The Emergence of the Stone-Man Kings

The withered old Stone-Man King stood alone at the center of the arena. His stone hair bristled upright as ancient, eerie syllables poured from his mouth, sending chills through all who heard.

In the Eternal Unknown, the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps trembled violently. Billowing black mist surged forth, exuding a mysterious, sinister aura that shook the myriad heavens. The giants of the Celestial Realm were startled awake; every powerful being extended their divine sense toward the outer heavens!

A booming roar tore through the sky. The heroic figure swooped down, ripping apart time and space, causing this half-chaotic world to shriek.

All the gods changed color. The Stone-Man King of the Defying Heaven Clan, who had taken the final step, was too powerful. His presence shook heaven and earth, an absolute threat to the old Stone-Man King.

A colossal stone palm descended like a millstone, smashing down from above. Overwhelming power shattered the barriers of the great worlds. The mere shockwave instantly annihilated everything here. This carved-out world collapsed completely, reverting to chaos!

In the old king's hand, the stone club, like a savage beast's fang, lunged toward the sky. The indestructible stone palm tore through chaos and struck down with unstoppable force.

The Defying Heaven clan's Stone-Man King met the spiked club bare-handed. A thunderous crash echoed. Divine light, thousands of beams strong, fell like the Milky Way descending from the Nine Heavens, sweeping across the universe.

Not long ago, facing the mighty Pangu King, the old king had used secret arts to boost his combat power, nearly reaching his peak. But now, that effect seemed to be fading. His cultivation could no longer be maintained at the perfect, completed realm.

The spiked club shook endlessly, and the supreme divine laws raining down from the sky erupted like a volcano, drowning the area. The club was knocked high into the air, tumbling away, falling into the chaos with a great sound, where the chaotic mist swirled.

The Defying Heaven clan's aggressive Stone-Man King—Keke's primal ancestor—struck with his other palm, sending the old king's body into violent convulsions.

His time had come. He had fallen from the perfect realm and was no longer the invincible king of heaven and earth.

Moreover, the strange syllables flowing from the old king's mouth had become strained, even interrupted. The immense external pressure prevented him from successfully summoning the mysterious power from beyond the heavens.

With a brittle crack, the old king's right fist—all its hidden injuries shattered—rained down as rubble, and his entire stone arm split apart, falling to the ground.

Keke's primal ancestor attacked with incredible speed, seizing this rare chance to finish off the old king.

For even he, powerful as he was—having taken the final step to become a Stone-Man King—felt a profound dread, all stemming from the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps in the Eternal Unknown. The old king must not be allowed to successfully summon that evil power!

Though Keke's primal ancestor had only just taken the final step, his combat strength was overwhelming. His colossal fists smashed through disordered space-time.

Countless deadly killing lights surged like waves, like sound waves made visible. Layer upon layer, a myriad beams pressed forward, thick and solid as the barriers of countless great worlds.

The horrifying clash rang out, booming against the gods' ears like the Heavenly Drum being struck. Keke's primal ancestor and the old king exchanged another thunderous blow.

A catastrophic collision. Blinding radiance traveled backward along the river of time, illuminating the ages!

The diving primal ancestor was sent tumbling back into the sky, the surrounding chaos all shattered, surging to both sides.

The old king's left arm also burst apart, scattering on the ground. He was knocked flying like a scarecrow.

"I told you," the old stone turtle said, seeming to breathe a sigh of relief. "He was just forcibly burning his own potential. How could he have truly recovered his former peak soul-force?" But when another tremor came from the Eternal Unknown, he again felt an awful pressure.

"What exists is forgotten; ten thousand feet of red dust enters the eyes, then vanishes. What has passed is remembered; an instant of eternity dwells in the heart."

The peerless Human Demon Ge Qian and Keke's father struck simultaneously. Before the old king's tumbling body had even stopped, two divine laws struck him.

Like a million trees putting forth roots and sprouts, like ten thousand strange blossoms bursting into bloom, billions of rays of glorious light tore through the chaotic world, enveloping everything.

A fearsome aura that made even the gods tremble in their souls—a perfectly combined divine power, unequaled through the ages, was now fully manifested.

The old king's body instantly flickered, then blurred, as if about to disappear. It was a plunder of life, a decay of flesh, and a dissolution of the soul. The divine law wielded by the peerless Human Demon Ge Qian was taking effect.

Then the old king shook again. His phantom form re-condensed, but thousands of strands of vital energy were forcibly drawn out. This was an erasure of consciousness, the death of the spirit. This was the terrifying aspect of Keke's father's supreme divine law!

