Longevity by Grinding Skills

The two left arms of his Dharma Aspect moved like phantoms. Their fingers spread wide, sketching through the void to instantly lay down a simple Small Five Elements Spirit Binding Array that enveloped the battlefield. While it was a far cry from the Grand Array on Divine Sky Peak, it was enough to briefly interfere with the supply of Incense Fire Wish Power from Tatus’s Divine Country.

This was the fruit of his recent research into countering Incense Fire Wish Power.

Now that he had deployed it, the effect was quite good.

Meanwhile, his two right arms formed the hand seals for the Divine Sky Thunder-Attracting Technique, forcibly tearing a rift in the thick thunderclouds Tatus had gathered high above.

"Nine Heavens, answer the Origin! Divine Sky, heed my command!"

The Dharma Aspect’s magnificent voice boomed like thunder.

A bolt of Purple Gold Divine Thunder—far more condensed and pure than Tatus’s own lightning, carrying with it a majestic, heavenly might and the True Intent of Destruction—shot down from the rift in the clouds. Its target was not Tatus’s true body, but the head of the giant thunder spirit’s phantom behind him.

This was the Manifestation of his Divine Format, so naturally, it bore the brunt of the attack.

Tatus was so furious his eyes looked ready to split. ’Is this motherfucker playing fair?!’

’I’m the damn Thunder God!’

Even if he wasn’t a Divine Spirit with primary dominion over thunder, he could still call down lightning.

But now, the quality of the lightning his opponent was calling down was far superior to his own.

’How can I fight this?’

Thoughts of retreat began to surface in Tatus’s mind.

He roared, commanding the giant spirit to cross its arms and block.

The Purple Gold Divine Thunder exploded. The ferocious Power of Destruction instantly shredded the crossed thunderbolt arms and slammed viciously into the giant spirit’s chest.

The phantom let out a silent wail. A horrifying hole was blasted through its chest, and the lightning that composed it rapidly dispersed, causing its entire form to become illusory and unstable.

Seizing this golden opportunity, a vicious light flared in the eyes of the main head of Xu Yunfan’s Dharma Aspect.

The two golden-armored arms at the front, which had been locked against the Giant Fists, suddenly exerted immense force. Their ten fingers dug into the spirit’s lightning arms like dragon claws.

He channeled the Dou Character Technique and the Arctic Purple Star Suppressing Evil Qi to their limits, his strength instantly multiplying severalfold.

"Tear."

The words accompanied a soft grunt from Xu Yunfan.

RRRIP!

A gruesome tearing sound that set the teeth on edge rang out.

The thirty-foot Golden Body had forcibly torn a mountain-sized lightning arm clean off the giant thunder spirit Tatus had manifested.

The dissipating lightning cascaded down like a waterfall, illuminating Tatus’s stone-carved face, which had gone deathly pale in an instant.

Without pausing for a moment, Xu Yunfan’s Dharma Aspect used the still-struggling and roaring lightning arm as a weapon, swinging it in a wide arc and smashing it down toward Tatus’s true body.

At the same time, he spat out a tiny, nearly invisible mote of purple-gold lightning imbued with immense piercing power. Concealed by the thunderous momentum of the swinging arm, it shot silently toward the lightning-bolt Divine Pattern between Tatus’s eyebrows.

In the space of just a few breaths, Xu Yunfan had skillfully pinpointed the location of his opponent’s Divine Format core.

Tatus roared in alarm and fury, the Thunder Gang around his body surging as he tried to take the blow head-on.

However, the backlash from his shredded giant spirit had already caused a nearly imperceptible lag in the flow of his Divine Power.

More fatally, the silver star of Zhang Ziyang’s Investigation Divine Format—who was hidden at the edge of the battlefield—which had been burning like a candle in the dark, suddenly blazed with maximum intensity.

An intangible wave—one that could perceive the most subtle details and point directly to a flaw—precisely pierced Tatus’s protective Thunder Gang and enveloped the core of his Divine Format.

A single moment of hesitation was the difference between life and death.

"You should consider yourself lucky to be ganged up on by a Late-Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator."

Hearing Xu Yunfan’s words, Tatus seethed with rage.

’I’m getting beaten up, and I’m supposed to call it an honor?’

BOOOM!!!

The lightning arm slammed solidly against Tatus’s crossed arms, the ferocious force driving his mountain-like body into a half-kneeling position on the ground.

The ice shattered, and spiderweb-like cracks spread for hundreds of yards.

