Longevity by Grinding Skills

Chapter 465: Chapter 465: All Are Hidden Hands

Xu Yunfan stood in silence. His Divine Sense flowed out like water in all directions, carefully sweeping through the world.

His Divine Sense brushed past the Celestial Craft Cave. When he saw Zhan Yan still holding his iron hammer, it paused for a fraction of a second before continuing to spread out.

Since his master, Zhan Yan, didn’t want to come out, Xu Yunfan had no desire to disturb him. He was in a world of trouble right now; dragging his master into it would be a grievous sin.

This realm followed the principle of Heaven is Round and Earth is Square. Although the land was vast, for a Foundation Establishment Daoist Master, reaching the ends of the earth was but a momentary affair.

Now, the place he had landed after passing through the Boundary Gate still made his brows twitch.

All around him was the unchanging landscape of the Divine Martial Realm—mountains and earth that seemed cast from Divine Gold. It was empty and desolate, with only the wind whistling through jagged, bizarre rocks, creating a mournful cry.

Xuankong State.

The most unique terrain in the Divine Martial Realm. Here, Geng Metal Qi saturated the world, making the mountains and earth seem as if they were cast from ancient Divine Gold.

As far as the eye could see, there were only jagged mountain ranges forged from molten metal, their layered peaks glinting with a cold, metallic luster.

Not a single blade of grass grew on the entire land. Only the howling wind cut through the metal canyons, letting out a piercing wail.

The vista was a withered, desolate desert of metal, and even the air was tinged with a sharp Geng Metal Aura.

Moreover, in recent years, as the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi had recovered, the Geng Metal Qi had grown even denser.

’I’ve been teleported here, of all places.’

"This landscape... it was definitely laid out by a True Monarch!"

The thought struck his Sea of Consciousness like an icicle, chilling him to the core in an instant.

A chill ran down his spine.

Fragments of a sealed memory suddenly surged forth, exceptionally clear.

Back when he was cultivating the Linn Character Technique, he had made the impossible possible with the help of his Attribute Panel, forcing his way to the entry-level of the "Linn Character Technique."

At that moment, his soul had been forcibly elevated. After entering the Linn Character State, he had briefly touched the Supreme Realm of his own spiritual state...

He had "felt" with utter clarity that, high above in the boundless, unknowable void, deep within the interweaving of time and fate, a pair of cold, indifferent "eyes" that seemed to encompass the cosmos were gazing dispassionately down upon the tiny, dust-like Divine Martial Realm.

The perception was fleeting, more transient than a flash.

It was no mere conjecture or delusion, nor was it a false illusion from pushing his limits.

It was because he had been in the Linn Character State at the time, his mind having reached the Supreme Realm of no joy or sorrow, where knowledge and action were one. Furthermore, with a powerful enemy before him, he had no time for deep contemplation.

But now, connecting all the clues, the truth was cruelly suffocating.

He feared that after he obtained the True Martial Demon Suppressing Scripture, those eyes had shifted their gaze from the Divine Martial Realm onto him.

’What fortuitous encounter? What fated destiny? It was all a lie!’

’This Divine Martial Realm is nothing more than a "nursery" set up long ago by some True Monarch from the Primordial Sect!’

’That "Innate Golden Nature," which drove various factions to madly pursue it and made Great Power Cultivators risk life and limb, is just bait they carefully placed to harvest their "crops."’

He recalled how the Divine Martial Daoist Master, in his bid to refine the Innate Golden Nature within the Divine Martial Realm, had gone so far as to lower his own status, revoking his standing in the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm and reincarnating into the Divine Martial Realm to scheme for a thousand years.

Yet he had been watched by a certain True Monarch the entire time.

As these thoughts raced through his mind, Xu Yunfan felt an icy chill seep through his entire body, yet his face betrayed no hint of emotion.

To an outsider, he simply appeared to be standing there, lost in thought.

’Damn it, how is anyone supposed to play this game? The Divine Martial Realm is clearly their private backyard. Now that I’ve popped up on my own, there’s obviously no escape.’

Xu Yunfan cursed inwardly.

