The Prophecy of the Central Hall

The bone fragment was warm and lustrous, pleasing to the touch. The engravings upon it were clear, but if taken as a map, they were far too intricate and arcane.

"A fine treasure," said the Bear King, taking it in his hands with delight. "In my younger days, I fought heaven and earth for such a bone, wading through seas of blood and mountains of corpses. Never did I think I would encounter two more so soon after meeting you."

Around the Yin-Yang trees, spiritual energy swirled. Their branches were thick with leaves, each one shimmering with the interplay of yin and yang qi. Seated at the stone table beneath them, the mind grew serene—an excellent place for meditation, if only one had the time.

The rotting corpses, death knights, and dread wraiths seemed to recoil from this garden of earthly paradise, reluctant to touch its sacred radiance. They did not follow here.

Xiao Chen had already freed himself from the stone. Together with Heaven Beyond Heaven, Man Beyond Man, and the Bear King, he tried to piece together the three bone fragments they had gathered, hoping to discern where the engravings led.

"It seems the complete bone map is far larger. Three fragments do not connect."

Heaven Beyond Heaven and the Bear King studied the map with intense interest, hunched over the stone table.

"Old Bear, you are a native of the Death World. Look carefully at the patterns—do they resemble some mountain range here? Do any of these three fragments seem familiar?"

"The Death World is too vast. Even with my sovereign-level cultivation, I could not have crossed the entire continent, let alone explored its deepest reaches."

The deepest part of the Death World had always been shrouded in mystery for Xiao Chen. Knowing that a sovereign-level devil lurked there, his curiosity burned bright. He asked more than usual. "Every powerful being who speaks of those depths does so with reverence and fear. What lies within?"

"A terrifying region beyond imagination. Even a sovereign who ventures deep risks falling at any moment," the Bear King said, his expression unusually serious. "You've seen how dangerous the grey mist can be? That is but a single hazard. In the deepest reaches, there are many such mysterious forces. The ruins of ancient demon cities are especially perilous—they are the very embodiment of death. Sometimes a flash of divine light will shoot past, and if it strikes a king, he will be annihilated on the spot."

"Can you be more specific?" Xiao Chen grew even more intrigued.

Through the Bear King's simple account, Xiao Chen was deeply astonished. The deepest part of the Death World was not only home to ancient city ruins with corpse-qi soaring to the heavens, but also sacred gardens overflowing with holy light—a realm of mystery that defied imagination.

And these mysterious places might not even be the ultimate depths.

What was most startling was that this mysterious region seemed to have an irresistible lure. Every few centuries, ripples of energy would emanate from it, compelling sovereigns to walk inward of their own accord, seeking to uncover its secrets.

Heaven Beyond Heaven shuffled the bone fragments back and forth, studying them intently. "If this is a map, then it marks a treacherous and winding path. There are many detours to avoid dangerous areas."

"Ten to one, it points to the deepest part of the Death World," the Bear King agreed.

The group continued discussing the bone map and the depths of the Death Realm while enjoying Yin-Yang fruits. The garden was filled with an intoxicating fragrance. The three Yin-Yang trees were heavily laden, their fruits untouched for years, more than enough to glut even the hungriest of beasts.

Xiao Chen sat on a stone stool nearby, his heart at ease. Now that his three hundred and sixty-five major acupoints were fully divinized, he could control the Battle Swords with relative ease. But the process of divinization had not stopped. Subsidiary acupoints—both major and minor—had also begun their sacred transformation, and he believed his control over the swords would grow ever more fluid and perfect.

"I suggest we all rest and cultivate here for a while. Gather enough strength before we explore the deeper palaces."

Man Beyond Man and Xiao Chen readily agreed. The Bear King especially needed genuine rest, for over ten thousand years his life force had been nearly drained.

This sacred garden was rich in spiritual energy, and the three Yin-Yang trees offered a bounty of holy fruits, more than enough to restore them to their peak condition.

Days, months, and years slipped by.

