Chapter 786: Slaying Wraiths!

　　Meng Hao appeared without a word or a sound. Not many people in the battle would be able to detect his sudden appearance. One of the few who did was the number one most powerful expert from the Northern Reaches, the Imperial Bloodline Clan Chief up in midair.

　　Meng Hao appeared just outside of the spell formation, swathed in red, his face pale white. He looked almost as if he were devoid of blood. He held the Lightning Cauldron in his right hand, which crackled with lightning as he suddenly vanished again.

　　Shockingly, when he reappeared, he had taken the place of a despairing Southern Domain cultivator who was being attacked by a burly Spirit Severing cultivator with wild hair.

　　The Southern Domain cultivator originally thought he was going to die, and was preparing to self-detonate. Then, his vision went blurry, and he switched places with Meng Hao. Even as his mind reeled with shock, Meng Hao reappeared in front of the burly cultivator with wild hair.

　　The burly man had already struck out with his hand. When he saw Meng Hao, his face flickered and his pupils constricted. Shocked, he was about to fall back when Meng Hao, like a soul vampire, moved forward and touched the man on the right arm.

　　A miserable shriek rang out from the burly man’s mouth as his arm rapidly withered. The technique being used against him was like a black hole that rapidly sucked away his qi and blood. In the blink of an eye, his burly frame was nothing more than skin and bones. His cultivation base was gone and his soul was sucked away. His body fell into pieces as massive quantities of red mist were absorbed into Meng Hao.

　　Meng Hao didn’t even pause. After casually killing the man, the lightning cauldron flickered again, and he reappeared in front of a Spirit Severing expert who was slaughtering his way through the Southern Domain forces.

　　The old man’s scalp went numb; the speed with which Meng Hao had killed the burly man was such that he didn’t even have time to react. Even as his jaw was still dropping from shock, Meng Hao appeared in front of him.

　　Meng Hao’s profound and mysterious face was devoid of any trace of blood, and a mysterious, dark glow filled his eyes. The old man was scared out of his mind.

　　“NO!”

　　He was about to flee when Meng Hao reached out and placed his hand on top of his head. The old man screamed miserably as his body withered, sucked out through the top of his head into Meng Hao’s hand.

　　All of this happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. Meng Hao had just appeared, and already, two people had been slaughtered. The speed with which it happened caused all the onlookers to be taken aback.

　　Starting with the handful of people who Meng Hao had just saved, the Southern Domain cultivators began to chant his name.

　　“Exalted Meng Hao!”

　　“Exalted Meng Hao!!”

　　“EXALTED MENG HAO!!!” The combined voices of all the Southern Domain cultivators turned into a massive sound wave that rolled out.

　　Meng Hao stood there, his blood-red robe fluttering, his white hair floating around him, his energy surging.

　　Up in midair,The Northern Reaches’ number one most powerful expert, the Imperial Bloodline Clan chief, looked down with wide eyes.

　　“That kid is seeking death!” he said. Without hesitation, he transformed into a Lightning Roc surrounding by crackling electricity that shot toward Meng Hao in a deadly attack.

　　Meng Hao’s expression was as cold as ever as he caused the Lightning Cauldron to flicker, and he vanished yet again.

　　In another location on the battlefield was one of the three wraiths, which vaguely resembled an old woman. She wore a twisted smile as she grabbed onto a Southern Domain cultivator, opened her mouth wide, and bit into the man’s head. Crunching sounds could be heard as his skull cracked open and she began to absorb his soul.

　　The screaming man was still alive when suddenly, he vanished and was replaced by Meng Hao. The darkness in the woman’s eyes flickered, and relying on the fact that her spirit body was illusory, she didn’t pause. Laughing evilly, she opened her mouth to bite Meng Hao.

　　“Well,” she said, “since you’ve delivered yourself up, let’s see exactly how strong you are!”

