Borrowing Five Hundred Years

Within the Heavenly Emperor City suspended among the clouds, a colossal skeleton stood abruptly—a mountain of stone bones, vast enough to occupy the ground like a small peak.

“The Heavenly Emperor has regrets… The Heavenly Emperor has regrets…” A voice drifted through the empty city, hollow and desolate, like a restless ghost clinging to its lament.

The chest bones, fully petrified, lay scattered like ancient fossils, tangled and interwoven into the shape of a giant bird’s nest.

Stone bones!

Giant stone chest bones!

Xiao Chen descended slowly, step by step, toward the towering stone skeleton at the center of the Heavenly Emperor City. Could these be fragments of the same Stone Man from ages past? And how immense they were!

“Who are you? If you are so resigned and unwilling, why not show yourself?” Xiao Chen stood before the stone chest, calmly surveying his surroundings.

“Hatred boundless as the deep blue sea… Who am I… Who am I…” The voice faded in and out, and countless phantoms flickered into being within the city—shadowy figures like lost souls or lingering specters.

Xiao Chen said nothing. Innumerable wandering souls—all remnants, shattered divine thoughts of fallen warriors, undying resentment whose consciousness had long since been extinguished.

As his feet touched the bluestone ground, puffs of bone dust rose. Within the Heavenly Emperor City, something had occurred that left a thick layer of white bone powder everywhere.

Xiao Chen’s brows furrowed as he strode into the stone chest cavity. The moment he made contact with the fossil-like giant bones, a strange sensation surged through his heart.

At the same time, the half stone skull he carried—no larger than a pigeon’s egg—began to tremble faintly and grew warm.

Crack, crack…

The giant stone chest shook violently, sending harsh scraping sounds through the air.

Boom!

The trembling chest bones convulsed, rolling over several times and trapping Xiao Chen inside like a cage.

The cage-like stone bones gradually stilled, but the Heavenly Emperor City itself began to quake.

A vast and majestic life force!

In that instant, Xiao Chen felt as though the Heavenly Emperor City had come alive—a living, breathing entity of immense power.

Years ago, when he first saw this city in the Southern Wastes, he had sensed something similar. Now it was confirmed.

“To borrow five hundred years from the heavens… Could fortune truly lie here?” Xiao Chen mused aloud.

Just then, a soft sigh echoed through the city.

“Borrow five hundred years from the heavens… Do you dare to borrow?” The voice rumbled through the Heavenly Emperor City after the sigh.

“Why would I not dare?” Xiao Chen scanned the city.

“Why do you wish to borrow five hundred years?”

“Because I need power!”

There was a brief silence before the great life entity spoke again, its voice rolling like thunder: “Five hundred years are but a drop in the ocean of history—the briefest of moments. But if a single man gains an extra five hundred years, that weight is heavier than ten thousand great mountains. It is an act defying heaven, and the price is beyond imagination.”

Xiao Chen nodded. “I know. Nothing comes without a price. But… I need this.”

“You, a mere cultivator of the Earth-Penetrating realm, seek to defy heaven for five hundred years. Even if you reached the Half-Ancestor realm, how could you survive on a continent ruled by Otherworld Ancestral Gods?”

“If I do not strive, if I do not struggle to grow stronger, I will have even less hope. Though I see no dawn, no glimmer of light, I will never relent.”

“To gain, you must pay! Five hundred years… five hundred years of defying heaven…” The great entity’s voice grew sharp. “These five hundred years of defiance will cost you your life!”

“If I trade my life, what use would the five hundred years be?” Xiao Chen countered.

“Your life—even if you gave it now—would be useless. The five hundred years are granted to you. If one day you touch the threshold of the Ancestral God realm, the moment you set foot upon it, the price will be due!”

Xiao Chen shook his head firmly. “That is too harsh.”

“Heh, you are quite confident. Do you truly believe you have hope of rising to the Ancestral God realm?”

Xiao Chen shook his head again. “I will not make reckless promises.”

“Very well, then let us change the terms. If you ascend to the Ancestral God realm, you shall sacrifice three Otherworld Ancestral God souls for me.” The great voice carried a slight tremor. “Let us hope a miracle occurs.”

“Agreed! If I reach that realm, I will already be slaughtering Otherworld Ancestral Gods.” This time Xiao Chen accepted without hesitation.

“If the Heavenly Emperor City seals itself, it will escape beyond the heavens, floating above all worlds as an independent space. Outside, a moment passes; within, beauty ages and bones turn to dust. But sealing the city and fleeing beyond heaven and earth requires tremendous power…”

“I understand. In the future, I will sacrifice the souls of three Otherworld Ancestral Gods for you.”

“Good! Since you hold the half stone skull and have entered this city, I shall seal it and escape beyond heaven.” With these words, the Heavenly Emperor City rumbled, shook, and sealed itself completely.

Boom!

The city scattered the clouds around it, shot into the sky, and vanished in an instant.

Its formidable energy fluctuations alarmed several supreme experts in the mortal world. Three figures sped after it.

Bang!

