The Celestial Palace in the Gray Mist

The gray fog churned, thick and oppressive, leaching all color from the world. Out of the mist, a vast complex of palaces slowly drifted into view, their outlines half-hidden in the swirling haze.

They had been trapped in this monotonous gray prison for decades. The sudden sight of a celestial palace—massive, ancient, exuding an aura of bygone millennia—stunned them into silence.

Brave Bear, however, was not silent. He cursed freely, calling down every ancestor of every high and mighty being in the Death World that he could name. It was hard to blame him. He had been trapped here for ten thousand years. Anyone else would have long since gone mad.

An ancient, weathered aura rolled over them as the palace drew nearer, like a relic freshly unearthed from the primordial age. It was not merely a palace—it was a fragment of history made stone, a cross-section of a river of time given form.

The floating palace drifted like a phantom, slow and silent, yet its presence was overwhelming, a mountain of pressure bearing down on them.

Finally, it arrived before them. The structure was built entirely of reddish-brown stone, scarred by countless ages of wind and frost.

"Let's go!"

Xiao Chen lifted the weakened Brave Bear and leaped onto the palace grounds.

Before them, at the center of the main square, stood a row of colossal stone pillars, each thirty meters high and so thick that five or six people linking hands could barely encircle them. The pillars were carved with ancient images of gods, demons, and spirits—so lifelike they seemed to breathe, as if on the verge of breaking free from the stone.

"I feel like the people on these pillars are staring at me," Brave Bear said. After Xiao Chen had poured three beams of seven-colored divine light into him, he had regained some strength and now circled the pillars warily.

Xiao Chen studied the carvings closely. The demonic and undead figures were not merely shaped—they were imbued with spirit, as though they had once been flesh and blood.

Tianwaitian spoke up. "They look so real that I wonder if they were sealed into the pillars by some secret art." His words, born of long experience, sent a chill through the air.

There were dozens of pillars. From the appearance of the carved demons and skeletons, even the weakest among them had reached the Earth-Penetrating realm, while most were at the king level.

If Tianwaitian's guess was true, it was a horrifying thought.

"Let's break one open and find out. Brother, lend me your divine power," Brave Bear said, showing no hesitation. He grabbed the stone statue's arm, borrowed a surge of pure power, and pointed a finger at an undead carving on one of the pillars.

A king's power was immense, but it did not shatter the pillar—it only cracked the surface of the carving. The reddish-brown stone was incredibly hard; such material would be a supreme treasure for artifact forging in the mortal world.

"Crack!"

Brave Bear struck the carving with his palm. Chunks of stone fell away, and soon the carved area was bare.

"Eh? There really is a human-shaped hollow here. Could it be…" The weakened Brave Bear suddenly became nimble, leaping back a hundred meters as he stared warily at the pillar. "I didn't actually release a powerful undead, did I? These ancient relics know all kinds of forbidden arts. Even if we're at the same level, they'd be hard to deal with."

Xiao Chen had been watching the pillar the whole time. He saw nothing unusual. "There's nothing. But there is indeed a human-shaped depression in the stone. It does look like an undead was once sealed there."

Brave Bear came back. "Lend me your power again." He pulled the stone statue to another pillar, this one carved with a demon more ferocious than himself. "A fellow tribesman, but not as handsome as me," he said narcissistically, then smashed the carving with a crack. Stone crumbled away.

But this time he shot backward three hundred meters, far from the palace.

At the same time, Xiao Chen felt a chill run down his spine. At the broken spot on the pillar, he saw several strands of faintly glistening hair. He followed Brave Bear in retreating.

"Damn it! A demon scaring a demon is enough to scare a demon to death!" Brave Bear cursed under his breath. "Even if you're my close relative, you don't have to play games like this. Why hide inside a pillar?" They waited for half a cup of tea, but nothing happened. No king-level powerhouse burst out of the broken carving.

"Old pal, you weren't really sealed to death in there, were you?" Brave Bear folded his arms and walked forward slowly, this time borrowing enough divine power from Xiao. "Bad luck for the family," he muttered. "To have a loser like you, actually getting sealed inside a stone pillar. A dignified king-level demon—it's embarrassing just to talk about it."

An eerie, cold aura spread around the palace. The strands of long hair exposed in the broken carving stirred in the wind, making the scene even more ghostly.

