The Martial Ancestor’s Legacy

Long ago, someone had cultivated the Six-Heavenly Stele Profound Art? This news was of the utmost importance to Xiao Chen. He urgently wanted to know the details.

“That person also cultivated the Heavenly Stele method. What exactly happened?”

The old stone turtle seemed to be getting back at him for his earlier rudeness, and struck with a patronizing tone. “You think you’re the only one who’s cultivated the Three Heavens? You have to understand, this world never lacks for geniuses. You’re far from it.”

“Old grandpa, let me massage your back for you?” Xiao Chen really wanted to give this old turtle a good thrashing.

“Boy, I—I—I don’t have the surname Wang,” the old turtle shot him a glance. “The more I look at you, the more annoyed I get.”

You’d find mung beans to be in tune with your eyes! Xiao Chen cursed inwardly. If you took a fancy to me, that would be trouble.

“Old master Wang, just tell me already. Don’t leave me hanging. Who was that divine being?”

“That person is the one who told me about the Dragon Clan’s secret land,” the old turtle said slowly.

“What a pity. He didn’t systematically cultivate the Heavenly Stele Profound Art; he only used it for verification. But that person was a peerless genius, astonishingly talented on the path of cultivation.”

“What was his name?”

“Young people are too impatient, not steady at all,” the old stone turtle drawled unhurriedly. “He seemed to be called the Martial Ancestor.”

“The Martial Ancestor?!” Xiao Chen’s heart shook. That person was actually the peerless Martial Ancestor. It was surprising yet made sense.

The mighty Martial Ancestor, his divine might overshadowing the ages, had drawn from a hundred schools to create his own unparalleled methods.

But that the Heavenly Stele Profound Art was among them was truly astonishing.

“The Martial Ancestor—no wonder. The Heavenly Stele method is also a form of martial arts, and the scripture left by the Martial Ancestor is the same, ” Xiao Chen muttered to himself.

Hearing this, the old stone turtle swept him with a glance. “What kind of eyes are those? Where do you get the idea that the Heavenly Stele Profound Art is a martial art?”

“Isn’t it just body cultivation?”

“The path of body cultivation is not necessarily martial arts. That is the essence of the supreme Dao,” the old turtle said, looking at Xiao Chen. “No wonder you, being of martial origin, naturally think that divine method is martial arts. The benevolent see benevolence, the wise see wisdom. If a cultivator of another system trained in it, they would surely have new insights. Boy, you’re far from having truly cultivated the Six-Heavenly Stele Profound Art.”

The old turtle’s words were like a lightning bolt in Xiao Chen’s mind, and he suddenly felt something different. The Heavenly Stele Profound Art truly was both martial and mystical. The Big Dipper Sealing Divinity, the Four Killing Moves, the divinization of all acupoints—all of this could be viewed through the lens of another system’s cultivation. Who could say whether it was martial or mystical?

The essence of the Dao, the condensed meaning, the gathered supreme wisdom and experience of ancient sages—this was what allowed cultivators of any system to train in it. This was the true Heavenly Stele Profound Art.

“The Heavenly Stele Profound Art is merely a guiding method, leading you to become a sage or a god. In the end, it depends on your own enlightenment.”

The old turtle’s words finally made Xiao Chen feel a trace of warmth. He very much agreed with this kind of statement. But the old stone turtle’s next words made that warmth vanish.

“Kid, you’re too pathetic. After all this cultivation, you’re still far from the Ancestral God realm. You’re a complete waste.”

“Old master Wang, since you look down on me so much, may I ask what realm you’ve reached?”

“Realm?”

“What realm is that?”

“The realm of having never cultivated at all.”

Xiao Chen naturally didn’t believe him. This old turtle was unfathomable, impossible to read. Otherwise, he would have already beaten him up.

“Kid, how many years have you been cultivating?” The old turtle played the senior.

“Several hundred.”

“Several hundred?” A flash of surprise glimmered in the old turtle’s eyes. After a moment, he said, “Well, that’s not too bad.”

