Chapter 3993: One Against Three, Destroying Three
Having split off eight heads, the nine-headed stone man had also divided his soul spirit, ancestral rules, and demonic qi, so his combat power naturally dropped significantly.
Heavenly Mother had originally only been able to engage him in a stalemate, but now, relying on her demonic arts, she could block him head-on, preventing him from reuniting with the eight heads or heading to the Demon Heaven Mountain.
Indeed, an Ancestor could destroy a realm with a thought and ignite a star sea with a single idea.
But when one's cultivation reached Gai Mie's level, they could also destroy a realm with a wave of their hand and devour a star sea with their aura. They were no longer someone an Ancestor could kill with a single thought.
Previously, the spiritual light shadow of the nine-headed stone man had entered the Xiongxiao Demon God Hall but was shattered by Gai Mie. This was the best proof.
Thus, with the nine-headed stone man's true body blocked by Heavenly Mother, no matter how furious he was, he could not kill Gai Mie and Chi Xingtian on Demon Heaven Mountain, let alone harm Zhang Ruochen.
"Boom!"
Behind Heavenly Mother, seventy-two Demon God Stone Pillars materialized, reaching into the clouds and disrupting time and space. Using this as a divine power, she struck the nine-headed stone man's ten-thousand-mile-tall body, sending rubble tumbling down.
"I once looked up to the Ancestor, seeking his path, revering and fearing him. But today, I no longer look up to anyone, because the Ancestor is not invincible."
"Whoosh!"
Flame-like patterns emerged on the blade of the Abyssal Divine Sword, dispersing the demonic qi for millions of miles and igniting the energy of heaven and earth.
The sky and ground were both burning.
Heavenly Mother vanished from her spot with a "swish."
The next instant, the Abyssal Divine Sword clashed with the nine-headed stone man's left arm. Two terrifying forces collided. If this had not erupted within the Ancestor Realm and the Nether Prison, it would have torn the star sea apart.
This time, the nine-headed stone man could no longer wave Heavenly Mother away with a single hand.
The two stalemated for the span of a breath.
Heavenly Mother was sent flying backward, and the nine-headed stone man also retreated half a step.
For a Half-Ancestor to force an Ancestor to retreat was undoubtedly a feat that could shake the ages. Regardless of how many external conditions contributed, Heavenly Mother was destined to be recorded in history.
But Heavenly Mother showed no sign of pride.
From start to finish, her gaze was fixed on the stone knife embedded in the nine-headed stone man's chest.
The nine-headed stone man was clearly aware of this weakness and gave Heavenly Mother no opportunity. Every time she used the speed granted by the Houtu Wedding Garb to approach the stone knife, she was repelled by his stone arm.
"I knew you would become this troublesome. Back then, I should have killed you at any cost."
"Kill me? Do you think you wouldn't have been buried with me?"
"Since you know that beings at our level can only perish in a one-for-one exchange, what's the point of blocking me here? Do you really think you people can kill me?"
Even though the nine-headed stone man still held the upper hand, he was well aware that the situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable for him.
Di, whom he had buried deep within the Demonic Qi Great World, was showing signs of breaking through the ground.
What was even harder for him to accept was that the eight heads he had split off were also trapped in a difficult situation.
"The fact that you can say such things shows you've lost the most important quality of an Ancestor: an invincible heart. You think realm is the only thing that matters, but when cultivation reaches a certain level, will and determination are just as important as cultivation realm."
"You inherited the Great Demon God's power and cultivation, but not his spirit and will."
Heavenly Mother raised her sword, splitting into three thousand figures. The sky was filled with her forms, like an impenetrable wall. Even an Ancestor would have to stop here.
...
Although they were within the Ancestor Realm, Zhang Ruochen's Dao could carve out a small world of his own, free from suppression.
Wielding time and space, Zhang Ruochen advanced step by step, engaging the male head, female head, and Dharma Seal head alone, pulling them into the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram Seal.
The four cauldrons stabilized the four directions, and the four symbols sealed the space.
