Longevity by Grinding Skills

Xu Yunfan’s gaze couldn’t help but drift downward. The moonlight outlined the woman’s flawless curves, and he raised an eyebrow. ’Smooth and round. A perfect shape.’

Before he could get a better look, the woman slowly turned around and fixed her cold gaze upon him.

"Xu Yunfan?"

Xu Yunfan raised an eyebrow. "Celestial Pivot Start Sect?"

’A bad feeling crept over him. First, there was Li Miaoyun, and now another one. This time, there’s no Li Haomiao to shield me.’ He knew exactly why she had stopped him.

Wan Miaoyin... she was, at the very least, a master on par with the Flesh Refining Realm.

He wouldn’t have been a match for any of the five people from the Thousand Buddha Temple earlier, much less this woman now.

’In the modern world, murder requires evidence and a trial.’

’In ancient times, if someone wants you dead, you die.’

"You know of me?"

Wan Miaoyin was a little surprised. She hadn’t expected to be identified as a member of the Celestial Pivot Start Sect the moment she appeared.

"Your outfits are all pretty similar. Easy to recognize. Yours is just a bit... thicker."

As he spoke, Xu Yunfan’s eyes darted to Wan Miaoyin’s chest.

His expression grew serious. "Looks like you’re more ferocious than that Li Miaoyun."

Wan Miaoyin said, "In terms of strength, I am indeed stronger than Li Miaoyun."

Xu Yunfan couldn’t agree more.

Wan Miaoyin’s gaze shifted, sizing up Xu Yunfan, who now held the Jar Gold Hammer.

"If I hadn’t absorbed all the Essence Qi she cultivated in her life, I wouldn’t actually need to kill you to sever the lingering connection."

"So there’s no way to settle this peacefully?"

"You were hard to find. Today, you will die."

"Fine. Let’s fight to the death."

Wan Miaoyin spread her arms slightly, her wide, gossamer sleeves fluttering in the wind.

"Let’s see what tricks you used to kill my senior sister."

With a thunderous roar, Xu Yunfan spun the Jar Gold Hammer. He twisted his body, building momentum with the rotation, and swung the Heavy Hammer in a wide arc. With a sudden burst of power from his grip, the Jar Gold Hammer flew through the air with a sound like muffled thunder—in the opposite direction of Wan Miaoyin.

The Jar Gold Hammer snapped an ancient pine tree ten yards away at its trunk.

Wan Miaoyin’s eyes narrowed.

’Did he miss?’

The next moment, amidst a spray of splinters, Xu Yunfan shot into the dense woods like an arrow loosed from a bow. He vanished from the main road in an instant, disappearing into the mountain forest.

"..."

Before Wan Miaoyin could react, Xu Yunfan suddenly burst from the trees, sprinting toward her. Head down and silent, he closed the distance rapidly.

Wan Miaoyin said coldly, "What trick is this? I thought you..."

Just then, a loud crash echoed from the woods Xu Yunfan had just exited as a large swath of trees snapped. In the moonlight, the deformed body of the gnarled old monk squirmed between the shadows as he emerged from the forest.

His spiral spine cracked like damp wood snapping. The ground churned with a sickening ooze of pus and blood where his three-toed, pillar-like legs stepped. The muscles of his torso writhed and bulged, stretching his monk’s robe into a horrifying silhouette.

The old monk watched Xu Yunfan flee without a moment’s hesitation. He was about to give chase when his gaze suddenly froze, his bulging eyes locking onto Wan Miaoyin.

"What a fine Human Cauldron! Such a fine vessel! So much better than that young man. Untainted, pure... she has even nurtured a wisp of qi to cleanse her body, yet she’s only at the Flesh Refining Realm. This is a gift from the heavens! The Ancestral Master has blessed me!"

The old monk’s expression was one of pure ecstasy as the tumor on his left shoulder suddenly exploded, spraying out a foul-smelling jet of blood.

Wan Miaoyin’s brow furrowed. She spun away, and the jet of blood ate a ten-foot-deep pit into the ground where it landed.

She watched helplessly as Xu Yunfan scooped up his Heavy Hammer and vanished into the woods again.

Shooting the old monk a look of disgust, Wan Miaoyin started to give chase, but the monk’s malformed right claw had already shattered her Protective Qi Wall and seized her by the left shoulder.

