The Seven Demon Cities

Though Keke tried to appear indifferent, everyone knew how much she had suffered—otherwise she would not have broken down in tears the moment they met.

Within the ring of seven primordial demon cities, Xiao Chen led the group in a desperate attempt to break out. But with a world-shaking roar, the very heavens seemed to collapse. A colossal screen of light descended, sealing the sky above like an inverted cauldron, blocking all escape.

"It's useless. There is no way out for you here," said one of the Upper Ancestral Gods, his voice calm and unhurried. "Killing you is merely a convenience. Once we have refined these seven cities, your death will be sealed."

Outside, Eternal King Meng Degang and the Truewood Female Saint began to channel divine radiance, joining with the assembled gods to activate a peerless killing formation, its purpose to smelt the seven primordial demon cities.

It was a monumental undertaking—refining seven ancient cities at once was something no ordinary Ancestral God could even conceive. "When the cities are fully refined, everything within them will turn to ash," came a cold voice. "Even the Heaven-Defying Clan's scion cannot escape."

"The blood of that little beast is truly extraordinary—it must not be wasted." An ordinary Ancestral God spoke in low tones, deliberately loud enough to remind the Truewood Female Saint.

"You're the beasts! Your whole family are beasts!" roared Shapolang from within the cities. The scoundrel never let an insult go unanswered.

Several Otherworld Ancestral Gods shouted back, "Release our imprisoned experts, and we will grant you a swift death. Otherwise, you shall all be crushed in the hellish furnace, suffering for eternity!"

Amid the seven demon cities, Xiao Chen said nothing. He simply dragged out the imprisoned expert whom Keke had sealed, and began a Sacred Sacrifice right before their eyes. Blazing divine light erupted, surging with primal power.

This man had also stepped onto the path of an Upper Ancestral God, but he had only just touched the threshold—he could not compare with a true Upper Ancestral God. Xiao Chen had little trouble offering him up.

Divine light rippled out in waves, surging toward Keke, who was bathed in the sacred radiance. Her snow-white fur shimmered, her large eyes filled with curiosity as the pure energy enveloped her, swiftly repairing the wounded soul she had carried.

"So cruel..." Xiao Chen murmured as he sensed Keke's condition during the rite. He was shocked to discover the extent of the trauma she had endured—a dark, insidious force that, though suppressed by her own formidable power, had never been fully cleansed.

"Aaaah!" The Upper Ancestral God being sacrificed howled in soul-rending agony, but he was utterly helpless, suspended motionless in the void—neither his flesh nor his spirit could stir.

"You...!" Rage and murderous intent surged from the gods outside, yet none dared step into the ring of seven demon cities. Those cities radiated a dread that made their hearts tremble. Not one was willing to enter that hellish domain.

"Us? We're sacrificing him—that's what we're doing!" The Little Defiant Dragon's voice was cold and sharp. Keke's grievous wounds had kindled a firestorm of fury within him. If not for the stone-man puppet standing guard, he would already have struck. "Yes, we are sacrificing him. So much for your Upper Ancestral God—he's nothing special."

Tianwaitian and Renwairen, their souls now standing on solid ground, spoke with light, mocking tones that infuriated the Otherworld gods.

"A few insects," said Eternal King Meng Degang, though his voice did not reveal itself. The colossal demon city floating in the sky above radiated a soul-shaking aura. Pitch-black flames surged like an ocean, pouring into the grand formation to smelt the seven primordial cities.

"But Patriarch... one of our own experts is inside, being sacrificed..."

"Do you wish to enter the seven cities and rescue him?" Meng Degang's voice was utterly cold.

With a series of sharp sounds, the seven strands of Killing Light that coiled around the primordial demon cities blazed like rainbows, piercing the heavens and tearing open the sky.

The Otherworld Ancestral God who had spoken shuddered and dared not utter another word.

The seven brilliant beams tore a gap in the peerless grand formation. The terrible killing aura gathered, enough to match seven Ancestral Gods, threatening to rip open the sealed curtain above.

"Dust returns to dust. Slaughter returns to void."

The Truewood Female Saint unleashed her supreme divine incantation. A sweep of her hand cast a shower of radiance—a cascade of seven-colored light that descended and suppressed all seven strands of Killing Light. Simultaneously, the grand formation resumed its full operation.

Countless divine principles manifested as tangible beams, striking down the seven Killing Lights, forcing them to dim and retreat, coiling once again around the demon cities below.

By now, Xiao Chen's cultivation was on an entirely different plane. He executed the Sacred Sacrifice swiftly, draining the Otherworld expert's divine power with alarming speed.

Keke, guided by instinct, channeled that power into herself, rapidly healing her spiritual wounds. Her body, pure white as snow, blazed with countless beams of light as her flesh and bones grew ever stronger, more invincible.

Xiao Chen was astonished. In the ten thousand-plus years of her suffering, the little beast had not let her cultivation fall behind. She had successfully walked the path of an Upper Ancestral God, advancing with startling speed.

Boom!

Suddenly, seven pillars of demonic flame shook the Death World. The seven demon cities erupted with heaven-shaking divine power. Black netherfires surged into the sky, lifting the sealed light curtain thousands of zhang above. The entire Death World trembled—the seven primordial demon cities were in full revolt! The aura they emitted shook the past and future; all heavens and myriad worlds quaked.

Seven torrents of demonic flame blotted out the high heavens, like a river of ink pouring down from the starry sky, racing and roaring in boundless fury.

The gods outside paled. They silently thanked their fortune that the Truewood Female Saint and Eternal King Meng Degang had come. Without them, they could never have suppressed such power.

