The Ant King’s Last Dawn

The wilderness stretched vast and silent all around. In the pitch-black mountain forest, one could not see one’s own hand before one’s face.

Xiao Chen moved like a phantom through the dense groves of towering ancient trees, drawing closer to the valley over a dozen li away. He was exceptionally cautious and wary.

With his keen spiritual perception serving as divine eyes, everything around was clear in his heart. He could distinctly “see” spiritual energy curling around the ancient trees, wild deer and spotted antelope resting quietly, and even clearly “see” field mice moving underground.

As he neared the valley occupied by the Ant Clan, Xiao Chen acutely sensed something amiss. He had to admit that the Ant Clan’s defenses were formidable—nearly every ten meters or so, a powerful Ant Clan warrior lay hidden, all buried beneath the earth.

The Ant Clan was a populous race; their swarm tactics were their most practiced method of combat.

Like a wraith, Xiao Chen slipped past the eyes and ears of these Ant Clan sentinels and infiltrated the valley without a trace. His goal was to slay the grievously wounded Ant King.

The valley was quite open, thick with trees—more than enough to conceal several thousand men. At this moment, it was dead silent. Though countless Ant Clan experts filled the place, they all seemed to have sunk into slumber, not a sound issuing forth.

A faint tracery of blood had already begun to appear on his Yellow Diamond skeleton body, allowing Xiao Chen to blend better into this world. Among the vibrant groves, he seemed to fuse with the plants and vegetation, merging with heaven and earth and all things, as if he had become part of this world itself.

This feeling was too wonderful. Since losing his flesh and blood, he had not known how many years it had been since he last experienced such an ethereal, tranquil state.

At this moment, Xiao Chen did not seem to have come for killing, but rather to pursue an understanding of the Great Dao. His spiritual perception continuously sharpened, and he stood naturally in the valley.

Though clearly among the dense groves within the valley, his aura had utterly vanished—ethereal and intangible. Even a Dragon‑Gate Leap realm expert would find it difficult to sense him.

This was an enlightenment and also an elevation of his state of mind. Xiao Chen stood still, though he did not forget his purpose.

His divine consciousness spread out, existing together with the flowers and grass, united with heaven and earth, searching for the Ant King’s trail.

Within the whole valley were fully a thousand or more Ant Clan cultivators, half‑human, half‑ant, including not a few powerful War Generals second only to the foreign King. Yet they never discovered the Ant King; he seemed not to be in this valley.

Xiao Chen was not impatient. His heart instead was filled with quietude, and he waited silently in this valley.

No doubt the War King, the Ant King, and the Skeleton King were in secret conference, likely discussing means to destroy him.

Only when deep night arrived did the mighty Ant King return. Without a word, he landed on the stone platform at the valley’s center and began to meditate silently, repairing his wounded body.

The valley was tranquil. Heaven‑and‑earth quintessence converged from all directions, enveloping the Ant King in a hazy, radiant light.

Xiao Chen did not attack. He let the Ant King slowly recover, remaining motionless in his hiding place.

Thus passed more than an hour. It was now the latter half of the night. The Ant King was wreathed in divine splendor, his injuries rapidly improving—yet Xiao Chen still did not move.

Soundlessly, two demonic shadows appeared in the valley. It was the War King Jingpu and the Yellow Diamond Skeleton King, who landed on the stone platform where the Ant King was.

The Ant Clan King, with a human body and an ant’s head, opened his eyes, nodded to them, and then continued to repair his wounded form.

The Yellow Diamond Skeleton scanned all around, gazed into the void, and said, “I expected he wouldn’t have such courage, wouldn’t dare come to assassinate. We were overthinking.”

The War King Jingpu gazed into the far sky and said, “Better to be careful. Consider it guarding the Ant King. If he does come, we’ll make sure he has no way back alive.”

Xiao Chen had to admit that every foreign king was cunning, each with deep schemes—they had actually set a trap to lure him in.

But at this moment he had no spiritual fluctuations, as if he had transformed into a blade of grass—one with the flowers and grass, merged with the earth. Even the foreign kings could not sense him.

This wondrous state remained unbroken.

Whoosh! Whoosh! The War King and the Yellow Diamond Skeleton vanished like two phantoms into the pitch‑black night sky.

Xiao Chen still did not move. He continued to wait for the perfect moment to arrive.

Dawn was about to break. By now the Ant King’s wounds were mostly healed. Having been gravely injured by a Heavenly King at the Perfected Man realm, to recover so much in a single night showed how terrifying his regenerative power was.

But just as the darkness was about to shatter, Xiao Chen struck. Soundlessly he closed in, like drifting clouds, like brushing wind—his heart utterly ethereal, his body indistinguishable from heaven and earth and all things.

