The Prison of Ten Thousand Evils

The female corpse's fingers swept across the Phoenix-Winged Stone Halberd like an immortal, sending it flying lightly for over ten zhang. The strange being upon the beast, however, shuddered violently, and the savage beast beneath him let out a roar, stumbling backward across the sea, raising thousandfold waves. The sea grew ever more turbulent. Behind this man and his beast, a white belt of water surged into the sky, looking from afar like a towering white wall—truly waves that scraped the heavens.

A brief touch, and the woman held such power—it left one deeply shaken.

Yet the strange being seemed a machine, devoid of all emotion. He raised the Phoenix-Winged Stone Halberd high, its sharp main blade and flanking phoenix-wing blades slanting toward the white-robed female corpse. He charged again, the waves surging with him, the savage beast beneath roaring, its voice shaking the sea into rumbling cascades, piercing the clouds like the galloping of a thousand armies.

It was fast beyond measure. In an instant, the beast was before the female corpse, shaking its head and lashing its tail, spitting out the power of myriad laws, distorting space with ancient curses thick in the air. The strange being's Phoenix-Winged Stone Halberd pressed against the white-robed woman's throat, dimpling her fair skin.

But just as the sharp halberd tip was about to pierce that delicate neck, a flowing, hazy radiance emerged from the female corpse. Her jade finger brushed lightly—a single flick—and the halberd was sent flying back, repelled. Striking after the fact, yet arriving first, as if piercing through past and future, altering history and affecting ages to come—with a casual motion, the woman's slender finger had neutralized the killing stroke.

At the same time, the myriad divine principles spat from the beast were blocked at the surface of the woman's body, which shimmered like watery ripples. A thin layer of rosy light repelled every law. Space collapsed, then crumbled. Rumbling thunder rolled. White waves rose in layered peaks, each a thousand piles of snow, each petal a white vapor, blanketing the entire world in goose-feather flurries.

The beast under the strange being roared, its mouth releasing a sonic wave that swept across the entire sea, shaking the region like an erupting volcano. All the ocean surged into the sky. The terrible sound waves made Xiao Chen, far away, tremble; he retreated repeatedly.

In the storm's center, the female corpse stood unmoved, like a beautiful statue. Her eyes, though lovely, stared blankly at the beast, expressionless. She did not strike first—everything was driven by instinct.

From behind, Xiao Chen drew a sharp breath. At this point, he no longer doubted that she must be the remains of a figure as breathtakingly talented as the Little Stone Emperor. Otherwise, she could not have turned back a Stone King so easily. He wondered how her flesh had been preserved without her form and spirit being extinguished.

What unsettled him even more were the strange being's words—that the Three Sovereign Mirror and the Five Emperor Pagoda were needed to enter and leave this place. Were they some kind of token? Had he been ordered to remain here on guard? If all of this was true, what arrangements had the great powers of the primordial age made? What was sealed here? And what was the so-called Source of All Evil?

“Who goes there?” The strange being unfurled his stone wings, shot into the air, and dove at the female corpse. Even as he spoke, his attacks grew more merciless. The Phoenix-Winged Stone Halberd wove a dense web of golden threads—the power of the Great Dao’s origin, the order-laws he had laid down. The halberd slashed down at her head.

This time, the female corpse’s flesh was truly threatened. A Stone King’s great Dao origin was no child’s play—it could kill anything. Even the Little Stone Emperor reborn could not take such a slash idly. Even the powerful shadowy being had been ground down several times by a dozen such forces.

The focused killing intent stirred the female corpse’s instinct. She rose like a startled swan, gliding upward. Her movements seemed soft and graceful, yet nothing could break her; nothing could withstand her.

Her five slender fingers danced as if playing a beautiful melody, striking the Phoenix-Winged Stone Halberd with sharp, clear pings. The sound of cracking set the heart to freeze. Under the assault of her five jade fingers, the halberd grew pitted with holes. Then she closed her fingers into a blade and gave a light chop—the halberd snapped. The golden threads of order collapsed. With a thunderous crash, the halberd turned to stone sand, crushed by her strength.

The strange being roared, his entire body becoming the embodiment of heaven and earth’s Dao, crashing down. His hands tore at the female corpse’s neck, while his pair of stone wings slashed at her chest and abdomen like twin heavenly blades.

The girl—pure and transcendent—flicked her jet-black hair. In an instant, her three thousand strands became swords, piercing the stone wings and snapping them off. Her delicate jade palms caught the strange being’s hands; with a slight twist, they broke with a crisp crack. She stepped as if treading on waves, her robe sleeves whipping out and punching straight through the strange being’s chest, splitting his stone body into fragments that tumbled into the ocean.

