The Seventh Heavenly Stele Rises

The Seventh Heavenly Stele swelled into a towering mountain, piercing the clouds. The old turtle tottered upon it, looking decrepit and ancient, as he chided the Otherworld Stone Man: “You’ve a pair of stone eyes that can see through the Source, but you’re still blind.”

With a series of sharp cracks, the old turtle stood upright and transformed into a humanoid form. The tortoise shell clung to his body like divine armor, and a terrifying battle aura erupted from him. In a flash, he shot forward, a single fist smashing toward the Stone Man’s back.

All of this happened in an instant. Surpassing light itself, time reversed and space collapsed; the very fabric of reality shattered around them.

The old turtle had become a stone being clad in a tortoise shell, his might overwhelming the heavens, his ferocious aura piercing the Nine Heavens and shaking all worlds!

“Roar!” The Stone Man bellowed in fury. For the first time, he sensed lethal danger. He had believed himself invincible, but now this decrepit turtle—who had just moments ago called himself a cripple—unleashed such terrifying power.

In that moment, he understood: Wu Zu and the others had chosen to retreat here precisely to create an opening for this old turtle!

“Boom!” The stone tortoise’s humanoid body, clad in its shell, struck with overwhelming ferocity. The first punch tore straight through the Stone Man’s back, shattering his chest in a spray of strange, vivid red blood.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!” The stone man’s torso exploded into fragments. Blood of a sinister red drenched the sky!

The old stone tortoise moved too fast, struck with ruthless precision—there was no way to dodge.

“Ahhh…” The Stone Man roared; he tried to reverse time and undo the damage, and the shattered chest blazed with yellow light. But the old stone tortoise gave him no chance. In that instant, he dominated the moment—all of heaven and earth pulsed in sync with him, sealing space and time.

“Boom!” The second punch struck the Stone Man’s skull, splitting it into pieces. No brains; only fresh red stone blood sprayed, and yellow radiance dispersed.

The moment the first punch landed, the Stone Man had lost the initiative. Once behind, it was impossible to turn the tide.

“Roar…” The Stone Man’s soul howled, shaking all worlds and making every star in the void tremble.

The old stone tortoise was utterly transformed. In this moment, he struck with cold determination, his gaze sharp and merciless.

“Boom!” The third punch—the humanoid stone body clad in tortoise shell delivered a blow that shattered eternity itself. Divine might crushed the Three Realms and Six Paths!

He gave the Stone Man no chance. Space and time were his to command; he was the sole sovereign of heaven and earth.

That single punch reduced the Stone Man to powder. Vivid, fresh stone blood stained the sky, and the Stone Man’s agonized roar was cut short—his body was lost.

Not only was every Otherworld god a step behind, even the three Supreme Ancestral Gods were too slow to react. The old stone tortoise had reversed time, and by the time they acted, the three world-shaking punches had already ended.

After those three blows, the godlike humanoid stone body faded. Its brilliant divine radiance surged toward the Heavenly Stele, and the patterns on the stele’s surface reappeared.

The old stone tortoise was nearly extinguished—only a shadow remained, which imprinted itself on the stele as a carved image of a tortoise.

“I may be a cripple now, just a shadow, but I was always a supreme expert within three moves. Today I’ve finally let out ten million years of pent-up frustration,” the old stone tortoise’s voice came from within the stele.

In that moment, everyone understood. The Ancestral Gods of the Nine Provinces had created an opening for this old tortoise to strike.

All the Otherworld Ancestral Gods were stunned. They frantically poured their life’s divine essence toward the Stone Man’s blood in the sky, trying to repair his stone body.

“Roar…” The Stone Man growled low. His blood began to re-coalesce, but his body had been shattered so thoroughly that even when reassembled, cracks remained—testament to the force of that attack, which still suppressed his recovery.

“Ammm—Kah—Ah—Howl—Mou—Zhap—Tsao—Dau!”

The Eight Origin Sounds trembled, tearing through all life’s divine essence and assaulting the gravely wounded Stone Man.

“Boom!” The Otherworld Stone Man collapsed again; blood flooded the sky.

“Kill!” The Otherworld gods raged, a torrent of divine light sweeping toward them. The Heavenly Stele shuddered, blocking most of the radiance.

“Go!” Yan Huang and the old Ancestral Dragon shouted. The Ancestral Lord Warship flickered with light, tearing through the great worlds and vanishing.

