Chapter 890: Battling Formidable Opponents!
Traveling through this endless void was different than traveling through the Ruins of Immortality. Here, Meng Hao had experienced an intense sensation of weightlessness. Here, things were different.
However, with his cultivation base, Meng Hao was able to quickly adjust and find his center of gravity, then was able to right himself and proceed along stably.
“So, I really can travel among the stars with this cultivation base,” he thought, his eyes glittering. He could not breathe, but to cultivators, merely rotating their cultivation base was enough. He did not need anything from outside his own body to sustain himself.
He tapped his bag of holding to produce the jade slip his father had given him. After scanning it with divine sense, he quickly pulled up the map, and found Planet East Victory. When he found his own location and compared the distance between the two, he realized… that although it didn’t look too far away, his current location was actually incredibly remote.
He muttered to himself for a moment, then put the jade slip away and continued speeding along. As he traveled, he would frequently unleash magical techniques and divine abilities, all to get more used to magical combat among the stars.
Several days later, as he proceeded along, his face suddenly flickered. He had just sensed that the Blood Clone he had left in the flying shuttle had disappeared.
“So, they were targeting me after all!” he thought. His eyes flickered with the desire to kill.
At the same time, in another location in the starry sky, two black-robed men hovered there, frowning. They wore the same type of clothing as that which had been worn by the black-robed men from earlier, although they were clearly not among the ten who had already shown their faces.
In front of them was the wreckage of the flying shuttle. Moments ago, a body could be seen inside the shuttle, but it had vanished, leaving behind only a spatter of blood, which then turned into a mist and faded away.
“What a cunning little son of a bitch,” said one of the men. “I never thought someone so young could be such a profound schemer. He’s really playing it careful.”
“He’s just a Spirit Realm cultivator,” replied the other. “Even if he’s comparable to a false Immortal, with forty or fifty percent of the power of a true Immortal, he won’t be able to get very far. It will be very difficult for him to travel through the starry sky. Let’s split up and look for him. There’s still time to track him down!”
After exchanging a glance, the two men split up and began to search in two different directions with their divine sense.
Each of these men was at the peak of the Immortal Realm. However, they were incapable of opening 80 meridians, and in fact only had 70 or so. That made them stage 7 Immortals, which was their apex .
Meng Hao’s face was grim as he sped along. As he grew more familiar with the starry sky, his speed increased. Soon, there was little difference between this type of travel and moving about on a planet.
Anyone else would be incapable of achieving something like that. However, based on all the things Meng Hao had experienced, he was naturally able to quickly adapt.
“I’m not sure how they managed to interrupt the teleportation process in the first place,” thought Meng Hao, “but it shows that they’re clearly very powerful.
“If 19th Uncle hadn’t unleashed his divine ability, they might have just tried to pin him down, then go after their true target, me!
“Who is it exactly that wants to kill me?” Meng Hao frowned, killing intent flickering in his eyes.
“Could it be those Chosen that I crushed back then on South Heaven? Or was my identity as Fang Mu revealed?
“There’s also another possibility, that the enemy tracked down and destroyed the flying shuttle to simply get rid of witnesses. Maybe they weren’t targeting me.” There was really no way for Meng Hao to be sure, but there was also one other guess as to the enemy's motives that he had contemplated in silence...but it was an answer that he didn't dare to lightly consider, and instead, focused on continuing forward at top speed.
Seven days passed, during which time the black-robed men continued to thoroughly search the area. Another black-robed cultivator arrived, making a total of three. Despite their combined efforts, there were no results.
Finally, they met back together to confer.
“Dammit! Did the kid grow wings and fly away? There’s no sign of him anywhere!”
“Maybe he has a magical item that allows him to survive for long periods out in the stars. Let’s widen the area of our search. We absolutely must track him down and kill him!”
“Once we find the son of a bitch, he’s dead for sure!”
The three headed off in different directions to carry out a wider search.
One of them ended up searching the area where Meng Hao actually was.
A few days later, Meng Hao was speeding along when suddenly, his face fell. An intense killing intent exploded out from behind him, and he turned to find a black-robed cultivator closing in on him through the void.
The black-robed man was expressionless, and a flicker of ridicule could be seen within his cold eyes. Before he even got close, his voice echoed out.
“We underestimated you,” he said. “Never thought you could get this far.” As he closed in, the power of a stage seven Immortal exploded out, and a huge statue appeared behind him.
The statue was 21,000 meters tall, and pitch black. It was fearsome in appearance, and looked absolutely nothing like the black-robed man.
He wasn’t a true Immortal, but a false Immortal. However, even a false Immortal who had reached the seventh stage, and opened 70 meridians, possessed shocking energy that would pose quite a bit of difficulty for Meng Hao.
Meng Hao’s eyes flickered, and his expression was one of alarm and terror as he edged backward.
“W-what do you want?!” he cried out loudly, his voice quavering. “I’m from the Fang Clan! My father is Fang Xiufeng! How dare you try to kill me!!” It was almost impossible to see in his eyes that he was actually gauging the distance between him and his opponent.
The black-robed man grinned viciously. He didn’t respond, but instead got closer, raising his right hand into the air. The eyes of the statue behind him glittered, and it sent its massive hand out toward Meng Hao, clearly intending to crush him to death in a single blow.