The male head and female head were both made of stone, as if meticulously carved.
Their translucent bodies were formed from countless ancestral rules, order, and demonic qi. Inside, they were chaotic, occasionally accompanied by lightning and flames.
Just these translucent bodies alone could easily contain dozens of great worlds.
Every strand of ancestral rules and order within them was fatal to ordinary gods, capable of cutting them in half.
Zhang Ruochen had long been exposed to the power of an Ancestor and could mobilize such power through the Ancestral Blood Wings, so he handled it with ease.
The Dharma Seal head was extremely mysterious, not a physical head.
Initially, Zhang Ruochen used the Shaoyang Divine Mountain to suppress it, but it easily broke free, roaming among the four symbols' visions. After failing to break the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram, it directly launched a soul attack on Zhang Ruochen.
"Boom! Boom!"
Zhang Ruochen, with one hand forming a fist and the other in a sword finger, engaged the male head and female head in close combat. Various forces intertwined, and his moves were swift.
On his fist, lightning flowed, and the fist force contained the ten-billion-fold spatial gravity of the Blunt Void Stone. He clashed head-on with the male head, neither yielding.
The hand forming the sword finger was affixed with the Imperial Talisman. Each finger-sword contained billions of talisman patterns.
The male head and female head, both possessing Heavenly Venerable-level combat power, were no pushovers. Even though their bodies were translucent, their toughness was not inferior to Zhang Ruochen's physical body. Together, they fought Zhang Ruochen to a standstill.
As for their stone heads, Zhang Ruochen dared not touch them; their hardness surpassed that of ordinary divine artifacts.
Of course, whenever Zhang Ruochen's Ancestral Blood Wings slashed down, they also had to dodge hastily.
The Dharma Seal head reappeared, hovering above Zhang Ruochen, and unleashed the Soul Devouring Curse.
The curse was formless and eerily sinister.
In peak battles among cultivators, victory or defeat could be decided in an instant. Once cursed, one would quickly lose and die a miserable death.
"Whoosh!"
The Fate Ancestor Ji Gate and the Mani Pearl flew out one after another.
The Fate Ancestor Ji Gate had absorbed Zhang Ruochen's years of cultivation in the Path of Fate, making it even more powerful than before. Like a shield seal, it blocked all soul attacks from the Dharma Seal head.
The Wuwo Lamp hovered within the Ji Gate, its flames flickering.
While dissolving the Soul Devouring Curse, the Mani Pearl released Brahma Fire, counterattacking the Dharma Seal head.
The Dharma Seal head's ambush failed, and the battle fell into a stalemate again.
On Demon Heaven Mountain, Chi Xingtian's demonic blood had almost completely drained away. His withered body looked like a layer of skin stretched over bones. For a moment, he felt he was about to become a member of the Bone Clan.
Chi Xingtian collapsed to the ground, looking at the battle within the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram Seal in the distance. His emotions were complex. "He's only at the peak of the Indestructible Infinite realm, yet he can fight three Heavenly Venerable-level opponents without losing. Shangzhu Pillar, can you do that?"
Gai Mie's emotions were even more complicated. "Without so many war treasures, especially the Ancestral Blood Wings, he couldn't fight one against three."
Chi Xingtian held a different view. "But the current situation is that he has to use the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram Seal and the four cauldrons to trap the three heads in his domain. This raises the difficulty of the battle by more than one level. If this were in the starry sky, without worrying about the heads reuniting with the main body, he would probably have..."
"What's the use of all this nonsense? If I had the Ancestral Blood Wings, I could also fight one against three."
"But you're at the Heavenly Venerable level," Chi Xingtian said.
Gai Mie shouted, "Why are you sitting down? Hurry up and activate Demon Heaven Mountain and the 'Heavenly Demon Stone Inscriptions.' The battle is far from over. I suspect that once the turning point comes, the nine-headed stone man will go all out."
Chi Xingtian could tell Gai Mie didn't want to continue the previous topic. "Turning point? What turning point?"
