As his fist met the simple gauze, he precisely shifted his knuckles three inches aside. This was a piece of intelligence paid for with his last two deaths: the woman had an old burn scar three inches below her ribs.

DING!

A chime like gold striking jade rang out across the mountaintop.

For the first time, the woman retreated half a step. A bronze ripple spread from the point of impact.

The punch landed, but Xu Yunfan’s expression remained perfectly placid. His nostrils flared, catching the fleeting scent of something singed. His right fist fluidly changed from a hammer to a claw, grabbing for her throat.

Through the transcendent perception granted by the Linn Character Technique, he saw the silver pattern between the woman’s eyebrows suddenly flare.

The silver light tapped gently at the void, and the frigid air of the entire snow-capped mountain suddenly flooded into his open pores.

"Heaven-Knocking Sect."

As the clear, cold voice echoed, Xu Yunfan was horrified to feel every drop of his blood crystallize into an ice needle.

His Sea of Consciousness, which sustained the Linn Character Technique, was pierced by a thousand ice awls, causing cracks to form in his state of Supreme Forgetting Emotions.

The woman’s joined fingers transformed into a translucent icicle, its tip radiating a cold so intense it nearly froze his body solid.

Xu Yunfan’s body was rapidly deteriorating, his blood frozen solid. But his Self God remained enthroned in the center of his Sea of Consciousness. He let the ice awls wreak havoc, yet like a Stabilizing Needle, it anchored the core of his consciousness, preventing it from shattering completely.

His expression didn’t change in the slightest. Though his body and spirit were collapsing under the woman’s assault, his movements never ceased. His Blood Qi surged like a furnace, and with a lift of his elbow and a stamp of his foot, the thick layers of frost covering him cracked and fell away.

As his perception of time fractured, he caught the trajectory of her Sword Pointing. At the cost of three broken ribs, Xu Yunfan twisted his body to protect his heart.

But the Sword Pointing suddenly dispersed like willow catkins, splitting into 720 icy threads that coiled toward the acupoints all over his body.

His eyes, pushed to their absolute limit by the Linn Character Technique, entered a state of extreme calm. He finally perceived the ancient Dao Patterns flowing within the icy threads.

His body shuddered violently as he threw a punch. The muscles in his arm bulged as Blood Qi from his entire body surged into the limb. Even his tough skin couldn’t contain the force, tearing open into a web of fine, bloody cuts.

The edge of his fist tore through the air, his knuckles wreathed in a turbulent white air current. Accompanied by a thunderous roar, the heavy punch shot toward the woman’s face. Xu Yunfan had focused all his Vitality into this single blow.

Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique—Hammer to Fist, Star Falling into the Celestial River!

The instant his fist touched the simple gauze.

The icy threads snapped taut.

Seven hundred and twenty streams of cold simultaneously bored into his acupoints. Xu Yunfan froze in the snow, his body locked in the posture of throwing a punch.

The woman’s fingertip lightly tapped the center of his brow.

"HUH!"

Xu Yunfan shot up from the bed, his back crashing through the thick wall. The unconscious force of his movement shattered the solid wooden bedframe.

He subconsciously touched his unharmed throat. A phantom chill from the dream still lingered along his jawline, sending a shiver of goosebumps across his skin.

’Possession via dreams!?’

Xu Yunfan’s expression was unreadable. After the incident with the Incense and Candle Sect, he knew that the spirits of the supremely powerful could leave their physical shells. Take the Ming Venerable, for example, who had forged an Incense Fire Golden Body and still wielded inscrutable, godlike power in this Dharma Decline Era.

’Who in the world was that woman?’

Xu Yunfan instinctively glanced at the string of Skill Level notifications that appeared in his vision.

’...’

’You have used the Linn Character Technique and entered the Heart Like Still Water state. Your Linn Character Technique Skill Level has increased.’

Seeing this notification appear on the Attribute Panel, Xu Yunfan felt a flicker of surprise.

Ever since he first learned the Linn Character Technique, this was the first time its skill had increased by even a single point. It just went to show how difficult this Secret Technique was to cultivate.

What surprised him even more was that he had managed to use the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique. It was a skill he shouldn’t have been able to perform until he reached the Flesh Refining Realm.

