Amidst the ominous clouds, flashes of light and shadow danced, their constant clashing echoing in the air, as if some colossal objects were colliding.
Chen Nan gazed warily at the sky, his intuition telling him that something major might happen soon.
As the thunderous clashes grew more intense, the storm clouds surged like massive waves, sweeping across half the sky, obscuring the sun completely.
Starbursts glittered, as iron sparks shone in the ominous clouds.
Both Chen Nan, Gongsun Yudie, and the others from the Sky Sword Sect couldn’t help but cover their ears. The explosive sound waves were deafening, akin to thunder exploding nearby, threatening to rupture their eardrums.
Especially for the weaker disciples of the Sky Sword Sect, blood streamed from their ears as they fled further away, their screams echoing.
Gongsun Yudie clutched her ears, unable to endure the pain.
Chen Nan channeled his Inner Strength to her, aiding her in resisting, which brought some relief.
The clashes in the storm clouds intensified as if the battle had reached a fever pitch. With a final shattering sound, tranquility returned to Heaven and Earth, seemingly indicating that one side’s object had broken.
However, it was far from over.
As the sound of destruction echoed, a dark ray descended from above, like a shard of the broken object.
The massive dark light collided with the ground, causing dust to soar and soil to churn. The previously flat ground was struck, leaving a giant pit with a diameter of twenty meters.
The earth shook violently, with cracks crisscrossing and spreading out for dozens of meters before settling.
Chen Nan sheltered Gongsun Yudie behind him, enveloping them with Protective Gang Qi. Such an unnatural event in Heaven and Earth made him wary, knowing that any harm to Gongsun Yudie or their unborn child would scar him for life.
The storm clouds in the sky began to dissipate, slowly scattering in all directions.
Moments later, all the clouds vanished between Heaven and Earth, leaving only blue skies and white clouds, as if the ominous clouds had never been there.
Yet, the massive pit on the ground served as irrefutable proof that everything that happened was real.
What baffled everyone most was the absence of any trace from the torrential blood rain; not a single wet spot on the ground, let alone any blood, just wilted flowers and trees, steeped in death energy.
It was all so eerie, yet certainly not an illusion!
This, Chen Nan could assert!
Gazing at the twenty-meter-wide pit, Chen Nan said to Gongsun Yudie, "Don’t move here; I’ll go take a look."
Gongsun Yudie held his hand and said.
Chen Nan nodded forcefully and turned toward the pit.
Standing at its edge, he saw that the pit was ten meters deep, and at its center, a giant slab was crammed with only seven or eight meters exposed, while the buried portion’s depth was unknown to Chen Nan.
This seemed to be a shard of a massive stele.
Chen Nan’s heart couldn’t find peace as he stared at the shard in the pit.
Was this stele the source of the violent echoes in the sky before shattering by other objects, with one shard descending?
Chen Nan wondered where this stele came from.
Gazing at the shard in the pit, he noticed strange winding lines etched on its surface.
Chen Nan leaped into the pit to examine the etched lines.
Gongsun Yudie jumped in surprise and ran over, shouting, "Chen Nan, what’s wrong?"
"I’m fine, just came down to check it out; stay in the courtyard," Chen Nan said, unsure of the pit’s dangers, advising Gongsun Yudie to keep distance.
"I won’t feel safe if I can’t see you."
Gongsun Yudie still approached the pit, asking Chen Nan below, "Is this large stone the dark light that fell?
Chen Nan nodded: "It should be, since there’s nothing else here."
"Then come up soon; what’s to see about a shard," Gongsun Yudie was intrigued but worried about potential danger below, urging Chen Nan to ascend.
Chen Nan pointed at the broken stele and said: "There’s something like a diagram; I’ll check then come up."
Gongsun Yudie nodded, watching attentively, fearing any mishap.
Seeing her loving gaze warmed Chen Nan’s heart, despite their awkward relationship, this warmth was genuine and untainted.
The diagram on the broken stele was strange, composed of lines and some dots.
Moreover, it was incomplete, breaking at the stele’s fracture; this shard was part of the stele, with the rest likely on the other half.
Chen Nan scrutinized it but couldn’t discern what the diagram depicted.
Moments later, Chen Nan’s eyes brightened, noticing something.
Among the etched lines were tiny arrows, hardly visible without close inspection.
Leaping up, Chen Nan wiped a section of the line, revealing the arrows more clearly.
Then he realized it resembled a human blood circulation diagram.
But how could a celestial stele bear a simple blood circulation diagram?
Chen Nan considered a possibility.
The resemblance to blood circulation lies only in its similarity to a Qi Cultivation Diagram.
Since blood circulates in vessels, Inner Strength likewise circulates through meridians, with fixed routes and directions, matching the diagram’s arrows.
The connecting dots between lines seemed to be acupoints.
As a cultivator, Chen Nan instinctively thought about cultivation whenever he saw something.
With the arrows and routes etched in his mind, Chen Nan inhaled deeply, initiated his Inner Strength, and followed the diagram’s route, his meridians unimpeded, feeling no discomfort. This truly seemed to be a Qi Cultivation Diagram!
(Another 68 votes today, are you all trying to make me hit a hundred for extra Chapters, crying, I haven’t finished yesterday’s work and now I must write all day again...)