The Resentment of the Death Heaven Palace

A cold sigh, so close yet impossible to locate. The Death Heaven Palace, a realm of darkness and chilling yin, now felt eerily alien.

The divine diagram hung hazy above Xiao Chen's head. Three Heavenly Marks stood guard beside it.

The powerful Stone Man King puppet moved like a phantom through the palace, flickering and shifting, leaving a trail of afterimages. Under Xiao Chen's control, it searched for the source of that cold sigh.

Being watched by an invisible presence was an extremely dangerous omen. Xiao Chen could not help but change color, his vigilance sharpened to its utmost.

"Bang."

Suddenly, the Stone Man King puppet struck. A fist that dominated heaven and earth crashed out, shattering the palace, scattering the mist, splitting the sky into jagged black fissures.

"That's..." Babula gasped. On the shattered sky, he saw a blurred human face flash and vanish.

The Little Defiant Dragon was also shocked. He too had seen that blurry face in the gray sky—exceedingly eerie, carrying an indescribable malevolence. But it flickered only once before disappearing. The Stone Man King puppet soared up, circling and searching, before finally descending back into the Death Heaven Palace.

"What exactly is that thing?"

The group felt their hair stand on end. They could not lock onto the entity's aura at all.

The Death Heaven Palace fell silent, plunged into darkness so thick one could not see their own hand.

Gray mist surged around them. Everything calmed down.

But just then, Sha Polang cried out.

"Ah... a human face!"

In the extreme stillness and darkness of the Death Heaven Palace, the sudden shout was piercing. Xiao Chen swept out with the Eight Aspect Worlds, sensing only a wisp of mysterious, profound energy dissipating—he caught nothing else.

"Da—damn it! A—a ghastly white face... it was almost pressed against mine, less than an inch away!" Sha Polang's face was ashen, his chest heaving. He had clearly been greatly shocked.

An enemy standing before you was not frightening. But humans always fear the unknown. This place of prophecy was filled with too much evil. The memories of a Seventh Heaven Ancestral Lord had vanished without a trace. Everything about the prophecy had been thoroughly erased, as if an invisible hand had wiped it all away. It was hard for anyone to remain calm.

"Bang."

The Little Defiant Dragon punched out, tearing through the void.

"You... saw it too?" Sha Polang asked.

"Yes. Facing me directly. A ghastly white face dotted with blood, nearly pressed against mine." The Little Defiant Dragon answered calmly.

The others all drew in sharp breaths. The Little Defiant Dragon had already reached the Seventh Heaven of War Ancestor, yet that ghastly white face still dared to confront him head-on. Just what kind of being was this?

Just then, the Great Nether King, whose spiritual sea had been in chaos, let out a weak groan and opened his eyes. But his gaze was scattered, his spirit and energy extremely feeble.

"Ah... it's you?!" He suddenly cried out, his face twisted in terror, his eyes bulging as if he had seen the most horrifying thing.

In that instant, the group simultaneously saw a ghastly white face vanish before Ruixiao, retreating into the darkness.

The Death Heaven Palace, pitch-black and bitterly cold, grew unbearably tense.

Babula grabbed the Great Nether King and lifted him. "That human face... who is it?"

"It's him, it's him!" The Great Nether King Ruixiao was terrified, shouting wildly: "He's come back! He's come to claim my soul!"

A Nether King, shaken to his core, his thoughts scattered, his gaze unfocused—he kept screaming, his demeanor like a madman.

At that moment, the Stone Man King puppet sensed something and struck again. A brilliant divine light illuminated the halls ahead. The colossal palaces melted away like snowflakes.

A ghastly white face, stained with patches of fresh blood, flickered there and vanished into the deeper darkness.

This time, all of them saw it. That eerie, terrifying human face... an indescribable sensation of extreme malevolence.

"Soul Reaper... the Soul Reaper has truly come..." The Great Nether King moaned in the darkness, seeming to have reached the pinnacle of terror.

"He was the original master of this palace, wasn't he?" Xiao Chen stared at the Great Nether King, his tone calm and weighty. "It was he who left the Prophecy Book, yes?"

"The Soul Reaper... it's him... it's him..." The mighty Great Nether King was trembling, his beautiful face etched with fear. "He died long ago..."

The group grew even more cautious. This place was sinister. If it really was the original master of the palace, things would be very bad.

"You devoured his corpse. He has come for revenge." Xiao Chen's words were slow but struck deep. Ruixiao's face went pale.

Just then, a corpse shadow appeared on the Great Nether King's back. A ghastly white face pressed against the back of Ruixiao's head, as if a rotting corpse had climbed onto him.

This time, Xiao Chen and the others saw it clearly. A chill ran down their spines. None of them had seen how this figure had materialized.