　　Her mouth opened, a mouth which could cause the soul of an ordinary cultivator to be extracted with ease. Meng Hao’s expression was cold as the mouth neared him. It was at this point that he opened his own mouth and began to inhale.

　　As he inhaled, the woman’s body began to tremble. An indescribable sense of deadly crisis rose up in her, and she screamed. She immediately let go of Meng Hao and began to back up.

　　“Dammit! Are you even a cultivator?! How could it be that you practice ghost magic!?!?”

　　Before the old woman could back up very far, Meng Hao inhaled even deeper, and her body collapsed. It transformed into countless motes of sparkling light which shot into Meng Hao’s mouth.

　　It was possible to see the image of the woman in one of those motes of light. She was screaming as Meng Hao swallowed her down. His face darkened for a moment, then returned to its previous pale white, shrouded by a head of billowing white hair. Nearby, the other two wraiths were already flying away in retreat, thoroughly horrified.

　　Behind Meng Hao, the Imperial Bloodline Clan Chief descended, roaring. He moved with incredible speed, and in the blink of an eye, was almost upon Meng Hao.

　　Meng Hao’s eyes glinted with coldness. He suddenly turned, then shot up into the air, spinning rapidly. A droning sound could be heard as he smashed directly into the Lightning Roc.

　　Boom!

　　The deafening roar that rippled out shocked even the peak Dao Seeking experts fighting in midair. Even as the Lightning Roc collapsed, an ancient looking hand emerged and punched down toward Meng Hao.

　　Meng Hao was sent tumbling backward, blood spraying from his mouth. As he fell back, the Lightning Cauldron flickered, and he switched places with a Northern Reaches cultivator off in the distance. Now he was directly in the path of one of the fleeing wraiths.

　　Shockingly, everything that was happening was exactly as Meng Hao had planned it.

　　The instant he appeared, he leaped forward without the slightest hesitation. His right hand flickered in an incantation gesture, then he waved his hand, and his body began to emanate red mist. The mist transformed into a cyclone that headed straight for the wraith.

　　The wraith’s face fell and it let out a high-pitched shriek as it sped backward. Such action was useless, however. The cyclone swallowed it up instantly, whereupon it was shredded to pieces, destroyed both in form and spirit. As Meng Hao absorbed it, he could tell that the Blood Demon Grand Magic was becoming more refined.

　　“Just need a little bit more!” he thought, his eyes flashing with red.

　　The final wraith was now completely and truly scared to death. After sweeping across the Northern Reaches for years, he had finally been captured and transformed into a wraith. In the past he had been a powerful expert, but was then forced to consume souls as a form of cultivation. To him, feasting on human flesh to bolster his spirit was the natural order of things.

　　However, this was the first time he had encountered… a terrifying existence that could consume ghosts and wraiths like himself!

　　The wraith flew backward in complete astonishment, merging back into the green mist that hovered in midair, not daring to emerge again.

　　Up above, the two mountain-like giants with the golden door on their shoulders, and the huge tree, were now once again bombarding the Southern Domain’s spell formations.

　　The sixth spell formation collapsed into pieces, and the fifth formation started crumbling.

　　Down below, the number one expert of the Northern Reaches, the Imperial Bloodline Clan Chief, was once again in human form, his body surrounded by crackling lightning that formed his own Lightning Cauldron. He suddenly lifted his hand and waved his finger toward Meng Hao.

　　A lightning bolt immediately shot out from his Lightning Cauldron. It was black, and looked like a dragon as it sped through the air.

　　At the same time, the old man changed shape again, transforming into a three hundred meter long dragon. This was no ordinary dragon, this was a Lightning Dragon! 1

　　“Primordial Lightning Dragon Transformation!” cried the old man, his voice thrumming with what seemed like the power of Heaven. A savage and archaic aura rose up from his body, as the incarnated Primordial Lightning Dragon charged toward Meng Hao.

　　Unfortunately for the old man, this was not a true Primordial Lightning Dragon, but merely the shape of one. Even still, it was shockingly powerful!

