Accustomed to the powerful and unyielding force of a heavy hammer, Xu Yunfan naturally took a liking to it at a glance, as it shared the same style as the Thirty-Six Styles of the Cloak Hammer he had practiced.
If wielded with the divine weapon, the gilded mace, it would surely reach even greater heights.
Time flies by.
After the Great Ceremony of True Instruction, Xu Yunfan basically immersed himself in martial arts training, practicing the Heavenly Cicada Force every day until his body and bones reached their limit.
After mastering the second stage of muscle and skin training, he can guarantee a daily increase of 30 to 40 proficiency points, almost doubling the growth efficiency.
In the following days, Xu Yunfan meditated on the "Lin" character technique every night, practiced the "Tian Chan Jin (Heavenly Cicada Force}" in the morning, cultivated the "Jiu Xuan Kang Long Jian Fa (Nine Mysteries Overbearing Dragon Sword Art}" at noon,
went to his master Zhan Yan in the afternoon to learn the Heavenly Palace Forging Technique to forge weapons, and went to the library in the evening to read the four collections of books and browse through the four basic martial arts and related knowledge.
The day was basically packed with activities.
Seeing Xu Yunfan so diligent every day, the other disciples of Tiangong Cave couldn't help but start following in his footsteps.
"Damn it."
Yue Shan put down the giant axe in his hand and looked at his hands, which were originally rough and covered with blisters. He looked somewhat distressed.
He wrapped the linen cloth soaked in medicinal wine around his palm; the bloodstains on the axe handle had long since seeped into the wood grain.
He turned his head and stared at the several new cracks on the weapon rack. They were left from last night when he tried to imitate Xu Yunfan's shock force, but he couldn't get the hang of it and even damaged several steel giant axes as a result.
He looked up at Qi Huan's figure ahead, constantly refining his sword technique.
Ever since he learned that Xu Yunfan's daily cultivation was practically ascetic, Qi Huan was greatly stimulated. He would go to Bright Moon Tower every two or three days to listen to music, but he stopped listening to music and spent his days practicing the Thousand-Layer Wave Sword with his longsword.
He worked several times harder than before.
"Senior Brother Qi, do we really have to be as diligent as Xu Yunfan?"
For seven consecutive days, he got up earlier than the rooster and went to bed later than the dog, practicing martial arts from dawn till dusk. Even someone as tough as iron couldn't take it anymore.
"The seven thousand six hundredth time."
Qi Huan's hoarse voice came from the corner.
At this moment, his eyes were bloodshot, and the long sword in his hand felt heavy, yet he still showed no sign of giving up.
The chief disciple of Cangfeng Pavilion was binding a longsword to his wrist with an iron chain. His forearm muscles were swollen twice their size due to excessive blood flow, and blood beads seeped from his pores with each thrust.
The unique sound of layering energy in the Thousand Waves Sword Technique had become chaotic, and when the last sword was thrust out, the tip of the sword fell limply three inches from the target.
In a brightly lit mine tunnel a hundred feet below the surface of Tiangong Cave, the tip of the black iron pickaxe on the mechanical pickaxe held by Yan Yuwei was almost worn down.
Each time she raised and slammed her hands down, she could peel away large swathes of black iron ore in front of her, sending fragments of rock flying everywhere. Wisps of metallic aura permeated the air, which she absorbed by channeling her blood energy with her Gold-Melting and Iron-Forging Technique, causing her skin to shimmer with metallic energy.
Seeing Yan Yuwei almost going mad, the disciple beside her couldn't help but worry and said, "Senior Sister, why don't you take a break? You've been digging for three days straight without sleep. If you continue, your body won't be able to take it, and your martial arts will actually regress."
After Yan Yuwei landed her last pickaxe blow, sending sparks flying, she sat down heavily on the ground, panting heavily, and looked at her hands, which were covered in blood blisters.
Yan Yuwei suddenly cursed angrily.
"As the top disciple of the Melting Gold Hall, my talent is one in a million. If Xu Yunfan can achieve perfect muscle and skin training, I refuse to believe I can't achieve perfect skin training!"
Upon hearing this, a disciple nearby couldn't help but mutter, "How can you compare to that freak? That Senior Brother Xu has been obsessed with martial arts since he joined the sect. It's been almost three months now, and he's only left the sect once. The rest of the time he's been practicing."
