Chapter 1032: Chasing Down Su Yan!

　　Now the tables were completely turned. Su Yan fled, and Meng Hao chased her. 500 black beetles soared through the Ruins of Immortality like a black windstorm. All of them were at least a half a meter long or so, and a few of the largest were more than three meters long.

　　500 black beetles made a small-scale sea of insects. Although you couldn’t say that they blotted out the sky, they did cause everything to shake, and sent endless ripples out as they chased after Su Yan.

　　If it were just a matter of black beetles, Su Yan would have numerous ways of dealing with them and escaping. However… she wasn’t just being chased by black beetles; she was being chased by Meng Hao.

　　Meng Hao sat cross-legged on one of the larger beetles, eyes flickering coldly. His gaze only continued to get colder as he looked at Su Yan. After all, she was the one who had ruined his plan to harvest medicinal plants.

　　Not only did she attempt to steal his business, but she ended up making it impossible for him to even harvest the medicinal plants at all. Then she used the pursuit of the black beetles as a tool to try to kill him. Most unforgivable was that she had planned to take advantage of his misfortune to extort his wealth.

　　It had been a long time since Meng Hao had been victim of such plotting. Not even that old fox Fang Shoudao aggravated him as much as this. Some people might prefer to treat women with extra tenderness, but Meng Hao completely ignored that. With a cold harrumph, he extended his right hand and waved his finger toward Su Yan.

　　It was none other than the Eighth Demon Sealing Hex!

　　Even as Su Yan shot forward anxiously, she suddenly trembled. Her cultivation base completely stopped moving, and she screeched to a halt in midair.

　　Next, Meng Hao’s Immortal meridians exploded with power, and his cultivation base surged. 123 Blood Demon heads appeared, roaring as they charged toward Su Yan.

　　Su Yan’s eyes widened, and she bit down hard on the tip of her tongue. Pain flooded through her along with cracking sounds as she broke free from Meng Hao’s Hexing magic. Then she turned, eyes flickering with fear, but more so, coldness.

　　Instead of trying to evade the 123 Blood Demon heads, she breathed in deeply, absorbing the power of Heaven and Earth. Then she lifted her right foot up and stamped it down violently, striding in Meng Hao’s direction.

　　That first step caused the void to tremble. Her second step caused everything in the area to shake. The third step caused fissures to crack the ground for 3,000 meters in every direction.

　　Meng Hao’s eyes widened with shock at the sight of this pink-robed young woman’s divine ability. She took only three steps, but those three steps caused her energy to surge. Meng Hao’s mind was sent reeling. Each of the steps seemed to trample upon his inner thoughts, causing his cultivation base to be thrown into chaos, and the flame of his life force to flicker.

　　Next, it was with a completely icy face that Su Yan took a fourth step. Rumbling echoed out everywhere!

　　When she took her fifth step, the entire world seemed to be turning inside out. Howling sounds could be heard in all directions. It was almost as if this area were turning into a different world altogether.

　　Her sixth step caused the crashing sound of thunder to fill the area for thousands of meters in each direction, along with an archaic, ancient aura.

　　Meng Hao’s magical Blood Demon heads all trembled, and were smashed to pieces by the surging energy.

　　It was in that moment that Su Yan took her seventh step!

　　“Seven Steps of the Hellgod!” Su Yan cried out the words as she took the seventh step. The void shattered, and massive roaring sounds could be heard. A huge foot appeared up above, emanating shocking energy. A boundless feeling of savagery buffeted Meng Hao as the foot stamped down toward him.

　　The starry sky vibrated as Meng Hao looked up, eyes wide. Then, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture and pointed toward the huge foot.

　　“Paragon Bridge!” He let out a muffled growl as his 123 Immortal meridians, as well as his 33 Heavens, formed into the Paragon Bridge, which shot toward the foot.

　　A huge boom could be heard as the bridge and the foot collided. In that instant, the void around them seemed to be torn asunder. Boundless echoes rang out as the savage foot shattered, layer by layer, transforming into innumerable motes of light that then faded away.

