Chapter 724: Pull Out All the Stops!

　　Deep within Mount Solitary Sword of the Solitary Sword Sect in the Southern Domain, a rumbling could suddenly be heard. An ancient aura exploded out, causing the sky to go dark. An illusory sword appeared, floating in midair.

　　At the same time, an ancient old man in a black robe appeared out of nowhere. As he stood there, his peak Dao Seeking aura burst out, causing everything to tremble. He turned to look in the direction of the Ancient Dao Lakes.

　　“The soul of a true Immortal!” A glow of determination appeared in his eyes, and he suddenly vanished, disappearing in the direction of the Ancient Dao Lakes.

　　In a restricted area of the Golden Frost Sect could be seen a tombstone with nothing written on its surface. It looked ordinary and unremarkable. However an ancient aura of decay suddenly emerged from inside the tomb, and a dried-up hand stretched out. The ground cracked and shattered as an ancient figure with disheveled hair abruptly flew out.

　　“The soul of a true Immortal! That’s the aura of a true Immortal’s soul!” A bizarre glow appeared in the figure’s eyes as it shot through the air.

　　Within the Violet Fate Sect, everything was still. A sigh rang out, and then the silence resumed.

　　A roar could be heard within the Li Clan. In the blink of an eye, an ancient man appeared. He wore a brightly brocaded robe, and had towering killing intent. He flew through the air in the direction of the Ancient Dao Lakes, accompanied by rumbling booms.

　　Deep in the Song Clan, a half-corpse sat as still as death. Suddenly, its eyes opened, and they shone with a bizarre light.

　　“A true Immortal’s soul! My chance to achieve Immortal Ascension has finally arrived! Flesh and blood suddenly appeared to fill out the lower half of his body. In the blink of an eye, he was a middle-aged man. He had no hair, and wore a long Daoist robe. He took a step forward and then vanished.

　　In the Black Sieve Sect, Patriarch Six-Daos could sense the same thing as everyone else. However, he hesitated, then let out a frustrated growl. “Dammit! My cultivation base has already dropped to the mid Dao Seeking stage. How could I hold my own in the fighting? Meng Hao! Blood Demon Sect!! I won’t rest until you’re dead!!”

　　Meanwhile, on a mountain in the border region between the Southern Domain and the Milky Way Sea was a hamlet populated by a hundred or so families.

　　Smoke curled up into the air, and crisp peals of laughter could be heard from children playing outside the village.

　　“Wheeee! You can’t catch me, old man!”

　　“Grandpa, your hands are too dirty, don’t try to grab me!”

　　“Try to catch me, old man! We’re right here!”

　　The children were playing hide-and-seek with an old man. His hair was unkempt, and he looked a bit crazy. His clothes were dirty, and even his skin had splotches of mud on it. It looked like his long, draping hair hadn’t been tended to in a very long time. The old man laughed foolishly as he chased the children back and forth, which made the children laugh merrily.

　　“Hahaha! I’m gonna getcha! I’m gonna catch ya! Hahaha! I have no soul! I’m gonna getcha! Meng Hao…. Who’s Meng Hao…? Immortal Ascension, Immortal Ascension….” In the middle of running back and forth, the old man suddenly stopped in place, as if he had noticed something. A tremor ran through his body, and he looked off into the distance, his eyes listless.

　　“The soul of an Immortal…. A true Immortal’s soul…. Who am I…? Who am I?

　　The old man grabbed his head in his hands. “Immortal Ascension! Immortal Ascension! I will become Immortal!!”

　　He then lifted his head up and let out a disconsolate howl, filled with shocking ripples and Immortal qi. The amorphous ripples swept out in all directions.

　　The smiles on the faces of the children twisted, and then their bodies began to turn illusory. The entire hamlet twisted and distorted, and began to glow with glittering lights. The lights flew up into the air and then shot toward the old man, where they swirled together to form a heavy saber. The man gripped the saber in his hand and shot off into the distance.

　　The hamlet was never real, and neither were the people who lived there. They were all simply incarnations of the saber.

　　“Immortal Ascension! Immortal Ascension! I will become Immortal!!” The old man continued to roar as he shot through the air. His expression was one of confusion, and his soul was incomplete.

