The Half-Skull of the Stone Man

Xiao Chen searched carefully through the rubble at the foot of the valley wall, hoping to find something new. But the stones were plentiful, with no unusual artifacts among them.

Finally, he had to give up. He held the half-skull in his palm, studying it closely, hoping to see through it and uncover the ultimate secret of the Stone Man.

Unfortunately, the egg-sized skull had no stone surface—its gender and features were impossible to distinguish. It was unlike the broken Stone Man fragments he had obtained before, which still had patches of stone skin clinging to the bone.

Xiao Chen was deeply concerned about the Stone Man. The Golden Divine Halberd and the Dark-Iron Seal were frantic about their sealed pathways, but Xiao Chen felt no anxiety. He calmly continued to observe the half-skull.

Bai Qi stepped forward and said, “Use the Great Restoration Art to bring back his original form and see what he really looked like.”

By ‘Great Restoration Art,’ he did not mean resurrecting the Stone Man, but temporarily restoring the stone surface to reveal his original features.

"Good!" Xiao Chen agreed. He was eager to learn everything about the Stone Man.

Bai Qi’s soul force was unparalleled among soul cultivators. With a shout, his soul power surged, radiating billions of beams of divine light. He pointed his right hand, and a divine beam shot toward the half-skull.

All the divine radiance poured into the skull without residue, fully absorbed—but the Stone Man remained unchanged, as calm as an ancient well.

"Eh?" Bai Qi was surprised. He increased his power until his whole body trembled. The soul force of a Half-Ancestor at the fifth heaven surged like a tidal wave, concentrating on a single point—the half-skull.

But astonishingly, the Stone Man showed no change at all. The vast soul force flowed into the skull-like a river into the sea, without stirring the slightest ripple.

Like the sea accepting all rivers, external force could not alter it in the slightest. The Great Restoration Art was completely ineffective against the half-skull. They could not even see its true face.

Bai Qi was deeply shocked. He reluctantly accepted the fact and abandoned the Great Restoration Art.

By now, the Golden Divine Halberd and the Dark-Iron Seal had also calmed down, no longer anxious about their lost pathways.

“Why did the valley wall suddenly collapse and shake down so many stones? Could it be that the half-skull of the Stone Man was about to appear, and its own power caused the tremors?” The Dark-Iron Seal, though seemingly rough, was actually meticulous and raised a question.

Xiao Chen also felt suspicious. The appearance of the half-skull really seemed somewhat strange.

“Could the shaking and sound we just heard have been caused by the skull itself?” Bai Qi looked surprised.

“Let us search more carefully,” Xiao Chen said, climbing up the valley wall. The steep cliff was entirely rocky, without a trace of soil.

At the place where stones had fallen, Xiao Chen discovered a small black hole the size of a fist. Frigid wind blew out from within.

"Woo… woo…"

Listening closely, there was the sound of gods weeping and demons lamenting—extremely mournful, desolate, and plaintive.

Xiao Chen's face changed color. This was too eerie.

"Did you hear something?"

"I didn't hear anything," Bai Qi said, looking strangely at Xiao Chen on the cliff, wondering why he asked.

"You didn't hear the sound of weeping gods?"

"Cut it out, kid. You trying to scare me? That trick is way too old." The Golden Divine Halberd disdainfully shook its dragon head.

"Woo… woo…"

The sorrow of gods, the grief of demons—Xiao Chen could feel the oppressive atmosphere deeply and truly heard the mournful wailing.

"Come up here."

Sensing something amiss, Bai Qi climbed up. He immediately shivered. The icy wind from the fist-sized black hole made even him, a soul cultivator, feel a chill.

"Something really is strange!"

"Do you hear it now?" Xiao Chen asked again.

"No, I only feel the cold yin energy," Bai Qi replied with a puzzled expression. "Where does this little hole connect to?"

Hearing this, the Golden Divine Halberd and the Dark-Iron Seal also flew up. Both divine weapons trembled as they sensed the cold, baleful aura—it unnerved them.

But they also heard nothing and remained skeptical of Xiao Chen's words.

"How is this possible? Why can only I hear the desolate, mournful weeping? I feel it comes from a group of gods…"

Bai Qi, the Golden Divine Halberd, and the Dark-Iron Seal all turned their gazes toward the half-skull in Xiao Chen's hand.

"Could it be…?"

That was their unanimous suspicion.

Bai Qi took the half-skull. At that moment, his body trembled violently, and he nearly fell off the cliff.

"How can this be?!" He was visibly shocked.

At the same time, Xiao Chen could no longer hear anything, but the frigid wind from the fist-sized black hole grew many times colder than when he held the skull, making him shiver uncontrollably.

"Did you hear the weeping of gods?"

"No. I heard divine weapons clashing violently—heaven-shaking, earth-splitting sounds. Gods are battling!"