Thirty years passed in the blink of an eye. During that time, Man Beyond Man, Heaven Beyond Heaven, and the Bear King consumed all the fruits from one Yin-Yang tree. For beings at the sovereign level, even these sacred fruits could no longer elevate their cultivation. External treasures had lost their use. They ate so many partly for their rare flavor, but mainly to store spiritual energy, refining each fruit's essence into their bodies to avoid the fate of the Bear King's near-exhaustion. After all, surrounded by grey mist without effective replenishment, their blood and energy would eventually run dry.

In those thirty years, Xiao Chen alone devoured the entire harvest of another Yin-Yang tree. The number of his divinized acupoints became incalculable.

He was deeply astonished. The human body was a mystery beyond measure. Many acupoints he had never even heard of before; only when they were divinized into a radiant point of light did he learn of their existence. On every square inch of flesh, there were dozens or even hundreds of hidden acupoints. On a single thumb joint, there were a hundred and eight tiny acupoints, as numerous as stars in the sky. And it seemed the process could continue, with even finer points revealing themselves, as if there were no end.

Xiao Chen was awed. It felt as though he were deciphering the code of the body. If every subtle point could be illuminated, the total would rival the number of stars in the vast cosmos.

Beneath the Yin-Yang tree, Xiao Chen sat cross-legged in midair. His entire body was bathed in divine radiance, like a supreme god descended to earth. Arcane and profound patterns faintly appeared and vanished on his skin. The several heavenly steles were stationed around him, sectioning off a separate universe.

His three hundred and sixty-five major acupoints blazed like stars, brilliantly bright in his flesh. His divine consciousness had sunk deep within, and he could clearly see that within each acupoint sat a figure in meditation, solemn and holy.

When the major acupoints had first been divinized, he had already noticed vague shadows seated in the acupoint spaces. Now they had grown far clearer. Those seated figures seemed to be him, and yet not him. Wisps of mist drifted over their faces, making each one look mysterious and unfathomable.

"This boy is truly bizarre," the Bear King muttered from a distance. "He can really eat."

All divine light retracted. The patterns on Xiao Chen's body vanished. He descended from the void and sat down on a stone stool beneath the tree. "Are you all ready?"

"Thirty years—how could we not be? We were only waiting for you."

"Good. Then let us move forward. But we cannot let these three Yin-Yang trees languish in obscurity." Xiao Chen had long coveted them. If he transplanted them to Keke's Paradise Lost, that pure land would be the perfect place to nurture divine trees, and he could harvest their fruits at any time.

"This boy means to take everything."

Heaven Beyond Heaven, Man Beyond Man, and the Bear King picked a substantial number of holy fruits from the third Yin-Yang tree as reserves. Then Xiao Chen used his profound arts to uproot the three ancient trees, roots and soil intact, and stored them in his acupoint space.

Thorough. Take it all.

"It seems those rotting corpses, death knights, and dread wraiths were not true sovereigns. They have a weakness for sacred things and never once set foot here in thirty years."

The group crossed the garden and headed for the deeper palace.

Xiao Chen put away the stone statue and let the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree continue to merge with his body.

"Will you not keep the stone statue as protection?" Man Beyond Man asked in surprise.

"Without the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree, it would have shattered long ago. I cannot always rely on it. One day I will lose it."

As he spoke, Xiao Chen's entire body blazed with light. Twenty-seven Battle Swords flew out, forming rainbow bridges that spanned the air.

"Oh? Without the stone statue, you can still wield such power from the swords?" Heaven Beyond Heaven was deeply surprised, knowing that normally Xiao Chen needed the statue to fully unleash them.

Man Beyond Man was equally astonished. "Even without the statue, you are now more than enough to defend yourself against a half-ancestor."

This was the fruit of acupoint divinization. Xiao Chen's mastery over the Battle Swords had grown far more refined, and he no longer needed the statue's power amplification.

They entered the pitch-black hall once more. The auspicious light faded entirely.

Tap, tap, tap...

Only their footsteps echoed clearly in the empty, dark hall.

Contrary to their expectations, the rotting corpse, death knight, and dread wraith did not reappear. The hall was peaceful, as if devoid of danger.

"Good. Let us press on and reach the center quickly." The Bear King was eager to see what lay there, for this might very well be the bedchamber of that ancestral sovereign.

They passed through twenty-three halls in succession and finally drew near the central region.

