For the first time, a dent appeared in Xu Yunfan’s Profound Steel Body, and a teeth-grinding scrape echoed from his left shoulder blade.

In the next instant, the muscles around the struck area convulsed and trembled as if electrocuted, instantly dispersing the force from the Heavy Mace, spreading it throughout his body and down into the ground.

BOOM!

The stones beneath his feet instantly fractured, and the Heavy Mace was sent flying back by a rebounding force.

Shi Ze felt his arm get thrown high into the air by the force.

"You’ve actually cultivated the Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body to such a degree! Your weak points must have been completely refined away, right?"

In the Flesh Refining Realm, Flesh-Penetrating Force eliminates all weak points in the body.

Xu Yunfan’s expression was frosty. He steadied the Profound Steel Mechanism Box on his lower back, which held the Ginseng Child. He had forged it from Profound Steel and Meteorite Iron; it could withstand even a couple of blows from a Treasure Artifact.

"That actually hurt a little."

But he wasn’t the least bit afraid; his eyes were filled with excitement. Strength coursed through him, and crimson patterns flowed like lava beneath his skin, climbing from his spine to his arms and causing his muscles to ripple and swell.

’Finally, an enemy worth sinking my teeth into.’

The muscles of Xu Yunfan’s shoulders and back flexed with explosive power. Activating his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body, the crimson power of the Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength surged from his spine to his arms, glowing like lava beneath his skin.

The Thunderfire Qilin Hammer tore through the air with a vicious gust. Under the centrifugal force, the crimson markings on the hammer’s head burned a dark red. As the three-hundred-plus-pound Heavy Hammer came crashing down, his right shoulder blade actually shifted three inches sideways to channel the rebound force into his waist and hips.

"A fine strike!"

Shi Ze’s eyes bulged like bronze bells, and veins popped all over his body. He swung his Heavy Mace in an upward diagonal slash, his muscles faintly darkening as Strength surged through them.

The moment their weapons clashed with a spray of sparks and the tang of iron, the tendons in Xu Yunfan’s arch coiled like an Earth Dragon Flipping Over. His heel pulverized the bluestone bricks beneath him, venting the excess force into the earth. The Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength in his left arm twisted around the hammer’s handle as his second strike scraped along the mace, aimed at his opponent’s ribs.

As the Heavy Mace pulled back to defend, the metal let out a mournful screech. The tremendous force made even Shi Ze’s eyeballs tremble, and the web of his hand went numb.

"A Treasure Artifact!?"

Xu Yunfan grinned, saying nothing. He just kept pouring on the power, unleashing the Powerful Qi of his Thunderfire Qilin Hammer.

With a crackle of his bones, Shi Ze sank his waist and twisted his hips, thrusting the pommel of his mace straight at Xu Yunfan’s Danzhong Acupoint.

Xu Yunfan’s pectoral muscles suddenly bunched into a solid block. As he took the killing blow head-on, his steel-like skin rang like a bell. He used the momentum to spin his body and swing his third hammer strike in a wide arc.

Before the hammer’s shadow could fall, the edge of the mace had already cut through its slipstream, aiming straight for Xu Yunfan’s throat.

Their weapons clashed, erupting in seven bursts of sparks.

Xu Yunfan’s lats shifted like tectonic plates, his displaced shoulder blade amplifying the Hammer Force a second time.

Shi Ze’s ankles sank three inches into the stone bricks as his Heavy Mace’s Triple Wave force penetrated the body of the hammer, layer by layer.

The bluestone ground fractured in a spiderweb pattern, and beads of sweat instantly vaporized into white mist at the point of impact.

Both men wielded heavy weapons and fought with overwhelming ferocity. Although the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique had subtleties reminiscent of ’Kanglong Youhui’, when Xu Yunfan channeled power from both his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body and his Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength, it had never been outmatched in sheer destructive force by any other heavy weapon.

By their fifty-fourth clash, both fighters shuddered with every impact.

Another collision sent a deafening clang of metal ringing through the mountains.

"You... you’re really only in the Flesh Refining Realm?!"

Shi Ze was panting heavily. He had reached Minor Achievement in Blood Transformation; his strength had been completely reborn, far surpassing the limits of an ordinary person. His blood flowed like mercury, and his Blood Qi was as vast and heavy as a mountain.

Yet compared to the man before him, Xu Yunfan, he still seemed to be lacking.

"Of course."

Xu Yunfan’s expression remained unchanged. The Pure Yang Inner Breath within him was still continuously converting into Strength, replenishing his stamina. Even his breathing was far deeper and more controlled than Shi Ze’s.

