Chapter 1512: It All Falls Apart!
Everything was quiet in the sect. Only Meng Hao and Chen Fan remained standing.
“Meng Hao, y-you...” Chen Fan was trembling in disbelief at everything which had just occurred. His eyes were filled with grief, rage, and conflict.
Meng Hao looked around at the corpses and sighed. Then he looked at the Allheaven seed which was trying to force its way into his palm, and crushed it!
Chen Fan looked at Meng Hao, his expression torn. “You exterminated your own sect! Killed your own wife and Master! All because of a world that’s an illusion? Was all this worth it, Meng Hao?”
Meng Hao looked up at him. “Chen Fan, I’ve always respected you as my Elder Brother.... Enough with the act. You have your path that you must follow. I"m not sure why you did this, although I’m sure you have your reasons. I can’t blame you. I have my own path too.”
Chen Fan stood there silently, bitterly. Finally, he smiled, a bitter, conflicted smile that gradually grew more resolute. “He promised me that as long as you lost yourself in here, my Ling"er would truly be resurrected. To him, something like that is as easy as flipping over a hand.
“Meng Hao, I, Chen Fan, have done anything and everything to truly resurrect my Ling"er. After all the years which have pa.s.sed, this was my only hope.... Therefore, you have the right to blame me. You can even hate me. Meng Hao... I’m sorry. I"m sorry. I"m so sorry....”
Now Meng Hao also looked torn. Various memories flitted through his mind as he looked at Chen Fan. He knew that the Ling"er Chen Fan referred to was none other than Shan Ling from the Solitary Sword Sect.
Meng Hao shook his head, ignoring Chen Fan as he contemplated the danger he had just been in. If it weren’t for the copper mirror, for the enlightenment provided by the death of his foster father Ke Yunhai, and his own unimaginable willpower… he would surely have lost himself in here and become exactly what Han Bei had described. He would have returned to her side as the Son of Allheaven.
It was time to leave. He took a step forward and made a ripping gesture with his hand. Rumbling echoed out as a rift was torn open into the air in front of him, which he prepared to step through.
“Meng Hao, you can’t leave!” cried Chen Fan, tears streaming down his face. “You have to stay!” His eyes filled with determination, with obsessed focus. He lifted his hands up, and the world shook. Apparently, a will was descending, a will which then flowed into Chen Fan himself.
Chen Fan’s energy skyrocketed, and his cultivation base power soared. Blue veins bulged out on his face, and he shook visibly. His eyes turned crimson, and seemed to suddenly lack conscious thought. Only obsession remained.
Suddenly, he turned into a blur that shot toward Meng Hao. He lifted his right hand, whereupon Heaven and Earth seemed to back him, and the starry sky seemed to exist within his hands. Apparently, the will of Allheaven had taken over Chen Fan’s body, and was using him as its sh.e.l.l to act within the world.
Rumbling echoed out, and Meng Hao fell back. Blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth, and his eyes shone with grief. The person in front of him was his Elder Brother, someone he had known all the way back in the Reliance Sect. Back on Planet South Heaven, he had almost been like a blood brother to him.
But now, they had no option other than to fight.
There could be no holding back or surrendering. Chen Fan could not retreat. He had gambled everything, all in the hopes of resurrecting his wife.
Neither could Meng Hao retreat. If he was defeated, he would be lost in this place, and would lose everything. This place was both real and false. The objects were real; what was false was that they existed, not in the present, but the past.
Meng Hao smiled bitterly. He slapped his chest with his palm, and the copper mirror flew out, transforming into innumerable black threads which spread out to cover his entire body in a suit of armor. The Battle Weapon appeared in his hand, and he transformed into a beam of light that shot toward Chen Fan.
Incredible rumbling echoed out. Heaven and Earth were shattered, and mountains were transformed into rubble. The sect became nothing more than ash as the two of them rose up into the starry sky as they battled.
Chen Fan was fighting with the power of the will of Allheaven, and the divine ability he unleashed was bizarre. Unexpectedly, it was... a memory magic!
It was a deceptively unthreatening magic that targeted specific memories in Meng Hao"s mind, causing all of the versions of Chen Fan which existed there to simultaneously attack him.
It wasn’t just the current Meng Hao that was being targeted, it was all of the different versions of him throughout history, including Planet South Heaven and the Reliance Sect.
When put into words, it is a difficult thing to describe, but the end result was that even as Chen Fan and Meng Hao fought in reality, countless stabs of pain filled Meng Hao’s mind.
He felt his memories diverging from reality, as if all of his memories of Chen Fan were rising up and exploding. This magical technique was no mere divine ability, it was a Dao which went far beyond any sort of natural or magical law.
It was something the likes of which Meng Hao had never before experienced.
