Longevity by Grinding Skills

With the Wuzhou Army stationed at the mountain’s base to prevent spies from the Incense and Candle Sect, messages could only be sent through specific, army-controlled channels.

Now that the situation was decided, Xu Yunfan devoted himself completely to his cultivation for the days that followed.

He rose before dawn each day to practice, not stopping to rest until the moon was high in the sky.

Immersed in his bitter training and oblivious to the outside world, he was rapidly advancing his Red Rope Copper Body Cloak Hammer toward the Perfection Realm, aided by a plentiful supply of Qi Blood Elixir Pills.

After finishing his practice that day, Xu Yunfan checked the data on his Attribute Panel.

The Skill Level for his Red Rope Copper Body Cloak Hammer had already reached four thousand, only one final step away from Perfection.

He took out and swallowed a Qi Blood Pill, feeling its medicinal power dissolve and spread through his body, nourishing every inch of his tendons and bones.

He had completed eighty percent of the five thousand Skill Level points required, with just under a thousand left to grind out.

Aided by elixirs from the Celestial Cicada Sect, his Skill Level increased by about twenty to thirty points each day.

In two months at most, his Skin Cultivation would reach Perfection and manifest the Golden Skin State.

As for his Celestial Cicada Force, Xu Yunfan glanced at the Attribute Panel in his field of vision.

It wasn’t far from Great Success either.

At his current rate, he was certain to achieve Great Success within half a month.

Eternal Firm, the Wuzhou State City.

「3:45 AM」 A horn blast tore through the morning mist.

One hundred thousand soldiers of the Profound Armor Army split into seven torrents of steel, surging along the waterways of Wuzhou.

Ning Wuque stood at the camp gate, watching the contingent that had once belonged to the Celestial Cicada Sect. Its one thousand two hundred heavy cavalrymen were all clad in Profound Scale Armor. Special Siege Crossbows hung from their saddles, the bolts tipped with spiraling heads. These were Cloud-Piercing Arrows, designed specifically to counter Horizontal Training.

The core martial arts of the Celestial Cicada Sect naturally included a Horizontal Training effect.

"Captain Ning, if you please."

The Military Eunuch pointed his duster to the southeast, where the silhouette of Thunder Accumulation Mountain was faintly visible in the dawn’s glow.

The twelve Golden Saber Guards behind the eunuch stepped forward in unison, the iron plates on their boot soles striking sparks from the ground. All twelve guards were pale and beardless, with soft, effeminate features. They were all eunuchs.

Ning Wuque remained silent for a moment before tugging on his reins and riding off to follow his orders.

As he passed the Cyan Mist Sect’s camp along the way, Ning Wuque smelled the thick stench of blood.

The Seven Qingxia Disciples, who had been sparring with their swords just yesterday, now had iron chains threaded through their bones. The Profound Armor Army was dragging them behind warhorses, using their bodies as gruesome signposts.

Their swords were impaled on the camp gate, the tassels dripping with beads of blood in the wind.

The disciples of the Cyan Mist Sect, a power from Wuzhou’s Five Ridges and Seven Mountains, had refused to submit last night, swearing to die first. The Profound Armor Army had slaughtered them all.

Ning Wuque’s gaze shifted to a corner where two men lay dead, their eyes wide with fury, refusing to close even in death.

They were none other than the Celestial Cicada Sect’s True Disciples, Pi Zhi’an and Zhu Yi.

They had refused to surrender, choosing death over submission. He had killed them both with a sword through the heart, a demonstration of his new allegiance.

He glanced back at the remaining disciples of the Celestial Cicada Sect following him. The strange light in Ning Wuque’s eyes quickly vanished, replaced by a calm, profound gaze.

’Don’t blame me. If you must blame someone, blame your own bad luck.’

Standing atop the summit of Thunder Accumulation Mountain, Xu Yunfan gazed at the perpetual storm clouds ahead. Lightning flashed and thunder roared at their center, and from time to time, a deafening bolt would strike down.

He stretched his arms like a crane in flight. As he moved, subtle vibrations emanated from within his body. When all his bones vibrated in unison, the sound was like the cry of a cicada.

The sound began like a soft patter of rain on tiles, but in an instant, it became a torrential downpour. At its peak, it was as if thousands of golden cicadas were shrieking in unison from within his very being.

After only three months, his Celestial Cicada Force, this martial art, was about to reach Great Success. Today was the day.

He wasn’t in a hurry to break through to the Outer Three Harmonies Realm. Even though he had read the Pure Yang Qi Skill so many times he could nearly recite it from memory, he had yet to begin its cultivation. He was focused solely on perfecting his tendons, bones, and skin.

