Chapter 677: The Great Dao Resonates!

　　The first blade of Spirit Severing!

　　The first Dao of Spirit Severing!

　　Meng Hao sat cross-legged at the bottom of the Milky Way Sea. Around him stretched skeletal remains that formed the outline of a flower. Amongst the swaying seaweed, the skeleton pulsed with a faint light, which gradually turned into a ghastly white color, like that of bones.

　　It weighed down on the five-colored Resurrection Lily, suppressing it so that its struggling turned into a frenzy.

　　Meng Hao’s body withered, continuing to look weaker and weaker, until he looked like a bag of bones. However, his eyes shined with an unprecedented life force.

　　It was as if he was embodying the Dao; all of his mind and heart and will were focused in his eyes, which rested on the multicolored blade in front of him.

　　He completely ignored everything in the outside world. His entire focus was that blade!

　　The blade moved!

　　It slowly raised up! As it did, the blade in the Heavens above, which contained innumerable constellations, also rose high, casting its light down onto the lands of South Heaven as it did.

　　Immediately, gigantic waves swelled up across the entirety of the Milky Way Sea, crashing and thundering far and wide. The movement of the blade even caused the Violet Sea in the Western Desert to begin to roil violently.

　　All of the Cultivators, and in fact, all living things, in the Outer Sea, the Fourth Ring, and the Third Ring, were all flabbergasted.

　　The 10th Wang Clan Patriarch’s face was unsightly to the extreme as he stared up into the sky. Although his face flickered with various emotions, he didn’t dare to take even a step forward toward the area where Meng Hao was performing his Spirit Severing.

　　He well knew that a great Dao was nearing. Were he to step foot into that area, that great Dao would exterminate him in body and spirit. The reason was that this Dao… was not his Dao.

　　“Dammit!” he cursed, killing intent growing with intensity in his eyes. “Well, eventually your Spirit Severing will come to an end. You absolutely must not kill yourself in the process, child, otherwise I’ll never acquire your Dao foundation!

　　“However… I still want to know, just what Dao did you come to understand?”

　　Within the Third Ring, the Three Saints’ faces also flickered. In contrast to Saint Flying Immortal and Saint Sea Divinity, Saint Sun Soul’s eyes glowed with a strange light. He was instantly able to determine that the Spirit Severing was being performed… by Meng Hao!

　　“So, it turns out you were actually only a half a step into Spirit Severing!” he thought, taking a deep breath.

　　Meanwhile, as the astral blade slowly rose up, the struggling, illusory image of the Resurrection Lily had reached the point of insanity. It quivered in terror because of the unprecedented feeling of deadly crisis; this was the first time it had ever truly experienced dread.

　　It could clearly sense that the blade in front of Meng Hao had the power to sever it away. That blade was backed by the power of a great Dao, something it was powerless to resist.

　　A faint voice could suddenly be heard coming from the skeleton in the seaweed, and the eyes of the long dead Reverend Silverlamp suddenly glowed with lucidity. “The Dao of freedom, of independence….”

　　He looked at Meng Hao sitting in front of him, and murmured, “Were it not for the fact that he was steeled by the Resurrection Lily, this kid would never have been able to comprehend such a great Dao of Heaven and Earth….

　　“Sever the fetters, and achieve true independence…. The interesting thing is that it’s impossible to tell whether he was tempered by the Resurrection Lily, or whether the Resurrection Lily was tempered by him.

　　“I can just barely sense that both he and the Resurrection Lily each have someone watching over them…. One is the Dawn Immortal of the Second Ring, mother of the Resurrection Lily who exists in the lands of South Heaven. The other… is in the Eastern Lands.”

　　Even as Reverend Silverlamp was looking at Meng Hao, a sinister gaze shot out from the black depths of the sea in the Second Ring, bearing a boundless evil. Despite the evil, it still exhibited a trace of Immortal Will as it peered towards Meng Hao.