’How is that possible?’

’My Essence Qi was ineffective?!’

Wan Miaoyin was reeling from the shock, but a wave of agony instantly shattered her train of thought.

With the sizzling sound of melting flesh, a flicker of pain crossed Wan Miaoyin’s cold, beautiful face for the first time. The claw, it turned out, was lined with fine, dense bone-like teeth between its digits, which had latched onto her shoulder.

Wan Miaoyin’s right leg lashed out like a whip, the crack of displaced air shaking dead leaves from the trees.

The snake-like coils of muscle on the old monk’s torso suddenly swelled, bulging out to absorb the force of the spinning kick—a blow that could shatter stone. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The shockwave of the impact flipped the boulder beneath Wan Miaoyin, and her shin bent at an unnatural angle.

Laughing maniacally, the old monk hurled Wan Miaoyin toward the cliff face. But she twisted in mid-air, changing her trajectory as a cold glint shot from her sleeve, aimed straight for the monster’s eye.

However, the Gilded Mace, held by the fleshy pillar of the monk’s left arm, suddenly whistled through the air and shattered the cold light.

The tumor on the old monk’s left shoulder had already regenerated. Now gripping the Divine Weapon, he let out an inhuman roar. "With a Buddha Bone for a mace and True Blood as my guide, today this old monk will finally attain—"

His words cut off abruptly.

Wan Miaoyin’s blood-stained fingers had plunged through a fleshy opening in the back of the old monk’s neck, her fingertips hooked around a section of his spiraled, deformed spine.

Panting, she wrenched out a segment of Golden Bone. With a pulse of Qi Force from her hand, she crushed it to dust.

Half of the monstrous monk’s body collapsed, yet he roared not in pain, but with ecstatic glee. The Gilded Mace, clutched in his mangled hand, tore through the air, trailing tendrils of Qi Force as it swung toward Wan Miaoyin’s waist.

Fighting through the intense pain, Wan Miaoyin pushed off with her good leg to retreat. A large chunk of flesh was ripped from her shoulder where the monk still had his grip.

Her face was pale, her gaze frigid. She formed a Dharma Seal, and as visible qi flowed between her fingers, a cloudy white bead floated out from her sash.

It seemed to float weightlessly, but it struck the Gilded Mace with the force of a mountain.

CLANG!

The clang of metal on metal echoed to the heavens. The massive impact sent a visible shockwave blasting out in all directions.

The entire main road was gouged and torn as if plowed.

The old monk’s face twisted in a ferocious, disbelieving snarl.

"The Celestial Pivot Start Sect’s Divine Weapon? The Mountain-Stabilizing Bead?"

The arm clutching the Gilded Mace fractured and then exploded completely. The Gilded Mace was sent flying, embedding itself in the ground with a low hum.

The Mountain-Stabilizing Bead was sent flying from the impact, disappearing somewhere into the mountain forest.

The old monk collapsed to the ground like a pile of sludge, completely immobile.

Wan Miaoyin, too, had exhausted her Essence Qi and could barely hold herself up.

This was not how she had expected things to go. She had come to eliminate a minor nuisance, only for a monster on par with the Blood Exchange Realm to appear out of nowhere.

That they were both crippled was the best outcome she could have hoped for.

Seeing Wan Miaoyin’s condition, the sludge-like old monk began to laugh maniacally. His muscles writhed, dragging his body across the ground toward her.

"Haha, hahaha... Good, this is perfect, just perfect! It seems this humble monk’s great opportunity has arrived!"

A scornful look appeared on Wan Miaoyin’s face. She said faintly, "The Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirit has yet to return, and the Heaven and Earth Secret Power remains hidden. In this age, all Abnormal Power comes from Divine Weapons. If you try to seize a body for rebirth now, you’ll only become more and more grotesque until you devolve into a mindless Demon Fiend... You haven’t even reached the realm of a Nine Realms Qi Cultivation Supreme Grandmaster, yet you dare attempt such a thing. It’s truly laughable."

"Shut up!"

The old monk let out an icy roar, his face, now like a flattened meat patty, contorted with madness.

"Insolent brat! How dare you spout nonsense about the great secrets of heaven and earth! As if you could possibly comprehend the whole truth!"