The Fallen Ancestral God's Remains

The shattered stele recorded the truth that an Otherworld Ancestral God had fallen there—that a world-shaking war had once erupted on this very ground.

But under the relentless pressure of time, everything that had passed had vanished like smoke. Who had slain the Otherworld Ancestral God would likely remain an eternal mystery. The ancient enemies and mighty beings were probably no longer among the living.

Xiao Chen felt a surge of reverence. This was the battlefield where Suiren, the Martial Ancestor, Fuxi, and others had shed their blood.

He set the stele upright and continued forward. Crunch—a hollow sound rolled under his feet as a skull was inadvertently kicked away.

After taking a hundred steps, he was stunned to discover a field of skulls, no fewer than a thousand in number. They could not have belonged to weaklings; their owners must have been cultivations far beyond Deathless Longevity. For he spotted among that thousand skulls a peculiar one gleaming with brilliant radiance—a skull left behind by a fallen Half-Ancestor.

"This is no ordinary place…"

Xiao Chen made this judgment and grew cautious.

The mountain range was nearly barren, consisting entirely of reddish-brown stone peaks. Some stood like divine swords, upright and solitary; others jutted out like jagged fangs, their shapes ferocious.

Moreover, a mysterious, unfathomable force pervaded the area. Forget flying—even walking was a struggle.

Clatter, clatter…

A skull suddenly rolled toward him of its own accord from among the stone pillars. Xiao Chen immediately drew a War Sword and held it ready.

Tch—

A flash of sword-light erupted, cleaving the white skull in two. A wild rat with glossy black fur squeaked and darted out from inside.

"Hmm… that's off!" Xiao Chen instantly became alert. Even a Heavenly King entering this stone forest would find every step arduous. How could a rat move with such blinding speed?

Whoosh—

Sure enough, a piercing sound followed. A streak of black light shot toward his throat like a bolt of black lightning—it was that jet-black wild rat. Its fur now gleamed like satin, radiant and smooth. But the fangs in its mouth were as white as daggers, sharp, cold, and glinting with deadly light, set on tearing open Xiao Chen's throat.

Xiao Chen sidestepped, simultaneously slashing out with his War Sword.

Squeak!

But the rat was as fast as lightning. At the moment the sword came down, it twisted its body and made a midair turn, barely dodging the strike.

"A strange little beast!"

Xiao Chen stepped forward in pursuit. His entire body blazed with light as he overcame the powerful pressure of this region, increasing his speed. The War Sword descended once more.

Plop—

Blood splattered. The blade sank into the rat's body, but it did not sever it in two—only split it open, with a thin layer of skin still connecting the halves. He knew the War Sword was incomparably sharp and could cut through anything. Yet it had failed to completely tear the demonic rat apart—a very bizarre result.

Still, one strike was fatal. With its body thoroughly rent, barring any accident, the demonic rat could not survive.

Xiao Chen wanted to examine it closely, but then the unexpected happened: the split corpse's wound healed rapidly, and even the spilled blood flowed backward and returned to its body.

"This…"

Xiao Chen was greatly astonished. Even a rat was this strange? It made him feel that this place was deeply uncanny. Moreover, he noticed that the rat's flesh was crystalline and translucent, faintly shimmering with radiance—utterly anomalous.

"Mm?"

As he watched the glossy black wild rat, he saw a cunning light flashing in its eyes, almost like human intelligence. Xiao Chen was even more alarmed.

Pfft—

A stream of blood shot from the rat's mouth, flying straight at Xiao Chen's forehead.

"You're asking for death!"

Xiao Chen dodged to one side, easily evading it. At the same time, he stabbed down with his War Sword. Pfft—the blade ran the rat through, pinning it in place.

It was at that moment that he sensed danger approaching. He flung himself several meters to the side and looked back. The blood arrow had turned around and shot back toward the original spot. Now it was charging at him again. With a flash of red light, it re-entered the rat's mouth.

Squeak, squeak—

Even impaled, the rat was nowhere near dead. It shrieked wildly.

"What kind of strange force created such a rat?" Xiao Chen wondered. An ordinary cultivator who stumbled into this place would probably be killed by this demonic rat.

Just as he was examining the rat, a rustling sound came from all directions, and many skulls rolled toward him.

In an instant, Xiao Chen felt his hair stand on end. No fewer than ten thousand wild rats had surrounded him from every side! Among them, several hundred were the glossy black kind, identical to the one pinned on his War Sword. The rest were blood-red.

The rats were packed densely together, each with fangs bared like ice. They surged toward him like a flood, making one's skin crawl.

