The Abyss Beneath the Mountains

The mountain range collapsed, revealing a pitch-black abyss at the base of the peaks. It was bottomless, with black mist churning violently, growing darker as it descended, like the gaping maw of some colossal beast waiting for its prey to leap in on their own.

A powerful force wrenched at Xiao Chen, dragging him down. At his current level of strength, he could have resisted the pull, but he had caught a glimpse of what looked like a Heavenly Stele in the depths and wanted to investigate.

A muffled roar rumbled from deep within the earth—some enormous creature bellowing—and a bolt of lightning shot upward.

A bizarre, mountain-colored flash split the void, rushing toward Xiao Chen. By the faint divine light, he caught sight of a colossal, horned beast below, flickering in and out of view.

With a crack, Xiao Chen blocked the lightning with his arm. His physique was already comparable to an Ancestral God's. The blood-red energy dissipated before him, but he felt a numbing current surge through his forearm. That surprised him. His body, approaching a War Body, had been numbed by lightning—this beast was clearly no ordinary monster.

Suddenly, the sound of beating wings came from above. A dark cloud blotted out the sky, and an immense shadow plunged down toward Xiao Chen.

It was a monstrous bird, utterly featherless, its body covered in gleaming black scales. Ferocious and malevolent, it exuded a killing intent that swept over him like a gale. The wind howled, whipping his long hair into a frenzy. Black gales, like demonic blades, clanged against his powerful flesh.

The dreadful bird possessed half-ancestor level power, its bearing extraordinary. If not for its beak, Xiao Chen would have thought this black-scaled colossus was a Winged Dragon King.

Its sharp talons, like iron hooks, glinted coldly in the darkness, tearing through space as they clawed at him. Each claw was as thick as a millstone, carrying a thousand layers of killing aura, dark and oppressive, closing in on Xiao Chen.

To encounter a half-ancestor level monster so soon after entering the abyss made Xiao Chen wary. He did not dodge. He thrust out his left arm to block. The Dark-Iron Ancestral God War Armor did not materialize; instead, his treasure body gleamed with a bronze light. Pure physical force shattered the void.

With a bang, Xiao Chen's arm pulverized the dark, iron-like claws. Then, with a single arm, he seized the vast creature and yanked it down. His body, comparable to an Ancestral God, now displayed terrifying explosive power. He wrenched his arm, tearing the half-ancestor level bird apart in the void.

Killing a half-ancestor with his bare hands—that was the level of his current strength.

Black scales flew everywhere, but no blood spilled. Xiao Chen froze. He sensed that this bird was not a true living being, but a manifestation of some powerful mysterious force.

With a snap, his left arm struck upward, pulverizing the black-scaled bird completely and making it vanish into the abyss.

This was merely an appetizer, yet it had reached half-ancestor level. Xiao Chen had to be on high alert.

A dull roar echoed from the depths. In an instant, a colossal creature burst upward, charging toward Xiao Chen like a battering ram.

It was like a small mountain. Its cold, gleaming eyes were as large as a house, and its massive horns were sharper than divine blades.

The true form of a bull-like monster appeared. Its entire body was blood-red, as if carved from blood-red agate, and it bore a pair of enormous blood wings. Faster than lightning, it was upon Xiao Chen in an instant.

Xiao Chen struck out with both fists.

Clang! His War Ancestor-level iron fists pounded the bull with the force of a battering ram. The sound was deafening, shaking the abyss. The blood-red bull trembled a few times but was not smashed apart.

Its body's strength exceeded Xiao Chen's imagination. This was clearly a body approaching a War Ancestor!

It was practically a demon ancestor!

What kind of place was this? To encounter such a powerful creature before even reaching the bottom of the abyss shocked Xiao Chen.

The blood-red bull's physical resilience was close to a War Ancestor's. Could this be the Bull Ancestor among the Twelve Zodiac War Ancestors of yore?

Xiao Chen was deeply shaken.

As massive as a mountain, the blood-red bull snorted out two beams of blood-red light dozens of meters long—a manifestation of its immense power. With a boom, it stamped on the void and pressed toward him like a mountain, its two long, blade-like crimson horns hooking at Xiao Chen.

The bull's roar was like a tsunami, making the entire mountain range tremble.

