Chapter 218: Chapter 218: An Earth-Shattering Thought

Xu Yunfan fell from the nine-foot-high platform, his body twitching slightly on the ground. Sparks shot from his seven orifices.

The green bricks beneath his feet had melted into a crimson slurry. The extreme heat made the dark-gold Dragon Scale Armor glow a brilliant gold. No matter how resilient Xu Yunfan’s body was, how could it survive inside armor flowing with molten rock?

Immense regret surged through Zhan Yan’s heart, and tears welled in his fierce eyes. A single moment of carelessness had led to this catastrophe.

He had dedicated his entire life to forging weapons, yet he had never managed to create a single Divine Weapon. Now, he had committed a grave taboo.

Seeing Xu Yunfan’s body emit a crisp, crackling sound and faintly smelling the scent of cooking flesh, Zhan Yan felt a desire to die.

He cast aside all hesitation and rushed forward, intending to find a way to remove the Dragon Scale Armor.

"WHOOSH!"

A breath like molten lava erupted from Xu Yunfan’s throat, searing all of Zhan Yan’s hair and causing his skin to split and his flesh to tear. Shocked as he was, Zhan Yan didn’t pause for a second.

"Master... stop!"

An extremely hoarse voice rumbled from Xu Yunfan’s throat, forcing Zhan Yan to freeze. He was terrified that his actions might extinguish Xu Yunfan’s last spark of Vitality.

He watched as wisps of Profound Ice Qi seeped from the gaps in the armor on Xu Yunfan’s charred body, rapidly lowering the temperature of the scorching, lava-like breath to a manageable level.

Although the heat was still astonishing, it had finally subsided.

Just then, the Extreme Dao Vest Xu Yunfan wore suddenly began to exude wisps of chilling intent.

This vest had been crafted from the skin of an Extreme Daoist, a body discovered within an Ancient Jade Pendant buried deep beneath The Eight-Hundred-Mile Desolate River Ice-Plains. Now, it was finally revealing some of its miraculous properties.

The skin of the vest clung to his spasming back muscles as softly as a woman’s hand. Its spontaneously shifting texture still retained the creamy-smooth touch of its original owner.

These wisps of cold, sinister energy managed to suppress the bloodthirsty ferocity of the Dragon Scale’s golden threads.

The two forces collided violently within his flesh and blood, the shockwave causing the molten ground to instantly freeze over with frost.

Xu Yunfan slowly opened his eyes and looked down at the Dragon Scale Armor, which fit him like a second skin. Before he could take two steps, a deep, rumbling thunder that sounded like a dragon’s roar suddenly echoed in his mind, making his temples throb.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Yunfan formed a Linn Character Seal with his hand.

"Lin!"

The moment the Linn Character Seal was formed, the chaotic emotions in his mind swiftly calmed, and the ringing in his ears ceased.

The churning waves in his Sea of Consciousness seemed to freeze solid like thousand-year-old profound ice. All the searing panic, confusion, and doubt solidified inch by inch under the power of some ancient Seal Technique.

He felt his soul being drawn from his Mud Ball Palace, like a Sword Embryo stripped of its flesh and plunged into a Cold Pool. All seven emotions and six desires became sparks struck away like impurities, annihilated one by one in the ethereal blue Ice Flame.

The chaotic mist in the depths of his Sea of Consciousness churned, and from it emerged his Self God, which emanated a faint, fluorescent light. It took its seat in the center of the Sea of Consciousness, establishing a perfect defense.

The Self God floating in the center shimmered with a glaze-like luster.

The once-turbulent emotions froze into frost-colored ripples beneath its feet. With each ripple that spread out, a will so condensed it was almost tangible unsheathed itself from the void with a CLANG.

"ROAR!"

The Self God looked up slightly, its gaze carrying a trace of Xu Yunfan’s own Spiritual Light.

A Red Flood Dragon, wrapped in a monstrous wave of blood, broke through the mist.

Its severed Dragon Sinews were knotted into purplish-black tumors along its spine. A dark green pus writhed within thousands of wounds so deep they exposed the bone.

Most terrifying of all were its empty eye sockets. Two clusters of ethereal blue Ghost Fire flickered within its skull, searing black marks onto the ice with every pulse.

