Longevity by Grinding Skills

His Grotto Heaven was damaged.

That single stream of Sword Intent had pierced a fissure through his Grotto Heaven.

Cracks visibly spread across his Dharma Body.

Sword Three: No Return. A single strike had nearly destroyed his Grotto Heaven Foundation.

If he hadn’t reacted quickly enough, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Xu Yunfan was in no better shape.

Forcibly activating Sword Three to counter the backlash from a Golden Core True Monarch’s Grotto Heaven had pushed the Star Spirit Banner to its limit. The banner, which had been protecting him, let out a mournful cry as if about to shatter, its spiritual light rapidly dimming.

He couldn’t block it. It was completely unstoppable.

The mere aftershocks of the spreading Golden Core Magical Power felt like the sky itself was falling.

His Divine Sky Magical Power was completely depleted. A piercing pain, like needles, stabbed at his Purple Mansion Sea of Consciousness, and he could barely remain standing.

All three streams of his Golden Core Sword Intent were gone.

The Star Spirit Banner’s power was also greatly diminished from being overloaded.

Now, facing a True Monarch Qing Yuan who had caught his breath—even if the man was gravely injured and on the verge of his cultivation dropping a level—there was no way for an exhausted Xu Yunfan to resist in the slightest.

A destructive rage burned in True Monarch Qing Yuan’s eyes. He was about to recklessly gather his remaining Immortal Palace Pure Qi to deliver the final, killing blow to Xu Yunfan.

However, the three consecutive sword strikes had, in the end, bought Xu Yunfan a moment to breathe. His opponent had momentarily lost his strength.

But Xu Yunfan had no illusions about killing a Golden Core True Monarch.

Unless the Grotto Heaven was shattered, the True Monarch’s real body could not die.

What was a Golden Core? It was the fusion of the Grotto Heaven into a Dao Fruit, which was then refined into a Golden Core and consumed.

A true case of "my fate is my own, not for the heavens to decide."

Xu Yunfan took a deep breath. He understood perfectly well that True Monarch Qing Yuan was willing to suffer a massive setback in his Daoist Cultivation just to kill him.

Right now, the only thing that could contend with, or at least delay and deter, True Monarch Qing Yuan was the Dao Fruit within him—the final manifestation of the Taiyin Profound Mirror Dao Fruit, which he had refined into a Taiyin Crystal Bead.

Refining this bead would allow him to briefly assume a Fake Gold Position, borrowing a sliver of a true Golden Core True Monarch’s might.

But activating it required an unimaginable amount of Magical Power and would immediately expose the Dao Fruit’s aura.

Once used, the temporary, false Golden Core status would certainly unleash heaven-shaking power, but the consequences would be unpredictable.

It was not something a Foundation Establishment Cultivator like him, who had yet to condense his Immortal Golden Nature, could easily withstand. The backlash alone could severely damage his Dao Foundation, and it would completely expose the fact that he possessed the Taiyin Dao Fruit.

Not only would the gravely injured True Monarch Qing Yuan go berserk, but it would also attract the attention of other True Monarchs who sensed the Golden Core Level power fluctuations—especially True Monarch Pu Du of the Primordial Sect, who had been searching for the Taiyin Dao Fruit that vanished from the Celestial Realm.

When Golden Core Level powers clashed, no matter how exquisite the Cause and Effect Secret Technique used for Concealment, the core Dao Rhyme could not be hidden.

But if he didn’t use it, he would die immediately.

’What should I do?’

’I’ll die if I use it, but I’ll also die if I don’t.’

’Should I really use the Divine Soul Exchange and possess my Clone Han Stone?’

’Or should I first assume a Fake Gold Position, hit True Monarch Qing Yuan with a self-detonation, and then perform the Divine Soul Exchange?’

Just as the light in Xu Yunfan’s eyes flickered, hesitating on whether to activate this costly trump card, he suddenly glimpsed Ye Xuan. She was trapped to the side by the aftershocks of the Star Spirit Banner, her eyes filled with nothing but terror and a blank void.

An idea flashed through his mind like lightning.

’Internal strife within the Primordial Sect, True Monarchs sabotaging and undercutting one another... I know this all too well.’

’That True Monarch Pu Du was personally responsible for the consumption and destruction of the Celestial Realm.’

’True Monarch Qing Yuan’s discreet appearance now must mean he wants to snatch the prize for himself first.’

