Especially those like Jingming, who cultivate the Enlightenment Technique and are also exceptionally handsome, are all masters of bewitchment, able to sway the minds of others without them even noticing.

Xu Yunfan looked down at the completely stupefied Jingming, snot and drool pooling on the ground beneath him.

Xu Yunfan hauled him up. Seeing the vacant, foolish grin on Jingming’s face, he couldn’t help but chuckle. After stripping off Jingming’s Golden Silk Armor, he casually tossed him into the Molten Rock Pool.

He watched the man sink into the lava with blood-curdling screams, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Xu Yunfan clenched his fist slightly. As the scales of his Dragon Scale Armor flexed, thousands of golden threads shot out from the gaps, instantly piercing the Golden Thread Armor.

As Strength pulsed from Xu Yunfan’s palm, the golden threads emerging from his Dragon Scale Armor suddenly glowed with crimson patterns. They coiled around the Golden Thread Armor like flood dragons that had scented blood.

This Body-Protecting Divine Weapon, woven using a secret technique from Mituo Temple, was instantly riddled with thousands of holes. Dense Sanskrit talismans materialized on its surface in a desperate attempt to resist, but they shattered one after another under the assault of the Dragon Scale Armor’s golden threads.

As the golden threads pierced the core of the Treasure Armor, the once-radiant armor visibly faded to a dull gray.

The scales of the Dragon Scale Armor emitted a low, draconic roar. A dark, molten-gold liquid seeped from the gaps between the plates, flowing back along the golden threads and pouring into Xu Yunfan’s body.

In an instant, the Blood Qi in his body surged to a boil. The anomaly of Golden Flesh and Jade Bones, a sign of Great Success in the Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body, materialized behind him. Even the flow of force from his Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique became faintly visible beneath his skin.

’A Buddhist cleansing...’

Xu Yunfan narrowed his eyes, sensing the feedback. ’This Treasure Armor must have been woven by several eminent monks whose cultivation and enlightenment had reached Perfection. They must have used the world’s rarest and most precious Celestial Silkworm Golden Threads. With every stitch, they must have chanted Buddhist scriptures, imbuing the armor with Buddhist Spiritual Power.’

The surging Essence Qi hammered against the bottleneck of Minor Achievement in Blood Transformation. He immediately took another breath of the Qi of Ginseng and activated his Pure Yang Qi Skill. He channeled the Buddhist Power of Enlightenment and the Qi of Ginseng to flow endlessly through his flesh, pouring into his Blood Qi for repeated tempering.

By the time the Dragon Scale Armor finished devouring the last golden thread, its scales had sprouted fine, tooth-like protrusions along their edges. The very air Xu Yunfan exhaled now formed a rising column of Blood Qi smoke.

’Your Skill Level in the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique has greatly increased.’

’Your...’

He watched as a flood of notifications for attribute increases nearly spammed his vision. Some were for his Pure Yang Qi Skill, but the vast majority were for the massive boost to his Skill Level in the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique.

points!

Pure Yang Qi Skill: 3810 points!

Watching as the Skill Level for the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique finally stopped climbing in the Skill Bar of his Attribute Panel, Xu Yunfan let out a soft breath.

He was only a hundred-odd points away from bringing the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique to Perfection.

Then, his Strength would finally penetrate his very marrow!

He would step into the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm.

Out in the Mortal World, people would have to call him a Grandmaster!

Outside of the six great top Sects of the Great Zhou, he would be qualified to found his own major sect and become a regional hegemon.

He glanced at the Eight-Treasure Bodhi Bead on the ground, its Buddha Light now dim. Xu Yunfan tried to have his Dragon Scale Armor absorb it, but when there was no reaction whatsoever, he had no choice but to give up.

Xu Yunfan never even considered taking the Eight-Treasure Bodhi Bead. If he did, the moment he left this place, the high monks of Mituo Temple would surely locate him instantly.

Then, he might truly have to face the unbridled wrath of The Immovable Wisdom King.

A Buddha’s Son, a prodigy Mituo Temple might see only once in centuries, had just been killed by him in this Little Heaven and Earth Secret Realm. If word got out, every last one of the old monsters from Mituo Temple would probably crawl out of the woodwork to hunt him down.

