The Puppet Stone Man King

Xiao Chen and the others could not possibly excavate the surface directly. Instead, they descended deep underground, manifesting through the earth.

Massive stone blocks stained with traces of blood lay scattered, a vivid red deep beneath the surface. The squared, neatly arranged stones were not rare, dispersed throughout the soil.

The viscous red liquid seemed never to dry, still possessing a spark of vitality, heavy with the pungent stench of blood.

Xiao Chen frowned slightly. At his level of cultivation, he could clearly sense the residual divine power within the blood. It appeared to be the blood of an Ancestral God.

He said nothing, seating himself cross-legged in the underground chamber to begin refining. Strands of blood-colored essence continuously flew forth, converging toward the palm-sized Demonic City floating in his hand.

“Is this a slaughterhouse?” Sha Polang had reached the Seventh Heaven of Half-Ancestor, yet deep within the earth he still felt a chill—the yin energy here was overwhelming.

“Gather all the stone blocks—these are excellent materials,” the Little Defiant Dragon said, already beginning to clear the underground debris.

The red droplets of blood contained only a small remnant of divine power. Before long, Xiao Chen had fully refined them. Then, holding the palm-high city in his hand, he began to employ profound arts, drawing all the massive stones into the miniature city.

Those stone blocks were fragments of the ancient castle, condensed with mysterious power. They were conservatively estimated to be no inferior to the materials of a Demonic City.

The colossal stones tumbled and rolled, gathered into the Demonic City, becoming part of its corporeal structure. Throughout this process, Xiao Chen used his great power to help solidify its walls.

This miniature Primordial Demonic City grew more and more eerie—darker than darkness, gleaming like ink-black jade, a perfect work of art blooming with divine light in Xiao Chen's hand.

Xiao Chen, seated cross-legged on the ground, had immersed his entire mind into the city. After so many years of continuous refinement, this sacred object, which had nearly transformed into a Kingly Divine City, now belonged wholly to him.

Sometimes he hesitated: should he truly walk the path of the Stone Man? With the increasingly powerful city before him, he could accomplish twice the result with half the effort.

But the uncertainties of the Stone Man path were too many; he could hardly decide. After all, a Stone Man needed to slumber for one or two full cycles of civilization before seeing results.

And nine out of ten those results were tragedies.

To walk the path of the War Ancestor, or to walk the path of the Stone Man? This was the choice Xiao Chen now faced, for he had already stepped into the Ninth Heaven of the Half-Ancestor realm. The time for decision had come.

Bang!

A loud crash rang out. Sha Polang and the Nine-Headed Serpent, while clearing debris, had moved aside a mountain of rubble, revealing a few ruined structures that resembled an underground prison.

“A jail! There are powerful beings imprisoned here!” Sha Polang called out.

Xiao Chen ceased his cultivation and walked over quickly. The prison-like ruins were mostly buried beneath the earth, only a sealed stone window exposed above ground.

After examining them, Xiao Chen could confirm that this was not a prison but a construction built to resemble one—enclosed like a dungeon.

Inside, a stone figure sat cross-legged on a stone bed, faint fluctuations of divine power emanating from it.

This shattered ancient castle hid profound mysteries. To find a living being here would be momentous, but Xiao Chen was quickly disappointed, knowing it was merely a corpse.

When he swept divine light over the stone body, specks of ash drifted away. Most of the stone-man form, its life force nearly extinguished, had turned to dust. Only one arm remained, the rest having perished. That faint life fluctuation came from that single arm.

“I thought there might be something alive,” the Nine-Headed Serpent muttered.

They cleared out another dozen or so stone rooms and discovered two more withered corpses—one a skeletal body, the other a flesh-and-blood corpse.

Like the first body, a single touch caused them to crumble into ash, leaving only a bone pill and a blood pill, akin to Buddhist relics. These were the indestructible essence of the ages, and Xiao Chen collected them all.

The stone arm left by the first stone body would be the primary material for constructing his divine city. If he chose the Stone Man path and wished to take the final step, the obstacles would be far too many. The Otherworld certainly would not stand by and watch. He would need not only a well-hidden location but also an impregnable kingly city to forge.

Thus, the group continued clearing the ruins, while Xiao Chen focused entirely on refining the Demonic City. The Stone Man arm, which had resisted the erosion of time and remained intact, was essentially the arm of a Stone Man King. When smelted into the Demonic City, one could clearly sense that the ancient city's aura had grown considerably stronger.

Bang!

Another thunderous crash. After clearing away a vast pile of rubble, a massive hall appeared before them—the surviving portion of the ancient castle.

This hall was the most heavily fortified core of the castle: the Central Grand Hall.

Though only the central hall remained, approaching it still brought an overwhelming sense of pressure. It felt less like a palace and more like a majestic city—yes, like a completely intact Divine City standing before one's eyes.

A peculiar thing was that this vast, ocean-like pressure could only be sensed from close range. Once within three zhang of it, one felt suffocated, as if a hand were clamped around the throat, robbing the breath.

The pitch-black doors were tightly shut. Unknown what material they were forged from—hard as cold metal, yet strangely like eerie whetstones, exuding a heavy, dangerous aura.

Sha Polang and the Nine-Headed Serpent bore the immense pressure, step by step moving forward, leaving clear footprints on the ground. They tried to push open the stone doors, but the immense gates did not budge, as firmly rooted as the foundations of heaven and earth.

