The Ruined Ancestral Dragon Ship

Regrettably, Xiao Chen had never even heard of the seven regions mentioned in that ancient text.

Between the mud and stagnant marshes, white bones were everywhere, mingled with rotting corpses—the remains of demons and zombies, reeking with a nauseating stench.

Deep within the black mist-shrouded swamp, an ancient castle towered in lonely silence, exuding an indescribable dread.

Xiao Chen had already decided to leave the deepest reaches of the Death World. A vague unease stirred within him—he felt it was time to return to the Nine Provinces. Many things must have happened over these long years.

But before going back, he needed to accomplish certain tasks in the Death World. Now he had returned to a familiar place.

In the past, he had visited this place—the dwelling of the ancient being known as the Devil Angel. This old relic had once contended for the Seven Ancient Demon Cities and could be considered a formidable creature of the Death World.

The majestic ancient castle in the swamp stood tall, wreathed in demonic clouds.

With a bang, as Xiao Chen arrived, the castle's doors swung wide open of their own accord. The Five Emperor Tower hovering above his head, he strode inside.

"Who dares trespass into my domain?" The ancient Devil Angel sat upon a throne of white bone, looking down from on high. His mount, the Infernal Demon Dragon, coiled its massive frame in the open hall below.

"An old friend calls—do you not recognize me?"

"It is you!" The Devil Angel's expression froze. Then his right hand pressed against the throne as he leaned back, saying, "What business do you have?"

Xiao Chen keenly noticed that as the Devil Angel pressed his hand against the bone throne, a faint, mysterious aura rippled outward.

"Weng—"

The Five Emperor Tower trembled, rapidly expanding and shooting forward to envelop the area.

The Infernal Demon Dragon coiled on the ground—its enormous black skeletal frame cracked with sounds like rolling thunder as it reared up, filling the vast hall to shield its master.

Dong!

But as the Five Emperor Tower descended, the mountain-like black skeleton was instantly smashed. Its ridge-like frame broke into seven sections—and that was with Xiao Chen holding back.

If he had used his full power to drive the Five Emperor Tower, an artifact comparable to the Three Sovereign Mirror, he could have crushed the Infernal Demon Dragon to powder in an instant.

"What do you want?" roared the ancient undead.

Radiance swirled around his body—not the slightest hint of deathly aura, but rather a sacred light. A pair of gleaming white wings unfolded from his flanks, as holy as an angel's, worthy of his name—Devil Angel.

"What message did you just send?"

As Xiao Chen spoke, he strode forward. The Five Emperor Tower hung in the air, casting down a hazy chaotic radiance that enveloped the Devil Angel.

With a swoosh, the ancient undead produced a divine bone staff adorned with a skull, sweeping out a beam of holy light toward the tower. But it was useless—all divine power was absorbed by the ancient pagoda, not a trace remaining.

Bang! Without a word, Xiao Chen formed the Five Emperor Seal and pushed forward.

Boom! A wave of immense divine power surged forth like a landslide. The entire majestic castle collapsed on the spot, instantly reduced to ash.

As for the ancient undead trapped beneath the Five Emperor Tower, his body fissured like porcelain and shattered in an instant. This being had been treading the path of the Upper Ancestral God, a formidable creature, yet under the combined pressure of the Five Emperor Tower and the Five Emperor Seal, he could offer no resistance. Such was the measure of Xiao Chen's current power.

Xiao Chen did not press further; instead, he personally probed the Devil Angel's spiritual consciousness.

"You were summoning Xu Tian..."

Many things had happened in the Death World over the years. Xu Tian had issued a bounty—anyone who provided information on Xiao Chen's whereabouts would receive an ancient demon city.

"Very well. I will wait for him here." By now, Xiao Chen felt no fear toward Xu Tian. After saying this, he began to refine the Devil Angel and the Infernal Demon Dragon, stripping away their consciousness and divine roots, transforming them into loyal puppets with independent thought.

"I leave you here in the Death World to summon and win over other powerful beings. Persuade them to unite, with their eyes set on all the heavens and myriad worlds."

Xiao Chen commanded the refined ancient undead like a general issuing orders, leaving him to stir up the situation here and prepare to march into other worlds.

Yes, this had been his plan for a long time—to organize a movement within the Death World.

For now, he certainly could not stay here himself, so he forged a puppet that possessed its own thoughts yet was utterly loyal.

"One day, I will need a thousand armies to invade the Otherworld. No matter what method you use, you must incite an upheaval. I need such a powerful fighting force, to unite all possible allies. I can give you time—a century, a millennium, ten millennia, or even a hundred thousand years if necessary. I can wait!"

To lead a mighty army across the Otherworld and connect the Death World with the Otherworld—this had long been Xiao Chen's plan.

"Xu Tian, you have come at last..."

Xiao Chen vanished from his spot and reappeared a hundred li away. Before him, a demonic city stood suspended in the sky, rolling black clouds surging around it.

Without a word, he activated the Five Emperor Tower. It swelled instantly, hurtling toward the giant city in the sky.

Boom!

The Five Emperor Tower was not as large or majestic as the ancient demon city, but its momentum was overwhelming—like a comet striking the earth, tearing across the sky and illuminating the continent of the Death World.

In that instant, heaven and earth rocked. The ancient demon city in the sky split open; massive boulders tumbled down, broken walls and ruined parapets crashing like rain to the ground.

Not a single stone shard was wasted, not a single brick escaped absorption—all were swept into the Five Emperor Tower. The vast essence contained within the ancient demon city was completely devoured, and the city itself dissipated into flying ash.

The Five Emperor Tower had consumed the demon city, taking its essence and discarding the dross, perfecting itself in the process.

