Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100

"A Nether Stone… one piece of this… and I could forge a weapon that defies the heavens themselves…" he whispered, his voice quivering. "A Demigod Rank weapon… one with its own wisdom, its own soul… something people have searched for across millennia and never found…"

For the first time in decades, the big-bellied monk felt the raw thrill of adventure, of standing on the precipice of something truly monumental.

Even if he could not be certain of its authenticity, even if the possibility of success was only one in ten thousand, the big-bellied monk still resolved to try. Opportunities like this came once in a lifetime, and no expert worth his salt would let such a chance slip by.

Moreover, the Nether Stone was not just famous for forging Demigod Rank weapons. Ancient texts spoke of another, even more mysterious function—it was said to serve as a gateway to the legendary underworld itself.

Of course, one could not simply open such a gate with the Nether Stone alone. According to the oldest records, a second material was required as an intermediary—a mystical flower known as the Red Spider Lily.

This flower, with petals like blood and a stem like crystal, was also considered a supreme-grade material. However, much like the Nether Stone, the Red Spider Lily had only ever appeared in myths and ancient scrolls. Most people doubted it even existed.

Yet now, having discovered the Nether Stone with his own eyes, the big-bellied monk found his belief in those myths shaken. Perhaps the underworld, that mysterious place said to hold the souls of the dead before they were reincarnated, was not entirely fabricated after all.

The underworld, according to lore, was a unique dimension layered over reality, invisible and unreachable unless one possessed the proper key—the Nether Stone and the Red Spider Lily combined. Whether this myth was real or not did not matter to him at this moment; what mattered was the stone itself.

For now, the Red Spider Lily was too elusive to even think about finding. The Nether Stone, however, was right here before him. Even without the flower, refining the Nether Stone into a weapon could verify another ancient claim: that Demigod Rank weapons possessed their own consciousness, able to cultivate skills independently and fight alongside their wielder like a living partner.

The thought of wielding such power made his eyes burn with ambition and greed.

The big-bellied monk took a slow breath and scanned his surroundings again. After confirming that no danger lurked nearby, he stepped forward cautiously toward the giant stone, every footfall deliberate and steady. His gaze never left the mysterious black surface of the Nether Stone, his mind already imagining what he could create from it.

Then—

"Whoosh!"

A sharp whistling sound cut through the oppressive silence of the Yin-filled cavern. Out of one of the nearby tunnels, a black cone-shaped weapon shot out at terrifying speed, spinning as it tore through the air like a meteor.

"Who?" The big-bellied monk's face darkened instantly, his pupils narrowing. Without hesitation, his right sleeve flicked outward, and Buddha's light surged from his body in a wave of golden brilliance, intercepting the cone and knocking it aside with a ringing clash of metal against energy.

But he didn't stop there. With practiced ruthlessness, his left hand rose and slammed downward through the air. A golden palm print, wide and radiant like the hand of an ancient Buddha, condensed instantly and smashed forward toward the source of the attack.

The sheer speed and decisiveness of his retaliation revealed much about the monk's nature—despite his seemingly calm exterior and rotund frame, this was no harmless pilgrim. This was a man used to killing first and asking questions later, a man who had long since discarded hesitation in the face of danger.

The ground trembled as the golden palm print roared toward its unseen target.

However, the one who had attacked was clearly no ordinary opponent. The moment the big-bellied monk's golden palm print descended, the intruder responded with frightening speed. A single punch fell from above, and with it came a dark fist imprint laced with poisonous energy, coiling like serpents around a decaying corpse.

The two techniques collided midair with an explosive bang, shaking the cavern walls and scattering loose stones across the ground.

The big-bellied monk's expression changed slightly, his narrow eyes narrowing even further, glinting with a sharp and dangerous light. He stared straight ahead and finally saw the figure who had intercepted his attack—a young man in a flowing black robe, tall and straight like an unsheathed sword.

His complexion was unnaturally pale, almost corpse-like, and his lips were thin and bloodless, giving off a natural aura of cold indifference. There was nothing warm about this man, as though even his very presence chilled the surrounding Yin energy further.

"A member of the Void Soul Tower?" the big-bellied monk muttered under his breath, his voice carrying both surprise and wariness. For a member of the Bright Buddha Palace like him, to encounter someone from the notorious Void Soul Tower here of all places was both unexpected and troublesome.

The young man in the black robe, however, showed no reaction to the remark. Instead, his dark eyes swept calmly across the monk before finally settling on the giant Nether Stone behind him. His gaze lingered, cold and penetrating, as though seeing right through the thick layers of Yin energy swirling around it.

Then, within the young man's mind, a hoarse and sinister voice resounded, almost like a whisper from the depths of an ancient crypt:

"Kevin boy, do you see it clearly? That is the treasure I spoke of, the one I told you would change your fate."

This young man was none other than Kevin, the ambitious expert of the Void Soul Tower who had taken a dangerous path to increase his strength.

And the owner of that hoarse voice—the one whispering greedily in his mind—was none other than the ancient remnant soul Old Devil Dave, whose existence clung parasitically to Kevin's body like a shadow that refused to die.

Kevin's expression remained cold, his eyes flashing faintly with a calculating light as he regarded both the big-bellied monk and the Nether Stone behind him.

The pieces of the situation were beginning to fall into place, and he already knew this encounter would not end peacefully.