The Heavenly Stele at Auction

The ancient stone stele was no more than a meter in length, its surface a dull, dark grey. Time had long since worn away the mysterious carvings etched into it, leaving only faint, illegible marks. What those patterns meant was anyone's guess.

The stele sat on a display stand, awaiting auction in a few days' time. A crowd had gathered around it, and the relevant appraisers were assessing its value.

"This is nothing more than a stele from the Later Yan period. Steles of this type have been unearthed in great numbers—they have virtually no value," declared an old man with thick glasses and a head of white hair.

In the void, Xiao Chen nearly stumbled and fell. Unearthed in great numbers? Was he hearing this correctly? Could Heavenly Steles really be unearthed in bulk? That would be far too astonishing.

"Nonsense! This is not at all like the mass-produced steles from the Later Yan period," retorted another old scholar with a righteous air, setting down his magnifying glass. He pointed at the white-haired man and said, "This is clearly an invaluable treasure. A conservative estimate puts its age at tens of... no, at least ten thousand years!"

In truth, he wanted to say the stele was hundreds of thousands, even millions of years old, but that would be far too shocking. How long was recorded human civilization, after all?

The white-haired old man sneered. "How long have we had written records? Claiming ten thousand years is laughable..."

Just then, several other invited experts chimed in to agree.

"How could it possibly be ten thousand years old? It looks exactly like the mass-produced steles from the Later Yan period."

"That's right. Even the seller himself admitted it was a Later Yan stele, just with slightly unusual patterns, so he decided to auction it."

"Exactly. It's a decent curiosity, but it's still a Later Yan stele."

They spoke almost in unison, their opinions identical.

"You... you are the disgrace of our profession!" The righteous old scholar was furious, pointing a trembling finger at them. "Some wealthy patron must have paid you to lowball this appraisal so they could buy it cheap. Associating with 'experts' like you is my shame!" He stormed off in a rage.

In the void, Xiao Chen watched silently. In the days he had spent living among mortals, his powerful divine sense had taught him a great deal.

The terms 'expert' and 'professor' had become bitter ironies. But that was the reality—hired pens and ghostwriters were all too common.

What he had just witnessed was trivial. Even Nine-Headed Serpent, a great demon now living among mortals, had learned many things. The fire sale of state-owned assets in this country had reached shocking proportions.

When foreign investment banks assessed those assets, countless 'experts' and 'professors' who had been bought off waved their flags, and many quality properties were sold off at a loss.

Of course, there were still upright scholars with integrity.

"Is it really the Heavenly Stele?" Little Defiant Dragon asked.

"Without a doubt," Xiao Chen replied.

Then, by creating something from nothing, a perfect replica of the stele appeared in his palm. With a flash of light, he replaced the true Heavenly Stele on the display stand.

Silently, Xiao Chen, Little Defiant Dragon, and Nine-Headed Serpent left and returned to their residence.

Seeing them return, Sha Polang pounced over, his face twisted with misery. "Boss, you're finally back! Please, unseal me! A mortal's life is unbearable for a normal person. I'm withering away! My life force is draining fast..."

"Go reflect first."

"Could it be that once it fulfills its purpose, it falls dormant and stops manifesting its wonders?" The three of them could not fully understand. "So, you've received the mark now?" Nine-Headed Serpent asked.

"Yes," Xiao Chen said.

He sat cross-legged and began to circulate the Heavenly Stele Profound Art. Soon, the ancient patterns carved on the meter-high stele seemed to come alive, blazing with increasingly intense light.

A powerful aura forced Little Defiant Dragon and Nine-Headed Serpent to retreat, watching in astonishment.

A scroll of images seemed to fly off the stele, enveloping Xiao Chen like a gossamer veil. It quickly merged into his body, leaving a very small imprint of the Heavenly Stele on his form.

Everything went smoothly. Xiao Chen had obtained the third Heavenly Mark, and his entire being—spirit, energy, and vitality—reached a new peak.

When he rose to his feet, nothing remained on the stele. All the patterns had vanished. This time was truly unexpected: the stele itself became Xiao Chen's private collection, smoothly stored into his acupoint space.

"This is just..." Little Defiant Dragon was stunned. He had personally experienced the terrifying might of the great stele when it sealed Dragon Island back then, and now it had become a private collection, its violent aura no longer leaking out.