"Ah—!"

The Great Nether King screamed, writhing and collapsing to the ground. The corpse shadow on him vanished again.

Sha Polang felt his own neck turn cold. He instinctively looked back and jumped a full yard, because he saw the corpse shadow standing right behind him, grinning.

"Ghost scaring ghost, scaring a ghost to death! I have no grievance with you! Don't bother me! Go find that dead freak, the Nether King!"

The corpse shadow vanished without a trace.

By now, it was clear. It could be confirmed that this was indeed the original master of the Death Heaven Palace, existing in some strange, peculiar state.

Even someone as powerful as Xiao Chen, with a Stone Man King puppet at his command, could not lock onto him.

"This person is far from ordinary..." Xiao Chen thought back to all the clues.

The more he reflected, the more exceptional this figure seemed. Perhaps even heaven-defying.

Now, thinking carefully, Xiao Chen could not help but draw a cold breath. The master of this palace appeared to be astonishingly powerful—inconceivably so.

Remember, in the past, this very person had gathered all the Oracle Bones! He had ventured into the deepest reaches of the Death World, into a mysterious location, and had divined the events of the future.

Such a feat was by no means something an ordinary Ancestral Lord could accomplish! Xiao Chen remembered the scene he had witnessed long ago—three War Swords stained with divine blood, broken here.

What kind of power was needed to break a War Sword? No one understood better than Xiao Chen how resilient those swords—fused with the formation diagram—truly were. Yet this person had snapped three of them.

His killer was no doubt terrifying, but the master of the Death Heaven Palace was also a pinnacle-level powerhouse, not to be compared to an ordinary Ancestral Lord.

"I understand now..." Babula suddenly spoke. "This is the power of resentment. Our world has seen similar phenomena. The gray mist is the product of his soul scattering after death—undying, unextinguished. Within it bred a 'resentment.' That face we could not capture is the resentment formed from him."

"Is this thing powerful?" Xiao Chen asked, frowning.

"It is a peculiar existence. Hard to say if it's strong or not, but it is omnipresent..." Babula was not entirely clear himself.

But one thing Xiao Chen could confirm: this thing seemed very difficult to deal with. Even the imprints in the Great Nether King's spiritual sea could be erased by it. Just thinking about it was frightening.

If not for the divine diagram and Heavenly Marks shielding them, the group would likely be in grave danger.

"Is Keke in this Death Heaven Palace?" Xiao Chen asked Tianwaitian and Renwairen, who were inside his acupoint space.

"Yes... deep in the Death World..." Their soul-fires were still extremely weak, on the verge of extinguishing.

Having received this information, Xiao Chen acted decisively. He did not wish to linger here any longer. "Let's go. We're leaving this place!"

The original master of the Death Heaven Palace had transformed into a peculiar existence. That power of "resentment" was difficult to grasp. Xiao Chen did not want to waste any more time.

With the Stone Man King puppet leading the way, nothing could stand in their path. Dust filled the air as the palace crumbled, opening a passage through the gray mist. They fled the region directly.

When they emerged onto the deathly plains, before they could even catch their breath, they were stunned again. The mist in the sky churned, following them down.

At the same time, the Great Nether King, whom Xiao Chen held, shuddered violently. His spiritual sea was collapsing. A mysterious force was bypassing Xiao Chen and eroding the Nether King's consciousness.

"Kill him, or this resentment will cling to us forever," Babula advised.

"He's already finished!" Xiao Chen's heart tightened. The three Heavenly Marks, the divine diagram, and the ancient scroll each hovered over Xiao Chen, the Little Defiant Dragon, and Sha Polang.

In less than half an hour, the mighty Great Nether King's spiritual sea had been silently obliterated. The power of this resentment was truly terrifying.

"Bang."

Just then, the Great Nether King in Xiao Chen's hand suddenly shook free, falling to the ground.

A horrifying thing happened. His body split open, and from within walked out a grim, lifeless middle-aged man, radiating boundless yin-fiend aura.

"This is..." Sha Polang and the Nine-Headed Serpent widened their eyes, cautiously on guard.

Xiao Chen saw that it was condensed from baleful energy, not true flesh and blood.

"You devoured my flesh and nurtured me for so long. Now you can rest in peace..." A frigid voice echoed across the deathly plains. The middle-aged man, formed entirely of baleful energy, gazed coldly at the Great Nether King, then turned to fix his stare on Xiao Chen and the others. Above his head, an endless sea of gray mist surged.

"This monster..." The Little Defiant Dragon drew a cold breath.

Xiao Chen was also greatly shocked. He finally understood why they could not sense the entity's presence. This person was not, as Babula had suggested, born from the gray mist—but had been gestating within the Great Nether King's own body.