Twenty-seven War Swords manifested. Facing the tide of rats rolling in like a flood, Xiao Chen slashed in every direction. Blood sprayed as he carved a bloody path forward.

But what astonished him happened again: not a single black rat died. Even if their bodies were split open, they healed perfectly in an instant, and the spilled blood flowed back.

As for the red rats, though not as powerful as the black ones, their wounds were slowly healing as well, showing no signs of dying.

Xiao Chen frowned on the spot. "An aura I recognize… this is… an Ancestral God!"

He was greatly shocked. Realization struck him suddenly. He violently shattered the black rat impaled on his sword, sending blood flying everywhere. At that moment, he was fully awakened.

The strange demonic rats' bodies truly contained the aura and divine power of an Ancestral God.

"Could they have… eaten the corpse of the Otherworld Ancestral God?"

The conclusion made his heart race. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

Ten thousand demonic rats were charging madly. It was then that Xiao Chen spotted a massive golden rat, as if cast from molten gold, as large as a pony. It stood in the distance, shrieking shrilly, apparently directing all the demonic rats.

Xiao Chen's eyes shot out two beams of cold light. Three War Swords soared into the sky, lined up side by side, transforming into thirteen long rainbows that slashed downward.

Blazing rainbow-light dimmed even the sun. With a terrifying tch-tch sound, they all struck toward the golden giant rat.

The golden giant rat was clearly an ancient demon that had long attained sentience. It left an afterimage in place, dodging the thirteen rainbows, and charged at Xiao Chen with frenzied, space-tearing speed.

This powerful golden giant rat had nearly reached the Earth-Penetrating realm!

Thirteen War Swords turned back, twenty-seven rainbows rampaging through the stone forest in a dazzling display.

The pony-sized golden giant rat, despite displaying tremendous power, came off worse when it closed in on Xiao Chen.

Xiao Chen let it bite him. As he kicked out, the razor-sharp rat teeth clamped onto his Dark-Iron War Suit—they could not possibly tear it. The next moment, all twenty-seven War Swords struck its body.

Twenty-seven terrifying wounds opened, and golden blood gushed forth. But the giant rat was not torn apart. It retreated like a beam of golden light, and all the golden blood flowed back into its body.

Its combat power was not the truly frightening part. The giant rat's greatest asset was its undying body—even after being rent open, it could instantly regenerate.

Xiao Chen collected a few drops of golden blood and carefully examined it. He detected an even stronger Ancestral God aura than in the black rat blood.

"These rats are too heaven-defying! To have encountered such an opportunity—no wonder they're so powerful!" Xiao Chen muttered to himself in amazement.

"Where do you think you're going!"

War Swords swept across the sky. Xiao Chen carved a bloody path and pursued ahead.

It was then that the golden giant rat transformed into a middle-aged man, as if forged from gold, his entire body golden.

"You dare invade my clan's forbidden ground? Leave your flesh-and-blood body, and I will let your soul depart!" The golden middle-aged man's eyes flickered with a dark, sinister light.

"Quite the bold claim! As if you could devour my flesh!" Xiao Chen swung his War Sword and cleaved forward.

The golden middle-aged man knew better than to face that blade. He turned into a beam of light, dashing toward a distant stone mountain. His fangs were terrifyingly powerful—several golden rays shot out, boring a cave into the mountain, and he darted inside.

Tch—

The light swept from the War Sword stretched for several li. The colossal blade-beam split the stone mountain in two.

The golden figure fled out in shock. "You are indeed very strong. But we cannot be killed, and you will never escape this ancient forbidden formation. Sooner or later, you will be devoured by us."

"You'll need to cultivate another eight hundred years to eat me!"

Xiao Chen's War Sword swept in a wide arc. Flesh flew and blood sprayed all around as the rats shrieked in agony. Large numbers of red rats died, but not a single black rat perished.

He frowned. His right hand shot out, expanding to the size of a small mountain as he grabbed several dozen black demonic rats. Then he refined them with divine power.

Pop, pop—

A full quarter of an hour passed. Blood-light flashed as the black demonic rats' bodies shattered, attempting to reconstruct themselves. But Xiao Chen boiled their blood dry. The little crystal-like structures turned to ash, and the black demonic rats died completely.

"You dare kill my subjects?! You are dead!" The pony-sized golden giant rat manifested its original form again atop a distant stone mountain, shrieking to the sky.

Rumble…

Like a flood bursting its banks, the distant stone mountain trembled. An overwhelming tide of demonic rats charged forth—hundreds of thousands of them, a blood-red sea, a terrifying sight.