The Ant Clan experts all around remained unaware; deceived by his nearly natural state, not a single one was awakened.

Even the Ant King did not sense the danger creeping close.

Eruption!

At the moment dawn broke, Xiao Chen erupted!

That ethereal, natural aura vanished completely. In its place was only destruction and slaughter!

The Extreme Speed of the Eight Aspects turned the less than ten meters distance into an inch. Xiao Chen stepped onto the lofty stone platform in a single stride. In his hand, the Seven Treasures Wondrous Tree was brought down like a broadsword, and at the same time the Weng Sound Technique erupted from his mouth in the most ferocious manner.

The War King Jingpu had warned the Ant King to be on guard against assassination, but a whole night had passed with nothing happening. The Ant King secretly sneered at the War King for being overly cautious. Yet he never imagined that at the moment of dawn, when he was most relaxed, murderous qi of utter destruction would descend, catching him completely off guard.

His wounds were mostly healed, but he had not yet returned to his peak state. He struck back hastily, but it was too late.

The Ant King’s divine abilities were all blocked by the Weng Sound Technique, and the Seven Treasures Wondrous Tree slashed down with irresistible force. Blood splattered as it directly cleaved off his head.

The Seven Treasures Wondrous Tree’s ability to sweep away all things never needed to be activated—it was unnecessary. In this moment it served only as a battle blade. Xiao Chen’s attack power was too overwhelming; a single blow succeeded. Any other weapon would have had the same effect.

The Ant King’s head and body were severed, but Xiao Chen was not yet satisfied. His Yellow Diamond bone palms struck repeatedly, shattering the Ant King into several pieces.

He had to admit that the Ant Clan King was exceedingly powerful; the destructive attacks did not cause his broken corpse to vanish in smoke and ashes.

Nevertheless, he breathed his last in bitter regret.

Xiao Chen did not wreak further havoc. His spatial ring flashed, and he collected the shattered Ant King’s corpse before shooting into the sky.

The many Ant Clan experts in the valley were now roused and had witnessed everything. Their eyes nearly split with rage, but they were far too late to stop him.

Countless figures shot into the air and gave chase.

On a nearby mountain peak, the War King and the Skeleton King were furious. They had not gone far, staying close to keep guard, but they never imagined Xiao Chen had long since infiltrated the valley, evading their divine sense search.

Enraged, the two kings gave chase, determined to destroy the enemy. They instantly passed all the foreign cultivators.

Xiao Chen did not look back. He pushed his speed to the limit. At this time, an opportunity for resurrection was emerging, and he would soon regain his past divine abilities and combat techniques. He had no intention of fighting with his life on the line during this promising period.

He would absolutely not meet two mighty foreign kings in battle.

Although Xiao Chen’s Extreme Speed of the Eight Aspects had not yet reached its former perfect state, it had nonetheless been restored. The two kings likewise possessed terrifying extreme speed, but after half an hour they still lost track of their target.

Having slain a foreign king, Xiao Chen felt a measure of accomplishment. He stopped in an uninhabited mountain region and began to refine the Ant King’s body on the spot.

Powerful life quintessence was continuously drawn forth. The Ant King’s remnant spirit had not yet completely perished. While Xiao Chen refined it with soul force, it finally learned Xiao Chen’s true identity and roared in fury, but even knowing this secret, it could not transmit it.

“You and that little white beast… will surely die…” The Ant King’s remnant spirit savagely cursed. These were its final resentful thoughts, and then it vanished completely from this world.

Several hours later, the work was finished. A bottle of crystalline divine liquid shone with brilliant light. The Ant King’s life essence had been fully extracted. The vast life vitality within was many times richer than in previous bottles. The life source of a strong practitioner was indeed incomparably abundant.

Xiao Chen absorbed all of this king‑level life source, refining it into his skeleton body.

Threadlike lines of blood covered his bones like a spider’s web. He had taken another great step forward on the path of resurrection.

In the distance, the War King Jingpu and the Yellow Diamond Skeleton were leading a large force searching for his trail.

Xiao Chen had anticipated all this, but it did not trouble him.

As he was testing his combat techniques, the power of the Dead World tugged at him, turning him from solid to void, forcibly drawing him back.

Only the time spent training in the Nine Provinces did not consume the duration of his stay; only combat consumed the time he could remain in the mortal realm.

Climbing out from the ancient well, he cautiously flew out of this city.

Across the continent, kings were still warring, and the outer regions of the continent were also shrouded in dark clouds, the atmosphere taut with tension.

Looking at the bones scattered everywhere in the Dead World, Xiao Chen’s heart stirred. He separated a dozen faint threads of light from his mighty fire seed and sent them into those skeletons.

