The ‘soul’ character had been uttered!
At that moment, the Northern Reaches cultivators stuck in the vortex around Meng Hao let out the last miserable shrieks that they would ever utter. Their bodies were withered dry, their cultivation bases vanished. Now, they felt an intense pain enveloping them like floodwaters.
Everything went black in their eyes, and the world disappeared. Their lives… were no more!
Numerous wailing, struggling souls emerged from their eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Each and every cultivator’s back was arched, their face sunken, and their eyes gray. Their mouths were stuck open stiffly.
Their souls emerged and then fused into the vortex, becoming a cyclone of souls. Anyone who could see the spectacle was flabbergasted.
“Demonic magic! That’s Demonic magic!!”
“Such a sinister divine ability has got to be Demon magic!!”
The Northern Reaches cultivators in the area were trembling, and their hearts were filled with terror. Horrified, they watched as the souls spun into a cyclone, and Meng Hao gestured toward the ground, then looked up. His white hair floated around him, and his eyes glowed with a cold ruthlessness.
His face was also as pale as death, making his overall appearance like that of a Devilish god. The souls of the slain around him looked like slaves that were incapable of escaping him.
Up in the sky, the old man who was in roc form gasped, completely shaken by what he was seeing. However, killing intent flickered in his eyes, and ferociousness burned in his heart. He continued to dive directly toward Meng Hao.
“Your occult trickery won’t work on me! DIE!!”
Meng Hao’s eyes flickered, and as the old man bore down on him, he suddenly blasted up from the ground. The cyclone of countless struggling souls surrounded him, looking almost like a river as he sped to meet the roc.
A boom echoed out and even as strong and stalwart as he was, the old man couldn’t stop the blood from oozing out of the corners of his mouth. He could no longer maintain the form of a roc, and reverted to his human form as he tumbled backward.
Blood sprayed from Meng Hao’s mouth, and the ground beneath him cracked and split, radiating in all directions.
The struggling souls exploded, transforming into motes of soul light that then sped toward Meng Hao and fused into his body. Meng Hao could sense that he had reached… the threshold of the Blood Demon Grand Magic’s fifth level.
“I need even more souls!” he thought, his eyes flickering. Not waiting for the old man to charge him again, he produced the Lightning Cauldron. There was a flicker, and he switched places with another Northern Reaches cultivator.
He appeared once again in the middle of the Northern Reaches’ army, whereupon he immediately gestured toward the ground. A vortex appeared as the Blood Demon Grand Magic once again surged into motion.
It almost seemed as if, to Meng Hao, the Northern Reaches cultivators were merely food. They were essential to his ability to combat a peak Dao Seeking expert. As he absorbed them, miserable screams filled the air. Qi, blood, and cultivation bases were sucked away, used by Meng Hao to strengthen his fleshly body to the point where it burst from the mid Dao Seeking stage into late Dao Seeking.
As for his cultivation base, it now exceeded Spirit Severing and had temporarily entered into Dao Seeking! Natural law swirled around him, making Meng Hao… even more valiant!
The Blood Demon Grand Magic was most suited to fighting against multiple opponents!
The more enemies there were, the more invincible one could become!
Up in midair, the old man in animal hide clothing roared. His body flashed as he transformed, not into a roc, but into a gigantic black python. He opened his vicious mouth and struck toward Meng Hao as if to swallow him up.
Meng Hao waited in the vortex as the python closed in. Thousands of Northern Reaches cultivators could be heard screaming as their bodies withered, their cultivation bases faded, and they neared death.
Suddenly, Meng Hao said ‘soul,’ and a rumbling could be heard as the thousands of cultivators exploded, and their souls flew out.
Then Meng Hao vanished. Even as the python was about to reach him, he was off in the distance, where another Blood Demon Grand Magic vortex sprang up.
The old man was completely infuriated, and yet there was nothing he could do to stop Meng Hao and the Lightning Cauldron. The agile teleportation-like ability made it incredibly difficult to pin Meng Hao down, and left him shocked in his heart.
“Dammit! Meng Hao, I dare you to fight me one on one!”
Killing intent flickered in the old man’s eyes. This time, he didn’t pursue Meng Hao, but instead flew toward the Southern Domain’s army of cultivators.
“If you won’t come out and fight, then I’ll just start killing some Southern Domain cultivators!”
Meng Hao stopped in place, then waved his right hand. The Blood Demon Grand Magic appeared, and the Lightning Cauldron flickered. This time, he changed positions with the old man.
After the exchange took place, the old man… was shocked to find himself directly in the middle of one of Meng Hao’s vortexes.
Meng Hao hovered in midair, looking coldly at the old man.
“Wanna fight?” he said. “Let’s fight, then!” He stretched his arms out to either side, and the multiple vortexes he had created moments ago echoed with the shocked screams of Northern Reaches cultivators. Qi and blood flowed toward him, causing Meng Hao’s body to once again reach the peak of Dao Seeking.
Rumbling filled the air as the old man’s body began to wither. However, he was able to struggle his way out, whereupon he aimed a punch at Meng Hao.
“DIE!”
Meng Hao clenched his fists and shot forward to meet him. The two of them flashed back and forth over a hundred times, causing booms to rattle everything in the area. Finally, the old man’s eyes flashed with a bright light. Suddenly, two golden birds flew out from within his pupils, emitting shrill cries as they shot toward Meng Hao.