　　The Paragon Bridge also trembled and collapsed into pieces.

　　Meng Hao trembled, and blood oozed out of the corners of his mouth. The pink-robed Su Yan’s face was ashen, and blood also oozed out her mouth as she looked at Meng Hao in shock.

　　She was in the Ancient Realm, and not an ordinary Ancient Realm cultivator at that. She had her own Dao; analogous to a true Immortal relative to the Immortal Realm, she was a Chosen of the Ancient Realm. Despite having only extinguished one Soul Lamp, she was by no means weak.

　　In her view, Meng Hao was only in the Immortal Realm, and even if he was at the peak of the Realm, he was still much weaker than her.

　　Before, she had merely feared his black beetles, and his mysterious, unfathomable spirit-immortal stones. Therefore, she attacked him, hoping to at least injure him, and thus be able to escape the black beetles.

　　However… in their first true interchange, she found that the two of them were relatively evenly matched. That filled Su Yan with fear, and she instantly fell back into retreat.

　　Meng Hao remained seated on the black beetle, eyes shining with a strange light at the fleeing Su Yan. Inwardly, his heart was pounding with anticipation, not because of Su Yan herself, of course, but because of… her divine ability!

　　Throughout his years of practicing cultivation, Meng Hao had acquired all sorts of divine abilities and magical techniques. Not many of them left him moved, or left him with a feeling that the technique was especially powerful…. However, during the times he had fought with Wang Mu and Wang Tengfei, they had used magical techniques of the Wang Clan which had left him shaken. In fact, because of those battles, he had even gotten the idea of trying to acquire some of those magical techniques. Unfortunately, the Wang Clan of the Ninth Mountain and Sea was one of the great clans, and to acquire their Daoist magics would be incredibly difficult.

　　Just now, the divine ability used by this pink-robed young woman also left him quite shaken.

　　“What Daoist magic was that? It only took seven steps to collapse my Paragon Bridge. Theoretically, it might have something to do with her cultivation base, or the fact that my understanding of the Paragon Bridge isn’t complete, meaning I can’t fully utilize it.

　　“However, that just goes to show that her Daoist magic of seven steps has its own unique aspects.” Meng Hao was lost in thought for a while as he chased Su Yan. Finally, he raised his right hand, performed an incantation gesture, and then pointed at her.

　　That wave of a finger caused his 123 Immortal meridians to materialize into a shocking Flying Rain-Dragon, which roared and beat its wings as it shot toward her in pursuit.

　　Su Yan’s face flickered as she saw the Flying Rain-Dragon bearing down on her. She gritted her teeth, performed an incantation gesture, and then placed her hands on top of her ears. Then she took a deep breath, using some unknown Daoist magic that caused the sounds of thunder to echo out. A huge wind kicked up, and Su Yan almost seemed to turn into a vortex that rapidly absorbed the power of Heaven and Earth.

　　Next… she suddenly turned her head toward Meng Hao, opened her mouth, and roared!

　　That roar was loud enough to tear open the Heavens and shred the earth!

　　The sound of it superseded all other sounds in the world. It shredded the void, causing a massive wind to kick up. Meng Hao started to tremble, and his black beetles began to rock back and forth. Blood oozed out of his ears, and his mind vibrated so intensely that it felt as if his head was about to explode.

　　That roar almost didn’t seem to be coming from Su Yan, but rather a giant. It was filled with intense savagery, and an unparalleled domineering air that seemed to defy the confines of destiny.

　　ROOOOOAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!

　　Sound waves transformed into an attack that blasted toward Meng Hao. The result was that he was physically lifted up and pushed backward.

　　Su Yan coughed up a mouthful of blood; clearly utilizing this divine ability of roaring came at a great price. Her face was pale white as she sped forward anxiously.

　　“I just need to delay things a bit longer,” she muttered to herself, pushing for more speed. “If I can build up enough speed, I can break out of this place!”