Bai Qi’s words stunned Xiao Chen. They heard completely different things! He took the skull back, and again he heard the weeping of gods.

"Let us try."

The Golden Divine Halberd and the Dark-Iron Seal joined forces to hold the skull between them.

"By the blood of the gods! That beauty is stunning—curves in all the right places, a figure of divine proportion, utterly enchanting!"

"The legendary enchantress! My heart stirs, my heart yearns, my heart is forever bound…"

Xiao Chen and Bai Qi were dumbfounded. What nonsense were these two spouting? "What did you two hear?"

"We didn't hear anything," the two divine weapons replied.

"Are you messing with me?" Xiao Chen had the urge to beat them.

"We really heard nothing, but we saw a bevy of beautiful women—skin like cream, bodies like spring water made flesh, peerless enchantresses. Even our ancient, unyielding hearts began to waver…"

The two went further and further off track.

"You two lumps of scrap metal, getting all lovesick!" Xiao Chen snatched the skull back.

"Divine weapons have hearts too!" the two insisted.

After repeated questioning, the Golden Divine Halberd and the Dark-Iron Seal swore they had heard nothing—only a group of enchanting women appeared in the distance.

Calming down, the four of them all felt something deeply wrong, beyond belief.

Why could only the one holding the half-skull perceive the anomaly in the black hole, and each perceived something entirely different?

"Bang!"

Just then, the valley shook violently. The Martial Imprint was knocked flying into the second valley.

At this moment, the old trickster had taken human form but looked utterly disheveled, sprawled on the ground with limbs splayed, cracking the earth into terrifying fissures. But he was not far from Xiao Chen's group.

The Martial Imprint groaned, clearly severely wounded.

Xiao Chen and Bai Qi were shocked. This old trickster had merged with his original body, rivaling an Ancestral God, yet he had suffered such a loss—unimaginable.

"Trickster, didn't you say you were the boss in the Burial Valley? How did you lose?"

The Martial Imprint struggled to his feet and said irritably, "Try being surrounded by a bunch of experts!"

"So what do we do?" Xiao Chen and Bai Qi were counting on the Martial Imprint to carve a path to safety.

"What do we do? Retreat and run! Get over here, quick!" The Martial Imprint seemed very unsettled.

"What's wrong?" Bai Qi and Xiao Chen sensed the gravity of the situation. They jumped down from the cliff and rushed over.

"No choice. We have to charge deeper into this second valley," the Martial Imprint gritted his teeth. "Another even more ruthless one has come!"

"Another Ancestral God weapon has awakened?"

"Otherwise, how could I have lost!" The Martial Imprint was extremely annoyed.

"Boom!"

At that moment, the second valley shook. The killing intent of the Bronze Eight Trigram charged in, utterly audacious.

"Looks like you really want to go all out, not afraid of forcing out the strange powers in this second valley. Then none of us will have it easy!" The Martial Imprint was furious.

"You were the one who insisted on fleeing here. We had no choice but to pursue," said a voice like heavenly music, exceptionally beautiful and moving.

The woman holding the War Sword stepped elegantly into the valley, otherworldly and pure. Behind her followed a hazy yellow silhouette, step by step, sometimes overlapping with her.

Xiao Chen was greatly shocked. The yellow silhouette behind the mysterious woman was holding a familiar object in its hands—a smooth, round stone ball.

"That is…" Xiao Chen's pupils contracted sharply.

The Dark-Iron Seal and Golden Divine Halberd also yelped. They naturally recognized the stone weapon and knew how terrifying it was.

"She is the even more ruthless one."

The Martial Imprint stared at the mysterious woman with the War Sword and the yellow silhouette holding the stone ball, which occasionally merged with her.

Xiao Chen had long known this woman was extraordinary. When they met on the Ninth Path of Doom, a wisp of her divine sense had already reached the Half-Ancestor seventh heaven.

Yet at the valley bottom, she had only displayed the power of a Half-Ancestor ninth heaven. Xiao Chen had found that strange—her true body had never appeared until now.

Even the Martial Imprint had been deceived until this moment, finally recognizing who she really was.

"Who is she?" Bai Qi was deeply astonished. He felt this woman might be even more terrifying than the Bronze Eight Trigram bound by iron chains.

The mysterious woman in front occasionally merged with the hazy yellow silhouette, then separated—like a dream, like an illusion.

"Her origin is terrifyingly huge." The Martial Imprint seemed to be grinding his teeth, his voice low. "Let's go."

With that, he transformed into a patch of cyan light, enveloping Xiao Chen and the others, charging deeper into the valley.

A light laugh came from behind. The mysterious woman walked gracefully, like a lotus swaying in the wind, her gait exquisite.

She did not stop, only followed unhurriedly, as if everything was under control.

