Chapter 517: Valiant Zhixiang

　　At the same time that the parrot and the meat jelly were howling, the translucent figure suddenly opened its mouth in a cold harrumph.

　　This time, it was not a sound that echoed out only in the mind. It really did open its mouth to emit a sound. The sound reverberated out like magic, shaking everything!

　　The parrot and meat jelly were instantly silenced.

　　Everything in the area was completely still and silent. Meng Hao seemed incapable of even breathing. This was not the first time Meng Hao had faced a Spirit Severing Cultivator. However, this was the first time… that he truly faced up against one completely on his own. It was his first time relying only on himself to stand up to the crushing pressure of the Spirit Severing stage.

　　Years ago when he faced Patriarch Reliance, Meng Hao did it as a Demon Sealer. The only thing Patriarch Reliance did in the end was flee in frustration.

　　Later in Holy Snow city, the legacies of the Frigid Snow Clan enabled Meng Hao to fight against a Spirit Severing Patriarch. In reality, though, that battle was not fought by Meng Hao, but by the legacies of the Frigid Snow, and the Agarwood!

　　This was the first time doing it while truly alone.

　　The intensity of the pressure felt to Meng Hao like Heavenly might. His Cultivation base was rotating rapidly and five-colored light glittered out of his body, a manifestation of the power of the five elements. However, despite this, his eyes were instantly shot with blood.

　　“A five elements totem. Nice idea,” said the semi-transparent figure, its voice cool. “If you could stabilize it, it might be considered stunning and peerless. Unfortunately, you can’t. With your current combination, you could sweep across the Nascent Soul stage, but you wouldn’t be able to stand up to a single blow from me. Very childish.” Its tone was not one of arrogance, but rather one of unquestionable strength. It was a strength that spread out into the area and caused cracking sounds to ring out as fissures split the air in all directions.

　　“These two trashy neo-demons are in no way Demon Spirits. If you don’t hand it over willingly, then I’ll just take it. Although, I do have to say that this physical body of yours is pretty good….” Except for the cold harrumph from earlier, the translucent figure hadn’t opened its mouth again. Its voice continued to echo in Meng Hao’s mind. As it finished speaking, it casually lifted up its hand and pointed toward Meng Hao.

　　The finger instantly caused a cold, emotionless feeling to fill the area. A tremor ran through Meng Hao’s body, along with an icy coldness.

　　At first, the coldness seemed to be something that affected his physical body. But actually, it was a coldness that filled his heart and soul. It was a coldness that affected the seven emotions and six pleasures. This coldness seemed to affect all of Meng Hao’s feelings, freezing them over, transforming him into a state of true cold-blooded unfeeling.

　　This transformation almost seemed to be putting him to some sort of special state, a state which was suitable for possession.

　　“Enough, enough!” squawked the parrot. “Spirit Severing my ass! This isn’t Spirit Severing, bitches! Meng Hao, even though you tried to con me, if you say the word, I’ll run off to find someone to get revenge for you….” At the same time, the meat jelly was howling out some complaints.

　　Meng Hao ignored them. His face was calm as he suddenly understood the meaning of the coldness inside of him.

　　“So this is the Domain?” He took a deep breath, and then his eyes began to fill with a bright light. “Zhixiang, if you don’t do something, then you’ll have to go by yourself to the Primordial Demon Immortal Plane.” As soon as his voice echoed out, the eyes of the translucent figure flickered, but its hand did not stop moving. Meng Hao’s body continued to fill with coldness; his heart slowly stopped beating, and his emotions turned as cold as ice.

　　This was not a divine ability or a magical technique, but merely the pointing of single finger. Everything seemed calm, but incredible changes were occurring, changes that influenced the laws of reality. Meng Hao felt as if he were bound up, incapable of resisting. It was as if his Cultivation base existed in name only, and was incapable whatsoever of resisting this surprise onslaught from the Domain.

　　The only thing he could do to fight against it would be to employ the Agarwood for the final time to escape death, or his final bit of Dancing Sword Qi. However, Meng Hao would not act rashly. Besides, it wasn’t absolutely necessary for him to use his trump cards when facing up against the Spirit Severing stage.

　　That was because he had Zhixiang!

　　He wasn’t nervous at all. He knew that before going the Primordial Demon Immortal Plane, there was someone who was very interested in whether he lived or died.

　　Besides, even if his guess about the situation was wrong, he was still prepared to take other action. The will of the Agarwood was currently swirling in his mind, ready to awaken.

　　That was another reason why he had been so casual, first about leaving, then about waiting in this spot.

　　At the same time, his eyes slowly started to turn blue. However, in that moment, an annoyed, cutesy snort suddenly filled the air. At the same time, a blooming white lotus appeared in front of Meng Hao. The translucent figure’s face fell.

　　Cracking sounds echoed out as fissures filled the air around Meng Hao. They spread out with a boom, transforming into countless fragments which then exploded.

　　Strangest of all, the explosions were actually illusory. This collapse was not a true collapse, but rather ghost images. Even as everything shattered, it faded away.

　　Meng Hao took a deep breath as his body returned to its normal state. The coldness, however, remained behind. It seemed that Zhixiang, annoyed as she was, wasn’t willing to help him dispel it.

　　Meng Hao didn’t care. He smiled as the color of his eyes returned to normal. Even as his body returned to normal, he retreated backward. Suddenly, he turned into a green smoke and a black moon. He even employed minor teleportation as he fled off into the distance!

　　The translucent figure frowned, and was just moving forward to pursue, when it stopped in place. That was because it suddenly found that a grim-faced woman was directly ahead, floating in mid-air.

