Chapter 228: Chapter 228: Demon Flesh and Blood Essence Qi

A low rumble, like colliding tectonic plates, emanated from Xu Yunfan’s shoulder blades. The Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body’s unique method for emitting and dissipating force shifted his body seven feet to the side. Five smoldering gashes were instantly torn into the granite where he had just stood, the work of the tiger’s claws.

Only then did he get a clear look at the Demon Fiend. The Tiger Demon was a full thirty feet long, its body covered in black fur as sharp as Profound Iron barbs. The markings on its forehead coalesced into a third, blood-red eye. When it roared, a visible blast of air erupted along with the sound.

The foul stench that blasted from its mouth made Xu Yunfan’s breath catch in his throat.

It was so foul that the overwhelming reek, a mix of every kind of decay, forced him to narrow his eyes.

"This saves me the trouble of finding you."

Xu Yunfan flipped his wrist, and Strength erupted from him. The crimson patterns on the seven-foot Thunderfire Qilin Hammer flared brightly.

Fueled by his Blood Exchange Realm Blood Qi, the Thunder Fire coiling around the hammer’s head blazed even more fiercely. The moisture in the mountain stream vaporized into white mist wherever the wind from the hammer passed.

’I didn’t expect it to create such a spectacle.’

Staring at the Treasure Heavy Hammer in his hand, Xu Yunfan’s eyes glittered. He knew that only now was he truly unleashing the weapon’s power.

The Tiger Demon arched its back like a full moon, its lashing tail making the air crack.

Its four claws dug into the ground as it leaped into the air. Ancient, thousand-year-old trees on both sides of the stream were torn from their roots, then swept up in a demonic wind and transformed into a torrential rain of wooden spears.

Xu Yunfan’s heel crushed the rock formation beneath him. The Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength spiraled up his spine, poured into his arms, and flowed through his entire body with his blood. He then ferociously swung his hammer, executing the opening move of the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique: Star Falling into the Celestial River.

Wherever the hammer’s shadow passed, layers of shockwaves erupted from thin air. The wooden spears, wreathed in visible black Evil Qi, disintegrated into dust before they could even get near him.

A roar like muffled thunder erupted from the Demon Fiend’s cavernous, bloody maw. Its icy pupils locked onto Xu Yunfan, and a blast of black mist shot from its mouth along with the howl.

Xu Yunfan’s expression remained unchanged as he merely sized up the Demon Fiend.

The instant the black Evil Qi from the Tiger Demon’s roar slammed into him, the Dragon Scale Armor Leaves on Xu Yunfan’s body rustled and shifted. The torrent of Evil Qi was instantly broken down into a thousand tiny streams, which flowed down the channels of the raised armor leaves and into the rock beneath his feet.

The ink-jade rock beneath his feet shattered as if struck by a meteorite. Debris spewed from spiderweb-like cracks, and the ground caved in with a deafening crash.

Seizing the opportunity, the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer swung in a golden arc. The Heavy Hammer, imbued with the immense and ultimate Blood Qi unique to the Blood Exchange Realm, came crashing down.

The Tiger Demon showed no signs of retreating. Or rather, looking at the tiny speck before it, it saw no reason to.

Before the hammer even landed, the Blood Qi compressed within it erupted with astonishing power and speed. A potent Qi Force blasted out from the hammer head, creating a circular shockwave in advance of the impact.

"CLANG!"

The impact of hammer against claw rang out with the sound of striking metal.

The shockwave from the collision spread out, even cutting the waterfall less than thirty feet away in half for the span of three breaths.

The instant the Qilin Hammer made contact with the tiger’s claw, massive waves of Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength surged up the handle to the hammer’s head and violently exploded.

Xu Yunfan clearly saw the Demon Patterns on the Tiger Demon’s paw writhing madly like living creatures, trying to devour the Thunder Fire on the hammer. Instead, they were seared by his gilded Blood Qi, leaving behind scorched black lines.

The Demon Patterns on the Tiger Demon’s forepaw shattered inch by inch. Xu Yunfan, however, used the force of the recoil to flip backward in midair. His shoulder blades shifted seven times in a movement like an Earth Dragon Flipping Over, channeling the massive Strength from the tiger into the ground through his Dragon Scale Armor.

’I have to admit, the Dragon Scale Armor really lives up to its name as a Tier Eight Divine Weapon. Both its defensive power and the boost to my Constitution far exceed my imagination.’