Gai Mie's gaze locked onto the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram Seal. "I think Zhang Ruochen will try to finish this quickly. The longer this drags on, the more unpredictable the variables."
...
Yan Wushen and Chi Kunlun entered the Nether Prison, stepping into the first layer of the prison realm.
In reality, the upper three layers of the prison realm had already collapsed, leaving only fragments of land.
The void was filled with various destructive forces. Flowing light was like blades, air currents roared, and heaven and earth were in chaos. Chi Kunlun struggled to cope alone, feeling as if he would be torn apart.
The Nether Prison, refined by the Heavenly Demon, was so sturdy that even an Ancestor could not break it. The residual power of all the clashes between the strong gathered in this realm.
The Mother of the Weak Water, riding the Heavenly River, had already rushed out of the Demonic Qi Great World, trapping the Snow Domain Star Sea Divine Army within a sky-full of water curtains.
Every moment, divine army soldiers fell, unable to withstand the power of a Half-Ancestor.
If not for Chan Bing's profound cultivation, the divine army would have been completely annihilated.
Yan Wushen had no interest in this battle at all. His gaze was fixed on the interior of the Demonic Qi Great World.
Buddhist light shone all around him, and the Six Paths Reincarnation mark appeared in his pupils, allowing him to see through the ancestral rules and observe the fierce battle within.
"I underestimated your father and overestimated the Ancestor. I didn't expect them to be evenly matched."
Chi Kunlun said, "Ten top experts fighting an Ancestor to a draw is legendary. It's just a pity I wasn't one of them."
"Then let me break this balance and make the battle even more intense."
Yan Wushen smiled and said loudly, "Great Demon God, I, following the orders of the Nether Clan, have come to deliver the Blood Fiend Bell to help you break free."
Yan Wushen spread his arms, and the sound of bells filled the air.
A mass of blood clouds appeared above Yan Wushen's head, then turned into a streak of light, flying straight toward the Demonic Qi Great World and crashing into the black clouds.
The clouds sank downward.
Without waiting to see if the Blood Fiend Bell had fallen into the nine-headed stone man's hands, Yan Wushen looked toward another space and shouted, "Jiusi Yitianhuang, Gu Yanluo, why aren't you helping the Great Demon God kill Chan Bing, Zhang Ruochen, and the others? What are you trying to do? Do you know the consequences of defying the Nether Ancestor's will?"
Jiusi Yitianhuang and Gu Yanluo, hiding at the edge of the third layer of the prison realm, exchanged glances. They hadn't expected Yan Wushen, this monstrous youth, to be able to break through their Dao and see their forms.
One Zhang Ruochen was already shocking enough.
Now another one had appeared.
Originally, Jiusi Yitianhuang and Gu Yanluo had hidden in the shadows, hoping to reap the benefits after both sides had worn each other out. Yan Wushen's words made them uneasy.
Could it be that the Nether Ancestor had come to the Nether Prison?
Zhang Ruochen had long sensed Jiusi Yitianhuang and Gu Yanluo but had not exposed them, hoping they would stay put.
As long as they gained the upper hand and severely wounded the nine-headed stone man, these two old demons would surely jump out to deliver the finishing blow and join them in hunting the nine-headed stone man.
But now, if the stalemate was not broken, Jiusi Yitianhuang and Gu Yanluo, fearing the Nether Ancestor, would definitely side with Yan Wushen and the nine-headed stone man. After all, killing Zhang Ruochen and the others would still allow the two old demons to feast.
"Attack!"
Zhang Ruochen gave the order.
The Chaotian Que, suspended in the Shaoyin Divine Sea, was covered by the chess pieces of the Heaven and Earth Chessboard. These black and white pieces were like an exquisite chess game, each in a different position, yet precisely at the eye of each formation.
Suddenly, one white and one black piece moved.
The white piece transformed into a tiger, and the black piece into a dragon.
These were none other than the Grand Minister of Works and the Second Minister of Works. They had always been two pieces on the Heaven and Earth Chessboard, placed by Zhang Ruochen in the Chaotian Que as the final trump card in this chess game.