However, he knew that the only way to vanquish Chen Fan was to defeat him in all of the past memories that existed in his mind.
As they fought in reality, Meng Hao thought back to the time when the 33 Heavens were about to descend upon the Mountain and Sea Realm. Even as he prepared to defend the Mountains and Seas, Chen Fan suddenly attacked him.
At the same time, back on Planet South Heaven, Meng Hao was visiting Chen Fan in his sect. They were drinking in front of the rock that was Shan Ling, when suddenly, Chen Fan’s eyes flickered with killing intent, and he slashed his sword out at Meng Hao.
Simultaneously, he was back in the lands of South Heaven, shortly after leaving the Reliance Sect. He had just arrived in the heart of the Southern Domain when he was reunited with Chen Fan. Chen Fan was delighted to see him, but then, his face twisted viciously, and he attacked.
They were back in the Reliance Sect, when all of the other great sects came to try to seize the Sublime Spirit Scripture. As the other disciples were taken away, Meng Hao stood alone on the mountaintop, watching bitterly as a middle-aged man from the Solitary Sword Sect asked Chen Fan if he wanted to be taken as a disciple of his sect.
Chen Fan was just about to respond when his eyes flickered. Without any warning, he suddenly turned and attacked Meng Hao.
There was another moment in which Meng Hao and Chen Fan were sitting together in the Reliance Sect. Chen Fan was introducing the sect to Meng Hao, when suddenly, his eyes flashed with coldness, and he attacked.
Back on the very day Meng Hao had joined the sect, he and Fatty were there together being escorted into the servants district, when suddenly a blur appeared, shooting down from one of the mountain tops. That blur shot directly toward Meng Hao, intent on killing him.
All of these things happened at the same time. Blood sprayed out of Meng Hao’s mouth as he watched himself be killed by Chen Fan over and over again, and simultaneously, watched himself kill Chen Fan over and over again. The memories piled up onto one another, and at the same time, their real fight intensified.
The memories of them fighting transformed into seeds, seeds which, by means of some unique fas.h.i.+on, were implanted into his mind.
“Meng Hao,” Chen Fan cried, “become the Son of Allheaven. Become the Emissary of Allheaven. Get rid of your pain! All of this has been foreordained!” Then he roared: “Allheaven Transformation!”
A boom could be heard as his muscles and blood evaporated. He was left as nothing more than skin and bones, and the resulting b.l.o.o.d.y mist was filled with the will of Allheaven as it surged out to cover Meng Hao.
At the same time, the seeds inside of Meng Hao exploded, likewise turning into a mist which disseminated the will of Allheaven. The mist spread out, as if to infect Meng Hao inside and out with the will of Allheaven, to force him to become both the Son and Emissary of Allheaven.
Just when Meng Hao was about to fight back, he realized that the power of his own bloodline was doing nothing to defend him. In fact, it was even possible to say that his blood was perfectly suited to be able to act as a host for the will of Allheaven.
It was even the same with the Demonic qi inside of him!
It was as if everything about him had been prepared specifically for the will of Allheaven. If the will of Allheaven had entered the body of any other person, the process would not have occurred so efficiently.
It was as if this were the perfect possession, as if Meng Hao truly had been prepared specifically for the will of Allheaven.
In and out, whether it was the bloodline or the Demonic qi, whether it was within his memories or without, the will of Allheaven exploded, and Meng Hao seemed powerless to do anything about it. But then, the will of Allheaven suddenly lurched to a halt.
That will could occupy his soul, his blood, and even his Demonic qi. However, as it spread out through him, attempting to take control, it encountered fierce resistance.
That resistance came from the bronze lamp!
Furthermore, his body had been remoulded by the bronze lamp itself, and was therefore not perfectly suitable for the will of Allheaven. Because of that, at this most critical of moments, the will of Allheaven suddenly stopped moving.
In that moment, the flame of the bronze lamp ignited, causing a majestic glow to spread out and to fight the will of Allheaven. The two seemed as incompatible as fire and water.
As that happened, the seemingly boundless will of Allheaven that existed in Heaven and Earth tried to force its way into Meng Hao to eradicate the flame of the bronze lamp.
It was a critical juncture. Meng Hao coughed up a mouthful of blood, and his eyes shone with red light. In the same moment that the bronze lamp and the will of Allheaven began to contend with each other, he extended his right hand and then made a sharp chopping motion at himself!
“Hexing magic: Karmic Hexing!”
Astonis.h.i.+ngly, he was using Demon Sealing Hexing magic to find Chen Fan’s Karma. Countless Karma Threads appeared on his head, among which was a pitch-black strand that connected him to Chen Fan.
“Sever!” He roared, slas.h.i.+ng down onto the thread with the Battle Weapon!