’Hammer to Fist...’

Xu Yunfan gazed at the pale light of dawn spreading in the east. The Skill Level notification was a pleasant surprise, but his brow remained tightly furrowed. ’Just what was that woman?’

He hadn’t had a single dream since he began cultivating the Linn Character Technique. Yet now, he hadn’t just dreamt—he had been violently dragged into one.

’If I’d had my Thunderfire Qilin Hammer in the dream, maybe I wouldn’t have been killed so cleanly in just a few moves.’

Seeing it was getting late, he tightened the Extreme Dao Relic Shell he wore like a vest, threw on his clothes, and washed his face. Then, Xu Yunfan slung the Profound Steel Mechanism Box and the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer onto his back and left at once, making his way to a mountaintop outside Celestial Craft City where he sat cross-legged.

As the first golden thread of sunlight pierced the clouds, the pores all over Xu Yunfan’s body abruptly opened.

The Pure Yang Inner Breath, dormant deep within his flesh, began to flow like molten lava into a frozen river. It circulated through his skin, muscles, and membranes, constantly nourishing his physical body.

The Pure Yang Inner Breath seeped into his tissues like molten gold, and Xu Yunfan could clearly feel every muscle fiber greedily absorbing the warmth.

As he inhaled, he drew the East Coming Purple Qi mixed with a few motes of Primordial Spirit Qi into his lungs. It flowed downward, merging into his Pure Yang Inner Breath. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Every muscle fiber vibrated at a high frequency, grinding the infused Dawn Purple Qi into microscopic golden particles.

’You have practiced the Pure Yang Qi Skill diligently, rain or shine. This location has greater Spirituality, allowing you to absorb additional Primordial Spirit Breath. Your Pure Yang Qi Skill Skill Level has increased.’

’...’

’Pure Yang Qi Skill 3/1000 (Minor Achievement)’

"Hmm?!"

Xu Yunfan was startled to discover that his Pure Yang Qi, which had been quite dense only yesterday, was now significantly depleted.

If it weren’t for the Dawn Purple Qi and Primordial Spirit Breath he had just absorbed, he might not have been able to replenish it at all.

After an hour, he concluded his practice. Xu Yunfan slowly rose to his feet, a pensive look in his eyes.

’That woman... what is her objective? And how did she find me?’

According to his master, Zhan Yan, with the partial recovery of the Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirit, the grip of the Dharma Decline Era was loosening. The once-unseen Demon Fiends of old might reawaken.

Two thousand years ago, during the era when the Primordial Spirit was fading but not yet gone, the Cultivation of the Human Race regressed. Demon Fiends hunted humans for Blood Food to advance their own Cultivation. It was an age of pandemonium, with humans serving as the meal and Demon Fiends as the guests of honor.

Old foxes donned robes and called themselves Saint Masters; starving ghosts wore crowns and sat in great halls.

At midnight, demonic drums beat from the city walls, as the children of a thousand homes cried themselves to death.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Xu Yunfan bolted back toward Celestial Craft City to ask his master, Zhan Yan, about possession via dreams.

Back in Celestial Craft City, he descended into the Earth Fire Cave with practiced ease. Just as he kicked open the iron door to the Weapon Casting Hall, he saw Zhan Yan plunging a Crimson Sword Embryo into the waters of the Ruishui River.

Amidst the white steam of the quenching, the master blacksmith Zhan Yan’s body was a mass of gnarled muscle. With every movement, his Blood Qi pulsed like a furnace, seeming even more potent than the Molten Lava Earth Fire in the cavern below.

"Master!"

The Sword Embryo abruptly shattered. Zhan Yan froze, then backhanded the tongs he was holding. They whistled past Xu Yunfan’s ear and slammed into the doorframe.

The sudden attack stopped Xu Yunfan in his tracks. His expression turned slightly awkward.

"You little brat!"

Zhan Yan snatched a sweat-soaked cloth to wipe his face. He rapped his knuckles on a gnomon on the Forging Platform, a device developed by the Mechanical Hall. "Forging begins at 7:45 AM. Quenching is done late in the evening. And you, you little brat, dare to kick my door in at 3:00 AM?"