Blocked at the Heavenly Waterfall

Ge Qian crossed ten thousand miles in a single step, his stone arm sweeping across the vault of heaven to sever the celestial path, forcing Xiao Chen out of concealment.

Ge Qian blocked the road ahead, his ashen-grey hair fluttering in the wind, his hollow eyes utterly devoid of color—like two abysses. He was calm to the point of cruelty, his gaze fixed on Xiao Chen. ‘You cannot go to the Celestial Realm.’

Xiao Chen looked at Ge Qian. He did not shout, nor did he attack. Instead, he transmitted his voice directly into Ge Qian’s heart with a secret divine thought: ‘Ge Qian, what kind of person are you, truly?’

‘I don’t care about anything else, but you must help me repair the Divine City. Otherwise, the Nine Provinces and the Four Realms will run with blood, the dead will pile like mountains, and all will cease to exist.’ A cold, cruel smile twisted Ge Qian’s lips.

‘You—’ Xiao Chen did not wish to fight him, for he knew the other was far too powerful.

‘Shua!’

Xiao Chen gripped the token and once more tore through space, vanishing from the spot.

‘It’s useless!’

As Ge Qian spoke, he threw a punch.

‘Boom!’ That stretch of sky instantly shattered into pieces, beaten into chaos by his fist. Xiao Chen was forced out again, the divine diagram swirling hazy before him. Without the formation diagram protecting him, he would scarcely have withstood that fierce blow.

Ge Qian stood quietly like a lotus, his right hand raised slightly. A fallen leaf drifting several thousand li away instantly appeared between his fingers.

‘Autumn wind sighs, yellow leaves wither. If you do not leave now, you too will return to the yellow earth like this leaf…’ Ge Qian’s words gradually grew cold.

‘Then try it!’ Xiao Chen wanted to test just how powerful Ge Qian truly was. The divine diagram swirled, thirty-three war swords orbited beside him, and at the same time, two Heavenly Marks emerged in his palms, transforming into two heavenly steles that blocked the path ahead.

In that moment, Ge Qian’s aura changed utterly. His hair lashed like a demon’s arms, his hollow eyes grew even deeper and more fearsome. With a demonic roar, his stone arm swept forward.

‘Boom!’

At that instant, the entire Nine Provinces shook. The nine ancient lamps trembled, swaying with dreamlike radiance, steadying the earth and the four seas that were suffering extinction-level attacks.

But in this stretch of sky, a light more dazzling than the sun burst forth. No one could look directly at it; it was impossible to imagine what level of divine power that raging torrent had reached.

The war swords chimed with a clear ring, the heavenly steles rumbled, and the divine diagram shook violently. Xiao Chen returned to the Death World in the first instant. He had touched and then retreated, sensing the terrifying aura of the once-invincible stone man. He chose to withdraw.

Was this Ge Qian’s true battle strength? Or did he still hold back? Xiao Chen could not know, but he was certain that the Human Devil’s reputation was well earned—once he truly erupted, he could sweep the world!

Above the Nine Provinces, Ge Qian retracted his overwhelming aura and once more became a melancholic, wasted man. He gazed up at the sky, then lowered his head to look at the withered leaf between his fingers. He muttered to himself: ‘Life comes in haste and goes in haste, like a falling leaf—fleeting, never everlasting.’

With that, Ge Qian, filled with boundless loss, walked step by step toward the sea, his back finally dissolving into a black dot.

Back in the Death World, Xiao Chen was not disheartened. He stared at the token in his hand, a glimmer of hope rising in his heart.

Not long ago, patterns had emerged from the token, divine power flowing from it, urging him toward a mysterious, unknown domain—could that be the Celestial Realm?

Sitting quietly on a dead mountain range, Xiao Chen closed his eyes in contemplation. Ge Qian was a man he could not see through, hard to define.

After a brief reflection, he cast aside these thoughts and began to cultivate in stillness.

It was only three months later that he opened his eyes on the dead mountain and rose to his feet. ‘So much time has passed—the Human Devil should have relaxed his vigilance,’ he thought. Xiao Chen decided to return to the Nine Provinces and attempt to break through to the Celestial Realm.

For in the Death World, the token lay inert like a dead thing, seemingly only usable from the Nine Provinces.

When Xiao Chen appeared silently in the Nine Provinces, he stood in a desolate, silent expanse of Gobi. He silently channeled his divine power and summoned the token.

In the next instant, all was a blur of color. Xiao Chen shot through dark space like a meteor. Before long, a glimmer of light appeared ahead. He saw a colossal waterfall hanging before him, roaring down from a dark horizon—unknown how many tens of thousands of li long.

And at that moment, he saw a giant, as if cast from molten iron, sitting silently before the mysterious waterfall.

The giant, though seated, stood a thousand zhang tall, like a mountain of iron sitting there. Surging life force poured from him, blazing like a furnace—one felt one’s heart tremble even at a great distance.

This person’s physique was monstrously powerful, his divine energy vast as an ocean. Clearly, this was a Supreme Ancestral God!

‘So you’ve come.’ The giant opened his eyes, each like a deep, icy pool. His voice rumbled: ‘I knew you would come.’

‘Bang!’

At that moment, the great waterfall shook. Ge Qian’s figure appeared through the watery curtain. He sat quietly, gazing at Xiao Chen. ‘This waterfall that leads to the Celestial Realm has been sealed for I know not how many ages. Even if you have obtained the token and found this place, you cannot ascend to heaven.’

The Otherworld’s upper powerhouse had already been waiting here, giving Xiao Chen no chance to break through to the Celestial Realm.

