Chapter 561: The Old Friend He Least Wanted to Run Into

　　Meng Hao knew that all of the others had not awakened the way he had. As of the state they were in now, it was impossible to tell. Without hesitation, Meng Hao sent out his Divine Sense sense to scan the area.

　　Moments later, his face grew grim. In the outside world, his Divine Sense had a range of 29,999 meters. Here, however, it was only 299 meters. It had been reduced down by a full one hundred times.

　　“The Primordial Demon Immortal Plane opens once every thousand years. The Chosen from other Sects will no doubt have inside information, and therefore understand the area quite a bit better than me. My understanding, on the other hand, will be significantly less in comparison.

　　“Right now, I need to do everything possible to understand the situation as it is. Then I can go look for some fortune.” His eyes glittered as he looked up into the air. After a moment of careful consideration, he did not rashly fly up into the air, but rather proceeded forward on foot.

　　The ground in the area was covered with crack-filled limestone. Ancient bloodstains could be seen that had clearly been there for countless years. There were also corpses lying about, the sight of which left Meng Hao shocked.

　　There were collapsed buildings, broken pillars, and occasionally, deep craters. At first, it seemed as if this place were relatively close to the second peak, but soon, Meng Hao realized that he was actually quite some distance away.

　　In a short period of roughly two hours, Meng Hao saw thousands of corpses. Some were large, some were small. Some were complete, some were not. Some were Cultivators, some were Demons.

　　As far as bags of holding were concerned, he saw several dozen. However, when he scanned them with Divine Sense, they instantly turned into ash. Clearly, they had long since decayed during the years that had passed since primordial times. The items inside those bags of holding became ash as well.

　　“That these bags of holding turned into ash shows what an incredible amount of time has passed since the ancient Demon Immortal Sect still existed. However, these corpses, although merely broken remains, are still here. I wonder if there is something special about them?” He squatted thoughtfully down next to one particular corpse that was half human, half beast. Although this Cultivator had been dead for ages, Meng Hao was still able to sense incredible power within its fleshly body.

　　Muttering to himself, he reached out with his right hand to grab the corpse’s arm. He exerted a bit of pressure, then more, until he was using all the power he possessed within in the First Anima. Despite that, he could not move or damage the corpse’s arm in any way.

　　This left Meng Hao visibly shaken. His eyes flickered as he jumped directly into the Fourth Anima. He twisted on the arm again, and the result was only a tiny crack.

　　Meng Hao left the Fourth Anima and stood up thoughtfully. Then he quickly headed off. As he proceeded, he would stop to inspect every corpse he came across.

　　By the time he had inspected roughly a thousand, he finally sighed, and his eyes shone with a strange light.

　　“For one corpse to possess an incredible fleshly body is one thing. Maybe you could take it to be unique. But all one thousand of these corpses are the same! There wasn’t a single exception.

　　“The cultivation practiced by this ancient Sect is clearly very different than the cultivation practiced today. They didn’t just practice internal cultivation, but also cultivation of the fleshly body. Even after being dead for such a long time, these corpses can even cause problems for my Fourth Anima. There were even a few that I think could resist my Sixth Anima without being damaged.

　　“If they were alive… I wouldn’t be a match for them even in the Seventh Anima. Such incredible power! And there are thousands just like this, perhaps even tens of thousands. Or hundreds of thousands….” Meng Hao smiled somewhat bitterly as he finally realized just how fearsome the disciples of this ancient Sect were.

　　Most relevant of all, these people had died during a vicious attack that had actually caused many of the bodies to be split up into pieces. From the look of them, these were not Inner Sect Disciples. Most of them were… ordinary disciples.

　　Meng Hao’s eyes began to shine brightly, and his interest in the ancient Demon Immortal Sect continued to increase rapidly. Originally, he had chosen to come here because of Zhixiang, and Demon Weapon Lonelytomb.

　　Now, though, there was something else that drew him to this place. He wanted to know what technique these Demon Immortal Sect disciples cultivated, and whether related legacies still existed.

　　“If I could acquire a legacy from ancient times….” Meng Hao’s heart was palpitating with eagerness. His eyes flashed as he continued onward at top speed. Time passed. When Meng Hao had arrived here, it was around noon. By now, evening was falling.

　　Looking up, Meng Hao was unable to see any similarities between this sky and the sky of South Heaven. It really seemed as if he were in a different world, a world that belonged solely to the ancient Demon Immortal Sect.

　　As he walked along, Meng Hao would occasionally look up at the darkening evening sky, or around at his surroundings. “The entire Sect is a world. I wonder how many majestic Sects like this exist in Heaven and Earth, or out in the starry skies….”

　　Perhaps because the ancient Demon Immortal Sect was so incredibly large, or maybe for other reasons, Meng Hao did not encounter any other South Heaven Cultivators. The only thing he saw was collapsed temples and corpses.

　　The richly ornamented buildings were long gone. The once luxurious and elegant halls were now nothing more than ruins. There were some locations that clearly were covered by restrictive spells. Although many years had passed, the power of those spells was still shocking enough to give Meng Hao pause.

　　According to his speculations, even someone as powerful as Patriarch Huyan… would be instantly killed beyond the shadow of a doubt if he touched those spells.

