Chapter 253: Like a Dream, Like an Illusion

Incomparably intricate and complex patterns began to appear within Xu Chen's consciousness.

As these patterns appeared, Xu Chen felt as though his Soul was about to be swallowed by the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele.

Slowly, a phantom of a stone stele standing between heaven and earth presented itself within his Soul's perception; he once again felt that void and emptiness of the universe at its birth, with vast amounts of blue starlight continuously surging forth from the nothingness.

Xu Chen discovered he could not move, as if he were merging into the stone stele.

At this moment, the Blue Light Treasure Bottle finally underwent a different change; suddenly, a powerful consciousness appeared within Xu Chen's Divine Sense, and a massive amount of starlight transformed into dense Ancient Runes, merging into his Soul and body.

A phantom of an ancient, dilapidated stone stele slowly emerged from Xu Chen's body.

The entire world suddenly fell silent.

As if pressed down by a powerful will, time and space fell into a state of stillness.

"This is... the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele?!"

Heitian turned his head in hair-raising terror, only to see a massive phantom of a stone stele hovering behind the back of his head as if it had appeared out of thin air; however, before he could react, a blue light vortex emerged in the center of the stele, suddenly sweeping his head and upper body inside.

"Why would the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele appear here..."

Heitian struggled and let out a terrified roar, but in the end, he could not resist the suction of the starlight vortex and was quickly rolled into the stone stele phantom, disappearing from sight.

The phantom of a skeleton wearing a golden crown slowly retreated, wanting to hide back into the Void Abyss.

But the blue vortex grew larger and larger, releasing a brilliant light that swept toward the skeleton phantom like a nebula.

"The aura of the God Race is truly disgusting. This Emperor will never become your slave. Since you do not intend to let me go, then let us perish together!"

The starlight enveloped the skeleton phantom like a tide, and a low, angry sigh rang out.

"Boom~~"

The Skeleton Demon Emperor exploded within the starlight vortex.

The blinding light was like a star exploding, completely turning the pitch-black wasteland into nothingness.

Heaven and earth collapsed, and a terrifying black hole appeared within the Huanggu Zhanchang.

The nebula, the divine stele, and Youtong, along with the shattered wasteland, were all swallowed by the black hole, which then suddenly collapsed inward and quickly vanished.

Above the endless, pitch-black Cangming, a pair of huge golden eyes suddenly appeared, followed by a second pair, a third pair... finally settling on the sixth pair.

These eyes were cold and ruthless, as if they had been closed there since time immemorial, yet they were all awakened at once by a tremor.

Several powerful wills swept across the trembling wasteland, and after a moment, they withdrew one by one, as if they had never appeared at all.

"Hmph!"

Within a chaotic flow of pitch-black nothingness, inside an ancient and magnificent palace, on a wide dark-gold chair, a tall figure shrouded in black robes slammed a fist angrily onto the armrest.

"Heitian, was the disturbance in Minghuang caused by you?"

A gloomy, hoarse voice rang out in the great hall.

"Don't ask when you already know. I originally intended to swallow Youtong's remnant soul; I didn't expect to lose an avatar." The black-robed figure roared.

"Oh, has Youtong become so powerful after being resurrected?" The hoarse voice was full of surprise.

"You're overthinking it. Youtong is weak, but she lured my avatar to the battlefield where the Skeleton Demon Emperor was slumbering."

The hoarse voice was even more surprised: "The Skeleton Demon Emperor has been dead for an epoch; even if his slumbering remnant soul awakened, he shouldn't be a match for you."

"You don't know, Youtong had a human helper, he actually had... forget it, I won't say anymore. This time I'm just unlucky, but I will definitely find that bitch Youtong." The black-robed figure snorted coldly.

The hoarse voice said with slight dissatisfaction: "Heitian, I told you Youtong's whereabouts, yet you hid things from me; that's not very honorable!"

"Hmph, you told me Youtong's whereabouts—do you think I don't know your intentions? The descendants of the Eight Ancient Demons died by my hand; you will inevitably kick me while I'm down in the future. Don't think I don't know how Youtong died in the first place!"

"Ah, hahahaha, forget it, it's all in the past, why bring her up? It's good that you didn't die. Remember, we still have a score to settle!"

"Rest assured, I won't let you off either!" The black-robed figure growled through gritted teeth, his form quickly dissipating from the large chair.

Xu Chen woke up and found himself lying in a dilapidated thatched shed, surrounded by piles of hay, with the scent of cow dung floating in the air.

He tried to stand up, but found that he felt as if he had been crushed by a stone roller; there wasn't a single place on his body that didn't hurt.

Where is this place?

Why is it so familiar?

Right, I seem to have just had a very long and strange dream, actually dreaming that I joined an Immortal Sect called the Taiyuan Sect and even cultivated into an Immortal who could fly through the sky and burrow into the earth.

Hmm, there also seemed to be many black monsters.

But as he woke up, the vast amount of memories from the dream began to disappear like a tide. By the time he struggled to sit up, he found that only a sliver of the dream's memory remained in his mind; he seemed to only remember a place called the Taiyuan Sect.

He vaguely remembered that he had a Master, and many fellow disciples.

But he couldn't recall a single name of these people, and he had absolutely no impression of their appearances.

