Chapter 652: The Prophecy Reappears

Chapter 652: Chapter 659: The Prophecy Reappears

The Stone Man seemed to be answering, but what he said was not at all what she wanted to hear.

He was clearly holding something back.

Song Wanning’s expression hardened, and she instantly released her immense pressure.

The Stone Man, who had just been able to hold his head up, was instantly crushed by the pressure, unable to look up as he began to tremble uncontrollably.

Only then, realizing Song Wanning was angry, did the Stone Man finally begin to answer in earnest.

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”

The Stone Man’s voice was filled with nervousness and a hint of resignation.

“I saw the prophecy on the stone stele behind us!”

It sounded rather absurd, because ever since the stele displayed the prophecy that one time, it had never shown any signs of its power again.

He was genuinely worried Song Wanning wouldn’t believe him.

“Oh?”

Hearing this, however, Song Wanning was mostly convinced. She shifted her gaze to the stone stele behind them.

‘The stele looks completely unremarkable. Can it really display a prophecy?’

“I wouldn’t dare lie! The prophecy is from the stele right behind me!”

The Stone Man recounted the events of that day. Recalling how bizarre it had been, his scalp still tingled even now.

“Senior, I was not fated to die. I eventually found this stone body and came back to life.”

“I can’t advance in cultivation any longer and I’m doomed to just scrape by for the rest of my days, but I still don’t want to die!”

“If the prophecy is real, then the Cultivation World is finished!”

The Stone Man struggled to lift his head, his eyes filled with hopeful expectation as he looked at Song Wanning.

“Wuyang City is the only place that will survive. Senior, why don’t you take me with you? We can storm the city and claim it for ourselves!”

“Besides, Wuyang City originally belonged to my father. The current City Lord is a butcher! My father would never have died because of me!”

His words quickly went off-topic as he began to recount his past sorrows.

Song Wanning frowned impatiently and cut him off.

“If I wanted to enter Wuyang City, I wouldn’t need to storm it.”

“If the Cultivation World truly collapses, what use is there in seizing a single city like Wuyang?”

She gave the Stone Man a look of exasperation. ‘Even now, he’s still thinking about using me for his revenge?’

‘I’m not that kind-hearted.’

‘Still, could there really be something to this stele?’

Song Wanning gradually approached the stele. According to the Stone Man, it had suddenly lit up a few months ago, displaying a line of words. The words only remained for a few minutes before disappearing.

It hadn’t shown any signs of power since.

‘Is the stele related to reforging the world?’

For the first time, Song Wanning felt a flicker of hope.

She sent the Stone Man outside to wait, with Dragon Spirit and the other “little ones” in charge of watching him, while she began to examine the stele closely.

But though she examined it over and over, not missing the slightest detail, she still couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

She went back outside and questioned the Stone Man again. “Was the weather unusual that night? Did you notice anything else out of the ordinary?”

‘Perhaps the stele requires a specific trigger.’

“Uh… let me think.”

The question stumped the Stone Man, and he began to search his memories once more.

After a moment, he suddenly said, “That night, I think the fog was incredibly thick. So thick that everything became a blur and you couldn’t see the path at all.”

“I remember because I’d wanted to go hunting but couldn’t make it out.”

He couldn’t be certain, but the only thing out of the ordinary was the fog. Nothing else.

Song Wanning nodded and turned back into the cave.

After several more fruitless examinations, she decided to wait.

To wait for the day the fog would descend again.

And so, she took up residence in the cave.

When she wasn’t cultivating, she was studying the stele for any abnormalities.

As for the Stone Man, with Song Wanning around, he no longer dared to cause trouble in Wuyang City. He obediently went hunting every day, even bringing back roasted meat for her to eat.

This continued for more than two months until, one evening, something changed.

Song Wanning had just finished her roasted meat and was preparing to cultivate when a fog suddenly began to roll in.

Song Wanning stopped what she was doing and immediately got to her feet.

The Stone Man froze for a second, then rushed over, shouting excitedly, “Senior, the fog! The fog is back!”

The fog was finally here.

‘Heavens knew how he had managed to live on tenterhooks all this time…’

“Hn.”

Song Wanning wasn’t nearly as excited as he was. She calmly watched as a dense fog instantly enveloped the area.

In a matter of seconds, visibility dropped drastically. It became impossible to see anything clearly more than a few meters away.

Song Wanning’s expression shifted, and she immediately entered the cave.

The fog outside was pouring into the cave at an incredible speed. By the time she was inside, the cave was already filled with it, and she could only vaguely make out the silhouette of the stele.

She released her Divine Sense and began to observe the entire stele for any changes.

DRIP! DRIP!

The sound of dripping water nearby sounded like a ticking clock.

The Stone Man rushed in after her, waiting cautiously for the outcome.

‘As long as the stele shows the prophecy again and proves I was telling the truth, the Senior won’t give me any more trouble.’

‘All he wanted now was to find a place to hide so Song Wanning couldn’t catch him again.’

Finally, under their expectant gazes, the stele began to change.

A flash of light shot out, and a line of words suddenly appeared on the stele.

“Two Realms Become One.”

Just four words, yet they sent a jolt through Song Wanning’s heart.

Her eyes were locked on the stele. No one understood the meaning of those words better than she.

“How is this different? What does ‘Two Realms Become One’ even mean?”

The Stone Man, however, was completely bewildered by the different message. He scrambled to explain, “Senior, what I saw before was different from this! Really, I’m not lying!”

“Maybe the prophecy changed because you’re here.”

He wasn’t worried about the prophecy; he was worried about Song Wanning’s suspicion.

But Song Wanning’s attention wasn’t on him at all. She just stared intently at the words on the stele.

‘Is this the guidance of the Heavenly Dao?’

‘Has it guided me all this way to show me how to reforge the world?’

Song Wanning’s heart began to race. If that was true, then this stele might be the clue she was looking for.

She drifted closer, gazing at the words, and carefully reached out to touch them.

An icy sensation met her fingertips. Beneath her palm, the words suddenly changed color.

They flickered with light, and then a searing heat erupted from them.

In the next instant, Song Wanning felt an immense pulling force.

The force gave her no chance to resist, rapidly pulling her into the stele.

Song Wanning didn’t resist, but she remained on her guard.

In the blink of an eye, she was pulled into the stele.

The stele was then swallowed by the dense fog, disappearing even from the Stone Man’s sight.

“Senior?”

“Senior?”

The Stone Man cried out in alarm.

But only the endless echoes of the cave answered him.

Once he was certain that Song Wanning had been pulled away, the Stone Man turned and fled without a second thought.

If not now, when?