The female corpse was terrifyingly powerful. The fleshly body held such dread force that no wonder the primordial great powers had sealed her with the Corpse-Preserving Art. She was utterly undying.

The savage beast charged, roaring. The endless green sea boiled, waves drowning the female corpse. But when the stone beast drew near, she reached out and crushed all its order-laws into dust. The golden divine net shattered, scattering like yellow sand in the wind. Then, transcending time and space, she struck after the fact but arrived first, altering all paths. She stood atop the beast’s body and gently exerted force—the mighty stone beast split in four.

For her, this was trivial. She ended it with little effort.

Xiao Chen vaguely sensed that neither the strange being nor the beast were living Stone Kings; they were existences like the Stone King puppet, their thoughts stripped away almost completely, like the dead. But even so, being killed by the female corpse left him profoundly shaken.

Gradually, the sea grew calm. The emerald waves stretched ten thousand leagues, like a huge blue mirror. No force could stop the female corpse’s steps. She walked steadily toward the great island.

The island was thickly forested. As she reached it, the ethereal voices came again: “Go out… kill our way out…” At first, a single voice, then a thousand merged as one.

The female corpse moved forward, a flowing light trailing her. As she approached, all voices fell silent, as if cowed by fear.

Ahead lay a muddy lake, five or six li across, a foul and churning waste. Floating in that lake were several broken limbs—all limbs of Stone Man Kings—not sinking, but floating on the turbid water, already heavily corroded and on the verge of dissolving.

Just then, the evil lake began to churn. Waves surged; the shore cracked. The so-called evil lake was actually the interior of a broken giant clam. Amid a thunderous roar, the giant clam turned over. Huge waves rose. The two halves of the shell snapped shut, trapping the female corpse inside.

Such an enormous ancient clam was astonishing. Its shell emitted radiance; the rotting flesh within quivered, releasing a stench that could melt anything, seeking to refine the female corpse. Amid that rotting flesh, Xiao Chen saw a Stone Man leg already dissolving, a testament to the clam’s corrosion. Recalling the several Stone Man limbs floating earlier, he drew a sharp breath. The world within that stone jar was truly terrifying.

This ancient clam had not been thrown in by the shadowy being; it must have been an evil creature dwelling here since time immemorial.

Xiao Chen used his Truth-Seeking Eyes, clearly seeing the female corpse sealed within the giant shell. A radiance flowed automatically around her body, blocking the corruption of the rotting flesh, like a pearl being polished. When the radiance around her burst forth, the ancient clam shattered, its rotting flesh splattering, its shell crushed. The primordial essence it had condensed turned into a cloud of energy that converged toward the female corpse.

Xiao Chen was shocked, and had to reassess the female corpse’s instinctive strength. Even without a clear consciousness, she was invincible.

Ahead, clusters of palaces stood on sheer cliffs, forming a rare complex of halls. The voices again came: “Go out… kill our way out…” This time, Xiao Chen sensed the voices came from those palaces—as if someone were imprisoned inside.

The female corpse flew straight to a cliff, entered a palace. At once, earthshaking roars erupted, and the ethereal voices turned fierce. Smoke and dust burst into the sky. The palace collapsed, shattered by the female corpse’s sleeve. A dim, mad shadow flew out, rushing at her with near-insanity—it was clearly a prison-shattered soul. But it threw itself like a moth into a flame, instantly extinguished, turning into points of essence that seeped into the female corpse’s body.

As she left the cliff and walked forward, the stone palace repaired itself, standing again. Xiao Chen frowned: was every hall imprisoning a different soul? The female corpse entered a second palace. Her white garments fluttered, her hair flying, she raised her hand; the palace burst apart. Another soul rushed out, but when it attacked, it too dissolved into essence and was absorbed.

Xiao Chen was astonished. The female corpse seemed to break all obstacles with no effort, but he knew it was because she was so powerful—she could casually destroy all this. He had tried himself and found that destroying a single palace cost immense divine power.

The shadowy being must have known there were countless prisoners here. He wanted the female corpse to come and devour them—that was Xiao Chen’s guess.

“I was imprisoned since primordial times… millions of years have passed. I should be freed now…” At that moment, an old voice called out. Unlike the earlier faint shadows, this one seemed far more conscious, not driven mad by confinement.

Xiao Chen was taken aback. Was the so-called “Source of All Evil” a prison? Holding heavy criminals from the primordial age? And this was merely the outer ring. What kind of being dwelled in the central stone prison? The sound of clanking iron chains hinted at extreme ill omen. Could it be sealing a supreme ancient being? Yet the meaning of “Source of All Evil” seemed far more than a single primordial powerhouse could represent…