The True Wood Female Saint

Xiao Chen gazed at Keke's stone statue, troubled. He could not yet determine what secrets these stone statues held. Several of the sinking and floating effigies were unfamiliar—he had never seen them before—save for the small beast. Yet all were lifelike, as if living beings of flesh and blood had suddenly been petrified. Keke's statue, in particular, was carved with exquisite detail, down to the long eyelashes; even in stone, the large eyes seemed to glisten and blink, capturing both form and spirit to perfection.

“Can you smash this demon city?” the Nine-Headed Serpent asked, gazing at the Little Defiant Dragon and Xiao Chen. He knew that after ten thousand years of cultivation, their strength could now stride across heaven and earth, and killing a few Ancestral Gods would pose no problem.

“We are sages and ancestors now. In our first battle, we must not flinch. Let us break open an ancient demon city, loot that overbearing Stone Man, crack his skull, and make him understand the height of the heavens and the depth of the earth.”

“Those words are better suited to yourself,” the Little Defiant Dragon frowned, shaking his head as he gazed at the giant city before him. “This demon city is unfathomable and extraordinary. We cannot act rashly.”

Indeed, the master of this demon city had been hung from the walls as a corpse, with war swords sealing the gates—a display of such arrogant invincibility that the being must have an extraordinary origin.

Xiao Chen said nothing. He continued to circle the ancient city three times, scrutinizing it carefully.

The massive demon city sat in the midst of a vast sea. Black mist churned, demonic clouds blotted out the sun, and oppressive energy soared to the heavens. Each of the four city gates bore a suspended war sword, emanating a ferocious aura that dominated the world.

The corpses of the Old Farmer and Mo Xiaowang lay cold and stiff, drained of all color, rising and falling in the black mist. Even in death, the two great powerhouses could not rest in peace—they had been hung here for all to see, igniting fury in the onlookers.

Vaguely, Xiao Chen seemed to see again the Old Farmer’s tragic silhouette as he wielded the Great Annihilation War Spear, advancing with the full essence of the Great Annihilation Technique. In the haze, he also saw Mo Xiaowang fighting the gods, unyielding to the very end.

Gone was the carefree Old Farmer, who had given everything—shed his blood, sacrificed his life—without even leaving a true name. His passing stirred sighs and grief. And Mo Xiaowang, who had suffered endless trials before finally seeing the light, ultimately poured his battle blood across the heavens, staining the boundless earth red—a lamentable, pitiable end.

“Interesting. You can escape through the teleportation array, so I suppose you are barely presentable.” At that moment, a woman’s voice came from within the Primordial Demonic City—a seductive, magnetic tone, calm and without emotional fluctuation.

“A woman? The legendary Stone Woman?” Sha Polang’s eyes glowed green like a wolf’s as he stared at the giant city, then rubbed his hands together and sighed continuously. “A Stone Woman—that is truly a rare and exotic beauty rarely seen through the ages!” This fellow’s mouth had no gate; his words ran wild with reckless dragons, and he even took a few steps forward as he spoke.

Xiao Chen yanked him back. With the Divine Diagram, ancient scroll, and Heavenly Marks on his person, and having cultivated several world-covering divine abilities, he could conceal their whereabouts even from a Stone Man. As long as Sha Polang did not expose himself, Xiao Chen could blind heaven’s mechanism and prevent any spoken words from being traced to their source.

“You tiny ant, do you have no fear? Are you not worried that I will capture you and, instead of killing you, torment you for ten thousand years?” The magnetic woman’s voice drifted like a heavenly sound.

The Little Defiant Dragon stepped forward, ready to strike, but at that moment, the twin beams of golden light in Xiao Chen’s eyes retracted. He brought the others vanishing into a different direction, concealing themselves in a world of their own making.

At the same time, the very spot where they had been standing was annihilated—a terrifying power that seemed to crush everything with an invisible great hand.

“Are we not a match for her together?!” The Little Defiant Dragon’s face flushed with anger.

“Do not be impatient. That is not Keke,” Xiao Chen transmitted to the other three, revealing what he had seen and probed.

One glance spanned a million years—that was Xiao Chen’s impression. The golden light from his eyes contained peerless divine power, tracing back up the river of time. What he saw was not Keke; rather, the stone statue was Keke’s ancestor, a member of the Heaven-Defying Clan who had failed to complete the final step in ages past. After his essence was drawn out, he had transformed into a beast-shaped stone effigy.