Clang, clang! Two Heavenly Steles materialized before Xiao Chen's hands, clashing with the sharp crimson horns. The sound of metal striking metal was piercing, but the steles could not break the bull's terrifying horns. Instead, the impact numbed Xiao Chen's arms.

A true Bull Demon Ancestor—its physical strength was absurdly overwhelming!

The mountain-sized bull shook its body and sent Xiao Chen flying backward. It stamped, shattering the void, and waves of bull-like power surged out like a sea tide.

Could this bull truly be the Bull Ancestor among the Twelve Zodiac War Ancestors? Xiao Chen was puzzled. Why did it seem to have lost its mind? Or was this merely the corpse of the Bull Ancestor?

Six Heavenly Steles slowly appeared around Xiao Chen, each as massive as a mountain, exuding an oppressive aura as if the true bodies of the steles had manifested.

As the bull charged, all six steles crashed down simultaneously. With a tremendous boom, the blood-red giant bull was smashed into the depths of the abyss, yet even that did not shatter its formidable body.

What lay at the bottom of the abyss? Xiao Chen's curiosity was truly piqued. If even a body suspected to be the Bull Ancestor's had appeared, what even more astonishing discoveries awaited?

He pushed his mystic art to its peak, the six steles protecting him as he slowly descended.

Black mist surged from below, carrying an immense pressure, as if a demonic giant was gazing up at the sky, ready to tear the heavens apart at any moment.

Then Xiao Chen's scalp went numb. He heard the sound of countless wings beating—an evil force that made a chill run down his spine.

The buzzing, like metal grinding, echoed like a curse, threatening to split his skull.

A dark cloud quickly took shape. Within it, pairs of blood-red eyes gleamed with a predatory light, surging toward Xiao Chen in a flood.

They were a group of extremely bizarre creatures. Each was no more than a foot long, but their forms resembled dragons, with a sturdy, ancient feel. Transparent wings sprouted from their flanks, like tens of thousands of miniature Ancestral Dragons beating their wings.

A shadow of dragons gathered in the dark cloud, as dense as a swarm of demon bats, bloodthirsty as they charged at Xiao Chen.

As they closed in, every dragon-shaped creature transformed into a black dagger, stabbing toward Xiao Chen—the dark light chilling.

Clang, clang! Tens of thousands of these miniature Ancestral Dragon-like beings clashed violently with the six Heavenly Steles. The sound was deafening. Their bodies were so tough that they pierced the condensed steles, demolishing them and causing the six towering monuments to crumble.

Xiao Chen was astounded. Could these truly be miniature Ancestral Dragons? They possessed such terrifying power, almost unstoppable. Even his body, which rivaled an Ancestral God's, would be pierced if overwhelmed.

The gleaming black creatures constantly shifted between black daggers and dragon forms. The sound of their wings was harrowing, emitting frightening energy waves. Tens of thousands of bloodshot eyes fixed on Xiao Chen.

Xiao Chen reached out his right hand, trying to catch a few to examine them closely and find a weakness.

The piercing wing-beats filled his ears. The few miniature dragon-like creatures caught in his hand clashed violently, producing a grating metallic sound, as if sharpening blades. Xiao Chen's palm ached and bled.

One could imagine that if tens of thousands attacked simultaneously, they could probably pierce even an Ancestral God.

And that was exactly what happened. All the miniature dragon-like creatures turned into dark light and rushed at Xiao Chen, filling the sky and engulfing him in an instant.

In that moment, Xiao Chen quickly manifested the Eight Aspect Worlds to separate and isolate them.

But that would not solve the problem. His greatest strength was his treasure body, comparable to an Ancestral God's. As for divine abilities, he still had a considerable gap compared to an Ancestral God. The Eight Aspect Worlds, even if a supreme divine art, had not yet reached great perfection and could not yet fully counter Ancestral God-level power.

Almost instantly, the Eight Aspect Worlds were pierced by tens of thousands of black daggers. All the miniature dragons converged on one point, striking at Xiao Chen.

He had no choice but to summon the War Swords and call forth the broken formation diagram. The hazy diagram slowly rotated, releasing overwhelming power.

