A Battle of Kings: The Stone Man King vs. the Heaven-Defying Clan

Keke's father wrapped the ancient scroll around himself like a battle robe. He severed the connection between the Nine Provinces and the Eternal Unknown, standing fearlessly and calmly before the ancient Stone Man King.

The withered, mummy-like Old Stone Man King fixed his hollow eye sockets on the scroll. When he saw the five hazy, towering figures imprinted upon it, his trembling stone body gave a visible start.

“It is them,” he said, his voice a whisper that carried the weight of a billion years. “Though endless ages have passed, I still remember their forms clearly. A few rare kings of peerless combat power, who shook the ages.”

The Old Stone Man King seemed lost in a trance, thinking of many people and events. “Peerless enemies, kings of a myriad ages. Though they have fallen, they remain carved into my heart, my eternal adversaries.” He was clearly spurring himself on—though those kings had fallen, he would never forget the terrible enemies of the past.

At that moment, the Old Stone Man King straightened his hunched body. His eyes gradually sharpened. The glorious years of the past seemed to wash over him once more—he had returned to that cruel battlefield where battle blood flew, and his battle intent ceaselessly rose. The Ninety-Nine Stone Steps trembled because of him. The dozens of gray hairs on his head whipped like wild grass in a storm, and his stone body surged with a demonic power.

“I turned you to bloody mud just now, and you revived. But you will not be so fortunate next time. A pity for such a character,” the Old Stone Man King said, his tone cold—a far cry from his earlier gentle, slow manner.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

The Old Stone Man King took several steps, descending to the eighteenth stone step. Black mist surged around him like dozens of great black rivers, soaring into the sky and condensing into a wolf-fang stone club that smashed down toward Keke’s father. This was no illusion—within the black mist was a real wolf-fang stone club, a perfect, flawless ultimate stone weapon.

Keke’s father moved like a flower in a mirror, the moon on water—ethereal and transcendent, fading and manifesting in the heavens, dodging the wolf-fang club.

“Dong!” The wolf-fang club’s power was immense, shattering the heavens with a single blow. No matter where he dodged, he was enveloped by its earth-shattering killing aura. This was an ultimate weapon stained with the blood of Stone Man Kings, its cold, terrible aura causing even the gods to tremble. It had completely locked onto Keke’s father as a flood of black mist rolled forth, and the blood of Stone Man Kings stained the Eternal Unknown red.

“Do you see it? The blood of your ancestors is on it,” came the Old Stone Man King’s cold voice from the eighteenth stone step, like thunder from the underworld.

“You are old. You are no longer the invincible Stone Man King of those years,” Keke’s father countered, using the Six Paths of Reincarnation to block the wolf-fang club. “Your stone body is no longer firm. Having walked the path of the Earth Ancestral God, you still did not reach the end. Without confidence in yourself, you have to resort to the blood of my ancestor’s king to make your point. Your time has passed.”

His words were few, but every one carried the weight of ten thousand jun. They echoed in the Old Stone Man King’s ears and resounded across the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps. The gods changed color—such words were too rebellious, too defiant. They could not stand hearing their progenitor insulted. All of them shot out cold glares.

“Woooosh—” A cataclysmic black wind swept through the Eternal Unknown. The Stone Man King’s blood, poignant as the setting sun, surged through the black mist and sprayed toward Keke’s father. At the same time, the wolf-fang club bore down from above, shaking all realms. The brute force was unimaginable, the ultimate strength. Nothing could stop it. Even when Keke’s father unleashed the eternal divine principles of a million worlds, nothing could prevent the wolf-fang club from smashing down—time and space all shattered.

That was the terror of a Stone Man King. Raw strength alone was enough to annihilate any foe. No technique or complex move was needed. To kill, one strike sufficed, and evasion was impossible.

“Rustle…” The ancient scroll draped over Keke’s father unfurled, covering the sky. The sun, moon, and mountains within it appeared—it was no longer a scroll, but a real world of primal essence, embodying the divine principles of all realms in every blade of grass and every leaf.

The five towering figures stepped forward. They held heaven and earth in their palms, plucking stars and grasping the moon. Five surges of mighty battle spirit towered into the sky.

“Boom!” The wolf-fang club in the sky wrapped in black mist was sent tumbling back. The Stone Man King’s blood dimmed and disappeared.