Before his toes even touched the ground, the Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength shot from the arches of his feet straight to his Celestial Spirit. His second hammer strike came cleaving down with the force of a falling meteor.

Black blood suddenly oozed from the Tiger Demon’s red eyes. The Evil Qi around it roiled and writhed, and the Demon Patterns on its body began to transform into chains that snaked toward the Heavy Hammer.

Though inwardly surprised, Xu Yunfan didn’t hesitate for a moment. He abruptly altered the killing move of his Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique, "Dragon Raising Its Head."

The hammer head, which should have been chopping down, instead traced an uncanny arc. The Armor-Piercing Awl at the end of the handle shot out and precisely pierced the center of the Tiger Demon’s forehead.

An earth-shattering, agonized howl echoed from the depths of the cavern.

Splattering Demon Blood corroded a ten-foot-deep pit into the cave wall.

The sound waves from the Tiger Demon’s pained roar caused half of the cliff face to collapse. However, as the massive falling boulders came within three feet of Xu Yunfan, they were ground into dust by the Qi Armor formed from his Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength and Pure Yang Inner Breath.

The instant the Demon Pattern chains snapped, the bones throughout Xu Yunfan’s body crackled like popping soybeans. At that moment, the speed of a Blood Exchange Realm Martial Artist was on full display.

The afterimage left by his hammer had yet to fade when his true form appeared beneath the Tiger Demon’s belly. He swung the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer upward, and the Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength flowed with the weapon’s momentum, flinging the ten-thousand-jin Tiger Demon into the air!

The rock wall of the mountain stream exploded.

After crashing through seven stalagmites, the Tiger Demon struggled to rise, only to see Xu Yunfan execute an uncanny footwork pattern that resembled the rise and fall of a Dragon Vein. His Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body propelled him forward like a battering ram, and he smashed through three rock walls.

As he unleashed his final hammer strike, the Thunder Fire on the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer intertwined, and his Blood Qi nearly coalesced into a crimson mist. Before the hammer head even arrived, the Demon Patterns all over the Tiger Demon’s body melted away like snow under a blazing sun.

DONG!

The instant the hammer made contact, the entire Inverted Gourd Valley shuddered violently.

With the point of impact as the epicenter, rock within a hundred-foot radius churned and rolled outward like waves of earth. Ancient cypress trees within that same radius were snapped in two by the circular shockwave. The waterfall, over thirty feet away, briefly formed the bizarre spectacle of being split into separate upper and lower flows.

The lower section of water continued to fall, while the upper section was blasted into a dense mist that hung suspended in the air.

Amidst the deafening roar, more than half of the cavern collapsed.

Xu Yunfan stood atop the ruins, hammer in one hand. When he saw the Tiger Demon’s body was still intact, his expression relaxed slightly. ’If this Demon Fiend had been smashed to a pulp, I’d be out of food.’

His Blood Qi, which had been boiling like magma, slowly settled. His Strength continued to flow with his Blood Qi. He was rather pleased to find that despite the high-intensity battle, he had consumed less than twenty percent of his Strength.

Moreover, his cultivated Pure Yang Inner Breath and Blood Qi were constantly converting into Strength, replenishing his reserves.

However, since reaching the Blood Exchange Realm, Xu Yunfan had mostly avoided converting his Blood Qi, relying solely on his Pure Yang Inner Breath for replenishment.

The higher a Martial Arts Cultivator’s Realm, the more astounding their physique became. Their daily energy consumption far surpassed that of an ordinary person. And while their incredible digestive systems could extract most of the energy from food, the process of converting Blood Qi into Strength was extremely draining.

In the outside world, one would need to eat at least an entire Exotic Blood Deer just to recover from that loss.

As the waterfall began to flow normally again, he glimpsed the concentrated Spiritual Qi in the depths of the cavern and couldn’t help but grin.

Dragging the corpse of the giant black-furred tiger, Xu Yunfan walked slowly toward the depths of the cavern.

For the next month, his time was spent doing little else besides chopping firewood to roast the tiger meat, devouring its flesh to absorb the Demon and Monster Essence Energy within, and diligently practicing his Martial Arts.

Now that his Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique had reached the level of Great Success, he needed to train it to the Perfection Realm in order to break through to the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm.

Xu Yunfan glanced at his Attribute Panel, at the five thousand Skill Level points required for his Shaking Mountain Hammer Technique. Even with daily practice, his Skill Level for the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique only increased by four or five points a day—and that was with the aid of Spiritual Qi and the Essence Qi from the Demon Flesh and Blood.