Terror seized him. He shattered seven floor tiles as he retreated, but Xu Yunfan shadowed his every move. The third mace technique, the Star-Pointing Form, was already thrusting toward his brow.
At this life-or-death juncture, the True Blood General bit his tongue and spat out an arrow of blood.
His Protective Gang Qi, fueled by his burning Life Essence Blood, coalesced into a wolf’s head, only to disintegrate the mont the mace’s tip made contact.
As the Gilded Mace pierced his skull, the nine dragon patterns on it flared with incandescent light, searing the True Blood Aura leaking from his body into wisps of green smoke.
"Only three strikes."
Sensing the rapid drain on his Strength, Xu Yunfan flicked his wrist to cast the blood from his weapon. The Gilded Mace suddenly let out a sky-shaking dragon’s roar.
The Divine Weapon had a spirit of its own. Seemingly unsatisfied, it guided his hand, compelling him to execute the fourth technique: the River-Flipping Form.
The afterimage of the mace transford into a colossal wave of fire, sweeping the True Blood General’s still-standing corpse into the air.
The true horror of the Nine Profound Dragon-Defying Mace Technique was only now revealed.
With the fifth technique, the Earth-Splitting Form, the corpse was smashed into the bedrock, and six pillars of magma erupted in response.
The sixth technique...
The seventh technique...
When the eighth technique, the Sunfall Form, descended from the heavens, the spectating Black Armor Army collapsed to their knees in droves.
They watched helplessly as their general’s remains were vaporized under the mace’s edge. The burning Gilded Mace seed to be drawing fire from the heavens; with every swing, it flowed like lava, illuminating the battlefield as bright as day.
"The ninth technique..."
Xu Yunfan crushed the molten rock beneath his feet. The nine dragon patterns on the Gilded Mace suddenly flew off the weapon.
"Returning Essence."
The nine dragons rged into a single crimson-gold blade of light that pierced the heavens.
The main peak of Divine Weapon Ridge, already half-shorn away, was pierced through by this beam of mace-light, leaving a gaping hole. The last trace of the True Blood General, along with all the Daqian elites and Luo Net Masters within Divine Weapon Valley, were annihilated in the world-burning flas.
The disciples of Divine Weapon Ridge who witnessed this were left speechless, their faces blank with shock.
Even Zhan Yan’s mouth hung agape, his jaw nearly unhinged in astonishnt.
He had never imagined that the Profound Steel chanism Box Xu Yunfan always carried on his back contained a Divine Weapon.
"This is... the Hidden Machine and Qi Storage Skill!"
Of course Zhan Yan understood. Xu Yunfan had quietly mastered the Celestial Craft Forging Technique to a level far beyond his own, even managing to create his own Concealing Qi and chanism Technique.
As Xu Yunfan sheathed the mace in its chanical Box, the nine dragon patterns dimd once more.
The Linn Character State rapidly faded. He had pushed far beyond his previous limits; his body was covered in ruptured, dark-purple lacerations, and the deep ache in his muscles made him uneasy. His Red Flood Dragon Coiling Mountain Strength was completely spent.
’You have successfully slain a formidable foe. Your Skill Level in the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hamr Technique has increased dramatically.’
’Your Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hamr Technique has reached Minor Achievent.’
’Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hamr Technique, 0/1000 (Minor Achievent)’
As this ssage appeared in his vision, a massive torrent of warmth erupted within him and began rapidly strengthening his body. His broken left arm started to nd at a visible rate as his muscles, bones, skin, and flesh underwent a drastic transformation.
The broken bone in his left arm let out a series of cracks like popping soybeans.
The shattered ulna was enveloped in a golden-red substance and reford. The surface of the new bone glead with the luster of gold and jade. When he rotated the joint, it actually produced the sound of wind and thunder.
His Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body thrumd. His skin took on the cold glint of teorite Iron, and what seeped from his pores was no longer sweat, but fine golden sparks that sprayed out.
Xu Yunfan’s spine cracked like a taut bowstring. The twenty-four vertebrae of his "spinal dragon" surged one by one with Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength. His once-gnarled musculature transford into streamlined dragon patterns. When his muscles relaxed, the unique spiral markings of the Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength were faintly visible.