Xiao Chen had figured it out—the more he pressed, the more the old stone turtle would string him along. So he stopped paying him any attention and instead looked directly at the Heavenly Stele, hoping to obtain a new profound art.

“The Seventh Heavenly Stele—you might not be able to comprehend it. Even the Martial Ancestor of that year didn’t gain much from it,” the old stone turtle warned. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you force yourself to read it, your divine consciousness could shatter.”

Xiao Chen didn’t really believe him. He concentrated and observed, but soon discovered the truth. The patterns on the stele were abstruse and chaotic, impossible to understand.

Although each carved image had text above and below as annotations, he couldn’t recognize that script. It was too ancient; probably no one alive in this world could read it.

“Hm?”

Xiao Chen tried to forcibly imprint it into his mind, to memorize it first. But a demonic scene occurred. The stele became hazy, and the dense dragon-shaped characters on it all seemed to come alive—like little Ancestral Dragons, like divine serpents, writhing and slithering.

A tearing sound cut through the air. An extremely dangerous aura closed in. Tens of thousands of little Ancestral Dragons charged out of the stele, surging toward Xiao Chen like a flood.

Xiao Chen hastily activated his thirty War Swords. Divine radiance shot into the sky. Though the formation diagram had not yet coalesced, those little Ancestral Dragon-like creatures had suffered greatly before, so they hung in the air and confronted him warily.

“See? Didn’t I tell you?” The old stone turtle nearby put on an ‘I told you so’ look. “These characters have long become spiritual. They can take form, very different from the first six Heavenly Steles. If you try to force-read them, you can shatter your divine consciousness.”

Xiao Chen deeply felt that this stele was sinister.

He didn’t ask the old stone turtle, because he sensed that the old turtle was just waiting for him to open his mouth, waiting to mock him again.

“Old master Wang, do you know the true identity of the Martial Ancestor?” Xiao Chen switched topics.

“The Martial Ancestor is the Martial Ancestor. How could he have another identity?”

“I’ve always felt that the Martial Ancestor should be a prominent figure in history, someone everyone has heard of—not like now, only circulated among cultivators,” Xiao Chen said. He truly thought so; he felt the Martial Ancestor was merely a code name.

“Your guess is wrong. In the ancient history of civilization, many who made great contributions to humanity did not necessarily have their names passed down through the ages. There were many people whose ancestors created immortal deeds but eventually faded into the river of history, leaving nothing behind. Perhaps the Martial Ancestor represents such a group—a group of Ancestral Gods who worked in obscurity and willingly dedicated themselves in silence. He need not be a so-called ‘great figure’ engraved in history.”

Though Xiao Chen had always wanted to beat this old turtle, he now agreed with his viewpoint.

He walked toward several Otherworld Ancestral God corpses, preparing to begin a Holy Sacrifice. After all, having come here, he couldn’t return empty-handed from a mountain of treasures.

“You little bastard, you really are a butcher. You won’t even let the corpses go. You pluck every hair you can…”

As soon as Xiao Chen reached the Otherworld Ancestral God corpses, the old stone turtle guessed what he intended to do.

Xiao Chen rolled his eyes. This old turtle’s words were too grating, and he always targeted him. On the other side, Keke was absorbing the Ancestral Dragon essence, and the old turtle said nothing about that.

The incomplete Ancestral God corpse shells were truly a shocking sight. The divine blood on the ground blazed with piercing red light. Xiao Chen’s first choice was the hundred-zhang-tall black giant. After falling on the island, it lay like a black city wall.

Dead though it was, its might lingered!

“Kid, you sure have patience. You’re not asking me about the Heavenly Stele Profound Art now. When you’ve wasted these Ancestral God corpses, don’t regret it.”

Xiao Chen, who was about to act, stopped upon hearing this.

“Old master Wang, please enlighten me.”

