, out of respect for the Jiuyao Sect’s prestige, but the amusement and mischief practically spilling from their eyes—that naked schadenfreude—made Teng Lingchuan’s face instantly turn beet red.

Seeing this, the Jiuyao Sect’s Elder Yin froze. He let out a cold snort. The set of tiger knuckles he had drawn from his robes was crushed into powder in his grip, the metal dust trickling through his fingers.

The sight made Hong Baichuan’s eyelid twitch.

’That old dog Yin. To think he’d dare secretly draw tiger knuckles, all because he has the Jiuyao Sect backing him.’

Ignoring the wary Hong Baichuan, Elder Yin flashed forward, stripped off his own long robe, and wrapped it around Teng Lingchuan.

Teng Lingchuan turned to look at Elder Yin, his expression dazed.

"Master, I... I actually lost."

Seeing that Teng Lingchuan was unharmed, the worry in Elder Yin’s heart finally subsided. He gave a complicated look at Xu Yunfan, who was now being shielded by Hong Baichuan.

"Perfection at the Second Level of Muscle and Skin Training... Sect Leader Hong, you’ve certainly found yourself a fine prospect."