Chen Shi frowned in confusion. "If it doesn't appear here, where else could it show up?"
Stone Ji Your Ladyship hopped into the little temple behind his head, stood before the shrine, and said, "It should appear in the Divine Continent. This treasure is an artifact of the divine spirits of the Divine Continent!"
Chen Shi was slightly startled and glanced back at the enormous bronze coin.
Its upper half pierced the clouds, its lower half plunged into the earth, a truly shocking sight.
"Is this item not a prehistoric relic?" he asked.
"No," Stone Ji Your Ladyship replied.
"This bronze coin must have had wings, but for so reason the wings broke. See how the lower part of the coin is fractured."
Chen Shi indeed saw a break at the bottom of the coin and speculated, "Could the coin's owner have co to the Western Ox New Continent in the True King's Era, t with an accident, and left this treasure behind?"
Stone Ji Your Ladyship shook her head. "That's not right. The capital of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom was constructed around this artifact. Obviously this coin is as ancient as the prehistoric relics! It's strange—could divine spirits from the Divine Continent have co here even before the Ming Dynasty?"
She looked puzzled. After her death she had been enshrined as the Star Lord of the Wandering Moon and enjoyed offerings from mortals. But her reputation was poor; few people worshipped her. Most offerings went to Chang'e, and who would know the identity of the Star Lord of the Wandering Moon? Her true body had been reduced to a single head and could hardly recover, so when she discovered the Western Ox New Continent she risked hiding on the migrating ship, hoping to rise again in the new land.
Logically, she should have been the only divine spirit whose true body ca to the Western Ox New Continent, but from this bronze coin it seed that divine spirits from the Divine Continent had arrived here a very, very long ti ago.
"Did the coin's owner co in the Song era, the Yuan era, or earlier, in the Han or Tang?"
She muttered, "Then where did the ghost tribes of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom co from?"
Chen Shi had indeed heard legends of ancient dynasties like the Tang and Song from Scholar Zhu, but those eras were so remote that records had long been lost; even Scholar Zhu knew little.
"Stone Ji, forget that for now. Help fight our way out!" Chen Shi shouted.
A host of ghost gods poured out from the palace, their numbers vast, including many experts.
Stone Ji Your Ladyship had nearly fully restored her true body and was not afraid of these ghost gods. She smiled, "The envoy just charge outward; leave the rest to ."
Her tone carried a trace of arrogance. "To be honest, my strength has returned to seven or eight parts of what it was in the war of deification. Dealing with a few wild ghost gods is child's play."
Chen Shi never fully trusted her. He imdiately activated the small temple; in a flash of light he drew Peng Ju, Peng Yan'er, and Sang Xixi into the shrine. Thunderlight burst beneath his feet as he shot into the sky, tearing through the air.
Inside the Eastern Palace, nurous ghost gods leapt up and intercepted Chen Shi in midair.
Each ghost god revealed its true form, sizes varying—so a hundred zhang tall, so six or seven zhang—riding shadowy winds at incredible speed. So bore thunderous twin wings on their backs, wingbeats churning storm and lightning that propelled them astonishingly fast!
Chen Shi activated his Third New Talisman, stepped on wind and thunder, and thunderbolts exploded, leaving a string of thunderous roars across the sky.
One by one, ghost gods were left far behind. Even those with thunder-wings could not catch him.
At the sa ti, from the ruler's palace a number of ghost gods flew out—surely the guards of the ruler's quarters. Their bloodlines were stronger, their power higher; they quickly surpassed the Eastern Palace forces and closed the distance to Chen Shi at high speed!
Many other ghost gods could not fly and charged on the ground, yet their speed was by no ans slower!
These ghosts revealed true bodies hundreds of zhang tall, like moving mountains, their montum terrifying!
A single strike from them could send Chen Shi and his companions on their way with no chance to retaliate!
Yet before they neared Chen Shi, their bodies suddenly froze. The skin of one ghost after another rapidly petrified, and the stone spread across their bodies. One by one they fell from the sky!
Chen Shi glanced back and praised, "Stone Ji, you're indeed formidable!"
Stone Ji Your Ladyship bead. "This palace has always been powerful. re little ghosts—"
Before she could finish, the petrified skins on the falling ghosts began to show strange patterns. The lines grew brighter until the stone reversed and they rapidly recovered!
Stone Ji Your Ladyship was startled and fell silent, thinking, These ghosts are not as fragile as I presud. I must be careful not to fail before the envoy again.
The ghosts resud pursuit. Stone Ji Your Ladyship sneered and spread out her ghost domain. The ghosts who entered her domain were slowed despite their bloodline power and the clash with her domain; one after another they begrudgingly fell behind, unable to catch Chen Shi.
