Cocoon of Stone Before the Seventh Stele

Deep within the Curse Realm, the Seventh Heavenly Stele stood towering and majestic, shrouded in roiling mist. The six Heavenly Marks affixed to its surface had now manifested six massive heads, their auras pressing down like mountains.

Xiao Chen's heart surged with turbulent waves. His powerful divine sense swept across the stele again and again. He was filled with reverence for those six heads, but he could not retreat because of fear.

He sat motionless for years. No one knew where he was. Keke was not by his side.

Countless divine thoughts surged back from the Heavenly Stele like a flood bursting a dam, like ten thousand galloping horses. In that moment, Xiao Chen felt as insignificant as an ant, as weak as a mote of dust, in constant danger of annihilation.

Yet those thoughts did not merge with him; instead, they passed through his consciousness like dozens of sharp blades, cutting and scraping.

This was a terrible torture. Xiao Chen could not withdraw even if he wanted to; his mind was fixed upon the Seventh Heavenly Stele.

Countless stars flickered within those divine thoughts.

Time flowed silently. The vegetation around the abyss flourished and withered. Xiao Chen was buried under yellow soil, the vitality of his physical body gradually dying, but his divine sense grew stronger. Under the relentless scraping that stripped flesh from bone, his powerful consciousness was tempered and refined, becoming stronger rather than destroyed.

It was like a whetstone grinding a demon blade, making his spiritual perception crystalline and resplendent, slowly becoming indestructible and immortal.

Time passed like water, a thousand years flowing by without sound.

Xiao Chen was buried by grass and trees, covered by soil, like a withered log, the life force of his fleshly body extinguished.

At last, his divine sense gradually approached perfection. His mighty spirit was now barely inferior to that of a Stone King—an essential element on the path of the Upper Ancestral God.

Finally, he began to awaken, life returning to his body. The six heads on the Seventh Heavenly Stele had faded and vanished.

At that moment, Xiao Chen felt his divine sense sharp as a blade—each thought could shatter the void, each thought could carve out life.

With a single thought, flowers bloomed and withered, rainbows fell at the horizon, golden lotuses grew within molten lava.

A thought could bring flowers to bloom, a thought could make them fade. A thought could summon falling snow, a thought could conjure a rainbow. A thought could unleash a storm of lightning.

It was as if whatever he willed came true: the flourishing and perishing of life all lay within a single movement of spirit.

How formidable would the perfect state of the Upper Ancestral God be? Xiao Chen had not yet glimpsed the end of this path, yet he already felt this terrifying power.

The strength and solidity of the divine sense were the true crystallization of thorough comprehension of the Heavenly Stele Profound Art.

From this point on, Xiao Chen was no longer affected by anything. He could calmly read the text and ancient diagrams on the Seventh Heavenly Stele.

The ancient characters curled like little Ancestral Dragons, but this did not hinder him. Having thoroughly mastered the profound arts of the first six steles, the celestial script was instantly clear to him, its meaning dawning in a flash.

Xiao Chen's mind slowly sank into a wondrous state.

For a hundred thousand years of stillness, for a hundred thousand years of enlightenment, for a hundred thousand years of sealed death meditation, Xiao Chen's body underwent continuous transformation.

Ten thousand years ago, his divine sense had already grown strong enough to look upon the figures of Upper Ancestral Gods. Now, his fleshly body was transforming—sublimating in desolation, awaiting eruption in silence.

He did not form a King's Divine City, nor did he construct a Primordial Demon City. Silently, petrification began from his skin, spreading inward toward his organs.

“Thump… thump…”

Every acupoint on his body blazed like a brilliant star rising in the firmament.

In particular, within the three hundred and sixty-five major acupuncture points, three hundred and sixty-five figures sat in meditation, their postures identical to Xiao Chen's. At this very moment, they all erupted with blinding light, igniting his body. Divine splendor burst forth everywhere, halting the petrification, allowing only a layer of stone armor to cover his crystalline skin.

The three hundred and sixty-five great gods and countless other known and unknown acupoints provided the resistance, the fountainhead of divine radiance that surged forth.

Yet although the petrification was halted, a mysterious transformation was taking place. From the stone-encased surface inward, a layer of mystical light seeped into his organs, flesh, and bones.

His body did not turn to stone, but underwent the same sublimation—a slow, gradual metamorphosis.

The stony surface shone inward, wisps of light flowing continuously, spreading radiance ever onward—walking the path of the Stone Man, but without solidifying into a stone body.

“Crack… crack…”

In the end, Xiao Chen did not become a stone body, but the outer layer of rock grew thicker and thicker, sounds of cracking echoing.

The profound arts of the Seventh Heavenly Stele were fully engraved into his heart. Xiao Chen strode forward on the path of true strength.

