A Stay-at-home Dad’s Restaurant In An Alternate World Chapter 2488

Chapter 2488: Slay the Golden Dragon, Enter the God's Realm!

Ancient golden Chinese characters were etched into the surface of the sacred stele. An ethereal radiance from an unknown source struck the inscriptions, causing them to shimmer with a brilliant luster.

Mag stood there, completely dumbfounded!

This was the Underground City!

This was the divine object from the heavens that the inhabitants of the Underground City revered as the ultimate origin of law and order!

And yet… it was covered in Chinese writing!

!!

Furthermore, these weren't traditional characters. They were written in simplified Chinese!

"Heavenly Questions," the epic poem by Qu Yuan, was carved right into the center of the monument, occupying the most prominent and eye-catching position on the sacred stele.

As Mag scanned the rest of the surface, he discovered various legendary prose, mathematical formulas, scientific theories, and musical scores. It was essentially a concentrated archive of human civilization's history.

Among the sea of text, Mag's eyes fell upon a poem that depicted a massive nation with a storied past, one that had endured through the ages to rise from a blue planet and dominate the stars.

Wait a second…

None of those details mattered right now!

The real question was: why was this here?

He had only transmigrated a year ago, but this sacred stele had been in existence for at least 30,000 years!

The chronology was completely broken!

Mag was absolutely certain this sacred stele originated from Earth—the same Earth where he had been raised.

The system remained quiet for a long duration before finally uttering a single, hushed word: "F*ck!"

However, it quickly began to calculate a logical explanation:

"A God must have plucked your soul and dropped it at a specific coordinate in the river of time.

"Consequently, while you believe you just arrived from Earth, you might have actually arrived in this era 50,000 years after Earth's current time, here on the Norland Continent.

"During those intervening 20,000 years, the flower planting families' nation prospered, and the blue planet ascended, spreading its influence across the Universe. To showcase its might and share its knowledge, it likely launched several sacred steles into space.

"Doesn't that sound plausible?"

Mag stayed silent for a long time. It actually did make sense.

Back when he transmigrated, the flower planting families had just launched the 'Heavenly Questions' mission. Incredible—so after ruling the Universe, did civilization collapse? Or was this a method of preservation?

Separated by vast galaxies and millions of years, Mag couldn't help but feel his eyes well up at the sight of these Chinese characters. A deep, inexplicable sense of pride washed over him.

Regardless of the circumstances, I was born into a flower planting family and raised under the red flag. That is my pride!

1

Even as he felt these emotions, Mag became intensely curious about how to decipher the laws contained within the stele.

To the people of the Underground City, these blocky characters were completely indecipherable gibberish.

But he was different. Even if some of the modern prose or complex theories were beyond his specialty, he could read them perfectly. He was even intimately familiar with some of the classical poetry.

This wasn't exactly a world known for high academic education.

Looking closer, Mag noticed that the sacred stele was surrounded by swirling laws. A distinct cycle seemed to exist between these laws and the monument itself.

Mag glanced at the other representatives who had entered this realm with him. They were staring at the sacred stele with blank expressions, clearly struggling to grasp even a hint of meaning, though their attempts seemed futile.

Per the regulations, the process of Cultivation and comprehension begins the moment one enters the stele's world.

There were no restrictions other than a ban on bothering others and the requirement to leave when the time expired.

Mag pushed his feelings aside and sat cross-legged directly in front of the monument, focusing his gaze on the rotating laws.

As a demi-god, he was already well-acquainted with the nature of laws.

The Underground World and the Norland Continent shared certain principles. To achieve immortality, one must master at least one law.

Once a 10th-tier powerhouse masters a law, they gain the ability to manifest a law force field.

A demi-god, however, can utilize the law directly in combat without being confined to a static field. This grants a demi-god superior mobility and a massive advantage, allowing them to easily overwhelm a standard 10th-tier fighter.

Meanwhile, an extraordinaire possesses total dominion over a law. They can merge with the law, turning their very physical form into a manifestation of it, which significantly increases their lifespan.

Therefore, from the 10th-tier and above, the priority is understanding the law—a process that cannot be bypassed through simple physical training.

Mag watched the patterns on the sacred stele for an extended period. The laws slithered around like dragons. His vision began to blur, yet he still hadn't grasped the core essence.

An hour passed before Mag’s eyes suddenly flashed with a moment of clarity.

After several failed attempts to track the chaotic movements of the laws, he focused on a single strand for a long time until a pattern emerged.

The laws appeared to move randomly, but they were actually orbiting specific clusters of words, as if the text itself was the source generating the law.

Mag re-examined the scene carefully. The trajectory of several laws confirmed his theory. They were indeed revolving around certain passages of text.

On this particular stele, the "Heavenly Questions" section possessed the highest concentration of laws and power.

