Chapter 680: The True Self Arrives!
Meng Hao stood in the war chariot watching as the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch fell backwards swiftly. Killing intent flickered in his eyes, and he waved a hand, causing Han Shan’s bronze Immortal’s sword to suddenly appear.
The 10th Wang Clan Patriarch’s pupils constricted, and he did nothing to dodge or evade. In fact, a cold gleam appeared in his eyes, and he fully rotated his Cultivation base, causing his aura to surge with scintillating brightness. Nascent Divinity flames even began to burn his body.
“So, he finally drew the sword,” he thought. “From the look of it, he can only use it one more time. I’ll use this clone to make him use all of its power. When he slays my clone, then my true self can teleport here!” A strange gleam appeared in his eyes.
Just when it seemed Meng Hao was going to attack with the Immortal’s sword, the sword suddenly vanished. Then, ten glowing beams flew out of his bag of holding. The power of Time roiled off of them as they sped toward the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch.
They moved with incredible speed, plus, the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch was mostly focused on the Immortal’s sword. Therefore, Meng Hao was once again able to take advantage of a critical moment. Ten Time Sword tips flew forward with shocking speed, as well as over 100,000 years of Time power.
As they neared the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch, his face flickered as his body rapidly withered, and he retreated immediately at top speed. Of course, the faster he moved, the faster the war chariot moved.
Meng Hao was racing against the clock, so he didn’t hold back any of the Qi of Immortal Shows the Way. He pushed the war chariot until it rumbled, shooting toward the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch.
The Wang Patriarch let out a furious roar, and then, all of a sudden, his right arm directly exploded. This was a type of self detonation that pushed him away violently, enabling him to sidestep the attack. As he did, Meng Hao’s eyes flickered with killing intent.
“Detonate!” One Time Sword tip, worth 1,000,000,000 Spirit Stones, exploded. It transformed into a tempest of Time Power that spiraled toward the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch, who was still in the middle of dodging away from the war chariot.
He let out a desolate roar and caused his Cultivation base to explode out with full power within the tempest. When he finally managed to completely dissipate the tempest, his body was incredibly withered, and his face ashen. He looked like nothing more than skin and bones. He let out another furious roar.
Meng Hao had no time to feel any pain in his heart because of the loss of Spirit Stones. His ability to defeat this clone of the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch depended, not just on his Cultivation base, but also… his wealth!
He had Spirit Stones, and he had the Heaven-defying Time treasures. Detonating the one hundred Wooden Time Swords was only the beginning. The Time Sword tips were his trump card.
The 10th Wang Clan Patriarch’s clone was being defeated by Meng Hao’s Spirit Stones!
“Detonate!”
As the words left Meng Hao’s mouth, a second Time Sword tip blew up. A massive explosion ripped out, and a Time tempest surged out in all directions. The air aged, the sea dried up, in the blink of an eye, everything seemed to pass through ten thousand years.
The 10th Wang Clan Patriarch’s clone exploded, and a Nascent Divinity flew out, screaming shrilly.
“Meng Hao!! You’re DEAD!!” The Nascent Divinity suddenly began to spin, transforming into an enormous vortex, within which flickered countless magical symbols. As it rotated, it turned into a spell formation.
At the very center of the spell formation appeared a black hole, a passageway leading to the unknown. A pressure that Meng Hao had never experienced before then emerged from within.
It was an aura that caused cracking sounds to fill the air around the black hole as multiple fissures suddenly appeared.
When he saw the fissures, Meng Hao’s pupils constricted as he watched the fissures spread out to fill what looked like an elliptical shape.
From a distance, it actually looked like an eye!
The spell formation vortex was the iris, the black hole was a pupil, and the area around it was the white of the eye. As for the fissures, they were… veins of blood!
Meng Hao’s entire body went cold; the intense pressure weighing down on him made it feel like he was about to explode. What was even more shocking was that the eye seemed to be fixed on him…. He could clearly sense something inside his body, something that had long since fused with him, begin to tremble, as if it was being forcefully extracted.
Meng Hao wasn’t sure how exactly to describe what it was, but he could vaguely sense it. Finally, he realized that it was his foundation. It was his stable, solid foundation, built up after two hundred years of cultivation!
“Dao foundation….” he thought, panting. He could almost hear his heart pounding; everything around him was now completely silent.
The only thing that moved was the vortex….
Meng Hao wanted to struggle, but at the moment, it felt as if his body wasn’t under his own control. He couldn’t move a muscle, and it felt as if his internal foundation was about to separate from him. In fact, he could even see what appeared to be white mist seeping out from his nose and mouth. Not just his nose and mouth, but also, his eyes, ears, and in fact, all of the pores that covered his body.
This was not life force, this was his Dao foundation!
“My Dao, is freedom and independence!!” Meng Hao’s eyes went red as, in that very moment, his Cultivation base suddenly flared up. It was a forced eruption that caused him to cough up three successive mouthfuls of blood. His body also wasted away. But in exchange, he was now able to move again.
In that moment, though, a sigh could be heard from within the vortex. The sound of it stabbed into Meng Hao’s ears, causing him to tremble. He coughed up another mouthful of blood, and his face went deathly white as he saw a coffin slowly emerging from within the vortex.