Boom! All the charging black creatures were pulverized, turning into fine powder scattered in the abyss. Such was the terrifying power of the diagram!

But then something astonishing happened. In almost the same instant, tens of thousands of dragon-shaped creatures reconstituted their bodies, reforming and charging at him once more.

They were asking for death! Xiao Chen opened the way with thirty War Swords, grinding across the sky with the broken diagram. Dense, foot-long dragon corpses rained down, then exploded. Even their souls were ground to dust.

Yet in the next moment, the shattered dragon-shaped creatures reformed again, and their souls slowly reawakened.

Xiao Chen's heart shook. He frowned. These creatures were bizarre. They seemed to possess an eternal undying body. Clearly killed in both body and soul, they could revive infinitely—truly strange!

Even an Ancestral God would be exhausted dealing with this. On their own, these miniature dragon-shaped creatures were unremarkable, but together, they exuded an eerie power that genuinely threatened Xiao Chen.

Reluctantly, he merged the broken diagram with his body, sweeping across the sky and grinding them down repeatedly.

Boom! On the seventh time he pulverized all the dragon-shaped creatures, the abyss fell still. They finally withdrew like a receding tide.

Still undying! Xiao Chen followed them at a distance, wanting to see where these dragon creatures came from.

Suddenly, an overwhelming pressure rose to the heavens. He saw a colossal stele standing in the abyss. All the dragon-shaped creatures flew toward it, imprinting themselves on the stele's surface with a dark gleam.

Those were intricate, profound patterns!

Xiao Chen was stunned. Those powerful dragon-shaped creatures originated from this—they were patterns on the Heavenly Stele given form!

The markings were like dragons and serpents, bold and powerful, etched like iron hooks and silver curves.

No wonder they took dragon form. No wonder they were undying and indestructible—as long as the Heavenly Stele endured, they could never be wiped out.

Even knowing their origin, Xiao Chen could not hide his shock. The patterns on a Heavenly Stele had come to life like living beings—something that had never happened with the steles he had seen before.

The suspected Bull Ancestor, the manifesting patterns on the Heavenly Stele—all of this was extraordinary.

Passing through layers of black mist, Xiao Chen finally descended to the bottom of the abyss.

Below was a vast black lake. The inky, still waters lay like a smooth slab of black stone, utterly motionless, deathly silent. It was a dead black lake.

From within, Xiao Chen felt a bone-chilling malevolence seeping out, saturated with the aura of death.

It was hard to imagine where this black dead lake led to create such a horrific sight.

In the middle of the lake was an island, and on it stood a massive Heavenly Stele. Mist swirled, obscuring its shape.

Xiao Chen frowned. Every place suppressed by a Heavenly Stele was dangerous, but this was especially so. Even at his current strength—approaching a War Ancestor—he felt uneasy, an eerie, mysterious force affecting him.

Through the haze, he could make out what seemed to be enormous bodies lying on the island.

Xiao Chen cautiously approached, flying over the black dead lake to reach the giant island.

When he made out the shadowy corpses, he was startled. Besides the mountain-sized bull that had manifested earlier, there was also the carcass of an Ancestral Dragon, stretching like a boundless mountain range.

It was a true Ancestral Dragon, fallen here! A black Ancestral Dragon, its colossal divine body severed into six or seven pieces. On its head was a horrifying claw hole—someone had reached into its skull and taken its primordial spirit, killing it.

This was truly shocking. To pierce an Ancestral Dragon's skull, steal its spirit, and cause it to fall here—such methods were extremely terrifying, enough to frighten the soul.

Though countless ages had passed, the Ancestral Dragon's flesh showed no sign of decay. Large pools of dragon blood still shimmered with divine light. Had it not been suppressed by the Heavenly Stele, the blood radiance would have soared into the heavens.

Beside the immense Ancestral Dragon corpse lay several broken bodies, their blood soaking the ground, also glimmering with divine light—the corpses of Ancestral Gods!

Some were only half a body, the other half crushed into meat paste by a palm, the clear imprint of a hand still visible. Blood flowed everywhere, a shocking sight.

Others were nothing but a head, the torso utterly annihilated, erased by some terrifying divine power.

Where fragments remained, the flesh was still fresh, the blood a bright, startling red, as if these beings had only just been killed.