The Miniature Divine City and the Little Beast

Within the divine city, a miniature replica had emerged—identical in every detail, even the same divine aura. It was a shocking sight. Though no larger than a grand palace, the miniature city exuded the same soul-shaking pressure as the colossal fortress above it. This was the essence refined, the divine splendor of the ancient city.

Five Dao imprints revolved slowly, radiating their mysteries toward the miniature city below, revealing five profound and distant realms of being. Five towering figures stood hazy and indistinct, beyond the penetration of even a wisdom eye—they were embodiments of the Dao itself, mere vessels for the Great Dao's revelation.

Just then, a childish murmur drifted from the miniature city. A wisp of milky white mist coalesced into a small, snow-white beast. It gazed at the five Dao imprints with confusion. Its eyes were clear and pure, like a newborn infant's—untouched by the world's vulgarity, innocent as mountain snow, radiant with truth and purity.

A gentle breeze passed, and the little beast dissolved into mist, scattering among the five imprints. A moment later, it reappeared amid the five towering figures, looking back and forth in bewilderment. It seemed like an uncomprehending child, completely unaware that these were the divine embodiments of the Dao, a supreme realm opening its gates for it—and yet it was so lost, so puzzled.

"Can it truly know nothing? Is it a pure infant?" Xiao Chen wondered.

The five Dao imprints revolved around the little beast, occasionally rippling with mysterious waves, finally making the quiet creature realize something. It scratched its head in a daze, then began to stare fixedly at the imprints. A surge of powerful divine sense burst forth, rippling among the five figures.

Gradually, the little beast seemed to perceive something. A flicker of light shone in its clear, clean eyes, and it began to gaze with intense focus. Then it became utterly absorbed, as if sinking into a profound and mysterious realm—staring blankly, lost in thought.

It was a strange sight: above the miniature city, a tiny beast sucking on a pacifier, sometimes confused, sometimes delighted, appearing as if comprehending the Dao.

A divine city giving birth to a miniature city! This stirred countless thoughts—even more shocking than a Stone Man emerging from it. Xiao Chen stared fixedly, his mind churning with implications.

Meanwhile, the five Dao imprints continued to revolve, emitting unfathomable ripples that gradually calmed Xiao Chen's heart. It felt as though the river of life had nourished his stagnant divine consciousness. All manner of Dao imprints and myriad mystic techniques spontaneously arose in his mind. His spirit trembled, growing condensed, approaching a more perfect state.

The cultivation of divine consciousness was arduous—some attained the Dao in a single day, others advanced not even in ten thousand years. It all depended on chance and personal insight. In the past centuries, Xiao Chen's cultivation had progressed swiftly, but during the fifty years in the Waste Wasteland, he had made no progress at all, sitting here for five decades in an attempt to claim the five Daos.

Now the bottleneck finally loosened; he felt he could take another step upward. Perhaps his spiritual cultivation could touch the Ninth Heaven realm.

"A-o-m..." the little beast, still sucking its pacifier, murmured again, startling Xiao Chen awake. The five Dao imprints had now condensed into five beams of light, converging above the divine city. The little beast's form scattered once more, dissolving into white mist and returning to the city.

The five beams of light condensed into a primordial source, covering the city, making the place ever more mysterious. Xiao Chen's spirit felt more condensed. He tried to probe forward, wanting to enter the Dao's source, but met immense resistance—he could not approach, could not penetrate.

Perhaps there truly were favored children of heaven, but at this moment, Xiao Chen was not one of them. The five Daos did not favor him; they had chosen a race that defied heaven.

"I need to steal heaven and replace it soon," Xiao Chen mused. He felt he must quickly find another descendant of an Otherworld Stone Man king and seize a source imprint. And he believed that once he reached a certain level, he could comprehend the five Dao sources within his body.

"Eh, what's that?" Just then, Xiao Chen was greatly startled by a major discovery. Though his divine consciousness could not penetrate the Dao source or the divine city, it clearly perceived the surroundings. Beneath the divine city lay a broken Stone Woman!

