The Doomsday Prophecy

The book was made of an unknown material, soft yet cold, with strands of chill seeping out, giving it an eerie, otherworldly feel. Tianwaitian and Renwairen noticed the expressions of Yingxiong and Xiao Chen and came over to inspect it.

“This is…” Renwairen was startled, instinctively on guard, his divine sense sweeping the surroundings. “Only one of seven can survive—but where are the other three?”

“Nonsense!” Tianwaitian swept his gaze around and said solemnly, “That’s absurd. How could someone from thirty thousand years ago predict events thirty thousand years later? Even an Ancestral Sovereign couldn’t do that!”

Xiao Chen turned to the seventh page, and his expression froze. Even Renwairen and Yingxiong changed color.

Tianwaitian sensed something amiss. “Why are you all staring at me like that?”

“You… see for yourself.” Renwairen pulled him closer.

On that page was actually a drawing of Tianwaitian denouncing the prophecy as absurd nonsense.

“How is this possible?!” Tianwaitian’s face hardened, then showed shock. Normally he cared about nothing, always the street-punk, but now he was deadly serious. After a long moment, he said, “I don’t believe anyone can predict things thirty thousand years ahead. Not even an Ancestral God could have such divine power.”

He went on, “Don’t let it affect your mind. I think there’s definitely something wrong with this book. It’s a cursed object, first playing psychological tricks, then showing its eerie phenomena—of course we’d fall for it.”

Yingxiong, who was thick-skinned and pragmatic, said, “That makes sense. The Ancestral Sovereign’s divine power can’t be that terrifying. Knowing the future thirty thousand years away goes against logic. It’s impossible.”

The book’s ninth page read, “If you do not believe the prophecy, turn to the next page before they react.”

Xiao Chen and Renwairen exchanged glances and turned to page ten.

It clearly depicted Tianwaitian and Yingxiong walking away to inspect the broken swords.

They did not speak, only looked at each other.

What followed matched the drawings exactly. Tianwaitian and Yingxiong really did walk over to the broken swords and picked them up.

That was too incredible. If before the book might have recorded events as they happened, now this was truly beyond belief.

The tenth page even showed Tianwaitian and Yingxiong each holding a broken sword and striking at the book!

When they saw this, Xiao Chen and Renwairen shouted in alarm, but before they could react, the two swords had already thrust forward.

“Don’t block it! Destroy that cursed thing before it corrupts our minds!” Tianwaitian shouted.

“Right! A demonic book dares toy with king-level experts? We’ll shatter it and see if the evil spirit inside begs for mercy!” Yingxiong agreed, convinced a malevolent spirit lurked within.

“No!” Renwairen poured his full strength into a light barrier. “It predicted what you would do—it’s real!”

Hearing this, Tianwaitian and Yingxiong hesitated, and their blades slowed. Xiao Chen and Renwairen strained to hold the barrier, barely deflecting the peerless war swords.

But an accident still occurred. The broken swords were stained with crystalline drops of blood—the blood of an Ancestral Sovereign. Impregnated with the killing intent of Tianwaitian and Yingxiong, those blood drops flew forward, tearing through space with terrifying speed, containing unimaginable power.

Renwairen gasped and raised his hand to block.

“Pfft!”

Several drops easily pierced his tender palm, raising smoke and a stench of burnt flesh.

“Ah!” Renwairen cried out and flung the book away. He flashed aside like lightning, never expecting that a few drops of an Ancestral Sovereign’s blood could hold such devastating energy.

Xiao Chen also dodged hastily.

The blood drops fell onto the Doomsday Prophecy Book. Unknown material, the book was tougher than Renwairen’s hand. The blood spread, staining it red, but did not penetrate.

“Are you all right?” Tianwaitian was shocked and hurried to check on Renwairen.

“It’s nothing. I can recover.” Renwairen shook his head, inwardly terrified. The blood of an Ancestral Sovereign was too fearsome—even a Half-Ancestor could not withstand it.

“No!” Yingxiong shouted. “Destroy it! Destroy it!”

The latter half of the brown-red book, where the Ancestral Sovereign’s blood had soaked in, began to smoke and corrode rapidly.

Xiao Chen and Yingxiong rushed to stop it with divine power, but even their Half-Ancestor strength could not halt the corruption.

“It’s useless. The blood contains the Ancestral Sovereign’s power and our killing intent. Turn the pages quickly!” Tianwaitian rushed over. “Hurry, see what prophecies remain.”

But it was too late. The blood had already eaten away the latter half.

Only a torn corner and a blurred half-page remained of the lower portion.

“This…” The four stared blankly.

Things had changed too fast. How could this be?

The upper half was intact, but they had already seen it all.

On the remaining corner of the lower half were only four words: “Hope of Survival.”

“Damnation! Are they playing us?” Yingxiong could not help shouting.

“And the half-page—see what’s on it,” Renwairen reminded.

The blurred half-page seemed to mock them, clearly inscribed with four words: “Heaven Wills It So.”

Even with their far-surpassing mental fortitude, they felt a strong urge to curse.

“Turn it over and see the back,” Renwairen suggested; only then did the others remember there might be writing on the reverse.

The back of that torn corner had only two characters: “Seven People.”

After reading this, the four felt a chill run down their spines. By now they mostly believed the prophecy. Those two words struck them like ice, making their hair stand on end.

How could there be three more?

Now the blurred half-page felt as heavy as a mountain in their hands. They turned it over to see if there were final prophecies.

Unexpectedly, there were quite a few words.

They read them intently, then exchanged bewildered glances, all lost in thought.

It was not a prophecy but something like a personal diary entry.

The gist: He had learned of events thirty thousand years in the future but could not see his own future. In that span, his figure was absent—empty. Thus he knew he would fall.