As soon as the coffin appeared, and ancient aura seeped out to fill the entire Third Ring. All of the Sea Demons underneath the water instantly went motionless. Even the Sea Devils in the Second Ring trembled.
Throughout all of the Milky Way sea, all of the Cultivators, all life forms, suddenly went still and quiet.
The sea did not move. The world was still. There was only the ancientness, roiling out to fill everything.
This was Dao Seeking!
The true peak of Dao Seeking!
Meng Hao did not need to speculate. He immediately knew that this… was the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch’s true self.
The true self had finally arrived!
Meng Hao’s scalp went numb, and his eyes were completely shot with blood. Without the slightest hesitation, he waved his hand, immediately causing seven of the remaining eight Time Sword tips to fly toward the vortex.
“DETONATE!” he roared, his voice hoarse. A huge boom rattled out as the seven Time Sword tips exploded, transforming into a terrifying storm of Time power.
At the same time, Meng Hao didn’t hesitate for even a moment to pull out Han Shan’s sword. He hefted the bronze alcohol flagon and took a drink, then spit it out. Sword Qi billowed up, and the Immortal’s Sword surged with the last bit of Sword Qi that he had kept, just in case.
A tempest of Time ripped into the vortex, and even the coffin began to wither. In the blink of an eye, cracks appeared all over it. However, even as the tempest raged, a withered hand suddenly stretched out from inside the coffin. It began to clench into a fist, and the violent Time tempest immediately began to shrink down into the fist. When it was completely inside, the fist clenched tightly.
BOOM!
The tempest vanished, and an old man slowly rose up from within the coffin. He wore burial garments, and looked emaciated and frail. His face was a bit flushed, but the flush rapidly disappeared, leaving his face pale white.
His eyes were not large, but the feeling of ancientness that emanated out from him was intense to the extreme. He looked at Meng Hao and grinned. But then he noticed the Immortal’s Sword that Meng Hao held, and his pupils constricted.
The grin caused Meng Hao’s hair to stand on end. It was a grin that revealed no teeth whatsoever in his mouth; this man was ancient to the extreme.
Even as he smiled, Meng Hao raised up the Immortal’s sword. Sword Qi raged up, filled with a song, shocking to the extreme. However, before the sword could slash down, a tremor ran through him, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“Dammit!” His face was pale white as he sent Immortal Qi out of Immortal Shows the Way. The chariot rumbled and shot off into the distance. A gleam of foresight appeared in Meng Hao’s eyes, and he panted. He had intentionally not struck down with the sword, purposefully making it seem like the sword was without power. He could tell from his encounter with the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch’s clones that the man was wary of the sword.
Since that was the case, Meng Hao refused to believe that he wasn’t prepared for it. Everyone knew that the best time to use something was when you could do so along with the element of surprise.
“This guy is a wily old fox. He’s definitely prepared for the sword. If I want to use it, I have to catch him off guard. My Cultivation base isn’t a match for his; if I want to transcend this Tribulation, I have to use my wits!
“Using the Immortal’s sword at the right time… is the key to victory!” Meng Hao’s face was grim as he thought about how this opponent had crushed the Time tempest with a single fist. That left him trembling in fear.
“This is the peak of Dao Seeking, the power of a False Immortal!” Meng Hao had personally felt the terrifying power of the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch, and he well understood the vast difference between the two of them. He was also well aware that the white mist that had begun to emanate out of him was the Perfection that was part of him. By now, it had been loosened and was being forced out of him. The thought of it was frightening.
“There’s no need to run,” said a hoarse voice from behind Meng Hao. “Your life has been prepared for me. It’s your destiny….” The ancient voice echoed about in all directions. It seemed as if the wind was rotting, and when Meng Hao heard the voice, his entire body went as cold as ice.
He didn’t turn to look back, but poured all the power of Immortal Shows the Way into the war chariot. In the blink of an eye, he had shot off into the distance with shocking, incredible speed.
“I knew about you way back when you were in Foundation Establishment. I’ve been waiting for many years for the opportunity to reach Immortal Ascension, and you are that opportunity.” The 10th Wang Clan Patriarch’s voice seemed nearer this time. Veins bulged out of Meng Hao’s pale face. He could push no more power out of Immortal Shows the Way. Immortal Qi tore through his Qi passageways as it flowed out into the war chariot.
The speed with which he moved was incredible. The seawater down below was no longer that of the Third Ring. It was black, indicating that he had entered the Second Ring.
“This is the Dao of Karma. It is a decision made by destiny. You can’t refuse.
“Do you think you can refuse the Dao of Karma? Do you think you can you refuse the choices of destiny? Since you can’t refuse, why not just willingly give me your Dao Foundation? On the day that I reach Immortal Ascension, you will be in the underworld of the Fourth Mountain. Even after you have drunk the tea of old lady Meng, and forgotten everything about your past life, you will still have a feeling of glory and honor.” This time, it sounded like the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch was right next to him. 1
1. Old Lady Meng, or Meng Po, is a figure from Chinese mythology. She works in the underworld and gives people a tea to drink that makes them forget everything about their past lives. The “Meng” character is the same as Meng Hao’s
