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The entire world was shaking. The gray vault up above filled with clouds and mist, and the lands quaked as though a writhing dragon lurked underneath, on the verge of bursting out!
The gravestone which rose up in the very center of the world appeared to be tilting to the side, and thunder-like rumbling could be heard from the earth underneath it.
RUMBLE!
As the ma.s.sive sound echoed out, everyone, including Meng Hao, felt their minds spinning.
The Ancient Realm cultivators coughed up blood, and their expressions were that of astonishment. Han Qinglei’s qi and blood were boiling, and he hovered in midair, gasping for breath. The blurry figures around him were all forced out into the open, looks of shock on their faces.
The Dao Realm experts had it a bit better off; their minds were shaken, but no blood spurted out. However, it only took a moment for another huge boom to echo out, even more boundless and powerful than the first.
RUMBLE!
That sound caused everyone under the level of a Dao Lord to cough up blood. Meng Hao’s body was trembling, and blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth. As for the Dao Lords present, their faces were ashen as waves of shock surged in their hearts.
As for the two 2-Essences Dao Realm cultivators who had been trying to block Meng Hao’s path, both coughed up blood, and their faces fell. Unable to deal with Meng Hao any longer, they looked down toward the ground and saw crevices spreading out in the soil beneath the gravestone. The two booms that had echoed out just now had come from those very crevices.
Next, a third boom could be heard. It sounded like the roar of a giant, causing the lands to shake violently, and the sky to dim. Xuan Daozi coughed up blood, and was completely astonished.
Suddenly, an ancient voice that was laced with unending venom and madness filled the entire murky world: “Nine Seals, I curse you to meet a horrific death! I curse all living things in your Immortal World to have their bloodlines severed! You can destroy my body, but you can’t destroy my soul fire! My soul cannot be destroyed by anyone who has yet to fully reach Heaven Trampling, so you can’t kill me!
“You only have a Heaven Trampling fleshly body, your cultivation is still a half step away. Therefore you can only suppress me!”
Everything shook, and soon, it was possible to see a bright light s.h.i.+ning up from the crevices in the soil beneath the gravestone.
It was a blue light that filled the entire world, almost as if... what was buried in this place was not a cultivator, but rather... a sun!
Mind trembling, Meng Hao blinked his eyes nine times in succession, then poured the power of an Allheaven Dao Immortal into his eyes. After examining the situation closely, his eyes widened.
Shockingly, beneath the soil of the grave, he saw... that there really was a sun! A blue sun!!
The sun caused ma.s.sive waves to run through Meng Hao’s divine sense, and for some reason, he recalled imagery from a scene that he had seen before. He saw nine suns, pulling a vast land ma.s.s and a huge statue through the starry sky.
One of those suns was... the same sun he was looking at now!!
They looked identical!!
Xuan Daozi’s heart trembled, and blood sprayed out of his mouth. He wanted to chase Meng Hao down and kill him, but at the moment, he couldn’t. His body was stuck in place in midair, completely incapable of moving. As for his eyes, they brimmed with excitement as he looked at the crevices, his mind reeling.
“The Daosource Realm actually exists!! Daosource! Daosource! The actual source of all Daos!! According to the basic overview I read about in the ancient records once, 9-Essences Paragons are a.n.a.logous to the Exalted Celestials and 9th-tier Dao Divinities of the Paramita!
“The Daosource Realm of the Immortal World does not expand one’s enlightenment outward, nor does it take an alternative route. The key to stepping beyond the Dao Realm is to continually look inward, to seek the source of the Dao!
“Expanding out beyond the Dao is the Boundless Dao of the Paramita!
“As for the alternative route to stepping beyond the Dao, that is the Heaven Trampling of the Paramita!” Xuan Daozi was trembling, and his eyes filled with unparalleled desire and madness. He had come to a clear realization of the truth of these matters, and in fact the number of people in the entire Mountain and Sea Realm who knew about these things was so few that they could be counted by hand.
Although he currently couldn’t move a muscle, neither could anyone else, not even Meng Hao.
There was only one person in this entire world who was not so intensely affected, and that was the old man from the HeavenG.o.d Society!
“An Exalted Celestial...from the Paramita!” he murmured, eyes s.h.i.+ning brightly.
In almost the same moment that the entire world was shaken, the light s.h.i.+ning from the crevices beneath the gravestone suddenly vanished. At the same time, an indescribable gravitational force suddenly appeared.
The intense force sucked at everything, causing the entire world to dim. Even the vault above seemed to be on verge of being pulled in. As the ground shook, the shocked old man from the HeavenG.o.d Society bit the tip of his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of blood and performing a double-handed incantation gesture. Shockingly, five Essences erupted out from him, which fought back against the gravitational force.
He was the only person capable of such an act; no one else present was even in control of their own body. Rumbling filled the air as numerous figures transformed into beams of light that shot toward the crevices and were then consumed.
The first to meet such a fate were those in the Immortal and Ancient Realms, followed by Han Qinglei. Next were the two Dao Realm experts, as well as Xuan Daozi. None of them could prevent themselves from being sucked in.
Meng Hao was trembling as he also transformed into a beam of light and was pulled inexorably inside.