　　Meng Hao finally stabilized himself, wiped away the blood that had oozed out of his ears, and looked at Su Yan as she fled. His eyes began to shine with an even more intense light.

　　“You can’t escape,” he said. “No matter what you say, I’m going to catch you!” His eyes flickered coldly, and his heart beat with excitement. As far as he was concerned, this pink-robed young woman was a treasure trove of divine abilities and Daoist magics.

　　It would be a big pain to try to acquire one of the Wang Clan’s Divine abilities. But he would be equally content to get his hands on some of this girl’s magic.

　　The wave of a hand caused all 500 of the black beetles to let out a collective roar. Their eyes were red with madness as they charged forth. Meng Hao’s cultivation base exploded with power. However, Su Yan was moving so quickly that she was already some distance off. Meng Hao snorted coldly, and extended his right hand, within which appeared the Lightning Cauldron. His eyes flickered with a Demonic glint as electricity danced about, and he vanished.

　　At the same time, Su Yan had almost built up enough speed to unleash another Daoist magic. Her body was beginning to grow blurry, and ripples were spreading out into the void. It was almost as if a tunnel were forming, a tunnel which she was just about to break into.

　　In that moment, however, countless sparks of electricity suddenly appeared all over her body. This development occurred too suddenly, and she could sense something happening that caused her face to fall.

　　Suddenly, she vanished, and Meng Hao appeared in her place. Of course, their speeds were different, so the moment Meng Hao appeared, the void tunnel promptly closed up.

　　At the same time, Su Yan reappeared in the spot Meng Hao had just been occupying… right in the middle of 500 black beetles!

　　The moment Su Yan appeared, the 500 black beetles immediately roared and shot toward her, radiating explosive ferocity. Su Yan was shocked to the core, and an expression of disbelief and shock instantly appeared on her face.

　　“That cauldron… how could it be here!?!? Is your surname Wang?” 1

　　Meng Hao’s eyes flickered almost imperceptibly, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he sent his cultivation base rotating rapidly. The Essence of Divine Flame appeared, combined with the power of 33 Heavens, to shoot directly toward Su Yan.

　　The 500 black beetles all attacked with full force. In response, the shocked Su Yan performed an incantation gesture and waved her hand, causing divine abilities to shoot out. However, the Ghost Eyes on the backs of these black beetles began to glow, and were easily able to repel her attack, and even began to grow more ferocious.

　　As Meng Hao closed in, the Essence of Divine Flame caused Su Yan’s mind to spin. She was getting very anxious, but her face filled with determination as she raised her right hand. Instantly, light began to shine out from the creases in her palm, causing three palm prints to begin to appear in the air around her, surrounded by rumbling sounds.

　　However, before the palm prints could finish forming, the surrounding black beetles took advantage of the moment to attack. Su Yan fell back, blood spraying from her mouth.

　　It was at this point that, some distance behind Su Yan, two beams of light could be seen shooting through the Ruins of Immortality. Apparently sensing the ripples of magic, they headed toward Su Yan and Meng Hao.

　　Before the approaching figures could even be seen, a voice could be heard from them.

　　“My master is Meng Hao! Do you hear me? Meng Hao! He’s the ruler of the Ruins of Immortality, the Lord of the Nine Mountains and Seas! I was just joking with you, alright? Y-y-you… you’re being so petty! Why are you trying to kill us! You can’t blame me! Everything I did was taught to me by my master! Why don’t you go looking for him, alright? Aiya! How dare you attack us! Dammit! Lord Fifth is really getting pissed off! You just wait and see! My master definitely won’t let you off the hook!”

　　1. I saw a lot of questions on the Chinese internet about this part where Su Yan mentions the cauldron and asks if his surname is Wang. Apparently Wang Lin from Renegade Immortal had a cauldron with similar properties to this one. However, based on the answers I read in a few threads, that cauldron was clearly destroyed, so it couldn’t be the same one. However, this begs the question of why she would be saying something like this? There were various speculations about that too….