“Bang!” The Old Stone Man King grabbed the wolf-fang club, and then, as fast as a ghost, flew directly from the eighteenth stone step. His speed was so great that time went into chaos. Like a specter, he silently approached Keke’s father, the wolf-fang club aimed to kill.

Keke’s father let out a clear cry. At this moment, he did something astonishing. He shook the ancient scroll, sending the five majestic figures all flying out. He strode forward, his eyes as deep as the sea, and swiftly merged with the five Stone Man Kings, one after the other—the five figures embracing and merging with him into one. Then, grasping the scroll, he charged at the Old Stone Man King!

“Borrowing the five great Dao origins, you want to elevate yourself to the kingly realm? Unfortunately, you have not yet taken that final step. Even if you merge with the five Dao imprints, you still cannot manifest true kingly power,” the Old Stone Man King said, even as the wolf-fang club smashed down in front of him.

“Dong!” Yet Keke’s father displayed combat power that surpassed the imagination of all the gods. The ancient scroll blurred, shaking the universe, and actually blocked the wolf-fang club.

The two men were like lightning and light. Their figures vanished entirely as they merged in fierce combat.

The Eternal Unknown was no longer eternal. It was beaten beyond recognition. The Ninety-Nine Stone Steps rumbled and shook violently as if about to collapse—the battle of peerless powerhouses shook the countless worlds. This was a collision of Dao origins and a clash of supreme combat strength against heaven-defying magic.

All the gods changed color. Keke’s father could actually match an Old Stone Man King in strength. Such methods made chills run up the spine. He had not taken the final step, yet he rivaled a Stone Man King!

“Rustle!” The scroll unfurled for ten thousand li, pressing the Old Stone Man King beneath it in an attempt to refine him away. At the same time, all manner of divine arts and curse spells bloomed like spirit-flowers.

Keke’s father had condensed five Dao imprints into his body, his combat power rising like a sea. He had ascended to a new realm, almost equal to a Stone Man King. Combined with his own heaven-defying methods, he could contend with the Old Stone Man King.

On the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps, the Upper Ancestral God looked wooden and expressionless. Having taken the path of the Upper Ancestral God, he had endured several civilization cycles, suffering the torment of ages, only to be left far behind on that road. A trace of regret stirred within him—he should have walked the path of the Stone Man. Eyes filled with loss, a fierce light flashed across his face. “Help the ancestor vanquish the fiend,” he commanded. “Kill him.”

As the gods were about to act, the cold voice of the Old Stone Man King came through: “I am here. It is not your place to give orders.” “Yes,” the Upper Ancestral God said, breaking into a cold sweat. The surrounding gods, even more terrified, dared not speak a word.

“It ends here!” The Old Stone Man King’s emotionless voice shook the Eternal Unknown. The wolf-fang club swept through the air. “Pfft!” Blood sprayed into the sky. Keke’s father’s chest was smashed to pieces, turning into a cloud of blood mist—nothing remained. Only the part above his chest flew sideways, scattering a great rain of blood.

But there was no pain on his face; his expression was calm and composed. As the war blood splashed and he flew sideways, he spoke: “With my heart, threading past and present, linking the myriad worlds, shaking the primal source—I slay the Stone Man King!” His shattered body merged with the ancient scroll, instantly reversing direction. Channels of mysterious power opened the gates of the myriad worlds. A million divine principles flooded toward the Old Stone Man King at the same time.

“Boom!” A violent collision. The Old Stone Man King’s wolf-fang club swept the heavens, shaking the other worlds, shattering a million divine principles.

But then, for the first time since the battle began, the Old Stone Man King let out a roar of rage. Keke’s father, with his half-shattered torso, had grabbed a fistful of the Old Stone Man King’s gray hair, tearing off a piece of the flesh-like surface of which the king was so proud. At the same time, with the divine principles he had sublimated in that moment, he shattered the Old Stone Man King’s left arm. A heap of stone fell.

Everyone changed color. A member of the Heaven-Defying Clan had directly seriously wounded the progenitor of the Stone Men. The gods felt a sense of unreality.