"The corpse of an Upper Ancestral Lord is not so easily devoured..."

Hearing this, Xiao Chen and the others changed color. This man was an Upper Ancestral Lord, and seemed far more powerful than the Otherworld Upper Ancestral Gods they had encountered before.

"What do you want?" the Nine-Headed Serpent asked.

"To die. After endless ages, there is still the day of awakening. Heaven has not been unkind to me!" The middle-aged man swept his gaze over the group, and deathly aura surged out, blotting out the sky. "That ant devoured my corpse, and you sought to take him away? I will devour you all!"

"Arrogant!" Xiao Chen, unwilling to act personally, sent the Stone Man King puppet forward to block him.

"What a powerful body. My physical form is gone, and this is the perfect vessel for me!" The middle-aged man formed of baleful energy said this coldly.

"Big talk. You dare to seize a Stone Man King's body?" the Nine-Headed Serpent scoffed. He did not believe the man could do it.

"I may no longer have my former power, but as an entity of resentment, I am omnipresent. Seizing a War Body is nothing!" He nodded in satisfaction. "Excellent. A pinnacle Stone Man King War Body—comparable to the Heavenly Emperor who came to kill me in ages past."

"What?!"

Xiao Chen and the others were stunned. The one who had killed the master of the Death Heaven Palace was the Heavenly Emperor himself—utterly unexpected.

"Has the Heavenly Emperor not yet died?"

"He created the 'Most Evil Place' in this world. Whether he is dead or not, I do not know. But I do know that you are about to die. I sense a trace of his aura on you. You should be from the same world."

"You once saw the future. Did you see whether you yourself would survive?" Xiao Chen asked coldly, at the same time activating the ancient scroll and the divine diagram.

"The future I saw has long since become history. What is happening now has already departed from that destined track..." With those words, he lunged forward, making straight for Xiao Chen.

"Ah—!"

Suddenly, the figure formed of baleful energy let out a grievous scream. A small stone jar, no more than a palm tall, began to inhale the baleful energy like a whale drinking from a stream.

This result surprised not only Babula and the others, but even Xiao Chen himself. The stone jar he had kept on his person had flown out on its own. The patterns on its surface blazed with light, absorbing and refining the baleful energy.

"Rumble..."

The gray mist in the sky came churning down as well, all of it surging into the stone jar.

It was a strange tableau. The stone jar was barely a palm tall, yet it rapidly absorbed the boundless, terrifying mist, restoring peace to the sky.

"Bang."

Finally, the Death Heaven Palace crashed down onto the earth. The dimensional space it occupied had collapsed. Xiao Chen used the Divine City to fully refine and absorb the palace.

In the end, he fixed his gaze on the now-silent stone jar in his hand. This was truly a strange artifact, difficult to fathom.

"Fortunately, this stone jar absorbed it. Otherwise, although that person's absolute combat power was not at the peak, he would have been very troublesome," Babula said.

"It was the Heavenly Emperor who killed him. It was the Heavenly Emperor who created the 'Most Evil Place'..." Xiao Chen muttered to himself. This information was significant. In the distant past, the Ancestral Gods of the Nine Provinces had already entered this world. Perhaps they had left behind some contingency.

The gray mist and the Death Heaven Palace had vanished from the world forever, never to reappear.

The Great Nether King's consciousness had been erased, but his vast soul-force had not dispersed. Xiao Chen re-refined his body, then infused the soul-fires of Tianwaitian, Renwairen, and the others into it.

They had already fused with this body before, so it was as if they had gained a powerful War Body out of nowhere.

However, it was merely a War Ancestor body, not a true Ancestral God. Although they had comprehended countless divine principles and sources within Ruixiao's spiritual sea, they had not created them on their own.

They then rushed toward the deepest part of the Death World. Led by Tianwaitian and Renwairen, they sped directly toward a certain region.

The depths of the Death World held too many secrets, impossible to understand.

It took them over a month, encountering many dangers along the way, before they finally reached their destination.

Ahead, seven death cities were arranged in the pattern of the Big Dipper, standing mightily upon the earth! Black clouds churned, baleful energy surged to the heavens. Each death city was wreathed in a beam of killing light.

"Keke is trapped here!"

Just then, Xiao Chen's sharp senses detected something. Using the Eight Aspect Worlds, he led the group in a swift teleport, vanishing from sight.

"The Otherworld Ancestral Gods have not yet withdrawn from this place..." Xiao Chen, high in the distant sky, used the Pangu Stone Token to conceal their auras. His killing intent was palpable.

But the situation was troublesome. With the Otherworld Ancestral Gods lurking nearby like tigers watching their prey, and these seven bizarre primordial demon cities blocking the way, it would be very difficult to deal with.