"If I walk the Stone Man path, this Heavenly Stele will serve a great purpose..." Xiao Chen's eyes blazed with divine light.

"You want to build the framework of a divine city using Heavenly Steles?" Nine-Headed Serpent was deeply shocked. If so, the divine city would be virtually indestructible.

Xiao Chen said nothing. He gazed into the depths of the Death World. "Let's go. Powerful beings are approaching—there's no need to fight them."

The three returned to the Nine Provinces, planning to attend the auction in three days to investigate the seller and learn how he had obtained the stele.

Three days passed quickly. This time, Sha Polang joined them, though his seal remained unbroken.

Sha Polang scanned the streets, muttering incessantly. "Don't let me see those motorcycle gangs again. Don't let me see that woman again—the one who ran me over seven times in one day and gave me that weird disease. When I find them, I'll make them pay."

"A few days ago, I met this moron who tried to compete with me for a girl and grabbed me by the collar, claiming he was my ancestor. I got the motorcycle gang to hit him seven times in one day. Damn, the guy survived. I hope I see him again—I'll run him over another ten or twenty times."

Outside the auction house, three delinquent youths were joking as they followed behind a group of middle-aged men. What they said carried clearly.

"Ridiculous!" One of the middle-aged men turned back and glared at them. It was clearly a reprimand.

Not far away, Sha Polang was nearly petrified. He watched those people enter the auction house and finally burst out, "I'll be damned! That little brat hired the gang to run me over seven times in one day! I..."

Just then, two gaudily dressed women walked toward the auction house.

"A few days ago, I went to the Yongle Palace and met this idiot who called himself 'Wolf.' He seemed pretty cool at first, but it turned out he was broke. How dare he hit on me? I taught him a small lesson. Before I left, I tossed a few bills at the guy sleeping like a dead pig."

"Ha! You gave him money? That's... you can't slap someone in the face like that!"

"Forget it, Mr. Li is waiting for us. Let's go in." The two women, hips swaying, entered the auction house.

Sha Polang's eyes were practically shooting flames. His fists cracked and popped.

Xiao Chen, Little Defiant Dragon, and Nine-Headed Serpent stood dumbfounded. This was just... speechless.

After his initial shock, Sha Polang nearly went mad, grinding his teeth. "F***! What is this? You can't torture a man like this! I ran into all of them at once!"

Xiao Chen and Little Defiant Dragon ignored him and walked ahead. Nine-Headed Serpent approached, wordlessly patted him on the shoulder, and followed.

The four of them watched the auction from the void, hidden. The atmosphere was lively, and many antiques fetched sky-high prices.

As for the Heavenly Stele that had been swapped, it sold without fanfare, with few bidders raising their paddles.

Xiao Chen used his powerful divine sense to scan the scene. The seller was indeed present. He quickly extracted the relevant information from the man's mind.

"Let's go," Xiao Chen said, ready to leave.

"Wait! If you won't unseal me, I'd rather die here!" Sha Polang was boiling with rage, glaring at the delinquent youth, while repeatedly rolling his eyes at a woman snuggling up to a pot-bellied old man.

Xiao Chen knew exactly what he wanted to do. Seeing how miserably this guy had been tormented by mortals, he couldn't help but laugh. He unsealed Sha Polang and said, "Keep it within bounds. Don't go overboard."

Sha Polang nodded vengefully and cast a spell. The people in the auction house seemed completely unaware that two of them had disappeared.

"Hey! It's you, you moron! I was looking for you! Haven't hit you enough yet!" The delinquent youth clearly didn't understand the situation. That was the first thing he said when he saw Sha Polang.

Sha Polang's face turned green, his nose nearly twisted with rage. He grabbed the youth and shot into the sky. "You like running people over? I'll let you have your fill!"

They soon reached the edge of space. The youth was terrified, trembling. "Immortal, I was wrong! Let me go!"

Sha Polang simply pointed, and a halo of light enveloped the youth. He tossed him onto a fragment of an asteroid, then kicked it hard, sending the youth flying through a field of meteoroids. "Fly free! If you're still alive in ten years, I'll come back for you."

"Hey! Help!"