Moreover, Mituo Temple was extremely mysterious. Jingming had cultivated a Buddhist Spiritual Secret Technique, and if he hadn’t possessed the Linn Character Technique, he might have actually fallen into the trap. There was no guarantee that Mituo Temple didn’t possess some form of karmic tracking technique.

At this thought, Xu Yunfan couldn’t help but let out a long breath, his expression turning pensive.

’It would be best to find a technique to conceal my own aura.’

After weighing his options, a thought suddenly struck Xu Yunfan. ’Perhaps... there is another way.’

He looked up at the sky. Night had fallen, plunging the entire Little Heaven and Earth Secret Realm into darkness.

Xu Yunfan had no intention of continuing his cultivation for the day. He had fought two major battles in a row; if not for the replenishing Qi of Ginseng from the Ginseng Child, he likely couldn’t have even fully restored his own Blood Qi.

’If True Disciples from places like Sword Pavilion and Mituo Temple are all in here,’ he mused, ’then that must mean the True Disciples from the Profound Daoist Sect are also still trapped in this Little Heaven and Earth Secret Realm.’

Xu Yunfan suddenly recalled the "Purple Sky Immortal Skin Chapter," which was part of the Profound Daoist Sect’s ultimate Body Refining Secret Technique, the Cyan Mountain Suppressing Technique.

It couldn’t compare to the Nine Radiance Sect’s Nine Glories Swallowing Qi Skill—which could condense Nine Luminaries within one’s very flesh and stack their Blood Qi nine times over—but it was still quite formidable.

Upon mastery, one’s body would become like the profound Cyan Yue Mountain itself, and their Blood Qi would be as vast, heavy, and deep as a mountain range.

He recalled his master, Zhan Yan, once mentioning that this technique required a special paste made from the Cyan Peak Lotus Fire Ginseng—found only on Cyan Yue Mountain—to be applied to the body, along with the use of the Profound Truth Force to temper one’s entire musculature.

It was certainly a hassle, but it was still an excellent option. After all, he had his Attribute Panel. As long as he could get the Martial Arts to appear on his Skill Bar, anything was possible.

"Earth Fire as the hammer, the mountains as the anvil..."

Xu Yunfan muttered the incantation, and the way he was Emitting Force for his Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique began to resonate with the very mountains around him.

Three Hours later, he leaped onto a protruding Basalt Platform on a cliff’s edge. The platform was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the Earth Vein Spiritual Qi cascaded down like a waterfall.

He slammed his Thunderfire Qilin Hammer onto the ground. The Earth Vein within a ten-zhang radius trembled, releasing a mist of Spiritual Qi that flowed across the platform.

In the days that followed, aside from his mandatory daily practice of the Linn Character Technique, Xu Yunfan devoted himself completely to training his Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique.

Without the Ginseng Child’s aid, gaining those hundred-odd skill points might have taken nearly half a year. But with the support of the Qi of Ginseng...

He trained without rest each day, gaining at least twenty points of Skill Level.

If his training reached a state of true immersion and he grasped the nuances of the Hammer Technique, he could even land a "critical hit" for his skill progression, earning an extra four or five points.

Every time his Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique caused the Earth Vein to tremble, the scales of his Dragon Scale Armor would ooze a molten, crimson-gold light that traveled up the hammer’s haft and coiled around the muscles of his arms.

He continuously drew the Qi of Ginseng into his body through his nostrils, circulating it between his muscles and his Blood Qi.

He continued this way, without sleep or rest. Late on the ninth night, Xu Yunfan’s muscles suddenly took on a jade-like luster. As the Blood Qi surged beneath his skin, the faint phantom of a mountain range appeared.

With every swing of his hammer, the bursting Qi Force transformed into a nine-layered mountain shadow.

When the last point of Skill Level was gained, bringing the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique to five thousand, a flood of notifications spammed his vision.

’Your Skill Level for the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique has reached Perfection.’

’You have entered the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm.’

’...’

As his final hammer strike, wreathed in the nine-layered mountain shadow, came crashing down, a series of metallic clashes suddenly erupted from within Xu Yunfan’s body.

Great, warm currents of qi manifested from nothing, circulating wildly through his entire body.

The resonance between his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body and the Perfection of his Hammer Technique caused every inch of his skeleton to glow with the luster of Cyan Jade.

His periosteum, once a pristine white, began to proliferate rapidly. Strength erupted from his blood and seeped into his bones, as if countless miniature mountains were rising from the very depths of his marrow.