Chapter 519: Within the Sea, Time is Forgotten

　　The specters looked at Meng Hao, and he looked back. They appeared to hesitate, as if they were confused about something.

　　Meng Hao’s expression was the same as normal. However, he looked closely at the specters, paying attention to see how they would react.

　　After a moment, a towering death aura rose up from them. Their bodies flashed into motion as they shot toward Meng Hao.

　　He frowned, then sighed lightly. As the specters neared, he pointed out with his right hand, causing a bloody light to explode out. Within this bloody light was an intense life force which shot forward. In the blink of an eye, it slammed into the specters.

　　When that happened, an exterminating will exploded out that caused everything to shake. A sound like a thunderclap echoed out as the specters’ bodies collapsed into pieces. They were now dead in soul as in body.

　　This exterminating will was created when the will of life touched an aura of death.

　　Ten years ago, Meng Hao could never have done this. Now, though, after ten years of enlightenment, although he could not completely reverse his own life force into an aura of death, he did understand the method with which to produce extermination.

　　“If these Violet Sea specters can sense my life force, then there’s no need to even mention the sea itself.” He shook his head. During the past ten years, along with his increase in enlightenment, he had also come to find that when encountering these specters, they always looked puzzled for a moment. It showed that he was at least making progress.

　　“Such a phenomenon also seems to indicate that I’ve indeed picked the correct path.” He looked up into the sky, lost in thought. He had no idea where the parrot and meat jelly had gone off to. In the past ten years they had frolicked and played to their hearts content.

　　They would often disappear without a trace for half a year or more. Considering their usual vices, Meng Hao wasn’t worried for their safety. There was nothing in the area that had fur or feathers, so no matter what stories they made up, they actually couldn’t accomplish much.

　　Meng Hao rested for a few more days before once again sinking down into the Violet Sea.

　　It turned out Meng Hao was so focused on his cultivation that he actually miscalculated regarding the parrot and meat jelly….

　　While it was true that there was nothing in the area that had fur or feathers, well, the Black Lands was another story…. The parrot and meat jelly had gotten tired of the ocean years ago, and had secretly left and flown back to the Black Lands.

　　After entering, they immediately caused a violent commotion that eventually became a legend.

　　Time passed, another ten years.

　　Meng Hao had already spent more than twenty years trying to understand the violet rain. By now, he could submerge nearly three thousand meters and sit there cross-legged for several months.

　　His life force was currently incredibly weak. Were it anyone else, such a lack of life force would mean they weren’t alive at all. Meng Hao was different, though. Although his life force was weak, his thick death aura actually became something like a different type of life.

　　Such life was similar to that of the specters, except that it possessed a fleshly body, and a soul.

　　The reason Meng Hao could endure for so long underneath the sea was that as his life force grew weaker, the power of extermination in the seawater was reduced. The will to expel him from his position within the water was also weakened.

　　Another ten years passed. When Meng Hao had spent an entire half of a sixty-year cycle trying to gain enlightenment of the violet rain. At long last, he could sink all the way to the very bottom of the sea.

　　He could now step foot onto what had once been… the great lands of the Western Desert!

　　On the seafloor, Meng Hao could feel pervasive, indescribable auras of death surrounding him in all directions. The auras were incredibly thick, and were even accompanied by numerous specters.

　　When these specters saw Meng Hao, though, they completely ignored him, and would simply pass on, sometimes drifting directly through his body.

　　The life force in Meng Hao’s body had already been suppressed almost completely. The only thing left was a tiny sliver upon which his entire life hung. His body was now filled with an abundant aura of death, causing his skin to turn an ashen white, almost the exact same color as a corpse.

　　He sat cross-legged on the seafloor, on what had once been the surface of the Western Desert. This time, year after year passed.

　　To understand the violet rain, one must become the violet rain. Only in such a manner could enlightenment be gained. After thirty years of attempts, Meng Hao was finally able to achieve some success.

　　That sliver of life force that sustained the fire of his life was now surrounded by an aura of death. However, it was not exterminated. The surrounding will of extermination was now incredibly weak.

