Chapter 617: Land of the Three Saints
Scattered patches of hair could be seen on the enormous, three hundred meter large head, as well as three, pitch-black horns. It was as gray as death, and wrinkles covered its skin. The facial features somewhat resembled a man, but even more-so, a lion.
It emanated a fearsome, archaic aura that, as soon as it appeared, swept across the entire Fourth Plane, which began to shake violently.
An enormous vortex, tens of thousands of meters wide, circulated around the entire area. Amidst the rumbling, a wild wind swept through the entire area, shaking everything.
Han Danzi prostrated himself beneath the head, his expression one of excitement. His appearance was now changing, and he no longer looked human. Three black horns had sprouted from his head, and he looked very similar to the enormous head up above him.
“Your posterity of the younger generation welcomes the return of the power of the ancestry!!” cried Han Danzi excitedly. As his voice rang out, he seemed to form a connection with the enormous head. A shocking power began to fuse into his body!
His hair whipped about, his clothes flapped. He should have been tossed about like a leaf within the maelstrom, but instead, from his aura, it seemed that he was accepting some type of legacy.
The head appeared to be three hundred meters large, but in the blink of an eye it was suddenly far larger. It was now three thousand meters large. A breath of time later, it was back to three hundred meters. They were like ghost images, distorting the world. Rumbling rose up into the sky. All of the crowds up in mid-air who were chasing after the wooden swords didn’t even have a chance to begin fighting over the precious treasures before the scene unfolding caused them to be thoroughly astonished.
The wild wind raged, sweeping across everything. Everyone up above was sent spinning out of control, causing their faces to fill with unprecedented expressions of astonishment.
“What… what is that thing!?”
“Dammit! He’s actually trying to release a Greater Demon from inside the mirror!!”
“Isn’t that Demon one of three major powers inside the mirror world? Who is this guy!?!?”
Shocked, everyone began to fall back. The rest of the Cultivators in the land, the ones not partic.i.p.ating in the events in the central region, including Xu Qing, were all incredibly shocked. They, too, were incapable of preventing themselves from being swept up. They transformed into beams of light that shot through the air.
Meng Hao’s eyes glittered as he hovered in mid-air in the Seventh Anima, with a Spirit Severing fleshly body and a Cultivation base of sixty-four great circle Nascent Souls. Such power made it that, although he hovered unstably, he was still able to remain in place and balanced within the vortex and the tempest.
As he looked down at the surface of the land, and his eyes narrowed. He knew that Han Danzi had been plotting something, but he had never imagined that the plan would be so astonis.h.i.+ng!
As of this moment, a deafening roar filled the enormous vortex, the source being none other than the enormous head emerging from within the world of the mirror. The sound echoed back and forth like thunder.
It caused everyone, even the Cultivators off in the distance, to cough up blood. Han Danzi was unaffected, and Meng Hao’s face was only a bit pale. Other than the two them, everyone else felt their mind spinning, as if they were stuck in some interminable illusion.
By now, the head of the Greater Demon was more than seventy percent emerged. Its nose was visible, and its facial features were clearer. There was an enormous, ferocious-looking wound ripped into its face.
Anyone who even glanced at the Greater Demon would immediately feel as if their mind was being absorbed. Before they even realized it, pulses of terror would be racing through them.
Demonic Qi exploded up, filling the area, intrinsically potent. In the blink of an eye, all other power of Heaven and Earth was expelled from the world by this powerful Demonic Qi.
All of a sudden, the entire world became… a Demon world!
Han Danzi trembled, his face burning with pa.s.sion. The physical changes to him continued at high speed. His aura exploded up, and his connection to the head grew even more complete.
At the same time, all of the power of Heaven and Earth that was not Demonic Qi rushed up to the top of the world, which was none other than deep tunnel everyone had traveled through to get to this place.
A rumbling sound could be heard as the energy successfully entered the tunnel. The countless vines inside withered in the blink of an eye. They vanished without a trace as the expelled power of Heaven and Earth shot out into the outside world.
If you could stand outside of that deep pit, what you would see would be an exploding pillar of Qi that shot up into the sky. Successive layers of ripples then emanated out in all directions, sweeping over everything.
Although the process had just begun inside the Fourth Plane… it is easy to imagine how quickly everything was changing because of the emergence of the Greater Demon from within the world of the mirror.
When the changes were complete… everyone else inside would either be dead, or would be transformed by the Demonic Qi. Their souls would be transformed, and their Cultivation bases would change on a fundamental level. They would no longer be Cultivators, but Demons!
Meng Hao’s face flickered as he looked up into the sky at all the people from South Heaven. The vortex was spinning faster, and as it did, everyone was lapsing into a stupor. Fang Yu, the Ji Clan, the Cultivators from the Northern Reaches and Southern Domain, w.a.n.g Lihai, Han Bei, Li Tiandao, Li s.h.i.+qi, and also Xu Qing….