　　The woman was incredibly beautiful. She wore a light green gown, the sleeves of which were embroidered with light blue peonies, and was hemmed with silver thread in the shape of auspicious clouds. The front of the garment was covered with light yellow brocade. She floated gracefully in the air, her garment swirling around her, like a willow tree fluttering in the wind.

　　Any man who looked at her would surely feel his heart pounding with desire and would be virtually intoxicated with her beauty. Her skin seemed delicate enough to be punctured by even a slight wind. Her face was immaculately beautiful, as if all other beautiful things in the world would be like dirt in front of her. Her beauty was the kind that caused her to be the focus of all gazes, wherever she went.

　　However, at the moment, she was grinding her teeth in apparent anger…. Her beauty seemed to contain the desire to kill, and her face was serious. She did not seem coquettish and seductive; her face was nearly half filled with coldness.

　　As she moved forward, the area around her swirled with countless flower petals which swirled like a vortex. They danced about her, some of them coming to fall on her shoulders; the entire scene was incredibly picturesque.

　　This was none other than Zhixiang!

　　After the Five Poisons Tribe was exterminated, it seemed as if she had gone off on her own. In actuality, for this the entire time, she had been keeping tabs on Meng Hao’s Tribe from off in the distance. She didn’t want him to reach an untimely end. If that happened, she would be much less confident about her chances of success in the Primordial Demon Immortal Plane.

　　She had watched Meng Hao deliver the Crow Divinity Tribe to the Black Lands, and had also sensed the Spirit Severing Cultivator’s Divine Clone pursuing him. At that point, Zhixiang knew that she had no choice but to take action.

　　She didn’t really want to, but considering that Meng Hao had called her out, her hand had been forced. She had no choice but to reveal herself. Despite her irritation at Meng Hao, she had no other options.

　　“Your excellency, who might you be?” asked the translucent figure with narrowed eyes. This was the second time it had actually opened its mouth. Its voice was ancient and archaic.

　　“I’m the badass bitch who’s gonna kick your ass!” she said. Her voice sounded like the singing of a lark. Unfortunately, her wording… was quite the opposite.

　　The eyes of the translucent figure flickered coldly. It took a step forward and then raised its right hand and pointed its finger.

　　“You trifling clone!” spat Zhixiang grumpily. “You see a badass bitch and you don’t hightail your ass out of here immediately?!” Even though she was cursing, it was the kind that didn’t make one mad, but actually was somewhat enjoyable.

　　Even as she spoke, she waved her sleeve, causing the flower petals circulating around her to suddenly fly toward the semi-transparent figure.

　　Off in the distance, Meng Hao was flying through the air in a wisp of green smoke. He suddenly heard an enormous boom coming from behind him. At the same time, Zhixiang’s voice suddenly echoed in his ear.

　　“I spent a lot of effort building up this little bit of Immortal power, you bastard. Now it’s all wasted! Meng Hao… if you stand me up on the day that the Primordial Demon Immortal Plane opens, then you’re dead!”

　　Meng Hao’s expression was the same as usual, almost as if he hadn’t heard anything. He utilized the Bloodburst Flash to suddenly shoot off into the distance.

　　He didn’t care how Zhixiang did it. Even if another Spirit Severing Patriarch emerged from the Black Lands and she had to pay a further price, she would still have to stop that person to give him a chance to flee. Once he escaped from the Southern region and disappeared into the Apocalypse and the boundless sea, finding him would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

　　Any Spirit Severing Patriarch would think twice about coming out after him alone; after all, once they left the Black Lands, the disputes and fighting that could break out in their absence would be too much of a cause for hesitation.

　　Meng Hao had thought through all of this thoroughly. He employed all the speed he could muster to shoot off into the distance.

　　Time passed by. Meng Hao wasn’t sure what Zhixiang did to intercept any enemies. However, for an entire month, he didn’t encounter any pursuit. By this point, having employed the fastest speed he could manage, he had already crossed half of the Southern region.

　　Even more violet rain fell. At this point, no sea was visible, but the aroma of seawater could be detected. The violet rain was causing everything to erode. No plants could be seen on the ground below. Life force was being exterminated and spiritual energy had faded; not a bit was left.

　　Occasionally, he saw bandit Tribes below. Eventually, Meng Hao caught sight of South Cleaving Pass.

　　He stopped there for a moment, looking at the pass with a soft sigh. He didn’t stay for very long, and during that time, the Cultivators that remained in the region didn’t even notice him.

　　His body flickered as he shot off toward the north at top speed.

　　During his traveling, his Cultivation base continued to weaken. The Five-Colored Sky was faded. He was now no longer at the peak of the mid Nascent Soul stage, but rather, the early Nascent Soul stage.

　　According to Meng Hao’s calculations , it wouldn’t be long before the five elements dissipated, whereupon his Cultivation base would return to the Perfect Gold Core stage.

　　What he needed to do next was to gain enlightenment regarding the sea of violet rain, and how to fuse it with the blood totem. Then, he would have his own Water-type totem, and would be able to tread… the path of the Five-Colored Nascent Soul!

　　At that time, he would truly be able to make a meteoric rise!

　　Meng Hao took a deep breath, hunching over as he shot forward at top speed. Three months passed. His Cultivation base was now completely back to the Perfect Cold Core stage. He finally left the Western Desert South region and was in the Central Region. Here, the only thing visible in all directions, was a boundless, endless…

　　Violet Sea!

　　—–

　　This chapter was sponsored by Bren Hillary, Jacob Phillips, Stephanie Anastasia, Anton Edlund, and Mong Qi Li