However, at the same time that Meng Hao was being sucked towards the crevice, something else happened that no one else noticed. Not too far away was a blurry shade, whose red eyes shone with greed. He suddenly shot forward at an indescribable speed, and in the blink of an eye was upon Meng Hao. The exact moment that Meng Hao fell into the crevice, he suddenly... pounced, not even giving Meng Hao a chance to react.
In a flash... he fused into Meng Hao, becoming one with him!
In fact, the shade was so incredibly excited that it didn’t notice that the moment it fused with Meng Hao... a strange light gleamed in Meng Hao’s eyes.
A tremor ran through Meng Hao, and then he was gone, sucked in by the powerful gravitational force. Soon, the only person left outside was the old man from the HeavenG.o.d Society, who trembled as he was slowly pulled toward the crevices.
As he neared, the gravitational force increased dramatically, and a fourth roar echoed out. This old man had five Essences, making him a 5-Essences Dao Sovereign. Drawing upon that power, he threw his head back and roared, causing blood to spurt out all over his body, which then transformed into an enormous Dao 道 character that surrounded him!
That character seemed to bestow boundless power upon him, allowing him to fight back against the gravitational force. And yet, it couldn’t completely match it, and the man was dragged even closer to the crevice.
The only difference was that the speed was reduced a bit. Soon, he was only about thirty meters away from the crevice. It was at that point that an angry sigh echoed out from within. The gravitational force vanished, and the crevice closed up without a trace.
In that instant, the old man coughed up a mouthful of blood; his hair was disheveled, and he looked to be in very bad shape. His body was a ma.s.s of mangled flesh; he had just barely been able to fight back, but his fleshly body was weaker than his cultivation and thus he had been severely injured.
“According to the legends, the Exalted Celestials of the Paramita were comparable to Paragons. If he was in a complete state, he could cut me down in an instant. Nothing remains of his body and only his soul exists in a state of suppression. That"s the only reason I had a chance to escape!” Face filled with astonishment, he unhesitatingly shot up into the sky toward the exit. [1. This footnote contains some relatively major spoilers regarding other of Er Gen’s works. Read at your own caution. Long story short, Exalted Celestial and Dao Divinity are cultivation levels from Er Gen’s other books Renegade Immortal and Beseech the Devil respectively. Based on the content of this chapter, you can probably gain a basic understanding of how they work, and also how powerful they are in those books]
Even as he left, other cultivators of the HeavenG.o.d Alliance decided to enter the place to seek good fortune.
**
Beneath the surface of the grave was a necropolis!
The necropolis was accessible from all sides, and was very large. The cultivators who had been sucked in were not sent to the same location, but were scattered about. Some ended up unconscious, others were still awake.
Meng Hao was among the unconscious ones. He looked almost dead as he lay there in a side chamber, a small room with ornately carved walls. In the middle of the room was a coffin with no lid, filled with boiling white mist, tendrils of which would occasionally spill out onto the ground and dissipate.
Everything was quiet in the side chamber. Meng Hao wasn’t the only person lying there. There was an Ancient Realm cultivator laying off to the side, also unconscious.
Soon, a tremor ran through the Ancient Realm cultivator, whose eyes then opened. He immediately sent his divine sense out. After ensuring that there was nothing dangerous in the immediate area, he cautiously rose to his feet, then looked around, completely shaken and terrified.
He recalled having been consumed by the crevice, and when he realized that he was most likely deep in the ground beneath the gravestone, the hairs on his body stood on end. Then he looked around, his eyes eventually coming to rest on Meng Hao.
“Meng Hao....” the Ancient Realm cultivator thought, shocked. He backed up, staring dead at Meng Hao for a moment before finally starting to search for a way out of the side hall. After finding it, he made to leave, but then stopped for a moment and looked back at Meng Hao.
“So he still hasn’t woken up....” The cultivator gritted his teeth and suddenly waved his hand, sending a flying sword shooting toward Meng Hao. Shockingly, it... stabbed into his head, causing blood to flow out everywhere!
Meng Hao never moved a muscle. It was as if he were dead.
The cultivator could never have imagined that things would go easily. After staring in shock for a moment, his eyes went wild with joy.
“He’s dead? Hm, he was already severely injured before. After getting sucked in here, his injuries must have worsened, but he still shouldn’t have died....” Acting as cautiously as possible, the cultivator sent the flying sword chopping viciously toward Meng Hao’s throat.
A snapping sound rang out, and blood sprayed out in a fountain as Meng Hao’s head was severed cleanly from his body!
The cultivator gasped, and without any further hesitation, shot toward Meng Hao.
“Today’s my lucky day! He’s dead, and his bag of holding is mine!” The cultivator excitedly neared Meng Hao, reaching his hand out to grab Meng Hao’s bag of holding!
However, even as he extended his hand, a sense of impending crisis crashed within the man’s mind like lightning. All his hair stood on end, and a look of shock filled his face. He went completely stiff as he realized that Meng Hao’s hand had just shot up and grabbed onto his arm.
Chapter 1238: Possessed by Greed! [1. Greed"s name is actually a common Chinese word to refer to a greedy person. Literally it means "Greedy Wolf," and that wolf aspect is somewhat relevant. However, I think that Greed sounds much better than Greedy Wolf, so I"m going with that name. If you vehemently disagree, feel free to say something in the comments]