“Bang!” Keke’s father’s remaining half-body exploded, turning into a cloud of blood mist that was about to dissipate. At that moment, the Old Stone Man King’s eyes shot out two beams of terrifying green light. His right hand holding the wolf-fang club stepped forward, about to utterly annihilate the blood mist. But then, the five imposing figures standing beside him all rotated together, shielding the blood mist in the midst.

“Rustle!” The ancient scroll vibrated, collecting the five imposing figures and the cloud of blood mist into itself. It turned into a beam of light that shot toward Xiao Chen.

Xiao Chen grabbed it, held the Pangu Stone Token, concealed his form, and quickly fled into the distance.

“You want to leave? Not so easy!” The Old Stone Man King was enraged. His eyes shot out two beams of green light ten thousand li long. His primordial spirit rode on top, able to perceive all the secrets of the world. This time, even with the Pangu Stone Token, it was hard to truly hide one’s form. In a mere moment, the Old Stone Man King saw through the deception.

“Crack, crack…” The withered old Stone Man King’s broken arm surged with black mist, gathering all the exploded stone fragments nearby and reshaping his left arm. He took one step, instantly cutting off the path ahead, blocking Xiao Chen’s way.

“Go!” Keke’s father inside the scroll reformed his body, his face pale. The million-world divine principles of a thousand ages rolled up Xiao Chen and shifted direction, fleeing billions of li in an instant. The Eternal Unknown had been sealed by the Old Stone Man King, but since Keke’s father could contend with him, he could open it. They escaped that space.

But the Old Stone Man King stopped after pursuing a short distance. A fierce light shot from his stone-man eyes as he tore through space, taking one step toward the Nine Provinces.

“I will not allow any in the Nine Provinces to take that final step!”

The Old Stone Man King’s strength was terrifying—one step brought him from the Eternal Unknown to the land of the Nine Provinces, facing the city of Luoyang, which surged with the breath of life. He vanished like a ghost, moving with a trail of black wind into the depths beneath the divine capital of Luoyang. With a single slap, he reduced the stone gate that could block Ancestral Gods to flying ash, displaying his utter dominance as he strode into a mysterious, strange space of green mountains and beautiful valleys.

Before him, the sound of a zither filled the air. A dissipated man with an air of melancholy sat cross-legged on the path, playing an ancient zither with long, supple, pale white fingers.

“Ge Qian, why are you here? Not going to seize the Dao fruit?” the Old Stone Man King asked, stopping to gaze at the Human Demon Ge Qian.

“How could I go to seize it?” Ge Qian did not use the slightest respectful address toward the progenitor of the Otherworld. He sat calmly alone, not even lifting his head, still plucking the strings.

“You have killed him.” The Old Stone Man King’s eyes shot two beams of cold light as he stared at the lush, overgrown land behind Ge Qian. In that primeval forest of towering trees, blood was flowing. Under the sweep of the Old Stone Man King’s gaze, the forest turned to ash, revealing the corpse of a giant god. It was the very Upper Ancestral God who had tried to block Xiao Chen at the giant waterfall when Xiao Chen held the Celestial Realm envoy’s token, standing together with Ge Qian.

“Though I threw in my lot with the Otherworld, I do not want others to insult my past,” Ge Qian said, stopping the zither. He raised his dissipated, melancholy head to gaze at the Stone Man progenitor. “He tried to boss me around, so I no longer wished to see him.”

The Old Stone Man King surprisingly did not explode. He stared at Ge Qian for a moment, then said, “Fine. Two Stone Men who have not taken the final step have already gone to seize the Dao fruit. If you do not wish to go, I will not force you.”

With that, like a phantom, the Old Stone Man King moved without a sound, a mass of black mist swirling as he walked deeper inside.

“Zheng!” The ancient zither’s strings vibrated. A cold beam shot from the strings, severing the road ahead and blocking the Old Stone Man King’s path.

“Ge Qian! You would attack me, block my way?” The Old Stone Man King’s eyes shot two beams of icy light.

“The one attempting the final step is the only person who has never looked at me coldly in all my days. You all know that.” The man abandoned by heaven and forsaken by the world, his dissipated spirits suddenly lit up into a blaze. He raised his head fiercely and stared at the Old Stone Man King. “I do not care about anyone else. But if you want to kill him, I have no choice but to act.”

