Longevity by Grinding Skills

He looked at the expression on Xu Yunfan’s face, which screamed, ’So that’s it. You’re just a common sneak.’ The killing intent in his eyes was no longer concealed.

Xu Yunfan’s expression made him realize there was no point in keeping up the pretense.

"Good. Very good!"

The trace of immortal grace on True Monarch Qing Yuan’s brow was instantly replaced by an icy, murderous aura. The warmth in his eyes vanished completely, and he couldn’t even be bothered with formalities. "You’re right. This time, consider it a debt I, True Monarch Qing Yuan, owe you."

He looked at Xu Yunfan coolly, his gaze like that of someone dismissing a beggar.

"After I personally ’send’ you into Reincarnation, I will personally guide you back to the path of cultivation in your next life. How does that sound?"

Before the words had even faded, before the last syllable of his question had even died away.

A sudden change erupted!

A flash of sword light suddenly erupted from Xu Yunfan’s Dharma Body.

It came without warning, without a trajectory, a flash of light that seemed to pierce through the boundary of reality from nothingness itself.

It was unadorned, possessing only a pure, ultimate intent to shatter illusions, to approach the truth, to tear away all pretense.

Sword One: Shattering Illusion!

True Monarch Qing Yuan’s expression changed in an instant.

"Pure Yang True Monarch?!"

Xu Yunfan remained silent, simply aiming and unleashing the Illusion-Breaking Sword Intent.

The Sword Intent didn’t target True Monarch Qing Yuan’s Immortal Palace Pure Qi barrier, nor did it strike at the vitals of his physical body.

This strand of Golden Core Sword Intent, personally refined by Ancestral Master Chunyang, Lv Chunyang, was triggered by Xu Yunfan’s long-prepared mental command, its target unerringly precise.

It shot directly toward the final thread of Divine Sense connecting him to Xu Yunfan, which True Monarch Qing Yuan was attempting to silently obliterate with the Power of his Divine Soul.

Before True Monarch Qing Yuan’s words "send you into Reincarnation" had faded, his invisible killing technique—a "death by a single glance"—was brutally severed by Ancestral Master Chunyang’s Sword One: Shattering Illusion.

"Pure Yang!!!"

A roar of utter disbelief, the first time he had ever lost his composure, erupted from True Monarch Qing Yuan.

The color instantly drained from his archaic face, which was now a mask of shock and violent rage.

He had never imagined that Lv Chunyang would value this insignificant Foundation Establishment Cultivator so highly, not only granting him a Life-Protecting Sword Intent, but also empowering him with such a formidable right to counter-attack.

And this first sword had, with unerring precision, shattered his vaunted Spirit Annihilation Technique—his art of killing invisibly—and had even torn the surrounding Immortal Palace Pure Qi to shreds.

In a flash, at the very instant Sword One’s Illusion-Breaking Sword Intent was about to slice into the core of his consciousness, True Monarch Qing Yuan could spare no other thought.

He slammed his hands together in front of him and pulled.

BOOM!

The endless Immortal Palace Pure Qi flared with blinding light.

The entire sky above the East Sea seemed to be instantly pulled into another dimension.

Endless Qian and Kun Pure Qi condensed into layered jade towers and celestial pavilions, with vermilion courts and jade steps. It was as massive as a city wall forged from ancient Profound Iron—immense, magnificent, and sacred.

This was his Golden Core Dao Realm’s Grotto Heaven Manifestation, the Pure Source Immortal Palace.

In that instant, the pure, flawless sword light of Shattering Illusion, capable of piercing any Illusionary Barrier, slammed head-on into this world forged from Immortal Palace Pure Qi.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a sharp, soul-piercing sound of annihilation.

SHREEEE!

The moment the Illusion-Breaking Sword Intent came into contact with the Immortal Palace Pure Qi, a large number of seemingly unbreakable phantom pavilions, talismanic seeds, and Law Chains disintegrated silently like snowflakes on a red-hot blade.

The unique property of the Illusion-Breaking Sword Intent was on full display. It specialized in destroying all illusory barriers. No matter how magnificent the barrier was, it was still fundamentally an evolution of Pure Qi, its core a combination of energy and Law.

Xu Yunfan saw it clearly: the power of the Illusion-Breaking Sword Intent was being worn away as it broke through True Monarch Qing Yuan’s Grotto Heaven, the Pure Source Immortal Palace.

Though weakened layer by layer, the sword light’s momentum was not yet exhausted.

