Beneath the ninth Glazed Stele,
The difficulty of this ninth Glazed Stele had skyrocketed — five to ten times harder than the last, almost in a single leap.
The moment Jiang Chen's divine sense pierced into the ninth Glazed Stele, it triggered the artifact's energy at once. A crushing wave of pressure bore down on him as though the sky itself were collapsing overhead.
Even someone as formidable as Jiang Chen was stunned by the aura and oppressive force of this ninth stele. Had his Dao heart not been resolute and his divine sense powerful enough, he would likely have been reduced to a quivering wreck in the blink of an eye.
The content of the ninth Glazed Stele was incredibly rich — as though he had flung open the gates of the underworld. At times, dark winds howled in fury; at others, the wailing of ghosts and the howling of demons filled the air. Waves of sinister, baleful qi rolled toward him in torrents, and then blades forged in the depths of hell swept across the field of perception.
"Young man, welcome to the Stele of Fish and Dragon. This is the final Glazed Stele. If you can overcome this one, you shall soar into the heavens like a true dragon among the nine skies. If you cannot, you will be no different from the mediocrities — just another minnow among the masses. If that is the case, you will have missed the grandest gathering on the path of genius, and you are destined never to become the most resplendent pearl."
This time, the voice carried less mockery and far more gravity.
Jiang Chen's heart went cold. As he weathered the barrage of hellish spiritual assaults, he activated his defenses and turned the words over in his mind.
He had to admit — the voice made grand claims. Overcome it and you become a true dragon among the nine heavens; fail, and you're nothing but a minnow, your path as a genius severed forever.
Though Jiang Chen did not entirely agree with that framing, he could not deny that it had thoroughly ignited the competitive fire buried deep within him.
"Remember — whether you are a true dragon or a minnow depends entirely on whether you can endure one month of trials. During this month, you will face every manner of ordeal. All you must do is keep your Dao heart from being corroded and prevent your divine sense from being swallowed whole!"
This trial required no enlightenment or comprehension.
It was pure tempering — of the Dao heart and the divine sense.
On the surface it seemed simple, but it was unquestionably the most grueling trial of all. The voice had been explicit: over the course of one month, he would be subjected to every kind of test imaginable.
Those tests would never remain in a single form. They would shift and morph endlessly.
Even someone like Jiang Chen, who possessed the memories of a previous life and had seen more than most, could not afford to let his guard down.
The Stele of Fish and Dragon truly lived up to its reputation for strangeness.
When Jiang Chen's divine sense merged with the stele, it felt as though he were actually there — as if he had physically entered the world contained within the Stele of Fish and Dragon, lending the experience an eerie sense of reality.
Hellish winds, surging torrents of baleful qi, and all manner of sinister ghostly wails assailed his five senses and six consciousnesses from every direction.
This hellish ordeal persisted for roughly seven or eight days. Then one afternoon, without warning, the scene before Jiang Chen's eyes shifted dramatically.
The nightmarish hellscape vanished in an instant, as if all the terror before had been nothing more than a bad dream. The next moment, the tableau that unfolded before him sent a jolt straight through his soul.
"What… what is this? Have I returned to my previous life?"
In that instant, Jiang Chen genuinely felt as though his spirit had drifted back to the life he had lived before. The scenes playing out before his eyes had appeared countless times in his dreams throughout this current existence.
It was the world he had lived in during his previous life.
The majestic Heavenly Abyss Palace. The prosperous Great World of Heavenly Abyss. And there — the Celestial Library, which housed innumerable classics…
In the span of a heartbeat, Jiang Chen found himself sitting in the Celestial Library, leisurely reading to his heart's content. Beside him, a young servant boy fanned him gently and turned the pages — flesh and blood, so vividly real that Jiang Chen had not a shred of doubt. He could even make out the fine, downy fuzz on the boy's face.
"Chen'er, don't you find it stifling to read all day long? Your father is going to visit a guest today. I'll take you along — to a wonderful place you've never been before."
Hearing that voice, Jiang Chen felt a sting at the bridge of his nose, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.
Father!
That familiar voice — even through ten cycles of reincarnation, Jiang Chen could never forget it.
In his previous life, this man had been the sole reason he kept living. To give him life, this great man, this magnificent father, had paid every price he could possibly pay — all to refine the Sun-Moon Divine Pill and extend his son's life by a million years.
Father, father!
A searing wave surged through Jiang Chen's heart. He wanted to scream his throat raw, to pour every ounce of his being into that single cry of "Father!"
But no matter how desperately he strained, no matter how hard he tore at his own voice, it seemed he could not make a sound. He reached out in every direction, searching frantically, but he could not find his father anywhere.
"Father, father…"
Beneath the Glazed Stele, Jiang Chen's dharma body trembled faintly. At that moment, his sea of consciousness was in utter chaos, his emotions a tangled mess, his eyes rimmed red, tears spinning endlessly in their sockets.
Of all this, Jiang Chen was utterly unaware.
He had lost himself completely in a world that hovered somewhere between reality and illusion, and he could not break free.
Clang!
Without warning, a violent tremor rippled through the space between heaven and earth.