Just as he was sitting in the hay, holding his forehead and staring blankly, a dirty little girl wearing a tattered linen dress walked in. Seeing him, she was extremely delighted and ran up to pull him, saying: "That's great, Brother Xu Chen, you're awake!"

Xu Chen was completely confused. Looking at this little girl who felt vaguely familiar yet entirely like a stranger, he was at a loss and could only ask dryly: "What happened? Why am I lying here?"

The little girl reached out her dirty little hand and pressed it against his forehead, then said with great worry: "You forgot? Yesterday you were beaten unconscious by a few guys in town."

"Yesterday... I was beaten unconscious?!"

Xu Chen recalled muzzily, and then slowly remembered that he had indeed fought with a group of children from the town because they wanted to dump the cow dung he had collected into the river, and when he resisted, they started fighting.

In an instant, countless memories awakened. He suddenly stood up and said: "Oh no, what time is it now? I haven't grazed the cows yet."

"It's already the hour of the Dragon (Chen hour), I just came to see if Brother was awake." The little girl replied in a low voice.

"That's good, that's good, there's still time. I'm afraid the steward will come to scold me later."

Xu Chen immediately breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly walked out, limping.

Only then did he discover that one of his legs hurt terribly; every step was agonizing. He lifted his tattered trousers to look and saw a large bruise, swollen quite high.

The little girl followed behind and reminded him nervously: "Brother Xu Chen, you haven't recovered yet. Why don't you lie down and rest a bit more? I'll go graze the cows and collect dung for you today, and I'll bring you something to eat later."

"No need, no need, I'm fine, it's just that my head still hurts a bit and I can't remember things."

Xu Chen was anxious to walk out, and at this moment, a small white fox ran in from outside the shed, with a fresh blade of wild grass in its mouth.

"Wow, Xiaobai is back!" The little girl happily crouched down and hugged the little fox, her face full of joy.

"Xiaobai?!" Xu Chen was confused.

This little fox looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't for the life of him remember where he had seen it.

"Brother Xu Chen, look, Xiaobai went to help you find herbs again!"

The little girl took the fresh wild herbs from the little fox's mouth.

"Wu ya, wu ya!" The little fox looked at Xu Chen with its bright red eyes, making "wu ya" sounds that seemed full of excitement.

"Brother, hold Xiaobai while I go crush the herbs to apply to your leg; it won't hurt in a little while!" The little girl placed the little fox in Xu Chen's arms, then turned to find a worn-out ceramic bowl and began working with a pebble.

The little fox gently nudged Xu Chen's lapel with its head and licked his fingers.

The moist, gentle tongue gave Xu Chen a tingling, pleasant surprise, so while he gently stroked the little fox's soft fur, he looked at the little girl, but he couldn't remember where she came from; he had been herding cattle and picking up cow dung for the Zhang family in the small town, and he didn't seem to have seen this little girl before.

He was extremely confused now, but thinking too much made him feel dizzy, and his vision went black with a headache.

"Why are the cows still locked in the shed?"

A roar suddenly came from outside the grass shed.

Xu Chen hurriedly stuffed the little fox into his chest lapel, and after doing so, he was suddenly stunned again.

This action felt very familiar, but he still couldn't remember when he had done it before.

However, he had no time to think about it now and hurriedly limped out of the grass shed.

Outside was the familiar scene of his daily life: several cow sheds containing seven or eight cows of various sizes, a donkey, and a large pile of collected cow dung on the dirty ground, with a dung basket placed next to the pile.

A middle-aged man in a green long gown with a goatee was striding over in a rage; it was the steward of the Zhang family.

"Look at what time it is! Why haven't you let the cows out yet? If the master finds out, he'll beat you to death!"

Seeing Xu Chen, the steward roared with a face full of fury.

Xu Chen hurriedly stepped forward, picked up the dung basket, and said, "I'll go right away."

The steward grabbed Xu Chen by the ear and said, "All you know how to do is slack off all day! If the cows lose weight, you'll go hungry too—don't even think about eating!"

At this moment, a thin figure rushed out from the grass shed, pushed the steward away hard, and shouted, "My brother was knocked unconscious and just woke up; you are not allowed to bully him!"

The steward turned and slapped the little girl across the face, then prepared to kick her down, but Xu Chen, not knowing where the courage came from, picked up a dung shovel and smashed it hard against the back of the steward's head.

The steward staggered and almost fell into the dung pile; he managed to steady himself, but his hands were covered in cow dung, and he was so angry he was practically fuming.

Xu Chen hid the little girl behind him, raised the dung shovel high, and gritted his teeth: "If you dare bully her again, I'll make sure your house is covered in cow dung every day!"

"You..." The steward stomped his feet in anger, but seeing Xu Chen's serious expression, he eventually lost his nerve. He turned around in a rage to find a place to wash his hands, roaring as he left: "This is lawless! I'm going to tell the master right now and have you kicked out today."

Xu Chen shouted after him: "Go ahead and tell him! Feel free to tell him; if you don't, you're a bastard! Don't think I don't know you peeked at the third concubine while she was bathing!"

The steward stumbled and almost fell; he turned around, his face bright red and trembling: "You... you stop talking nonsense!"

Xu Chen curled his lip and said, "I'm not the only one who saw it. You also kissed the head mistress's maid and stole the second concubine's bodice!"

(End of chapter)