Eternal King Meng Degang finally acted. His colossal city descended, hovering above the light curtain. Beams of dark light dripped down like ten-thousand-zhang black silk ribbons, instantly staining the sealing screen black. An overwhelming pressure fell like several worlds descending at once.

The Death World quaked violently. Countless fire-seed beings prostrated themselves, trembling, kowtowing toward this direction.

Deep in the Death World, several powerful beings stirred. At that moment, no fewer than seven or eight fearsome entities opened their eyes, their gazes cutting across ages and space, sweeping toward this battlefield.

Eternal King Meng Degang, unmatched in demonic might, sought to suppress all seven cities with his own power. A thousand illusions and ten thousand phantom scenes materialized as the power of several worlds pressed down.

The gods suddenly understood, cold sweat beading on their brows. Those were real worlds—the shattered realms of the Otherworld from ages past, all fully refined. Meng Degang controlled three complete worlds! With the power of three worlds, he was grinding down the seven primordial demon cities, locked in a fierce struggle.

"The Eternal King lives up to his name—a match even for a true Stone-Man King," murmured the gods in their hearts.

Within the seven cities, the Sacred Sacrifice reached its final moment. The Otherworld expert's flesh and soul were wholly drained; every shred of divine power had been offered up.

Keke's body bloomed with nine-colored divine radiance, shifting and transforming in a dreamlike cascade until the nine colors merged into one, returning to the primal state of purity and simplicity. Once again, she was pure white as jade, her large eyes brimming with spirit, more limpid than ever. At this moment, the little creature was utterly transcendent, the very embodiment of heavenly wisdom, more endearing than ever.

"Ya-ya..." she murmured softly.

Then, in a flash, all divine light vanished, sinking into Keke's body. The Sacred Sacrifice was complete.

The little beast's wounded soul was fully healed; her spiritual sense had grown stronger, and she had taken another solid step on the path of the Upper Ancestral God. Her flesh and bones were now indestructible, rivaling the mightiest cultivators who had turned solely to physical refinement.

Rumble...

The sound of a thousand armies charging suddenly arose. In that moment, the seven primordial demon cities established a profound connection.

A black river, formed entirely of condensed divine power, appeared on the ground, linking the seven cities into a pattern like a ladle—a shape identical to the Big Dipper.

The demon cities arranged in the Seven Stars formation had finally revealed their mysterious side. The seven cities were interconnected, forming a grand array in themselves.

Light burst forth. The seven cities, now transformed into a Big Dipper formation, rose into the air together, shattering the three worlds above and threatening to tear open the sealed light curtain over the sky.

"It seems this is far more troublesome than we imagined." Eternal King Meng Degang was not discouraged. His voice was calm as he once again shook his city, slowly pressing downward, still determined to suppress all seven cities by himself.

"No powerful Ancestral Lord of the Death World has ever dared to set foot here, and for good reason over endless ages." The Reborn Ancestor Female Saint King finally acted. She descended, standing atop the light curtain, her boundless divine power pressing down like nine heavens, causing the entire Death Continent to tremble.

Below, Xiao Chen finished examining Keke's condition and let out a long breath. Everyone was overjoyed that Keke was unharmed and had grown even stronger.

Only the little beast blinked her large eyes, looking innocently at the crowd, then scratched her head and said, "This was faster than sleeping for cultivation..." Everyone laughed in relief.

"Safe is all that matters. The past is over." Tianwaitian and Renwairen smiled, patting her head, their eyes full of fondness.

Xiao Chen gathered the group, summoning the Divine Diagram, the Ancient Scroll, and the Heavenly Marks, while keeping the powerful stone-man puppet on guard, watching the fierce battle above. The two sides were locked in a life-or-death struggle; all they had to do was wait for the right moment.

"Hey you—don't look elsewhere, I'm talking to you!" Shapolang pointed rudely at the stone-man whose hand had been shattered by the puppet. "Don't pretend. You, that one—I'm talking to you. I heard you've been strutting around for eight or nine thousand years, thinking heaven and earth can't contain you. You harmed Keke more than once. If you've got the guts, come over here and let your grandpa Wolf teach you a lesson!"

The Otherworld Ancestral Gods exchanged glances. Such a rare specimen, daring to speak to a stone-man like that.

"And you—yes, all of you—come on over. The peerless god-king Shapolang will wipe you all out!"

"You're asking for death!" The Otherworld Ancestral Gods seethed with murderous intent.

But the stone-man was unruffled. "Why get angry at an insect? Our task is to help the two Patriarchs refine these seven cities."

Xiao Chen asked Keke, "Did all of those people attack you?" Keke nodded firmly, saying nothing.

What Xiao Chen had seen in that half-ancestor's spiritual sea was only a partial picture—fragments of bloody scenes—but those disjointed images had already driven him beyond rage. Thinking of the people of the God Village, all cruelly slain, killing intent flared within him. Those outside were the true butchers of that tragedy. He would never let them go.

"Want to kill us? Go train for another ten thousand years, or better yet, reincarnate first!" sneered an Otherworld Ancestral God from outside.

"Is that so? We'll see if you can still say that when I have my foot on your neck," the Little Defiant Dragon replied, having bottled up his own fury.

Thud.

At that moment, the Otherworld's peerless grand formation finally exerted its full power. Under the guidance of Eternal King Meng Degang and the Truewood Female Saint, it suppressed the seven primordial demon cities, forcing them back down to the earth.

But then, both Eternal King Meng Degang and the Truewood Female Saint stiffened and slowly turned their heads.

Following the axis of the Emperor Star indicated by the Big Dipper formation of the seven demon cities, a suffocating aura surged forth.

"Is there... an Emperor City beyond these seven cities?"

"It seems we greatly underestimated this place. These seven demon cities in the Big Dipper formation are not the main players—they were guarding an Emperor City all along."