Brave Bear carefully peeled away another layer of stone, revealing the demon's head. Pale gray hair covered its face, hiding its features.

He was about to clear the rest of the stone when—

"Rip!"

The demon sealed in the pillar suddenly shot out and slammed into Brave Bear.

"Damn!"

Brave Bear was impossibly fast; he left an afterimage and retreated three hundred meters. But then he realized with horror that a corpse was clinging to him. Its gray hair brushed his face, and a chill ran through his bones.

"Bang!"

Brave Bear shook it off, flinging the corpse onto the stone steps before the main hall.

"Old pal, I'm a man. You've got the wrong person!" He cursed under his breath as he walked over.

It was indeed a demon—its flesh had long since rotted away, leaving only lusterless hair and bones. The pressure from the stone had probably caused the skeleton to spring out when Brave Bear opened the seal.

There was no longer any doubt: every pillar once held a powerful being sealed inside. The realization sent a chill through all of them. What kind of being had the power and ambition to seal kings inside stone pillars outside a palace?

Brave Bear suddenly looked grim, as if recalling something. "Could the legend be true?"

"What legend?"

"In the past, I never believed it, so I only know bits and pieces. But I've heard that in ages long past, the entire Death World—except for the deepest domains—was once unified. An Ancestral Sovereign walked the land, and none dared disobey. Any king who opposed him simply vanished."

Xiao Chen, Tianwaitian, and the others all drew in sharp breaths.

"How many beings surpassing the king level have there been in the Death World?"

"Probably two or three. But the one who unified the continent was especially powerful." Brave Bear straightened the corpse of his fellow demon and bowed to it, then stood up straight. "That was ages ago. I wasn't born yet, so I never saw any being of that level. Heaven is number one, I'm number two, and Xiao is number three. I'm not afraid of any so-called Ancestral Sovereign."

Tianwaitian coughed. "It seems that… perhaps… it's possible… we might have wandered into the territory of that Ancestral Sovereign."

They looked at the vast palace complex before them. Brave Bear felt his scalp go numb. Behind the tightly sealed great stone doors, it seemed a pair of eyes was watching him.

"Ahem. Yes, we've come to pay our respects to the Ancestral Sovereign above," he said, putting on a show of bowing toward the main hall.

"Let's go. Since we're here, let's take a look," Xiao Chen said, stepping up onto the platform and walking toward the closed doors.

"Creak…"

As they pushed open the two enormous stone doors that had been sealed for who knew how many years, a burst of decayed air rushed out. Even the smell of rotting flesh was among it—a very bad sign.

Suddenly, Brave Bear shouted: "Damn it! My fellow tribesman, you're standing up?!"

His sudden cry startled Xiao Chen, Tianwaitian, and Renwairen, who all leaped back. The reddish-brown stone door boomed shut again.

"Brother Brave Bear, scaring a demon can scare a person to death!"

"I'm not lying! He really did stand up!" Brave Bear dashed like the wind to the pillar and yelled, "Where did he go?"

"Come on, Brave Bear, that's not funny at all." Xiao Chen pointed at the steps. "Isn't your fellow demon lying right there?"

The demon corpse lay quietly on the steps, its gray hair stirring in the drifting mist.

A chill ran down Brave Bear's spine. He swore, "I clearly saw him come out of the broken pillar and give a sinister laugh. Then he stood up and…"

Hearing this, even Xiao Chen, Tianwaitian, and Renwairen felt their scalps prickle. The whole affair was uncanny.

They returned to the great pillar and examined it closely. Beneath the fallen stone, there was only the human-shaped hollow—nothing else. They swept it with their divine sense and found nothing. Of course, the dark mist blocked their perception, so it could not reach far.

"Old pal, stop playing games. Come on out," Brave Bear called, circling the great hall but finding nothing.

They did not find the demon's trace, but they did catch a fleeting wisp of abnormal, ice-cold aura. Though it vanished in an instant, none of them—at their level—could have misread it. A shadow fell over their hearts.

"Still want to go in?"

"Let's wait."

"If the sealed demon is acting strangely, then the undead we peeled open first…"

The thought sent another chill through them.

"How about we break open one more pillar? This time, we'll seal the area first and get to the bottom of it." Brave Bear's suggestion made Tianwaitian and Renwairen exchange uneasy glances.

