Chapter 223: Chapter 223: A Sea of Spiritual Qi

The Dragon Scale Armor was a Tier Eight Divine Weapon, so it naturally paid no mind to the struggles of the mere Tier Seven Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace. Furthermore, Xu Yunfan’s mind was steeled by the Linn Character State.

The encirclement pattern of the seven skeleton war souls suddenly broke down in his vision.

The one with the broken halberd to his front left moved in a pattern that secretly matched the Merak Position. The one with the broken sword to his back right channeled its qi to draw upon the Earth Evil. The seven streams of Evil Qi locked down all escape routes like the Big Dipper.

Xu Yunfan’s eyes darted about. In an instant, he understood that these seven skeletons were stepping in the Big Dipper formation from the Celestial Craft Forging Technique.

’Seven Stars Stepping on the Dipper,’ he thought. ’The weak point is Alkaid.’

The fascia in the arches of Xu Yunfan’s feet trembled like a Dragon Vein, and his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body rang with a metallic clang.

His left shoulder blade abruptly shifted three inches. His entire arm instantly transformed into a nine-foot-long whip, the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace smashing toward the southeastern corner of the altar, wreathed in wind and thunder.

Before the heavy mace even arrived, the gale it stirred up had already compressed the air within thirty feet into a thick, viscous state. A faint red glow emanated from the Dragon Scale Armor.

’Nine Transformations Return to Origin, Mountain-Collapse Form.’

The thunder patterns on the mace’s body lit up one by one as nine streams of Spiral Force converged at its tip.

The moment the shield-bearing skeleton tried to block, the heavy mace swung around the shield’s face at an unbelievable angle, scraping past the bone shield’s edge and unleashing seven layers of shockwaves.

The ghost fire in the skeleton’s eye sockets flickered violently. Crimson flames shot out from the cracks between its bones—this was the unique Bone-Burning characteristic of the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace.

But Xu Yunfan’s killing blow was yet to come.

As his right foot stomped down, the ground within a thirty-foot radius rippled like a wave, and the scales on the waist and abdomen of his Dragon Scale Armor suddenly stood on end.

Using the force of the rebound, the muscle groups in his shoulders and back slammed together like tectonic plates, and his entire spine let out a sharp crack like a snapping bowstring.

The Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace forcibly changed direction before its momentum was spent. The barb at the end of its handle lashed out like a venomous dragon’s tail, swinging upward toward the skeleton’s throat.

CRACK!

The bone shield exploded into dust. The remaining force of the mace’s swing snapped three ancient trees in half.

Xu Yunfan, however, used the recoil to launch himself into the air. His Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body twisted into a strange arc mid-flight, his joints popping like a string of firecrackers.

The Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace traced a perfect full-moon arc, its thunder-patterned head sparking with streams of fire from the high-speed friction.

A gap was brutally torn in the seven skeletons’ combined attack formation.

The Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength coursed wildly through Xu Yunfan’s muscles, bones, and flesh. As his Blood Qi surged, the Armor Leaves of his Dragon Scale Armor began to glow red-hot, eventually spewing a torrent of flame that left a hundred-foot-long trail of fire in his wake.

As the heavy mace touched the second skeleton’s sternum, he suddenly withdrew seventy percent of his Strength. The fascia in his arches tensed like a coiled spring, and his shoulder blades shifted three inches to create space for a new exertion of force.

BOOM!

It seemed like a light tap, but in reality, he had compressed a Nine-layered Shocking Power into a single point.

Spiderweb cracks first appeared on the skeleton’s sternum, then a pillar of crimson flame erupted from within.

Xu Yunfan’s figure moved like a phantom through the rain of fire. His Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace sometimes became a spear, stabbing straight for vital points; other times, it transformed into a staff, sweeping through a thousand troops. In his Linn Character State, the nine basic Mace Techniques flowed together perfectly, without a single wasted motion.

When the seventh skeleton’s skull was crushed by the wind from his mace, the Qiu Long Cauldron on the altar suddenly trembled.

Ink-black Profound Nether True Water gushed from the cracks in the cauldron, creating a strange resonance with the thunder and fire of the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace.

Xu Yunfan suddenly felt his palm turn scorching hot. He looked down and saw the thunder patterns on the mace frantically devouring the black water. Dark gold patterns gradually appeared on the mace’s originally crimson body.

It seemed to be completing the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace, washing away the fierce, murderous aura of a malevolent weapon.

’Interesting...’

Xu Yunfan looked up at the sky. The fissure that he had fallen through had long since vanished without a trace.

