Longevity by Grinding Skills

Chapter 385: Chapter 385: What is Martial?

With every move, his opponent commanded the great Circulation Power. Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi converged upon him like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, transforming into a violent torrent of attacks.

The Gang Wind condensed into blades, the Earth Vein formed a prison, and even the Cloud Qi in the sky twisted into Sky-Splitting Sharpness. A killing move like this, which used the power of heaven and earth as its weapon, was no longer within the realm of mortal Martial Arts!

The will to fight in Xu Yunfan’s eyes burned like a torch. Far from retreating, he took a step forward.

’A Martial Artist must be brave and advance relentlessly, especially now. The moment I consider retreating, I’ll completely lose the upper hand.’

He struck his hammers together, and the Shaking Mountain Sea-Suppressing Hammer suddenly erupted with a blinding golden light. The Ten Extremes True Qi coiled around the hammers condensed into nine crimson-gold dragon markings, their scales and claws bulging, terrifyingly lifelike.

As he spun and swung the hammers, the nine dragon markings let out a unified, heaven-shaking cry. The sound wave was like thunder, shaking the surrounding air until it visibly distorted.

Wherever the hammers passed, they tore a murky white wave through the air, like silk being ripped from the sky. A visible, fan-shaped shockwave swept outward.

Eight Desolates Dragon Fall: Celestial Fall!

The twin hammers struck horizontally through the air. Before the blow even landed, the immense pressure it generated caused the ground to crack inch by inch.

The nine crimson-gold dragon markings flew from the hammers, transforming into a world-destroying torrent. Clouds crumbled and mist scattered in its path. Even light was momentarily devoured, as if this single strike truly meant to topple the heavens!

Eight Desolates Dragon Fall: Celestial Fall!

The instant the hammerheads collided with the Palm Seal, a fissure thousands of feet long was torn across the Secret Realm’s sky.

The clash of pure power generated a circular shockwave, shearing off every mountain within a ten-mile radius at its base.

Xu Yunfan’s feet sank into the ground up to his knees, but the dragon markings on his hammers suddenly writhed like living creatures, forcibly grinding the Power of Heaven and Earth-infused Palm Seal to dust!

"What a magnificent Mountain Spirit Body Forging!"

A sharp light flared in the Divine Martial Daoist Master’s eyes. "To think you could shatter my Spirit Seal with brute force! With that strike alone, you could be called the strongest person below the Foundation Establishment Realm!"

He was both astonished and shaken. ’I never expected you to be able to walk the path of Ten Thousand Laws Return to the Stream and Hundred Scriptures Unite as One.’

Before his words had faded, his sleeves billowed, and his fingers plucked at the empty air as if playing a zither.

A bolt of purple lightning struck down with each pluck of his fingers. In the blink of an eye, he had formed a Thunder Prison Array that covered the sky.

This Thunderbolt was no ordinary lightning; each bolt carried a strange Dao Rhyme and left scorched marks in the void that refused to fade.

"Although I have fallen from the Foundation Establishment Realm, I was once a Foundation Establishment Daoist Master. Some of my methods are beyond anything those of you below Foundation Establishment can imagine."

The Divine Martial Daoist Master said faintly, "If you open your mind and body and allow my Divine Soul to enter you, then should I one day become a Golden Core True Monarch, I can separate your consciousness and guide you onto the Immortal Path. You wouldn’t be trapped in the Martial Dao. How about it?"

"If I kill you, I will be number one on the path of the Martial Dao."

Xu Yunfan let out a long cry, his body spinning rapidly like a top.

He swung the Shaking Mountain Sea-Suppressing Hammer until it became a golden wheel of light, his Hammering Technique Mastery on full display.

The dark light of the Earth Vein trembled, lending the pair of Heavy Hammers the weight of a mountain. Yet in Xu Yunfan’s hands, they felt as light as feathers, and each swing precisely batted away a bolt of purple lightning.

The deflected Thunderbolts crashed into a distant mountain, instantly vaporizing the entire peak into crimson magma.

The Divine Martial Daoist Master snorted at the sight and flew forward to meet him.

The Shaking Mountain Sea-Suppressing Hammer whipped up a golden storm. The muscles on Xu Yunfan’s arms bulged and knotted, his hammer strikes like an enraged dragon churning a river, each blow causing the Earth Vein to roar.

The Divine Martial Daoist Master’s sleeves billowed as the purple lightning at his fingertips solidified, transforming into nine ferocious lightning dragons that dove down to attack.

Xu Yunfan crossed his hammers, their heads precisely striking the lightning dragons at their vital points. Before the exploding light could even dissipate, he spun and closed the distance, smashing a "Thousand Peaks Collapse" straight toward the Divine Martial Daoist Master’s face!