What set Xiao Chen somewhat at ease was that the vast majority were red rats; the black demonic rats numbered only a few thousand.

But three more golden demonic rats appeared. Including the original one, there were now four pony-sized fearsome golden rats, their strength approaching that of Earth-Penetrating realm experts, and they possessed undying bodies.

A flood of demonic rats surged from all directions, completely drowning Xiao Chen.

At this point, he was secretly grateful for the Dark-Iron War Suit protecting him; otherwise, trapped in this forbidden ground where he could not fly, he would be in serious trouble today.

Seven-colored radiance shimmered. Xiao Chen summoned the Little Sacred Tree from within his body, letting it float above his head. It draped down strands of auspicious light like silk tassels, protecting the only part of him not covered by the Ancestral God War Suit—his head.

He charged through the flood of demonic rats, cleaving a path with his War Swords as he moved forward step by step.

Xiao Chen suspected that these four golden giant rats were equals. There should be an even stronger rat king. He wanted to find the source, where there might be some astonishing discovery.

An Otherworld Ancestral God's corpse had created this swarm of demonic rats. Perhaps other important relics had been left behind as well.

Tch—

A blaze of golden light flashed. One of the golden giant rats charged in and was split open by Xiao Chen's sword. But with its undying body, it could not be killed without being seized and refined. The golden demonic rat struck once and retreated, soon swallowed by the rat tide.

Tch—

The second golden giant rat appeared. It seemed greedier and more brutal, aiming not only to slash Xiao Chen's head but also reaching for the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree above him.

Twenty-seven War Swords shattered the surrounding rats and blocked it in an instant.

The pony-sized golden giant rat shrieked, trying to escape through earth-walking—but could not. Because when it grabbed at the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree, seven-colored light had fixed it in place.

"I was waiting for you to walk right into the trap. Now watch me destroy your undying body."

Xiao Chen sat down cross-legged on the spot. He ran his War Sword through the golden giant rat and suspended it in midair. Then the Dark-Iron War Suit erupted with terrible black light, drowning the entire area.

Overwhelming divine power surged and billowed. Xiao Chen began to refine the golden giant rat, which rivaled the Earth-Penetrating realm.

Divine power swelled, and the stone forest shook violently. Hundreds of thousands of demonic rats charged madly. The three remaining golden giant rats launched repeated assaults, but they could not breach the black light radiating from the Ancestral God War Suit.

For a full hour, the golden giant rat impaled on the War Sword gradually grew listless. The Ancestral God-attribute energy within its body was forcibly drawn out, and it seemed on the verge of utter annihilation.

It was then that a muffled roar came from deep underground—a thick, rumbling sound like a dragon-hide drum being pounded. The surrounding towering stone mountains shook.

"So there really is a big one!"

Xiao Chen abandoned the half-dead golden giant rat and strode forward.

At that moment, the hundreds of thousands of demonic rats retreated in one direction, like an ocean tide receding.

Xiao Chen followed. At the foot of a towering stone mountain that pierced the clouds, he found a pitch-black cave. All the demonic rats had poured inside.

This was a deep, dark, and exceedingly sinister giant cavern, as if connected to the Yellow Springs. Mournful sobbing sounds came from within, thick with deathly aura.

Xiao Chen, with the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree above his head, clad in the Dark-Iron War Suit, and surrounded by twenty-seven floating War Swords, strode boldly inside.

By the light of the Sacred Tree, he could see everything clearly with his celestial eye. This was a vast cave dwelling with no end in sight, the entrance at the foot of the mountain leading into its belly, then gradually descending deeper underground.

A full thousand yards into the earth, Xiao Chen reached a vast underground palace. All around, pairs of green-glowing rat eyes watched him.

But he paid them no heed and continued forward.

The underground palace grew more spacious as he went, and light began to flicker in the larger caverns—strange, luminescent crystals embedded in the cave walls.

Suddenly, a tremendous sense of danger arose in his heart. At the same time, he felt a terrifying force strike his waist.

He was sent flying like a cloud, slammed violently away.

Immediately after, he felt an overwhelming power approaching at incredible speed. But this time, spurred by his will, twenty-seven War Swords lashed out.

Clang!—

The metallic collision rang out, making the ears ache as if the eardrums might burst.

Something had actually evaded his divine sense and launched a successful ambush. Xiao Chen turned to look.

It was a white skeleton, devoid of any flesh. Its bones were translucent like white jade, without any ghastly aura—only a strange malevolence that instinctively aroused fear.

Because this skeleton was very peculiar.

