Chapter 683: Henceforth

　　He was willing to sink into depravity!

　　All for Immortal Ascension!

　　All to avoid death!

　　Tears streamed down the face of the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch. He howled, and his eyes were completely bloodshot. He no longer even had a heart, but he still felt a sense of belonging to the clan and the bonds of kinship toward his fellow clan members. But now… it was too late to turn back.

　　He was not willing to die, especially not after he had acquired the Perfect Dao foundation and his body was filled with Immortal Qi. The only thing he could do was sink to the lowest level.

　　Regret? He did not know the meaning of the term. He could only consume. Consume the souls of his own bloodline. Only those souls could save his life.

　　This was… the only thing he could do!

　　All for Immortal Ascension!

　　The 10th Wang Clan Patriarch howled hoarsely as his consciousness grew murky. He slipped further into madness. KILL! KILL! KILL!

　　He had no idea how many people he killed, nor how many souls of fellow clan members he consumed. In one night, all the members of the Wang Clan in the clan’s third city… died.

　　The Patriarchs buried in the various mountain ranges were destroyed amidst rumbling booms. The seven Patriarchs had incredible cultivation bases, but the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch now possessed Immortal qi, as well as a Perfect Dao foundation. They simply couldn’t compare to him, and were no match at all.

　　One by one, they all died!

　　Mountains crumbled, and everything shook. In one night, the Wang Clan’s entire foundation in the lands of South Heaven… was uprooted. This was genocide!

　　He was the 10th Patriarch, who had existed for ages in the lands of South Heaven. He was the Patriarch with the highest cultivation base in the clan, a person the clan members looked up to like a god.

　　But on that day, the god became a devil, and carnage reigned. During the massacre, he regained lucidity three times.

　　The first time was when he killed his younger brother, the 11th Wang Clan Patriarch who had stayed by his side for countless years. He ripped his soul out, then, tears streaming down his face, laughed maniacally and consumed it.

　　The second time was when he killed his most beloved member of the junior generation. The man cried, begging the Patriarch to spare his life. He crushed the man’s skull, then, his hand still covered with blood and brain, grabbed the soul and consumed it.

　　The third time was when the world had grown completely silent. Beneath his feet was nothing but wreckage and bodies. No living person existed. At that point, he regained clarity.

　　However, that clarity only lasted for a few breaths of time. Then he slipped back into madness. By this point, his body was no longer injured. He was recovered. However, the souls that he had lost… would remain forever lost. Two spiritual aspects and three physical aspects were gone forever.

　　He now had only one spiritual aspect and four physical aspects.

　　This was a result bought by the lives of all the Wang Clan members in the lands of South Heaven. His soul did not dissipate, and he did not die. However… with only one spiritual aspect and four physical aspects to his soul, who knew if and when he would ever become lucid again.

　　For the most part, he was descended into madness and carnage. Before he completely sank back down into the depravity, he shed some tears, which spattered down onto the ruins of the Wang Clan. Perhaps years later, a field of blood colored flowers would bloom in that very spot….

　　He raised his head and let out a mournful, bitter laugh. Then he turned into a bright beam of light that shot off into the distance.

　　“Immortal Ascension!

　　“I will become Immortal!”

　　He left, forever submerged within his insanity.

　　Henceforth, there was no Wang Clan in the lands of South Heaven. In its place, a lunatic existed who constantly raved about Immortal Ascension. Of course, few people dared to provoke the madman.

　　That was because… he was halfway into Immortal Ascension. He possessed Immortal qi and only needed to pass through Immortal Tribulation to become a true Immortal!

　　Unfortunately, his soul was not complete, and he was eternally sunken into depravity. His day of Immortal Tribulation would never come.

　　…

　　In the depths of the Second Ring of the Milky Way Sea was an enormous Resurrection Lily, drifting back and forth in the water. It was impossible to see the number of colors, but what could be seen was the figure of a woman sitting on the flower. She almost seemed to be using the petals as a swing as she swayed back and forth.

　　“No Dao Foundation. He likely perished….