　　“I bloomed at dawn,” thought the owner of the voice, “and my consciousness emerged…. On the day of vicissitudes, I achieved Immortal Ascension, and met someone I should not have met.

　　“Shui Mo stole away my heart, a heart… that contained all of the longing from my previous life…. It sank down into the Milky Way Sea and was sealed in a formation of stone, locked away in a copper coffin… restrained by countless chains.

　　“What was locked away was my goodness. Eventually, it transformed into a roc, which now weeps in the Rebirth Cave.

　　“The League of Demon Sealers. The Ninth is the pinnacle. Is he your hope…? I knew long ago that if I could not find you, then I would destroy the hope of the League of Demon Sealers.”

　　The gaze coming from the Second Ring looked at Meng Hao with complex emotions. There was coldness, confusion, hatred, and viciousness.

　　Meanwhile, in the Great Tang of the Eastern Lands, a woman was looking in the direction of the Milky Way Sea. Her gaze penetrated through the air, through the Milky Way Sea, all the way to Meng Hao.

　　It was a gaze filled with concern, worry, nervousness, and anxiety. All of that transformed into an endless love that wrapped up her heart.

　　She stood atop a lofty Tower of Tang, gazing far off into the distance. Next to her stood a man who silently clasped her hand. He could feel her trembling, and could feel the dampness of sweat in her palm. 1

　　“This is Hao’er’s tribulation,” he said softly. “I just wanted him to be able to live a normal, mortal life. And yet, he ended up choosing the path of cultivation…. Now there’s no looking back.

　　“If he fails,” he murmured, “then the both of us can go receive him when he is reincarnated. We can spend a whole life with him, walk a whole sixty-year cycle of springs and autumns….” He seemed to be speaking both to the woman, and himself.

　　“You know, you’re very cold-hearted,” said the woman. Tears flowed down her cheeks.

　　A tremor ran through the man, and he closed his eyes. Deep in his heart existed bitter pain, which spread out to fill his entire being. He seemed to be recalling the fragile child running through the fog that year, weeping as he cried out to his father and mother. He remembered how the boy limped about trying to find him. When the boy caught sight of him, he could see the tears in the boy’s eyes, and he realized how much the boy relied on him.

　　“Li, you don’t understand….” The man did not speak these words, but rather, whispered them in his heart. 2

　　RUMBLE!

　　At the bottom of the Milky Way Sea, Meng Hao’s eyes shined with an intensely bright glow. He slowly looked up at the blade in front of him as it rose ever higher. In the Heavens far above the sea, the astral blade also reared up simultaneously.

　　As they moved toward an apex, the blades seemed to be building up power. By the time they reached that apex, all living beings in the Milky Way Sea were watching on….

　　The astral blade then suddenly began to slash down toward the Milky Way Sea.

　　Rumbling filled the sky, and the sea suddenly started to split apart. The seafloor, which throughout countless ages had never been touched by sunlight… was revealed to the world for the first time.

　　Exposed therein was Meng Hao, as well as the Resurrection Lily, struggling in all of its madness.

　　Also visible was the multicolored blade hovering in front of Meng Hao.

　　The first blade of Spirit Severing!

　　“Heaven and Earth are just resting places for the myriads of living creatures,” he murmured. “Time represents the passage of hundreds of generations of passing travelers.” A glow of determination appeared in his eyes, and the blade descended. 3

　　“My life is just such a resting place. Wherever my footsteps lead, that is my direction!” His voice echoed out, softly at first, then louder and louder.

　　“Sever the fetters, and achieve true independence, acquire true freedom!” The sound of his voice caused everything in the area to shake and rumble. The parted sea water roared, and the glow of the astral blade increased tenfold!

　　It almost seemed to have formed a resonance with Meng Hao!

　　That resonance caused Heaven and Earth to dim. The wind whipped and the clouds churned. The glow of the astral blade spread without end, and the multicolored blade in front of Meng Hao emanated a shocking will.

　　This was… the resonance of a great Dao!