Stone Ji Your Ladyship relaxed. "At least I didn't lose face before the envoy."
She had just thought that when an enormous azure hand suddenly struck from the front, piercing through her ghost domain.
"An expert!"
Her face changed. Standing before Chen Shi's little temple, she unleashed her power, divine force coursing through her body. For the first ti she used full strength to et the azure palm.
At the mont their palms t, a colossal figure was thrown backward!
The ghost was a thousand zhang tall, towering like a pillar of earth and sky. Its awakened bloodline force was trendous, formidable enough to rival a Great Ascension Realm being. But relying solely on bloodline power, it still could not match Stone Ji Your Ladyship.
Even so, Stone Ji could not kill it with a single move.
Suddenly a nimble figure darted into her domain, hands clasped behind its back, leaping like a spirit monkey. It approached Stone Ji with astonishing speed and laughed, "Chi Di, you always boast of your strength. Aren't you being shown up now?"
He was likely a mber of the thunder ape tribe, powerful indeed. In his palms he held a blade of lightning sword qi. He charged to Chen Shi but did not attack him; instead he jumped before Chen Shi's little temple, sword qi flashing in all directions, striking swiftly at Stone Ji!
Stone Ji Your Ladyship took several sword strikes but barely moved. The thunder ape ghost failed to wound her at all and wondered secretly, This big-headed woman—what kind of lineage is she? She seems to have a stone bloodline, yet mingles with the skeletal ghost tribe?
The attacks Stone Ji employed were all evaded; unable to harm him, she grew angry and shouted. The sky tore open, auspicious clouds reappeared, and a group of Yellow Turban Warriors bent down and grabbed the thunder ape ghost.
At that mont the sky trembled violently and a face dozens of acres wide materialized, laughing loudly, "I see the secret of your spell!"
The ghost struck the clouds but saw them shrink rapidly into a handkerchief embroidered with Yellow Turban Warriors.
Earlier Stone Ji had used that handkerchief to capture the thunder ape ghost.
The ghost's palm power struck the handkerchief, which shook violently and bucked the thunder ape ghost off.
Stone Ji Your Ladyship retracted her magic treasure, her Primordial Spirit surged out and shone with radiant divine light, sweeping away the gloom for a thousand li, colliding with that ghost, and then retracting back into her body.
The ghost made a muffled groan and could no longer hide in the void. It fell and cried out, "What a powerful big-headed ghost matron! I'm no match!"
"Then surround her!"
Powerful auras rolled in from ahead. Stone Ji's heart tightened as dozens of ghost-tribe elites, large and small, blocked their path.
Only two or three of them showed thousand-zhang true bodies; the rest were the size of ordinary ghosts, and so even looked human-faced—apparently a near-human ghost tribe!
Stone Ji's heart sank. These ghosts were each weaker than her, but she thought, Even ants can bite an elephant to death in numbers...
The Chi Di ghost burned with roaring flas, shook its achy hand, and said, "This ghost matron is very dangerous. We might not be her match."
Other ghosts advanced on Chen Shi. The thunder ape ghost said, "Then invoke the ancestral artifacts and send her away."
The assembled powerful ghosts exchanged grim looks and nodded. "This ghost matron is dangerous. We're not a match. If we show off we'll be beaten to death. Use the ancestral relics!"
Stone Ji Your Ladyship beca fearful and hurriedly urged, "Aren't you going to try? Go on, show off. Maybe you'll manage to kill !"
The ghosts ignored her. They cut their palms, and blood flew from their bodies toward the clustered villages in the capital below.
Those villages had been built relying on prehistoric relics. When the ghosts' blood sank onto those relics, the artifacts trembled with a rumble and released world-shaking auras. Divine lights shot into the sky!
Without hesitation Chen Shi activated the Blood Lake Sutra. The blood lake behind his head rotated, intercepting the blood of those ghost tribe chiefs.
"Huh?"
The chiefs all looked at him in suspicion; their gazes fell upon the Blood Lake Hell behind his head.
Chen Shi's heart skipped. He imdiately rode lightning and turned toward the Eastern Palace!
The auras of the prehistoric relics grew ever stronger and ever more terrifying, to Chen Shi they seed no weaker than the Nine Halls of the True King!
And there were too many of them!
Nearly every village had a massive prehistoric relic—either a gigantic treasure fragnt, a towering city wall, a ruined palace, solitary columns, or buildings!
They were being awakened by the bloodline forces contained in the ghost chiefs' blood, their power swelling!
Using one's own bloodline to trigger the relics' power—Chen Shi had never heard of such sacrificial refinent!
"No wonder Grandpa and Granny Sha and the others couldn't uncover the secret of the prehistoric relics back then!"