Ahead, light flickered—a striking sight in the pitch-black palace.

But at that moment, they sensed danger.

Soon, the stench of rot assailed them. The rotting corpse appeared first, silent and ghostlike, corpse fluid dripping from its body, unspeakably terrifying. Then the death knight rode forth on his deathly steed, wielding a spear of the underworld, ready to charge. Corpse-qi surged like black flames. Next came the dread wraith, staring at them with cold, venomous hatred.

"Something is wrong," Man Beyond Man warned. "Be on guard."

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Without a sound, dozens of dark figures appeared in the twenty-fourth great hall. All stood in black mist, watching them with cold, expressionless gazes.

In the pitch-black hall, only twenty-odd pairs of eyes gleamed with eerie light, as piercing as a wolf's green glare at night targeting its prey.

The group drew in cold breaths. To be surrounded by so many fearsome entities without realizing it was dire indeed.

"Damn it! This time I'm not mistaken—brother, are you really in there?" The Bear King pointed at a towering dark figure ahead. Among this sinister hall, though the eye could not see, divine sense could. It was a mighty demon, far more robust than the Bear King.

"Boom!"

The demon charged like a mountain, its massive fist capable of pulvering giant peaks into dust, slamming into the Bear King with savage force.

"Bloody hell! You're practically family—how can you strike your own kin?"

"Bang!"

The Bear King met force with force, unleashing a shockwave that could shatter the earth. The hall quaked violently, but the special stonework prevented it from turning to ash. The Bear King was flung backward, and the ferocious demon was also blasted away.

"Rumble!"

The death knight charged. His nether horse leaped, and his spear swept toward them, corpse-qi surging like a tide.

"Roar!"

The dread wraith unleashed a soul-piercing howl. A death curse descended.

"Pfft!"

Netherfire burst forth. A flame sovereign charged, wreathed in black deathly flames.

"Bang!"

Earth and sky shook. A colossal bone dragon lashed its massive tail toward them.

"Shiiing!"

A withered lich sovereign extended its pitch-black nails, curved like iron hooks, clawing forward like a bird's talons.

"Boom!"

Death energy billowed. A nine-headed dread fiend, a sovereign-level killing machine, rolled forward. Ghostly aura nearly made the hall collapse.

Over twenty sovereign-level death creatures, their murderous aura soaring to the heavens, attacked the four without a word.

The situation was dire beyond measure. So many powerful beings gathered to slay them—unthinkable.

"Retreat!" Heaven Beyond Heaven shouted.

There was no way to fight. How could four of them take on twenty-odd sovereigns? If they were surrounded, they would certainly die.

"How can there be so many sovereigns?!" the Bear King cried out in disbelief. Sovereigns were proud beings who rarely associated, let alone gathered.

They fought a desperate rearguard action, trying to break through and flee back to the sacred garden.

But within moments, all four were gravely wounded.

"Impossible to have so many sovereigns..." Even bleeding, the Bear King could not accept it. In all his years in the Death World, the number of sovereigns he had seen was not much higher than this. But twenty-odd in one place? Absurd!

"Bang!"

Heaven Beyond Heaven was struck by the death knight's charge and then slammed by the colossal bone dragon's tail. Many of his bones cracked, and blood streamed from his mouth.

"Crash!"

The Bear King was blasted by the rotting corpse and his 'kin' demon, blood gushing from his mouth as he fell in the dust.

At the same time, Man Beyond Man was knocked flying by the netherfire sovereign and others. His bones were broken in many places, and he could barely stand.

Xiao Chen's twenty-seven Battle Swords circled outside his body, but they could not block the combined assault of so many powerhouses. Blood already soaked his frame.

"Thump."

He too fell in the dust.

Even an Ancestral God would frown before twenty-odd sovereigns, let alone these four. They were on the verge of utter annihilation.

"We were too careless!" Man Beyond Man sighed. "I thought they were mindless corpses, but I underestimated them greatly."

Among them, Xiao Chen was the most severely wounded. The Seven-Colored Sacred Tree within him could no longer stay fused and actually floated out of his body.

Instantly, seven-colored light blazed through the hall, illuminating it completely.