Everyone seemed to be lapsing into an illusion. Their faces were twisted, and their teeth were clenched. Occasionally they let out cold laughs, other times their expressions were blank. It was bizarre to the extreme.
Demonic Qi was coalescing around their bodies, clearly beginning to make some illusory changes.
Han Danzi continued to prostrate himself on the ground. “Land of the Three Saints. The power of the ancestor returns, a legacy for me, Han Danzi. Everyone here are my sacrificial objects. Their bodies will be changed, their spirits will be a.s.similated. If they don’t die in the process, then they will no longer be Cultivators, but Demons!
“They will become my Demon horde, and will follow by my side as I use the power of the ancestor to battle with the Heavens!” He trembled as his words echoed out through the vortex.
At the same time, the vortex which spun around the head of the Greater Demon was no longer tens of thousands of meters wide. It expanded again until it was nearly three hundred thousand meters wide, shocking to the extreme. By this point, the top lip of the Great Demon was now visible.
It was now possible to see that the head did not just have one wound on it, but rather, three. One of the wounds appeared to be on its lips, making it so that the creature did not have two lips, but four!
Also visible… were sharp, black fangs! This Greater Demon’s physical appearance was savage to the extreme!
More Demonic Qi roiled about, and the rumbling sounds grew more intense.
Meng Hao’s eyes glittered. “This is the ancient Demon Immortal Sect. Ke Jiusi isn’t dead. He couldn’t possibly ignore what is happening here, could he? And what about Zhixiang? Her att.i.tude is difficult to discern.
“So… why hasn’t Ke Jiusi made an appearance?
“It doesn’t matter. I can’t place all my hope in him….” Although he could afford not to care too much about the others, Xu Qing was here. Also, the others owed a lot of Spirit Stones. If a few died, he could handle it. However, if they all died… well, that was something Meng Hao just couldn’t agree to let happen.
His eyes filled with a bright glow and he took a deep breath. He closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them.
The moment he opened his eyes, Meng Hao entered… the Eighth Anima!
BOOM!
In the Eighth Anima, his fleshly body grew even more powerful. In the Seventh Anima, it was of the Spirit Severing stage, but in the Eighth Anima, it reached an even more terrifying level. His Cultivation base exploded out, not with the power of sixty-four great circle Nascent Souls, but rather, one hundred twenty-eight!
Such incredible power caused profound changes. Meng Hao suddenly appeared in mid-air in the wild vortex, buffeted by the spinning winds. Roaring surrounded him as what appeared to be countless shapeless bolts of lightning exploded out.
His right hand formed into a fist that punched directly toward the pa.s.sageway high up in the sky. The punch contained not just the full power of his Cultivation base, but also, the Mountain Consuming Incantation!
An enormous mountain peak appeared, which was none other than… the Fourth Peak! The image was somewhat indistinct, but as soon as it appeared, roaring sounds echoed out. It shot toward the pa.s.sageway. As it flew through the air, parts of it disintegrated and fell apart, but by the time it reached its destination it was still half intact.
The mountain shot at top speed toward the pa.s.sageway, and as it neared, Meng Hao uttered a single word:
“Collapse!”
As soon as the word left his mouth, the illusory mountain stopped in mid-air and exploded, sending out a sound like endless thunder. The volume exceeded the rumbling of the vortex, transforming into shocking sound waves that swept across the world.
Because of the sound, all of the others, including Xu Qing, were mentally shaken. The illusion which gripped them temporarily vanished, and their eyes grew clear. Then their faces filled with astonishment.
Meng Hao looked up at them and roared, “Why haven’t you left yet!?” He performed a double-handed incantation, and immediately tempest winds exploded out from him to fight back against the vortex. Instantly, the vortex was weakened.
Fang Yu gasped and looked down at Meng Hao. She looked anxious, but at the same time determined. Her body flickered as she neared Xu Qing. Even as Xu Qing was gazing at Meng Hao, Fang Yu grabbed her.
“Let’s go,” she said. “He won’t stop worrying until you’re out of here!”
Xu Qing hesitated, but didn’t struggle. She looked back at Meng Hao one more time, and an indescribable feeling welled up in her heart. She thought back to that year outside the Rebirth Cave. It was a scene just like this one, in which she… was no help at all to Meng Hao.
The South Heaven Cultivators were panting in astonishment at the terrifying scene playing out. One by one, they began to fly up toward the pa.s.sageway over head. As they shot through the air and then entered into the pa.s.sageway, they heard Meng Hao’s voice.
“I saved your lives, which means you owe me. If you dare to not pay me back, things won’t be finished between us!”
As everyone disappeared into the pa.s.sageway, the expulsion power shoved them up, causing them shoot upward. It was in that same instant that the head of the Greater Demon completely emerged from within the mirror!
Off to the side, Han Danzi looked up at Meng Hao, and at everyone leaving through the pa.s.sageway.