A Cycle Ends

The old goat was the Stone Emperor. Xiao Chen was not greatly surprised—he had long suspected as much. But now, he found it hard to remain calm. The Stone Emperor's form grew faint, slowly fading, on the verge of vanishing forever.

Yet the old rogue faced death with extraordinary composure. Without a trace of fear, he smiled at Xiao Chen one last time, and then he was gone completely.

"Three thousand years later…"

Three thousand years again. That number pierced Xiao Chen’s heart like a cold blade.

In that moment, he was deeply shaken. Even one as powerful as the Stone Emperor could not master his own fate. In the end, he had been taken by a coalition of enemies, and this fall was inescapable.

Though Xiao Chen knew that the Stone Emperor's death was not absolute annihilation, he still felt a profound desolation.

He thought of himself. His strength was far, far from enough. He could not even begin to contend with the giants of the Celestial Realm. He had no choice but to watch helplessly as the Stone Emperor disappeared.

The giant palace blocked the Chaos Passage, cutting off all connection to the Celestial Realm. Xiao Chen lingered there for a moment, then strode away.

In the Land of Chaos, three blood-red moons hung in the sky, their light eerie and sinister. Upon the desolate plain, a black hurricane like a surging torrent carried a giant of darkness who ran tirelessly, a dozen shattered Ancestral God weapons flying and flashing within the black wind.

The resentment of the Land of Chaos would never end; its rancor would never dissipate. Nothing here could ever change. This was a hatred spanning billions of years, the blood and tears of an entire world, its sorrow and lament.

Xiao Chen walked across this land, searching for a way back. Decades had passed since he left the Nine Provinces. He could not imagine what the lower realm had become.

The world did not revolve around him. Stars turned, great rivers flowed—each followed its own course. So many years had passed; too many things must have changed in his original world. He could hardly bear to imagine what it was like now.

His heart was filled with dread. It was not impossible that the Otherworld had already struck, wiping out every living being.

More than fifty years had gone by. Even a single year, even a single day, could change everything.

The Land of Chaos was not vast—merely a remnant corner of the original source world. Xiao Chen traversed this ruined territory, gazing up at the three blood-red moons. Then, under the moonlight, he unfurled the ancient scroll and shook it vigorously. His figure gradually blurred, and he vanished from this world.

Having grasped part of the world's origin and sensed the barrier of the great world, Xiao Chen used the ancient scroll to tear through space and set out on the journey home.

Xiao Chen's return was quiet, causing no disturbance.

It was a tranquil night. Heavy snow had buried everything, leaving the world white and silent.

Stillness and death filled the land. Xiao Chen trod through thick snow, passing ruined cities, seeing no sign of life anywhere.

A bright moon hung in the sky, its light falling on the snow. It should have been gentle, but to Xiao Chen it seemed harsh, glaring.

Upon the lifeless earth, the moon's watery radiance appeared pallid, deathly white.

Broken cities, barren wilderness—a thousand li without a trace of smoke. The whole land was silent. Xiao Chen walked across most of the Nine Provinces, yet found no living being.

A peerless expert had used a great hand-seal to forcibly erase countless living souls from the earth. Even the white snow could not fully cover the terrible marks.

He traversed the entire Nine Provinces. Except for one place, every region was dead and lifeless. The once-prosperous Nine Provinces had been shattered, reduced to rubble.

Only one region blazed with light: the divine capital Luoyang. There, a powerful life force surged into the heavens. Only those who had reached the Ancestral God realm could clearly see it—a life aura coiling like an Ancestral Dragon.

The sole wellspring of life!

But Xiao Chen could not approach; he could only watch from afar.

Seated in Luoyang were several Otherworld experts. The life beam piercing the sky was the natural overflow of their combined auras, invisible to ordinary eyes.

"In the end, I came back too late…"

Xiao Chen stared into the distance, yet he knew that even if he had returned earlier, he could not have changed anything.