The stone quality was extraordinary—she must have been a powerhouse who had taken the final step. Though her stone body was shattered, her form was graceful and slender—in life, she must have been a woman of peerless beauty. Even as stone, she exuded an otherworldly aura, a unique divine charm.

"This is..." Xiao Chen was utterly astonished. He clearly saw the situation: the miniature divine city had grown from the broken Stone Woman, its roots connected to her shattered body, drawing on her divine power.

"The broken Stone Woman, heading toward destruction, yet giving birth to life within death—a miniature divine city, the power of new life slowly nurturing a new self." That was Xiao Chen's inference. He found it incredible. The Stone Woman who had taken the final step had perished, yet used her broken body to nurture a seed of hope, perhaps to come into this world anew.

"So... that innocent, ignorant little beast is the life born from the hope amidst death?" Xiao Chen was dumbfounded. If so, the quiet little beast must have an enormous origin—it should be an ancestor of Keke.

White mist swirled gently. The miniature divine city trembled, and the Dao source above dispersed into five figures. One of them shot down into the miniature city. At the same time, the little beast reappeared. Both revolved together, gradually merging with the entire city. There was only mist and mystery.

"The newborn little beast is made of white mist—has it not truly regrown flesh and blood? Or is that merely its spirit?"

Xiao Chen had witnessed one of the Dao imprints descend and merge with the city. He did not stop it. Whatever was meant to leave would eventually leave; even if he tried to block it, he could not. Perhaps the five Dao imprints had only used him as a vessel to transmit the Dao. But even so, Xiao Chen had no complaint. Unlike those Otherworld supreme Dao Recesses who wasted the Waste Wasteland, he was glad to see the legacy of the five Stone Man kings continue.

Xiao Chen stood quietly by, watching and guarding. Just then, the miniature city grew increasingly hazy, and scenes and images began to emerge around it.

On a verdant land, a woman—made of stone, yet graceful and beautiful—embodied the very spirit of heaven and earth. She was more ethereal and transcendent than any being of flesh and blood. But the scene shifted startlingly: blood surged heaven-high, and the peerless Stone Woman was slaughtering on a vast scale, shedding her earlier elegance, her killing intent boundless.

"Those she killed... were they Ancestral Gods and War Ancestors?" Xiao Chen saw through the images that the Stone Woman strode among a host of experts, her jade palms sweeping in all directions, unstoppable. All divine techniques hurled at her proved useless. Her transcendent powers were unrivaled. She raised a pair of shapely, beautiful hands, emitting myriad auspicious lights, shattering every attack, forcing a host of powerful enemies to fall, spilling blood across all corners.

In the images, the Stone Woman was an Asura incarnate, slaughtering in all directions, none could withstand her.

Blinding blood light submerged that place. No one could break through the curtain of blood; all were trapped by the peerlessly elegant Stone Woman.

"Persecuting my family, separating me from my loved ones, causing my elders to fall, severing my family's bloodline—you minions, no one can escape!"

Heaven and earth trembled. It was hard to imagine what divine ability could do such terrible work. All were sealed within, not a single one could flee. Though the peerless Stone Woman was ethereal and beautiful, her methods were unyielding, her divine arts unmatched. Amid the images, enemies fell one after another, blood spurting into the sky.

Just as the end drew near, the sky reverberated. A patch of purple clouds shone from the east. Purple qi came from the east—boundless purple mist surged swiftly to above the Stone Woman, covering the land.

"Purple Cloud Stone King, you have come after all. You must have been involved in the curse that struck my clan in the past!" The woman looked up at the sky, facing the endless purple mist spreading eastward, unafraid.

"Boom!"

The purple qi from the east descended directly, burying the Stone Woman beneath it. It was impossible to guess the scale of combat between such supreme beings! Even though it was only a scene from ten thousand years ago, Xiao Chen's divine consciousness was forced back; he could not face the purple clouds descending and overwhelming that place.