And then an even more fundamental destruction began. The two peerless prodigies, on the field of life and death, gained enlightenment in a flash, sublimating their divine laws and displaying extraordinary power. Together, they could shake a Stone-Man King!

The Otherworld Ancestor's withered body flickered, then grew clear again, vague, solid… Under the sweeping destruction of the two supreme divine laws, it shook unceasingly.

The old king's body now emitted thunderous sounds, as if he were a leather drum being fiercely beaten. His form shook violently.

Under the assault of the two extreme divine laws, the old king suffered a heavy blow. His physical form was truly decaying, not an illusory vision.

With a final tremor, he was knocked in another direction, soaring high and then falling heavily to the ground.

Cracking sounds rang without end. His entire body fractured, nearly a heap of shattered stone. But the strange syllables, briefly suppressed, sounded again, echoing toward the Eternal Unknown.

The Ninety-Nine Stone Steps in the Eternal Unknown trembled. An aura that intimidated the gods descended.

Chaos surged. After Keke's primal ancestor had successfully taken the final step, the already cracked giant city rose into the air. The Defying Heaven clan's Stone-Man King, holding the Primordial Demon City like a war god descending, slammed the great city down with a fierce strike.

An earth-shattering roar. The colossal sound shattered chaos. Here, chaos was utterly destroyed, rolling away like a vast sea.

Thousands of divine lights blazed. This independent world-space ceased to exist. All beings manifested on the land of the Nine Provinces.

That world-shaking strike had broken through the last barrier. Everyone fell to the ground where Luoyang's divine city once stood.

The entire city instantly shattered. Towering divine flames shot into the sky. The earth trembled. This real world seemed on the verge of destruction. But just then, the nine ancient lamps blazed into the sky, illuminating the entire land and stabilizing this ancient cradle of life.

The old Stone-Man King was suppressed by the Primordial Demon City. His body fragmented, his spirit gravely wounded. He could no longer struggle free, and the ancient syllables ceased.

At that moment, a fierce melee erupted. Divine light filled the sky. The gods struck. They could not watch a Stone-Man King be destroyed.

Even a Stone-Man King as powerful as he could not withstand the combined assault of the gods entirely. Fortunately, Ge Qian, Keke's father, and others aided him.

The Primordial Demon City, blazing with myriad beams of light, trembled continuously, grinding down the supreme old king. Amidst a torrent of harsh sounds, the grinding of stone to powder could be heard. Drops of stone-man blood seeped from the city's foundation, staining the earth red.

When the Primordial Demon City was lifted into Keke's primal ancestor's palm, a patch of human-shaped stone powder remained on the ground, surrounded by glaring bloodstains. The old Stone-Man King had been ground out of existence!

"Impossible!" "Absolutely impossible!" "The Ancestor cannot die!" "The Old Ancestor survived countless ages and tribulations—how could he be annihilated?!"

The gods erupted. All struck with full force. But a wind blew, and the stone powder scattered in the wind, wafting in all directions, blurring that space.

All this clearly indicated that the old Stone-Man King had been ground away—his form no more, his kingly stone body gone forever.

A Stone-Man King had fallen. This result was utterly terrifying. Even the giants of the Celestial Realm felt a shock. Some, through secret arts, learned what had happened in the lower realm.

A wisp of sinister wind arose, instantly causing the entire Nine Provinces to flicker with uncertainty. Ge Qian, Keke's father, and the Defying Heaven clan's Stone-Man King all became alert, scanning the surroundings with extreme caution.

The gods also retreated, ceasing their attacks. Everyone felt a strange unease, a dread in their hearts.

The sinister wind came from the sky. There, the barrier of the great world had shattered. The sight of the Eternal Unknown was laid bare.

That Ninety-Nine Stone Steps were slowly approaching, like a colossal demon awakening, exuding an aura that made souls tremble and fear.

Slowly but with overwhelming pressure. Black mist rolled down, flooding the land of the Nine Provinces.

The Ninety-Nine Stone Steps, like an unreachable demonic platform, approached the edge of the world and stopped at the canopy of the Nine Provinces' sky.

Though they advanced no further, hanging silently there, the pressure only grew.

A long sigh, like a ghostly sound, echoed across the Nine Provinces' sky.

At that moment, both Xiao Chen and Keke's father felt a hair-raising sensation. Immense danger was approaching—their first instinct, surpassing even divine sense. It was a primal prediction of future fortune and calamity.

And though the Otherworld gods were also shaken, their fear gradually receded. They sensed a familiar aura.

