Chapter 1153: Too Kind-Hearted, Too Honest!

　　The Ruins of Immortality were crumbled remnants of the Immortal World. They were a place that even ordinary Dao Realm experts couldn’t make budge, let alone carve up to take away as a keepsake. All they could do would be to look at the ruins floating there for all eternity.

　　Only powerful experts like the Lords of the Nine Mountains and Seas might be qualified to take a chunk of the Ruins of Immortality. For example, the first generation Patriarch of the Fang Clan had taken a piece of the Ruins of Immortality to house his mausoleum.

　　When Meng Hao saw a 30,000-meter chunk of the Ruins of Immortality floating his way, his heart began to palpitate with eagerness, and his throat went bone dry. This piece wasn’t as big as the one taken by the first generation Patriarch, but it was still about thirty percent as large, which was huge.

　　Forgetting anything else about it, the sheer size was such that, if you used it to crush someone, the effect would be monumentally shocking.

　　“What a treasure!” Meng Hao immediately stretched out his hand to grab it.

　　In almost the exact same moment, as the chunk of the Ruins of Immortality flew toward him through the void, causing everything to rumble and shake, and sending out shocking ripples, the piece began to shrink.

　　Meng Hao’s eyes gleamed, and he murmured inwardly that Paragon Sea Dream really was considerate. His heart was going wild with joy. It flew down toward him, shrinking until it was the size of a hand, that then floated down toward his palm.

　　Then it landed, and an expression of delight appeared on his face. However, an instant later, his expression fell as he realized that he couldn’t hold it. It immediately began to drop down; although it had changed in size, its weight was exactly the same as when it was 30,000 meters wide!

　　This was no ordinary piece of land, it was a remnant of the Immortal World!! You could say that it was… a continent from the Immortal World!!

　　A huge rumbling sound echoed out, as the incredible weight caused cracking sounds to ring out from Meng Hao’s hand. Suddenly, the land mass fell out of his hand, spinning down into the void below. Although the void seemed bottomless, as Meng Hao saw the precious treasure of the Ruins of Immortality getting further and further away, his eyes became shot with blood. Without the slightest hesitation, he flew downward in pursuit.

　　“Just because you can’t keep ahold of it doesn’t mean I never gave it to you,” said Paragon Sea Dream. “The land in the Ruins of Immortality is imbued with the power of the former Paragon Immortal Realm. It is inherently… a precious treasure. That part I gave you wasn’t even very big, and yet it weighs about as much as… one tenth of Planet East Victory!

　　“Consider that your reward for what happened in the Windswept Realm. As for whether or not you can keep ahold of it, that will depend on you.” As soon as her cold words entered his ears, Meng Hao started feeling incredibly irritated.

　　Li Ling’er stood next to Paragon Sea Dream, a strange expression on her face. She looked at Meng Hao disappearing down below, and then back at Paragon Sea Dream. After blinking a few times, she smiled, but held back from laughing.

　　Meng Hao was extremely angry, and his heart fairly dripped with blood. If that piece of the Ruins of Immortality had never belonged to him to begin with, then it wouldn’t matter if it were lost. But Paragon Sea Dream had actually given it to him; the problem was that he couldn’t hold onto it. Seeing it fall away into the distance felt like a knife slashing at his heart.

　　There was little time to consider matters carefully. Azure light sprung up around him, and he even used the Allheaven Dao Immortal power from the third Nirvana Fruit in his forehead. He shot down with incredible speed…. As he pursued the piece of the Ruins of Immortality, he transformed into an azure roc, increasing his speed until he sped down like lightning.

　　“Get back here! You’re mine. MINE!” Meng Hao’s eyes were bright red, and his heart was wracked with intense pain. Perhaps because of his intense, unyielding attitude, and his incredible frustration, he shot along with explosive, incredible speed that he couldn’t normally match even if he were fleeing for his life. Rumbling sounds could be heard as he got closer and closer to the descending piece of the Ruins of Immortality.

　　As of this moment, he was completely focused on the piece of the Ruins of Immortality. Booms echoed out as he unleashed various divine abilities and Daoist magics. He went all out for the time it takes an incense stick to burn before finally catching up. Then, he stretched out his hand and made a grasping motion toward the descending piece of the Ruins of Immortality.

　　Rumbling sounds echoed out as the descending piece of the Ruins of Immortality stopped in place. With rapid speed, and not holding back the slightest bit of power, he did the same thing over and over again. It wasn’t easy, but eventually, the piece of the Ruins of Immortality transformed into a beam of light that flew into his bag of holding.

　　Although Paragon Sea Dream hadn’t warned Meng Hao about how heavy it was, she had said that she would give him the piece of the Ruins of Immortality, and she wouldn’t lie. Thus, although it was incredibly heavy, it had been changed by her powerful magic so that it could be stored inside his bag of holding.

　　Thanks to Paragon Sea Dream’s magical alteration, the land mass which weighed as much as one tenth of Planet East Victory didn’t weigh anything at all inside his bag of holding.

　　Meng Hao breathed a sigh of relief, then flew rapidly back up. Soon, he was back at his original altitude, only to find that Paragon Sea Dream was long gone. Both Li Ling’er and the Immortal’s cave were nowhere to be seen, and the only thing that remained behind was her echoing voice.

　　“That mirror is inauspicious. It will harm its owner. It appeared first in ancient times, and now it appears again.”

　　Other than the voice, the only thing in the area was the lone ice-bound teleportation vortex, which slowly started spinning as the ice thawed, waiting for him to enter. Meng Hao looked around in shock.