The Heavy Hammer in his hand suddenly moved.

Shi Ze’s Mixed Copper Mace was suddenly knocked from his grasp. To his horror, the Luo Net master discovered that the rebound force had thrown his Blood Qi into disarray, rendering him unable to muster his Blood Exchange Realm strength.

Meanwhile, his opponent’s immense Blood Qi had only grown more intense throughout the fight, blazing like a Melting Furnace.

A hundred-foot-wide crater blasted open in the mountainside.

When Xu Yunfan climbed out of the crater holding a broken half of the Mixed Copper Mace, Shi Ze lay buried in the earth and rock behind him.

’You have successfully slain a formidable foe. Your Skill Level in the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique has increased.’

He glanced at the system notification in his field of vision.

’Four points to my Skill Level. Not bad.’

For the next three days, Xu Yunfan traveled at high speed. He met no opponent who could withstand a single exchange, moving as if no one was there to stop him.

It wasn’t that no one was trying to capture him; three fierce Daqian True Blood generals, each at least equivalent to the Blood Exchange Realm, were in hot pursuit. Unfortunately for them, they were always one step behind.

This continued until he neared Qingzhou’s Divine Weapon Ridge, on a military road carved out from the mountainside, which the Daqian used for their logistics.

A few muffled rumbles of thunder echoed from the thick, hazy clouds, and then raindrops began to fall.

Xu Yunfan’s Profound Steel Battle Boots crunched over a field of broken arrows, the bloody mud caked on his soles leaving dark streaks on the bluestone path.

With a reverse grip, he seized the bronze spring mechanism of the last siege crossbow, jamming the knuckle of his index finger precisely into a seam in the woodwork.

CRACK! The arm of the Three-Stone Force crossbow was bent into a right angle by the sheer strength of his finger.

This was a Daqian supply convoy bound for Yanbei City, which he had slaughtered in passing. He had freed the local conscripted drivers and laborers, but Xu Yunfan had not spared a single Daqian soldier.

The setting sun cast a long, blood-red shadow behind Xu Yunfan.

Three hundred grain carts lay overturned beside the military road. The aroma of fresh wheat mingled with the thick, metallic stench of blood, so pungent that even the night owls dared not land.

When the last Horse-Cutting Saber shattered, he’d deliberately used the flat of his hammer to smash the enemy Vice General into a salt cart. The three-year-cured coarse salt grinding into his wounds was a far more potent agony than death by a thousand cuts.

The old dog had abducted a young girl and was ’toying’ with her on horseback while his men laughed and jeered. It left Xu Yunfan with no desire to show any mercy.

"Animal..."

Watching the Vice General howl in the salt, Xu Yunfan spat on the ground. Despite having witnessed the even crueler methods of the Incense and Candle Sect back in Wuzhou, sights like this were still hard to stomach.

By the flickering torchlight, an old carter huddled beneath an oxcart suddenly heard the sound of shattering chains.

The Armor-Piercing Awl on the end of the Heavy Hammer’s handle pierced the curtain of rain, only to gently pry open the iron collar around the man’s neck.

"Take the grain seed and head south."

Xu Yunfan flung the gore from his hammer’s face and kicked over a half-full sack of clean millet. "If you encounter a sentry post flying a red-tailed flag, tell them Su Zhenhe of the Profound Daoist Sect sent you to find sanctuary."

Some of the Great Zhou’s armies were still desperately defending a few strategic mountain passes.

’A pity... they have no reinforcements. If the Daqian hadn’t concentrated the vast majority of their forces around Yanbei City and the Nine Radiance Sect’s Three States, they would never have allowed me to run rampant like this.’

Twenty paces away, a soldier playing dead had just gotten his hands on a crossbow.

As the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer whistled through the air, three Poisoned Crossbow Arrows were already nocked, glinting coldly on the string.

As Xu Yunfan’s battle boot crushed the man’s throat, the head of his hammer caught the falling components of the crossbow mechanism.

He caught them and took a look. The sight-pin was made of Refined Steel, but the workmanship was shoddy, clearly mass-produced.

’Crude junk.’

Xu Yunfan tossed the parts aside, mentally assessing the state of the Daqian military’s equipment.

By 3:00 AM, the only thing still moving on the military road was the blood pooling and clotting in the wagon ruts.

Twenty-seven severed military banners lay soaking in the gore, the gold-threaded wolves embroidered on their surfaces now stained into red-eyed demons.