Tapping his toes lightly, the Divine Martial Daoist Master’s figure retreated thirty feet like a phantom. The spot where he had stood collapsed into a pit hundreds of feet deep.

With a flick of his wrist, he formed a hand seal. A fissure split the sky, and a meteor wreathed in flames plummeted down. But the force of Xu Yunfan’s hammer pulled it astray, and the dark light of the Earth Vein formed chains that crushed the meteor into a sky-filling rain of fire.

Their figures weaved through the rain of fire, the aftershocks from the clash of hammer-shadows and lightning tearing the clouds within a ten-mile radius to shreds.

Three hundred exchanges passed in the blink of an eye.

As hammer and thunder clashed, the very landscape was reshaped.

The Earth Vein was plowed into blackened ravines by the Thunderbolts, while the wind from the hammers split the sea of clouds in two. Xu Yunfan’s Hammer Technique grew wilder the longer he fought, Ten Extremes True Qi surging through his meridians like molten lava. The Divine Martial Daoist Master’s Thunder Technique grew increasingly grim, a faint, pitch-black Evil Qi appearing within the purple lightning.

Another three hundred exchanges passed, yet no victor was decided.

Xu Yunfan’s hammer style suddenly changed. The nine crimson-gold dragon markings detached from his hammers, transforming into chains that snaked toward the Divine Martial Daoist Master’s feet.

The Divine Martial Daoist Master sneered, and an ancient Bronze mirror flew from his sleeve. The light from the mirror froze the dragon-marking chains inch by inch...

Xu Yunfan had seen this ancient Bronze mirror before. It was the Magical Artifact that Chen Jiuchuan had wielded. It looked unremarkable, but in the hands of the Divine Martial Daoist Master, it displayed miraculous power.

The longer the Divine Martial Daoist Master fought, the more alarmed he became.

’This junior is clearly only at the Land Immortal Realm, yet his True Qi is as vast and bottomless as an ocean.’

’What’s even more terrifying are the properties of his Ten Extremes Martial Arts. With every breath, he forcibly plunders a massive amount of Spiritual Qi from the surroundings, converting it into new True Qi through his pores to replenish his reserves.’

’That Recovery speed... it’s even faster than my own ability to draw upon the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi!’

"Old man, you call this the Martial Dao?"

Xu Yunfan’s arms shuddered. The Shaking Mountain Sea-Suppressing Hammer crashed down with the force of a Mountain Collapse, shattering the oncoming thunder dragon inch by inch. The remnants of purple lightning exploded outward, spreading through the void like a spiderweb.

He used the recoil to launch himself back a thousand feet. The leaves of his Dragon Scale Armor pulsed, humming in the aftershocks of the lightning storm.

The Divine Martial Daoist Master’s eyes, however, were as cold as ice. That last thunder dragon had enough power to level a mountain, yet it hadn’t disturbed Xu Yunfan’s aura in the slightest.

The lingering crimson-gold dragon markings on Xu Yunfan’s hammer let out a low hum. He stared at the figure barely visible deep within the lightning as Ten Extremes True Qi surged through his meridians like a great river.

’That last hammer strike took a lot out of me. But my opponent can command such pure Thunder Gang, and every single one of his moves summons the Divine Sky Thunderbolt...’

’It’s a good thing I’m the one here. If any other expert at the Land Immortal Realm were facing this, a few of those Thunderbolts would have been enough to kill or cripple them.’

Xu Yunfan voiced his curiosity. "Land Immortals can draw on the Power of Heaven and Earth, but it’s mostly to speed up True Qi recovery or slightly augment our Martial Dao techniques. This ability of yours to command Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi with every move... that’s not the Martial Dao, is it?"

"You frog in a well!"

Although the Divine Martial Daoist Master’s lips curled into a faint smile, his eyes were coated with a layer of frost.

’I’m only realizing it now,’ he thought. ’Revealing myself so rashly was a fatal miscalculation. This Xu Yunfan’s strength has far surpassed my estimations!’

’Can someone in the Land Immortal Realm really be this strong? Can they really possess such a vast True Qi Amount?’

The Divine Martial Daoist Master couldn’t help but wonder.

’If it were Chen Jiuchuan himself, with that body tempered through a thousand trials and the True Essence he spent so many years cultivating... he probably wouldn’t have lasted even three breaths against this man...’

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, the Divine Martial Daoist Master’s attack pattern abruptly changed.

He pushed both palms forward. The movement seemed as slow as pushing a mountain, but in reality, it was faster than lightning.