For a split second, the four men froze. Their qi stagnated, and it felt as if a mountain had been dropped upon them, weighing them down immensely.

’How is this possible?!’

The pupils of the Profound Sky Peak disciple standing at the front contracted violently. He stared at Xu Yunfan in disbelief.

"Excuse me."

Those two simple words landed like heavy hammers.

The leader’s fingers on his sword hilt went rigid. His knuckles turned white from the strain, yet he couldn’t manage to draw his blade even half an inch.

As if pressed down by an invisible hand on their shoulders, the four men unconsciously parted to form a path.

He paused at the landing, then tossed a remark over his shoulder without looking back. "According to the rules of the Taoist Sect..."

The scales of his Dragon Scale Armor chimed like clashing gold and jade. "...you should address me as Senior Brother."

The Spirit Fruit in the purple-robed disciple’s hand had been crushed to a pulp. Scarlet juice trickled between his fingers, dripping onto the Cold Jade floor and creating a distorted reflection.

This scene naturally drew the attention of many people on the lower floors.

When Xu Yunfan’s Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm aura washed over them like a tide, the prying eyes felt as if they had been struck by lightning. Everyone immediately lowered their heads, daring not to look.

The oppressive aura of a Bone Marrow Cleansing Grandmaster was enough to command an entire peak within the Qingwei Mountain Daoist Sect.

A few stifled grunts came from the crowd, and several disciples with weaker cultivation were even sent staggering back by the sheer force of his aura.

All the hushed whispers and discussions died down instantly, as if an invisible hand had seized everyone by the throat.

Only the True Disciples of the Thirty-Six Peaks who were at the Daoist Child level could remain standing tall, but even their expressions grew solemn. To be called a Daoist Child meant that even if they hadn’t reached the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm yet, their ascension to it was an absolute certainty.

Yet Xu Yunfan looked far younger than any of them.

Xu Yunfan climbed the stairs, the gazes of shock and fear behind him receding like the tide.

Along the way, disciples on every floor bowed their heads and moved aside. Not a single person dared to test him again.

He walked without pause, striding through the vast sea of books on the first eight floors until he set foot on the cyan jade steps leading to the ninth.

The moment he pushed open the gilded door with its cloud patterns, he wasn’t met with the scent of ink, but with a thick, engulfing wave of Spiritual Qi.

Xu Yunfan’s eyebrows twitched. ’So all the Spiritual Qi that’s been gathering is concentrated here on the ninth floor.’

The ceiling of the ninth floor was a star-filled dome—a map of the Stars of the Celestial Sphere carved from a single piece of celestial meteorite jade. Silver threads descended from the positions of the Twenty-Eight Constellations, each holding one of just over thirty ancient texts.

Xu Yunfan casually brushed aside a curtain blocking his path and picked up a volume from a jade pedestal.

Six words were scrawled across the cover in a wild cursive, written in cinnabar mixed with gold dust.

Great Sun Heaven-Burning Prison-Suppression Fist.

’What an imposing name.’

Xu Yunfan couldn’t help but grin.

He flipped to the first page. A glance at the general outline revealed it to be a domineering fist technique that used Qi and blood to forge Pure Yang Qi. Unfortunately, it conflicted with his focus on armed combat, so he placed it back.

Besides, its name was more impressive than its substance.

The fist technique recorded inside was certainly exquisite and followed the Pure Yang Path, but it had nothing to do with burning down the heavens with a great sun. He wondered which shameless old senior of the Taoist Sect had come up with the name.

Most of the collection on the ninth floor consisted of fundamental Cultivation Techniques like the *Purple Sky Thunder Urgent Skill* and the *Taiyi Cyan Nether Technique*, which led directly to the Qi Cultivation Ninth Realm. There were fewer than eleven volumes on Martial Techniques.

After all, the current Martial Dao was one where practitioners honed corresponding Martial Techniques as they refined their bodies. With every realm they broke through, they could use a new set of complementary Martial Arts.

Standalone Martial Techniques, however, were relatively rare. Xu Yunfan wasn’t surprised. He had plenty of time; he could stay here for ten days without food or water if he had to.

Finally, at noon on the second day, Xu Yunfan found a lone manuscript in the west corner of the room, held down by a profound iron paperweight: the *Eight Desolates Dragon Fall Mace Technique*.

The pages were made from the tanned hide of some unknown beast. The opening phrase—"A mace falls, mountains sink; power pierces the eight desolates"—faintly emanated the residual power of its creator, who had once shattered a mountain with a single strike.