Meng Hao stood in place as if he were scared stiff, allowing the huge palm to fall down toward him. At the same time, the black-robed man continued to get closer. He was now less than three hundred meters away.
In that instant, Meng Hao’s eyes flickered with killing intent. Three hundred meters was close enough for him to unleash some of his divine abilities. He stretched out his right hand and pointed toward his opponent. Instantly, the Eighth Demon Sealing Hex was unleashed. The starry sky distorted, and the black-robed man was suddenly locked in place.
Blood began to ooze out of Meng Hao’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, a result of the backlash caused by using this Hex on someone whose cultivation base vastly exceeded his own. However, no look of pain could be seen in his expression, only the desire to kill. His expression grew more and more fierce.
In the same moment that his opponent was locked in place, Meng Hao waved his sleeve. A black beam flew out, along with a astonishing energy, as the crocodile appeared. Shockingly, the crocodile was also comparable to a stage seven Immortal, and as soon as it appeared, it swished its tail. A boom could be heard as the black-robed man’s eyes went wide and blood sprayed from his mouth. Because he was so close to Meng Hao, there was no way for him to dodge. He had no choice but to take the blow straight on and then shoot backward in retreat. The enraged crocodile pounced on him, and they began to fight back and forth.
“Dammit!” said the black-robed man, his face pale. He now realized that he had underestimated his opponent, and had been fooled. The battle hadn’t even started, and he was injured, causing his killing intent to boil. He was just about to make an attack, when Meng Hao waved his hand out in a claw-like gesture. Immediately a long spear appeared that had a haft made from the World Tree, and a bone spearhead. Even as he hefted it, his Dharma Idol appeared behind him, and his cultivation base exploded out. Now was not the time to hold back, so in the blink of an eye, his Dharma Idol grew to 12,000 meters.
As soon as the Dharma Idol appeared, the black-robed man’s face flickered with disbelief. According to the report he had received, his opponent only had power equivalent to thirty or perhaps fifty percent of that of a true Immortal. However, he was now obviously facing a stage four Immortal, which was especially shocking considering his target… was clearly not in the Immortal Realm.
“No wonder his majesty ordered this kid dead. He’s incredibly discerning and cunning, and has a Heaven-defying cultivation base! He can’t be left alive!” Astonishment filled the black-robed man’s heart as Meng Hao closed in, killing intent glittering in his eyes. Behind him, his Dharma Idol barreled forward, and at the same time, the Mountain Consuming Incantation was unleashed, causing countless mountains to appear, which then linked together to form a mountain range that crushed down onto the black-robed man.
The black-robed man’s face fell, and even as he prepared to fight back, the crocodile roared and lunged forward again. The already injured black-robed man was once again forced into retreat.
Rumbling could be heard, and blood poured out of his mouth. However, it was at this moment that a second black-robed man suddenly appeared, moving toward them at incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, he was upon them. A boom rang out from the shocked Meng Hao’s chest as it instantly caved in. He was sent tumbling backward like a kite with its string cut, blood spewing from his mouth.
It didn’t matter that Meng Hao’s cultivation base was so much lower than the second black-robed man; he attacked him with full power anyway. However, when the man caught sight of Meng Hao again, a look of surprise could be seen on his face.
“Not dead?” His body flickered into motion as he attacked Meng Hao once again.
Meng Hao’s chest was wracked with intense pain, and blood flowed from his mouth continuously. His chest was a mangled mess, but his eyes overflowed with killing intent. His Eternal stratum was currently healing him, but even as it did, Meng Hao realized that a third black-robed man had appeared off in the distance.
“There are actually three of them!” he thought, an imperceptible flicker running through his eyes. Temporarily suppressing the restorative power of the Eternal stratum, he transformed into a golden roc to evade the second black-robed man. A boom rang out, and Meng Hao transformed back into human form, blood spraying from his mouth. The second black-robed man frowned and then shot toward Meng Hao once more, utilizing bizarre speed.
However, just when the man was almost upon him, he suddenly extended his right hand, within which appeared the Lightning Cauldron. Electricity danced, and rumbling echoed out as he vanished to switch places with the third black-robed man.
The sudden switch in position aggravated Meng Hao’s wound, and blood sprayed from his mouth. As he back up anxiously, the third black-robed man’s eyes lit with a bright light.
“Precious treasure!”
A gleam of greed could be seen in the second black-robed man’s eyes as well. He and the third black-robed man employed the full explosive power of a stage seven Immortal at almost the same time. To them, Meng Hao was something that could easily be killed, and yet, even still, they employed all the power they could possibly muster, transforming into beams of light that shot toward Meng Hao in quick succession.
They looked like strings of light flashing through the air, like arrows that, in the blink of an eye, were only thirty meters away from Meng Hao.
“Die!” the second cultivator said coldly. The killing intent in Meng Hao’s eyes flickered, and suddenly, his body split in two as his second true self appeared. His second true self stepped forward and spread his hands wide to block, while Meng Hao’s true self backed up. Then, he slapped his bag of holding to produce a bronze lamp.
As soon as the bronze lamp appeared, a weak flame flickered inside, and a terrifying aura exploded out. The two black-robed men’s faces fell completely.