Another three thousand years passed. Nourished by the essence of petrification, his flesh and bones were transformed. The stone layer on his body grew three feet thick—unable to go inward, it spread outward, slowly taking shape as a stone chamber, covering him over.

It did not look like a divine city, but rather a stone prison.

Yes, Xiao Chen was breaking through, but he refused complete petrification. He had, as it were, drawn a circle to imprison himself.

A miniature divine city was thus formed, containing flesh and blood within, barely three paces square on the outside.

Xiao Chen had memorized the profound arts of the Seventh Heavenly Stele. Enclosed within the stone prison, he did not lose his connection to the stele; six Heavenly Marks descended, all plunging into the stone prison.

At the same time, streaks of blood seeped from the Seventh Heavenly Stele—divine blood stained the sky, falling toward the stone prison below.

“Hiss… hiss…”

Like snow falling onto a red-hot brand, sounds arose. Wisps of bloody vapor rushed out from the stone prison as impurities were cast off and essence absorbed within. Divine blood washed the sky, refining the stone prison.

“Rooooar!”

A tremendous explosion resounded. The Seventh Heavenly Stele swelled massively, piercing through clouds and shattering the sky. Its peerlessly powerful aura shook all the heavens and myriad worlds. Every king sensed it.

At that moment, the three-pace-square stone prison slowly rose into the air, then merged with the Seventh Heavenly Stele, gradually sinking into it.

At first, a mark of the stone prison remained on the stele's surface, but eventually it vanished completely, entering the colossal monolith.

Divine blood washed the stone prison, grinding away the dross of the ages.

This was the transformation within the Heavenly Stele. Torrents of fresh blood drowned the stone prison, not providing vitality but slicing and grinding like blades.

To shatter meant only one outcome—death!

This was a whip and a trial, like a blade at the back, like a sword at the throat.

The commotion alarmed all worlds. Kings rushed here, but the first to arrive were from the Otherworld.

Black clouds rolled as the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps crossed the realms. At the end of the stone steps, the First Ancient Capital loomed. A colossal beast claw reached out, grabbing toward the towering stele.

Bloody light shot skyward. The Seventh Heavenly Stele shook violently, but in the end, it was seized.

“BOOM!”

The barrier of the great world shattered. The immense beast claw wrenched the stele away, returning across realms to the Otherworld.

The stele, like a sword, was thrust into the earth. For tens of thousands of li, the land collapsed.

“I care nothing for the first six Heavenly Marks. Starting with the Seventh Heavenly Stele, I will forcibly break through, tear you apart, and fully refine your mysteries! Whatever secrets you hide, they will be revealed!”

These words came from the end of the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps high in the sky. That terrifying ancient powerhouse had entrusted his primordial spirit and flesh to the First Ancient Capital, surviving into the present. Though slowly decaying, he had not yet fallen.

The Heavenly Stele was uprooted, suspended above the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps—an ominous place now overshadowed by the captured stele.

But the fearsome entity within the First Ancient Capital was unperturbed; his power had reached an appalling level. He began to refine the Heavenly Stele.

Fearsome divine power transformed into black divine flames, scorching the colossal monolith.

“Mind, Form, Law—penetrate the Heavenly Stele realm!”

Within the First Ancient Capital, a beast claw swept across the sky, repeatedly striking the Seventh Heavenly Stele, filling the air with metallic clangs.

“Ha ha ha…”

Laughter echoed from the First Ancient Capital, shaking the Ninety-Nine Stone Steps.

In the distant sky, Lang Ya and Lu Zhan revealed themselves, watching.

“What is it laughing about? Has it discovered the secrets of the Heavenly Stele?”

“Never mind what it does. For now, it is our butcher's knife, able to oppose all the myriad worlds. Once we establish contact with that world and allow our Holy Ancestor to descend, let us see how it can continue to order us around with such arrogance!”

“Is the Heavenly Stele a person?!” The voice from the First Ancient Capital boomed with laughter. “In the age I once lived in, there were only legends of the Heavenly Stele, never a trace of one. I suspect you deliberately spread smoke and mirrors—the steles appeared later.”

Hearing this, Lu Zhan and Lang Ya in the distance changed color, many conjectures rising in their minds.

“I can sense that the Heavenly Stele is merging with a person! It has essence blood, divine thoughts, and is even nurturing an ancient city…” A great roar came from the ancient capital in that ominous land. “I will refine you!”

Divine flames completely engulfed the Heavenly Stele. The stone prison inside it was like a stone egg, enveloped by boundless divine power.

Within the stone prison, Xiao Chen was half-awake, half-dreaming, his divine sense oscillating between stillness and activity.

“Borrow your divine fire to ignite my sacred body, be reborn, reach extreme sublimation…” He murmured unconsciously, waiting within the stone prison for his breakthrough.