A human figure shot out, fleeing swiftly into the distant sky.

"Xu Tian, where do you think you're going!"

Xiao Chen was no longer the same as before. His body was encased in a stone shell as he drove the Five Emperor City forward, trapping the man in place.

Bang! The figure's body split into four or five pieces, collapsing and fading within the Five Emperor City, on the verge of complete disappearance.

"Xiao Chen, you have exceeded my expectations. But do not be smug—in five hundred years, you will surely die. I will become a king, and no matter what treasures you possess, they will not save you. In five hundred years, I will cut you down!" This was merely an incarnation; Xu Tian was extraordinarily cautious, never exposing the location of his true body.

Xiao Chen had no choice but to leave. Soon, tens of thousands of li away, he was startled to see the Seven Ancient Demon Cities arranged in the pattern of the Big Dipper, blazing with ten thousand divine lights.

"Eh? That is..."

The seven ancient demon cities were burning fiercely. The essence of the flames surged upward toward the Imperial City in the sky. As the seven cities crumbled, the Stone Men within them fissured and burned alongside.

And that Imperial City grew ever more radiant, its aura so intense that even Stone Man Kings would pale.

Boom! At that moment, a tearing sound came from the distant sky. A colossal city materialized—it was the Heavenly Emperor City, appearing in the Death World. A giant stone axe cleaved the heavens, shielding the Heavenly Emperor City as it advanced.

"Pan Gu's Axe protecting the Heavenly Emperor City... appearing here? How can this be?" Xiao Chen's heart was filled with questions.

"You still owe me three Ancestral God souls..." At this moment, such spiritual fluctuations emanated from the Heavenly Emperor City.

Xiao Chen felt ashamed; this promise had never been fulfilled.

"But I no longer need them. I have found another way to ignite a strand of life within the Heavenly Emperor City, restoring its former might."

"Are you the Heavenly Emperor? Did you not fall already?" Xiao Chen gazed in disbelief at the giant city in the sky.

"The Heavenly Emperor never fell. He has always existed..."

Hearing these words, Xiao Chen's expression changed. Many mysterious events from the past began to take on a blurry outline. The Heavenly Emperor had not died; he had been moving in the Death World all along... "The Three Sovereigns are unknown; the Five Emperors are unclear. I am the Heavenly Emperor. But who truly is the Heavenly Emperor?" This was the final voice from the Heavenly Emperor City. Then it rumbled as it merged with the Imperial City in the sky.

Boom! The seven ancient demon cities shattered completely, all merging into the Imperial City above. Then the immense Heavenly Emperor City transformed into a stream of light, instantly tearing through the barrier of the great world and vanishing in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, several powerful divine thoughts probed this place—undoubtedly belonging to Stone Man Kings.

Xiao Chen tensed inwardly. The formidable beings of the Death World were truly terrifying. Using the Five Emperor Tower to seal himself off from the outside world, he shot away like a streak of light.

In the end, Xiao Chen emerged on the Devil's Plain of the World of Immortality, returning to this world through a demonic hole.

The earth trembled as he saw a Lion King Dragon racing across the plain. Unlike the Nine Provinces, which had entered an age of technological civilization, the seeds of life replanted in the World of Immortality had once again ushered in an age of gods and demons.

Soon, Xiao Chen subdued the Lion King Dragon and extracted a vast amount of information from its mind.

Suddenly, his expression froze. He had never imagined that thousands of years had already passed—he had missed the appointment of thirty thousand years.

Xiao Chen released the Lion King Dragon and walked on alone, covering several thousand li before leaving the Devil's Plain and entering a stretch of desolate mountain ranges that filled him with unease.

Ancient mountain ranges had collapsed; chaotic boulders lay everywhere. Many peaks had split and fallen to the ground. The cause of all this was a colossal dragon ship.

The ship's hull had crashed into this wasteland of mountain peaks, half-buried among the fallen stones.

The Ancestral Dragon Ship had rotted. The divine power it once contained was utterly exhausted; the Sky-Reaching Sacred Wood and the Ancestral Dragon bones had decayed, even emitting a foul odor.

Inside the ship, many blackened bloodstains could be seen, long since dried, yet unable to be washed away by wind and rain, telling of a bloody battle that had once taken place.

Xiao Chen stepped forward expressionlessly. From the current inhabitants of the World of Immortality, he had already learned everything that had happened since the Ancestral Dragon Ship fell into this world.

All those who had left on that ship back then were dead—buried by someone. This was truly a devastating blow to heaven and earth. Now, seeing it with his own eyes, waves of emotion surged within him, impossible to calm.

The ship's interior was empty. Aside from the bloodstains, nothing remained.

"Who did this?"

Xiao Chen ground his teeth. In all these thousands of years, he had never felt such deep hatred. The death of those heroes was too unjust. Who had committed this atrocity? He desperately wanted to know, to avenge the dead.

He recalled a scene from the Little Stone Emperor's tomb: at the crossroads of the mausoleum, with a real great world as a node, he had seen the Ancestral Dragon Ship passing through, with a dark shadow pursuing it from behind.

"Was that shadow responsible for all this?... Did everyone die? Did no one survive?" Xiao Chen did not know, and he found it hard to accept this reality.

Countless years ago, the Ancestral Dragon Ship had carried away the first group of heroes, including Yao and Shun. Xing Tian and Chi You were among the second group, sent away in a later era.

Yao, Shun, and the others should have survived... Xiao Chen thought so. But where were they now?

"They could not keep the appointment. They died in a foreign land, and the murderer still roams free. I missed the thirty-thousand-year appointment..." Xiao Chen stood like a fossilized statue on the decayed Ancestral Dragon Ship, motionless.