Vaguely, divine technique clashes rumbled within the purple mist, slaying and shattering chaos. The great battle lasted half an hour before all light gradually faded.

The Stone Woman fell to the earth like a broken-winged angel. Her graceful jade body was cracked in many places, golden blood flowing.

"This king grants you death. Your family truly should not have existed in this world!" A voice proclaimed coldly.

"If you want to kill me, I will take you with me!" The Stone Woman, her body shattered in many places, still refused to yield. With a mighty gesture, she cracked the earth open. A majestic divine city rose up from the ground and merged with her, condensing into a brilliant divine light that illuminated the entire Celestial Realm.

Then, the divine city shot into the sky, directly toward the purple mist above.

"Boom!"

The final great collision shook the boundless Celestial Realm three times. With a rumble, the broken divine city fell, burying itself deep in the earth. The heaven-defying family's extraordinary woman had faded away, vanishing from the Celestial Realm.

And the purple mist was also shaken apart. Within it, a towering Stone Man's body was shattered into several pieces. All the purple qi wrapped around him and rushed toward the far eastern horizon.

So that was what happened back then? Xiao Chen saw the final images, feeling a pang of regret. That was Keke's ancestor, struck down like this.

But he quickly recovered. Death was not the end. That extraordinary woman, beautiful and powerful, after eons of silence, had actually caused a divine city to be born within a divine city, giving rise to life amid death and growing a brand-new self. Such methods were beyond imagination! A divine city pregnant within another divine city—an unprecedented miracle. He wondered if she would still have her former power after resurrection.

By now, within his brief time in the Celestial Realm, Xiao Chen had learned of three supreme powers: the Stone Corpse Lotus King, the Purple Cloud Stone King, and perhaps a third. He had yet to learn of the others.

"A-o-m..." The little beast's muttering came from the miniature city. The Dao imprint that had merged with the city slowly rose, separating once more, standing alongside the other four towering figures above.

The little beast reappeared outside the city, its eyes clear and pure, without a single impurity, truly like a newborn infant.

Could it have forgotten the past entirely, with a mind pure and simple, retaining no memories? Xiao Chen's thought flashed by; he felt it highly possible. Otherwise, why would the little beast be so immature and lost? But if it were the extraordinary woman of the past, how could it have initially felt nothing for the five Dao imprints, not knowing what they were? Yet ultimately, its transcendent talent allowed it to merge with the imprints even in its ignorance, sensing their divine charm and acquiring the source imprint.

This little beast was gentle and quiet, seeming to have truly forgotten everything. Looking at its pure form, Xiao Chen found it hard to connect it to that peerless heavenly woman.

How many secrets had the cursed family hidden? What was their true origin? And who could curse such a family?

The five Dao imprints did not leave Xiao Chen; they chose to remain within him. He was surprised—he thought that after finding a successor, they might depart, but they had not abandoned him.

Today, he had benefited greatly. His divine consciousness felt condensed, ready to enter the Ninth Heaven at any moment. He felt an urgent need to hunt down a descendant of an Otherworld Stone Man king and seize their source imprint, to steal the essence of their Dao, only then could he truly study these five Dao imprints.

He wanted to grow stronger, to become a Stone Man king, to roam the Celestial Realm, and to resolve the crisis of the Nine Provinces.

"You cannot stay here much longer. Perhaps you should leave, or else your enemies will soon know—not that your resentment lingers, but that you have been reborn," Xiao Chen said, gazing at the quiet white beast.

The creature looked at him, tilting its head in adorable confusion.

To think this was once a heavenly woman, now reduced to a little beast—Xiao Chen's emotions were complex.

"Yes, you must leave here. I have shielded the heavenly secrets only until today. If you stay longer, danger will truly come." An aged voice suddenly rang out.

Xiao Chen was greatly startled, looking around but seeing nothing.

"Leave this place. Go to Pan Gu's Land. That may be the last sanctuary. You can comprehend the Dao there."

"Pan Gu's Land?!" Xiao Chen revealed a look of surprise.