Chapter 235: Chapter 235: Granting You a Position

Xu Yunfan subconsciously touched the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace on his back, his heart filled with a pleasant surprise.

’To think that these two Divine Weapons, the Dragon Scale Armor and the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace, have manifested with me in this dream. In that case...’

Xu Yunfan’s gaze toward the woman gradually grew frivolous.

For the first time, a trace of surprise appeared on the woman’s face. Her once-dull eyes swiftly became lively.

"Something’s not right with you."

"What’s not right?"

Xu Yunfan asked casually, not immediately entering the state of the Linn Character Technique. Instead, he slowly walked toward the Sword Peak before him.

The woman said, "Your cultivation speed is too fast. In less than two years, you’ve already stepped into the sixth stage of the Martial Dao."

Xu Yunfan said in surprise, "So you can hold a conversation. I thought you were just a block of wood."

The woman showed no anger at Xu Yunfan’s teasing. Perhaps because she had absorbed a large amount of Spiritual Qi, she sized him up from head to toe.

"Your aptitude is so poor, only slightly better than that oaf’s. Your progress in the Martial Dao should have stopped at the fourth stage at most... Have you consumed some kind of Heavenly and Earthly Treasure?"

Xu Yunfan’s expression darkened. But seeing the woman’s utterly serious face, which held not a hint of mockery, the corner of his eye twitched.

’She really is just stating an objective fact...’

Faced with Xu Yunfan’s silence, a faint light swirled in the woman’s eyes. After pondering something, she finally spoke.

"Defeat me, and I will grant you a place."

"A place?"

This time it was different. It wasn’t about letting him go, but about granting him a place.

Xu Yunfan was a little puzzled, and his heart stirred slightly.

These experts from a super-ancient era had tried every means to put themselves into a deep slumber. The woman before him had even found the exceedingly precious Ancient Jade Pendant that Li Haomiao had mentioned to seal herself away, seeking to transform into an Immortal.

But somewhere along the way, something had gone wrong. Her body had changed, leaving only a husk that contained the Secret Technique of the Linn Character Technique.

Now, she seemed to be slowly reawakening by relying on him.

"What kind of place? Speak clearly."

Before Xu Yunfan could finish his sentence, the woman stopped speaking. Her wide sleeves suddenly billowed like clouds. Holding two fingers together like a sword, she unleashed a wave of Sword Qi that surged toward Xu Yunfan.

The Three-Inch Sword Hairpin transformed in the wind into a seven-foot-long bronze sword. Under the moonlight, the Taotie Pattern on its spine began to exude frost.

"Mace, come!"

In response, the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace rose from his back and shot through the air. Xu Yunfan caught it by the Dragon Swallowing Mouth on its hilt. The patterns on the Heavy Mace lit up one by one, trailing streams of fiery embers as he moved.

His shoulder blades shifted with a boom, and an immense power erupted from his flesh, bones, and muscles.

The distinctive bronze hue of his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body spiraled up from his ribs. The fascia of his arches trembled as if an Earth Dragon was Flipping Over, and the black rock beneath his feet exploded into a spiderweb of cracks.

CLANG!

The moment the Sword Qi from the bronze sword collided with the Heavy Mace, nine streams of Spiral Force erupted from the mace’s body.

The woman’s wide sleeves suddenly billowed like sails. With a light tap of her slender foot on the end of her sword’s hilt, she diverted the concussive force—enough to split mountains and crack stone—into the solitary peak beneath her.

The entire Sword Peak trembled violently, and countless rocks rained down.

Xu Yunfan’s pupils contracted sharply.

Her technique for diverting force was far more profound than the Dissipation principles of his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body—a hundred times more refined, one might even say.

’Damn it!’

He let out a furious roar. The Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength surged up his spine, vertebra by vertebra, as mercury-like blood rushed through his veins like molten lava.

His second mace strike swept toward the woman’s lower body with the force of wind and thunder.

The scales on the waist and abdomen of his Dragon Scale Armor suddenly bristled, spewing a blast of scorching air that melted the Frost Sword Qi radiating from the woman into white mist.

In that same instant, however, the bronze sword in the woman’s hand bizarrely circled around the edge of the mace. Its tip tapped the mace’s body seven times in a row, each tap setting off a circular shockwave.