’Finally... a Mace Technique.’

Xu Yunfan’s brow relaxed. He glanced at a nearby bookshelf. Of the ten Martial Techniques there, at least eight were for swordsmanship.

He casually pulled out a sword manual with a reddish-gold cover: *Mountain-Slaying Sword*.

This swordsmanship style was one of unyielding ferocity, focusing on wielding the sword like an axe to split mountains and cleave the earth.

The opening lines read, "A sword drawn is like a great sun falling from the sky, a scorching sun that burns the very rivers." The names of the forms were even more outrageously domineering.

The Golden Crow Peak Fall Form used the blade’s edge to channel scorching Gang Qi, while the Molten Iron Sea-Splitting Form required one to pour Pure Yang Inner Breath into the sword, making the blade glow red-hot like a branding iron.

Xu Yunfan flipped through a couple of pages and shook his head. ’Though this swordsmanship is fierce, it’s a far cry from its claims of easily shattering mountains and peaks.’

In fact, even a Nine Realms Qi Cultivation Supreme Grandmaster would lack the power to shatter mountains and peaks without a Divine Weapon in hand.

Back in the day, Dugu Jiu, the so-called "Celestial Sword," had only managed to sever a river with a single strike because he wielded the Tier Eight Divine Weapon, the Cyan Nether Dragon-Slaying Sword.

Legend had it that when he unleashed that strike, the river’s surface—a hundred li wide—split into a chasm before the blade even landed. The lingering Sword Qi from the aftershock even shaved three inches off the cliffs on both banks.

Xu Yunfan’s fingers unconsciously stroked the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace at his waist. ’If I pair this mace with the Dragon Fall Form from the *Eight Desolates Dragon Fall Mace Technique*,’ he mused, ’I might truly be able to achieve the "mace falls, mountains sink" power described in the text.’

Having found what he was looking for, Xu Yunfan briefly scanned the other Martial Arts on the shelves before looking away.

The Martial Arts he cultivated were eclectic, with each realm focusing on a different discipline. His path was different from these techniques, which all belonged to a single, unbroken lineage. Ultimately, to advance in Qi Cultivation, he would naturally need to follow the principle of Ten Thousand Laws Return to the Stream.

After obtaining the *Eight Desolates Dragon Fall Mace Technique*, Xu Yunfan’s gaze swept over the other texts on the ninth floor, but he quickly looked away.

The Cultivation Techniques he practiced were eclectic. For the Skin Cultivation Realm, he had used the *Red Rope Copper Body Cloak Hammer* to temper his body. For the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm, he had relied on the *Yijing Marrow Cleansing Skill* to be reborn. On top of that, he had a mix of other Exotic Techniques like the *Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique* and the *Triple Jiao Sword Nurturing Technique*.

Compared to the systems of the Taoist Sect, which emphasized a single, unbroken lineage, his Martial Dao was like a hundred rivers converging—seemingly chaotic, but secretly aligning with the principle of Ten Thousand Laws Return to the Stream. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

This was why Bi Yuan had allowed Xu Yunfan to practice a different Cultivation Technique for every realm of his Cultivation.

Qi Blood Strength, after all, wasn’t true energy—merely a transformation of the body’s inner breath.

The Linn Character Technique had already granted him a photographic memory. He entered the Linn Character State, memorized the entirety of the Mace Technique’s principles, then exited the state, closed the manuscript, and strode out of the Langhuan Book Tower without a backward glance.

By the time he returned to his private courtyard, which was encircled by Cyan Pines, twilight had already stained the sea of clouds on the mountainside a deep red.

Xu Yunfan reached back and unslung the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace. As its body cut through the air, it actually threw off a few sparks.

"Lin."

With a soft cry, Xu Yunfan plucked another Ginseng Root from the Ginseng Child and began chewing it. His eyes were calm, his mind entered a state of flow, and he continuously reviewed the *Eight Desolates Dragon Fall Mace Technique*.

Suddenly, the Heavy Mace, wreathed in crimson Qi Force, came crashing down. CRACK! The Bluestone Slabs in the courtyard split, forming a thirty-foot-long chasm. He instantly shifted to the second form, a thrust. The sharp energy focused at the mace’s tip shot out and pierced clean through a stone lantern ten paces away.

The most astonishing of all was the Ninth Form: "Dragon Fall." Xu Yunfan’s Qi and blood suddenly collapsed inward, and every scale on his Dragon Scale Armor bristled. Accompanied by the roar of wind and thunder, the Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace came crashing down.