"Let's try. We won't feel right until we know what's going on."

Xiao Chen and the others agreed.

Clanging sounds rang out as twenty-seven War Swords formed a sword array, sealing a pillar within it. At the same time, the stone statue emitted a beam of seven-colored divine light, filling the area with a sacred aura.

"This time, let's pick a small fry at the Earth-Penetrating realm," Brave Bear said, peeling away the stone. Inside was a human-shaped hollow—and nothing else.

"This one must have been annihilated long ago. Let's try another."

"Stop!" Xiao Chen stopped him. At the same time, the twenty-seven War Swords transformed into rainbows of divine light and shot into the gray mist in the distance.

"Shhh!" The sounds of cutting air faded. He had sensed that eerie, cold aura again, but the swords had hit nothing. They returned without success.

Now all of them wore grave expressions. The situation was too unusual. The hidden watcher left no trace, impossible to find.

"No more peeling off stone."

Tianwaitian and Renwairen both felt the seriousness of it and did not want to take further risks.

They calmed their minds and guarded the palace for three whole months, but still found no clue. During that time, the vast palace complex drifted slowly through the gray mist, destination unknown.

In this gray fog realm, time was the cheapest commodity. Xiao Chen had already spent over fifty years here, and Brave Bear had been trapped for ten thousand. They were not anxious. They relied on the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree for divine essence and cultivated in stillness. Another decade passed.

Seventy years had now passed since they were sealed in this fog.

"To stand before such a sacred gate and not enter would be a disservice to ourselves."

Finally, they decided to wait no longer. They pushed open the stone doors and entered the great hall.

Now they were certain: the fabled Ancestral Sovereign was not in this celestial palace. If he were, he would have found them long ago.

"Creak…"

The massive stone doors grated open, releasing more stench of decay. The air was thick and suffocating, even stirring a sense of dread in their hearts.

They pushed the doors fully open to let the air circulate. Gray mist flowed in, driving out the rotting odor—as if a mass of corpses had been hidden inside.

They waited a full hour before the stench finally faded.

The great hall was pitch black, so dark they could not see their hands in front of their faces. Even with divine sight, they could see only a dozen meters ahead. A layer of inky black cloud seemed to hang in the air.

"Tap… tap…"

Their footsteps echoed in the vast, empty hall, cutting through the dead silence.

"Creak…"

A bone-chilling sound came from behind them. The doors they had propped open swung shut on their own. The last sliver of gray light from the entrance vanished, plunging the hall into absolute darkness.

"Your hero Brave Bear is a proper demon, not one to be scared so easily. Let's keep going and see what tricks he has up his sleeve."

Xiao Chen summoned the War Swords to form a sword array, hanging them around them as they gave off faint divine light.

"No wonder there's a rotting smell. Whose unlucky kid is rotting away over there?" Brave Bear's demonic eyes were sharp; he spotted a decaying corpse deep in the hall.

"Strange. We've been outside for over a decade, and he still hasn't fully rotted away. Be careful," Tianwaitian warned.

"Go around him. Don't touch him," Renwairen said cautiously.

As they drew closer, they saw that parts of the corpse had already turned to bone, while others were still covered with rotting flesh. The stench was unbearable.

"This bastard must have been a real menace when he was alive," Brave Bear concluded.

"Why?"

"Haven't you heard that a menace lives for a thousand years? From the aura he left behind, he's been lying here for at least a thousand years." Brave Bear suddenly sniffed. "Hey, I smell a hint of fragrance."

"Yes, a refreshing, pleasant scent. It's coming from the next hall," Tianwaitian agreed.

They passed through this hall and moved deeper.

Just then, Brave Bear shouted again, stumbling back a few steps. "Damn! Old pal, why did you follow us?!"

In the pitch-black, deathly silent ancient hall, his sudden cry was especially terrifying.

"You bear! Trying to scare us to death?!" Renwairen was so angry he manifested a giant hand and slapped him.

"No, really! Just now a shadow was sticking close behind me. I saw it out of the corner of my eye!" Brave Bear yelled, exasperated. "I swear I saw a black shadow following us without a sound!"

In this environment, it was truly horrifying.

They all turned to look, sweeping with their divine sense. They saw nothing but darkness.

"There it is again! The shadow is behind you!" Brave Bear shouted at Xiao Chen.