　　The Immortal’s cave was gone, Li Ling’er was gone, and Paragon Sea Dream was actually… gone!

　　“Where are they? They left? She did this on purpose! Definitely on purpose!” From Meng Hao’s expression, it looked like he was about to blow his top.

　　“I had nineteen lamentations! I, I… I only got to the first one! Paragon Sea Dream, where did you sneak off to? Huh? This is wrong, you hear me!? This is so unreasonable! It’s not like I was being greedy! I only had nineteen lamentations, that’s not very many!” Meng Hao was very depressed, and then, he was filled with regret as he realized that he hadn’t spoken quickly enough. If he had known things would turn out this way, he would have mentioned all the other eighteen lamentations at the same time. That would have been the best thing to do.

　　“She’s a Paragon, a majestic Paragon! It wasn’t easy to gain this chance to ask for reasonable compensation, and in the end, she pulled a fast one!

　　“If I was acting super greedy, that would have been a different story, and I couldn’t hold it against her for leaving. But I wasn’t being greedy at all! The only thing I mentioned was nineteen lamentations! Anyone else would probably have mentioned a hundred, or even a thousand!

　　“Ai. The world nowadays doesn’t have as many people as honest and dependable as me. That’s why I end up getting bullied. These people are ridiculous! It’s like they specialize in picking on honest people!” Meng Hao was furious, but there was nothing he could do other than let out continuous sighs of regret.

　　“Well, at least I was able to get some of the Ruins of Immortality. When the time comes, I’ll head back to Planet East Victory and finally be able to safely take away the battle golem Stepdad Ke gave me.” Having reached this point in his train of thought, Meng Hao felt a bit better. However, he still couldn’t stop thinking about how unfair it was for Paragon Sea Dream to bully an honest person like himself.

　　Frowning resentfully, he stepped into the vortex, which rumbled with the power of teleportation for a moment before he vanished. Then, the vortex slowly faded away, leaving behind not a single trace.

　　The matter of the Windswept Realm was now completely concluded.

　　Henceforth, there would be no Windswept Realm in the void of the Mountain and Sea Realm. It had vanished for all eternity. The Nine Seas God Worlds would no longer be able to host trials by fire in the Windswept Realm.

　　Only the Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite and the Sublime Flow Sword Grotto retained their unique worlds.

　　Meanwhile, a black-robed figure was strolling thoughtfully through the starry sky in the Mountain and Sea Realm. He passed cultivators, passed Mountains and Seas, passed through the void, and yet, no one could see him. He was like a lonely soul drifting about through the Mountains and Seas….

　　In the moment that the Windswept Realm entered the 33 Heavens, in a location far out in the boundless starry sky, the stars in two different areas were trembling violently as two powerful forces rumbled along.

　　They were far, far away from the Mountain and Sea Realm. However, the exact distance away didn’t matter, as they were… getting closer and closer!

　　Meanwhile, back near the border of the Ninth Sea of the Mountain and Sea Realm, ripples suddenly spread out. They grew more intense, gradually forming together into a vortex. Meng Hao stepped out and looked around. Based on the familiar sights around him, he instantly recognized the Ninth Sea.

　　“Finally… I’m back,” he murmured. He thought back to everything that had happened in the Windswept Realm, and he sighed inwardly. Then he looked up into the void and thought about Zong Wuya.

　　“I wonder whether or not he found his true Dao….” he thought, shaking his head slowly. After standing there for a moment, his eyes glittered.

　　“The Ninth Mountain and Sea is my home. Unfortunately… I need to leave now. Xu Qing is in the Fourth Mountain and Sea, and I need to go find her, fulfill our agreement, and bring her back here!” His eyes shone with a bright light. His trip to the Windswept Realm had brought him incredible good fortune. He had fully absorbed a Nirvana Fruit, begun the process of becoming an Allheaven Dao Immortal, and gotten some important clues about Xu Qing. Along with all of that came the qualifications to leave the Ninth Mountain and Sea.

　　His path, and his world, was no longer limited to the Ninth Mountain and Sea. He would go… to see a much wider and larger world!

　　“I need to make my stack of promissory notes MUCH thicker!” he thought, his passion rising.

　　“Echelon cultivators. Chosen. It doesn’t matter who. I’m going to make everyone in my generation in the Mountain and Sea Realm all owe me money! And then… I’ll get to work on the older generation! I’ll… get them to owe me money too!

　　“Then I’ll have become the Lord of the Mountain and Sea Realm in my own style!” Meng Hao felt as though his ambitions were definitely set high. He had a huge task ahead of him, but he was sure that he could succeed.

　　Eyes shining, he flickered as he flew off into the distance.

　　“Ever since leaving Planet South Heaven, I haven’t had a chance to go back and visit mom and dad. Plus there’s my big sister…. I definitely have to go to Planet South Heaven to say bye to mom and dad before I leave.

　　“Planet South Heaven…. There’s also the Essence of Divine Flame there. I’m definitely going to go back to challenge that place again!” Meng Hao shot forward at top speed, a bright streak of light that headed in the direction of Planet South Heaven.

　　“Besides, now that I’ve decided to leave the Ninth Mountain and Sea, I should go settle some debts. I have a lot of promissory notes, and now’s the time to collect on them all!” Meng Hao was starting to feel like he was too softhearted. Whenever he saw people with no money, he would always take pity on them, and wouldn’t force them to pay back what they owed him, except perhaps some interest.

　　“This time, no more Mr. Nice Guy!” he berated himself. “Ah, Meng Hao, you really are far too kind-hearted!”