Longevity by Grinding Skills

Chapter 557: Chapter 557: Evenly Matched

The moment the foul, viscous, crimson waves of blood touched the brilliant Purple Thunder Realm, they instantly erupted into columns of stinking black smoke that shot to the heavens.

Countless wailing, resentful souls within the Sea of Blood, as if meeting their most fearsome nemesis, were instantly purified and annihilated into nothingness by the pure Destruction Divine Thunder amidst scalp-numbing shrieks.

The terrifying, sinister poison of the Muddy Fiend could corrode Magical Treasures and dissolve Spirit Roots. But before the Celestial Spirit Divine Thunder—which was Supreme Yang and Firm and suffused with the world’s righteous energy—it crumbled and dissipated like spring snow under a scorching sun.

But Blood Demon was, after all, a cultivator at Late-Stage Foundation Establishment. He was a long-established demon of orthodox Primordial Sect stock, and his Dao Foundation was profoundly deep and powerful.

Although the Celestial Spirit Thunderbolt purified and evaporated a great deal of the Blood Filth Sea, its sheer volume far surpassed that of Xu Yunfan’s Thunder Realm. Moreover, its reserves of power surged forth relentlessly, seeming truly endless.

With a demonic look on his face, Blood Demon muttered an incantation and spread his hands.

The Sea of Blood surged behind him. Waves of blood crashed down, one after another, their tangible, filthy power like countless venomous snakes, relentlessly tearing at the purple light barrier of the Thunder Realm, trying to completely defile and devour this pure land of thunder.

This terrifying power of the filthy fiend passed through the gaps in the thunderous defense, causing Xu Yunfan to feel a faint stinging and numbing sensation on his skin. The circulation of his pure Thunder Essence grew slightly sluggish.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Above Divine Sky Peak, the purple lightning and waves of blood madly annihilated, devoured, and crushed one another.

The Sea of Blood roared, attempting to defile the Thunder Pool.

Xu Yunfan’s eyes were profound, showing no trace of panic. He simply raised a hand before his chest and formed a Thunder Technique hand seal.

The next moment, thunderbolts roared in fury, coiling and entwining like thunder serpents, vowing to purify the Filth Sea.

Waves of destructive energy swept across the sky, shredding the distant clouds to pieces. The earth below silently split open with fine fissures.

The sky above Divine Sky Peak was split into two sharply divided halves.

On one side was a boundless Purgatory, a Sea of Blood, deep and foul and wailing with resentful souls.

On the other was a resplendent, magnificent domain of celestial punishment, purged by Divine Thunder.

At the center of the clash between the two Dao Foundation Anomalies, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi in the sky was constantly distorted, torn apart, and then stitched back together, emitting a deep, oppressive rumble.

Brilliant light and deep shadows flickered madly. The destructive aura made it nearly impossible for the onlooking Divine Sky Peak disciples, like Bi Yuan, to even look directly at the scene.

They could only subconsciously lower their heads, their weak Magical Power instinctively resisting the terrifying aftershocks that radiated outward—aftershocks that remained heart-stoppingly potent even when weakened a thousandfold.

A clash between a Mid-Stage and a Late-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator was actually producing such an earth-shattering and terrifyingly evenly matched scene.

The astonishment beneath Blood Demon’s madness could no longer be concealed in his eyes.

He had assumed that with the advantage of his profound Dao Foundation—accumulated over five lifetimes at Late-Stage Foundation Establishment—he could easily crush Xu Yunfan.

Especially since his opponent had actually dared to leave the protection of the main peak’s defensive array to clash with him within the domain of his most prized Filthy Sea Dao Foundation.

It was simply courting death.

However, what he found unbelievable was that his Filthy Sea of Sinking and Muddy Evil Dao Foundation—a power that could defile all things, that even those at Foundation Establishment Perfection who had attained the Great Daoist Master Position had to face with caution—was actually unable to completely overwhelm that seemingly smaller purple Thunder Realm.

The thunderbolts contained within that Thunder Realm were pure and vast to an unimaginable degree. The stability of its foundation and the harmony of its circulation far surpassed those of any other Thunder Cultivator of the same realm he had ever witnessed.

The Nine Heavens Lock Demon Mixed Element Thunder Talisman Array inscribed into his Dao Foundation, under Xu Yunfan’s fine-tuning, pushed the Break Evil characteristic of the thunderbolts to its absolute limit.

Standing at the center of the Purple Mansion Thunder Realm, Xu Yunfan’s face was slightly pale. Although on the surface they seemed evenly matched, the consumption of his Magical Power was enormous. Yet, the light in his eyes only grew brighter.

