What was he to do now? Waves of hopelessness rose in Ding Ning’s heart. There had at least been a slim chance of survival with the mermaid, but there was nowhere to go being trapped in here.

  What made him feel the most hopeless was that he previously had a blurry sense of Luoxue but now the connection was completely severed.

  What did this mean? It meant that he would be trapped here until death, without even a chance to beg for help.

  No…… No!

  Ding Ning’s gaze landed on the statue and his tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly. As the saying goes, heaven never bars one’s way. Although he did not understand the door of light, it would not take one into a hopeless dead-end. That made no sense.

  A mechanism, yes, there must be some kind of mechanism. The statue would not be here for no reason.

  Having thought through this, Ding Ning’s spirit was roused and he immediately walked toward the statue.

  The statue seemed to be made of some greenish stone that he had never seen before. The form of the strange creature was very ferocious. Its eyes were round with rage, its mouth filled with sharp teeth, and it held a mace in its hand. The skill of the carving was so exquisite that it looked like it was alive. Ding Ning could not help but sigh with admiration.

  As he moved closer and closer to the stone statue, the statue’s originally blank eyes suddenly moved, flashing with a flicker of green light.

  Ding Ning’s hair immediately stood on end and warning bells went off in his head. Almost instinctively, he dodged without hesitation to the right.

  Crash! From the corner of his eyes, Ding Ning saw the mace in the statue’s hand smash with terrifying strength against the ground, creating a huge crater.

  His back instantly soaked through with cold sweat and he felt a latent fear in his heart. If he had not moved in time and was struck by the mace, he would probably be a pile of mush by now.

  But the danger had not been resolved. The stone statue had come alive and walked upright like a human with the mace in its hand like a falling star. It launched a relentless attack against Ding Ning as if seeing an irreconcilable enemy.

  Ding Ning was astonished. He flashed through the air like lightning, trailing behind a line of shadows as he endlessly dodged away from the statue’s thunder like attacks. He had no time to wonder how this stone statue had suddenly come alive.

  Not only was the statue’s strength shocking, its speed was also like lightning. It’s fully 10-meter tall body did not move slowly at all. It was like a warrior long used to the battlefield. The power of each strike was astonishing and Ding Ning was not able to turn it against it at all. He could only depend on being slightly faster than the statue and dodging the attacks.

  Standing at 1.85-meters tall, Ding Ning seemed very insignificant in front of this statue. He was like a mouse being chased around with nowhere to hide, unspeakably pathetic.

  The stone chamber was not very big to start with, additionally, the mace in the statue’s hand was about three meters long. Each wave of it took up over half the space, leaving Ding Ning with very little room to dodge.

  Crash!

  Crash!

  Crash!

  As if it was demolishing a house, the stone statue continued to pursue Ding Ning around the room. Each strike was powerful and heavy, landing on the ground or against the walls and sending pieces of gravel flying in every direction and leaving behind a giant crater.

  Ding Ning was in a panic and he cried out silently and bitterly. Each time he managed to dodge a strike was like dancing on an iron wire. He only had to be hit once for his bones to shatter and become a lamb waiting for slaughter.

  What on earth was this place? How could there be such a strange creature? Ding Ning did not dare to face it directly and could only rely on his battle instincts to dodge in an instant. He had no chance to return an attack at all.

  No, he had to think of something quickly. If this went on, he would die here.

  Ding Ning dodged continuously. As he forced himself to calm down, he examined the stone statue closely, wanting to find some flaw.

  But he was quickly disappointed. The stone statue moved easily as if it did not know of tiredness. They had fought for a full half-hour yet its attacks did not slow at all. Each strike was still as powerful as before, and a single touch would bring death. Ding Ning complained incessantly.

  What made him feel the most hopeless was that each giant crater the stone statue created would be returned to its original state soon after with a flash of light. This put Ding Ning’s original hope of using the statue’s strength to break through the stone room completely to rest.

  Boom! With a boom, Ding Ning once again narrowly dodged an attack. He was breathing very heavily. The True Qi and spiritual strength in his body had been overused in this high-intensity battle. If was unable to change this situation soon, his only choice was to die. He had been forced into a desperate situation.

  Ding Ning was never one to give up easily. The stone statue’s relentless pursuit triggered the ruthlessness in his bones and ferocity flashed through his eyes. “It’s not so easy to kill me.”


  When the stone statue raised the mace to bring it smashing down again, Ding Ning did not retreat. Instead, he advanced. Leaping up with a roar, he punched the statue’s calf.

  It was not that he didn’t want to hit the statue’s head but this statue was too tall, he couldn’t reach at all.

  With a boom, the punch connected. Perhaps the statue’s body was too big or perhaps he had not expected Ding Ning to stop hiding after all this time. Ding Ning’s full strength struck against the statue’s calf.

  Ding Ning struck well. Even if this punch could not break the statue’s leg, it could at least trip it up. Then following up on his success, he could beat him into the ground. The statue’s size was its advantage but also its weakness. Once it was on the ground, even if it could move, it would not be that dangerous.

  Crack!