Achieving Great Success in his Celestial Cicada Force today would naturally grant him another measure of strength.

’You have diligently cultivated the Celestial Cicada Force. Wisps of strength follow your skeletal vibrations to produce a cicada’s cry. Through high-frequency bone oscillations, you have unleashed an attack of unimaginable power. Your Skill Level in Celestial Cicada Force has increased.’

’Through continuous practice, you have grasped the essence of the Celestial Cicada Force. The frequency and intensity of your skeletal vibrations have reached a new height. Your Skill Level in Celestial Cicada Force has increased.’

’...’

By the time the sun began to set in the west, Xu Yunfan’s body was bathed in its crimson light, his skin glowing red. His bulging, chiseled muscles looked as if they were carved from stone.

The blood vessels beneath his skin suddenly contorted into a web-like pattern, and dark red lines of blood raced madly along his muscle fibers.

Xu Yunfan could clearly feel his blood accelerating, the thundering of his heart drowning out even the storm overhead. This was the sign that his Celestial Cicada Force was breaking through to the next level.

’Your Celestial Cicada Force has reached Great Success.’

’Celestial Cicada Force 0/5000 (Great Success)

Special Effects: Bone-Permeating Thunder Pattern, Cicada Cry Force, Thousand-Call Blade Transformation, Vessel-Harmonizing Cicada Law, Vajra Iron Cauldron, All Things Bone Armor, Shocking Cicada Breaking the Sky’

Instantly, wisps of a warm current generated within him and suffused his bones. The Iron Bones he had forged through the Iron Bridge Town Bone Training Chapter began to transform under the influence of the Celestial Cicada Force, gradually taking on the quality of uncut jade. Simultaneously, this skeletal transformation began to have a swift and powerful impact on his entire physique.

The humerus in his right arm was the first to change, its once-hard substance squirming and rearranging itself as if it were alive.

A fine, cicada-wing pattern surfaced on his periosteum, and each vibration triggered a chain reaction through his great tendons.

Xu Yunfan clenched his fist. His forearm muscles instantly contracted into a block of iron, the gnarled fibers stretching his skin taut over sharp, angular ridges.

Thanks to his prior foundation, Xu Yunfan felt no pain. Instead, areas that he hadn’t fully trained began to slowly strengthen and complete themselves.

CRACK!

He took a tentative half-step forward. The sound of his foot’s arch crushing the granite blended with the roar of the thunderstorm.

His entire skeleton now felt like a resonance chamber. With every heartbeat, new shockwaves pulsed from his chest out to his limbs.

Memories of the path to reaching Great Success in the Celestial Cicada Force flooded his mind. The scenes depicted training of such grueling intensity and cruelty that simply witnessing them made Xu Yunfan wince.

BAM!

His right fist slammed into the rock wall without any fanfare. In the instant of contact, the bones in his arm completed seven high-frequency oscillations.

The hard granite first developed a web of cracks, then exploded into dust from the inside out.

Xu Yunfan looked at his right arm, which was buried in the rock wall up to his elbow. The unnatural crimson flush on his skin was already fading. After reaching Great Success in Celestial Cicada Force, his skin would show faint, thread-like lines of blood whenever he exerted his power. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Hm?"

Standing atop the summit, he looked down and saw a thin, black line of people snaking its way toward Thunder Accumulation Mountain.

...

By the time the army reached Flying Eagle Gulch, the morning sun was suspended directly above the main peak of Thunder Accumulation Mountain.

A ground-shaking roar suddenly echoed from outside the sect gates.

On the Martial Arts Arena, the disciples who had just finished their morning practice were thrown into chaos.

One disciple’s sword tassel became entangled in his topknot. Another stumbled and fell while carrying a copper furnace, spilling scalding coals all over himself.

A Mountain Guard Disciple came tumbling and crawling into the main hall with half a Cloud-Piercing Arrow protruding from his back.

"Profound Armor... It’s the Hu Ben Profound Armor! We’re under attack!!!"

The desperate cries of "Enemy attack!" instantly echoed throughout the entire sect.

Chu Xuan flew out of a doorway and grabbed an Outer Disciple by the lapels as he fled up from the mountainside. "Explain yourself! What’s going on?"

Before the disciple could finish, the sect gate collapsed with a thunderous crash. Eight hundred Profound Armor Heavy Cavalry surged in like a black tide. Amid the tremors of three thousand iron-armored soldiers storming the entrance, Ning Wuque’s voice, as gentle as always, could be heard.

"I am here by imperial decree to exterminate the traitors. Master, I invite you to meet your death."