　　Meanwhile, back in Mount Blood Demon, Patriarch Blood Demon sat in the Blood Pond. His eyes suddenly opened, and he was about to rise to his feet, then hesitated.

　　“No Karma or destiny connected to me,” he said, shaking his head. He settled back down and continued to meditate.

　　Throughout the entire Southern Domain, all the great powers were shaken. A streak of colorful light shot out from the Western Desert. It was a black-robed young man who looked very similar to Meng Hao. His expression was grim as he sped through the air. If you looked at him from a distance, he resembled an enormous, black bat.

　　He shot toward the Ancient Dao Lakes at top speed.

　　“He’s there…. I can sense him….”

　　As the Southern Domain was shocked, back in the inner region of the Ancient Dao Lakes, booms rang out across the 30,000-meter Dao Lake.

　　The battle for the True Immortal’s soul was not something that ordinary Spirit Severing cultivators could participate in. Even someone of the Second Severing would have a hard time wresting away this good fortune without perishing.

　　Although the mere thought of the opportunity caused everyone’s hearts to shake. After experiencing the fighting after the first eruption of the 30,000-meter Dao Lake, the Spirit Severing experts of the various sects and clans were left shaken. Therefore, they now hesitated, and many of them retreated from the fighting.

　　The six Blood Demon Sect Patriarchs were the first to fall back. Then, Sir Jian and the others from the Solitary Sword Sect. As for the Song Clan, the Patriarch who had led them here finally gritted his teeth and departed.

　　Reverend Withered-Dao was the only one present from the Violet Fate Sect. A strange gleam appeared in his eyes and he hesitated for a moment, but in the end, chose to leave.

　　Booms rattled out, and violent pulses of magical energy spread through the air. Only a few people qualified to participate in this battle!

　　The mysterious teenager from the Solitary Sword Sect, the composite puppet from the Golden Frost Sect, Lu Bai of the Imperial Bloodline Clan from the Northern Reaches, and lastly… Meng Hao!

　　Di Ye had been seriously injured by Meng Hao, and Zhou Chen from the Coffin Altar Sect had experienced having his pride completely destroyed. The two of them didn’t dare to participate in the fighting, and retreated off to the side.

　　The booms were shocking. The mysterious teenager from the Solitary Sword Sect wielded the two-meter longsword. As he slashed it out in front of him, a dazzling, resplendent crescent moon exploded out, sending out shocking ripples.

　　In the battle for the true Immortal’s soul, no one had any allies; everyone was an enemy. Therefore, no one dared to fight one-on-one with anyone else, but instead used divine abilities that were essentially area attacks.

　　Currently, the path to victory involved blocking the way of others.

　　“All of you get out of my way!” roared the Golden Frost Sect puppet. Brilliant light rose up from it, and it raised its hand and then swept it forward. A black mass of seawater magically appeared, within which surged numerous black dragons. Each of the black dragons spit out a pearl, which became a world that surged out in attack.

　　Lu Bai of the Imperial Bloodline Clan let out a cold snort. He quickly performed an incantation gesture and then waved his finger. The air distorted, as if time were beginning to reverse. Everyone suddenly slowed down exponentially, and it seemed as if time were about to flow backward.

　　As for Lu Bai, in a scant moment, he was closing in on the soul of the true Immortal.

　　And then there was Meng Hao. He didn’t employ any special divine abilities. All he did was summon the Black White Pearls and the Ninth Mountain, which then bore down directly onto the position of the true Immortal’s soul.

　　The incoming Ninth Mountain caused Lu Bai’s face to flicker. A moment ago, he had been on the verge of reaching the true Immortal’s soul, but now he was blocked.

　　The other powerful experts in the area were all attacking one by one. Everything rumbled, and for the moment, all of the cultivators were prevented from advancing toward the soul. It was in this moment that the teenager from the Solitary Sword Sect lifted his head up and roared. His body began to grow; in a split second, he had become a young man.

