Chaos Steles

"Time is precious, so don't waste it." A Black-Robed Envoy leaped straight off the rooftop and landed on the ground below. The thousand geniuses immediately jumped after him, descending like a vast swarm of locusts onto the broad street in front of the villa.

"Follow me to the City Lord's Manor," the Black-Robed Envoy said. "That is where the city lord lives, and it is also the heart of Chaos City."

"Chaos City is the only city in the Initial Universe." The Black-Robed Envoy smiled. "There are three treasures in Chaos City."

The geniuses' eyes lit up, and they listened closely.

"You all know the first of these three treasures: the laws governing the universe, which you can see with your own eyes." The Black-Robed Envoy smiled. "The second treasure is inside the city, right in the City Lord's Manor. The third is outside Chaos City."

"What exactly are these treasures?"

The young people could not help asking.

The Black-Robed Envoy pointed around them. "Over billions of years, countless powerful cultivators have lived in the Cultivation Residences around us. When inspiration struck during cultivation, they would carve it into the rooftop beneath their feet, then study and ponder it carefully. Whenever they gained an insight, they would casually carve that down as well."

It was like someone jotting a line down on paper. Even years later, seeing that line could remind them of what they had been thinking when they wrote it. But if they typed it on a computer, they might struggle to recall what they had intended when they looked at it years later.

Diagrams carved by hand were excellent vessels for insights.

"Over countless years, this has become a tradition in Chaos City," the Black-Robed Envoy said with feeling. "Because these records were made on a whim, they lack any consistent structure. Many are only fragments, so most offer no more than a little inspiration."

"But!"

"Among the countless insights carved over billions of years, some possess immense, systematic value for cultivation." The Black-Robed Envoy grew solemn. "Here in Chaos City, we have the most precious 52 Chaos Tablets. Each Chaos Stele records a wealth of mysterious diagrams and other things. Each one represents a great path of cultivation-a path leading straight to the very pinnacle! If you fully comprehend a single Chaos Stele, you will become a true supreme existence in the universe. Even founding a Universe Country would be effortless."

Luo Feng held his breath. Beside him were Savage Rong Jun, the youth from Manka Star...

Every one of the thousand-plus young men and women was excited.

The 52 Chaos Tablets contained paths to the pinnacle. Fully comprehending just one would let them establish a Universe Country?

"These 52 Chaos Tablets are Chaos City's second treasure." The Black-Robed Envoy smiled. "As for the third... it is outside Chaos City. There is a detailed description on the stone tablet by the city gate. Go read it yourselves."

Everyone brimmed with anticipation.

The first and second treasures were enormously beneficial to them. Surely the third would be no worse.

"Every cultivator who enters the Initial Universe gets one opportunity to study the 52 Chaos Tablets," the Black-Robed Envoy said. "Each person has seven days!"

"Seven days?"

Everyone stared.

That short?

"The Chaos Steles are Supreme Treasures of humanity. They convey the paths to the pinnacle more clearly than any secret technique. Seven days of study will be enough for you." The Black-Robed Envoy headed toward the City Lord's Manor's main entrance. "Come inside. Prepare to choose the Chaos Stele you wish to study."

The City Lord's Manor occupied an enormous area. Even an ordinary Cultivation Residence had a rooftop a hundred meters long and wide, so the size of the manor was easy to imagine.

"Each of you may choose only one Chaos Stele to study." Leading Luo Feng and the others, the Black-Robed Envoy soon reached the entrance to a dreamlike corridor.

Enormous pictures hung on the walls on either side.

There were fifty-two pictures in total.

"The fifty-two rubbings hanging on these walls each correspond to a Chaos Stele. Look at these pictures first. Although they cannot convey the aura contained within the steles, they can give you a faint sense of it. Examine all fifty-two... then decide which Chaos Stele you want to choose," the Black-Robed Envoy said.

The young people stared dumbly at the pictures lining the corridor. So they were supposed to choose their Chaos Steles by looking at pictures.

Each picture was exactly ten meters long and ten meters wide, with a name beside it.