After exiting the Linn Character State, Xu Yunfan glanced at the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace in his hand. It was still struggling and buzzing ceaselessly, but it was being firmly suppressed by his Dragon Scale Armor.

"...You really are a glutton for punishment, aren’t you."

Xu Yunfan sighed. Since the Profound Steel Mechanism Box had been shattered by the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace, he simply used the Armor Leaves of his Dragon Scale Armor to open and close, clamping down on the mace’s body.

It was actually much more stable than before.

Only then did Xu Yunfan have a moment to glance at the notifications that had popped up in his vision.

’You have successfully killed a War Soul Tomb Guardian. Your Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique Skill Level has increased significantly.’

’You...’

A string of more than ten notifications about his increased Skill Level made Xu Yunfan break into a wide grin.

He was now only two hundred twenty-three Skill Level points away from his Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique reaching the Great Success stage.

"The Divine Weapon Secret Realm..."

Xu Yunfan had, of course, clearly heard Zhan Yan’s cry of alarm back in the cave in Divine Weapon Valley.

’I never thought Divine Weapon Ridge would actually have a Secret Realm, the kind of thing only the Six Top Sects of the Great Zhou possess.’

From what Pei Yan and Qi Huan had told him before, the Profound Daoist Sect’s Profound Daoist Secret Realm was rich with Heaven and Earth Primordial Spiritual Energy. Cultivating inside it, one could truly experience the cultivation speed of the true golden age two thousand years ago.

Even though in the current Dharma Decline Era, the Primordial Spirit Qi in the Secret Realm was like rootless duckweed—diminishing with every use.

But the accumulation from two thousand years ago was still a vast amount.

Xu Yunfan took a deep breath. Without even needing to intentionally guide his Pure Yang Qi Skill, the Primordial Spirit Qi drilled into him without end.

’Your Pure Yang Qi Skill Skill Level has increased.’

Seeing the message float across his vision, Xu Yunfan immediately gave up on finding a way back for now. He decided to find a place to cultivate first.

He no longer hesitated, sitting cross-legged before the Qiu Long Cauldron. His still-surging Blood Qi continued to radiate a scorching aura, making the dark gold soil beneath him sizzle from his body heat.

He deliberately slowed his breathing, circulating the Pure Yang Qi Skill to make his Pure Yang Inner Breath perform a major circulation within his body.

A vortex gradually formed between his mouth and nose.

The surrounding viscous Primordial Spirit Qi surged toward him like a hundred rivers returning to the sea. As it poured through his nasal passages and into his lungs, it made a roaring sound like the pumping of bellows.

The key to the Pure Yang Qi Skill lay in three principles: Devour, Refine, and Fuse.

At this moment, without any need for conscious guidance, the Primordial Spirit Qi pouring into his body collided with the Pure Yang Inner Breath circulating through his flesh and blood. It was like pouring boiling oil into a blazing fire; it instantly began to seethe.

Xu Yunfan could clearly feel his twelve pairs of ribs opening and closing like the grates of a melting furnace. His spinal dragon trembled, vertebra by vertebra, pumping the refined Inner Breath into the fascia throughout his body.

KRA-KA!

His shoulder blades suddenly shifted half an inch as his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body automatically adjusted its force-bearing structure.

The Red Flood Dragon scales on the surface of his Dragon Scale Armor stood up like inverted scales, channeling the excess Primordial Spirit Qi out of his body and forming a thirty-foot ring of crimson flame around him.

He decided to abandon the orthodox meditative posture altogether. He grabbed the handle of his Thunderfire Qilin Hammer in a reverse grip and activated his Blood Qi using the opening stance of the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique.

The instant the hammer’s head touched the ground, the earth in a fifty-foot radius collapsed with a roar.

The fascia in Xu Yunfan’s arches tensed like a coiling flood dragon. His feet sank three inches into the rock as he twisted at the waist, whipping up a gale with his hammer that resembled a tornado.

The Primordial Spirit Qi that would have originally taken thirty-six Circulations to convert was now being forcibly compressed into his flesh and blood by the ferocity of his hammer strikes.

The wind from his hammer swept past an inverted waterfall, and the upward-flowing ice crystals vaporized into mist before they could even fall.

White vapor spewed from every pore on Xu Yunfan’s body as the unique Spiral Force of his Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength surged through his tendons.

The moment his Pure Yang Inner Breath merged with his Red Flood Dragon Force, golden sparks exploded before Xu Yunfan’s eyes.

His spinal dragon suddenly arched like a full moon, and all two hundred and six of his bones cracked at the same time.

*(There’s at least one more Chapter coming, I’m typing like mad)*