’This is my first real, proper battle in the Foundation Establishment Realm.’

’This isn’t like that brief exchange during Liuu Yunhua’s sneak attack. This is a genuine Magical Combat, and against the terrifying assault of a Late-Stage Foundation Establishment Old Demon unleashing the full power of his Dao Foundation.’

’Every corrosive wave of blood, every infiltration of the Muddy Fiend, is madly consuming my Magical Power and Divine Thought. If it weren’t for my incomparably stable Grotto Heaven Embryo, the Divine Sky Nine Heavens Profound Vault Undying True Scripture and the Sun and Moon Profound Pivot Dharma Gate making my body far tougher than my peers’, and the Grotto Heaven’s endless, self-generating supply of pure Primordial Qi, I would have been defeated long ago.’

’My opponent is truly formidable. Even among Late-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, he’s top-tier.’

’If I didn’t cultivate multiple True Scriptures and have the perfect advancements from my Attribute Panel, I really might not have been able to hold him off.’

But it was precisely this tsunami-like pressure that allowed Xu Yunfan to clearly perceive just how perfectly each of his realms had been forged, thanks to the insane deductions of the Attribute Panel.

’Invincible in the same realm!’

At this moment, he felt as if his foundation at Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment had touched upon some threshold that transcended the conventional.

"Blood Demon, you’ve lived for so long and wasted five lifetimes! Is this all the skill you have to show for it?!"

Suppressing the churning of his qi and blood, Xu Yunfan let out a long cry. Thunder Runes flashed in his eyes as he unreservedly channeled his Divine Thought to command the enormous purple Thunder Pill above his head.

BOOM!

His Purple Mansion’s Thunder Realm of Destruction and Celestial Spirit expanded once more, and the electrical plasma flowing within it suddenly accelerated.

Thunder Patterns flashed in his pupils. Above his head, the Purple Heaven All-Heaven Ten Thousand Transformations Thunder Mansion Dao Foundation—which had condensed the vast Daoist Cultivation of the Divine Sky Nine Heavens Profound Vault Undying True Scripture—shone ever more brilliantly under the frenzied assault of the Sea of Blood’s boundless filthy fiend energy.

The profundity of Blood Demon’s Dao Foundation far exceeded his expectations.

His opponent had achieved Foundation Establishment five times. In each lifetime, he had chosen the Filthy Sea of Sinking and Muddy Evil Dao Foundation. The accumulation of these five lives had boosted the foundational capacity of his filthy Sea of Blood to hold filth and Resentful Fiend. Its majestic aura was now beginning to approach that of the perfect Dao Foundation advanced by the Attribute Panel.

Although it was a step below in purity, refinement, and vulnerability to the righteous thunder technique’s suppression, the overwhelming miasma of blood and resentment accumulated over five lifetimes was like a deep abyss formed from a filthy star, enough to drag down and wear away the Dao Foundation of any Late-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

"Five lifetimes of damnation, a hundred times have I refined this Sea of Filth!"

Blood Demon’s tone was low, his voice like the whisper of a billion ghosts amidst the roaring waves of blood.

"Junior, no matter how stable your foundation is or how fierce your Thunder Technique, how can you possibly outlast the reserves I have built over several lifetimes?"

"As my power waxes, yours will wane. When the waves of filth blot out the sky, you will become nothing more than the supreme nourishment for my sixth lifetime in this sinking Sea of Filth!"

His twisted face grew even more demonic, and his features, half-withered and half-flourishing, held the eerie calm of one who has reached the end of their road.

And yet, the filthy Sea of Blood around him churned even more violently. Countless sinking whirlpools formed within it, madly absorbing the polluted Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi outside Divine Sky Peak. It even began to corrode the lightning at the edge of the purple Thunder Realm, emitting a foul SIZZLE.

Seeing this, Xu Yunfan’s thoughts raced as his gaze swept across the surrounding void.

Beyond the battlefield on Divine Sky Peak, numerous strands of Divine Thought—Divine Senses with different characteristics, such as icy coldness, sinister sharpness, faint fragrance, ethereality, and solemnity—were observing the fight, some openly and some in secret.

’That Divine Sense from the direction of Cold Marrow Peak, as cold as Ten Thousand Years Profound Ice, must be Daoist Master Bing Po.’

’And that faint, hard-to-discern intent from Soul Refining Peak, exuding a fierce and greedy will, must be the Black Heart Monster.’

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