"You have half an hour." The Black-Robed Envoy stood at the outer end of the corridor.

Luo Feng and the others could only begin looking.

Chen Ao was no exception. With only half an hour in total, he could spend just thirty seconds on each picture.

Soon, Chen Ao found a Chaos Stele-the one he needed.

The Green Shadow Chaos Stele?

As he examined it, Chen Ao faintly sensed the aura of the wood-space law. Moreover, the picture consisted of sword marks. It had clearly been carved by a sword-wielding Top Universe Overlord or Universe Master.

"Time's up!" the black-robed attendant called, then began asking them one by one.

"I choose the Dragon-Form Chaos Stele!"

"I choose the Ice Peak Chaos Tablet!"

The young geniuses announced their choices in turn.

Luo Feng still chose the Nine Universes Chaos Stele. Rong Jun chose the Giant Axe Chaos Stele, while Bolan chose the Universe Chaos Stele.

Rong Jun and several others could not resist boasting about how impressive the Giant Axe Chaos Stele was.

Of everyone present, only Chen Ao chose the Green Shadow Chaos Stele.

Several people found that surprising. Anyone who stood apart from the crowd tended to leave an impression.

Chen Ao was rather speechless. He had never expected merely choosing a Chaos Stele to draw attention. That was hardly his style.

"All right, you have each chosen the Chaos Stele you need. Next, you will have one free opportunity to study it!"

Led by the black-robed attendant, many of them headed into the city to study their Chaos Steles.

Others had to wait a few days because the steles they had chosen were already in use.

Suddenly!

Rumble! Violent fluctuations swept through the distant chaos, and the sound shook heaven and earth.

"Wittesl!"

The furious roar echoed over all of Chaos City. A terrifying force of lightning instantly pierced across ten million kilometers, making the powerful cultivators on the rooftops open their eyes and look into the distance.

Pale beneath the pressure of that tremendous power, Luo Feng and the others stood on the gate tower in shock, gazing far away.

In the distance-

An immensely burly, bull-headed giant in bronze armor stood like a god between heaven and earth. Wielding a massive axe almost as large as himself, he swung the bloodstained weapon straight at a fleeing supreme existence whose entire body had transformed into lightning. That lightning power was radiating from the fugitive as he fled.

Silence.

Luo Feng and the others were completely overwhelmed by the auras of those two distant supreme existences.

"They actually dare to fight in Chaos City?" A middle-aged man in purple-and-gold robes gazed into the distance in astonishment. "Wittesl? How can that bull-headed fellow be so stupid?"

"Wittesl only entered Chaos City a few days ago, and he's already attacking Leibo?"

"Fighting in Chaos City-isn't that asking to die?"

Shrouded in hazy chaos energy, Chaos City stretched beyond sight. Most of the powerful cultivators on its rooftops opened their eyes and looked at the two figures in the distant sky. The one being pursued, a powerful man wreathed in lightning, deliberately sent endless bolts streaking across the sky above the entire city.

"Roar!" The towering, thickset bull-headed giant swung his astonishing axe in fury, his eyes bloodshot. As his opponent fled, he also raised the Lightning Spear in his hand.

The surrounding space shattered, and chaotic currents surged.

On the gate tower of the City Lord's Manor.

Luo Feng and the other youngsters were all pale. They were like a colony of ants, while those two distant figures were like ancient giant gods.

"Those two..." The hundred-plus geniuses held their breath, staring wide-eyed at the shattered space in the distance. "They're far too powerful. Immortals are actually this terrifying."

Most of the immortals they had seen had been in the Virtual Universe. Those they had encountered in reality had restrained their auras. This was their first time seeing immortals truly enraged. In their fury, even the space of the universe shattered with every movement.

"Their unleashed power shattered space? Their lightning spanned ten million kilometers?"

They could destroy a planet with a flip of their hands. These were immortals!

An angry snort rang throughout the entire initial Chaos Universe. In an instant, heaven and earth darkened. Luo Feng discovered in shock that the spatial fissures in the sky, which had been repeatedly breaking open and sealing shut, had frozen, along with the flowing laws governing the universe. Even the currents of chaos energy stopped drifting.