Having spent years in the Primordial Sect and guarding Cold Crow Pass, he was intimately familiar with the behavior of the sect’s cultivators.

Having studied them in depth, he naturally understood that he was still relatively safe for now. As long as he hadn’t borne any ’fruit,’ everything was still negotiable.

After all, the Divine Martial Daoist Master had been hopping around for so long, only to be intercepted and cut down by him midway.

Yet the other party still hadn’t made a move.

This meant that the True Monarch—most likely True Monarch Qing Yuan—only cared about the result. Who carried out the process was unimportant.

Every 60 years when the Divine Martial Realm opened, there were always people who obtained opportunities—be it a Divine Weapon, a fragmented Cultivation Technique, or even, like him, a fundamental legacy. Such cases were not entirely unheard of.

Yet, looking at the history of the Primordial Sect and counting all the great predecessors who eventually reached Foundation Establishment, not a single one had ever truly touched upon the core secrets beyond the Divine Martial Dao Foundation!

It was as if everyone was walking down a pre-paved dead-end street with no way forward.

Even the Divine Martial Daoist Master, who had come closest to the finish line, had fallen to him—a child of Destiny born spontaneously from the Divine Martial Realm itself.

Such a long period of accumulation and preparation.

Now, he, Xu Yunfan, had become the "lucky" successor, his Divine Martial Dao Foundation fused with his own Divine Soul. So, to the one who laid this trap, what was his value?

What was his purpose?

An answer was about to burst forth.

True Monarch Qing Yuan!

How could this Supreme Elder of the Primordial Sect, renowned for his world-shaking Demon Skills and ruthless nature, possibly act with a shred of benevolence?

’Show kindness? Do good deeds?’

’What a colossal joke!’

Every scheme he orchestrated had to be for the sake of satisfying some profound, immeasurable desire that ordinary people couldn’t even begin to fathom.

So, what was the target?

Xu Yunfan’s thoughts spun rapidly.

’The *True Martial Demon Suppressing Scripture*!’

’Without a doubt!’

What kind of existence was a True Monarch?

To be able to set up a heaven-shaking scheme that covered such a vast Secret Realm and manipulated the turning of eras—the object of his desire could be nothing ordinary.

Ordinary Magical Treasures, Cultivation Techniques, and Heavenly and Earthly Treasures were likely no more than dirt to such an existence.

The only thing that could truly move him must be what was hidden in the deepest layers of the *True Martial Demon Suppressing Scripture*!

It might be a supreme Tao Principle Fragment left behind by the Ancient True Martial Emperor, a final secret concerning the birth and death of the universe, or perhaps the key "catalyst" to break through to some legendary Cultivation Realm.

That was the "fruit" that even a world-shaking figure like True Monarch Qing Yuan had to scheme for millennia and plot painstakingly to obtain!

And he, Xu Yunfan, this seed that carried the "Divine Martial Dao Foundation," was precisely the key nutrient—or vessel—for cultivating this "fruit."

A terrifying fact lay before him.

He appeared to be the chosen one who had inherited a supreme lineage, but in reality, he was nothing more than the "primary ingredient" in the True Monarch’s Medicinal Herb Garden—a plant that had grown a bit healthier than the others, specially tended to while awaiting harvest!

’Xuankong State... Suspended and empty...’

Xu Yunfan mulled over those three words, and a chill shot up from the soles of his feet straight to his skull.

This wasn’t just referring to the missing parts of the Divine Martial Dao Foundation. The deeper metaphor, he feared, was...

...that the "position" he occupied, the identity of "Successor to the Divine Martial Dao Foundation," was in itself a massive trap—a sacrificial "empty seat," suspended and waiting, long prepared for a higher existence!

...But he could hardly glimpse the full picture now.

The gap was too vast.

A Foundation Establishment Daoist Master, even one who had forged a Divine Martial Dao Foundation and was unrivaled in his realm, was probably less than an ant in the eyes of a True Monarch.

An ant could at least burrow into a crack in the earth and struggle to survive. But everything about him—his Cultivation Technique, his Destiny, even the very trajectory of his thoughts—was likely within the formless calculations of that existence.

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