And at the very peak of that explosive impact, the hidden mote of purple-gold lightning struck like a viper, piercing the exact center of the Divine Pattern on his brow with unerring precision.

"Aaargh!"

A blood-curdling, distorted scream tore through the cold winds of the Northern Plains.

Like a piece of heavily struck crystal, the lightning-bolt Divine Pattern on Tatus’s brow was instantly webbed with cracks.

At its core, the Divine Format that served as the source of his authority and power trembled violently. Berserk Thunder Divine Power erupted uncontrollably from the cracks, scorching his stone-like face black.

The light in the eyes of Xu Yunfan’s Dharma Aspect was as cold as ice.

The thirty-foot Golden Body stepped forward, making the very earth rumble.

Its six arms, all wreathed in lightning, rose high at once. Fingers splayed like a heavenly net, they closed in to grab the heavily wounded Thunder God, Tatus. The arms descended with a terrifying momentum that seemed to seal space and suppress the Ten Thousand Laws, aimed at a foe whose Divine Power was now running rampant.

The dark, shadowy form of the Star Spirit Banner had already unfurled silently within his sleeve.

The six arms of Xu Yunfan’s Dharma Aspect came together like collapsing Celestial Pillars, closing in with the power of annihilating thunder.

As the fingers splayed open, the Thunder Patterns on the palms and the Arctic Purple Star Suppressing Evil Qi intertwined, forming a purple-gold electrical net that covered a hundred-foot area and locked down Tatus’s broken body as his Divine Power bled away.

Space itself groaned under the strain, and shattered Ice Crystals were crushed to dust by an invisible force field.

"Seize!"

The main head of the Dharma Aspect let out a thunderous shout.

The eerie light of the Star Spirit Banner in his sleeve flared, its surface suddenly unfurling to become a deep, light-devouring vortex.

Tatus couldn’t even manage a scream as the shattered Divine Format between his brows was forcibly stripped away. Arcs of blue-white lightning coiled around the banner’s eerie glow, hissing and leaping like dying vipers.

His enormous stone body rapidly disintegrated into a cloud of rubble, which was then swept up by the Star Spirit Banner’s eerie glow and, along with the last wisp of his furious will, swallowed into the void within the banner.

Xu Yunfan’s thirty-foot Golden Body Dharma Aspect slowly dissipated, revealing his true body standing at the edge of the chasm in the ice. He raised a hand to recall the Star Spirit Banner.

He sent his Divine Thought into the banner. Inside, the remnant soul of the Thunder God struggled wildly against golden chains formed from the Power of Enlightenment. Countless Rune fragments containing the Laws of thunder were forcibly stripped from its remaining Divine Power, then repeatedly ground down by the All Heaven Star Formation within the banner.

Tatus’s defiant roars gradually turned into spiritual wails, which eventually fell silent under the relentless scouring of will. He transformed into a Banner Spirit with a blurry face, his body wreathed in Thunder Patterns, standing silently at one of the star positions.

’Successfully refined the remnant soul of Middle-Rank Divine Spirit Tatus into a Banner Spirit. The Origin of the Star Spirit Banner has been enhanced. All Heaven Star Formation (45/365).’

A notification slid silently across his vision.

Xu Yunfan sighed to himself. ’I’ve fought tooth and nail for so long, and I haven’t even filled half of the Star Monarch positions in the All Heaven Star Formation. And some of the ones I do have are just there to fill the numbers.’

’It really is difficult.’

And this was the foundation Xu Yunfan had built by pillaging two separate realms.

’And yet, I’m still not satisfied.’

’Back in the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm, if I were to go on a rampage and kill over forty Foundation Establishment True Cultivators, a Golden Core True Monarch decked out in full Divine Armor would show up the next moment and just one-shot me with a critical hit.’

"We finally did it."

Zhang Ziyang’s figure emerged from the void. The silver investigation star on his brow was dim, and he looked weary.

He looked at the diamond-shaped Divine Format in Xu Yunfan’s hand, which was still pulsing with arcs of blue and white electricity.

"The Divine Format is nearly half-shattered, and its core imprint has been erased. But the mark of the Frost Winter Pantheon’s Subordinate Contract is still present. This region belongs to Rockman, the God of Frost Winter. He will have sensed this for sure."

Xu Yunfan caressed the Thunderous Divine Format with his fingertips. Beneath its cold surface lay a berserk thunder Origin.

Although one might call it a thunder Origin, it fell far short of the real thing.

After all, this was simply the power of ’thunder’; it only brushed against the domain of true ’Thunderbolt.’