CRACK!

Blood burst from the web of Xu Yunfan’s thumb. The ’Zhen’ principle of his Nine Profound Dragon-Defying Mace Technique was overwhelmed by a backlash from the seven-layered Soft Force.

He stomped his heel hard on the rock. The unique force-dissipating ripples of his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body spread out from the sole of his foot, instantly pulverizing the rock surface in a thirty-foot radius.

With the help of the Dragon Scale Armor and the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace, he could have easily caused destruction over a hundred-foot area. But to harm the mysterious woman before him, he had to find a way to concentrate his power without letting a single bit leak out.

The woman gracefully drifted back thirty feet, and frost suddenly crystallized on her blade.

Sensing danger, Xu Yunfan made the gorget of his Dragon Scale Armor pop out thirty-six Crescent Scales.

Almost simultaneously, the cold glint from the bronze sword reached his throat!

SCREEECH!

The sword’s edge scraped against an Inverted Scale, creating a shower of dazzling sparks.

The woman’s eyes twitched slightly. Her gaze finally landed on the armor Xu Yunfan was wearing, now tinged with a hint of surprise.

’The armor he’s wearing is far from ordinary.’

Using his forward momentum, Xu Yunfan twisted his waist to Emit Force, swinging the Heavy Mace upward toward the woman’s sword-wielding wrist.

This move, "Jiao Raises His Head," concealed nine variations. But before the Thunder Fire on the mace’s head could touch her fair wrist, it was parried by her retracting sword.

The blade looked as light as cotton, yet the absolute power that erupted when it struck the head of his mace made it difficult for even Xu Yunfan to maintain his grip. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The two figures abruptly separated.

Xu Yunfan’s back smashed through three ox-sized boulders, and the scorching breath from his Dragon Scale Armor melted the shattered stones into glass.

The woman’s wide sleeve was torn, revealing a red mark on her forearm where the Heavy Mace had grazed her—a wound clearly inflicted by the Nine Profound Dragon-Defying Mace Technique.

’I actually managed to hurt her for the first time!’

Xu Yunfan’s heart was filled with excitement.

"Interesting."

For the first time, the woman revealed a smile as she pointed the tip of her sword at the spot between Xu Yunfan’s eyebrows.

"To think that someone with your aptitude could reach this level and force me to use thirty percent of my sword speed... You are the seventh person to do so in two thousand years."

Before her words faded, the nine Sword Peaks suddenly began to resonate in unison.

The moonlight coalesced on her blade into a tangible Frost Blade. Xu Yunfan felt as if the blood in his body was about to freeze, and he didn’t even have time to think.

He frantically channeled his Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength. The mercury-like qi and blood in his body boiled and surged, and the white steam spewing from the gaps in his Dragon Scale Armor coalesced with it, faintly forming the ethereal image of a Red Flood Dragon above his head.

Without the slightest hesitation, he brought his left hand before his chest and formed a Seal Technique.

"Lin."

As he pushed the Linn Character Technique to its absolute limit, his thoughts came to a sudden halt, and the world in his eyes slowed down dramatically.

He could clearly see the dozens of frequencies at which the woman’s sword vibrated. The "Shatter" principle of his Nine Profound Dragon-Defying Mace Technique evolved in response, producing corresponding changes.

The Heavy Mace, wreathed in lava-like qi and blood, came crashing down. Nine layers of shockwaves perfectly canceled out the vibrations of her blade.

CLANG!

The shriek of metal on metal sent a hundred-foot-tall wave surging up from the Cold Pool.

The impact caused blood to seep from all seven of his orifices, yet his eyes remained as calm as an ancient well. He pushed even harder, frantically drawing upon the deepest potential within his body, trying to make every single cell erupt with absolute power at this very moment.

The muscles on his arms coiled like pythons. His Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body, a product of his Horizontal Training, was pushed far beyond its limits, and for the first time, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on its surface.

But the woman’s Sword Momentum suddenly quickened, and her bronze sword dissolved into thousands of afterimages under the moonlight.

His eyes darted wildly, desperately trying to track the longsword’s path.

But the true killing blow was only now revealing itself!

The sword’s edge suddenly vanished.

Xu Yunfan only saw the moonlight refract into seven halos along the sword’s spine, and then a chilling cold pierced through his chest.