　　“In the League of Demon Sealers, the Ninth is the pinnacle. It seems the league… is broken.”

　　Outside the Fourth Ring of the Milky Way Sea, an island sped across the surface of the water. Suddenly, a tremor ran through it, and it stopped moving. After a long, long moment, an enormous head rose up out of the sea and looked off into the distance.

　　“His aura… is gone….

　　“The little bastard is full of schemes and wickedness. He’s dead? Good! Great! Wonderf… wait, he died?!?!” He head quivered slightly. Patriarch Reliance wanted to feel happy, but for some reason, he actually wasn’t.

　　“Dead…. Dammit, who killed him? He’s the Patriarch’s only Inner Sect disciple! The little bastard is endlessly scheming, how could he have died?!?!”

　　On the island, Guyiding Tri-rain also seemed to have sensed something, and her face paled. She leaned up against the old Boat Spirit, sorrow filling her eyes.

　　“Didn’t you promise me that you would help me turn into a sea…? You broke your promise….”

　　In the lands of the Southern Domain, in the Violet Fate Sect, Pill Demon was smiling as he concocted a batch of pills especially for Meng Hao. Recently, he’d gotten the feeling that Master and apprentice would be reunited before too long.

　　He wanted to finish concocting the special batch of pills before they met in person. However, it was in that moment that the pill furnace suddenly exploded. Pill Demon suddenly seemed to age by hundreds of years. He silently looked off into the distance for a long, long time.

　　Chu Yuyan was sitting cross-legged in meditation, practicing cultivation in her Immortal’s cave. Then, for some unknown reason, her heart suddenly felt troubled. Her eyes opened, and she looked up into the night sky. A shooting star flew by.

　　“When I was young, my dad always said that when you see a shooting star, it means someone just perished.”

　　In the Black Sieve Sect, Xu Qing sat with eyes closed, seeking enlightenment of a Daoist magic she had acquired in the Demon Immortal Sect. Suddenly, a tremor ran through her body, and her eyes opened. Her face was deathly pale, and she lifted her hand up to her chest.

　　An intense, uneasy feeling made her suddenly stop cultivating. She walked out of her Immortal’s cave, her face growing even more ashen.

　　“Pain. This is the second time I’ve felt pain like this…. The first time was the time by the Rebirth Cave.

　　“Meng Hao, is it you? What… happened? Why am I suddenly so frightened?” Xu Qing didn’t know why, but she suddenly found herself weeping. She didn’t dare to think too deeply about her sudden premonition. Trembling, she flew up into the sky.

　　Although she didn’t know the source of the feeling, for some reason she looked toward the Milky Way Sea and then began flying.

　　On that day, Fatty was very irritable. He violently lost his temper countless times in the Golden Frost Sect, although he wasn’t sure why.

　　On that day, Chen Fan killed. Although he looked calm, deep in his heart existed a boundless desire to slaughter. He flew out of the sect and killed numerous villainous cultivators.

　　On that day in the Blood Demon Sect, Wang Youcai made a cultivation base breakthrough into the Nascent Soul stage. However, he felt no joy. He looked in the direction where the State of Zhao used to exist, and thought of his childhood, and of his old friends. 1

　　On that day in the Northern Reaches, a Blood cultivator rose to prominence. Acting alone, he slaughtered an entire small-scale sect, then occupied the location. He was young, but unfeeling and coldblooded. In his blood-soaked hands, he held a magical item, a pearl. The young man had a name, too. Dong Hu. 2

　　On that day, in the Great Tang of the Eastern Lands, in a tall tower, a husband and wife got into an argument the likes of which was virtually unprecedented. The woman eventually stormed off, her eyes filled with tears. The man looked silently off into the distance. There was no one to see it, but tears streamed down his face.

　　Time slowly passed by.

　　Xu Qing arrived in the Milky Way Sea. No matter how she searched, she found nothing. An entire sixty-year cycle passed before she silently picked an area on the border of the Southern Domain where she sat down to meditate. Every day she would look out at the Milky Way Sea. She had the feeling that out there somewhere, was Meng Hao.