More than twenty sovereigns hastily raised their hands to shield their eyes and staggered backward.

"Quickly! Empower the sacred tree and make it shine!"

None of them had expected these powerful sovereigns to be so afraid of light.

The four poured all their remaining divine power into the tree, making their own bodies radiate brilliance and causing the sacred tree to burst forth with a thousand beams and ten thousand rays.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

All the sovereigns showed fear, retreating again and again.

"Now!"

Heaven Beyond Heaven shouted, "Charge toward the hall ahead—the one with light shining from it!"

"Boom!"

As they launched themselves, the twenty-odd sovereigns struck with thunderous force.

The four were hit like lightning. Blood sprayed from their mouths. Even powerful beings like Heaven Beyond Heaven and the Bear King, who had not been wounded for countless ages, were now injured repeatedly. Unthinkable.

After all, twenty-odd sovereigns joining forces was an event unparalleled in history.

Fortunately, Xiao Chen shielded himself with the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree, or he might have been annihilated body and soul.

Though they suffered horrific wounds, they dared not stop. They fled for their lives, rushing forward.

After crossing three more halls, they finally reached the source of the light.

The twenty-odd sovereigns let out soul-shaking howls outside, pacing back and forth, corpse-qi surging, ghostly shadows flickering. The whole palace trembled.

"How can there be so many sovereign-level existences?!" the Bear King muttered, still incredulous, almost bewitched.

"There is nothing impossible about it," Man Beyond Man said with a frown. "Do you recall those stone pillars outside the heavenly palace? Dozens of sovereigns were sealed within them. Don't you find those we just saw familiar?"

"They are indeed the same!" Heaven Beyond Heaven's expression changed.

"Ah!" the Bear King cried out in shock. "Truly... exactly the same."

"Weren't they sealed in the stone pillars? We even dug out that demon's withered bones. What happened?" Xiao Chen asked.

"It was that ancestral sovereign. He extracted those battle souls and refined them into killing puppets!" the Bear King said, his face pale. "Unbelievable. Twenty-odd sovereigns! If let loose upon the world, they could sweep away all resistance."

"Let us speak of this later. First, let us see what lies in this hall of light. This is already the central hall," Heaven Beyond Heaven said, walking forward.

Their hearts were uneasy. Having witnessed twenty-odd sovereigns, what terrible sight awaited them here?

From the outside, the hall blazed with light so intense it dispelled the grey mist. The beam of light from the hall pierced the sky like a pillar of blood.

Yes—it was a blood-red radiance!

The four advanced cautiously, but encountered no danger. They entered the luminous hall without incident.

The sight before them stunned them. On the reddish-brown floor lay a pool of fresh blood, startlingly vivid. Beside it were three broken swords, stained with many drops of blood.

The blood was unshed; its light shot up to the heavens, as if the slaughter had occurred only recently.

But they soon dismissed that notion. The air in this hall felt as though no one had entered for thousands, even tens of thousands of years.

As sovereign-level cultivators, they could naturally deduce the truth from the environment.

Blood that had not dried for millennia or tens of millennia, still as brilliant as if freshly spilled. And more stunningly, that single pool of blood emitted light that pierced the clouds, breaking through the barrier of the grey mist.

What kind of power was this? Unimaginable!

When their gaze fell upon the broken swords, Xiao Chen, Heaven Beyond Heaven, and Man Beyond Man were frozen. Those swords were identical to the ones Xiao Chen wielded—ancient Battle Swords!

Something had been strong enough to shatter a Battle Sword. No half-ancestor could do that.

"There is... a book here." The Bear King, thick-skinned as ever, had already walked to another spot and picked up a thin volume from the ground. But the moment he opened it, his face turned white and twisted with difficulty.

Xiao Chen was nearby and took it from his hands.

The volume bore the title "Doomsday Prophecy". Within, it read clearly: "I have already foreseen your arrival thirty thousand years from now. Everything that has happened is as I predicted..."

From the moment they had entered the heavenly palace, all that had occurred was recorded one by one in pictures and words.

When he read a certain line, Xiao Chen's face turned ashen like the Bear King's, and a chill ran down his spine.

"Seven of you entered together. Only one will survive..."

Where were the other three?