Longevity by Grinding Skills

Chapter 457: Chapter 457: Three Lifetimes of Reincarnation, and That’s It?

The Dragon-Subduing Arhat’s fury erupted, the veins on his neck bulging like coiling Qiu Longs as the Buddha Light around him vibrated violently.

Just as the aspect of Vajra’s Furious Gaze was about to manifest, he suddenly closed his eyes and softly chanted a Buddha’s Name. The seething aura subsided as if it were a receding tide.

Such mastery over his Cultivation made Xu Yunfan’s pupils contract. The tyrannical aura that had nearly blasted through the watchtower moments before now seemed as if it had never existed.

Xu Yunfan’s fingers twitched, and a stream of faint blue Array Patterns flowed between them as he prepared to connect to the core of the Mountain Protection Array deep within the Earth Veins of Cold Crow Pass.

Suddenly, his expression shifted. The Dragon-Subduing Arhat’s stance, which had seemed so casual, was anything but. His right foot stood precisely on a node required to activate the Array, while his left palm, several sizes larger than a cattail fan, was poised over a key energy junction.

’That damn monk has actually figured out the layout of the Primordial Sect’s Mountain Protection Array in Cold Crow Pass with such clarity. He’s completely severed the critical points of the Array Formation’s flow.’

Xu Yunfan’s eyes narrowed. ’I’m afraid Cold Crow Pass has been infiltrated by Puchen Pure Land until it’s as porous as a sieve. They’ve even figured out the critical Mountain Protection Array.’

"Amitabha Buddha."

The Dragon-Subduing Arhat placed his palms together. A seven-layered Buddha Radiance Wheel suddenly appeared behind his head, and within each layer of light, a Black Tortoise Illusion rose and fell. "Donor Xu, why waste your effort? The ’Profound Nether Seven Evils Formation’ is built upon the millennia of Yin Evil in Cold Crow Pass, aligning perfectly with its murderous nature. A hundred or so years ago, while I was contemplating the True Martial Profound Mechanism, I saw this formation mentioned in the ’Earth Evil Summary’ left behind by a Daoist Master of the Primordial Demon Sect..."

’Saw a Daoist Master of the Primordial Demon Sect...’

A cold glint appeared in Xu Yunfan’s eyes. ’More likely, he was lured into a trap and killed.’

Before the Arhat had finished speaking, Xu Yunfan suddenly formed a sword-finger and slashed it across his chest.

His mastery of the Initial Understanding of Array Dao at the Great Success stage was on full display. The Spiritual Power trailing from his fingertips traced a profound trajectory through the air, forcibly reconnecting the previously severed Array Patterns.

A rumbling like muffled thunder echoed from deep within the Earth Veins. The walls of Cold Crow Pass suddenly blazed with densely packed Dark Gold Talismans.

’What the hell?!’

’Didn’t Xu Yunfan just take over Cold Crow Pass a short while ago? How has he already grasped the intricacies of this Mountain Protection Array so quickly, to the point where he can even adjust and improve it?’

’He’s also a master of the Array Dao!’

The Dragon-Subduing Arhat’s expression changed abruptly.

The green bricks beneath his feet suddenly turned to quicksand. Seventy-two chains shot up from the ground, their links covered in the Primordial Sect’s secret "Yin Evil Talismanic Script."

More terrifying still, the entire sky twisted and cracked like a mirror. The once-clear, star-dusted night was rapidly obscured by layers of black clouds until the heavens were dyed the color of ink.

The Nether River surrounding Cold Crow Pass began to churn violently. As thousands of pale arms thrashed madly, seven columns of Sword Qi, roiling with monstrous Yin Evil, shot up from the riverbed like seven malevolent dragons bursting from the abyss.

"Great Wheel Ming King Escape!"

As the Arhat roared, his muscles swelled as if being inflated with air.

His ocher Kasaya instantly burst apart, revealing a bronze-colored body covered in a Dragon Scale Pattern.

The tattoo on his right arm materialized into a physical Cyan Dragon that wrapped around his limb. Its head bit down on the Demon-Slaying Pestle, which he then slammed into the ground. A deafening BOOM followed, and the golden ripples that erupted from the pestle’s tip shattered the surrounding space, creating a spiderweb of cracks.

Xu Yunfan looked on with a hint of surprise.

He watched as blood began to seep from every pore on the Dragon-Subduing Arhat’s body. The instant the Blood Beads flew into the air, they transformed into thousands of crimson Sanskrit characters.

The Sanskrit characters drilled into the void as if they were alive. The Arhat’s body transformed into a streak of blood-red light, escaping beyond the pass just an instant before the Yin Evil Sword Qi could encircle him.

"Trying to run?"

Standing on the battlements, Xu Yunfen sneered and drew a jet-black Longsword from the void with a flick of his wrist.

