When he saw Xu Yunfan grab the handle of the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer in a reverse grip, the Lamp Master’s pupils constricted slightly. Although he was in the Flesh Refining Realm, every time he saw Xu Yunfan raise that hammer, a bone-chilling sensation shot from his heart and instantly washed over his entire body.

He knew that if that Heavy Hammer came swinging at him, he would never be able to block it. He would likely be a dead man under the hammer in less than three exchanges. The man’s strength was ferocious, far beyond anything he could have imagined.

He never doubted his subconscious; this sense of danger had already saved him more than a dozen times. The things inside the earth were fraught with peril. Without this gift, he would have died in the jaws of a Tomb Beast twenty years ago.

In the past, whenever he encountered a genius of this caliber, he would turn and leave without a second thought, wanting nothing to do with them.

But now, he had no choice. The Ginseng Doll in Xu Yunfan’s hand was a priceless treasure, no matter where it appeared.

"I mean you no harm, Young Hero Xu! I am Qu Bo, a Lamp Master and one of the leaders of the Xieling Dao of Bei Mang Mountain. I’ve come only to cooperate! You surely don’t know the origin of this Ginseng Doll, do you? Only we people of Bei Mang Mountain know how to use it for maximum effect!"

Seeing that Xu Yunfan still hadn’t stopped, Qu Bo spoke hurriedly, "The Thousand-Mile Dust Incense takes at least three years to dissipate! The disciples of Bei Mang Mountain roam everywhere. The scent on you is of the highest grade. If other disciples smell it, they’ll know you’re carrying an earth-shattering treasure! We can cooperate!

"With this thing, we can help you break into the Qi Cultivation Realm in an extremely short amount of time! Like those from the Celestial Pivot Start Sect, you’ll be able to circulate True Qi with a body that has only achieved the Outer Three Harmonies, making your strength immeasurable by normal standards! What’s more, we can grant you Longevity!"

Xu Yunfan, who had already paused, heard that last word and, without the slightest hesitation, stomped his foot and erupted into motion.

Veins bulged on his right arm as he suddenly exerted his strength. Xu Yunfan’s spine arched like a great Flood Dragon emerging from the water, his knotted muscle fibers shimmering with a bronze luster in the rising sun.

As the nearly four-hundred-pound Thunderfire Qilin Hammer tore through the air, it created a triple sonic boom that exploded next to Qu Bo’s ears.

The first boom was the piercing shriek of the hammer’s head tearing through the morning dew. The second was the muffled thunder of its handle shredding the air. The third was the choked whimper that escaped Qu Bo’s throat just before his sternum shattered.

"Wait... Hold on!"

As Qu Bo’s knees slammed into the rich soil, the longsword at his waist had barely cleared its scabbard by three inches.

He stared down at his caved-in chestplate as bloody foam bubbled from his lungs and seeped through his teeth. Only then did he realize with a shock that the "Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength" strike had been an upward swing.

If not for the Turtle Pattern Lock Armor passed down through the generations of the Xieling Sect protecting his vitals, his heart would have been shattered.

"Longevity is real... The Ginseng King is the main ingredient... a Longevity Pill needs three-hundred-year-old Snow Toad Cream..."

He roared, coughing up bloody foam, unable to understand why the man had attacked so mercilessly after hearing the word "Longevity." What horrified him even more was that he couldn’t even withstand a single one of his opponent’s moves.

He saw Xu Yunfan’s shoulder blades ripple like two mountain ranges, the dragged Heavy Hammer plowing a half-foot-deep furrow in the ground.

White mist steamed from the warrior’s bare torso. Every muscle gleamed with a cyan-gold sheen under the blazing sun. A crimson marking along the center of his spine twisted with each breath, truly resembling a dormant blood Flood Dragon. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Qu Bo’s pupils shrank abruptly.

He had seen such an Anomaly twenty years ago in an ancient tomb in Lingnan. That ferocious man who wielded a heavy hammer also had a Red Flood Dragon mark on his back.

The records of the Xieling Sect were clear: this was the sign that the "Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength" from Divine Weapon Ridge had been refined into one’s very flesh and blood.

"A spine like a Flood Dragon coiled around a peak; power that pierces nine layers, enough to shake a mountain."

BANG!

As the second hammer strike, wrapped in a foul wind, smashed toward him, Qu Bo finally saw its path clearly.

