Longevity by Grinding Skills

Chapter 429: Chapter 429: A Public Display of Divine Might

The Sword Intent flared, and Daoist Master Zhou Xing’s Five Elements Dao Foundation shattered like a bubble. The sea of fire was extinguished, the golden blades broke, the giant trees withered, the waves evaporated, and the earth and stone disintegrated!

"No! This is impossible!!"

Daoist Master Zhou Xing roared, watching helplessly as his Dao Foundation was slashed apart by Xu Yunfan’s single sword strike. He was clearly in the Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment. Even if suppressed by this world’s Celestial Dao, limiting him to only half his full power, he should have been more than a match for any ordinary Early-Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

’This was too hasty, too reckless,’ a trace of regret rose in his heart. ’I hadn’t even probed the situation properly. Why did I just charge headfirst into the Divine Martial Realm?’

Suddenly, realization dawned on him, and he tilted his head back and bellowed.

"True Monarch!!"

He had been set up by the True Monarch! He was trapped in a scheme, his mind clouded, and only realized it now that death was upon him.

But the sword light had already arrived. The True Martial Sword pierced his glabella, and the Sword Intent erupted. The purple-robed old man’s Divine Soul, Dao Foundation, and physical body were all annihilated by this single strike!

THUD!

The purple-robed old man’s corpse fell. As his Five Elements Dao Foundation disintegrated, the Celestial Dao of the Divine Martial Realm sensed the demise of a foreign Foundation Establishment Cultivator and actually sent down a wisp of Pure Qi that flowed into Xu Yunfan’s body, as if rewarding him for eliminating an external enemy.

Xu Yunfan was slightly surprised but couldn’t help but feel a surge of joy. ’If this is the case, wouldn’t I gain the favor of this world’s Celestial Dao by luring more Foundation Establishment Daoist Masters into the Divine Martial Realm to be slaughtered? Perhaps I could even harvest a portion of the Divine Martial Realm’s Origin to forge my own Grotto Heaven. And if I were to go one step further...’

Xu Yunfan’s eyes shimmered as he gazed out at the world.

’Perhaps... a Grotto Heaven isn’t so difficult to achieve after all...’

He snapped back to his senses. ’Was this what the Divine Martial Daoist Master was thinking when he slaughtered over a dozen Foundation Establishment Cultivators? To achieve this, he was even willing to undergo Reincarnation in the Divine Martial Realm, completely cleansing himself to gain this world’s mark. With it, slaying external demons would naturally earn him the Celestial Dao’s rewards.’

After a long moment, he sheathed his sword and stood, his gaze cold as he looked at the few wisps of ash that were all that remained of Daoist Master Zhou Xing.

No matter how many hundreds of Magic surged like tides or ten thousand Divine Techniques wove into a net, the True Martial Sword in Xu Yunfan’s hand could unleash world-shaking power under the operation of the Dou Character Technique.

Wherever the sword’s edge passed, the Heavenly Gang Demon Suppression Qi surged across the land.

The sword light was as weighty and sharp as a manifestation of the Black Tortoise. Each move secretly corresponded to the True Martial Seven Stars Constellation, allowing him to forcibly cut down Daoist Master Zhou Xing’s Five Elements Dao Foundation.

Xu Yunfan took a long, deep breath and snorted coldly.

"A mere Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment, and you dared to contend with me in the Divine Martial Realm?"

After this pretentious bit of flexing, Xu Yunfan didn’t hesitate.

He put away the True Martial Sword and, as he walked through the sky, he intentionally slowed his pace. He didn’t use an Escape Light; instead, a spiritual cloud with Black Tortoise patterns naturally formed beneath his feet, allowing him to advance via the art of Soaring Clouds and Mist.

’Now that I’m back in my old home, I naturally have to be a little more ostentatious. Otherwise, how would anyone know that I’ve returned triumphant?’

As he passed the Taoist Sect’s mountain gate, a cyan stream of light suddenly lit up the horizon, like a meteor streaking across the sky.

Before the Mountain Guard Disciples could even react, a profound and boundless aura, vast as the sea, had already swept over them.

Under this pressure, the Dao Protection Array—which had weathered a thousand years of wind and frost and was only now beginning a difficult recovery with the re-emergence of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi—shattered inch by inch as if it were made of paper. The mournful wail of the disintegrating Array Patterns echoed through the mountains.

Xu Yunfan stood on his cloud with his hands behind his back, his torch-like gaze sweeping over the broken Array below.

He saw that the Array Patterns were arranged in a chaotic and disorderly manner, the Spiritual Power nodes were riddled with errors, and it failed to even grasp the most basic principles of the Five Elements’ generation cycle.