　　For the first time, Meng Hao’s face flickered; this old man was the most powerful person he had ever encountered other than the Dawn Immortal!

　　Although this man didn’t match up to the Dawn Immortal in terms of bizarreness, the domineering extent of his energy exceeded hers. That was especially true of this Primordial Lightning Dragon incarnation, which clearly emanated a feeling of an archaic time. It seemed monstrously aggressive, as if anything which stood up against it could be crushed like dried twigs.

　　“What kind of dragon is that!?” thought Meng Hao, his eyes flickering as he backed up. “That cauldron in his hand just now looked very similar to my Lightning Cauldron….” Suddenly he vanished, switching places with a Northern Reaches cultivator off in the distance.

　　As soon as the Northern Reaches cultivator appeared where Meng Hao had been, he was ripped to shreds by lightning.

　　“You can’t flee!” roared the old man in Primordial Lightning Dragon form. “There’s nobody who can even lift a finger against the Primordial Lightning Dragon! Lightning Transformation!” His speed suddenly increased explosively by severalfold; he was clearly not going to allow Meng Hao to have another chance to flee with his Lightning Cauldron.

　　“I don’t plan to flee,” said Meng Hao, his eyes glittering. “As for this Lightning Dragon… I’ll show you what happens when I lift a finger!” As the Primordial Lightning Dragon bore down on him, Meng Hao raised both hands into the air. A vortex appeared, which was Meng Hao himself. As it pushed outward, the countless struggling souls which surrounded him screamed bitterly. Hundreds of thousands of them were under his control. They flew like raindrops, merging together into the shape of a gigantic head.

　　This head was the color of blood, and had a horn sticking out of its forehead. It was none other than the head of a Blood Demon!

　　Before the two divine abilities could slam into each other, a miserable cry rang out from the sky up above.

　　Over the past days, Patriarch Golden Frost’s wounds had remained unstable, despite the medicinal pills provided by Pill Demon. Currently, he was in full retreat up in the air, a look of madness in his eyes.

　　“My longevity was already reaching its end,” he said. “I’m going to die soon anyway. The only reason I didn’t die in previous battles was because the Li Clan Patriarch saved me. And now… if I’m going to lose my life, dying as part of the Southern Domain’s struggle means my death is not in vain!” He roared, and suddenly his body burst into flames as he unleashed the flame of his life force. In the blink of an eye he was temporarily at his ultimate peak!

　　His legs had burned away, and his body began to dissipate. Apparently he was using every aspect of his life force to transform into… the final sword form of his entire life, a forbidden sword art!

　　“Golden Frost Immortal Slaying!”

　　A power capable of devastating Heaven and Earth rumbled forward.

　　The golden glow of the sword rose into the heavens, and it only took a moment for it to reach the black-robed old man who looked like a hopping vampire. He was incapable of evading, and after the sword passed by, his head toppled down toward the ground.

　　Patriarch Golden Frost, having unleashed this final sword form, completely faded away. His soul was dissipating, and would be incapable of entering the cycle of reincarnation.

　　“Patriarch!!” Down below, the Golden Frost Sect disciples among the Southern Domain cultivators were all filled with grief and anger.

　　“If there was one mistake I could take back, it would be joining the Solitary Sword Sect to go to war with the Blood Demon Sect. It’s the biggest error I made in my entire life. Hundreds of thousands of cultivators were pointlessly sacrificed in that war, and Fellow Daoist Blood Demon was injured so badly… that he cannot awaken!

　　“Were that not the case, the puny Northern Reaches would never be so arrogant as to dare to invade the Southern Domain!” Regret could be seen in Patriarch Golden Frost’s eyes. Finally, he turned into nothing more than dust, and vanished from the lands of the Southern Domain.

　　1. “Lightning Dragon” or “Thunder Dragon” is also how you would translate “brontosaurus”