Longevity by Grinding Skills

Zhang Ziyang’s analysis of the Incense Fire Divine Dao grew ever deeper. He integrated the *Mystic Spirit Divinity Transformation Path*, the Magic practiced by the many Weak Gods inside Xu Yunfan’s Star Spirit Banner, and the vast collection of Immortal Dao Scriptures and Cultivation Techniques they had previously obtained.

In just a few months, Zhang Ziyang had deduced a more efficient path for the transfer of faith and its conversion into Divine Power.

’To this, Xu Yunfan could only admit that calling Zhang Ziyang a genius on par with Ancestral Master Chunyang, the greatest since the Taoist Sect’s founding, was no empty boast.’

After Zhang Ziyang taught it to Xu Yunfan, Xu Yunfan in turn taught the worship ritual to the Priests of Frost Thunder City. This allowed them to purify the Incense Fire Wish Power, thereby increasing the efficiency of the Divine Power by another ten percent.

With his foundation established, Xu Yunfan didn’t stir up any more trouble. Several years passed quietly, and the strands of Immortal Golden Nature within his body increased to seventeen.

The Grotto Heaven Embryo grew increasingly stable, its boundaries becoming distinct. Inside, Purple Gold Thunder Patterns coursed about, and it was brimming with vitality.

On this day, just as Xu Yunfan finished reinforcing the Star Spirit Banner’s Spatial Array, he felt a sudden disturbance from the Thunderous Divine Format within him.

Xu Yunfan raised an eyebrow.

Ever since he’d subjugated Rockman, the God of Frost Winter, the god had avoided him unless summoned, to say nothing of contacting him on his own initiative.

A sweep of his Divine Thought was all it took for Xu Yunfan to understand. The Divine Format wasn’t vibrating because of a summons from an Upper-Rank God.

It was, instead, a pull on the level of Law.

The succession rule for Divine Offices in the Aitira World had been activated.

Countless minute streams of information surged into the core of his Divine Format. This was positional data for all Heavenly and Earthly Treasures in the Northern Plains that embodied the concept of Thunderbolt, the locations of Spiritual Land Nodes, and even the whereabouts of some newly born, weak spirits related to Thunderbolt.

This was one of the perks the world’s Celestial Dao granted to the owner of a Thunderous Divine Format, making it easier for a Divine Spirit to manage their authority and strengthen their Origin.

’So it works like that?’

Although he had heard from Delis and others that there was a succession of Divine Offices, which provided an opportunity for Divine Spirits to advance, he had never expected it to be so straightforward.

’If a Divine Spirit of the same rank wanted to advance, would my own location be revealed?’

Xu Yunfan mused. Since he was currently in the Frosty North Plains and considered a Divine Spirit of the Natural Pantheon, it was unlikely anyone would come looking for him.

’Still, this is a good opportunity.’

’No wonder Tatus was able to amass so many resources.’

Realization dawned on Xu Yunfan, and he quickly began sifting through the information.

His gaze locked onto a place nearly a thousand miles to the north, an area known as Thunder Punishment Valley.

The information revealed that an Innate Thunder Spirit was forming there, something that would be of great benefit to a Divine Format with a Thunder Attribute Origin.

Just as he was preparing to set out, an urgent warning suddenly came from Zhang Ziyang’s Investigation Divine Format imprint.

"Yunfan, a large amount of Faith Power is being forcefully plundered ninety miles east of Frost Thunder City. The target appears to be that recently-awakened Desert Thunder Rhinoceros. The methods are crude and reek of the Icefield Wolf God’s influence."

Xu Yunfan raised an eyebrow.

’Well, what do you know. Just as I was sitting here racking my brain for a breakthrough, someone comes along and delivers one right to my doorstep.’

The Icefield Wolf God was another Lower-Rank God affiliated with the Frost Winter Pantheon, and his territory bordered Xu Yunfan’s Frost Thunder City.

When Tatus was in charge, the two gods clashed constantly.

Now that Tatus’s aura had changed and he’d been quiet for several months, the little wolf couldn’t resist showing its claws.

’Looks like even with this "green card," I can’t avoid neighborly disputes.’

Xu Yunfan took a step out of his Divine Country, his figure merging into a flash of lightning and shooting toward the scene.

The Star Spirit Banner in his sleeve pulsed with an eerie light, and a glint of lightning flashed in the eyes of the newly-refined Tatus Banner Spirit.

