The Undying Spirit: Keke's Father Battles the Ancient Stone Man King

The withered, emaciated ancient Stone Man King—his body covered in dense cracks—had actually grown dozens of gray hairs from the fissures of his stone frame. Those ashen strands swayed in an eerie wind, and at this moment, they seemed to stab the eyes—not with blinding radiance that dazzled the gods, but with the sheer dreadfulness of those uncanny hairs themselves.

A Stone Man King had long since lost his flesh and blood—how could he grow the hair that only mortals possessed? Could it be that his body, ravaged by too many wounds, had fallen from the kingly realm and could no longer maintain his stone form? But how was that possible? The old Stone Man's own words revealed that this was his great reliance—his strength!

Flesh and blood reborn—for an instant, all the gods made that association, but it was far too incredible. How could one who walked the Stone Man path ever grow flesh and blood again? Such a thing had never been heard of!

"And so what? I said I would take half your life, and I will surely cut away half your life."

Keke's father was utterly calm, facing the dreadful old Stone Man with plain serenity, as if he had not seen those dozens of sinister gray hairs dancing in the wind.

This kind of absolute confidence made all the gods change color. The members of the Heaven-Defying Clan were far too devastating—they had to be wary. If Keke's father truly unleashed a divine art that would shake past and present, severely wounding the Stone Man Ancestor, the blow to the Otherworld would be unbearable.

"You have backbone and great confidence, but the truth is cruel. You may try if you wish." The old Stone Man trembled as if about to fall, but his words clearly conveyed his immeasurable power.

Keke's father replied with perfect tranquility: "I eagerly await it."

"In ages past, I once fought a peak duel with one of the five Stone Man Kings—your very ancestor. Let alone you, a descendant! Make your move!" The old Stone Man's words grew sharper. Pressed by a rising prodigy who dared to claim he would take half his life, the ancient Stone Man King stirred with killing intent. His stone eyes, like fireflies, shifted with a sickly green light, like two ghost flames.

"Congratulations, Ancestor, for beginning to advance on the Ancestral God path while maintaining your Stone Man King body. Walking both paths simultaneously is an unprecedented achievement." At that moment, a Supreme Ancestral God standing nearby offered reverent congratulations.

Only then did the gods understand why the old Stone Man had grown hair: he had perfected the Stone Man path and was now treading the road of the Supreme Ancestral God; his cultivation had clearly advanced, causing this change in his appearance.

This was a shocking revelation that likewise stirred the hearts of all present.

Dong!

The old Stone Man took a single step, descending directly from the eighty-first stone step to the seventy-second. He extended a withered palm and pressed downward. Though the gesture seemed casual, a black handprint fell like lightning. The seventy-two stone steps below shook violently—such power was enough to shatter Ancestral Gods!

"Dragon marches the world!"

Keke's father swept his hand, sending forth a crimson light that shook the heavens. It condensed into blood-red Ancestral Dragons; their roars vibrated through the nine heavens as they soared upward.

Boom!

A cataclysmic collision. The blinding radiance flung all the gods beneath the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps backward, forcing them to retreat while guarding against any hidden strike from Xiao Chen.

The blazing light shook all worlds. This first probing exchange already rattled the heavens, and every face present changed color.

"Turn hand to cover the sky, reverse hand to seal the earth—overturn heaven and earth!"

The old Stone Man King let out a sound that made the soul crawl: a deep, ominous groan, terrifyingly low and ghastly. The sparse gray hairs on his head danced madly, like demons that had gained sentience.

He had unleashed a divine power, not the mightiest combat technique of a Stone Man! Heaven and earth overturned, the cosmos inverted—all were covered beneath that withered hand, like the claw of a world-devouring fiend, completely shrouding the area below the seventy-second stone step.

Black clouds surged, yin mist roiled, blotting out the sky and covering the sun. The dense killing aura shook ten thousand realms, disrupting the continuity of time itself!

Keke's father avoided the brunt of the attack. He trod the "Thousand Worlds, Eternal Ages" footwork, moving through the void, unleashing a hundred divine arts simultaneously. Blazing radiance swept toward the enormous, withered claw in the sky.

But the old Stone Man King's divine might overwhelmed all obstacles. "Turn hand to cover the sky, reverse hand to seal the earth—overturn heaven and earth!" His ghostlike claw slammed down, breaking through ten thousand divine arts and landing on Keke's father.