Just as the Otherworld gods breathed a sigh of relief, the blood mist that had just begun to re-form erupted with the sound of a celestial war drum.

“Boom… boom… boom…” The Stone Man’s fractured body shattered once more.

The ancient relic of the Celestial Race did not retreat. Instead, he traversed time to slay the Stone Man’s past incarnation, again crushing him to pieces.

“You seek death!” the gods roared.

In that moment, within the Eternal Unknown, one of the three Supreme Ancestral Gods’ eyes went hollow. His soul charged into the temporal tunnel to intercept and kill the ancient Celestial.

“Boom!” At that moment, the Curse World shuddered again. The incomplete divine diagram materialized, and all eight sounds vibrated together, pressing down upon the blood mist in the sky.

A thunderous explosion! Stone blood sprayed, blood mist scattered.

All the Otherworld Ancestral Gods howled in fury. They did everything to protect him, but the Stone Man had been broken before the Heavenly Stele. The stele’s divine radiance blazed, grinding away most of the protective power of the gods, making it impossible to effectively shield the shattered stone body.

“Boom!” Just then, the Martial Ancestor appeared. He condensed the power of the Twelve War Ancestors, unleashing an overwhelming, savage force that pounded the floating stone fragments.

“Boom… boom…” In the Eternal Unknown, the two remaining Supreme Ancestral Gods—except the one who had gone to hunt the ancient Celestial—both struck. Their terrible divine arts rained down.

The Twelve War Ancestors raised their fists to meet them, intercepting the techniques of the two Supremes. In that same moment, a hazy yellow light suddenly appeared in the Martial Ancestor’s right hand—a simple stone blade, which he gripped and hacked downward.

It was the Stone Man’s most terrifying weapon. The Stone Man who had wreaked havoc in the otherworld had been shattered, but this blade remained intact. Xiao Chen had passed it to the Martial Ancestor.

“Shiiing!” The blade cut across the sky. A faint yellow light flashed, and all the worlds in the void trembled.

A strike of peerless power! Even if the Stone Man had been whole, he would have been wounded by this blow.

“Boom!” The blood mist split open. The floating stone fragments fell like dust and sand, their yellow light dispersing—that was the Stone Man’s essence, draining away in a rush.

“Rumble…” The Heavenly Stele, blazing with divine light, shook. Its divine power seemed to flag, and it quickly shrank before sinking into the abyss, vanishing from sight.

Only then did the spells and divine techniques of the gods all come crashing down.

“Go!” The ancient Celestial reappeared, returning from the past to the present. A trace of blood at the corner of his mouth, he vanished in an instant.

“Shush—” Xiao Chen also disappeared without a trace. As long as the Ancestral Lord Warship remained in the Death World, he could return there at will.

“Boom!” The Martial Ancestor, wielding the stone blade, slashed through the sky. He swung several more times, then tore a hole through heaven and earth, vanishing—he too had a secret art to return to the Death World.

The gods madly rushed toward the void where the Stone Man had been ground to powder, joining hands to condense the divine essence of life.

After an uncountable time, a pile of stone dust finally re-coalesced, but it could no longer re-form a stone body.

From the Eternal Unknown, the voice of the three Supreme Ancestral Gods descended:

“Nourished by the power of an Ancestral God, perhaps ten thousand years will be needed to bring him back into this world.”

The three of them, as calm as an ancient well, did not leave their place even after the Stone Man had been shattered. Like petrified figures, they sat back down, unmoving.

The gods fell silent.

A peerless Stone Man who could have swept all before him—destroyed in less than a day. It was infuriating.

“Our clan has supreme experts about to awaken. When they emerge, the Death World will be utterly cleansed!” one of the Otherworld Ancestral Gods roared.

“Exactly. If a few other Supreme Ancestral Gods lead the army, this realm of the dead will be trampled flat.”

To this, the three Supreme Ancestral Gods in the Eternal Unknown made no response.

Those Otherworld Ancestral Gods who were in the Curse World looked toward the Eternal Unknown, then exchanged glances. In low voices, they said: “It is time to invite one of the patriarchs to take command. Let us first shatter the Nine Provinces and the Four Worlds. A new race must appear. The cycle must begin anew.”

“And perhaps now is truly the time to settle the matter of the Heavenly Steles once and for all,” said an Otherworld Ancestral God, his voice dripping with cold menace.