On the open plain, a dozen skeletons rose to their feet, their joints rattling.

Having reached a certain level, the applications of the fire seed were manifold—this was merely a minor art.

But this method, similar to a split‑body technique, was especially useful to Xiao Chen at present.

He spent a day in the Dead World and then returned once more to the Nine Provinces.

He flew straight to the seaside town, charged into the mountain range, and entered the secluded ancient ruins.

In the past few days, conflicts among the races had become constant, with large‑scale bloodshed every day.

On the day Xiao Chen returned, a major event occurred.

Deep within the ancient ruins, a stretch of rubble was discovered. When the kings jointly opened an underground palace, a war spear rushed out—its entire body red as blood, covered in ancient divine script, radiating streaks of blood light. Most terrifyingly, blood actually dripped unceasingly from the spear shaft, flickering with bewitching crimson light. The blood drops never dried.

“Basde… it is the true Basde Ancient Spear!” the War King Jingpu shouted.

The kings scrambled to seize it, but the Basde Ancient Spear seemed to possess a will of its own. In the end, it flew to the War King Jingpu and was claimed by him.

Xiao Chen returned just in time to see this.

The ancient spear in the War King’s hand, red as blood, flickered with eerie crimson light. The ancient divine script carved upon it shimmered as if alive—one could almost see them pulsing, and blood ceaselessly dripped from the spear, never drying.

“It’s genuine!” The other foreign kings showed shock.

“Several replicas could already slay gods. How terrifying is the true Basde Ancient Spear of the War Clan?”

“It is said to have killed Half‑Ancestors. The blood flowing on it belongs to Half‑Ancestors.”

…

“Haha… the War Clan will surely stride toward glory!” The War King Jingpu laughed, his spirits soaring as he surveyed the world.

Seeing that eerie blood spear, Xiao Chen thought of the Golden Divine Halberd and the Dark‑Iron Seal. They had killed the previous lives of the Buddha and Laozi—could they also be weapons of the Hundred Races’ ancestors?

Some foreign kings tried to seize it, but were directly swept away by the War King and the blood spear. The Basde Ancient Spear’s demonic blood soared to the heavens, and the divine script upon it released tens of millions of blinding rays.

“Basde… you will ultimately revive…” The War King Jingpu gripped the war spear and shot into the sky, none daring to bar his path.

The kings were greatly disappointed and dispersed, pressing deeper into the ancient ruins to seek their own fortunes.

Xiao Chen descended into a secluded valley and split off hundreds of faintly glowing soul‑threads, attaching them to the bodies of many animals. This was not possession, but symbiosis—he sent them running in all directions.

This was tantamount to dispatching his own spies.

Even if these faint soul forces were lost, it would not greatly affect him.

A few days later, he actually scouted the strongholds of the War King Jingpu and the Yellow Diamond Skeleton, and overheard a shocking piece of information.

Reconstructing the scenes seen by those animals, Xiao Chen felt a chill creeping into his heart.

The Yellow Diamond Skeleton actually possessed a deadly poison that could annihilate all things—a legacy from the dethroned old sovereign. It was said to be Ancestral God Corpse Venom, transformed from the corpse qi of deceased Ancestral Gods. Though scarce, it was absolutely enough to kill a Half‑Ancestor.

The Yellow Diamond Skeleton and the War King Jingpu discussed at length. Their original plan was to poison Heavenly Kings of the Perfected Man realm such as the War God King and the Asura King, but they feared they could not escape the eyes of such Perfected Man‑level experts. In the end, they turned their attention to the little white beast. They unanimously agreed this little beast had limitless potential and would certainly become a great threat.

Moreover, the little beast currently seemed very innocent; poisoning it would be relatively easier, less likely to be seen through.

They decided to use a divine root’s fruit coated with Ancestral God Corpse Venom as bait to lure and poison Keke.

How vicious!

A chill ran through Xiao Chen’s entire body. Without forewarning, even he would fall for it—and a naturally kind little beast would surely die without rescue.

The human heart is sinister. In this world, power is not the most frightening thing.

To be thorough, the War King Jingpu and the Yellow Diamond Skeleton decided to invite several other foreign kings to assist. Once the little beast was poisoned by Ancestral God Corpse Venom, the kings would strike together to kill it, giving it no chance at all.

Xiao Chen was enraged. This crossed his bottom line. He decided to fight poison with poison, to become even more unscrupulous, and execute an even more ruthless slaughter.

He removed his cloth garments and iron armor, revealing his Yellow Diamond skeleton body, making him look no different from the Yellow Diamond Skeleton King.

Xiao Chen resolved—even if it defied heaven’s harmony—he must eliminate the source of disaster, using any means necessary to slay several foreign kings.