"Seeker of the Blue Ghost Fire..." An old, tired voice echoed in Gu Fan’s ears.

"To wield the flame of souls, a man must cast aside his mortal flesh. Only a dragon bathing in the blood of death can truly tame the embers of the void..."

The voice shifted slightly, as the elderly tone went low recounting a memory.

"Long ago... there was a young boy," the voice echoed mournfully, "A boy who had nothing. No food to fill his stomach, no woven cloth to cover his shivering body from the winter frost."

"He had nothing but..."

"A will to survive."

"A will to not die like a dog in the streets."

"A will to not let anyone trample upon his pride."

"He fought with bare, bleeding hands against a cruel world. He clawed his way up the bloody path of cultivation..."

"He conquered the heavens and became the Sovereign above the Nine Realms. He sat upon the highest throne..."

Gu Fan frowned, tilting his head slightly.

"But a throne built on corpses is a lonely seat," the voice continued, thick with sorrow, "He watched the ages turn to dust."

"His enemies died."

"His friends faded."

"No one remained."

"He was left with nothing but his supreme power. And now, after an eternity, he is searching the worlds... hoping to find a true heir to inherit his legacy, someone to carry the weight of..."

’What the actual fuck?’ Gu Fan thought, a deep wave of annoyance completely ruining the dramatic mood. ’I didn’t write this long-ass monologue! Since when does the Blue Ghost Fire have a tragic backstory?! And I definitely didn’t write these Sentinels!’

"I will not introduce myself to you. It is not time yet. If fate has it, we will meet someday."

"But it is time for you to face the trial."

And just like that, a bright beam of blue light shot from the ceiling, sweeping rapidly over Gu Fan’s body from head to toe, completely cutting off the Sovereign’s tragic tale.

The voice boomed again, reverting to its emotionless state.

"Challenger detected."

"Cultivation: 6th Stage of the Body Tempering Realm."

"The trial shall adapt."

"The Nether-Stone Sentinels shall be set to the Peak of the Body Tempering Realm. Defeat the guards, and the path shall open."

Gu Fan stopped dead in his tracks, as the confident smirk instantly vanished from his face and was replaced by an irritated frown.

’Wait a damn minute,’ Gu Fan mused inwardly, letting out a long, annoyed sigh.

He crossed his arms, feeling a headache coming on. He knew exactly what he had written in his novel.

’When I wrote this arc, Gu Chen never had to fight a boss battle,’ he complained in his thoughts, rubbing his temples. ’There was no majestic voiceover. And a very bad poetry.’

’That lucky bastard just walked right in, triggered his Righteous Heavenly Eyes, and the fire practically jumped into his lap like a trained dog.’

Gu Fan’s eyes narrowed as the annoyance settled into a cold realization of what was happening. His author’s knowledge was starting to waver.

The World Will was actively shifting the mechanics of his own novel to try and screw him over. Because he was an anomaly, a villain stealing the protagonist’s plot armour, the so called Heavenly Dao was raising red flags, trying to kill him off.

’Fine, Heavenly Dao, play your games,’ Gu Fan thought, rolling his neck until it popped. ’You want to test me? I will just smash everything you throw at me.’

"Let us see how long can you save your ’precious’, Gu Chen"

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

And just then, the eyes of all twelve stone statues suddenly ignited with a violent, glowing red light, and a heavy grinding of stone echoed in the hall as the giant demonic warriors slowly stepped off their pedestals.

[System Scan: Nether-Stone Sentinels.]

[Cultivation: Peak Body Tempering Realm.]

[Anomaly detected: These are not mere golems. Weak Human and Beast souls have been violently bound to the stone chassis via necromancy, granting them flawless combat coordination and instincts.]

As they moved, the floor tiles cracked beneath the golems., and within no time all of them trapped Gu Fan from all sides, holding their weapons by the chest.

"Die!" Gu Fan did not give them the chance to react first as he made his move.

And he did not hold back a single ounce of strength. He vanished from his spot and the next second he was standing in front of one of the Sentinel.

He planted his feet, gripped the iron chain with both hands, and swung the massive Meteor Hammer in a powerful arc.

The spiked iron ball whistled through the air and smashed directly into the broad chest of the first Sentinel, as it did not even have the chance to react. It tried to block the swing, but it was all too late.

CRASH!

The impact was deafening, as the strike instantly caved in the statue’s thick stone armour, as jagged stone shrapnel flew everywhere like bullets.

But it wasn’t just dust that exploded out.

As the statue’s torso was crushed, thick, black, blood-like sludge violently explode outward, and the viscous black fluid splattered across Gu Fan’s face and chest, covering him in some sort of unchanged oil from head top toe.

The Sentinel dropped heavily to its knees, twitching wildly as its black blood pooled on the floor.

But before Gu Fan could feel smug about the one strike kill, three Sentinels lunged at him from his blind spot. They swung their massive stone halberds simultaneously, aiming directly for his neck and legs.

Gu Fan was quick to activate the Sovereign Strike of Infinite Freedom, and his body blurred, vanishing like a ghost.

When Gu fan appeared again, he was behind one of the Sentinel and his left fist was glowing purplish-green with Corrosive Qi. And without waiting for another breath, he drove his fist straight into the back of the Sentinel’s massive stone knee joint.

Ssssss!

The highly concentrated venom melted the stone instantly.

The joint sizzled and liquefied, completely crippling the giant statue. The Sentinel crashed down onto one knee.

And when it was on his knees, Gu Fan jumped up, grabbed the sides of the statue’s stone head with his bare hands, and ripped it clean off its shoulders. A geyser of black sludge erupted from the severed neck, but this time, Gu Fan was ready.

From the corner of his eyes, Gu Fan saw another Sentinel coming towards him and he hurled the head he held in his hands brutally into the Sentinels face, shattering its skull into dust, and sending him tumbling on the ground.

He won’t be up for a while.

Seeing that Gu Fan was taking care of them one by one, the sentinels did not blindly rush in.

Five of the ones who remained standing broke off, forming an encirclement, while four hung back, raising their halberds to block his escape routes.

But in all this, Gu Fan spotted one thing. These stone golems might have the strength of a 9th Stage Body Tempering realm cultivator. But their speed? They were pathetically slow.

’I can win this easily!’ Gu Fan thought to himself.

While no one moved to attack for a few breaths, one of the Sentinels broke the stand -off as it lunged forward, swinging its blade to attack Gu Fan in the chest.

Gu Fan jumped high in the air to dodge the slash, but it was a mistake as just then, another one of the Sentinels moved, leaving Gu fan no chance to manoeuvre in the air.

CRACK!

The Sentinel perfectly anticipated his jump and swung his heavy stone broadsword smashing it brutally into Gu Fan’s left ribcage.

BOOM!

SWOOSH!

BOOM!

The sheer force of the Peak Body Tempering strike launched Gu Fan through the air like a missile, as he smashed violently into the heavy stone wall, sending a shockwave of debris and thick dust everywhere.

The Audience Hall reverberated throughout as the Sentinels remained standing in their spots, looking in the direction of where Gu Fan went flying.

As the dust began to settle, Gu Fan became visible, as he was left stuck, embedded within the shattered stone wall, and a drop of crimson blood dripped from the corner of his lips.

He glared at the Sentinel which sent him flying and smirked.

"Congratulations," Gu Fan spat, wiping the blood from his mouth, "You managed to hit a home run."

"But now it’s my turn."