Nine-colored divine rainbows burst forth. Centered on Keke's father, dazzling light exploded. He had layered his divine powers over his body like armor, his shadow dreamlike and illusory, nearly ethereal, using a void-body to receive the blow.

Even so, he was sent flying backward with blood at the corners of his mouth. His wind-whipped robes were stained with splotches of blood.

All the gods shouted in exultation: the Ancestor was truly invincible! Even a member of the Heaven-Defying Clan was crushed beneath a single palm—such means were terrifying enough to chill the soul.

"Unless your ancestor rises from the dead, you will find no opponent in this world." The old Stone Man King's words were slow and soft, yet they carried an overwhelming sense of oppressive power.

"Though my ancestor has passed, I still live—I will make you bleed within five steps!"

With these words, Keke's father did not retreat but advanced. He trod the Seven Reverse Dragon Steps, ascending toward the heavens, charging straight at the seventy-second stone step.

All the gods were dumbfounded: had this member of the Heaven-Defying Clan gone mad? He had abandoned peerless divine abilities and displayed martial arts instead—this defied all logic!

"Turn hand to cover the sky, reverse hand to seal the earth—overturn heaven and earth, master the world!" The old Stone Man King also did something bizarre: he continued to use divine abilities, abandoning his own unparalleled combat power.

The two had seemingly swapped roles, each forsaking their greatest strength and displaying their weaknesses.

That Supreme Ancestral God saw the truth: the old Stone Man had suffered unimaginable damage in his ancient battles against the five Stone Man Kings. His body was covered in cracks; surviving at all was already a miracle. He had spent endless ages recovering from wounds and naturally did not wish to fight with his physical body.

Hum!

At that moment, all the gods were shocked. The Ninety-Nine Stone Steps trembled, and a terrible divine light filled heaven and earth. Keke's father, at this instant rivaling a Stone Man King, was truly peerless. He held a colossal divine city in his hands and cast it down over the old Stone Man King, pressing him beneath it!

This was no ordinary primordial giant city; it was a King's Giant City, intact and perfect—a supreme treasure of a Stone Man King, unknown how it had fallen into his hands.

Its terrible pressure radiated in all directions, shaking the mountain-like stone steps and shattering the Eternal Unknown itself!

The King's Giant City blazed with divine light, illuminating all directions. It forcibly pressed back the old Stone Man King's ghostlike claw, and the rolling yin mist retreated like a tide.

Rumble!

The King's Divine City descended, suppressing the old Stone Man King with unstoppable momentum!

On the seventy-second stone step, the old Stone Man's withered body swayed like a weed in a gale, seeming ready to snap at any moment.

"Nine return to one, Thousand Worlds, Eternal Ages!" At this moment, Keke's father roared, unleashing this epoch-shattering divine art. Suppressing with the King's supreme treasure, then sweeping with this world-shaking technique—his might surpassed ancient and modern, and he seemed truly invincible.

Bang!

The old Stone Man King was forced back three steps and finally met the attack with his stone body. His withered hands were like iron bars, all ten fingers spread wide, facing the King's Divine City and the Thousand Worlds, Eternal Ages divine principle.

Boom!

An earth-shattering collision. The ancient King's Divine City pressed down, slowly cracking. Meanwhile, the old Stone Man King's withered hands—already covered in existing cracks—began to split apart, and Stone Man blood dripped down!

The Thousand Worlds, Eternal Ages divine light shone through time, shaking past and future. Its fierce momentum caused the old Stone Man King's emaciated body to sway unsteadily.

Dong!

After all, he was a Stone Man King. With a violent shudder of his hunched frame, divine might pierced heaven and earth. He sent the ancient King's Divine City flying, simultaneously shattered the Thousand Worlds, Eternal Ages divine principle, and hurled Keke's father away.

But at the same time, his own withered stone body began to emit cracking sounds. All the old cracks burst open, oozing Stone Man blood.

All the gods were stunned. This member of the Heaven-Defying Clan was too terrifying—he had actually done as he said and wounded their Ancestor! What kind of power was this?

"When a Supreme Ancestral God takes the final step, how terrifying will he be?" the gods murmured inwardly. Keke's father was on the verge of taking that final step, but he was not yet a true King—yet he could still clash with the old Stone Man King. Such strength and divine might were utterly shocking.