At the same time, the old man began to spin rapidly like a top. He lifted his right leg high into the air and then slammed it down toward Meng Hao’s head. If the kick connected, Meng Hao would obviously suffer a serious injury.
Meng Hao’s eyes glittered coldly as he said. “Spirit Meridians!”
Immediately, more miserable shrieks could be heard coming from the Northern Reaches cultivators stuck in the vortexes down below. Their cultivation bases were sucked away through their noses and mouths to shoot directly toward Meng Hao. Cultivation bases swirled around Meng Hao in the form of a tempest, bolstering his own cultivation base until it was as strong as the peak of Dao Seeking.
He quickly performed an incantation gesture and pointed towards the sky.
“Ninth Mountain! CRUSH!”
Rumbling filled the air as the majestic Ninth Mountain appeared up above. It was huge, almost like a real mountain, and the natural law that swirled around it stirred the sky and caused the land to shake. Massive pressure crushed down on the old man.
The old man lifted his head up and roared. His body expanded rapidly as he turned into a mountain-like giant. He immediately raised both hands into the air and grabbed onto the Ninth Mountain.
A boom could be heard as the Ninth Mountain slammed into him. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and cracking sounds could be heard as he managed to resist it.
“Soul!” said Meng Hao, his eyes radiating coldness. As the Northern Reaches cultivators in the vortexes toppled over dead, struggling souls flew toward Meng Hao from their eyes, ears, noses and mouths.
The vast quantities of souls that were merging into Meng Hao’s body caused a rumbling sound to fill his head. All of a sudden… he reached the fifth level of the Blood Demon Grand Magic!!
In that moment, Meng Hao’s cultivation base did not change. However, his battle prowess instantly grew several times over!
His hair whipped about, and he looked every bit like a Devilish divinity. His eyes shone like suns, and the entire battlefield down below was obscured by the shadow of the black mist that surged around him. It was as if he was blotting out the entire Heavens.
He took a deep breath and then advanced forward.
The old man let out an enraged roar as he shoved upward with his arms. Apparently, he was causing some form of natural law to spring into motion. Now, cracking sounds could be heard coming from the Ninth Mountain, and then it shattered into countless pieces.
“Little bastard!” said the old man, blood oozing out of the corners of his mouth. Collapsing the Ninth Mountain had taken quite a bit of effort on his part. Now, his body flickered as he transformed into a white tiger, which roared and pounced toward Meng Hao.
This time, Meng Hao didn’t evade. The two cultivators met in midair; booms echoed out as they fought back and forth.
“Qi and Blood!” said Meng Hao coolly. This time, a tiny vortex appeared in the palm of his hand. When he landed a blow on the front leg of the old man’s tiger form, the entire leg instantly turned into skin and bones!
The sudden, shocking turn of events caused the old man’s face to fall. He gasped, a tremor ran through his white tiger form, and he retreated at top speed.
Meng Hao’s eyes flickered with killing intent. How could he possibly allow the old man to flee as simply as that? His body flashed through the air, and he appeared right next to the old man. The vortex in the palm of his right hand shot toward the old man’s back.
“SCREW OFF!!” roared the old man. Immediately, his cultivation base surged with an explosion of qi that shot outward. Meng Hao gave a cold snort and continued on with his palm strike.
“Spirit Meridians!”
A boom could be heard as he absorbed, not qi and blood, but cultivation base. As the terrifying cultivation base explosion emanating from the old man reached Meng Hao, Meng Hao simply touched it with his hand, and it appeared to collapse. Boundless cultivation base power immediately began to fuse into Meng Hao’s palm.
The old man’s scalp went numb. He could never have imagined that Meng Hao’s magical technique could be so shocking. In two short moments of contact, he had lost ten percent of his cultivation base as well as his qi and blood. It was nothing short of terrifying to the man, and he immediately fell back in retreat.
Meng Hao pursued without any hesitation. They fought back and forth, and the old men let out continuous roars. He didn’t dare to get too close but could only flee at top speed under an unending bombardment from Meng Hao. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and he fell back.
Meng Hao’s face was cold, and his killing intent raged.
Onlookers could hardly believe what they were seeing. The old man in animal hide clothing was incapable of fighting back against Meng Hao, and was being beaten to the point that he was forced to retreat.
“Save me!!” he cried, his mind trembling. His body was quickly becoming nothing more than skin and bones, and he had lost forty percent of the power of his cultivation base. He knew that he was in a moment of grave crisis.
The Northern Reaches cultivators were astonished, and the other five Northern Reaches peak Dao Seeking experts up above were shaken. Moments ago, when Meng Hao had slain the red-robed boy, they were shocked. However, in their minds, Meng Hao had simply used some sort of trickery to win. But seeing what he was doing now left them thoroughly rattled.
Just when they were about to make a move to help the old man, the ‘withering’ character flickered into being next to Meng Hao. Gray light radiated out, and all of the peak Dao Seeking experts halted in place.
They didn’t dare to get close to him!
That was exactly why Meng Hao hadn’t used the ‘withering’ character again. The magical symbol’s greatest use to him right now… was as a threat against any outside interference!