As the pieces moved, the entire Chaotian Que stirred with wind and clouds. Various formation powers and killing patterns surged out like a tidal wave, striking the male head and female head.
Relying on the trump card Zhang Ruochen had left in the Heaven and Earth Chessboard's game, he naturally could not mobilize the full power of the Chaotian Que, but it was enough to threaten Heavenly Venerable-level experts.
The male head and female head felt the storm behind them, and their expressions changed.
"I'll block him."
The male head took a step forward. A lightning pattern appeared on his stone forehead, emitting an ancestral beam.
Zhang Ruochen raised the Five-Colored Glass Shield to block. The ancestral beam grew shorter and shorter. In an instant, he appeared above the male head, spreading his five fingers and grabbing down.
Zhang Ruochen's body was enveloped in a Qilin light shadow. His hand claw contained both space and lightning power, combining strength and destruction.
Quickly, he grabbed the male head's stone skull and crushed his translucent body.
The female head, who was resisting the killing pattern storm, sank her gaze deeply. She directly retracted her translucent body into her head and flew toward Zhang Ruochen.
This was an Ancestor's head, so its power was naturally extraordinary.
Zhang Ruochen spun away, and the blood wings on his back slashed down like heavenly blades, clashing with the female head.
"Boom!"
The female head was sent flying.
But the killing pattern storm surging from the Chaotian Que also landed on Zhang Ruochen, forcing him to wrap his body with his blood wings to block it.
After enduring the storm, Zhang Ruochen pursued the female head again, eventually suppressing both her and the male head into the Earth Cauldron and the Witch Cauldron.
"In my world, I call the shots."
Zhang Ruochen looked up at the sky. The Ancestral Blood Wings on his back released billions of beams of light, like a blood sun illuminating past and present. Even the shadow of the hidden Ancestor appeared in resonance.
The four cauldrons flew in from the four directions, striking the Dharma Seal head and causing it to explode like fireworks.
The Dharma Seal head would not be so easily extinguished, but before it could reform, Zhang Ruochen collected it into the Hong Cauldron.
Having suppressed three of the Ancestor's heads alone, Zhang Ruochen's battle intent and momentum reached their peak. He landed on the wilderness of the Demonic Qi Great World and casually threw the Five-Colored Glass Shield out. "You five, born from the Five Elements and Five Clans, use this to end the battle quickly."
By the time he finished speaking, Zhang Ruochen had already flown toward the nine-headed stone man. The battle had reached its most critical moment.
...
As Zhang Ruochen was suppressing the three heads, the Blood Fiend Bell also flew into the Demonic Qi Great World.
The Blood Fiend Bell was a divine artifact refined by the Great Demon God during his lifetime. With it, the divine power "Thousand Spirits Blood Fiend" could be unleashed to its fullest extent.
Seeing the Blood Fiend Bell fly toward him, the nine-headed stone man no longer thought of breaking free. He only wanted to use this divine artifact to shatter Heavenly Mother's Half-Ancestor soul and annihilate everyone before him.
But a bizarre scene occurred.
A divine tree radiating sword-light and rain flew out of the void, sweeping the Blood Fiend Bell away like a broom.
There was still an expert!
And they had already infiltrated the Demonic Qi Great World, yet his Ancestor-level soul had not sensed anything. It was as if the other party's aura and presence did not exist.
Just as the nine-headed stone man was momentarily distracted, a Fate mark silently imprinted itself on his head, seemingly merging with the stone skull.
"The 'Fate Heavenly Scripture'!"
The nine-headed stone man roared. The sound waves directly shook the Celestial Pivot Needle, hidden in the void, flying out.
Void Heaven was naturally hiding within the Celestial Pivot Needle.
Having successfully ambushed him, he was about to unleash the second volume of the "Fate Heavenly Scripture" to add another Fate mark to the nine-headed stone man, but now he had to first flee, riding the Celestial Pivot Needle.
(End of Chapter)