　　Meng Hao was now finally able to understand what it felt like to die within the violet rain.

　　He did not move. He sat there cross-legged, making no attempt to leave the Violet Sea. Another ten years passed.

　　Meng Hao’s process of understanding how to form his Water-type totem had already lasted forty years. To a mortal, forty years is half a lifetime. To Cultivators, though, forty years… could not be considered short… but neither could it be considered very long.

　　After forty years, the rainfall in the Western Desert was no longer a downpour. It was now showing signs of letting up. The rain itself would not last for ten thousand years. According to the records kept in the Western Desert, the rain would last for a hundred years at the most.

　　Unfortunately, even though the rain would cease to fall after a hundred years, the spiritual energy would not be restored. The Violet Sea would still be like a restricted area for Cultivators. It would be possible to fly in mid-air above the waters, but… it was impossible to step a single foot into the sea.

　　Furthermore, because of the death of the vast numbers of Western Desert Cultivators who hadn’t been able to enter the Black Lands, there were countless specters that filled the Violet Sea. As they flew about, any living thing they encountered would cause them to feel extreme grievance. They would instantly attack in an effort to exterminate the life force.

　　Even still, these specters were actually something that Cultivators could use. Because they were congealed out of an aura of death, they could be sealed. Some of the more powerful of the specters could even be refined into Death Aura Crystals. Such crystals could be used when practicing cultivation to stimulate the latent power of the body.

　　During that forty year period, many great upheavals rocked the Black Lands. The one thing that didn’t change, however, was that the Heavenly Court Alliance still held sway as the most powerful force in the Black Lands.

　　In addition to the Heavenly Court Alliance, six other powerful forces gradually rose up. These were of course the great Tribes who had Spirit Severing Patriarchs.

　　Actually, one of them, the sixth, did not have a Spirit Severing Patriarch. The name of this force was the Golden Crow Black Dragon Clan.

　　This Clan was a combination of the Crow Divinity Tribe and the Black Dragon Tribe. In terms of the power structure, the Golden Crow Clan was the primary power, the Black Dragon Tribe the secondary, and the Church of the Golden light was tertiary. Together, they formed a powerful Clan.

　　Although they had no Spirit Severing Patriarch, they did have 800,000 neo-demons. As such, the Golden Crow Black Dragon Clan possessed such fearsome power that no one dared to look down upon them.

　　That was especially the case when it came to their spell formation. Over the course of forty years, many people spied upon them, but all were forced to dispel of any thoughts of trying to take the Clan out.

　　The Clan also had the Thorn Rampart vine. Any enemy under the Spirit Severing stage would be completely incapable of doing anything against it.

　　If a Spirit Severing expert arrived, it might be able to handle the Thorn Rampart, but 800,000 frenzied neo-demons was something that no Tribe would dare to test out.

　　Because of this, there was a balance in the Black Lands…. Because of that balance, the Golden Crow Black Dragon Clan was able to not only exist, but rise to a position of power.

　　There is probably no need to even mention how their totemic Sacred Ancients grew. With the Outlander Beast acting as a guard, the Golden Crow Black Dragon Clan was a force that everyone was forced to take seriously.

　　This was even more the case when some of the neo-demons from the horde of 800,000 gradually grew to the point of becoming totemic Sacred Ancients!

　　Thirty years ago, Big Hairy reached level 11 and became a totemic Sacred Ancient! On that day, all neo-demons in the Black Lands could sense a powerful Demonic Qi which spread out thickly in all directions from the Golden Crow Clan.

　　After another ten years, the red crocodile and the enormous lizard successively became totemic Sacred Ancients.

　　As for the crows, mosquitos and some of the various other neo-demons, they grew like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. All of them reached level 11 and became totemic Sacred Ancients!

　　Under their guardianship, the Golden Crow Black Dragon Clan truly was worthy to be called powerful. They became one of the six greatest powers in the Black Lands underneath the Heavenly Court Alliance!