"You cannot escape!" The Bronze Eight Trigram was impatient. Its killing intent chased after them, shaking the entire valley, pressing down with overwhelming force.

"Are you crazy? Aren't you afraid of stirring up the evil here? This place once swallowed an Ancestral God weapon!" The Martial Imprint was enraged. He refused to be outdone and shouted, "You have strayed so far from your original body—you are practically asking for trouble!"

In an instant, the Martial Imprint transformed into a towering divine tree, three hundred zhang long, and smashed down with a thunderous boom.

"Clang!"

With a tremendous shudder, the enormous Bronze Eight Trigram was sent flying. One could see how ferocious the Martial Imprint, as a weapon of the War Ancestor, truly was.

It was like heaven and earth collapsing. Divine radiance stretched for hundreds of miles. Sand and stones flew through the valley. Nothing could withstand the light of the divine tree.

But even such a powerful Martial Imprint was easily knocked away the next moment.

The mysterious woman merged with the yellow silhouette beside her and hurled the smooth stone ball. The Martial Imprint screamed and was sent flying a hundred miles. Yet in his moment of crisis, he did not forget to sweep up Xiao Chen and the others.

Xiao Chen and Bai Qi were horrified. They truly felt the terror of this woman. Even the Bronze Eight Trigram, if not bound by chains, might not match her. She seemed to be the "first divine weapon" of the Burial Valley.

The Martial Imprint, carrying Xiao Chen and the others, flew several hundred miles before stopping and said indignantly, "I don't believe they will really go mad."

"Who is she? Is she also an Ancestral God weapon?" Bai Qi was very surprised and could not help asking.

The Dark-Iron Seal and the Golden Divine Halberd had become unusually quiet and did not interrupt.

"Her origin is terrifyingly large." The fact that the Martial Imprint evaluated her this way showed just how extraordinary the mysterious woman was.

"Long ago, Nüwa searched everywhere for materials to forge an Ancestral God weapon when she accidentally discovered the ruins of a destroyed civilization. She unearthed the blood-mud formed from the flesh of an Ancestral God of that previous era—extremely precious material. But when she had gathered all the divine materials, she abandoned the plan, feeling it too irreverent and cruel to use an Ancestral God’s flesh as material…"

Xiao Chen and Bai Qi were shocked. They did not need to guess further—they knew the origin of the hazy yellow silhouette. It really was terrifyingly large! The flesh and blood of an Ancestral God from a previous civilization! The Martial Imprint’s next words proved their guess.

"But who could have imagined that after countless years, the Ancestral God’s bones and flesh would spontaneously merge with the discarded divine materials and accidentally enter the Burial Valley, becoming an unimaginable Ancestral God weapon—or perhaps we could even call it an Ancestral God!"

A celestial laugh rang out. The mysterious woman, merging and separating from the hazy yellow silhouette like a dream, walked forward gracefully.

"Are you really going to push us to the brink? You have already ventured several hundred miles into this second valley. Are you not afraid of something unexpected?" The Martial Imprint’s face shifted between light and shadow.

The mysterious woman smiled lightly and walked forward slowly, saying nothing.

"Go!" The Martial Imprint turned into cyan light again, wrapping Xiao Chen and the others, and rushed into the pitch-black depths of the second valley.

"Back then, an Ancestral God entered the Burial Valley and sealed the Bronze Eight Trigram, which had turned into a murderous weapon. Why did he not bind that terrifying woman as well?" Bai Qi was very puzzled.

"That is precisely her terrifying skill—she deceived the divine sense of an Ancestral God. Truly unfathomable!" The Martial Imprint could only sigh. He felt he could not do the same.

Xiao Chen secretly groaned. When that woman first manifested a wisp of her divine sense, she had already told him to leave the twenty-seven War Swords. Now it seemed they really might not be kept.

Moreover, this mysterious and terrifying woman had already obtained a stone weapon and held it reverently in her palm, showing how much she valued it. If she learned of this half-skull, it would probably not be spared either.

The second valley seemed much larger than the first. The Martial Imprint traveled five hundred miles deep before approaching the central region.

"Bang!"

At that moment, a terrifying sound came again. The valley shook violently, and the source was just a few miles away.

The mysterious, graceful woman stopped in her tracks and no longer followed the Martial Imprint. Although her face could not be seen, one could sense her solemn expression as she pointed her War Sword warily ahead.

Her hair drifted gently in the wind. She stood there quietly, the War Sword in her hand blazing with light, aimed at a powerful foe.

A few miles was nothing to the Martial Imprint—he reached the central area in an instant.

"That is…"

He was extremely shocked. This was his first time truly arriving in this region.

Ahead, everything was blurry. Only the Martial Imprint could see clearly.

But Xiao Chen and the others felt a familiar aura—extremely cold and fierce. An icy wind swept over.

It was exactly the same as the aura they had sensed before the fist-sized black hole on the cliff.