Far away, the two supreme experts also froze.

Rumble! An enormous palm formed entirely from gathered chaos energy appeared above them, as massive as a mountain.

The giant palm of chaos energy slammed down as though the sky itself were falling!

Splat! Splat!

Under their terrified gazes, Wittesl and Leibo-two powerful immortals with considerable reputations across the 1,008 Universe Countries-instantly burst into powder, as easily as two blocks of tofu being smashed. The powerful cultivators throughout Chaos City watched with their own eyes...

Both men were reduced to powder, and their souls were pulverized as well!

Hiss...

Hiss...

In the distant space, the powder suddenly gathered again, condensing back into two human figures. One was the bull-headed giant, and the other was the lean man wreathed in lightning. Both were pale. The lean man immediately shouted, "City Lord, he was trying to kill me! Wittesl was trying to kill me! I'm innocent!"

"My only regret is that I didn't kill you!" The bull-headed giant stared fixedly at the lean man with bloodshot eyes and growled.

"Idiot!" The lean man gave him a cold sneer.

"Aah!" The bull-headed giant roared in fury.

But there was nothing he could do...

With a single thought, the city lord had struck with a palm of chaos energy from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, leaving the two powerful immortals barely alive and utterly unable to fight. Such control over the force of an attack... was truly terrifying!

"Third Enforcement Team, escort Wittesl and Leibo out of the Initial Universe. Imprison Wittesl in the Ninth Star Domain Prison and Leibo in the Second Starfield Prison." A deep voice with a faint metallic quality rang throughout the Initial Universe.

"Yes!"

A loud chorus of replies rang out above Chaos City.

Five streaks of blood-red light flew straight toward them. Facing Chaos City's enforcement team, the two powerful immortals, severely injured and almost incapable of resistance, did not utter a word of complaint. They obediently followed the team away and boarded a blood-red spaceship to leave.

Inside the blood-red spaceship.

"Wittesl, you were lucky. No one died in this fight. If you had killed someone in Chaos City, you would certainly have died. You wouldn't have gotten off with merely being imprisoned in the Ninth Star Domain Prison." An immortal enforcer in blood-red armor, with a strange curved blade on his back, shook his head.

"Hmph."

The bull-headed giant growled, staring savagely at the lean man some distance away. "My only regret is that I failed to kill Leibo. Leibo! So what if you hid in Chaos City? I still came in to kill you!"

"Fool! You came in, but you still failed to kill me, didn't you? This time, I'm going to the second prison, while you're going to the Ninth Star Domain Prison. Haha! Let's see how you survive!" Leibo laughed wildly.

"Die? How could I die before killing you?" The bull-headed giant looked as though he wanted to devour his opponent alive.

"You're both so badly injured that you won't recover for a hundred years, yet you're still acting like this."

"Both of you, be quiet."

The five immortal enforcers barked at them, and only then did the bull-headed giant and the lean man stop.

Everything had happened extremely quickly. The young people on the gate tower were still rather dazed, while the countless powerful cultivators throughout Chaos City remained calm.

"Too... too powerful!" The young geniuses were dumbstruck by what they had just witnessed.

This was merely a brief interruption. Soon, their respective Chaos Steles became available, and the geniuses entered to study them.

On their first visit to Chaos City, they received seven days to study.

Apparently, by fulfilling certain conditions and passing certain tests, they could earn further opportunities.

The geniuses did not yet know how to earn another chance to study the Chaos Steles, but they believed they would learn soon enough. After all, they would be staying in Chaos City for thirty years.

They waited quietly.

After roughly five or six minutes, the enormous bronze doors slowly opened with a rumble. Chaos energy swirled through the cultivation chamber beyond, obscuring its interior.

"Everyone, come out," Kandri called in a low voice as he looked inside.

His voice echoed repeatedly through the cultivation chamber. Soon, figures flew swiftly out of the chaos energy, many clutching their heads. One tall, burly youth with six eyes on his forehead looked back reluctantly, but he still had no choice but to leave.