　　His aura grew explosively. Dao Seeking power rose up, and he was no longer in the Spirit Severing stage. Apparently, he had stepped into Dao Seeking. Natural law formed around him, and he advanced forward through the black seawater. He broke through Lu Bai’s time reversal and slammed into Meng Hao’s Ninth Mountain.

　　A boom echoed out as the Solitary Sword Sect teenager lifted his hand and pointed. His natural law slammed into the Ninth Mountain and pierced it through. The man reached his hand out toward the true Immortal’s soul.

　　“Dammit!”

　　“You’re looking to die!”

　　“Kill him!”

　　Lu Bai’s face fell and he quickly performed a double-handed incantation, then pointed out. Immediately, a beam of light flew out, and the power of time reversal instantly appeared around the young man from the Solitary Sword Sect.

　　The Golden Frost Sect puppet roared and then waved a hand. Monstrous black light transformed into a black rain, which then coalesced into ten thousand howling dragons that shot toward the young man from the Solitary Sword Sect.

　　Killing intent flickered in Meng Hao’s eyes. He did not use any offensive magic, but instead, waved a finger to employ the Eighth Demon Sealing Hex!

　　It didn’t matter that the young man from the Solitary Sword Sect had an early Dao Seeking cultivation base. The combined might of the three others was still enough to shake him. Lu Bai’s bizarre magic made it so that he was almost stuck in time. Meng Hao’s shocking divine ability thoroughly bound him in place and weakened his cultivation base. Then the Golden Frost Sect puppet closed in with raging killing intent.

　　The combined attack of the three different parties caused the young man from the Solitary Sword Sect to go pale in the face. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he tumbled backward.

　　Lu Bai was the first to make a move. Utilizing time reversal, he appeared next to the soul of the true Immortal, and was about to grab ahold of it when the young man from the Solitary Sword Sect roared. His sword raged, and ten thousand moons roared forth. They combined with the ten thousand snarling dragons of the Golden Frost Sect puppet and Meng Hao’s irksome hex.

　　BOOM!

　　Lu Bai couldn’t hold up. His scalp went numb, and blood sprayed from his mouth. He had no time to grab the true Immortal’s soul, and was forced into retreat.

　　In almost that exact same moment, Meng Hao and the Golden Frost Sect Puppet flew forward toward the true Immortal’s soul. Their speed was shocking, and only a tiny instant passed before both were about to lay hands on it. The Golden Frost Sect puppet’s eyes flickered, and ten thousand dragons roared toward Meng Hao. At the same time, the young man from the Solitary Sword Sect and Lu Bai joined together to attack Meng Hao and the Golden Frost Sect puppet.

　　This was a battle royale, filled with strikes and counterstrikes of all sorts! If this continued, no one would be able to prevail. Furthermore, time was of the essence. They all knew that peak Dao Seeking experts were definitely approaching, and then none of them would be able to continue to participate in the fighting.

　　The Blood Demon Grand Magic was powerful, but Meng Hao wasn’t confident that it could restrain all three of the others at the same time. If he missed even one, it would be difficult to fight that person while simultaneously maintaining the Blood Demon Grand Magic.

　　His eyes flickered as he saw the divine abilities nearing. He suddenly lifted his hand and clenched it into a fist. All of the power of qi and blood that he had absorbed merged together in that fist, creating the most powerful blow he had ever delivered.

　　This punch was comparable to Dao Seeking!

　　However, what he attacked was not a person.

　　The fist struck out, and the air vibrated. The land shook, and a deafening sound filled the air. He punched a gigantic hole into the air itself, after which, a shocking gravitational force exploded out from within.

　　It seemed that, in order to repair itself, it needed to suck everything from the outside world into it. This was a part of a natural law. Behind the emptiness was the void.

　　—–

　　This chapter was sponsored by Avijit Wadhawan, John Rufino Aguilar, Budescu Ionut, Dan Gabber, Thomas, Potkeny, Nils Müller, Davis Won, Kenneth McCarty, Nich, Patrascu Gabi, David Jeltema III, Fiber Optic, Drk, Michael Michalczyk, Caleb Gleason, Cole Hausner, Hal, Griff-And-Or, Kari Yi, Joseph, Andreas Asselman, ONI_Ghost, Costin C, and Arkanth