An enormous shield of archaic design, as if tearing through the ages, hurtled after the Heavenly Emperor City.

It was the Immortal Heavenly Shield, once wielded by the Otherworld Ancestral God Babula—an ancestral god weapon that even the War Ancestor could not break.

Woo… wooo…

A demonic wail split the void as a black demonic blade shattered heaven and earth, streaking across the clouds to cleave the direction where the city had vanished.

Boom!

A thirty-three-story pagoda also flew in from the far sky, shrouded in yin-yang mists, pressing down toward where the city had disappeared.

These were all peerless ancestral god weapons!

At this moment, several supreme Otherworld Ancestral Gods had sensed a variable born into the world, and they tore through space and time to strike.

The Immortal Heavenly Shield, the demonic blade, the thirty-three-story pagoda—all struck empty space, obliterating countless stars in the outer heavens and darkening a vast swath of the universe.

Star domains died. Great desolation reigned.

Rumble…

Three figures even crossed through space and time, charging into the depths of the starry sky.

“You think you can leave? Not so easily!” one shouted. “One who does not belong to this time, daring to meddle with fate, deserves utter annihilation—body and soul!”

“Not good—it is about to escape beyond heaven!” The supreme god wielding the demonic blade, though formless, had clearly paled. “It is about to flee completely beyond the cosmos! Pursue!”

The three supreme experts struck again, aiming at the deepest recesses of the star fields.

The Immortal Heavenly Shield spun—although a defensive ancestral god weapon, its offensive power was no less terrifying. Stars dimmed, space shattered; nothing could withstand it.

And the demonic blade was even more fearsome. Like a demon weeping, its wail shook the entire heavens. Countless galaxies collapsed within moments, wiped from history beneath the blade in a puff of ash.

Such was the terrible power of ancestral god weapons in the hands of true supreme beings: irresistible, crushing all before them.

As for the thirty-three-story pagoda, it was the most dreadful of all. It absorbed the starlight of millions of stars, capable of devouring an entire starry sky, even swallowing the whole world.

But once again, the three supreme ancestors struck empty air. The Heavenly Emperor City had already fled beyond the heavens.

“How can this be? Has the Heavenly Emperor revived?”

“Impossible. The Heavenly Emperor had regrets… How could he not be dead?”

“Even dead, do not underestimate him. Do not forget that the Heavenly Emperor City has not collapsed. You should know what it represents—several times more important than the Primordial Demon Cities.”

“The Primordial Demon Cities… Perhaps we should enter the Death World. The Primordial Demon Cities and the Heavenly Emperor City—places where these supreme beings met their ultimate regret—may still hold something.”

The several supreme ancestors conferred.

“And that variable? How should we count him? He does not belong to this time. Why did the Heavenly Emperor City take him away?”

“A small variable may yet trigger great change. We cannot ignore it. I think… I already sense who he is.”

…

The Heavenly Emperor City had fled beyond heaven and earth, vanishing entirely from the universe, standing above all realms, adrift outside the mortal world.

All around was endless void—no end in sight, an eternal dead stillness.

The city glowed intensely as it appeared in this limitless emptiness, where nothing existed.

“The Heavenly Emperor has regrets… The Heavenly Emperor has regrets…”

Within the city, countless phantoms appeared once more, filled with despair and defiance.

And the great life entity let out a heavy sigh, desolate and lonely: “Even at the tip of a hundred-foot pole, you can advance—but perhaps that step is into an endless abyss…”

Xiao Chen was sealed within the giant stone chest bones, trapped like a prisoner in a cage.

He sat cross-legged, unmoving, his entire being sinking into a state of ethereal emptiness. He strained every fiber to break through to a higher realm.

The world of the Nine Provinces and the Four Worlds from which he came was too cruel. He needed supreme combat power.

“At this rate, you want to ascend to the Half-Ancestor realm? Sheer stupidity.”

Xiao Chen did not take offense. He opened his eyes and asked earnestly, “Then how does one rise to the Half-Ancestor realm? How should I cultivate?”

He knew this great life entity was extraordinary.

“To reach a higher realm, there are countless methods. Do you wish to become a Half-Ancestor with abundant life force? Or one with shocking combat power? Or one with balanced offense and defense?”

“Can I choose all?”

“You are too greedy. In mere five hundred years, you cannot accomplish this.”

“It is not greed. It is because I so desperately need power. If I must choose only one, I will become a Half-Ancestor with terrifying combat power.” Xiao Chen made his decision.

“Though the world is cruel, there are rules. Since you have made this choice, let it begin.”

Soon after, Xiao Chen began an ordeal like purgatory. “To become a Half-Ancestor of stunning combat power, you must destroy and reborn yourself many times amid that same stunning combat.”

The giant stone chest bones became a true cage. Xiao Chen cycled through self-destruction and rebirth, between annihilation and regeneration, seeking the laws that underlie ten thousand things and the ultimate power of combat.

His goal was not to ascend as an ordinary Half-Ancestor. His target was a peerless Half-Ancestor—one whose combat power would shake heaven and earth.

To become strong, one must pay the price. And this was but the beginning of his purgatorial trials.