Just then, the token in Xiao Chen’s hand began to melt—it was about to disappear!

At that moment, a set of information reached him: the opportunity could only be used once. The token could help him ascend to the Primordial Celestial Realm, but there was a time limit; once it passed, the token would self-destruct.

Xiao Chen’s heart grew anxious. There was only one chance—if he did not try, there truly was no hope for the Nine Provinces. They urgently needed the power of the Celestial Realm. Yet ahead stood an enemy as formidable as Ge Qian. Could he really break through?

‘Boom!’

Xiao Chen merged his body to complete the divine diagram, at the same time fusing with the thirty-three war swords—sword and diagram conjoined. This was the second time he had manifested such a sword formation since his battle with the invincible stone man.

But this time, there was no Yellow Clay Altar beside him to protect him—extremely dangerous.

For the power of the sword formation was too great. Once activated, his body could crack at any moment.

Yet under these dire circumstances, he had no choice. He had to grit his teeth and take the risk.

‘Rumble!’

At the same time, the divine diagram shook, the thirty-three war swords hummed, and even a physique as powerful as Xiao Chen’s began to ooze blood. Cracks appeared on the surface of his body like a spiderweb.

Myriad divine rays burst forth, each one the sharpest sword light in the world!

Without any hesitation, Xiao Chen, carrying the melting token, shot upward against the great waterfall.

‘Bang!’

The giant beside him struck out. His massive hand tore the sky, covering the heavens, instantly enveloping Xiao Chen from above and slamming down.

That dark-black palm seemed forged from iron, gleaming with a cold, eerie light. The supreme might of a Supreme Ancestral God erupted.

‘Chi, chi, chi!’

Sword qi pierced the heavens. Xiao Chen merged with the divine diagram and with the thirty-three war swords, transforming into a blaze of dazzling light that rushed into the sky. Beams of sword qi stabbed into the giant’s palm.

A dull impact sound rang out. The giant reeled as if struck by lightning, roars tearing from his throat. Blood poured from his hand, the blood of a Supreme Ancestral God spilling down, dyeing the great waterfall red.

But it was only a bloody wound—his palm had not been crushed. This was a Supreme Ancestral God who cultivated his body; his palm and fingers were practically comparable to a Stone Body, frightening in their toughness.

Just as that great hand was about to strike Xiao Chen and the divine diagram, Xiao Chen had no choice but to grit his teeth and activate the formation’s trumped power.

Yet his body suffered heavy damage as well. Cracks spread across his frame like bloody veins.

At the same time, two Heaven Marks surfaced on his flesh to stave off the worsening injuries.

But it was also at this moment that the sword formation unleashed its truly terrifying might. Thousands upon thousands of sword beams soared, sweeping toward that enormous hand.

‘Bang!’

The giant turned his hand, shifting clouds and rain; the great hand vanished in an instant, withdrawing tens of thousands of divine lights. He dared not meet that edge head-on.

‘Hmph!’

Ge Qian snorted coldly. He shot up from within the great water fall, his stone arm swelling as it swept toward the void, colliding with the myriad beams of light.

‘Boom!’

The war swords chimed sharply. Xiao Chen and the formation diagram trembled simultaneously. The formation diagram was unharmed, but Xiao Chen’s body gushed blood like a river.

Ge Qian’s battle power rivaled that of the stone man—even fiercer than the invincible stone man of that former age!

‘Why must I face this every time?’ Ge Qian rose to a high altitude. ‘Personally crushing a potential Ancestral God-level powerhouse is not my desire.’

‘Less talk—if you can kill me, kill me. If you cannot, get out of the way!’

Xiao Chen condensed the formation diagram and the thirty-three war swords, shook out the two heavenly steles simultaneously, and despite his blood-drenched body, he continued to press the divine diagram further, letting his body tear apart.

‘Ge Qian, let me handle this!’

The seated giant stood up. Inside his mouth, star-like celestial bodies entered and exited with his breath.

‘Bang!’

Two divine stars hurtled toward Xiao Chen—planets refined by a Supreme Ancestral God, certainly no ordinary things!

‘Kill!’

Xiao Chen roared and launched his assault against both Ancestral Gods trapping the sky simultaneously. The divine diagram blazed dazzlingly, trembling continuously, while Xiao Chen’s body nearly split into four or five pieces!

Without the Yellow Clay Altar to protect him, displaying the overbearing origin power of the divine diagram was something his body could not bear.

‘Dong!’

Divine brilliance converged into a curtain of light that covered the two sun-and-moon-like divine stars. In an instant, they were ground into divine sand.

At the same time, even Ge Qian’s stone arm was cracked with hairline fissures.

Two cold snorts rang out. Ge Qian and the giant struck simultaneously, attacking from above. But in the end, Ge Qian’s stone arm was faster, burying that spot in an instant.

Yet when the commotion subsided, the sky was empty—only a few specks of blood mist drifted in the air.

The giant swept his gaze around and asked, ‘Where did you send him?’ The Supreme Ancestral God stared at the great waterfall descending from the horizon.

‘The Land of Chaos.’ Ge Qian’s voice was ice-cold. He stared mercilessly at the giant. ‘Do you want to go collect his bones?’

‘The Land of Chaos—the wasteland of that race that once shattered my world’s origin? Though they are extinct, that place is still terrifying—it can grind away everything.’ The giant shook his head and sat back down beneath the waterfall. He asked, ‘But what about the divine diagram and the war swords?’

‘The divine diagram cannot be destroyed. One day it will burst forth again.’