The seven Bone-piercing Needles struck with a soft tinkling, like flowing water, not the harsh clang of striking Refined Steel. They left not a single mark on his body.

"What an incredible body! A true example of Dragon and Tiger Harmony!"

The beautiful woman laughed charmingly as she lifted her conical hat, revealing a Cinnabar mark on her forehead. "My Seven Extremes Sealing Vein Needles can pierce even a master of the Golden Bell Shield. I never thought..."

Before she could finish, Xu Yunfan’s muscles began to ripple like waves. The Blood Qi surging from within him erupted like a blazing furnace, instantly banishing the chill from the ruined temple and silencing the woman.

The smile remained on her face, but her expression grew visibly grave.

The instant the seven Bone-piercing Needles clattered to the floor, the old man’s Heavy Sword cleaved the temple door in two.

The five-foot, seven-inch Profound Iron Blade tore through the damp air. The eighteen blood grooves along its spine let out a ghostly wail.

Xu Yunfan took half a step back with his right foot. The fascia in his arch tightened like a drawn bowstring, and the brick floor beneath him instantly spiderwebbed with cracks three feet across.

"Hah!"

The trajectory of the descending Heavy Sword suddenly warped. With a flip of his wrist, the old man unleashed a Triple Wave force.

The first wave of force shook the temple’s pillars, showering down dust. The second, a Hidden Force, struck straight for his Danzhong Acupoint. The third wave was the blade itself, which deviated three inches to slice at the young man’s right neck.

This was the "Reversed Water Triple" of the Northern River-Severing Sword Sect, a Dharma Gate designed specifically to break through the defenses of Horizontal Training masters. Combined with his Profound Iron Greatsword, it was a match made in heaven.

’Interesting...’

Xu Yunfan’s gaze was profound, his movements utterly without hesitation. A sound of grinding metal suddenly emanated from his back and shoulder blades. The lats, powered by his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body, shifted like tectonic plates, forcefully trapping the blade between the seams of his muscles.

The Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength surged up his spine, vertebra by vertebra. The muscle fibers in his right arm twisted into nine strands of Spiral Force. As he swung the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer upward, the shockwave from the hammer’s head shredded every cobweb hanging from the rafters.

CLANG!

Sparks from the impact of hammer on sword illuminated the old man’s stunned face.

"Impossible! You’re only at the Refining Flesh stage..."

His ninety-six-pound Profound Iron Sword was knocked upward by the hammer. The immense force pressed the yazi-dragon engraving on the sword guard against the web of his thumb, scraping it and drawing a trail of Blood Beads, causing the old man to wince in pain.

The arch of Xu Yunfan’s left foot suddenly released. His heel crushed the packed earth as he used the rebound force to spin and swing his hammer.

He executed the third form of the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique, "Overlapping Waves Shattering Mountain." Channeling the rotational power from his waist and hips, the hammer’s shadow became a crescent of light sweeping toward the old man’s ribs.

Just then, the woman’s Red Steel Bone Whip shot out like a venomous snake.

Its Nine-Section Evil Ghost Devouring Iron Ring latched precisely onto the hammer’s handle, while the Bone-Piercing Nail at the whip’s tip stabbed toward his Quchi Acupoint.

This "Jiao-Locking Form" was a signature technique of the East River Dragon-Catching Dock. Combined with the Yin Soft Silk Binding Strength she had painstakingly mastered, it had once been used to tear apart the body of a Blood Exchange Realm master who specialized in Horizontal Training.

Xu Yunfan’s pupils contracted to pinpricks.

’Two Blood Exchange Realm masters attacking at once... the pressure is immense.’

His mind raced.

Xu Yunfan brought his left hand across his chest and formed the Linn Character Seal, uttering a single, soft word.

"Lin."

The moment the Linn Character State activated, the bonfire in the temple seemed to freeze solid.

The emotion in his eyes vanished. He could see every forging mark on the whip’s iron rings and hear the sound of the old man’s still-falling Blood Beads striking the brick floor.

The mechanics of every form of the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique deconstructed and reassembled in his mind, flowing through him. The movement of his shoulder blades became precise to a hair’s breadth; the flexing of the fascia in his arches resonated with his own heartbeat.

The Thunderfire Qilin Hammer suddenly spun out of his grasp, its handle catching in the gap of the whip’s third iron ring.

The muscles in Xu Yunfan’s arms writhed like a nest of pythons. Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength shot along his Du Meridian and into his knuckles. Using the hammer as an extension of the whip, he swung the woman into the air.

The old man moved to press his attack, only to see Xu Yunfan’s right leg chop out like a Battle Axe. As the tip of his foot aimed for the old man’s Dantian, the sheer force of the kick tore his pant leg to shreds.