Cough!

The old Stone Man King hunched over, coughing up a mouthful of blood. The old wounds on his body gradually healed, the cracks slowly closing. He looked down at Keke's father, who was spitting up large amounts of blood, and said in a low, deep voice: "I truly underestimated you. You are worthy of being the descendant of the greatest enemy of my life. You've lightly shaken open my old wounds—impressive..."

Keke's father, without the stature of a true King, had forced the old Stone Man King's old wounds to burst open. If this news spread, it would shake the heavens above and the earth below.

The gods were deeply shaken, shadows of dread forming in their hearts. If the Ancestor had not appeared, even those Stone Men who had not completed their final step might have been killed by this member of the Heaven-Defying Clan. Still, hearing the Ancestor say only 'lightly shaken old wounds' allowed them to breathe slightly easier.

"Then let us continue!" Keke's father put away the ancient King's Giant City and ascended step by step toward the heavens.

"Unfortunately, I will give you no more opportunities. Follow your ancestor to the grave." The old Stone Man King's eyes flared with intense green light. He stepped downward, pausing on the sixty-third stone step.

At this moment, the old Stone Man seemed to go berserk. The dozens of gray hairs on his head whipped wildly, and his low voice rolled like the wailing of ghosts, echoing for ages: "Mind-force, form images; slay men, butcher kings, annihilate demon kings—KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!"

The terrible demonic sound nearly shattered the divine consciousness of the gods below the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps. It was not even aimed at them, but was a curse directed solely at Keke's father—yet it still filled them with a terror of extinction.

Especially those final "KILL" characters—they pierced the brain like demonic notes, impossible to evade or resist. If concentrated on a single being, how could one not be annihilated?

This old Stone Man King, though his stone body was not as solid as it had been a billion years ago, had stood at the absolute pinnacle of the peak since before the dawn of ages. Keke's father could not hold back; he had to give his all. At this moment, he ascended into a mysterious state. His voice was slow and gentle, but it spread clearly through heaven and earth, and even the terrible killing sound could not fully suppress it.

"Great sound is silent; great form has no shape; great thought is mind; great technique is spirit—I and all things, source and law, Heaven!"

This was a supreme divine technique aimed directly at the old Stone Man King, a complete antithesis to his attack. Yet Keke's father had not deliberately created it; it was forced out by the extreme danger of the moment. One had to say, his talent was unparalleled in ancient and modern times—comprehending such a dual divine art that would shake the Eight Wastelands at the most critical juncture.

The two divine principles and demonic curses collided. In that instant, all that could be seen was lost; all that could be heard was silenced; all that could be sensed vanished. The gods were stripped of all perception.

Above the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps, sound itself was annihilated. This formless, imageless, source-dissolving, self-and-world-forgetting battle surpassed everything—it was the most terrifying war imaginable!

Keke's father experienced a brief sublimation, surpassing his original state, displaying power that made even the old Stone Man King change color!

When the smoke cleared and the gods' senses returned, the fifty-fourth through sixty-third stone steps had been shorn away, reduced entirely to stone powder—a whole section was now a full level lower.

The old Stone Man King appeared unharmed, his hunched body standing there, but the gods could see spots of Stone Man blood on the sixty-third step, indicating that his old wounds had burst open again.

However, the old Stone Man King was not troubled; it was difficult to harm his foundations.

As for Keke's father, he lay prone on the fifty-fourth stone step, surrounded by blood that had stained a large area. His body twisted unnaturally—clearly, his flesh and marrow were nearly ground to paste.

There was no life force there, no trace of divine consciousness, no broken souls drifting nearby.

Dead... truly dead? This was the unspoken question in all the gods' hearts. They dared not believe it. This member of the Heaven-Defying Clan was too terrifying—daring to challenge a Stone Man Ancestor. If he had not died today, he would have been an unimaginable menace.

Keke's father's corpse lay on the fifty-fourth stone platform. The blood gradually dried and congealed. On the shorn stone steps, a dark red stain spread, and the reek of blood hung in the air. All was silent; no sound stirred.

A gentle breeze passed over. The long figure could not move at all. His clothes rustled in the wind, then turned to ash and vanished.

Then his form itself gradually dissolved. The tall silhouette slowly faded, leaving only a human-shaped smear of blood on the fifty-fourth stone step.