The four grew calm, no longer angry, though they did not reveal the truth.

“Since you have come, enter the city for a talk.” The magnetic voice came again from the Primordial Demonic City, and at the same time, the small beast’s stone image rose, its ancient patterns shimmering clearly above the black fog.

If that truly were Keke, the sight would be deeply cutting. But since they now knew, the sorrow faded.

“You want us to enter that killing field? Why don’t you step out of the city yourself? Come on out, and I’ll beat you to death…” Sha Polang rambled on, knowing full well that a Stone Man who had condensed a demonic city could not leave it, and so provoked openly and brazenly.

“Tiny ant, your words are truly many. One day, you will regret this.”

“Regret your grand-aunt…” Sha Polang acted like a complete ruffian. This attitude was indeed the most effective against a stone being, stalling the woman’s voice for a long moment before she spoke again: “Very well, I have remembered you.”

“I have plenty of sisters who think of me. I don’t care about one more!”

The Nine-Headed Serpent’s eighteen eyes went wide. He felt that Sha Polang was truly fierce—daring to treat a Stone Woman like this required real character and courage.

The Primordial Demonic City fell silent for a long time, but Xiao Chen knew she was searching for them with powerful divine sense. If she found them, Sha Polang would likely suffer the most terrible attack first.

“Have you come all this way just to watch? Do you not dare fight me? With courage like that, you might as well hide forever. Why bother emerging into the world at all?”

The woman’s voice was cold. The war swords hanging on the four city gates clanged murderously, and a vast demonic aura surged out from within the city, rolling toward Xiao Chen and his companions.

With Xiao Chen’s current means, he could not claim to fully blind heaven’s mechanisms, but his methods were effective nonetheless. Even if an Otherworld Ancestral God personally arrived, they would not immediately find his trace. The woman’s rapid response revealed her immense strength—she had pierced through their concealment in mere tens of breaths.

Xiao Chen sliced through space with his hand. The Eight Aspect Worlds turned, and in an instant they vanished, changing positions to form a world of their own.

“State your identity,” Xiao Chen said. He felt that this woman must have an extraordinary origin, far beyond an ordinary powerhouse.

“Pushing across three thousand worlds without an opponent, an Ancestor Reborn, a Saintly Female King—True Wood Female Saint.” The stone woman answered in this manner, and as she spoke, heaven and earth trembled, wind and thunder deafened the ears, and even the light of the sun and moon was shaken—all because of the utterance of this name.

“What arrogant boast! Truly insufferable,” even the normally composed Little Defiant Dragon could not help speaking out. Pushing across three thousand worlds without an opponent, an Ancestor Reborn, a Saintly Female King… if it were true, the implications were unimaginable.

“Of course you do not know me. When I roamed the heavens, you were not yet born,” said the True Wood Female Saint.

“I have heard of you,” Xiao Chen said, recalling the information he had obtained in the Celestial Realm. The True Wood Female Saint was indeed an extraordinary woman—one of the strongest beneath the Otherworld Ancestral Gods. Describing her as an ‘Ancestor Reborn Saintly Female King’ was no exaggeration. Among her peers, she had no rival. Ten thousand years ago, she had abandoned the path of the Supreme Ancestral God to condense a Primordial Demonic City, having lain dormant for a full three civilization cycles.

“Since you are honored as the ‘Ancestor Reborn Saintly Female King,’ you should possess the corresponding grace. Why have you imprisoned so many Ancestral God corpses without releasing them?” the Little Defiant Dragon demanded.

Though the beast-shaped stone statue was not Keke, the Old Farmer and Mo Xiaowang were themselves, and that made the four hard to accept.

“Because I need them…” At that moment, a brilliant beam of light rose from within the Primordial Demonic City, becoming the eternal and sole radiance of heaven and earth.

It was Eternal Light—thick as a bucket, standing upright in the city, dazzling and resplendent.

Legend held that only the souls of ten or more Ancestral Gods could condense into Eternal Light. Here, the Old Farmer, Mo Xiaowang, the Ancestral Gods of the Celestial Realm, and several stone statues clearly added up to enough.