The woman fell back through the hole she’d just smashed in the roof. Before she could retract her red whip, she saw the hammer’s head rushing toward her face.

She hastily executed an Iron Bridge maneuver, bending backward, but she didn’t realize the true killing blow of this Falling Star move was the hammer’s handle. As Xu Yunfan twisted his waist and thrust with his shoulder, a hidden qilin tail at the end of the handle shot out like a spear tip, aiming straight for her throat.

PFFT! 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

As a spray of blood blossomed from the woman’s neck, the old man’s Heavy Sword, imbued with the force of a thunderstorm, chopped down at the back of Xu Yunfan’s head.

Xu Yunfan neither dodged nor retreated. Activating his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body, his trapezius muscles bulged three inches, and he caught the blade with his neck.

The grating screech of muscle fiber grinding against the blade sent a shiver down the spine and even threw off a few sparks.

At that moment, his Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength completed nine full Circulations. A cold, metallic sheen, like that of Profound Iron, spread across Xu Yunfan’s skin.

With only one opponent left, the pressure on him eased considerably.

He dropped his hammer. His two fists came together like a giant clapping a mountain, the edges of his palms chopping at the old man’s sword hand.

This move, "Double Flood Dragon Shears," was adapted from a blacksmith’s pincer grip. As the wind from his palms passed, the old man’s cuffs disintegrated into a flurry of cloth butterflies.

The old man retreated seven steps in a flash, thrusting the pommel of his sword toward the young man’s chest.

Xu Yunfan actually advanced into the attack. His pectoral muscles rippled like waves, swallowing the pommel into a vortex of flesh.

The unique force-dispersing property of the Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body made the sword feel as if it were stuck in a mire. The old man couldn’t pull it back in time before Xu Yunfan, having closed the distance, smashed his forehead into the bridge of the old man’s nose.

Before the crack of bone had faded, Xu Yunfan snatched the still-airborne Thunderfire Qilin Hammer.

In his Linn Character State, he controlled the firing sequence of every muscle group with absolute precision. The fascia in his arches initiated the movement, channeling the rebound force from the ground. The rotation of his waist and hips amplified that power by thirty percent. The shifting of his shoulder blades split the Strength into nine Spiral Forces, all of which converged on a single point on the hammer’s head.

Star Falling into the Celestial River.

The hammer fell like a meteor crashing to earth. The instant the old man raised his sword to block, he knew he was doomed.

The eighteen blood grooves along the sword’s spine exploded simultaneously, and the caked, dark-brown blood on them was pulverized into a fine mist.

As the Heavy Sword bent into a grotesque arc, the hammer’s momentum carried through, striking the old man squarely on the Danzhong Acupoint in his chest.

The black robe on the old man’s back exploded outward. Nine fist-shaped indentations appeared along his spine. This was the unique penetrating effect of the Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength combined with the Thousand-Pound Mountain-Shaking Hammer Technique.

Struggling, the woman flung out three Poison Nails, only to see Xu Yunfan throw his hammer with a backhand motion.

The spinning Thunderfire Qilin Hammer shattered the three nails, and the end of its handle precisely struck her Qi Sea Acupoint.

As she staggered to her knees, the young man rolled in like a war chariot. His right knee drove toward her chest with a sonic boom, the shockwave shattering the remnants of her Red Steel Bone Whip into a shower of iron filings.

A rain of blood suddenly began to fall outside the temple. Two muffled thuds sounded in quick succession as clouds of blood mist erupted from within the ruined temple, splattering across the ground.

Xu Yunfan brought his momentum to a halt, his foot shattering the last intact floor tile in the ruined temple. He looked down and saw seventeen bloody teeth stuck to the head of his hammer. The last blow had apparently knocked every tooth from the old man’s head and embedded them in the weapon’s face.

He bent down, tore a piece from the old man’s collar to wipe his hammer clean, then suddenly frowned and looked to the southeast.

His Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength sensed an abnormal vibration in the Earth Veins. Fifteen miles away, in the direction of Divine Weapon Ridge, at least three companies of Heavy Armor cavalry were forming up.

Quickly exiting the Linn Character State, Xu Yunfan let out a long breath.

In the Linn Character State, every ounce of his power was perfectly utilized, pushed to the absolute limits his body could bear. His latent potential was constantly and explosively wrung out in order to unleash a terrifying power that far surpassed his normal capabilities.

Only by doing so was he able, in the blink of an eye, to beat these two Blood Exchange Realm masters to death.

’Still, I’m a long way from being a match for Tuoba Li...’