HSSSSSS!
Accompanied by a grating, silk-tearing sound from within, Xu Yunfan’s fra shot up by several inches. His muscles relaxed, swelled, then relaxed once more. As they continued to contract and condense until they were as hard as forged steel, his massive fra, once over two ters tall, was compressed down to about 1.89 ters.
mories flooded his Sea of Consciousness like a river bursting its dams. The Eighteen Hamr Techniques of the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hamr Technique were deconstructed and reassembled in an instant.
With his eyes closed, Xu Yunfan could clearly see the hamr techniques. They were now transforming into the thrum of awakening muscle mory. There was no longer a gap between hamr and palm, no delay between intent and impact. The eighteen styles of the Hamr Technique had fully rged with his body, becoming pure instinct.
The hidden injuries of his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body were all healed in this Nirvana.
His Horizontal Skin and mbrane Training now emanated a cold, teoric light. Faint golden patterns, appearing where the muscles of his Thirty-Six Major Acupoints intersected, now connected to form a complete circuit. Even the two weak points he had always deliberately concealed—one at his perineum, the other on the soles of his feet—were now perfectly integrated and protected.
The seven vital points that Zhan Yan had once tested with a Bone-Piercing Nail now shifted and moved about his body with every breath.
The draconic roar of the Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength erupted from the depths of his marrow.
The illusory Red Flood Dragon coiled in his Dantian had now grown a pair of horns, and it writhed through his very flesh, carried by the surging tides of his Blood Qi.
Xu Yunfan flicked a finger, his Strength flaring. The motion produced a crisp crack in the air, and even the dark purple lacerations on his body began to rapidly fade.
He stepped across the vitrified battlefield, the residual heat from the Gilded Mace vaporizing bloodstains into a crimson mist.
"..."
Lying in a pool of his own blood, Zhan Yan struggled to push himself halfway up.
The heat shimring off the scorched earth distorted the view. Zhan Yan leaned against a mound of Broken Halberds, his grey, wiry beard matted with blood.
This old man, who had spent his life consud with worry for the legacy of Divine Weapon Ridge, let out a great laugh. His chest wheezed like a broken Bellows, and each cackle shook loose a shower of rust from the weapons around him.
"Good! Excellent!"
His laughter turned into a choking cough. Clots of dark red blood splattered onto the vitrified ground, glinting with what looked like shards of ice.
The old man’s murky eyes suddenly blazed with electric clarity. His twig-like fingers clawed at the ground.
"The Divine Weapon hasn’t acknowledged a master... *cough, cough*... You’re a clever one, kid. I don’t know how you managed to wield it, even temporarily..."
He could see, of course, that the Divine Weapon Mace had not yet acknowledged Xu Yunfan as its master; his student was sohow forcing it to obey.
"Master, save your strength."
Xu Yunfan walked to Zhan Yan’s side and knelt on one knee, the vitrified ground cracking like glass under his boot.
Only then did he get a clear look at his master’s wounds. The bulging, corded muscles were fissured like a dry riverbed, and the edges of each wound were a ghastly white.
It was because he had lost too much blood; his flesh was no longer ruddy.
Zhan Yan’s life was all but spent.
He saw the anxious, helpless look on Xu Yunfan’s face.
"Save your strength..." With a final burst of energy, Zhan Yan shoved his disciple away. He threw himself back, his body slamming hard against a broken wall.
His broken body creaked under the strain, but he paid it no mind. Instead, a gratified smile touched his lips. "I’ve finally raised a disciple worthy of the na. At last, I can face our ancestors."
"..."
’I knew the old man was proud,’ Xu Yunfan thought, ’but I never expected him to be *this* proud.’
Xu Yunfan glanced around, confirming the other mbers of Divine Weapon Ridge were a safe distance away. He slid the chanical Box from his waist up to his chest, flicked a switch to open a small aperture in the Profound Steel chanism Box, and then tapped it a few tis.
Unable to stand the tapping, the Ginseng Child’s head popped out with a WHOOSH, chittering and scolding Xu Yunfan.
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