Nine Nether Dragon Emperor-Chapter 68: The Grim Reaper of the Dark Night, From the Nine Nether Hell!
"What is going on?"
Countless questions popped into their minds.
"Weren’t they here to challenge the steles? Why did they start carving them instead?"
"And why is the one carving the stele a woman? What in the world is this?"
They were all completely baffled.
"Should we make a move?"
"Let’s wait and observe a bit more. That woman might be a master!"
Given the strangeness of the place, everyone grew cautious.
They ended up waiting until it got dark. The woman seemed to be hammering something—a stone stele shorter than her own leg—and even after several hours, she still wasn’t finished. What was more dumbfounding was that she had maintained the exact same posture from beginning to end, not moving an inch.
Meanwhile, Ning Xuan had already carved no less than ten stone steles.
He had originally intended to carve steles for the departed relatives of his clan, but the woman had mercilessly criticized his work the moment he finished the first one. Without even looking up, she dismissed his carving as worthless.
At first, Ning Xuan wasn’t annoyed and simply found another stone to continue. After carving five, he felt he had made some progress, but the woman’s criticisms remained just as sharp. What surprised him even more was that the tool in his hand was gradually growing heavier. This was unbelievable. With his current strength, swinging an object weighing over a hundred pounds should have felt as light as a feather.
He wanted to ask about it, but when he saw that the hammer in the woman’s hand was twice the size of his, he remained silent.
Forget it! I’ll just keep carving diligently. This girl is probably, maybe, possibly... a true master!
Just as he was thinking this, a voice suddenly called from the depths, "Kid, what are you still hammering at! Get in here and cook! Are you trying to starve me to death?"
"Ah, I’m so sorry, I forgot!"
The girl leaped to her feet, tossed her tool aside, and ran off in a flash.
Ning Xuan could hardly keep a straight face. Damn it. I must have completely misunderstood!
He walked over to the stele the woman had been carving and nearly fainted at the sight. Carved onto the stone was a large turtle! And below it... followed a group of small turtles!
What in the world is this?
He glanced at the hammer the girl had been using, bent down, and grabbed the still-warm handle. Mustering all his strength, he heaved it upward.
He staggered back several steps, nearly falling flat on his back from using far too much force.
The hammer, despite being twice as large as his own, was as light as a feather, probably weighing only a tenth of the one he had been using.
Ning Xuan was left speechless. Is this girl a simpleton? What a deceptive setup!
WHOOSH!
Suddenly, a sense of crisis erupted. Ning Xuan tensed instantly. He had been so relaxed that he had almost forgotten people were lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to hunt him down.
He sidestepped and raised his hammer.
CLANG!
An arrow slammed against the hammer, sending sparks flying. The powerful impact forced Ning Xuan to stumble backward.
BOOM!
Reacting, Ning Xuan instantly vanished. A massive Palm Seal appeared where he had just been standing, sinking dozens of feet into the ground.
WHIR!
A cold light illuminated the dusk as it materialized before Ning Xuan. A Red-tasseled Spear shot through the air, its momentum peerless and its power immense!
In the darkness, figures flitted about, using the chaotic Stone Steles Forest for cover as they rapidly closed in on him. The ones waiting here were all experts. Ning Xuan had been on the defensive from the start, which gave them the perfect opportunity. They absolutely could not let it pass. Many of them wanted to come and join in on the action.
Ning Xuan’s eyes turned icy as a flash of sword light appeared. The Red-tasseled Spear was cleaved right down the middle, splitting into two halves, as was the body of its wielder.
SPLAT! SPLAT!
The two halves of the spear flew past either side of Ning Xuan, piercing through two experts who had just appeared behind him, their faces still wearing triumphant smiles.
He didn’t make a move lightly, but when he did, he instantly slew three people. However, this still wasn’t enough to scare off the others. Their attacks on him grew even fiercer. Arrows pierced the air, Sword Light shattered mountains, giant palms blotted out the sky, and Tyrant Fists cracked the earth!
Several people attacked in unison, the weakest among them possessing a cultivation of at least the Ninth Layer Heavens of the Human Realm.
BOOM!
Ning Xuan used the Kunpeng Technique to barely break through their blockade.
WHOOSH!
He followed up with a backhanded sweep of his sword. The few experts who had been pursuing him the most relentlessly were sliced in half at the waist. The Martial Artists behind them were so terrified that they all retreated violently. They hadn’t expected Ning Xuan to still possess such power after breaking through their siege.
In truth, Ning Xuan was not faring well. His Martial Arts Cultivation was still too weak. In a one-on-one fight, he wouldn’t fear any Human Realm Warrior, but facing a siege, the combined Majestic Pressure of several Human Realm Warriors consumed a great deal of his energy.
At this moment, Ning Xuan leaned against a stone stele, frantically using his Gluttonous Divine Vein and activating the Chaos Ancestral Dragon Scripture to devour the energy from the Element Crystals in his Storage Ring.
If my Martial Arts Cultivation isn’t high enough, then I’ll just have to raise it! The Twelve Divine Veins build a stronger bloodline, and the Chaos Ancestral Dragon Scripture makes advancing my Martial Arts Realm simple. Now that I have enough Element Crystals, it’s time to break through to the next realm!
"He has a Defying Heaven’s Technique that can rapidly raise his Cultivation Realm! Stop him now!" someone shouted from the shadows, attacking at the same time. Element Force manifested as a long spear that shot across the void. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
The others were just as quick to react, launching their own attacks. A Palm Seal that suddenly appeared above Ning Xuan was even more terrifying, carrying an overwhelming pressure that could suppress anything.
WHOOSH!
Ning Xuan’s body vanished. The Palm Seal slammed into the stone stele. A strike that could effortlessly shatter a mountain had no effect on the stele. However, the attacker had no time to ponder why. His primary goal was to kill Ning Xuan and seize his Storage Ring.
As he searched for Ning Xuan’s whereabouts, he was suddenly engulfed by the threat of death. With a thunderous roar, the Martial Artist, who was at the Peak of the Human Realm, pushed his Element Force and movement technique to their absolute limits, yet he still could not escape his fate of being slain. A sword pierced his brow, and he died with his eyes wide open.
After his successful strike, Ning Xuan once again hid among the steles. The Martial Artists who came to kill him had used the steles as an excellent barrier, but they had now lost the initiative. Ning Xuan turned their own tactics against them.
The night was deep, and darkness was all around. Ning Xuan concealed his aura and disappeared from their sight.
SPLAT!
In the Stone Forest, as silent as a midnight graveyard, the abrupt sound was especially jarring. It was the sound of someone being silently killed.
Using the Kunpeng Divine Vein under the cover of night and the steles, Ning Xuan was a true phantom. Forget Human Realm Warriors; even a King Realm expert might be slain by him on the spot.
SPLAT!
People were being killed by Ning Xuan’s sword one after another, yet no one could even catch a glimpse of his shadow. Some retreated in terror, desperate to leave. But Ning Xuan was like a death god from Nine Nether Hell, relentlessly reaping lives in the dark of night.
None of the Martial Artists who tried to flee could escape the Stone Steles Forest. Only now did they realize how colossally mistaken they had been in their decision to use the steles and the night to try and kill Ning Xuan.
"Spare... spare me."
The sound of a sword piercing flesh, like a death knell from Nine Nether Hell, finally caused one Human Realm Warrior to break. Unable to withstand the immense pressure, his mental state completely collapsed.