“This stele is different from the first six. It has nearly gained spiritual nature. You need to use a vast amount of life essence to unlock the marks on it.”

After hearing this, Xiao Chen frowned. Besides needing a vast amount of life essence, he also required the “Heaven-Marks” from the other six steles.

A so-called “Heaven-Mark” was an indelible brand left by a Heavenly Stele.

The stele that once suppressed the Yellow River, at the moment it flew away, had left a miniature stele shadow on his body. The stele that had suppressed the Dead City, when it flew away, had also left a miniature stele imprint on him.

Those were the Heaven-Marks—the brands left by the Heavenly Steles.

Though Xiao Chen’s body had been shattered countless times, those two Heaven-Marks were deeply hidden within his divine source and had not been lost.

“Back then, the Martial Ancestor came here but never obtained the Heaven-Marks. Therefore, though he vaguely understood the profound art on the Seventh Heavenly Stele, he still could not fully penetrate it.” At this point, the old turtle also sighed with emotion. “He truly was a figure. Without the Heaven-Marks, he could still forcibly glimpse some of the stele’s essential meaning.”

The peerless Martial Ancestor’s extraordinary nature was evident!

“I have two Heaven-Marks.”

“Two? Not bad.” The old stone turtle nodded, for once not pouring cold water. “Apart from the methods recorded on the Seventh Heavenly Stele itself, its main function is to truly connect and integrate the six-stelae methods.”

Half an hour later, everything was ready. Xiao Chen’s entire life essence, wrapped around his spiritual consciousness, surged out of his body. It blazed with radiant light, shooting into the heavens, and then plunged into the hundred-zhang-tall black giant’s corpse.

At that moment, the black giant’s body trembled violently. Its eyes suddenly snapped open, shooting out two terrifying beams like torches.

An Ancestral God’s pressure shook heaven and earth, immediately causing even the Heavenly Stele to tremble.

The black giant sat cross-legged on the ground, still a hundred zhang tall. In that moment, it emanated a solemn, sacred aspect. Its entire body radiated divine splendor. Outside its body was a tens-of-zhang-thick layer of divine source, like a blazing holy fire wrapping around it, dazzling and brilliant.

The Ancestral God’s divine source fluctuations were vast as an ocean. Though the soul had long since faded, the potential sacred radiance hidden within the flesh was still incalculable!

Every meridian, every divine acupoint, every inch of flesh and blood held boundless terrifying divine power. Now, it was slowly being activated.

The black giant’s body seethed with surging divine force. Its flesh was burning!

The profound art recorded in the Martial Ancestor’s Forbidden Chapter—the Holy Sacrifice—had begun!

Defying heaven, ascending against the celestial order!

Ancient sacrificial sounds arose. Heaven and earth seemed filled with the chanting of thirty thousand Buddhas and the devout prayers of ninety thousand demon lords, carried across the ages through space and time.

The sacrificial sounds shook heaven and earth. Hymns swirled, divine radiance shone everywhere. The Ancestral God corpse shell seated cross-legged on the ground blazed with ten-thousand-zhang light, burning fiercely.

At the same time, Xiao Chen’s true body slowly rose into the sky, sitting cross-legged above the black giant’s head. It received the baptism of the Holy Sacrifice, bathed in billions of divine essence. The flesh shell’s light grew ever brighter.

Boom!

The Heavenly Stele shook and trembled. The patterns on it blazed with intense light. The vast divine radiance spilling across the island unlocked the mysterious inheritance.

All the characters shone brilliantly. At that moment, the first Heaven-Mark deep within Xiao Chen’s divine source suddenly lit up!

In a rumbling sound, space collapsed and re-formed. A colossal Heavenly Stele materialized—the very ancient stele that had once suppressed the Yellow River. It manifested here from a distant, unknown region.

Two immense Heavenly Steles clamped Xiao Chen’s true body and the enormous Otherworld Ancestral God corpse shell between them. Connecting it all was the first Heaven-Mark in Xiao Chen’s divine source.…