"Trinity? What a high-sounding name!"
In that instant, Xu Yunfan felt the space around him suddenly freeze. It was as if an invisible giant hand was squeezing him from all sides, twisting the air into visible ripples.
Yet, his expression remained unchanged, not even a frown on his brow.
Nine Profound Yellow Chains, condensed from the Great Zhou Dragon Vein, burst from the ground like enraged flood dragons coiling around him. But the moment they touched his skin, they melted inch by inch like snow under a scorching sun. As his Ten Extremes True Qi circulated, it completely devoured the essence of these earth veins, turning it into nourishment for himself!
At the same time, the Thousand Mechanism Poison Mist released by Ci Nan enveloped him like a plague clinging to bone. This potent True Qi poison, which would instantly overwhelm an ordinary Martial Artist, seemed utterly laughable before Xu Yunfan.
Far from evading it, he took a deep breath. The poison mist was drawn into his lungs like a great whale drinking from the sea. After circulating once through his body, it was forcefully refined by his Ten Extremes True Qi and slowly exhaled as a wisp of Dirt Qi.
"Is this the extent of your abilities?"
The corner of Xu Yunfan’s mouth lifted, a trace of mockery flashing in his eyes.
Not only did the poison mist fail to harm him in the slightest, but after being tempered by his True Qi, it transformed into a strand of pure energy that nourished him instead!
Xu Yunfan’s laughter was so powerful it made the banners around the arena flutter violently.
Such a scene caused even the three monks—Ci Ku, Ci Nan, and Ci’e—to falter for an almost imperceptible moment.
With a backhand motion, Xu Yunfan stabbed his Red Fire Dragon-Swallowing Mace into the greenstone floor. He pressed his palms to his waist, and two streaks of black light shot out like flood dragons emerging from the sea.
It was the pair of Shaking Mountain Sea-Suppressing Hammers he had obtained from the depths of the Sword Burial Abyss.
The moment the hammer heads appeared, the surrounding air grew heavy. The faint roar of ocean tides and the rumble of shifting earth veins seemed to seep from the patterns on their surfaces.
"These hammers?!"
The observing Jiuyao Sect Elder abruptly crushed the armrest of his chair. He narrowed his eyes, a sharp light glinting within them.
He hadn’t thought much of it before, but now, seeing the pair of Heavy Hammers emit a black glow, he naturally recalled something.
These hammers were the Divine Weapon carried by the Jiuyao Sect’s Sect Leader from two generations ago. They had been taken by the Taoist Sect as spoils of war.
This pair of heavy, black hammers was forged entirely from Profound Nether Cold Iron. Their faces were covered in natural patterns resembling surging waves, and they glowed with a dark, blue light in the morning sun.
Legend had it that each hammer weighed three hundred and sixty jin. When swung, they carried the momentum of a collapsing mountain—truly extraordinary. Even among Tier Seven Divine Weapons, they were considered top-class. If properly nurtured, it was not impossible for them to break through their material limits, develop an inner Divine Spirit, and become a Tier Eight Divine Weapon.
The next instant, Xu Yunfan had just raised the twin hammers.
Ci Ku’s Profound Yin Soul Slaying Saber was already descending, a mere three inches from his face.
This blood-red long saber, a relic from a previous dynasty, now radiated a sinister purple glow. Light itself seemed to distort wherever its edge passed.
"Good!"
Xu Yunfan swung his right hammer upward in an arc, the wave patterns on its face suddenly glowing like deep-sea phosphorescence.
The opening move of the Shaking Mountain Sea-Suppressing Hammer’s corresponding Hammer Technique kicked up visible ripples of air. The instant the hammer and saber collided, every floor tile on the Black Tortoise Martial Arts Arena shattered simultaneously.
The spectators saw only a blinding aurora erupt where the crimson-purple saber-light and the dark-blue hammer-shadow clashed. Those from the five sects with insufficient cultivation immediately began to bleed from their eyes.
Ci Ku’s withered body flew backward like a kite with a snapped string. The Profound Yin Soul Slaying Saber bent into a frightening arc under the hammer’s blow.
The old monk crashed through a Black Tortoise Stone Carving at the edge of the arena, fragments of his kasaya mixed with chunks of internal organs splattering across the face of an official from the Astronomical Bureau.
Only then did the head monk of Mituo Temple realize in horror that his opponent’s hammer strike concealed a seven-layered Vibrating Power. His Vajra Indestructible Body, cultivated over sixty hard years, was as flimsy as a cicada’s wing before such brute force.
Ci’e’s face twitched. He had clearly seen Xu Yunfan absorb the chains formed from Profound Yellow Qi like a whale swallowing water. Seizing the opportunity, he once again slammed the Dragon-Suppressing Seal into the ground.