But the puzzling thing was that he could predict the next thirty thousand years, yet could not grasp the “present moment” of his own existence.

It felt utterly absurd—as if he had lost a period of time, a blank he could not seize, only infer his nonexistence from the future. He could not truly deduce how he would fall or perish.

The four pondered for a long while but could not fathom the truth.

Finally, they carefully re-read the upper half of the prophecy.

What concerned them most: was it true that only one could survive?

Would the others have to die?

But if seven, why only four now?

Yingxiong laughed heartily. “I still find it hard to believe. This prophecy is too sinister. Even if it comes from an Ancestral Sovereign, it’s not very reliable. Maybe he did glimpse some fragment of the future, but he was wrong—there are only four of us here, so his book doesn’t hold water. No need to worry.”

Renwairen had healed his injured palm and now looked gravely at Xiao Chen. “I remember seeing in the Divine Village that your acupoint spaces held three prisoners.”

Tianwaitian’s expression changed too. He had heard Xiao Chen mention them: one was a saintess of the Asura race, the other two elders of that race. Counting them, that would make exactly seven!

Yingxiong’s face went pale. “Really… really seven?! Brother, you’re scaring me! You’ve still got three locked up?”

Xiao Chen had nearly forgotten the three. They had been sealed in that mist for over a century. But he quickly explained, “I left them in the Divine Village for labor. They weren’t brought here.”

Yingxiong’s expression relaxed a little. “Good, so the Ancestral Sovereign’s prediction was wrong.”

But just then, Xiao Chen’s face suddenly fell. He looked terrible.

“What’s wrong?” Renwairen asked.

“Come out!” Xiao Chen shouted.

Yingxiong’s hair stood on end. His powerful divine sense swept the area but found nothing abnormal.

Tianwaitian frowned. “What happened?”

Xiao Chen’s face was ashen. “I’ve been set up.”

“How?” Renwairen was puzzled.

“They’re inside my body.”

Tianwaitian, Renwairen, and Yingxiong all stepped back involuntarily, staring at Xiao Chen in shock. “Who is inside your body?”

“Three kings are inside my body.”

Hearing this, even they felt their scalps tingle. Three powerful kings had somehow infiltrated Xiao Chen’s body without any of them sensing it—that was terrifying.

“Who?! Get out now, or I’ll charge in there myself!” Yingxiong roared.

Renwairen and Tianwaitian quickly stopped him. How could you charge into someone’s body?

“What do you intend?” Xiao Chen asked calmly.

A cough came from within, and an aged voice spoke. “Very well, I’ll come out first.”

Xiao Chen opened one of his acupoint spaces, and a figure shot out like lightning. Tianwaitian, Renwairen, and Yingxiong immediately surrounded him, but they did not dare act recklessly—the other two kings still lurked within Xiao Chen.

The newcomer was a kindly old man with white hair and a white-and-black Daoist robe, like a patchwork of yin-yang fish. He radiated a sacred, spiritual aura, nothing sinister.

“Who are you?!” Yingxiong demanded.

Tianwaitian and Renwairen were also surprised. There was no deathly aura about the old man; instead, a holy light emanated from him, hardly resembling a dark and evil king.

“Please, do not misunderstand. I mean no harm.” The old man clasped his hands and bowed repeatedly.

“No harm, and you hide inside someone’s body?” Yingxiong pressed. “If you’re sincere, tell the other two to come out.”

Smiling benevolently, the old man kept bowing. “Please do not be angry. I am truly not an evil spirit. If we all came out at once, you would likely attack us immediately. We feared not getting a chance to explain.”

Renwairen waved a hand. “I believe you for now. Tell us what this is about.”

“We have no quarrel with you, and in fact, we have a connection.” The old man smiled. “How did you find the yin-yang fruit? That was our offering to you.”

“You…” Yingxiong pointed at him, stunned.

“It was you!” Tianwaitian was also greatly surprised.

Xiao Chen was even more shocked. He had never imagined the three kings were those yin-yang trees.

“Yes, it was us. Now you should believe we mean no harm, right?”

Renwairen and the others nodded.

“Then I’ll call the other two out.”

Xiao Chen opened two more acupoint spaces, and two more kindly old men appeared, similar in features and dress.

“We have offended you. Please forgive us.” Xiao Chen bowed to the three elders. He had never dreamed that the three yin-yang trees had cultivated sentience and reached the king level.

It was not so strange, really. They had been growing for over five hundred thousand years; attaining enlightenment was only natural.

“No harm done. It was our fault for not revealing ourselves earlier.” The three seemed pure-hearted and quickly returned the bow.

“Then why didn’t you come out sooner?” Yingxiong complained.

The three old men smiled wryly. One spoke. “We have our troubles…”

At that moment, a cold, emotionless voice came from the distant darkness outside the hall, making even their Half-Ancestor souls tremble.

“Finally, we have six…”

The temperature in the Radiant Hall plummeted, as if they had fallen into an ice cellar. Yin energy seeped in from outside, a sinister chill that reached into their very bones, making their divine consciousness quiver.

At the exit of the Radiant Hall, over thirty dark figures blocked the way, their corpse aura flooding the heavens!

Over thirty king-level experts!

Their killing intent was like a razor-sharp blade.

Clear, rhythmic footsteps sounded from the darkness—so piercing, so measured, they produced an overwhelming pressure that shook the entire range of heavenly palaces. Even Tianwaitian and Renwairen felt oppressed and stifled.

It was as if a world-dominating Ancestral Sovereign was slowly approaching. The thirty-odd king-level experts all knelt on one side, prostrating themselves to welcome the supreme presence from the darkness.

“Who is he? An Ancestral Sovereign shouldn’t be filled with such deathly cold.”

Yingxiong and the others were horrified and deeply puzzled.