Xu Yunfan’s Self God raised its right hand, and the clear sound of a Jade Chime echoed across the frozen Sea of Consciousness.

"Suppress."

Twelve rays of starlight transformed into chains of seal script that pierced the Flood Dragon’s body. A Bronze bell hung from the end of each chain.

When the Red Flood Dragon struggled, the Taotie Pattern on the bells’ surfaces opened their great maws to tear at its Dragon Scales, while the Thunder Patterns settled within the bells crawled up the chains to engulf its body.

The pus in the Flood Dragon’s wounds suddenly boiled, coalescing into blood-red Talismans in an attempt to counterattack.

Seeing this, the Self God formed a Linn Character Seal with its left hand and pressed it toward its own brow. The frozen ripples instantly erupted into a thousand-zhang-high peak of ice.

The majestic mountain’s shadow came crashing down, suppressing the blood-red Talismans and the Flood Dragon’s head together beneath the profound ice.

The faint sound of cracking bones came from deep within the ice. The Red Flood Dragon’s remnant soul dissipated into wisps of green smoke, which were greedily devoured by the Taotie on the bells’ surfaces.

’You have executed the Linn Character Technique. Your Self God emerged from the Purple Mansion, subdued and refined the will of the Evil Flood Dragon. Your Linn Character Technique Skill Level has increased significantly.’

’You have executed the Linn Character Technique. Your Self God...’

The moment the Evil Flood Dragon’s will was crushed and refined by his Self God, a flood of notifications about his Linn Character Technique Skill Level appeared in Xu Yunfan’s vision, indicating an explosive increase.

Before he could even react, the 431-point deficit in his Skill Level was completely filled in that instant.

’Your Linn Character Technique has reached Minor Achievement.’

’Linn Character Technique 0/1000 (Minor Achievement)

Effects: Divine Platform Bright Mirror, Heart Lamp Unobscured, Soul Calming and Spirit Stabilizing, Mustard Seed Microcosm, Thousand Mechanism God Lock, Cicada Awakens and Moves, Intentional Exploration of Three Zhang’

In just an instant, a fine, dense, cooling sensation spread through his skull, filling his entire brain.

Xu Yunfan closed his eyes and took a long deep breath. Instantly, ten thousand sounds transformed into Silver Needles, piercing his Sea of Consciousness.

Ten zhang away, the subterranean lava gurgled like ripping silk. The stench of sulfur separated into seven distinct layers of sour and bitter in his nostrils. Even the scorching particles drifting in the air created ripple-like sensations on his skin.

His eyelashes suddenly trembled. Somewhere in the Dark River of magma, a bubble was forming.

Before the bubble even surfaced from the crimson slurry, he could already hear the hum of the taut surface tension of its membrane and smell the scent of the hydrogen sulfide it contained, just moments before its Destruction.

What shocked him most was that with a single thought, his consciousness spread out like a spiderweb. In an instant, everything within three zhang was revealed in minute detail, imprinted upon his mind: the gradually cooling lava beneath his feet; the Dragon Scale plates on his body flexing and fitting themselves to the rise and fall of his chest with every breath.

Suddenly, he took a half-step to the side, and a splatter of lava shot past the exact spot where he had just been standing.

His muscles had tensed even before his Divine Sense reacted. It was the preternatural warning planted in his body by the Linn Character Technique’s "Cicada Awakens and Moves" effect, similar to a sixth sense.

At this moment, his divine platform was like a translucent Glazed Cup holding a bright mirror that could magnify a grain of sand into a mountain range. Even the heat waves rising from the lava’s surface transformed in the mirror into the trajectories of ten thousand golden snakes dancing wildly, each trajectory splitting into three possible branches at its end.

"Yunfan, how are you?"

Xu Yunfan opened his eyes and saw Zhan Yan’s concerned gaze, the wrinkles on his face trembling as he spoke, the slight contraction of his pupils in response to the changing light, the specks of spittle flying from his mouth...

The Anomaly around him receded like a tide, and his perception quickly returned to normal.

In this Super Sensing State, although everything within three zhang was clear to him and nothing could escape his perception, he knew he couldn’t maintain it for long. Not only was it a question of whether his mind could withstand such a high-frequency drain, but the constant flood of minute details from his surroundings would also become a significant disturbance.