Half a quarter of an hour later, Sha Polang woke the gaudy woman and dumped her on a barren planet, leaving a mountain of diamonds beside her. "You stay here and watch this pile of money. Spend ten or twenty years—if you haven't turned into a skeleton by then, I'll come pick you up."

Back in the skies of the Nine Provinces, Xiao Chen and the others were thoroughly speechless. Sha Polang was too vicious.

"Don't kill anyone."

"Don't worry, I injected some life essence into them. They won't die in the short term." Then Sha Polang put on a pained expression. "Amazing country. This is all society's tragedy, humanity's tragedy."

"Get lost!"

They all sent him flying with a blast.

Soon after, Xiao Chen and the others crossed space and arrived at a mountain village in western Nine Provinces.

Xiao Chen wanted to find the true owner of the Heavenly Stele, since the antique dealer had bought it from this village.

Compared to the towering cities, the brick-and-stone houses here seemed backward, but they lacked the clamor of materialism and held more of the fragrance of flowers and grass, calming the heart.

Arriving before a courtyard built of irregular mountain stones, Xiao Chen extended his divine sense, ready to search the owner's memories for information about the stele.

"Creak..."

Just then, the courtyard gate opened. A simple, honest-looking middle-aged man walked out. "I really don't have any more steles here. That was the only one. I used to use it as a whetstone, and now I have to find another."

"A whetstone?" Hearing this, Xiao Chen was stunned.

"Truth-Seeking Eyes!" Xiao Chen called out. He placed the stele in the courtyard so it fit the environment, and a beam of golden light shot from his eyes, enveloping the space. Tracing back against the river of time, he wanted to see how the Heavenly Stele had been lost here and restore the scene of that day.

Xiao Chen's body shook violently, and he nearly fell. The history he was tracing seemed to exceed his capability. It was difficult to continue.

But he gritted his teeth and persevered.

Fragmented scenes appeared before his eyes.

In the sky, blood rained down. A colossal Heavenly Stele plummeted, along with shattered walls and broken ruins that crashed onto this land.

Xiao Chen felt his body jolt. He held the Divine Diagram and the Ancient Scroll in his hands and continued to trace back against the river of time.

The scenes reversed. An ancient castle appeared, cracked and covered in fresh blood.

"Bang!"

It shattered and fell, and a stone stele tumbled out from within the castle.

"The Heavenly Stele was inside the ancient castle?!"

Xiao Chen was astonished. Moreover, the castle looked very familiar.

Suddenly, he showed a shocked expression. Wasn't this the Death Castle that had once appeared over Dragon Island? It had stirred up great turmoil back then.

"Truth-Seeking Eyes, trace upstream against the river of time!" Xiao Chen called out again.

The Divine Diagram and Ancient Scroll shone brilliantly in his hands. At the same time, the Sacred Tree with nine divine leaves appeared above his head, scattering myriad beams of divine light to aid him.

Scenes emerged again, rapidly tracing upstream against the river of time.

The castle truly came from the skies above Dragon Island. This time, he even saw several gaunt humanoid figures pacing before the castle gate.

"Break the illusion! Pierce the void! Restore the true past!"

Xiao Chen shouted. At this moment, three Heavenly Marks appeared, and he began to draw on greater power to trace upstream against the river of time.

"Huh?!" Xiao Chen was shocked again. The castle did not belong to Dragon Island. The next moment, it appeared above the Burial Valley.

"Continue tracing upstream!"

He gritted his teeth. Another scene emerged: the castle appeared above the Demon Plain.

Now Xiao Chen's body blazed with countless beams of divine light, as if sacred flames were burning fiercely within him. Probing the secrets of the Heavenly Stele and the castle met with tremendous resistance, but he pushed himself to his limits.

The scene shifted. The castle appeared over the Yellow River. Dark clouds rolled, and the river surged.

At this point, Xiao Chen could no longer hold on. The golden light in his eyes dimmed rapidly.

"The castle does not belong to Dragon Island. It has appeared wherever a Heavenly Stele was present, and a stele was inside it..."

Xiao Chen was deeply shaken. This was far too mysterious. What secret did the ancient castle hold? Why had it appeared above almost every Heavenly Stele?

"What's wrong?" Little Defiant Dragon asked.

"Dig! Dig three hundred zhang!" Xiao Chen's voice was low. "Beneath this ground lies a fallen ancient castle with a profound connection to the Heavenly Stele!"