Golden lines spread from his palm, first one, then three.
Five.
Ten.
Finally, it transformed into a massive golden pillar of light that shot into the sky, tearing a hole in the dark red sky above the depression.
At the center of the pillar of light, a bell, entirely dark gold, is slowly emerging.
The bell was only the size of a palm, its surface covered with dense ancient runes, and its entire body exuded a Daoist charm that was not of this world, extremely ancient and profound.
Immortal Artifact.
A complete Immortal Artifact.
Lin Fan's pupils contracted slightly, not out of fear, but out of excitement.
He saw many fragments of Immortal Artifact in the Immortal Ancient Ruins, also snatched the complete Hunyuan Bell, and even collected the Dao Comprehension Stele.
But those were all obtained by chance, unlike now, when someone specially delivered Immortal Artifact to him.
Jin Zhen reached out and grasped the handle of the golden bell.
The bell swayed gently, and a very light and crisp sound emanated from its body.
The sound was very soft, but each wisp of sound wave left intricate traces of laws in the air, like invisible blades cutting the surrounding surging dark mist into countless fine threads.
Lin Fan did not back down.
He raised his right hand, his five fingers spread, and the ancient Hunyuan Bell emerged from his palm. Immortal Dao divine patterns lit up like flowing water, and immortal light poured out.
"What a coincidence."
Lin Fan grinned. "This imperial prince has one too."
clang!
The Hunyuan Bell swayed gently, and its chime spread outwards slowly and steadily, like a tide overflowing a dam.
A bell rings, a chime sounds.
Two distinctly different Immortal Dao voices converged, collided, and exploded into a dazzling storm of laws above the depression.
A clash of Immortal Artifact: who is more unreasonable?
The moment Zhong Ming and Ling Yin met above the depression, it was as if the entire world had been ripped open from the middle.
The golden and chaotic fragments of law, like two pieces of crushed glass, intertwined and surged layer upon layer, exploding in mid-air into a dazzling yet deadly storm.
At this moment, the already tilted broken pillars around the depression simultaneously cracked, and from the top to the base of the pillar, cracks spread like a spider web before the entire pillar shattered into stone dust.
Jin Zhen's expression changed.
His hand gripping the golden bell tightened slightly, and a wisp of extremely fine dark golden law was constantly seeping into the bell from his fingertips, as if he were nourishing this Immortal Artifact with his own cultivation.
"You..."
He stared at the slowly spinning Hunyuan Bell in Lin Fan's palm, his voice tinged with suppressed surprise and doubt, "You actually possess a complete Immortal Artifact?"
Lin Fan lightly hefted the Hunyuan Bell in his hand, his tone as casual as if he were introducing a trinket he had just picked up from a street stall. "Lucky me, the legacy of the Primordial Origin Immortal. If you like it, I can burn some incense for you and see you off."
Jin Zhen did not respond.
He knew that there was a significant difference between his bell and Lin Fan's clock.
The bell's sound was so steady.
As the celestial light flowed, there was a natural sense of weight and solidity, as if it had been tempered countless times by the same person.
Although his bell was intact, it had a slight, almost imperceptible stiffness, like a divine weapon that had been idle for too long. Although its surface was shiny, there was already a faint layer of rust at the seams of the hilt.
That layer of rust is proof that the Immortal Artifact and the cultivator were not completely compatible.
Jin Zhen took a deep breath.
He jerked his hand holding the bell, his fingers tightening, and a dark golden law, like a chain being pulled from his palm, poured into the bell.
The bell suddenly grew larger.
It has grown from the size of a palm to a square foot, with ancient golden patterns flowing throughout, like a small clock tower compressed in the palm of your hand.
The bell trembled slightly!
A beam of golden light poured out from the bell's mouth, transforming into a golden river of laws, carrying an aura of world destruction, and crashing down upon Lin Fan.
Lin Fan advanced instead of retreating.
He carried the Hunyuan Bell and took a step forward, the Chaos Qi surging around him into a hazy halo. He raised his hand, and the Hunyuan Bell suddenly flipped over, transforming into a giant gray-gold screen that forcefully blocked the golden river in mid-air.
Two streams of Immortal Dao power collided violently in the void!
The fragments of the law crackled and exploded like lit firecrackers, each aftershock leaving bottomless ravines in the scorched earth surrounding the depression.
Jin Zhen gritted his teeth and channeled several more laws into the bell, causing the golden river to flow at an abruptly faster pace.
Lin Fan grinned. "Alright, alright, stop showing off. Your bell may be intact, but if you use it as a staff, and I use it as a brick, who do you think is more comfortable using it?"
Before he finished speaking, he flipped his wrist, and the Hunyuan Bell, like a sledgehammer he swung, carrying the full pressure of the three Immortal Qi, slammed down fiercely towards the center of the golden river.
clang!
A bell tolls.
The moment the bell fell, the Immortal Dao runes on its surface lit up simultaneously, like a hundred fuses lit at the same time, illuminating the entire world as bright as day.
The golden river was cut off in the middle.
At the break, the golden fragments of law, like shattered ice, continued to break apart to both sides, spreading countless fine cracks. Those cracks spread for several feet in the void before exploding with a bang, turning into golden dust that scattered everywhere.
Jin Zhen's pupils suddenly contracted.
His hand holding the bell trembled violently for a moment, and a trickle of dark golden blood seeped from his fingertips, slowly flowing down the lines of the bell and condensing into a tiny bead of blood at the rim.
He retreated hundreds of thousands of feet!
Lin Fan stood still, not taking a single step back.
Jin Zhen's voice was slightly hoarse, like a gambler about to drown using all his remaining strength to speak, "You do... deserve me to use my trump card."
He raised his left hand, palm facing his chest, and slowly pressed it down.
puff.
With a muffled thud, his right hand had already pierced his chest cavity.
Jin Zhen's face contorted for a moment from the pain, but the corners of his mouth curled up in an almost maniacal smile.
Then he took something out.
It's not the heart.
Instead, it was a black and gold bone fragment, about the size of a palm, with fine cracks covering its surface, like a remnant that had been gnawed on countless times and then pieced back together.
A very faint yet heavy layer of deathly aura clung to the bone fragments, as if they were shrouded in an invisible black mist.
Jin Zhen pressed the bone fragment to the bottom of the bell.
The golden bell fell silent for a moment, then erupted with an unprecedentedly terrifying aura, carrying a hint of decay and resentment. Dark red lines appeared on the surface of the bell, like blood vessels spreading upwards from the bottom.
Lin Fan's pupils twitched slightly.
He recognized the aura of the bone fragment; it wasn't entirely Dark Matter, nor entirely part of the Great Dao Laws of the Three Thousand Provinces, but rather something in between.
"This thing..."
Lin Fan spoke, his tone unusually serious and interested, "Where did you pick it up from?"
Jin Zhen did not answer.
He jerked his hand holding the bell, and the bone fragment fused completely with the bell.
In an instant, the aura of the entire bell transformed from pure gold to a dark gold, with a murky luster tinged with black and red bloodstains.
"Now..."
Jin Zhen spoke, his voice hoarse but carrying a desperate resolve. "How many more hits can you take?"