“At your level of strength, do you still need Eternal Light?” Xiao Chen stared at the brilliant beam.

“Eternal Light is useful to me, but not essential. What I truly need is the Eternal Source. Only that can complete my goal of pushing across three thousand worlds without an opponent.”

Xiao Chen naturally knew of the so-called Eternal Source—he had truly seen it in the Most Evil Place. It required at least three strands of Eternal Light to sublimate into a Source Light. Once formed, it could generate more Eternal Light without depleting its own source. Now that Eternal Light had merged with Yan Huang.

From the True Wood Female Saint’s words, it seemed the Eternal Source was crucial to powerhouses of her level.

“The materials I have gathered are not few, but if they are not voluntarily offered, forcibly seizing them can hardly form Eternal Light, let alone sublimate it into the Eternal Source.”

Beyond a doubt, the True Wood Female Saint was extremely powerful—without an opponent beneath the Ancestral Gods. Even if Keke’s father or the Human Demon Ge Qian descended, they might not gain the upper hand.

Facing such an Otherworld stone woman, Xiao Chen frowned. The more he observed the demonic city, the more unfathomable it seemed. To attack rashly would likely cost them dearly.

This female saintly king would not act without absolute certainty. She had laid out the demonic city as a killing ground and waited calmly for enemies to enter.

“Let us leave this place,” Xiao Chen finally decided. He would not let a momentary surge of hot blood lead him into a reckless life-or-death confrontation.

“To leave like this is a shame. This stone woman is unbearably arrogant. Hanging our Ancestral God corpses to humiliate them—if we do not eliminate her, it will be hard to find peace,” Sha Polang said, showing a bloodthirsty side quite different from his usual manner.

“Do you think I do not wish to eliminate her? But this woman is too strong. ‘Pushing across three thousand worlds without an opponent, an Ancestor Reborn Saintly Female King’ is no empty boast—she indeed has that power.” Xiao Chen was very calm. “The combat power left in the Nine Provinces is now sparse—only a limited few. We cannot act recklessly. If we strike, we must be like an eagle striking the sky, a comet smashing into the earth—a fierce, decisive blow that must succeed. We can only afford victory, not sacrifice.”

“Then how long must we wait?” the Nine-Headed Serpent asked.

“It will not take too long. If all goes well, perhaps no more than a few days.”

“So soon…” Even the Little Defiant Dragon was somewhat surprised.

“I only need to obtain two more Heavenly Marks. Even if I cannot kill her, I can sever her foundation.” Xiao Chen stared at the Primordial Demonic City. “For now, we only fight battles we are sure of. Every action must have at least seventy percent certainty before we move.”

“Chi!”

At that moment, the Eternal Light within the Primordial Demonic City blazed like a rainbow and suddenly shot into the sky, hurtling toward them. A powerful aura shook the soul.

Within it was condensed the divine sense of the True Wood Female Saint! Clearly, she had once more found their traces.

With a swipe, Xiao Chen unfolded the Eight Aspect Worlds. Ethereal shadows flickered, and he carried the other three away in an instant.

The Eight Aspect Worlds had reached great completion—truly the number one escape art under heaven and earth! He traversed the sky and appeared above the Nine Provinces, looking down at the tall buildings below. He said to the other three, “Let us go to the Devil’s Plain in the World of Immortality.”

Then they tore through space and arrived at the World of Immortality. The vast land was lush with vegetation, apes howling and tigers roaring—a world full of vibrant life.

Clearly, this world harbored divine demonic civilizations, though they seemed not to be human. Xiao Chen and his companions did not explore further but rushed swiftly toward the Devil’s Plain.

In ages past, a Heavenly Stele had once suppressed this place, full of secrets. King Qin Guang, King Yan Luo, and King Reincarnation had vanished from here. Keke’s Paradise Lost had also been suppressed here, the hell realm had manifested, and the Martial Imprint had been trapped. In addition, the past incarnations of Buddha and Laozi had fallen on this plain.

Xiao Chen knew that the place where the Heavenly Stele had stood was certainly not simple. There must be more to it than the few demonic wells he had seen before—there were probably other oddities.

Suddenly he frowned and said, “Though I cannot kill the True Wood Female Saint today, I have a feeling I will be dismantling one or two Primordial Demonic Cities. I vaguely sense an ominous presence.”