"Reading it silently isn't working. Maybe it's meant to be sung?" Mag pondered. He decided to try reciting it aloud in Chinese: "Since the beginning of ancient times, who has been there to lead the flow of life…"

The moment he began to chant, Mag was instantly enveloped in a thick shroud of white mist.

At the peak of the sacred stele, the countless laws began to move frantically, accelerating until they merged into a blinding light.

"What is happening? Do I actually have to sing in Chinese to unlock this?!" Mag was startled by the bizarre reaction. However, since the stele was finally responding, he knew he couldn't stop now. He continued his recitation:

"Where did the world come into being before it took shape?

"Who knows where darkness did end, when light and shade did blend?

"When primal matter was the only form, How could it be recognized?

"Brightness became bright and darkness became dark; What has caused them to be like this…?"

As Mag spoke the verses of Heavenly Questions, the sacred stele underwent a transformation. The myriad laws actually detached from the stone, coalescing into a five-clawed golden dragon in mid-air. It roared and dove straight toward Mag.

A crushing, terrifying pressure descended. The dragon's razor-sharp claws gleamed with a cold light, as if demanding that Mag submit and kowtow before it.

Would bowing down truly grant him the status of a god?

Mag didn't break his rhythm. However, his eyes narrowed as he watched the descending five-clawed golden dragon.

Beyond the physical pressure of the dragon's dive, a seductive voice echoed in his mind, whispering for him to kneel so he could inherit the beast's power.

Just as the dragon reached him, its fifth claw stretching toward his skull, a black sword suddenly appeared in Mag's grip. With a swift motion, he vaulted onto the dragon's back and drove his blade deep into its spine.

The five-clawed golden dragon shattered instantly, dissolving back into raw laws that surged into Mag's body.

Mag felt his physical form swell to the bursting point before instantly mending. The sensation of rupture and healing repeated in a violent, unending cycle.

Every law on the sacred stele ceased its rotation at that exact moment. Streams of pure essential energy began to pour out from the stone and into Mag's Dantian and Meridians.

The disturbance from the sacred stele triggered massive anomalies both within the stele's realm and the wider Underground World.

A massive vortex manifested in the sky above the monument, pulling all the ambient energy from the heavens and earth into the stele.

The sky changed color and the world grew dark, resembling the onset of the apocalypse.

"What is going on?!"

The three Extraordinaires tasked with guarding the site entered the realm almost simultaneously. They watched in awe as vibrant colors bled from the top of the sacred stele. Even the essential energy of the laws was leaking out. They were instantly seized by greed.

Years ago, they had each only managed to absorb a single law to reach the Extraordinaire rank.

Being chosen by the sacred stele to receive even one law was considered a supreme blessing.

But now, countless strands of law essence were spilling out, seemingly available for the taking. For any Extraordinaire, this was the ultimate temptation.

At that same moment, every Extraordinaire throughout the Underground City felt the shift.

Whether they were in deep seclusion or enjoying a life of luxury, they all dropped what they were doing and raced toward the sacred stele.

No one truly knew what lay beyond the Extraordinaire realm.

However, every powerhouse desired to grow stronger, and the only path forward was to bolster the essential law energy within themselves.

With the vital energy of the sacred stele leaking out, this was undeniably the greatest opportunity any of them had ever seen.

The first to arrive outside the realm were three figures in black robes wearing golden masks. They radiated a chilling, sinister aura that caused the surrounding crowd to instinctively retreat hundreds of meters. People looked at them with a mixture of terror and awe.

These were the Immortels. This shadowy and potent organization had only recently become public knowledge following the military announcement.

These three masked figures were Hall Masters from the Ten Halls of the Immortels. Their specific identities remained a mystery.

Regardless of their names, their rank meant they were already Extraordinaires and stood at the very pinnacle of the Underground City's elite.

Further back, a crowd of tens of thousands had assembled. Seeing the Extraordinaires arrive only confirmed their suspicions that something monumental was happening with the sacred stele.

"Big Brother, the law essence is actually leaking. This is highly unusual, but it's the perfect chance to boost our Cultivation. If we can just claim one more, we might master a second law," the lean man in the black robe on the left communicated through a mental transmission.

"He's right, Big Brother. We should go in before those other old fossils show up. It'll be a mess once it gets crowded," the large, heavy-set man on the right added.

The man in the center looked toward the horizon and muttered, "They're already here."

As he spoke, streaks of light cut through the sky. Several figures with powerful auras landed in front of the stele in an instant.

These were the three Extraordinaires from the Dixon Family. They traded cold glares with the men in black robes but didn't say a word.

Soon, the powerhouses from the Top Ten Families began to congregate. They gathered at the entrance of the stele's world, hesitating to make the first move.

"An event like this has never been recorded. What could have triggered it?" an elderly man asked, scowling.