  But while the imagination was very rich, reality was not. It was as if Ding Ning’s punch landed on steel boards. He stumbled back and his entire right fist was devoid of feeling. The flesh was torn and blood flowed freely. Ding Ning sucked in a breath at the pain and the muscles on his face twitched. Never mind tripping up the statue, it didn’t even move.

  While Ding Ning was frustrated about what to do, a massive sense of danger made him retreat without thinking but it was already too late.

  He was only thinking about the statue standing upright like a human but had forgotten that its original shape was that of a beast. Just as Ding Ning sensed the danger, the statue raised its right leg and its claws flashed out like lightning as it reached toward Ding Ning.

  This struck was unbelievably fast. Ding Ning did not have time to dodge when he was hit. It was like being hit by an oncoming train. His entire person flew out and smashed heavily against the wall before sliding down.

  His face was deathly pale with the pain that felt like his internal organs had been rearranged. His forehead was covered in a cold sweat and curled up at the corner of the room.

  The statue had no thought of letting him go. Expressionlessly, it raised the mace above its head and brought it down toward his head.

  “It’s over. I had not expected to die here today.” Ding Ning watched as the mace whistled toward him. He could no longer hold back the blood in his mouth and it sprayed out. He closed his eyes and waited for death.

  In this instant, his father, teachers, Luoxue, Ling Yun, Xiao Nuo, Shen Muqing, Xiaoyao, Zhao Xin, Bai Qinglian, the demon, the Buddha in his dream, the mermaid…… the shadow of everyone he knew flashed through his mind and a very dissatisfied smile appeared at the corners of his lips.

  He was dissatisfied with dying like this. Why, why should he die like this? He had not completed his father’s request. He had not invented a new medicine. He had not rescued the mermaid. He had not taken Luoxue to see a real snowfall. He had not seen his sister. He had not re-invigorated traditional Chinese medicine……

  He had too many things he had not done. He had too many dreams he had not realized. He was discontent to just die here, without reason. No. He could not die like this; he could not……

  The stone man on his chest suddenly flashed with red light and rage rose up. A ferocious atmosphere filled the air and a powerful sense of dissatisfaction and anger activated the usually unmoving double-sided Buddha. The golden-face Buddha had always faced the front but at this moment, the black-faced Buddha had turned toward the front.

  Ding Ning suddenly opened his eyes and stared coldly at the stone statue. What a pair of eyes! Ancient, deep, distant…… it carried coldness and majesty as it looked upon humanity.

  Ancient breath filled the small room but unfortunately, the stone statue was not a human and it did not have the emotion of humans so how could it be scared? The mace did not slow at all as it moved toward his head.

  Ding Ning seemed to be a different person. His face was terrifyingly calm and his pupils dilated until it rapidly took over the whites of his eyes. His two eyes became black and two spots of blue blossomed in the depths of his eyes like lotuses.

  “Flower eyes!”


  A cold and emotionless voice rang out from Ding Ning’s mouth. The two blue blossoms shot out blue light that enveloped the statue’s body. The stone statue’s movements stopped abruptly and it froze in the air.

  “Shattering blossom pupils!”


  Another cold and emotionless voice rang out. The blue flowers shattered and with a crash, the stone statue kneeled on the ground. As the blue flowers shattered, the giant body shattered with it.

  Blue light flashed urgently from the black pupils and in an instant, and they returned to normal and slowly closed.

  When Ding Ning opened his eyes, his gaze focused immediately on the familiar door of light formed by the statue’s shattered pieces!

  His heart tightened. “What happened just now? How did the stone statue suddenly shatter into the door of light?”


  He climbed up and patted his body nervously. It was alright, completely alright. His injuries from earlier were completely healed and the stone statue was gone. “Great, I’m still alive. I’m still alive!”


  His narrow escape from death almost brought tears of joy to his eyes. However, he had no recollection of anything that happened earlier.

  But a “flower eyes” technique used to capture enemies and a “shattering blossom pupils” technique to crush enemies mysteriously appeared in his mind.

  Did he trigger some hidden potential right before his death and gained an understanding of these two pupil techniques and thus defeated the stone statue?

  Ding Ning could not wrap his head around it but at this time, he had no time to think about it because the door of light was beginning to waver. It could disappear at any moment, he had to leave this blasted place immediately.

  He stepped forward into the door of light and disappeared from this stone room that he almost died in.

  What he didn’t know was that after he stepped through the door of light, the door quickly vanished and the entire stone room flashed with blue light.

  A moment later, the stone room returned to its original state. The large stone statue once again appeared, upright and unmoving, as if nothing had happened earlier.

  After another wave of lightheadedness, Ding Ning looked at the passage in front of him uncertainly, expression unreadable.

  Because he found, to his horror, that after he entered this place, all of his True Qi and spiritual strength completely lost effect. Even his superpower could not be used.

  This meant that he was a normal person here. Faced with unknown danger, he had no power to defend himself.

  This strange situation terrified him and there was no sense of safety in his heart. However, just like before, the door of light had already disappeared and he had nowhere to retreat to. He could only move forward and face the unknown terror.

  The passageway was very wide. On one side, there were large blocks of white stone. On the other side, there were crude and simple wall drawings.

  Ding Ning took a deep breath to calm himself. Things were already like this, he could only take one step after another.