It was not human. The humanoid torso had eight spider-leg-like bone spurs growing from its sides, each about one and a half meters long. And at its tailbone grew a scorpion-tail-like bone barb, a full two meters long.

It was a complete monster, entirely different from the bones of a human.

"An Ancestral God's skeleton?!"

Xiao Chen was greatly alarmed. He stumbled back more than ten paces. He sensed no energy fluctuations from the entity, but he did feel a dangerous aura. This crystalline white skeleton seemed filled with a primal savagery. A formless killing intent, though without fluctuation, clearly transmitted itself to his heart.

Even a living Half-Ancestor could not give him such a feeling, but this white skeleton did—chilling his heart.

Xiao Chen detected no soul fluctuations on the skeleton, nor any fire-seed burning within its skull. It seemed to move purely by instinct, driven by residual imprints.

Flash—

White light flickered, and the Ancestral God skeleton vanished. At the same moment, the War Swords before Xiao Chen erupted with blinding light, intercepting it in midair.

Clang-clang-clang—

The sounds rang without end. The Ancestral God skeleton blocked the War Swords with its hands, and they left not a single scratch!

Its bones were crystalline and radiant, like the hardest divine weapon in the world, utterly impossible to cut.

Xiao Chen was horrified. The might of an Ancestral God was truly unimaginable. Even a mere unconscious skeleton was this dominant—a living Ancestral God would be even more so.

No wonder that back in the Heavenly Palace of the Death World, when the mysterious powerhouse had slain an Ancestral Sovereign with a War Sword, three War Swords had snapped at the same time.

If the War Swords were not fully gathered and formed into a true sword formation, they truly could not slay an Ancestral God. Xiao Chen's eyes gleamed—this was a genuine Ancestral God skeleton, a peerless treasure body! In the Death World, it would drive millions of fire-seed beings mad. Even a sovereign would find it hard to resist the temptation. Replacing one's own bones with this Ancestral God skeleton would vastly increase a fire-seed being's combat power.

Even if he did not give it to anyone else, Xiao Chen could use it himself. This was an unparalleled treasure.

The Ancestral God skeleton moved like light and lightning through the underground palace, impossibly fast. Even its simple attacks displayed overwhelming combat power, unafraid of the twenty-seven War Swords.

Clang, clang, clang—

The War Swords and the Ancestral God skeleton clashed violently.

Then, the eight spider-leg-like bone spurs on the sides of the pristine white skeleton suddenly extended, stabbing toward Xiao Chen like bone spears, sharp beyond compare.

The War Swords flew across to block. The eight bone spears and more than twenty War Swords clashed fiercely within the vast underground palace, sending light bursting in every direction.

Suddenly, a streak of white light erupted!

From behind the Ancestral God skeleton, a white beam shot up with inconceivable speed. It evaded the interwoven light-net of the War Swords, arced around, and speared toward Xiao Chen.

He quickly blocked with the Four Supreme Strikes. Bang! He felt as if struck by lightning. The Dark-Iron War Suit on his arm was dented inward. Were it not for this Ancestral God War Suit, his arm might have been pierced.

Xiao Chen was shocked.

That scorpion tail spine behind the Ancestral God skeleton had terrifying penetrating power! Though it had not pierced the Ancestral God War Suit, it had dented and deformed it.

Xiao Chen was enraged. The Seven-Colored Sacred Tree above his head shot out rays of auspicious light, shrouding the skeleton's body. At the same time, twenty-seven War Swords blazed with ten thousand beams of light, forming an incomplete sword formation to trap the skeleton.

Tch, tch, tch—

The sound of piercing air rang without cease. Finally, they temporarily suppressed this terrifyingly powerful skeleton. He then retreated, and the skeleton could no longer threaten him.

"Oh?…"

Xiao Chen was surprised to discover a jade book, seemingly belonging to the Ancestral God skeleton, still carrying its aura.

"Could it be a scripture left by the Ancestral God? This…" He speculated that this skeleton most likely belonged to that Otherworld Ancestral God, so this jade book must be a mysterious scripture from that Otherworld.

"Danger!"

At that moment, Xiao Chen again felt an intense sense of danger.

Something still seemed to be hidden deep in the underground palace. Suddenly, he heard that muffled sound once more, like an Ancestral Dragon drum being pounded, shaking the entire underground palace.

"There really is a big one hidden here. Those damned demonic rats all seem to be serving it—what could it be?" He judged it was not the so-called rat king, but should be a colossal primeval beast.

Xiao Chen readied himself. With unknown danger ahead and the Ancestral God skeleton blocking his retreat, his situation was truly perilous.