Dimly, Xiao Chen again felt the desolate atmosphere of gods and demons.

And this time, Bai Qi, the Golden Divine Halberd, the Dark-Iron Seal, and even the Martial Imprint all heard it. It was not only Xiao Chen, who held the skull, that could perceive it.

It was extremely frightening. There had been no sound before, but as soon as they approached this area, they immediately heard it.

"Woo… woo…"

The mournful weeping of gods came, sending chills down everyone's spine.

And when Xiao Chen and Bai Qi moved forward a bit and gradually saw some of the scene, they felt even more cold in their spines—especially Xiao Chen, whose heart shook violently.

The other details were unclear, but in the blur, he had already seen a half-skull the size of a house!

"Bang!"

The terrifying sound came again. The valley shook violently, and the enormous half-skull ahead also trembled.

The Martial Imprint's eyes shot two terrifying beams of light.

On Dragon Island, beyond the shores of the Nine Provinces, ancient trees towered to the sky, apes howled, and tigers roared.

Today, many cultivators had come to Dragon Island, gathered near the Dragon Clan's Sacred Mountain to watch little Keke achieve the Half-Ancestor realm. But the result left them stunned—everyone was practically petrified.

In the sky, divine light radiated in all directions, and heavenly thunder continuously crashed down.

Atop the Sacred Mountain, inside the soft nest on the ancient tree, Keke murmured in its sleep, voicing a tender, innocent sound: "I am so sleepy… don't bother me while I sleep."

Whenever heavenly thunder fell, its small body would automatically emit auspicious light to block it.

"I am really sleepy… stop it…"

The little thing turned over while speaking, pressing its tiny paws over its furry ears, as if vexed by the disturbance.

The Dragon Clan's War God King could not bear to watch any longer. Even heavenly thunder could not wake it—this little thing was too much!

So many experts had come, all eyes upon it, a crowd of thousands watching, yet it acted so lazily and carelessly, completely unaware that heavenly thunder was striking above.

The Dragon Clan's War God King let out a great roar, exploding like thunder by Keke's ear.

"I am so sleepy… stop… bothering me… let me sleep another year… wake me next year…"

The snow-white little beast covered its ears, turned over drowsily, and left the back of its head to the War God King.

All the Half-Ancestors were speechless. All the experts were dumbfounded.

This little thing was too much! Sleeping… in units of years!

It was so lazy it left everyone without words.

The Dragon Clan's War God King had black lines all over his forehead. With so many Half-Ancestors watching, this was a huge joke.

A clever Dragon Clan maiden nearby smiled and said, "Our Dragon Clan's Seven-Colored Sacred Tree has finally borne fruit. Come pick the divine fruit!"

Hearing this, the little beast immediately sat up in its soft nest, rubbing its big eyes drowsily while shouting, "Where? Where?"

At this result, even the Half-Ancestors opened their mouths wide, not knowing what to say.

"The Seven-Colored Sacred Tree is mine! Don't steal my fruit!"

The snow-white little beast, though still bleary-eyed, quickly cried out, afraid someone would pick the fruit from the sacred tree.

"Boom!"

Just then, seven-colored heavenly thunder crashed down from the sky, engulfing it.

"Seven-colored fruit…" Keke actually reached toward the seven-colored thunder.

Everyone was stunned. The Dragon Clan's War God King, both anxious and angry, shouted, "Be careful! That is the most ferocious seven-colored heavenly thunder!"

"Rumble…"

The ferocious seven-colored thunder was all drawn toward the drowsy little beast, compressed into a ball, and thrown into its mouth like a candy.

"Ya-ya!"

In that instant, the little thing suffered greatly. It cried out loudly, its whole body flickering with electric light. All its snow-white fur stood on end.

Seven-colored thunder flooded it. Sparks flew everywhere. The soft nest woven from spirit essences beneath it turned to ash in the first second, and then the ancient tree itself was reduced to ashes in an instant.

The Dragon Clan's Sacred Mountain shook. Keke fell to the peak, turned into a white flash, and discharged electricity everywhere.

It took a long time before it stopped. Its sleepiness was completely gone. Its big, bright eyes glared angrily at the sky.

"Ya-ya ya-ya…" Little Keke was very angry. Its little paw pointed at the sky and it said angrily, "Bad guy… come out… sneaky attack on me…"

Many cultivators in the distance nearly toppled over. So, after all this, the little thing still did not realize it had encountered heavenly thunder. It had no idea it was advancing to the Half-Ancestor realm!

And even more infuriatingly unfair: the little thing was not harmed in the slightest by the seven-colored thunder—just electrocuted and in pain.

Fuming, the little thing looked around. Seeing a crowd of onlookers, it immediately began clamoring, its childish voice shouting, "The bad guy who ambushed me… come out…"