“Let me try.” The Little Defiant Dragon stepped forward and strained against the stone doors. With a crack, the doors trembled slightly.

But they still did not open.

“Open!” the Little Defiant Dragon cried softly. As a War Dragon among the Ancestral Dragons, his raw strength was unmatched among those of the same realm. His hands transformed into dragon claws, shaking the sealed doors.

Clang!

With a thunderous roar, the two great stone doors swung wide open.

Boom!

At that very moment, an immense aura surged from within. Sha Polang and the Nine-Headed Serpent were blown away like withered leaves, crashing heavily into the pile of rubble behind them.

Even the Little Defiant Dragon stumbled backward more than ten paces before steadying himself.

Even Xiao Chen, standing behind him, was startled. He knew well how powerful the Little Defiant Dragon was—at the Sixth Heaven of War Ancestor, he had few peers. The aura that rushed out when the doors opened had forced him back more than ten paces. This was baffling.

“That is—!”

When he saw what lay within the Central Grand Hall, Xiao Chen tensed up at once. He saw a towering stone man standing silently in the center of the hall. All that overwhelming aura came from him.

A Stone Man King! Without a doubt, a Stone Man King! Nobody could have imagined that while following the clues of the Heavenly Stele, they would end up at a small village in the western lands of the Nine Provinces, only to learn that an ancient castle had fallen to earth there. Delving into its ruins, they had encountered a Stone Man King! The shock was beyond words. Deep underground, such a supreme being lay hidden.

“No justice! I've bumped into people seven times today, but this is the most depressing yet…” Sha Polang's face turned green. Wasn't this delivering oneself to death?

The Nine-Headed Serpent was also tense, ready for battle.

But just then, Xiao Chen and the Little Defiant Dragon let out a long breath of relief. They noticed an anomaly: this Stone Man King showed no spiritual fluctuations.

After careful examination, they found a hole in the crown of its head—as if it had been pierced through by a sharp weapon! A corpse! Its stone body contained immense combat power, but its consciousness had already perished. It was, in essence, a dead man.

Crack.

At that moment, the stone man suddenly moved.

“No… this seems to be a refined puppet body!” Xiao Chen's face showed shock. To use a Stone Man King as a puppet—what a bold handiwork! One could not help but be horrified.

“This…” Even the usually composed Little Defiant Dragon changed color. Refining a Stone Man King into a puppet—it was unimaginable.

What was the origin of this ancient castle? What place was this Central Grand Hall, to require a Stone Man King puppet for its defense?

Crack, crack.

The stone man moved its steps, shedding much dust from its body, as if it had not stirred for years.

“No one can enslave a Stone Man King. Someone must have collected the remains of a fallen Stone Man King from a past age and merely used his physical shell,” Xiao Chen said, his eyes blazing with divine light.

“Yes, that must be the case,” agreed the Little Defiant Dragon. It was the only reasonable explanation, for a Stone Man King already represented the limit of individual power.

Although the Stone Man King moved, it did not step out of the hall, confined to a certain range.

“What is he guarding?”

A place guarded by a Stone Man King puppet must conceal a great secret. Xiao Chen and his group longed to enter and investigate.

The Stone Man King puppet moved only a few steps before stopping again, standing silently in the hall.

“Fortunately, he is just a puppet with no spiritual power. Otherwise, we might all have perished here,” Sha Polang said, coming forward only after confirming there was no danger, though he still bore the immense pressure.

Though the Stone Man King stood as still as a fossil, the power stored within its stone body was truly terrifying, the aura it emitted overwhelming.

“The castle fell to earth together with the Heavenly Steles. The danger has been greatly reduced. It is fortunate—we have a chance to enter and explore.”

Xiao Chen carried the Divine Diagram, the ancient scroll, three Heavenly Marks, and the Pangu Stone Token. With these items added to his form, he could open the Eight Aspect Worlds and conceal his tracks completely.

A flash of light, and he soundlessly passed into the second hall with the other three, bypassing the Stone Man King puppet.

But the moment they entered, the great doors of the first hall closed without a sound, and the hollow eyes of the Stone Man King grew even deeper, blocking the entrance.

The second hall was very spacious. On the lone writing desk, Xiao Chen and his group discovered a dragon-skin map. The Little Defiant Dragon immediately judged it to be made from the hide of an Ancestral Dragon.

When Xiao Chen saw this map—which seemed to be a geographical chart—he was greatly startled. On it, he saw the Heaven-Reaching Death Bridge, and also the Yellow-Clay Altar, though it was labeled with the three characters “Ancestral Dragon Platform.”

But clearly, the Heaven-Reaching Death Bridge and the Ancestral Dragon Platform were minor markers, incomparably overshadowed by the prominent marks on the map.

“The Divine Diagram has a mark here!” Sha Polang pointed to one of the prominent markings in a corner.

“And the Ninety-Nine Celestial Palaces,” the Little Defiant Dragon added, pointing to another location where ninety-nine layered celestial palaces blazed brightly.

“Look, also the Nine Ancient Lamps,” the Nine-Headed Serpent indicated nine striking spots on the map.

“And not far from the nine lamps, the markings of several Heavenly Steles are very clear—at least seven,” the Little Defiant Dragon noted with surprise.

“No… wait, there seems to be an eighth, faintly visible, like an intangible form,” he exclaimed.

“Almost… there might even be a ninth stele,” Xiao Chen said, his eyes shining with brilliant light.