Longevity by Grinding Skills

Chapter 390: Chapter 390: The Three-Month Pact

At that moment, Xu Yunfan’s hammerhead was poised three inches from his throat, the force it exuded making his Adam’s apple bob up and down.

"When does the passage to the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm open?"

Xu Yunfan’s voice was as calm as if he were asking about the day’s weather.

Cold sweat beaded on Xu Tian’s forehead. "We came through with a Realm Talisman... it, it opens once every three hundred years. Since we came in, the next time is on the night of the new moon, three months from now..."

Before he could finish, his eyes shot wide open.

Xu Yunfan’s left hand was already pressed against the crown of his head. He forcibly gathered his vast True Qi, channeling it through the methods of the True Martial Demon Devouring True Scripture. A golden light, simulating the effects of a Soul Search, pierced into the man’s Sea of Consciousness.

Although the True Martial Demon Devouring True Scripture had yet to form a skill on his Attribute Panel, he was still able to forcibly use some of the Magic it contained.

However, powering it with True Qi yielded abysmal results. If not for Xu Yunfan’s own vast reserves of True Qi, he probably couldn’t have managed it at all.

"AHH!!"

Amidst his own shrill screams, Xu Tian watched as his memories were violently flipped through like the pages of a book.

From the assessment to enter the Primordial Sect, to the secrets he’d overheard from an Elder’s conversation, even the embarrassing incident of him wetting the bed at age ten was dredged up.

When the Soul Search touched upon memories related to the Primordial Order, a blinding, bloody light suddenly erupted from within his body.

"A restriction?"

Xu Yunfan raised an eyebrow. The Pure Yang True Qi in his palm transformed into a Melting Furnace, forcibly refining the Blood Curse that was attempting to self-destruct the Divine Soul.

Suddenly, his expression shifted, and he decisively cut off the flow of True Qi. This Blood Curse was exceedingly strange. The Pure Yang energy, converted from his Ten Extremes True Qi, was meant to refine it, but was instead fueling its power. It was behaving like an incurable plague, even attempting to follow his channeled True Qi back into his own body.

’Looks like there’s no way to get the secrets hidden inside.’

Xu Yunfan’s mind raced, and a decision quickly formed.

Just as Xu Yunfan was about to deliver the killing blow, Xu Tian suddenly roared, "Keep me alive! If you go out alone, you’re dead for sure! You’re a native of the Divine Martial Realm! If you go out by yourself, Daoist Master Bai Hua of Hundred Desires Peak will definitely kill you on the spot!"

Seeing Xu Yunfan’s descending hand pause slightly, he hurriedly pointed at the Primordial Order at Xu Yunfan’s waist. "Without a living witness, how are you going to prove you’re a disciple on a trial who was ’accidentally involved’?"

"A disciple on a trial?"

"Yes, yes, that’s right!" Xu Tian said hurriedly. "A disciple on a trial! Only with that identity can you evade Daoist Master Bai Hua’s investigation. A Foundation Establishment Daoist Master can trace karma! If you hold the Primordial Order and act as my accompanying trial disciple, you naturally won’t be suspected."

Xu Yunfan’s movement faltered slightly. Suddenly, he felt a strange fluctuation from the Extreme Dao Relic Shell on his chest.

Yuu Congling’s remnant consciousness seeped out like a thin mist and whispered in his ear: "Since the Primordial Order is in your hand, why not play along? This token is an unregistered disciple token of the Primordial Demon Sect. Since you’ve already killed its original owner, you are now a legitimate disciple of the Primordial Sect."

’An unregistered disciple token...’

Xu Yunfan couldn’t help but scoff internally. ’This Primordial Sect... or perhaps I should say, the Primordial Demon Sect. As expected of them, their schemes are something else. Do they just allow their bottom-tier disciples to switch allegiances so easily?’

’Or is it because they burn through their low-level disciples so frequently that this is the only way to replenish their numbers?’

"Interesting."

Weighing the hot Token in his hand, Xu Yunfan suddenly flipped his palm and struck Xu Tian’s Dantian. His Ten Extremes True Qi rushed in like a Poison Dragon Enters the Sea, gathering immense force to form a Seal over his Qi Sea Acupoint.

"Lead the way. If I don’t see the passage to the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm in three months..."

His fingertip brushed past Xu Tian’s neck, and a lock of hair silently drifted down.

Upon hearing this, Xu Tian trembled all over, and a fine sheen of cold sweat instantly broke out on his forehead.

He was hunched over, his fingers unconsciously clutching the corner of his robes, his knuckles turning white from the force.