　　“The Demon Immortal Sect… has the character Immortal in it. Don’t tell me that all the members of the Sect… were actually Immortals?!?!” The mere thought of that possibility shook Meng Hao. His eyes glittered as he proceeded on cautiously. He continued to see more and more restrictive spells. Some were more powerful, some were weaker. However, even the weakest were enough that Meng Hao had no chance against them.

　　At one point he caught sight of an Immortal’s cave that seemed to be completely intact. However, the sense he got from the incredible restrictive spell was similar to that he had sensed from the eight Immortals he had encountered when going to the Realm of the Bridge Ruins.

　　Evening was fading into the darkness of night when Meng Hao suddenly stopped in place. He looked off into the distance, toward a crumbled palace. Shockingly, on opposite sides of the palace ruins, two women could be seen.

　　One of them was the exact same blue-robed woman within whose bosom Meng Hao’s face had encountered such incredible softness. Even when her eyes were closed, she had seemed cold. Now that her eyes were opened, they flashed with killing intent.

　　When Meng Hao saw the woman next to her, he frowned. Other than Zhixiang, there was no woman in existence whom he would rather see less.

　　Fang Yu!

　　This exceedingly violent young woman had left a deep impression on Meng Hao that year. The quaking and craters left behind by her punch, the intense desire to do battle which shone in her eyes, all caused Meng Hao to feel as if a frigid air was washing over him.

　　This was not only the most violent woman he had ever met, but also the person he least wanted to run into again in his entire life!

　　Meng Hao cleared his throat, and subconsciously began to back away. He didn’t want to face either of these women. One had blocked his line of sight like some tall mountain, the other was a Cultivator who, without speaking even a single word, could transform into an explosive dragon.

　　However, in the exact same moment in which Meng Hao caught sight of them, they both turned to look at him.

　　The icy woman in the blue gown glanced him over. Seeing that he was at the great circle of the Nascent Soul stage, she looked away disdainfully to stare once again at Fang Yu.

　　In her opinion, the great circle of the Nascent Soul stage was definitely beyond ordinary. However, in the Ji Clan, a Cultivation base like that, although it could get you into the Array, would put you in one of the lowest positions possible. This woman, although she was not truly of the Spirit Severing stage, had performed half of a Severing. She was one of the nine people in the Ji Clan in the last thousand years who had the most hope of breaking through into the Immortal realm.

　　Her main competition, other than the other eight members of her own Clan, was the Chosen of the Fang Clan, against whom she faced this moment.

　　When Fang Yu caught sight of Meng Hao, she gaped in shock. Regardless of anything, she would never have possibly guessed that she would run into Meng Hao in this place.

　　As soon as she saw that he was backing up, she quickly called out, “Don’t go anywhere!”

　　If she hadn’t said anything, he wouldn’t have left. However, as soon as she spoke, he turned on his heel and began to flee.

　　“You really dare to disobey me!?” she cried, her eyes wide with anger. She was just about to offer pursuit, when the icy-cold woman, who had just been watching in shock, gave a cold laugh and then vanished. When she reappeared, she was blocking Fang Yu’s way.

　　“Ji Xiaoxiao, you slut, why don’t you go screw off!” Fang Yu pulled her arm back and then slammed a fist down into the ground. A shocking boom rattled out, causing the ground to shatter in successive layers. A shockwave attack proceeded to blast out in all directions. 1

　　As Meng Hao fled, he felt the explosive discharge of energy coming from behind him, and he instantly increased his speed. He had no desire whatsoever to exchange blows with this explosive dragon, and it had nothing to do with a question of who was strong and who was weak. There was no enmity between the two of them, and if they started fighting, it would be of no benefit to Meng Hao or his plans in this place.

　　Roaring echoed about as the attack spread out. The land in the area was destroyed, and as ripples of power spread out in all directions, the cold woman waved her hand to block. As for Fang Yu, she glanced at fleeing Meng Hao for a moment and then got even angrier. Gritting her teeth, she instantly produced a glove from her bag of holding which she slipped onto her hand. She then viciously smashed her fist out toward the other woman.

　　She shot forward, punching the entire time. The air filled with a red glow, and the cold woman’s face instantly fell. She dashed backward, waving her hand to resist the power of seven or eight punches before finally vanishing. She reappeared some distance off, blood oozing from her mouth.

　　“Fang Yu, are you insane? We might not like each other much and I did steal your jade pendant back in Chang’an. But that doesn’t mean you have to go all out the instant you see me!”

　　“SCREW OFF!” roared Fang Yu, her anger raging as she shot off to chase Meng Hao. Apparently she didn’t care at all about Ji Xiaoxiao.

　　Ji Xiaoxiao gaped in astonishment as she looked off in the direction which Meng Hao had fled. Suddenly, she smiled. When she did, her icy prettiness seemed to blossom into shocking beauty.

　　“Fang Yu has always been proud and arrogant. She has a bad temper, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so mad at a man. I wonder what sort of relationship she has with him….

　　“Hmph. Ever since we were small, it’s been the same. Whatever the two of us see, we end up fighting over it. Well this time, it’s no different!” Ji Xiaoxiao’s eyes were like crescent moons that shone with radiant beauty. Her slender frame flickered as she shot off in pursuit.

　　1. Ji Xiaoxiao’s name in Chinese is 季笑笑 jì xiào xiào – Ji of course is the surname Ji from the Ji Clan, which literally means “season.” Both of the xiao characters in her name mean “smile” or “laugh”