　　It was only a feeling, but she believed it.

　　As for the couple who had argued, the woman also reached the Milky Way Sea. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she went to the Third Ring, to the Second Ring, to everywhere. She found nothing. She searched and searched, and even fought a battle with the Dawn Immortal in the Second Ring.

　　The battle shook Heaven and Earth. All of the Sea Devils in the Second Ring were killed, and black seawater spread out to cover the entire Third Ring. Heaven and Earth grew dark, and as for who won the battle, and who lost, nobody knew.

　　One hundred years passed….

　　In the Inner Ring of the Milky Way Sea, the water was red. An ancient battleship floated across the surface of the water, at the prow of which sat an old man in a suit of armor. He sat there cross-legged, apparently looking off into the distance. It was impossible to tell what exactly he was looking at.

　　Next to the old man rested a body. It was a man with no hair or eyebrows; he was completely shriveled up. Wrinkles covered his skin, and he looked as if he had just climbed up out of a grave. The entire body stank of putrefaction.

　　He had no right arm, and a gaping hole could be seen in his chest, where there existed… no heart whatsoever.

　　A flame burned above him, casting out a gentle light that covered over his body. As the light was cast out, it transformed into glittering dots, within each of which could be seen flickering, incomprehensible magical symbols. Oh so slowly, those dots of light bored into the hole in Meng Hao’s chest.

　　Inside of Meng Hao’s chest, the flesh and blood writhed, as if it were slowly growing.

　　The years seemed as if they would flow by in this manner forever, and because they were in the Inner Ring of the Milky Way Sea, there was no one who could find the ancient ship, or Meng Hao.

　　On one particular day, the armored old man slowly opened his eyes. Hidden within them were the sun, the moon, and the stars. Endless years of time permeated those eyes, as if the man could see into their boundless depths.

　　He turned his head, and his abstruse gaze fell onto Meng Hao.

　　When that happened, Meng Hao’s body seemed to experience the passing of thousands of years. The fire burned intensely, emitting more crystalline dots of light that merged into the hole in his chest. The wriggling of the blood and flesh increased, and soon the healing process was visible to the naked eye. A new heart formed, and the wounds were healed. Even the bones and flesh of the right arm slowly began to grow out.

　　In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Meng Hao was completely restored. Not a wound could be seen on him. However… his hair was pure white, and he looked incredibly old, as if he were an elderly man.

　　Weakness radiated out from him as he opened his eyes.

　　His eyes were filled with confusion. He lay there thinking for a long time before memories started to trickle into his brain. He thought of the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch, and how he had chosen to end in common ruin with him rather than give up his freedom. In the end, he had landed a sword blow on the Wang Patriarch’s soul!

　　“My cultivation base….” He closed his eyes and cast his senses inward. After a while, he slowly rose into a sitting position and looked at the armored old man, who sat with his back to him. The old man seemed as if he would sit on this ship for all eternity as it roamed about.

　　Meng Hao clasped hands and bowed deeply. “Senior, thank you for your kindness in saving my life!”

　　1. Wang Youcai was one of the group of four boys who were taken to the Reliance Sect by Xu Qing in the first chapter. Although Meng Hao came to the conclusion that he was killed, he reappeared later as a member of the Blood Demon Sect. He has popped up at various times throughout the story such as the Blood Immortal Legacy tournament and the Song Clan search for a son-in-law

　　2. Dong Hu, a.k.a. Little Tiger, was another of the group of four boys who joined the Reliance Sect at the same time. Meng Hao encountered him again in chapter 71, where he had a pearl. During Meng Hao’s fight with Shangguan Xiu in chapter 75, Dong Hu loaned him the pearl, which allowed Meng Hao to temporarily break into the tenth level of Qi Condensation. Meng Hao returned the pearl to him in chapter 76. You might also be able to deduce that the pearl was even alluded to vaguely in chapter 19. In chapter 613, Meng Hao saw a similar pearl in the Fourth Plane of the Demon Immortal Sect