He immediately abandoned the desperate idea of activating the Crystal Bead. With a flicker of his body, the Star Spirit Banner’s dark light coiled out and pulled Ye Xuan into his grasp.

He looked down at Ye Xuan’s deathly pale face. Despite his inner urgency, his voice remained calm and composed.

"I know you’re an important figure in the Ye Family of the Wansheng Sword Sect.

True Monarch Qing Yuan is determined to succeed today. That goes for me, and it certainly goes for you. What do you think will happen if you fall into his hands?"

Xu Yunfan paused, looking at the dazed fear that intensified in Ye Xuan’s eyes. "In his hands, you have no hope of survival. You’d be lucky to even enter reincarnation. Do you want to live?"

Ye Xuan trembled.

The terrifying scenes just now—the world-destroying clashes where even a Golden Core True Monarch had almost fallen—had already shattered her Heart and Spirit.

She looked at the Primordial Sect disciple before her. He was bathed in blood and his Magical Power was depleted, yet his gaze was still as sharp as a razor’s edge.

A being who, with only a Late-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivation, had managed to repeatedly wound a Golden Core True Monarch and even nearly destroy his Grotto Heaven.

It was simply inconceivable.

Falling into his hands was certainly dangerous, but at least... this man seemed open to negotiation.

As for True Monarch Qing Yuan—a Primordial Sect True Monarch often called the Primordial Demon Sect for a reason—it was widely known that he would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. He would undoubtedly kill her to silence her.

"Live! I want to live!"

Overwhelming desire for survival conquered her hesitation. She knew what Xu Yunfan wanted to ask.

Ye Xuan’s voice trembled, but she quickly transmitted a specific set of spatial coordinates via Divine Thought.

"Go there! There’s a ’rift’ world-marker at this location! Quickly!"

Hearing her answer, a sharp glint flashed in Xu Yunfan’s eyes. He didn’t hesitate for a second.

He had no time to verify the truth of her words; this was his only straw to clutch at in a desperate situation.

With his other hand, he abruptly pulled something from the depths of his tattered Qian Kun sleeve.

It looked like a small, flat boat.

The boat was neither metal nor wood, shaped like a willow leaf, and its surface was engraved with an intricate and profound Spatial Array for teleportation.

A cunning rabbit has three burrows. As a master of Artifact Refining, he had naturally refined plenty of escape treasures.

This boat was the very escape treasure he had meticulously crafted for the worst-case scenario. He had used the Star Spirit Banner to extract the Origin of the Celestial Realm, spent countless precious materials, and combined it all with his own insights into Spatial Arrays.

A top-tier Magical Treasure capable of crossing a World Heaven.

It could carry him through the barrier of a World Heaven.

Although his Magical Power was almost gone.

But Xu Yunfan used his last shred of mental energy to activate it. The leaf-like boat instantly erupted in a silver-cyan glow of spatial Dao Rhyme, tightly enveloping both him and the captive Ye Xuan.

"Qingyuan!"

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Xu Yunfan shouted sharply, preparing to leave some harsh parting words.

"I will remember the ’gift’ you’ve given me today! I shall personally return the favor in the future!"

Before his voice had even faded, the spatial light twisted violently with a crisp POP.

In the next instant, the silver-cyan light, along with the figures of Xu Yunfan and Ye Xuan, vanished like a bursting bubble. It was as if they had never been there, leaving behind only the churned and shattered void over the East Sea, the dense, lingering remnants of Golden Core aura, and the cold fragments of Dao Rhyme from the sundered Immortal Palace Pure Qi.

True Monarch Qing Yuan watched helplessly as Xu Yunfan vanished from right under his nose with Ye Xuan in tow. The Dao Rhyme of the spatial teleportation was exquisite, but it couldn’t escape the range of his Divine Thought.

"Outside the World Heaven... you have some nerve!!"

True Monarch Qing Yuan was so furious he began to laugh, his expression so grim it looked like water could drip from it.

Beyond the World Heaven was not an infinite void, but the far more terrifying Boundary Sea.

It contained an endless Chaos Birth and Death Profound Light, one of the most dangerous substances in the heavens and earth, capable of eroding and dissolving even space itself.

For an ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator, even one at Foundation Establishment Perfection, entering without the protection of a special treasure or the guidance of a True Monarch was suicide.

To think that the protection of a mere Spatial Array could conceal his trail was a complete joke.

He only needed to follow the faint teleportation trail and the aura emanating from that broken-down boat to lock onto their position at the edge of the Boundary Sea.