Seeing this, Ci Nan, at his side, couldn’t help but exclaim urgently, "You’re just feeding him more power?!"
"What choice do I have? When the chains bind him, he’s at least frozen for an instant! This man is a great demon!"
Ci’e responded in a gruff voice, not daring to hesitate for a second as he pushed his Vajra True Qi to its absolute limit.
The Nine Palace Earth Vein Array, laid overnight by the Ministry of Industry, was activated. Nine more chains condensed from Profound Yellow Qi burst from the ground.
Xu Yunfan felt his feet sink as if into a swamp, and the circulation speed of his Ten Extremes True Qi plummeted by thirty percent.
’These chains are much more solid than before,’ he thought. ’They’re actually affecting my movement.’
Ci Nan didn’t dare to be careless. True Qi surged from his sleeves, erupting into a sky-filling green mist. He guided it with his True Qi, drawing it out like a cloud, but it was far more condensed and agile than the mist he had casually scattered before.
"Thousand Mechanisms Powder!"
This strange substance, derived by the Great Zhou Imperial Court from the Gu poisons of the Southern Border, specialized in corroding True Qi. It had once caused a Nine Realms Qi Cultivation Supreme Grandmaster to die in regret.
When the poison mist touched Xu Yunfan’s Dragon Scale Armor, it made a HSSSS sound of metal corroding. The protective Spiritual Light on the armor’s surface dimmed at a visible rate.
Just as a cold sneer appeared on the lips of the Great Zhou Ministry of Industry official watching from the high platform, two points of golden light suddenly shone through the poison mist.
It was the faint golden luster emanating from Xu Yunfan’s pupils!
’Mere unorthodox tricks...’
He crossed the twin hammers before his chest, madly pouring his Ten Extremes True Qi into them. A hum like that of a deep-sea leviathan emanated from within the Vast Sea Hammers, accompanied by an interwoven tremor like an Earth Dragon Flipping Over.
"Mount Zhenyue and the Vast Sea: Whale Swallowing the World!"
The two hammers slammed into each other with a thunderous roar. The wave patterns on their faces actually manifested the phantom image of a colossal whale shaking a mountain.
A terrifying sound wave spread out in a fan shape. The Thousand Mechanism Poison Mist was forcefully shattered and reconstituted, then sent rolling back toward the three monks.
Ci Nan’s right hand, which was hastily forming a seal, was instantly covered in purple-green poison spots. The veins beneath his withered skin bulged like earthworms.
"Impossible!"
The green-robed Daoist from the Profound Daoist Sect cried out in shock.
’He saw it clearly. Xu Yunfan hadn’t used any True Qi in that last move at all; he had purely used his Hammer Technique to stir the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, forming the eye of a hurricane.’
’Such a state of Returning to the True Self... he’s already touched the threshold of skill approaching the Dao!’
And it was true. With his profound understanding, and at his current level of strength, cultivating any Martial Technique was incredibly fast. Whether it was the Shaking Mountain and Suppressing Sea Hammer or the Sky-Splitting Cloud-Piercing Arrow Skill, Xu Yunfan had relied on his Attribute Panel to reach the Perfection Realm in just half a month.
A high-Realm cultivator practicing a low-Realm martial technique could see through its core principles at a glance, to say nothing of Xu Yunfan, who had an Attribute Panel.
At this moment, Ci’e seized the opportunity to push the Dragon-Suppressing Seal to its absolute limit.
The nine Profound Yellow Chains coiled around Xu Yunfan’s limbs like giant pythons, the light flaring from them dazzlingly bright.
The crowd below suddenly noticed that the clouds above the Martial Arts Arena were being pulled into a vortex by an unseen force.
It was the Anomaly of Earth Vein Spiritual Qi being forcibly drained!
Xu Yunfan let out a muffled grunt. His muscles bulged, and streams of crimson energy seeped from the seams of his Dragon Scale Armor.
The muscles in Xu Yunfan’s left arm tensed abruptly. The Shaking Mountain Sea-Suppressing Hammer hummed and vibrated in his palm, like a caged deep-sea Fierce Beast desperate to break free.
With a flick of his wrist, the hammer shot from his grasp. In that instant, Ten Extremes True Qi surged from his skin like a Furious Tide, forming a layer of dark gold Gang Qi that enveloped the Flying Hammer.
The hammer’s shadow tore through the sky. Wherever it passed, the air was ripped open, leaving a turbid white wake. It was like a great ship cleaving a raging sea; the air on both sides distorted violently, letting out a piercing shriek that pained the eardrums.