Even more ridiculously, several key array cores were actually forged from Mortal Iron and were already covered in rust.

"This kind of crude Array probably couldn’t even stop an Early-Stage Qi Cultivation cultivator."

He shook his head and sighed softly, his voice tinged with a hint of melancholy. "When I left the mountain, this Grand Array was mostly incomplete. Now, it can barely function. Although it’s unsystematic and follows a crude path, it has at least taken shape. Given enough time, it might have been able to nurture a new Mountain Protection Array by drawing on the Earth Vein Qi."

"My Grand Array!"

A shrill wail suddenly exploded, the sound wave carrying ripples of True Qi as it reverberated back and forth between the Thirty-Six Peaks of Qingwei Mountain.

In the Alchemy Room, the head of the Pill Hall, who was mixing medicinal liquids, jolted, and a whole cauldron of Elixirs for strengthening Blood Qi exploded into a puff of green smoke with a BANG. A Ninth Realm Supreme Elder in seclusion was so startled that his Sword Qi reversed, carving a seventy-foot-deep sword mark into the stone wall.

The Black Tortoise Cloud Pattern beneath Xu Yunfan’s feet abruptly faltered, and a flash of bewilderment crossed his face.

’I swear, I only swept my Foundation Establishment Stage Divine Sense lightly over the array cores.’

’It was as natural as casually glancing at a flower bud while passing a garden.’

’Who could have known this Mountain Protection Array was like a paper lantern, tearing open a huge gap with a RIIIP at the slightest touch of a breeze?’

On the mountainside, Elder Shen, who was in charge of maintaining the Array, was staring blankly at half of an Array Banner in his hands.

The Array Banner, forged from Thousand-year Cold Iron, was now like a sun-dried stalk of wheat, crumbling into iron dust between his fingers.

The old man’s goatee trembled violently, and he suddenly spat out a mouthful of heart’s blood with a WAH, dyeing the Eight Trigrams pattern on his chest red.

"My Array Banner that I’ve nurtured for sixty years! This was a treasure left behind by the Ancestral Master two thousand years ago, and now it’s just gone!!"

Amidst the wretched screams, the defensive Talismans all over Qingwei Mountain exploded one after another, bursting into clouds of golden dust in the morning light. From a distance, it looked as if a golden snow was falling.

"Who goes—"

Bi Yuan’s clear and resonant voice suddenly echoed through the heavens, only to be abruptly cut short a moment later, as if his throat had been seized by an invisible force.

The Daoist Sect Leader’s pupils shrank as his gaze locked onto the figure approaching on a cloud.

Pure Qi swirled around the man’s body. With every step he took, a Dao Pattern of an intertwined turtle and snake would naturally appear beneath his feet.

The fallen leaves on the mountain path moved without any wind, arranging themselves into the Star Map of the True Martial Seven Stars where he passed.

What was even more terrifying was that when Bi Yuan tried to probe him, he felt his own True Qi plunge into a northern Cold Abyss, freezing even his very Blood Qi!

"...Yunfan?"

Bi Yuan’s voice trembled with a hint of disbelief.

The fallen leaves on the mountain path stirred without any wind, seeming to slowly rotate in a specific pattern, drawn by the aura around Xu Yunfan.

Beside him, a Supreme Elder with white hair and a white beard, holding a Divine Weapon, had his long eyebrows twitching nonstop.

How could he not be familiar with the figure in the sky? The man had stepped into the Land Immortal Realm at the mere age of thirty, suppressed an entire generation, and single-handedly destroyed the other Five Great Sects. Now, within the borders of the Great Zhou, only the Taoist Sect remained.

"Master."

The moment this was spoken, Bi Yuan’s Profound Daoist Robe suddenly billowed without any wind, its sleeves whipping about.

As he turned, his tightly clenched fingers in his sleeves couldn’t help but loosen slightly.

Watching Xu Yunfan approach on the clouds, he was both shocked and overjoyed.

Seeing the figure thirty feet away, Xu Yunfan intentionally manifested an Anomaly. A Black Tortoise Illusion of an intertwined turtle and snake coiled around him, and with every step he took, a True Martial Cloud Pattern would appear on the bluestone beneath his feet.

What was even more shocking was that in the face of this aura, the "Unity of God and Dao" state that Bi Yuan had bitterly cultivated for sixty years was like snow meeting a scorching sun. The dense True Qi in his body involuntarily recoiled deep into his flesh and blood.

"Yun...fan?"

Staring at Xu Yunfan, who was now right before him, Bi Yuan’s voice trembled in a rare show of emotion as he spoke again to confirm.

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