His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down several times before he finally forced a trembling voice through his clenched teeth: "Sen... Senior Brother Xu, I understand. I’ll..."

Before he could finish, he suddenly froze.

He saw Xu Yunfan holding the Bronze Token in his palm. Chen Jiuchuan’s remnant Divine Soul Thoughts flickered within it like a candle flame in the wind.

As his five fingers closed, the wisp of green smoke was annihilated with a piercing shriek. This event should have triggered a warning from a Soul Lamp, but because the original owner’s soul had already been scattered, everything remained deathly silent.

Xu Tian’s pupils contracted violently, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

He knew all too well what this meant. Xu Yunfan was clearly forcing him to hand over his Life and Death Talisman!

"Well?"

Xu Yunfan’s fingertips tapped lightly on the Token, the Dragon Scale Armor Leaves striking each other to produce a sound like gold and jade. "Isn’t the Heart Sutra of Nirvana Dust from Microdust Peak acclaimed for ’Life and Death in a Single Thought’? Chen Jiuchuan from Hundred Peaks Mount could do it. Don’t tell me you can’t?"

Cold sweat trickled down Xu Tian’s temples as he internally cursed that spineless coward Chen Jiuchuan. ’To think he’d hand over control of his own life and death just to survive, only to end up with his soul obliterated and his existence erased anyway!’

He secretly formed a hand seal to test the Seal on his Dantian, but it didn’t budge an inch. He looked up at the increasingly murderous glint in Xu Yunfan’s eyes.

"I’ll do it!"

He violently tore open his lapels, and a strange fluctuation appeared on his chest. He opened his mouth and spat, forcibly extracting a Soul Thread wrapped in Black Qi.

The moment the Soul Thread left his body, it transformed into a wisp of green smoke and surged into the Token in Xu Yunfan’s hand.

Xu Yunfan felt the Token grow slightly heavier. He could clearly sense that it had established a bizarre connection with Xu Tian.

With a mere thought, he could now cause Xu Tian’s soul to scatter and disperse.

"Are you satisfied, Senior Brother?"

Xu Tian collapsed limply to the ground, the fawning smile on his face uglier than tears.

Given his new status as a trial disciple, addressing him as "Senior Brother" was perfectly appropriate.

Hidden from Xu Yunfan’s view inside his lowered sleeve, his fingernails were already digging into his palm.

The treacherous thoughts that had previously arisen in Xu Tian’s mind were now completely erased.

’My life is in Xu Yunfan’s hands now. If he dies, he’ll be sure to take me with him. I’m just a bottom-tier disciple; I don’t have powerful figures in the sect to bring me back from the dead.’

"That’s more like it, Junior Brother Xu. My surname is also Xu. Five hundred years ago, all the Xus were one big family!"

Seeing Xu Yunfan’s cold expression instantly blossom into a smile, Xu Tian, hearing these words, desperately wanted to roll his eyes.

’I was born in the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm. What could I possibly have to do with a native from the Divine Martial Realm like you?’

"Yes, yes! Maybe we really are family!"

Xu Tian forced a smile onto his face and pretended to think seriously, then suddenly clapped his hands and said, "Five hundred years ago, an ancestor from my Xu family also entered the Divine Martial Realm. Maybe it’s true!"

’Give him an inch, and he’ll take a mile.’

The corner of Xu Yunfan’s mouth twitched, and his smile quickly vanished.

"So now we just have to wait for it to open in three months?"

Xu Tian’s heart trembled, and he quickly nodded. "Yes, now we just need to wait quietly."

"You’re not going to continue your ’harvest’ in the Divine Martial Realm?"

"...We’ve already searched. Other than your Taoist Sect, Senior Brother, there’s basically nothing left."

Xu Yunfan nodded slightly. "Then we’ll wait quietly."

Xu Yunfan flicked his sleeve, and the Shaking Mountain Sea-Suppressing Hammer turned into a stream of light and vanished into his Sumeru Bag.

He lifted his eyes to the gray, hazy sky of the Divine Martial Realm. His Ten Extremes True Qi swirled in the depths of his pupils like a vortex of stars, and he could faintly glimpse the Profound Yellow Qi rising from the gates of the Taoist Sect three thousand li away.

"We’ll head to the Taoist Sect and wait there."

As Xu Yunfan’s words fell, wisps of golden mist suddenly wrapped around Xu Tian’s waist.

It was precisely the "Devouring Demon Binding Spirit Rope" that Xu Yunfan had attempted to replicate using the True Martial Demon Devouring True Scripture.

(One more Chapter to come, I’m writing it now.)