The Corpse in the Temple

In the ancient temple, five stone skulls blazed with flames several meters high, yet no heat emanated—only a bone-chilling cold spread through the air.

Xiao Chen’s right hand rested on the icy corpse that sat cross-legged on the ground, but at that same moment, a hand fell upon his own shoulder. In that instant, his entire body stiffened.

Black mist coiled, green flames flickered—everything in this mysterious ancient land was so bizarre.

Xiao Chen did not panic or struggle. He slowly lowered his arm and then stepped to the side. Throughout the movement, the hand on his shoulder never left.

The moment he left the corpse, Xiao Chen dodged away with the Eight Aspect Extreme, putting ten zhang between himself and his unseen pursuer. But to his horror, the hand was still on his shoulder—as if it had never moved—radiating a warm heat.

"This person is terrifyingly strong—impossible to shake!" Xiao Chen whirled around, his Truth-Seeking Eyes piercing the void with two beams of divine light.

But a chill ran through his heart: behind him was utterly empty, and his shoulder was bare.

At the same time, the sensation of a hand on his shoulder vanished. He swept his gaze across the temple, but found nothing.

Suddenly, Xiao Chen’s expression froze. Beside the burning skulls, the seated corpse had vanished without a trace.

"Too fast! In the blink of an eye, the mysterious corpse disappeared."

Who was it? Xiao Chen paced silently through the ancient hall, carefully observing everything.

Flames roared, green fire blazed, emitting a sinister, chill aura. Five stone skulls spewed fire from their seven orifices—the scene was deeply eerie.

All of this filled Xiao Chen with a very bad premonition. How could the corpse vanish? Was it not dead? But he had clearly felt the icy, lifeless body—merely an empty shell.

Xiao Chen walked to the deepest part of the temple, before a stone platform. As he mounted the steps, a cold, sinister aura rushed toward him, and he halted.

Fine strands of hair drifted, black mist swirled. On the highest stone platform, there was no statue of a god or demon—instead, a corpse lay there. It was undoubtedly the same figure that had been seated before the fire—the same chilling aura.

This time, Xiao Chen did not touch it. He approached cautiously and observed silently.

He could not make out its true features—black mist obscured its face, even its gender was impossible to discern. The place held an eerie power that blocked his Truth-Seeking Eyes.

Only when the black mist thinned did he catch a glimpse of a ghastly scene:

A stone axe was embedded in the corpse’s skull, the split bone clamped around it.

Two stone arrows pierced the corpse’s eyes, leaving only the feathers visible outside.

A stone sword was thrust through the corpse’s heart, and through the black mist, traces of dried, black blood could be seen.

Four sharp stone daggers pinned the corpse’s palms and soles.

Xiao Chen crouched down, gently dispersing the surrounding black mist with a wave of his hand, and carefully examined the corpse.

When the mist cleared from its face, he saw a flawless countenance. If not for the arrow holes through the eyes, the face could be called perfect—skin like ice, bones like jade, delicate and luminous. Fine, jet-black strands of hair drifted lightly.

It was a lifeless body, dead for a billion years. An aura of age could be felt from it.

Even with its eyes pierced, the face remained vivid. Beneath the long lashes, there seemed to appear a pair of limpid eyes—an illusion, as if it had been reborn. The nose was delicate, the lips red and fresh, the teeth crystalline.

This was a peerless beauty. It was almost certain that she had achieved flesh-and-blood rebirth as a Stone-Man King, reaching a state that commanded awe. Even the residual power within her cold body was enough to make one uneasy.

But even one so powerful had been struck down here.

Xiao Chen suddenly realized that, without his conscious awareness, his right hand had grasped the stone sword embedded in her chest and was slowly pulling it out. Moreover, his other hand had involuntarily reached for the stone axe lodged in her skull.

His heart jolted. He released his grip and retreated two steps.

What was this? That was not his will—it was as if he were being controlled.

But the next instant, he felt even more horrified. His feet mechanically stepped forward, and he crouched down again, reaching for the stone sword and axe once more, attempting to remove them from the corpse.

"This... this!" Xiao Chen was astounded. This place was too uncanny! The beautiful corpse was especially unsettling—despite its perfect appearance, it was so malevolent.

"Bang!"

Xiao Chen struggled to control his hands. They trembled repeatedly, changing course. The hand gripping the axe sank, suddenly grabbing an arrow feather and pulling it out in one motion! "I didn't do this!" Xiao Chen wanted to shout, but he could not control himself.

He strained with all his strength and finally broke free, tumbling backward off the stone platform. He sat on the ground in a daze, staring at the stone arrow in his hand, hardly believing he had pulled it out.

He wanted to retreat, to leave this sinister place. But when he stood, he involuntarily climbed back onto the platform. At that moment, he noticed with astonishment that after the stone arrow was removed from the right eye of that perfect face, not a single wound remained—only a few drops of crystal blood rolled down, and then nothing.

The half-open eye gleamed like a crystalline black gem, shimmering with a mysterious radiance.

That eye, filled with enigmatic charm, had a power that could intoxicate the heart. Xiao Chen found himself crouching down again, reaching for the stone sword thrust into the corpse.