"The thirteen of you may enter now." Kandri looked at the group before him. "In seven days, when the doors open, you must come out immediately. Understood?"

"Understood."

Everyone nodded.

"Good." Kandri nodded. "Go inside."

Nervous and apprehensive, they immediately entered one after another.

The cultivation chamber was enormous, with chaos energy swirling throughout.

Chen Ao entered a separate chamber alone.

Studying the enormous stone stele faintly shrouded in chaos energy, Chen Ao examined it closely. So this is a Chaos Stele?

Chen Ao was very interested in the Chaos Stele.

But this Green Shadow Chaos Stele isn't very impressive. It only has seven diagrams!

The Nine Universes Chaos Stele had nine diagrams and was probably left by a relatively powerful Universe Master. As expected, this Green Shadow Chaos Stele had indeed been left by a Top Universe Overlord.

The first diagram consisted of sword marks. Counting carefully, there were nine in total.

The second diagram contained nine intersecting sword marks, which seemed to represent something.

The third diagram was filled with extremely chaotic sword marks, scattered without any apparent order.

The fourth, by contrast, was clear and simple: just one enormous sword mark spanning the entire picture.

The fifth...

Chen Ao could no longer be bothered to look. He only needed the first four diagrams; he could comprehend the rest on his own.

After all, that expert had left only seven diagrams. His strength was probably at the level of a Top Universe Overlord, or perhaps merely a stronger Universe Overlord. His level would not be particularly high.

The later the diagrams, the harder they would be to learn, and the more easily they might lead him astray.

Helping him comprehend the essence of space would be enough.

Over those seven days, Chen Ao began studying the first four diagrams.

Meditation!

In that special state of comprehension, Chen Ao felt that all his previous confusion about the space law had been resolved. It was as though every question had vanished without a trace in an instant.

"Everyone, come out!"

"Everyone, come out!"

The voice echoed repeatedly through his mind. Even in his meditative state, he could not prevent it from forcibly interrupting his study.

Seven days really is a little too short!

Chen Ao had only reached the second diagram. He still needed a little more time to comprehend it fully.

Nevertheless, Chen Ao followed the rules and walked out.

Outside the cultivation chamber, an ape-man youth respectfully bowed to the guardian, Kandri, then transformed into a streak of light and left.

"The twelve of you, wait a moment." Guardian Kandri smiled.

"Hm?"

Luo Feng looked at the old man before him in confusion. The other geniuses were equally puzzled.

Kandri smiled. "This was your first time entering a cultivation chamber. Let me remind you... first, find a residence to serve as your Cultivation Residence for the next thirty years. Then enter the Virtual Universe and apply to enter the Heavenly Bridge."

"Enter the Heavenly Bridge?" Luo Feng and the others were puzzled.

"Once you enter the Virtual Universe Network and go to the Heavenly Bridge, you will understand." Kandri smiled faintly. "You may leave."

Seeing that the guardian did not wish to explain further, Chen Ao and the others could only leave.

After leaving the City Lord's Manor, the twelve of them split up to search for Cultivation Residences. Chaos City covered an immense area. Apart from a handful of special buildings, its Cultivation Residences were almost identical. The doors of the vast majority were pale white, indicating that those residences had no owners yet.

Chen Ao was in no hurry to choose. He examined them one by one, looking through most of the vacant cultivation rooms.

The person who lived here must have cultivated the law of water. I'll choose this place!

He did not intend to cultivate the law of wood for now. In conjunction with the Sunken Water Vine's Innate Secret Technique, he planned to first comprehend the law of water, then begin studying the essence of the space law.

Next, it should have been time to enter the Heavenly Bridge.

Chen Ao, however, was in no hurry. He waited quietly.

In the original story, Luo Feng didn't even clear the first level on his first attempt. This time, he's much stronger. He should be able to clear the first level. As for the second...

Chen Ao was not sure, but he intended to follow Luo Feng. Whatever level Luo Feng reached, he would perform slightly worse.

He would make sure he was neither too poor nor too outstanding, remaining as ordinary as ever.