"The disciples from the Weapon Forging Hall said that his body is made of black steel. He only sleeps for less than two hours a day. He's definitely going to shorten his lifespan. Senior Sister, you mustn't compare yourself to him!!!"
Yan Yuwei withdrew her fist, glanced at the disciple she had punched and sent flying out of the mine, and snorted coldly.
"I was born with a strong metal constitution, what am I afraid of! If he can do it, so can I!"
...
Yanbei Road, Yanbei Prefecture, Jiuyao Mountain, Jiuyao Sect (Nine Luminaries Sect}.
The seventy-two peaks pierce the sea of clouds like inverted swords. The obsidian base on the main peak, Broken Dragon Cliff, is thirty feet square. Thirteen meteorite iron chains run through the mountain, anchoring nine basalt palaces between the cliffs.
At the mountain gate, two bronze Yazi (Dragon Son} statues, each eighteen feet tall, hold iron chains in their mouths, while the disciples on duty wear heavy armor forged from twenty-eight catties of meteorite iron.
Since the Yongchang era of the previous dynasty, when Chu Yuan, the first sect leader of the Nine Luminaries Sect, erected the Iron Blood Stele at Broken Dragon Cliff, seventeen sect leaders have passed through the ages.
During the bloody battle that marked the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the three thousand Black Feather Guards of the Nine Luminaries braved a hail of arrows and breached seven city gates in succession. The Zhenyue (Mountain-Suppressing} Halberd, bestowed by the emperor after the war, is still planted in front of the Nine Luminaries Hall of the Nine Luminaries Sect.
Over the centuries, a single sect has accumulated tens of thousands of disciples. Not counting servants, there are over ten thousand outer disciples, nearly ten thousand inner disciples, and hundreds of true disciples from the Nine Peaks of the Nine Luminaries Sect.
Not to mention the countless fields and properties and the businesses they run, it is practically a country within a country.
Since the end of the Heavenly Craft Cave True Inheritance Ceremony, Elder Yin Hong of the Nine Luminaries Sect and Teng Lingchuan, who had been silent and looked somewhat dejected, had been rushing back to the Nine Luminaries Sect for seven days.
Yin Hong stood with his hands behind his back on the edge of the cliff at the Star Gazing Platform. The seventy-two peaks, in the twilight, resembled giant swords quenched in the heat of summer, piercing straight into the sky.
In the distance, the crimson smoke rising from the Iron Peak cast a mottled shadow on Teng Lingchuan's right arm, which was wrapped in bandages. This was the ulna that had been cracked by the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer at the Heavenly Craft Cave. Now that he had returned to the Nine Luminaries Sect, he naturally needed to use the best medicine.
Yin Hong caught a glimpse of his disciple's trembling wrist tendons, a hidden injury left by over-stimulating the "Xuanji Jade Meridian Scripture".
"What, are you making a scene over a little setback?"
Teng Lingchuan grew up in the Nine Luminaries Sect and has had a smooth journey so far. It's a good thing that he's experiencing some setbacks now.
Teng Lingchuan remained silent for a while before whispering, "Master, I felt that Xu Yunfan didn't use his full strength in that hammer blow."
Yin Hong laughed and scolded, "Anyone can see that he didn't use his full strength. If he had really used his full strength, and you died on the spot, I'm afraid the Nine Luminaries Sect would have to send out an entire peak, and the Heavenly Craft Cave would have to pay a considerable price for it."
Yin Hong spoke casually, but it was indeed the truth. His Nine Luminaries Sect (Jiuyao Sect} was one of the top sects in the Great Zhou Dynasty, an absolute behemoth. The Heavenly Crafting Cave only had a few thousand disciples, and could only support a dozen or so true disciples. How could it compare to the Nine Luminaries Sect?
Hearing Yin Hong's words of comfort, Teng Lingchuan's mood improved slightly, and he asked, "Then Xu Yunfan will die too?"
Yin Hong casually said, "Of course, we don't even need to lift a finger. That old devil Hong will take care of it himself. What do you think he came over for? To fight me?"
Teng Lingchuan was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Could the quota for entering the mountain early next year be allocated to Xu Yunfan? I want to fight him again."