"Bang!"

Again, without any effort, the plain stone sword was easily drawn. This long sword rivaled the Little Stone Emperor's sovereign sacred sword in quality, brimming with boundless power.

Xiao Chen saw with surprise that the moment the stone sword was pulled out, the heart wound on the perfect body healed automatically, with only a few drops of crimson blood rolling down.

This was a tall, graceful, perfect physique. Even though it had clearly lost its life, it was so eerie that Xiao Chen felt something was very wrong.

He examined it repeatedly, convinced it was a corpse, and no soul remained nearby. Yet there was a mysterious force compelling his hands to act against his will.

Why? Could it be possession after death? He was alarmed and uncertain.

There was no soul in this corpse—it should not be able to revive.

Suddenly, Xiao Chen recalled a certain possibility. Legend said that in the primordial era, when great powers dealt with beings at the ultimate Dao pinnacle, they used a "corpse-suppression technique."

No one knew how to suppress a corpse. Could what he was seeing be a corpse sealed by a primordial great power?

"Bang!"

At that moment, Xiao Chen involuntarily pulled the stone axe from the perfect skull and threw it to the ground, where it clanged loudly in the ancient hall.

"What am I doing? Why am I not in control..." Xiao Chen's heart was ice-cold. Facing the unknown, he could not remain calm.

The demonic shadow was sealed within the stone gate, and the kings had joined forces to carve countless words and curse symbols on the gate, densely covering and completely sealing it.

Lu Zhan and the other three Otherworld Ancestors fled the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps in an instant, vanishing without a trace.

All the kings soared into the sky and returned to the Celestial Realm. Next, a great battle would erupt among them, determining to whom the Three Sovereign Mirror truly belonged.

On that very day, the winds rose and clouds surged. Pangu King reappeared, wielding his great axe, manifesting in the Otherworld.

The colossal stone axe split heaven and earth, sweeping across the sky, instantly tearing apart a large part of that world.

"Roar!" Lu Zhan charged up in fury, using his supreme power to mend the rift and stabilize the great world. He bellowed: "Pangu King, you dare show yourself!"

The four Ancestors emerged together, charging forward to surround and kill Pangu King.

Pangu King was majestic and awe-inspiring. His great axe sundered the heavens, sweeping through the sky, undaunted. Today, with the Otherworld stone gate sealed, he had struck first into the Otherworld. Without that terrifying demonic shadow intervening, he feared nothing!

"Dong!"

A divine light shot forth, piercing the Otherworld's great world barrier. Keke's Xuanzu manifested—his cultivation long since consolidated, he could now contend with Stone Man Kings.

"Caw caw caw—"

The crow's mournful cry rang out. The Stone Crow flapped its wings, pitch-black as ink, hanging in the sky like a black sun.

"You calamity star—why do you attack our world? What enmity do we share?" Lu Zhan sensed something was wrong and secretly sent a telepathic command for all Otherworld cultivators to withdraw completely and flee this world.

With the demonic shadow sealed behind the stone gate, the Otherworld had lost its greatest deterrent. Although the four Ancestors were ancient powerhouses who could protect themselves, they could no longer shield the entire Otherworld.

"Someone invited me to act, allowing me to observe their Dao imprints..." The Stone Crow cawed as terrifying curses coiled around the four Ancestors.

"To invite you, the Dao imprints must surely surpass the Stone Man King realm. Could it be the Little Stone Emperor? But he is dead and has no reason to ask you... It is he—the one who claimed to become the Stone Emperor has not died! That skull is his!"

Lu Zhan quickly reached this conclusion. His heart was filled with dread, and he issued a death order for all Otherworld cultivators to flee far away and not remain in this world.

"I understand now! That skull once split into several strands of divine thought—it never truly perished! At least two of those strands survived..."

Having deduced this, Lu Zhan and the others all showed grave expressions. A being second only to the Little Stone Emperor of old—even if it never reached the ultimate peak and its body was shattered, it was still worthy of vigilance. After all, in ancient times, it was stronger than ordinary Stone Kings.

"Fine, fine, fine..." Lu Zhan sneered. "Do you think I fear you?"

"Clang!" The stone axe swept across the sky. Pangu King struck Lu Zhan back with one blow and knocked Lang Ya tumbling.

"Boom!"

At that moment, a vast, ancient city flew in, crashing into the Otherworld—the former Heavenly Emperor City, now even more magnificent in scale.

It directly shattered this firmament and hovered above Pangu King's head.

"Fine, fine, fine! I suddenly understand many things!" Lu Zhan laughed coldly. "So you are connected to it."

Shua shua shua—figures appeared continuously in the sky. Keke's father stood atop a cloud, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, looking down. He hooked a finger at Lang Ya, who was wielding a great club.

Keke stood obediently beside him, guarded at the center by a beautiful woman.

"Dong!"

And at the horizon, a towering figure appeared—the Martial Ancestor, who had been absent for many years. He did not choose to attack the four Ancestors but instead began a Sacred Sacrifice on the entire world!

This move caused all four Ancestors to change color, trembling with fury.