Chapter 252: Chapter 252: A Sudden Boundless Splendor

As the great dragon of his spine trembled, vertebra by vertebra, a rumbling roar like that of a surging Earth Vein echoed from within.

With the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique having reached Perfection, the "Earth Vein Bone Forging" Anomaly, unique to the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm, began to slowly emerge.

The muscles all over his body tensed. The great dragon of his spine erupted with streams of Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength, which began to circulate through his vertebrae.

He flicked a bone in his arm, and it rang with the deep resonance of a great bell. A flash of joy lit up his eyes. This was the very sign of the "Jade Bone and Golden Voice" described in the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique!

Only by cultivating the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique to its absolute, near-flawless limit could such a phenomenon manifest.

His muscle fibers frantically restructured under the scouring of violent Blood Qi, and his knotted muscle bundles bulged like subterranean veins of magma.

Every muscle fiber was entwined with the unique crimson-gold light of the Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength. As the fascia beneath his skin pulsed with his breath, it faintly outlined the scaled pattern of the Nine-Headed Xiangliu.

A thought stirred in Xu Yunfan’s mind, and he instantly understood. ’It’s the residual Essence Qi from the Fierce Beasts whose Demon Flesh and Blood I devoured.’ He immediately mobilized his Pure Yang Inner Breath, using its supremely masculine and fierce nature to continuously refine and transmute the residual energy.

’So that’s what it was...’

Xu Yunfan couldn’t help but feel a wave of relief. ’I’m lucky. If it weren’t for the Pure Yang Qi Skill and the boosts from the Attribute Panel, I should have known something like this would happen after devouring so much Demon Flesh and Blood and absorbing all that Essence Qi.’

A moment later, Xu Yunfan suddenly clenched his fist. The gust of wind that erupted from between his knuckles tore apart a rock wall thirty feet away. His expression flickered. ’I can’t believe just unleashing my surging Blood Qi as pure power can already cause a small tremor in the surrounding energy of heaven and earth.’

Blood Qi surged through his body, endless and powerful as a Flood Dragon.

His blood, once as viscous as liquid mercury, was now condensing into countless shimmering, crimson-gold motes.

With every beat of his heart, this viscous, mercury-like blood surged through him. Wherever it passed, the old marrow was incinerated, and new marrow immediately began to form.

Nine muffled claps of thunder boomed from deep within his kneecaps. The turbid marrow that had settled in his spine for over twenty years turned to green smoke, steaming out from the crown of his head. New Golden Marrow, like molten Profound Iron, surged up his spinal canal, vertebra by vertebra.

When the Golden Marrow flooded past the crown of his head, crimson light erupted from Xu Yunfan’s seven orifices. Behind him, nine towering mountains flickered between illusion and reality—the very manifestation of the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique reaching Perfection.

A Bone Marrow Cleansing Grandmaster could channel Strength into their marrow, raise it to the crown of their head, and refine that Strength into their very brain.

Only then could their Strength achieve minute control, reaching the internal organs directly to begin the process of Refining the Internal Organs.

The transformation brought by the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm went far beyond this.

Under the tempering of his Pure Yang Inner Breath, the Triple Jiao Meridians, which had been refined by the Triple Jiao Sword Nurturing Technique, began to generate a massive amount of Sword Force.

The vibrations echoing within his marrow were as incessant as rolling thunder, and each breath he took caused the leaves of his Dragon Scale Armor to tremble.

Xu Yunfan could clearly feel it: every gesture now carried a mountain-like momentum, and a casual movement could unleash the power to shake a mountain itself.

"The Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm... Strength with minute control, reaching directly to the internal organs!"

Xu Yunfan made a grasping motion, and the very air in his palm cracked with a sharp bang.

The Sword Force from his Triple Jiao Sword Nurturing Technique, now tempered by the Strength derived from his Pure Yang Golden Marrow, coursed through him like ten thousand needles. The thunderous vibrations in his marrow made the Dragon Scale Armor Leaves tremble, each one glowing with a crimson-gold light.

"So that’s how it works..."

Xu Yunfan slowly raised his head. With every breath, wisps of Spiritual Qi entered his body through his nostrils, mobilized by his marrow and dispersed throughout his system.

’I can finally draw Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi into my body using only my Bone Marrow Power, without needing the Pure Yang Qi Skill.’

Xu Yunfan’s expression shifted. The Spiritual Qi flowing through his nostrils suddenly stagnated, and he raised his head, looking toward the center of the Little Heaven and Earth Secret Realm.