　　The glow grew more intense, transforming into ripples and then vibration. The air around Meng Hao twisted and distorted, and countless ghost images sprang up. When the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch felt it, his face fell.

　　“The resonance of a great Dao!”

　　In the Second Ring, the eyes of the mother of the Resurrection Lily went wide. As for the couple in the Great Tang of the Eastern Lands, both of them trembled.

　　Only great determination and incredible enlightenment could form a resonance like this!

　　Spirit Severing is not difficult when compared to causing a Dao…. But even more difficult is to form a resonance!

　　Meng Hao’s heart, will and mind all fused with the descending great Dao. They became indistinguishable!

　　I am the great Dao, and the great Dao is me!

　　In that moment, be it in the Southern Domain, the Northern Reaches, or the Eastern Lands, the Patriarchs and almighty members of all the Sects and Clans could all sense the resonance of the great Dao.

　　The resonance formed the first blade of Spirit Severing, a blade that would sever, not Meng Hao’s life or existence, but rather… any flaws within him that did not conform to his Dao!

　　Use the Dao to sever the Dao. It was like a baptism that cleansed any disharmonies, that purged the self. Any nonconforming Dao was absolutely unnecessary.

　　And of course, the Resurrection Lily was just such a flaw, just such a disharmony, just such a nonconforming Dao. It was absolutely unnecessary!

　　“Free and unconstrained, at liberty to walk about anywhere in Heaven and Earth! No one can restrict me! Heaven cannot impede me and the Earth cannot restrain my heart! This is my Dao!

　　“Freedom! Independence!” Meng Hao’s voice was like that of a god, each word cracking like thunder. The Milky Way Sea rumbled. The Dawn Immortal shook. The couple in the Eastern Lands trembled, as did the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch.

　　The words he had spoken just now were filled with Meng Hao’s great determination!

　　Everything trembled as the astral blade arrived. It merged with Meng Hao’s multicolored blade, transforming into a Dao blade that slashed down into the top of his head in the exact moment that he finished speaking.

　　The blade moved with incredible speed; no sooner had his words finished than it had pierced the top of his head into his neck, and then his heart. It passed through his dantian region, and then all the way through him, completely bisecting him!

　　However, Meng Hao didn’t move a muscle, and his face even showed hints of a smile. In contrast, the five-colored Resurrection Lily behind him let out an unprecedentedly bloodcurdling scream. It trembled violently as any connection it had to Meng Hao… was instantly broken!

　　Five colorful strands were snapped, and the five-colored Resurrection Lily began to wither up rapidly. It was not willing, and it virtually exploded with resentment and madness. But unfortunately, there was nothing it could do. In that moment, its will completely vanished.

　　Vanished for all eternity.

　　Meng Hao’s first blade of Spirit Severing severed the fetters, carving out his freedom. He had obtained independence!

　　In that moment, he erupted with a boundless, endless life force. His previously withered fleshly body was restored. Meng Hao looked up, and even as the image of the Resurrection Lily was about to completely dissipate, he reached out and grabbed it.

　　“You lived in me for 200 years, parasite. Do you really think the old scores could be settled so easily! From now on, you are my Spirit Severing Treasure. The day I get you to bloom with seven colors… is the day I reach Immortal Ascension!”

　　—–

　　This chapter was sponsored by Mototsugu Oba

　　1. A Tower of Tang was first mentioned in chapter 1. Meng Hao eventually visited it in chapter 59, which culminated in his vision of Choumen Tai, and then Choumen Tai’s corpse falling into the Southern Domain. Later, in chapter 138, when he went to the Black Sieve Sect for the first time, he found out that such towers exist in other places. He also saw a Tower of Tang in the illusory life he lived in the trial by fire to become a Violet Furnace Lord in chapter 289.

　　2. The “Li” character here is 丽, the same character as in Meng Li’s name 孟丽.

　　3. Here he is quoting the words originally spoken in chapter 291 in the illusory life, and then repeated in chapter 626 when he was talking to the Demon Mountain in the Demon Immortal Sect