The entire Nine Provinces were destroyed. Nothing remained. This was the change wrought by fifty years.

A terrible change!

Though he had not witnessed it, Xiao Chen could imagine the tragic scenes of the final days.

With a flicker, Xiao Chen tore through space and left the Nine Provinces, entering the World of Immortality.

Sunlight blazed bright. Before him stretched a vast, majestic sea, and beyond it lay the immense Eternal Continent. Near the Southern Wastes, the land was lush and verdant, seeming full of life.

But only when he drew close did he realize that aside from vegetation, there was no trace of beasts or humans. Xiao Chen rushed toward Heavenly Emperor City in the Southern Wastes.

Just then, a cold voice suddenly rang out: "You are still alive!"

He turned his head. His old enemies, the Ancestral Gods Blue Yufeng and Lu Lopes—Ancestral Gods who had appeared in the previous civilization era of the Otherworld—stood there.

"Your luck is truly tenacious."

Both seemed very surprised, but they did not attack. By the time Xiao Chen unfurled the ancient scroll, their figures had already faded, teleporting thousands of li away in an instant.

Xiao Chen unfolded the scroll and pursued them through space, arriving with them deep within the Eternal Continent.

"Kill! Kill!"

The vast land was engulfed in flames of war. Was this what the World of Immortality had become? The mountains and rivers were ravaged, cities crumbled, and overgrown ruins spoke of desolation.

They were not particularly powerful Otherworld cultivators—just ordinary soldiers slaughtering across the land. This was clearly meant to hone their killing instinct, not to train their combat skills, for the World of Immortality no longer had any true masters. The victims were mostly ordinary cultivators.

Blue Yufeng and Lu Lopes stopped abruptly. Ahead, two figures stood in the sky, looking down upon the scene.

Two super-Ancestral Gods, both at the Seventh Heaven of the Ancestral God realm. This was the limit Xiao Chen could currently contend with. He had killed a Sixth Heaven Ancestral God in the Celestial Realm, but had been relentlessly hunted by an Eighth Heaven Ancestral God.

Relying on external artifacts, he was now equivalent to a Seventh Heaven Ancestral God. But now two such beings stood before him.

"Your life is truly hard. Even the Land of Chaos could not claim you." One of the super-Ancestral Gods stared at him coldly.

"Everything ends now. We'll send you on your way." The other spoke calmly.

Four Ancestral Gods surrounded Xiao Chen.

He looked at the flames of war across the land, at the blood and bones, and felt a blaze surge from the depths of his heart.

The ancient scroll swept across the sky; the divine diagram shimmered. Both supreme killing weapons were deployed at once, sweeping toward the four mighty beings.

But then, he suddenly sensed danger. Several eyes in the vault of heaven seemed to be watching him. He immediately recalled the three Supreme Ancestral Gods.

The Supreme Ancestral Gods had not yet made a move, but several shadows had already descended. Three more experts arrived, among them an Eighth Heaven super-Ancestral God. Xiao Chen was trapped in their midst.

"Eh…"

Suddenly, a voice sounded from the heavens. At the same time, Xiao Chen felt an extraordinary tremor in his heart.

He looked toward the distant sky and saw a blurred figure—himself!

Identical in every way, without the slightest difference. The resemblance was perfect!

But that figure paused only briefly, then swiftly flew toward Heavenly Emperor City in the Southern Wastes.

He understood. It was his past self, rushing toward the future—the "Hope" of Keke's mother, bringing the past self to this future time.

In an instant, Xiao Chen understood what had happened.

The terrifying divine consciousness that had been pressing down on him from the heavens shot away, pursuing the figure toward Heavenly Emperor City.

Xiao Chen shook the ancient scroll, roused the formation diagram, forced open a gap, and tore through space.

The several Ancestral Gods sneered and tried to shatter the spatial passage, to intercept and drag him out.

But then, their expressions all changed. Xiao Chen's aura had vanished; they could no longer track him in any way.