On the barren plains, a young Thunder Rhinoceros the size of a small hill, its body wreathed in faint arcs of electricity, was wailing in terror.

Its body was shrouded in a crimson web of light, a web originating from three Barbarian Shamans clad in wolf pelts, their faces smeared with war paint.

They held Bone Staffs, chanting a wild prayer as they forcefully siphoned the faint spiritual light of faith the Thunder Rhinoceros had just gathered, offering it as a sacrifice to the distant Icefield Wolf God.

A bolt of blue-white lightning tore through the clear sky without warning, striking the crimson web of light with pinpoint accuracy.

CRACK!

With a sharp crack, the web of light shattered.

The three Shamans of the Wolf God were sent flying as if they’d been dealt a heavy blow, spitting mouthfuls of blood as the Bone Staffs in their hands shattered inch by inch.

They looked up in horror to see Xu Yunfan’s figure manifesting high above amidst the lightning, Thunder Patterns flashing around his body. His divine might was overwhelming.

"Ta... Lord Tatus!"

The lead Shaman prostrated himself in terror.

"We act on the orders of the Wolf God, Lokan, to claim this newborn Wilderness Spirit..."

"Scram."

Xu Yunfan’s voice was ice-cold, like rolling thunder rumbling across the barren plains. "Dare to set foot in my domain again... and you die."

His words carried the force of law. A Thunder Chain materialized from thin air, lashing the frozen ground before the three men and leaving behind an immeasurably deep scorch mark.

The three Shamans were scared witless, scrambling away as they fled into the distance.

’Might as well go all in on the act. My methods should be similar enough to Tatus’s. Now I just have to wait for that Wolf God to take the bait.’

’After cultivating for so many years, I still don’t have a mount.’

Xu Yunfan landed in front of the trembling Thunder Rhinoceros.

The young beast’s large, innocent eyes were filled with fear. It could instinctively sense the vast Thunderbolt Origin within the being before it.

Xu Yunfan extended his index finger and touched the Thunder Rhinoceros’s forehead, sending a speck of pure Thunder Divine Power into it.

The gentle power instantly soothed its fear and guided the faint Power of the Thunder Spirit within its body.

The Thunder Rhinoceros affectionately rubbed its head against Xu Yunfan’s hand. A thread of extremely pure faith, carrying a feeling of childlike adoration, spontaneously connected to Xu Yunfan’s Thunderous Divine Format, then transferred into the Divine Sky World Refining Cauldron.

’It’s working.’

The Faith Power from this single Thunder Rhinoceros alone was comparable to that of a hundred Barbarian zealots.

Zhang Ziyang’s voice echoed in Xu Yunfan’s mind: "A very pure form of spiritual faith. The quality is extremely high.

If you can guide this herd of Thunder Rhinoceri to prosper and grow, the Faith Power they generate could be equivalent to that of ten thousand ordinary believers."

Xu Yunfan, of course, wouldn’t pass up this opportunity. Even if he didn’t use it himself, Zhang Ziyang, who practiced the Incense Fire Divine Dao, needed it. The larger the foundation of faith, the greater one’s strength.

***

The desolate winter plains were vast and barren, the year-round gale carrying with it fine Ice Crystals.

Xu Yunfan’s figure wove through the ice peaks and frozen tundra.

After the succession rules for Divine Offices in the Aitira World were activated, the entire ice plain unfurled before him like an invisible map, clearly marking all nodes that embodied the concept of Thunderbolt.

He had already been exploring the ice plains for several months.

His Divine Thought swept over the locations marked by the Law.

For instance: a sliver of Ice Soul Thunder Crystal frozen deep within Ten Thousand Years Profound Ice; a Thunderstruck Wood Heart forming inside the remains of an ancient piece of Thunderstruck Wood; and even, at the bottom of a valley plagued by year-round thunderstorms, a newborn Ancient Thunder Spirit crackling with arcs of blue-white lightning...

These were all perfect materials for strengthening his Thunderous Divine Format, refining his Thunderbolt Origin, and nourishing the Grotto Heaven Embryo within him.

Xu Yunfan, of course, did not hold back. Wherever he passed, he collected every single one of these thunderous treasures—marked by the Divine Office succession through the resonance between his Thunderous Divine Format and the Celestial Dao—storing them away in the space within the Star Spirit Banner.

With every treasure he claimed and every insight he gained into these naturally formed essences of thunder, the Imagery deep within his Sea of Consciousness—the one representing the very foundation of his path on the Dao—slowly began to coalesce.