The Heavy Hammer didn’t come straight down the middle. Instead, it followed the twist of Xu Yunfan’s waist and hips, carving a bizarre arc through the air.

Before the hammer head even arrived, the force of the wind was already making his eyes bulge. Thin lines of blood seeped from his seven orifices, looking as eerie as Cinnabar in the sunlight.

The moment his drawn longsword barely managed to parry the hammer’s handle, Qu Bo heard the bones in his arm groan under the unbearable strain.

His prized "Nine Bends Force" vanished like a clay ox sinking into the sea. His opponent’s Hammer Force was like the surging waves of a great river, each one more ferocious than the last.

When the Triple Hidden Force exploded from the hammer’s handle, the armor on his entire right arm shattered inch by inch, and jagged white shards of bone pierced through his elbow joint.

"You don’t understand Alchemy! You’ll just waste this Ginseng Doll! Spare me, spare me, and I’ll tell you everything, I won’t hold anything back!"

Qu Bo staggered back and slapped his waist with his left palm. Three Bone-Piercing Nails shot through the air, only to send sparks flying as they struck Xu Yunfan’s chest.

The pectoral muscles of the young man from the Celestial Craft Cave bulged like iron. Beneath his skin, a web of cyan-jade meridians was visible, and they had shattered the poisoned Hidden Weapons into dust on impact.

"Golden Skin and Jade Veins, bones humming like cicadas! Third Level Perfection of skin, sinew, AND bone?!!"

Qu Bo finally understood the source of this young man’s arrogance, a man who couldn’t be much older than twenty. His blood-filled mouth gaped open as he started to laugh.

"I’ve had a sharp eye my whole life, but to think I’d misjudge someone so badly here!"

Xu Yunfan finally spoke, his voice like a heavy hammer pounding the earth.

"Noisy."

As he began the third swing, the ancient cypress trees within a hundred-foot radius stirred without a whisper of wind.

Qu Bo saw the earth and stone beneath the young warrior’s feet shatter. The soles of his feet sank more than three inches into the ground, and the muscles on his calves bulged like the gnarled roots of an old tree.

As the Heavy Hammer swung in a full circle from his right rear, Xu Yunfan’s entire spine emitted a creak like a taut bowstring, and his back muscles unfurled like the sweeping tail of a giant Flood Dragon.

The hammer fell like a meteor.

Qu Bo roared and threw his last-resort life-saving item, a five-venom smoke bomb. But the instant the black mist billowed out, he heard the crisp snap of his own bones and sinews breaking.

The last thing he ever saw was the Thunder Pattern hammer head bursting through the toxic fog. The engraved words "Thunderfire Qilin" on its face, now stained with brain matter, emerged from the other side of his head.

The Heavy Hammer’s momentum didn’t cease, slamming Qu Bo’s headless corpse into a seven-foot-deep pit.

As Xu Yunfan relaxed his stance, the Red Flood Dragon mark on his back had already spread to his waist. The steaming Blood Qi coalesced in the night air, forming the faint shape of a Flood Dragon.

He bent down, picked up the Ginseng Doll that had rolled into the grass, and spoke indifferently to the watchers in the distant treetops. "This Thousand-Mile Dust Incense from Bei Mang Mountain certainly saved me the trouble of hunting you all down."

’Every last one of these Bei Mang Mountain cronies here has to die before I can rest easy.’

’Bringing up Longevity... what a joke.’

’The Bei Mang Mountain sect has been passed down since the era before Primordial Spirits vanished. Gods know how many tombs they’ve dug up over the years.’

’The Ancestral Masters of the Celestial Craft Cave have always known that these Tufu Zi from Bei Mang Mountain were searching for that ethereal Longevity.’

’But who in the world ever found Longevity in a tomb? An idea like that is no different from the Incense and Candle Sect’s Elixir of Immortality.’

The whisper of clothing cutting through the night air sounded as seven shadowy figures lunged from different directions.

Xu Yunfan slammed his Heavy Hammer into the ground with a reverse grip and planted his feet slightly apart, his stance as immovable as a mountain. When the first attacking Chain Spear was three inches from his throat, his back muscles suddenly contracted like a drawn bow. The great dragon of his spine cracked, vertebra by vertebra, and the Red Flood Dragon mark began to writhe beneath his skin.

"Excellent!"

As he raised the Heavy Hammer once more, all the fallen leaves within a ten-pace radius disintegrated into dust.