"Though I was awakened early, almost thwarting my plan, all is well in the end—nothing is lost."

An aged voice echoed around the gods, like an old, deathly figure speaking from a coffin. The aura was especially heavy, sending chills down every spine.

Yin energy swirled. The gods' spines ran cold. Keke's father and the others wore grave expressions.

A breeze passed. The stone powder the old king had become scattered completely, vanishing without a trace.

And somehow, another stone figure appeared at that same spot, as if it had been there since time immemorial, no one knew when it had emerged.

His stone body was full and robust—not withered like the old king's. Tall and powerful, though visibly aged, with wrinkled stone skin like freshly plowed earth, his form stood straight, his stone hair hanging naturally. He looked eerie beyond words.

"Another damned old monster!" the old stone turtle cursed, unable to help himself. He jumped and pointed at the old stone man before him. "You... which one are you?"

"My name is Lu Zhan, an Otherworld Ancestor. After eons of slumber, I arise today against heaven, reborn."

This old Stone-Man King's stone body was flawless—not a single crack. His vitality was full, his soul piercing. In his eyes flickered a hint of mystery.

"Whether you're Zhan Lu or Lu Zhan, how many of you are there? Who was that fellow who just died?" the old turtle demanded.

And at this very moment, after several failures, he had finally succeeded in fusing Xiao Chen with the incomplete stone man. Yet facing all this, Lu Zhan made no attempt to stop him.

A chill wind stirred. Unknown when, another figure had appeared among the ruins of Luoyang, as if it had been standing there all along. Another peerless Stone-Man King, his body perfectly intact, without a single wound.

His face was peaceful. Though aged and decrepit, the light in his eyes flickered unsteadily, filled with immense confidence, giving an unfathomable impression.

"One dead, yet two more Stone-Man Kings appear..." The old turtle drew a sharp breath.

Not far away, Keke's primal ancestor also became highly alert. Even though he had transformed into a Stone-Man King, facing these ancient kings, he had no confidence—perhaps even in an absolute disadvantage.

For these two had fully recovered, their wounds long since healed. They were a far cry from the previous old king, making them extremely difficult to deal with.

"Wrong. You missed one."

On the ruins of Luoyang, black mist churned. Behind the crowd, a Stone-Man King stood silently. He was also visibly aged, but exuded a cold cruelty, like an icy steel blade thrust into the ground.

His power was beyond doubt. No one had sensed his arrival beforehand.

Three Stone-Man Kings, appearing together—this was simply unacceptable, unimaginable!

This scene exceeded all expectations. It was utterly terrifying, enough to sweep across the world. No force could match it.

In the Celestial Realm, the giants were shaken. Some were observing all this through ancient passages. They had not expected that, from the war eons ago, four Otherworld Stone-Man Kings had survived—double their original estimate!

The mist swirled, and the crowd could not clearly see. The three kings stood together, as if they had descended as one.

The gods were triumphant, wanting to shout for joy. They never imagined there were still three Ancestors, with their injuries fully healed. The Stone-Man King Lu Zhan seemed eerie and mysterious. On either side of him, one king was confident and powerful; the other was cold and grim. Neither deigned to give his name.

"All these years, to guard against the Pangu King and the sudden appearance of the Chaotic Land's Giant Palace, I have remained half-awake, alert to the outside world. Thus I could not repair my wounded body. This time, he was ground away by the group. We must re-form his spirit."

Lu Zhan's voice was gentle, but carried an innate authority. The aged voice shook the Nine Provinces and all the worlds around. The gods could not help trembling.

Only then did they learn that the fallen old king was named Lang Ya.

The three Stone-Man Kings all cut their own stone wrists, letting droplets of blood fall and merge with the dried stone-man blood on the ground.

A booming wave of life energy erupted. The stone-man blood, which Keke's primal ancestor had drained of life, suddenly blazed with light!

The three kings' right hands all rose high. Heaven and earth shook. From the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps, a mass of pitch-black mist rushed down, then enveloped the bloodstains on the ground.

"Lang Ya, your stone body is no more. This severs all hope. Burn your bridges behind you. One day, our clan will take the final step on the path of the supreme ancestor god. That one will surely be you!"

As the three Stone-Man Kings finished speaking, the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps trembled. The black mist rolled back, and the stone-man blood on the ground vanished completely.

The three kings stood together on the field, coldly scanning the surroundings. This scene filled everyone with despair.

And above the sky hung the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps, pressing down so heavily that no one could breathe—far more terrifying than even the three Ancestors.

Even the giants of the Celestial Realm changed color at this moment.