Rise of the Demon God

Long Chen and Chu Miao had come out of the barrier, and after walking for only a short time, they found themselves at a steep downward slope that kept going down for several kilometers.

There was something at the distance that was visible, but it wasn't clear what it was as most of it was hidden behind the trees, but they did see what seemed like a stone.

"Be careful and don't fall," Long Chen warned Chu Miao as he started going down the slope.

Chu Miao followed suit and went down as well. The slope was so steep that they were having difficulty keeping their grip on the ground, and Chu Miao barely escaped falling down a few times.

After two hours, Long Chen got to the end of the slope and stepped his foot on the plane ground.

He looked back and saw Chu Miao still coming down. After a few minutes, she managed to catch up to him as well.

They continued ahead and advanced towards the thing which they saw from the top.

Long Chen had the general idea of the direction. So even though they could not see it now because of the tall trees, they knew where they needed to go.

After another 20 minutes, they reached the place that they wanted to reach.

They had guessed that they might see a small tower or something, but they saw a giant statue of an old-looking man there. It was the biggest statue that Long Chen had seen till now. The Statue was so tall that he didn't even get to the knees of the statue.

The Man in the statue looked like he was around 70-80 years old. He had long hair that came down to his waist freely.

The statue had something in both of its hands.

In his right hand, it was holding what seemed like a stone replica of the crystal orb that Long Chen saw in the wooden hut some time ago.

In his right hand, the statue was holding a stone book. Long Chen understood that it must be a stone replica of something real as well.

He walked closer to the statue as he saw something written on the cover of the stone book.

"Ancient Heaven Divination Technique," he read the title.

"Sounds like a future prediction book," Long Chen muttered as he read the name of the book.

Chu Miao heard the name and pulled out the list that Long Chen had given her to hold. It contained the list of items that they had to get.

"It's right here! The book of Ancient Heaven Divination Technique. It's at number 2 in importance, so it must really be important," Chu Miao told Long Chen as she tried to show him the list.

"I remember that. I've read the list; I wouldn't forget the items. It's not the Book of Ancient Heaven Divination Technique, though. It's a stone replica that is made to match the guy in the statue. If the real book is still in the sect, then we might find it later if we're lucky," Long Chen said, smilingly.

****

Back in a faraway place, a man was walking in the desert. The mask half covered his face, and he also wore a cloak.

A young boy was walking behind him. 

The masked man suddenly took out his book and started looking inside. 

"Interesting. The stars are changing," he muttered before he closed the book and put it back.

He started looking towards the sky and started muttering something as if he was talking to himself.

"The light is starting another cycle of its endless turmoil in its imprisonment, whereas the darkness is still in its infant phase down here. Some really interesting times are ahead. I wonder if the light will be free before the darkness swallows the whole world or if it's in the destiny of light to stay imprisoned,"

****

Long Chen walked around the statue as he observed it as if he was trying to see if there was something unique about it.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't we go further? Is there something wrong?" Chu Miao asked as she watched Long Chen circle the statue.

"Did you notice one thing? This statue is not straight. It's somewhat tilted," Long Chen told her.

"Now that you mention it, I do see it, but it's only a minor tilt. I think it's pretty normal," she said.

"It would be normal if we hadn't seen those thousands of statues that were perfectly straight. A sect that put so much attention to the alignment and position of those statues shouldn't screw up like this, especially when it's the status of one of the most important people of their sect," Long Chen explained.

"How do you know it's the statue of someone that great? It might be an elder or something like that," She inquired.

"The person that holds the Ancient Heaven Divination Technique can't be someone simple. Also, his statue is the largest we have seen. No statue was even close to this height," Long Chen responded.

"Alright. I understand that he must be someone great, but is there still a need to spend so much time here? As you said, this statue is the biggest, and it's quite possible that it got tilted with time because of its large size," Chu Miao said.

"That shouldn't be it," Long Chen muttered as he continued looking, but he found nothing strange in the statue.

'Is there really nothing strange about it?" he muttered as he fell in deep thought.

Suddenly, his gaze fell over the feet of the statue. The statue was tilting toward the left.

"That might be it," he muttered as he walked towards the right leg of the statue.

He caught the feet of the statue and raised it.

Even though he should've been able to raise the statue of this size with ease, it was much heavier somehow. He had to use all his strength just to raise it's right feet a little. He even used his Demon Monarch Physique.

"Hurry. Look if there's something under the leg," Long Chen told Chu Miao as he kept the statue raised higher. His muscles were bulging because of the effort he was putting into keeping it raised up.

Chu Miao ran to him and got down on her knees as she started looking under the feet of the statue.

"There is something," she said as she extended her hand there and took something out.

"Is there something else?" Long Chen asked her.

"No," She replied.

Long Chen released the legs of the statue, which got back to its original position.

"Yup. Now it looks straight," Long Chen muttered as he looked towards the statue while standing up.

"It's what I found," Chu Miao muttered as she gave something to Long Chen.

It was a small, square metallic plate that was the size of a book. There was a pattern drawn on it with various intersecting energy lines on it.

"It seems like a formation plate," Long Chen muttered.

"I can still feel the energy in it. It should still be able to work," Long Chen muttered.

"How about you try using it? Let's see how it works," Chu Miao suggested.

"No. I still need to study it more before using it. It might be a killer formation, after all. You will die if it is a killer formation, and I use it," Long Chen told her as he put the formation plate in his storage ring.

"It shouldn't be a killer formation, though. From what I heard, even though the Divine Heaven Sect was powerful, they were known for not using formations that could kill. Their strength wasn't dependent on formations like that," Chu Miao told Long Chen.

"You only know what you heard from the world, and the world only knows whatever rumor escaped the walls of the Divine Heaven Sect. No one can be sure about what they didn't use," Long Chen told her.