“Just so. If you did not act, I would be suspicious.” Saying this, a cold glint shone in the Old Stone Man King’s eyes. “Yet, if you raise your hand against me, have you considered the consequences?”

“My world is gray, without any color or luster. As for consequences, they are all the same to me.” The complex man spoke with great melancholy, his heart seeming devoid of hope or light.

“Very well. If you insist on acting, do not blame me for being merciless.” The Old Stone Man King’s words were flat, but the temperature around them instantly dropped to freezing. He glanced into the depths of space before striding forward.

“Bang!” Ge Qian slapped the earth. A space-splitting slash cut forward as the ancient zither rang out, each string sweeping forth a beam of terrible divine light that instantly engulfed the Old Stone Man King. The old king’s withered body shook fiercely, and all the divine light collapsed.

Then, Ge Qian’s stone arm suddenly expanded, growing a thousand zhang long as it shot across, shaking that very world. It smashed all the black mist before the Old Stone Man King into nothing, its terrible pulse shaking the entire Nine Provinces.

“Dong!” The Old Stone Man King met it with his stone claws. The collision produced a sound of shattering. Ge Qian’s stone limb disintegrated, the stones falling away.

But in the next instant, a new, flesh-and-blood arm materialized, taking the place of the stone arm. A million divine principles came forth, forcing the Old Stone Man King back half a step!

“You have not let me down, just as I expected. Everyone saw you building your devil city, but no one knew that you had long since abandoned the path of the Stone Man and truly walked the way of the Earth Ancestral God.” The Old Stone Man King stared at Ge Qian, and the light from his eyes was complicated.

Only now did Ge Qian slowly rise to his feet, blocking the road ahead.

“You truly wish to fight me?” The Old Stone Man King fixed his gaze on the Human Demon Ge Qian.

“I have no choice.” The Human Demon stood there quietly, his tone resolute and beyond dispute.

“Very well, then.” The Old Stone Man King strode forward, the demeanor of a peerless Stone Man King on full display. His sharp, unparalleled battle aura made the surrounding mountains, forests, and earth all split and collapse, instantly turning to sand and dust.

“If heaven abandons me, heaven can be deceived. If the world forsakes me, the world shall be destroyed. Heaven abandoned, world forsaken—all heavens vanish. Through the ages, I stand alone. This body imperishable—all ages, myriad heavens, break and collapse!”

At that moment, the Human Demon Ge Qian spoke, unhurriedly, in these very words. As this divine principle emerged, the countless worlds trembled together—this law was too terrifying, once complete, it would shatter the myriad realms and worlds. One could see Ge Qian’s will and also perceive his determination and terrifying potential.

No light remained in heaven and earth. Grayness enveloped the sky. The color of melancholy, the life of dissipation—all manifested the Human Demon’s state of mind. The frightful divine principle swept away the perceptions of all living beings. At this moment, there was only destruction, nothing else.

At this moment, though it could not instantly destroy the myriad worlds, it still possessed the terrible power to shake eternity. This divine principle could be called ancient and unequaled.

Even the Old Stone Man King’s stone eyes shot out two bewitching beams of light, a visible fluctuation of his emotions. His right hand surged with black mist as the massive wolf-fang club materialized. He was actually wielding his stone weapon, showing the great importance he placed on Ge Qian.

“Dong!” The wolf-fang club swept the four directions, opposing the destructive force of all worlds. Supreme combat power surged like roaring rivers and seas, shaking the past and present. Amid the aura of destruction, he advanced step by step toward Ge Qian, through a sea of slaughter-light, breaking through layer after layer of divine principles, the wolf-fang club raised high.

But Ge Qian immediately vanished, seeming to have hidden among the myriad worlds.

The Old Man King moved like a terrible phantom, heading unwaveringly in a certain direction.

“If heaven abandons me, heaven can be deceived. If the world forsakes me, the world shall be destroyed. Heaven abandoned, world forsaken—all heavens vanish. Through the ages, I stand alone. This body imperishable—all ages, myriad heavens, break and collapse!”

Ge Qian’s voice rang out again, the destructive force even stronger. Then the chant came a second, a third time, rising one after another, each more terrifying than the last, eventually merging into a continuous sound like a chant or a demonic curse, as if the myriad worlds were truly about to collapse.