A gentle wind stirred, and divine flowers drifted down, a rain of petals scattering toward the fifty-fourth stone step, gradually burying that pool of blood.

"Do not disturb his bloody remains—give him a proper burial." The old Stone Man King spoke flatly, then sealed the Eternal Unknown. His sole purpose was to prevent the Dao imprint he sensed earlier from escaping.

The old Stone Man King's hollow eyes once more lit with a green glow, piercing through the barriers of the great worlds, gazing toward the Nine Provinces. This was the most urgent matter; he needed to attend to it personally.

In the far distance, Xiao Chen longed to cry out in grief. Even the Heaven-Defying Keke's father—had he too been slaughtered?

Back in the Most Evil Place, that snow-white figure with black crystal sunglasses, a straw in his mouth, hands behind his back, indifferent to everything—so at ease between heaven and earth, erasing an Otherworld Ancestral God with one hand—where was that divine grace now?

And now, having broken the curse, regained human form, descended as the direct descendant of five Stone Man Kings, with the boldness to contend with a Stone Man Ancestor—such spirit, such heroism, to pass away like this... it was a loss to be mourned, a fury to be suffered!

Divine flowers fell like tears, crystalline and pure, utterly burying the fifty-fourth stone step...

...

A breeze stirred the scene, now stark and silent. The gods spoke not a word. This terrible enemy had fallen, yet they could barely feel the joy of victory. It was not their doing—had the Ancestor not appeared, almost no one could have suppressed Keke's father.

"I think... it will be very hard for me to die."

At that moment, a calm voice sounded without warning. Thousands of miles from the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps, a tiny drop of blood crystallized, pulsating with light, and transformed into a tall figure.

From void to substance, he manifested.

Keke's father had prepared for this. Using a single drop of saint blood he had set aside in advance as a guide, he survived this calamity.

"You—!"

The gods were shocked beyond measure. They had never expected this terrible enemy to revive—he had not truly perished.

The rain of petals swept back, wrapping around that patch of blood remains. The old Stone Man King did not stop it. The blood remains merged with Keke's father; his true form reappeared, like flowing clouds, like drifting wind, elegant and ethereal, standing in the void.

Rustle... At the same time, the Heaven-Defying Battle Treasure scroll in Xiao Chen's hand fluttered in the wind, then flew of its own accord toward Keke's father.

The five majestic figures within it seemed to come alive, their divine essence fully manifest within that magnificent landscape, as if they were about to step forth.

The ancient scroll soared across the void and descended instantly. Keke's father caught it. Gazing at the five majestic figures within, a thousand million years condensed into a single moment, as if a single thread of time had pierced the long river of ages—he seemed to have lived a hundred cycles of reincarnation.

Then Keke's father draped the scroll over his shoulders. He did not ascend again to the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps, but blocked the path between the steps and the Nine Provinces. Calm and composed, he faced the old Stone Man King, cutting off his line of sight.

The old Stone Man King's eyes gradually became hollow. He swept his gaze across the four directions and murmured to himself, "I sense your presence, my brother. You cannot find peace—have you been reborn into the world?" The brother he spoke of was naturally the Otherworld Dao imprint suppressed within Xiao Chen's heart.

"A billion years ago, you were brilliant, an unparalleled genius. You infiltrated the Land of Chaos alone and never returned..." The old Stone Man King seemed to recall many things, speaking to himself. Then his hollow eyes shot out two points of starlight, instantly reinforcing the seal of the Eternal Unknown, locking the area tight. He said, "First, I will seal the heavens. When I finish my great work, I will pluck you out."

These words were naturally directed at Xiao Chen. With the Pangu Stone Token, even the old Stone Man King could not instantly pinpoint his location.

Then the old Stone Man turned to face Keke's father squarely. At this moment, his eyes blazed with a terrible light, fixed on the tall figure before him.

"You are an extraordinary figure. But do you truly believe you can contend with me?"

Keke's father stood tall and proud, saying nothing. Nine-colored divine light radiated from his body as he faced the old Stone Man King who had already been an invincible sovereign a billion years ago. The five majestic figures flickered around him, slowly revolving.

But in the end, Keke's father used the ancient scroll to draw the five figures back inside. His eyes grew clearer and brighter than ever.