The piercing will bored a cone-shaped tunnel straight through the ocean of barrier formed by the Immortal Palace Pure Qi.

The Immortal Palace Pure Qi churned violently, its light flickering, letting out a wail of being overwhelmed that shook the entire East Sea.

Finally, the sword light exhausted its last trace of power and dissipated about a foot away from True Monarch Qing Yuan’s brow.

The Sword Qi dissipated.

The sky-filling Immortal Palace Pure Qi rapidly contracted, once again shrouding True Monarch Qing Yuan’s body.

His face was black as thunder. He glared at Xu Yunfan, his eyes filled with killing intent. That lofty, transcendent immortal air had vanished without a trace.

What infuriated him even more was...

CRACK!

HISS!

The protective barrier of Pure Qi around him—normally strong enough to withstand a full-powered attack from a peer at the Golden Core realm—was now silently collapsing. It flickered like a candle in the wind before finally dissolving into motes of pure light and disappearing.

Although he had ultimately blocked Sword One: Shattering Illusion by mobilizing the Immortal Palace Pure Qi manifested from his Dao Fruit, the attack had completely shattered his permanent Body Protection barrier of Pure Qi. When he tried to restore it, he discovered a lingering strand of Sword Intent clinging to him like a maggot to bone, constantly hindering the Recovery.

The scene fell into a deathly silence.

Xu Yunfan gripped the Star Spirit Banner, Ye Xuan still restrained beside him. His chest heaved violently. To withstand a direct attack from a True Monarch—even just by passively defending—was no small feat. The spiritual tremor caused by the immense gap in their cultivation realms nearly made him cough up blood.

But thankfully, Ancestral Master Chunyang’s power had been more than sufficient.

The outcome of unleashing that Sword Intent had exceeded his wildest expectations.

’So this is the power of a Golden Core Sword Cultivator.’

He had now used one of his three life-saving Sword Intents.

But Xu Yunfan did not regret it.

True Monarch Qing Yuan hovered in mid-air, the Pure Qi of his Body Protection completely gone. The hem of his magnificent robes had been torn in several places by the residual Sword Qi.

The shocked fury in his eyes burned like a tangible flame as he locked his gaze on Xu Yunfan. His killing intent was so cold it could have formed icicles.

But he did not attack again immediately.

The power of Sword One, and the imprint of Lv Chunyang’s signature aura, made him incredibly wary.

A thousand years ago, whenever Pure Yang True Monarch fought another True Monarch of the same level, he always used three Sword Techniques: Sword One: Shattering Illusion; Sword Two: Tribulation Destruction; and Sword Three: No Return.

Those three Sword Techniques had grievously wounded countless True Monarchs.

He could sense two more, equally dangerous auras lying in wait within Xu Yunfan’s sleeve, ready to be unleashed at any moment.

Sword Two: Tribulation Destruction?

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Or Sword Three: No Return?

Even he would be in a sorry state if he had to take two more of those Sword Intents head-on.

As an Early-Stage Golden Core, if he took them head-on, it was very likely his Grotto Heaven would be damaged.

More importantly, although the aura in this area of the East Sea was chaotic, the commotion caused by him mobilizing the vast Immortal Palace Pure Qi to block Sword One was far greater than before.

’Have True Monarch Pu Du, or even people from the Wansheng Sword Sect, noticed? Will they follow the trail here?’

Forcibly suppressing his seething killing intent, True Monarch Qing Yuan stared at Xu Yunfan, his gaze bone-chillingly cold, as if to carve Xu Yunfan’s face into the depths of his soul. "Xu Yunfan... you’re good! Very good!"

Each word was squeezed through clenched teeth, filled with bone-deep hatred. "I will remember what happened here today!"

Before the words faded, he gave Xu Yunfan one last, profound look. His expression was complex and difficult to decipher, a mixture of hatred, anger, fear, and a faint, almost imperceptible gravity.

Then, his figure faded and dissolved like ink in water, vanishing without a sound or the slightest spatial ripple.

It was as if he had never been there, leaving behind only the roiling, fractured void above the East Sea, the dense, lingering remnants of Golden Core aura, and the cold Dao Rhyme of the shattered Immortal Palace Pure Qi.

As the heavy pressure suddenly lifted, Xu Yunfan’s body swayed, and he nearly fell from mid-air.

He forcibly swallowed the metallic sweetness in his throat, panting heavily, his back soaked with cold sweat.

But just as he let out a breath of relief, a palm as fair as white jade appeared abruptly behind his head, its five fingers spread wide as it pressed down on him.