The moment the blade appeared, a wave of True Martial Demon-Vibrating Sword Qi swept out in all directions like an ink-black dragon bursting from the abyss.

The entire Nether River instantly began to boil. Its viscous surface roiled violently, throwing up black waves over a hundred feet high.

Even more horrifying, countless twisted faces emerged from the waves. The vengeful souls, imprisoned in the Nether River for ten thousand years, scrambled over one another to throw themselves at the Sword Qi.

They tore at each other’s decaying bodies, forming layered walls of pale flesh upon the river’s surface. The shrieks they let out as they were shredded by the Sword Qi caused the cliffs on both banks to crumble and flake away.

The ceaseless tide of souls pushed the Nether River into an even greater frenzy. The sound of the turbid waves crashing against the shore was like thousands of muffled thunderclaps rolling in unison. Even the walls of Cold Crow Pass trembled slightly at this display of frenzied self-destruction.

These souls, fallen into the Nether River, were eternally denied rebirth; naturally, they hoped to use this opportunity to escape the cycle of Reincarnation.

Xu Yunfan’s cold gaze swept over the churning souls in the Nether River as he suddenly formed a hand seal for a Spell.

The Dark Gold Talismans on the walls of Cold Crow Pass flared brightly in response. Seven Yin Evil Chains shot out from the array’s core, whipping into the boiling Nether River like giant pythons.

The struggling pale arms immediately let out piercing wails, forced back to the riverbed by the Talismanic Script flowing over the chains. When the turbid waves subsided, a layer of black, ice-crystal-like Evil Qi condensed on the river’s surface, sealing the thousands of souls once more in their eternal damnation.

At that moment, the Dragon-Subduing Arhat materialized nearly a thousand yards away, the Cyan Dragon Tattoo on his right arm now dim and lusterless.

When he got a clear look at the Longsword in Xu Yunfan’s hand, his cloudy pupils contracted violently, and the dragon pattern on his neck began to twist uncontrollably.

Thirty years ago, when he established his Zhu Cheng Foundation, he had sensed the emergence of the True Martial Sword somewhere in the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm. After searching fruitlessly for three years, he had no choice but to use the Demon-Slaying Pestle as a substitute.

Now, seeing it with his own eyes, he discovered that the Dao Patterns on the sword’s blade perfectly matched his own Cultivation Technique, as if the weapon was meant to be his all along.

"The True Martial Sword?!"

The Dragon-Subduing Arhat’s expression was incredibly complex. In his original search for this Magical Treasure, which was the perfect complement to his True Martial Demon Suppressing Scripture, he had scoured the heavens and plumbed the depths of the Yellow Springs.

"To think it would end up with the Primordial Demon Sect..."

As his thoughts reached this point, he couldn’t suppress a sigh of sorrow.

’Such is the time, such is fate... Can I truly not achieve the Dao through this path?’

The moment this thought arose, the Dragon-Subduing Arhat suddenly felt his Spirit Platform become clear.

The obsession that had haunted him through three cycles of Reincarnation melted away like ice and snow, and the agitated dragon pattern on his neck gradually subsided.

He looked down at the golden-red Buddha’s Blood seeping from his palm and suddenly burst into laughter. "Excellent! This boy is not my calamity, he is my fated opportunity!"

The tattered fragments of his Kasaya stirred without a wind, and the Buddha Light surrounding his body shifted from gold to a profound, dark hue.

The True Martial Profound Skill, which for thirty years had been just a step away from completion, now began to circulate on its own toward Perfection under the pressure of this life-or-death struggle.

The incomplete illusion of a tortoise and snake within his Dantian suddenly solidified, creating a strange resonance with the True Martial Sword in Xu Yunfan’s hand.

Sensing the strange stirring from the True Martial Sword in his hand, Xu Yunfan raised an eyebrow. He infused it with his True Martial Magical Power, and the sword immediately fell still.

Seeing this, Xu Yunfan thought to himself.

’Looks like I’ll have to refine and nurture it with my Heart and Spirit when I get back. Only then will I be able to wield it as if it were my own arm.’

"So that’s how it is..."

The Arhat’s expression was serene. A Beidou Star Pattern, identical to the one on Xu Yunfan, appeared on his bronze skin. "The essence of the *True Martial Demon Suppressing Scripture* lies in the two words ’Demon Subduing.’ I have cultivated arduously for three lifetimes, only to realize today that the demon I needed to subdue was, in fact, the obsession in my own heart."

He violently tore open his tattered robes, revealing a Black Tortoise tattoo slowly taking form on his chest.

The "Wan" character Buddha Seal of the Bodhi Pure Land was cracking and disintegrating inch by inch between the entwined tortoise and snake.

’To be reborn from destruction!’

Xu Yunfan was inwardly astonished. ’This Puchen Pure Land truly has a unique way of cleansing the heart to be able to produce such a transformation.’

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