"Could he have fled back to the Death World? No, that's impossible. The Death World is no longer a secret, and we had already locked onto its barrier."

Xiao Chen manifested in the distance. He had used the Pangu Stone Token to completely conceal his aura, disappearing from the gods' perception.

He knew about his future self—there was no need to worry. According to what he had learned, the three Supreme Ancestral Gods had not been able to do anything to Heavenly Emperor City.

Xiao Chen flew across the Eternal Continent. What he saw was shocking. The living beings of this world had also been annihilated—nothing remained.

Then he broke into the Soul World. He found that nothing was left here either. This already desolate land had been torn apart, large regions sunk beneath the sea.

Finally, he entered the Curse World. He was stunned to discover that the entire landscape had been planed flat. Even the great curse formation of legend was utterly destroyed, obliterated.

He rushed toward the abyss where the Heavenly Stele had stood, only to find it filled in, the stele itself gone.

Everything had changed!

The changes of fifty years had exceeded Xiao Chen's expectations. They had been thorough. The Otherworld Ancestral Gods had erased every living soul.

Looking across the Nine Provinces and the Four Worlds, all was silent and dead. Nothing remained. The past had become eternal history.

This was the terrifying change of fifty years. An era had ended. A cycle of civilization was complete. A cycle was finished!

Xiao Chen threw back his head and roared, shaking the heavens. He charged straight back to the World of Immortality, hiding his traces with the Pangu Stone Token, appearing on the utterly ruined Eternal Continent.

The several Ancestral Gods had not yet dispersed. Xiao Chen joined the ancient scroll and the formation diagram together, sweeping across the sky. Blood splattered. The Otherworld Ancestral Gods Blue Yufeng and Lu Lopes were torn apart, reduced to bloody mist, then completely absorbed into the scroll.

"Kill!"

The other Ancestral Gods roared in fury and struck simultaneously.

At the same time, a giant city rose from the heavens, pursued by three Ancestral Gods.

Only then did Xiao Chen awaken from his grief and fury. He felt his heart grow cold, lost. Looking across the Nine Provinces and the Four Worlds, he alone remained in heaven and earth. There was nothing left to hold onto. He tore open space and entered the Death World.

He returned to the God Village—perhaps the last home he had.

But when Xiao Chen arrived in the Death World and reached the God Village, he was utterly frozen. It seemed as if the very life had been drained from him.

Bones lay everywhere; black blood stained the ground. The God Village had been razed!

The cultivators who had fled from the Nine Provinces and the Four Worlds—those who had used divine power to create mountains and plains teeming with life—were now utterly destroyed. The high peaks had collapsed, the land had shattered, and corpses lay scattered everywhere.

This had happened months ago, perhaps even years ago.

The black bloodstains and the cold bones told the story of a past tragedy.

This place, too, had been annihilated. Everyone was dead.

Xiao Chen stood motionless, frozen in place.

This feeling of utter solitude was beyond words. The world that had given him life was now completely dead. His second home, the God Village, was no more. All his old friends had turned to bone…

The sudden shock was almost too much for Xiao Chen to bear. Like a wounded lone wolf, he raised his head and let out a long howl.

In that moment, he felt that though heaven and earth were vast, there was no place for him.

"Heaven is vast, earth is wide—where is my home?"

The God Village was devoid of life.

Only on a distant mountain peak, amid the ruins, a solitary cherry tree clung to life, a few lingering blossoms drifting in the wind.

Xiao Chen flew over to the fissured cliff. He gazed at the cherry tree. He remembered clearly—this was Yan Qingcheng's dwelling. The tree was a divine treasure from Keke's Paradise Lost, planted on a whim when the little beast and Yan Qingcheng had worked together.

A gentle breeze stirred. Cherry blossoms fluttered down, telling the tale of the tragedy that had passed.

Each falling petal was like the vanished years, the unforgettable days.