"Such a massive reaction from the stele... it looks like a new Extraordinaire is being born."

"We all reached that rank here, but the stele never reacted like this for us. Why now?"

"Could a truly divine being be emerging? This spectacle is only comparable to the ancient records of the day the stele first arrived."

The Extraordinaires debated fiercely, all in agreement that this was an unprecedented phenomenon.

"Why would this happen so suddenly? Could Mag be responsible?" Ferdinand had also reached the scene. He stood in a secluded corner accompanied by two military Extraordinaires.

The military headquarters wasn't far away. Furthermore, he had been keeping a close eye on the site since today was the day Mag was scheduled to study the stele. He had rushed over the moment the sky changed.

When he had broken through to the Extraordinaire rank, he had caused a slight resonance, but it was merely a brief flash of light.

Today’s event was altering the very fabric of the world. Nothing like this existed in the history books.

The group that entered today was talented, but there were only three 10th-tier practitioners among them.

Ferdinand suspected that Mag was the only person capable of causing such a disturbance.

He just couldn't imagine what Mag had done to cause this much chaos. Over thirty Extraordinaires were present now, including those who had traveled all the way from Tucker City.

"Let's move. We're going in first." At the First Hall Master's order, the three Immortels entered the sacred stele's realm together.

Seeing them move, the other Extraordinaires charged in as well, terrified of losing out on the opportunity.

Once inside the realm, the Extraordinaires—who were usually able to fly—were immediately slammed to the ground by an immense pressure. They had never encountered such a soul-crushing aura, and it was radiating directly from the sacred stele.

The representatives who had arrived earlier were all pinned to the floor, their faces pale with fright.

Only the three original guards were sitting in meditation ten meters from the stele. Strands of law were flowing directly into their foreheads.

The visiting Extraordinaires recognized the technique immediately. The guards were trying to integrate a second law into their bodies.

Because of the anomaly, the laws were leaking and seemed much easier to absorb than usual. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

The group of newcomers quickly sat down and began attempting to draw the law essence into themselves to master a second power.

The First Hall Master of the Immortels glanced at the others before turning his attention toward another part of the realm. That area seemed to be the focal point of the vortex and the source of the entire event.

While the others were carefully picking at single strands, a massive torrent of law sources was rushing toward a point hidden in the abyss.

Even a veteran Extraordinaire like him felt a surge of instinctive fear at the power coming from that source.

But after the fear came an even greater greed.

Throughout his ten-thousand-year life, he had managed to cultivate four different law sources. Yet, he was still far from the legendary state of true immortality.

He saw his chance in this chaos.

If he could displace whoever was at the center of that space and claim those laws for himself, he would become the embodiment of the laws and reach the immortal realm.

A black shuttle appeared, glowing with the power of four distinct laws as it hovered near him.

"I want to see who is behind this. This fortune belongs to me!"

The First Hall Master pointed his finger, and the black shuttle tore through space, shredding the mist and laws as it shot toward the abyss.

Bam!

The shuttle struck something solid within the fog with a dull thud. The surrounding laws trembled briefly before falling silent again.

Inside the mist, Mag opened his eyes and stared at the black shuttle, which had been halted just ten centimeters from his forehead. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

Had the laws not automatically acted to defend him, he wouldn't have been able to stop a full-power strike from an Extraordinaire.

"You old dog, trying to sneak attack me! I'll show you what's what once I finish becoming a god!" Mag glared down at the masked men. The Immortels had finally come for him.

As the law sources flooded his system, Mag felt his physical form being broken down and rebuilt thousands of times. Every cell was being optimized to hold these laws—or rather, to merge with them.

The pain was agonizing. However, Mag could feel his comprehension and mastery over the laws skyrocket at an impossible speed, even for the concepts he hadn't understood before.

It was as if he was being force-fed divine power without the need for training. He just had to survive the process.

This felt… incredible!

The flower planting families really came through for him.

"Hm?"

The First Hall Master realized his shuttle had hit a target, yet the fog remained. To his shock, he had lost his spiritual connection to his weapon.

That shuttle was his life-bound treasure, capable of piercing through any defense or barrier.

His expression darkened. His life force and stamina were fading. Even if he had another millennium left, death was inevitable. If he missed this chance, there would never be another.

After a moment of hesitation, he steeled his resolve.

His robes billowed as he began to hover, forcing his way toward the center of the vortex against the crushing pressure.

"Is that old bastard Xuanming trying to steal the prize?!" Ferdinand was the only one not focused on absorbing laws, so he was the only one who saw the First Hall Master move.

He had scanned the room and noticed Mag was the only one missing. It confirmed his suspicion.

Mag had triggered this insane event on his very first attempt at the stele. His talent was terrifying. Could he truly be the Chosen One?

After considering his options, Ferdinand decided to hold back and watch how things unfolded.