Behind him, massive prehistoric relics rose into the air, their mighty power interweaving and causing the ti-space of the Yin Mountains to tremble violently and beco unstable!
Stone Ji Your Ladyship imdiately snapped awake, flew out of the little temple, and with a single shout poured all her divine force into the great bronze coin, ritually summoning it.
The coin trembled, was pulled from the earth, and floated into the sky.
Just as the vast prehistoric relics were about to unleash their might, the giant bronze coin erupted with dazzling light. Wings seed to sprout beneath the coin, and divine light shot from its square hole!
A blinding radiance illuminated everything. One after another, the massive prehistoric relics lost their power and fell from the sky, crashing to the ground.
The ghost tribe chiefs were stunned.
Stone Ji Your Ladyship had nearly exhausted her magic and panted, letting the coin fall back down.
The coin still embedded itself into the earth.
Chen Shi stared in disbelief. The prehistoric relics had just been all-powerful, on the verge of obliterating everything, but now, for so reason, all that force had vanished. The relics seed to have beco useless junk; even when nourished with the chiefs' blood they could not release any power!
"Is this bronze coin really that powerful?" he thought. "Stone Ji's ritual to summon it is different from the ghost chiefs' thod. Clearly the coin is not a prehistoric relic. Could it really be from the Divine Continent?"
Stone Ji Your Ladyship flew to Chen Shi's side, her face unchanged, and whispered, "Envoy, I don't have much strength left. Now's the ti to slip away."
Chen Shi's expression remained calm. He planted his feet on thunderlight and faced the ghost tribe chiefs. In a clear voice he declared, "Today I and Goddess Stone Ji have tested your strength. I'm leaving. Who dares stop ?"
Stone Ji gave a slight nod, proud. "If this palace wants to leave, any who aren't afraid of death may try to stop us!"
The ghost tribe chiefs hovered in the air, refusing to yield.
Stone Ji's heart tightened. She whispered, "Envoy, if you die, this palace will choose a new envoy, won't it?"
Chen Shi made a muffled sound but said nothing.
Suddenly the thunder ape chieftain spoke, "Chi Di, is the blood lake behind his head unusual?"
Behind him, that thousand-zhang ghost stood on the ground, staring intently at the Blood Lake Hell behind Chen Shi, his voice like rolling thunder. "The blood lake behind his head is likely our ghost tribe's technique—the Blood Lake Sutra."
His body rapidly shrank and stood beside the thunder ape chieftain.
Other chiefs also retracted their true bodies and transford into forms three or so zhang high—a suitable height for negotiation.
They still surrounded Chen Shi and Stone Ji, not giving way.
Stone Ji was about to abandon Chen Shi and flee alone when the thunder ape chieftain stepped forward and smiled, "I am the old Lei Qu. May I ask this young friend's na?"
"This palace is Stone Ji Your Ladyship of the White Bone Cave on Skull Mountain of the Divine Continent..." Stone Ji began.
Lei Qu shook his head. "Not this ghost matron. I an this young friend."
His gaze rested on Chen Shi.
"I am Chen Shi..." Chen Shi answered.
Lei Qu asked, "Young Chen, what technique is that blood lake behind your head?"
The other chiefs' eyes shone as they anxiously watched him.
Chen Shi said, "The Blood Lake Sutra..."
"So it is the Blood Lake Sutra!"
The chiefs cheered like thunder, so shouting and clamoring, others crying and making a ruckus.
After a while they cald down. Lei Qu adopted a friendly expression and said, "Young Chen, may we speak a few steps apart?"
Chen Shi glanced around. With these overwhelmingly powerful chiefs, they certainly would not let them leave, so he had no choice but to nod.
Surrounded by the chiefs, he was escorted into the ruler's palace.
Inside the ruler's halls, Crown Prince Xiang Kun had already received word of the disturbance in the Eastern Palace. The various tribal ghost gods had gathered in the palace, arguing over the succession and on the verge of fighting.
The tribal ghosts had entered the palace both to confirm whether the ruler had truly died and to look for opportunities to seize power. If Xiang Kun left, he'd have no chance at the throne!
But Peng Ju's possession of the Blood Lake Sutra was also crucial.
He hesitated when suddenly Lei Qu's deep voice bood outside, "No need to argue over who will be the next ruler! The Heavenly Pool Kingdom already has a new ruler!"
Crown Prince Xiang Kun sprang up, startled. He saw the chiefs of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom's 112 tribes escorting a skeletal little ghost into the palace, walking this way.
Lei Qu's voice rolled through the halls like thunder.
"The 112 ghost tribes of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom jointly nominate Chen Shi as the next Heavenly Pool Ruler!"
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