There, at the far end of the sky, an immense, clear light exploded. A stream of pure radiance pierced the clouds of the Secret Realm, soaring into the heavens and illuminating a thousand miles of mountains and rivers until they resembled a Glazed World.

The light poured down like a Celestial River, sacred and pure, dyeing half the sky with a glazed luster. Faint, immortal music drifted from the point where the clouds had been pierced.

A Divine Weapon!

’At the very least, this is a Tier Eight Divine Weapon fully awakening, unleashing countless years of accumulated power to create such a spectacle.’

’Judging by the sheer scale, it might even be a legendary Tier Nine Heaven and Earth Divine Weapon!’

In this world, weapons were ranked. Tiers one and two were Mortal Artifacts. Tiers three, four, and five were divided into low, middle, and high-grade blades. Tier six were Treasure Artifacts, while tiers seven, eight, and nine were Divine Weapons.

Tier Nine is the apex, worthy of the name Heaven and Earth Divine Weapon!

They cannot be forged by human hands, but are born of heaven and nurtured by the earth. Perhaps they are nourished day and night by an Earth Vein or tempered by Celestial Thunder; only after untold years can one come into being.

’To think that a Heaven and Earth Divine Weapon would appear in this Little Heaven and Earth Secret Realm...’

The light in Xu Yunfan’s eyes flickered. Having just entered the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm, he had no reason to fear anyone else in this Secret Realm.

’Those so-called True Disciples from the top Sects are probably at the Outer Three Harmonies or still lingering in the Flesh Refining Realm. Now that I’ve entered the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm, I have nothing to fear from them.’

’If I could claim that Heaven and Earth Divine Weapon for myself...’

He tapped his toes on the ground and shot into the air. His dense marrow, a product of the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm, unleashed an astonishing Qi Force, blasting nine concentric shockwaves from beneath his feet.

He vanished in an instant, leaving a trail of sonic booms in his wake.

When he arrived at the source of the light, the scene before him made Xu Yunfan’s pupils contract.

A collapsed mountain lay split open, as if cleaved by a Giant Axe. Within the fissure, the upturned eaves of a half-exposed White Jade Palace were visible.

It seemed the eruption of light had burst forth from within the mountain, shattering it completely and revealing the White Jade Palace.

The Star Stones embedded in the palace walls pulsed with a clear glow. The Bronze Bells hanging from the eaves chimed without any wind, their sound waves blasting nearby Demon Fiends into a bloody mist.

On the lintel above the palace gate, five complex characters he couldn’t recognize were carved from Meteorite Iron. The strokes were as sharp as sword slashes, and each character emanated an astonishing Sword Momentum.

An ultimate brilliance shone forth from within the palace.

Xu Yunfan’s gaze was like lightning, sweeping his surroundings in an instant before locking onto the corner of a nearby mountain peak.

He glanced down at the half-hidden White Jade Palace, then his figure blurred. An instant later, he reappeared like a phantom at the edge of a cliff.

"Brother Su, I trust you’ve been well."

A faint smile touched his lips, but his voice was low and cold as his gaze fell upon Su Zhenhe, who was lying prone at the cliff’s edge.

The True Disciple of the Profound Daoist Sect was so completely engrossed in staring at the palace below, his eyes flashing with ecstatic joy, that he hadn’t noticed Xu Yunfan’s arrival.

The moment he heard Xu Yunfan’s voice, a bone-chilling cold shot up Su Zhenhe’s spine. His muscle memory reacted faster than his conscious mind; two shockwaves erupted from his heels as his body shot back thirty feet like a startled bird.

As his back slammed into the rock wall, the unique Blood Evil Qi from the Dragon Scale Armor washed over him.

Xu Yunfan stood thirty feet away beside a fissure in the lava rock, arms crossed. The Taotie Pattern on the pommel of his Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace pulsed with a dark red light.

After his Bone Marrow Cleansing, he could finally subdue this Divine Weapon with his own immense strength.

’That really wasn’t easy.’

A storm of emotions churned in his eyes.

Su Zhenhe swallowed hard, his gaze flickering with dozens of different feelings.

He was horrified that his opponent had silently breached his fifty-foot perimeter. He was even more terrified by the fresh scent of blood wafting from the Dragon Scale Armor.

But most of all, he was thinking about the fact that Xu Yunfan had discovered the White Jade Palace below, and the murderous intent that must now be surging in his heart.