　　Ten years ago, the parrot and the meat jelly used some unknown method to escape the detection of Spirit Severing Divine Sense and re-enter the Black Lands. They instantly began to sow chaos. Vast numbers of neo-demons met with disaster. With the exception of the Golden Crow Black Dragon Clan, neo-demons from any Tribe who sensed the aura of the parrot and meat jelly would instantly wail mournfully and then flee in the opposite direction.

　　No matter what any Dragoneer did to try to control them, they were powerless to block them in any way. Their neo-demons would quickly flee, and the lonely Dragoneer would be left hovering alone in mid-air, trembling.

　　“The Bane of Dragoneers” was a name that quickly rose to prominence in the Black Lands.

　　During that forty year period of time, the Southern Domain remained on guard against the Black Lands. However, disciples often came from the various Sects of the Southern Domain to have dealings with the six great powers. On the surface, things seemed peaceful. In reality, both sides were being vigilant regarding the other.

　　The Sect with whom the Golden Crow Black Dragon Clan had the most dealings with… was the Violet Fate Sect!

　　The reason for this was that legends began to spread of what had happened forty years ago. The Western Desert Cultivators soon learned that the totemic Sacred Ancient who led the Crow Divinity Tribe out of the North, Meng Hao… was once a disciple of the Violet Fate Sect!

　　He was Grandmaster Pill Cauldron of the Southern Domain, a person completely illustrious and famous.

　　As soon as word of this began to spread, it caused a huge stir. After all, everyone who had seen Meng Hao combine the five elements outside Blackgate Fort had been thoroughly shaken.

　　However, as time passed, the stories about Meng Hao soon came to be legends of the past. No one had seen or heard from Meng Hao for forty years. All they knew was that he had disappeared into the depths of what had once been the Western Desert. As the Violet Sea spread because of the violet rain, many people came to believe that Meng Hao had already perished.

　　As for the reason why he did not enter the Black Lands, but instead chose to travel out into the Violet Sea, it gradually came to be accepted that it was because of the Ji Clan from the Eastern Lands!

　　The enmity between Meng Hao and the Ji Clan quickly became common knowledge.

　　During the forty years, the lands of South Heaven changed quite a bit. The Meng Hao who so many people were beginning to forget, was currently sitting at the bottom of the Violet Sea, attempting to gain enlightenment regarding the will of death. Meanwhile, also at the bottom of the sea, far away from Meng Hao in what had once been the Western Desert North region, in the location of what had once been the home of the Crow Divinity Tribe, another young man in a black robe sat cross-legged on the ocean floor. Occasionally he would open his eyes, and they would glow with a red light.

　　If you looked closely at this young man, you would see that his appearance… was very similar to that of Meng Hao’s. The difference was that he seemed much, much more cold and sinister.

　　He wore a black robe, and on his forehead could be seen a mark that looked like a bat. As he sat there cross-legged, he actually looked very much… like a black-colored bat!

　　“Seven spirits managed to slip through to the holy barriers of the Heavens. They transformed into seven ancient true spirits…. After tens of thousands of years passed, their spirit wills ascended, and their spirit bodies transformed into seven Immortal Murdering Swords. Meng Hao, by what right of virtue do you possess four of them!?!?

　　“The true spirits are not visible in the world. We discarnate spirits are the real power. By recapturing the spirit bodies, we can then have the ability to tread the path of the true spirit!” The eyes of the black-robed youth glittered. His left eye actually had no eyeball, but instead, was a vortex. Within the vortex was a corpse which was half human and half beast. This was the exact same bizarre corpse from which Meng Hao had acquired the Immortal Murdering Sword years ago within the Crow Divinity Tribe’s Holy Land.

　　As of now, that corpse had become nothing more than nourishment for this black-robed youth. Perhaps it was by consuming that corpse… that the Black Bat was able to transmogrify and change its shape!

　　——

　　The Black Bat disappeared in chapter 477. It was the bat Meng Hao won in his early days in the Crow Scout Tribe, that had a wooden sword stuck inside of it.

　　——

　　This chapter was sponsored by Sofoklis Schortsanitis