Meng Hao closed his eyes, then opened them again moments later. A strange glow could be seen within them as he looked over at Zhixiang, who sat there pale-faced and trembling.

It was clear that she had reached a critical juncture.

Meng Hao looked away and then stood up. He walked out of the pond, through the mists, and to the outside world.

As he left, the pressure bearing down on Zhixiang increased. Earlier, the shapeless light of the Greater Demons had been shared between her and Meng Hao, but now all of it was focusing on her.

Actually, she was incredibly lucky to have encountered Meng Hao. Without him there to share the burden, she might not have been able to handle it alone. Not only would she have failed to acquired the Demon Immortal Body, but she would have faced grave danger to her life.

That hadn't been part of her plan regarding Meng Hao; she could never have predicted that things would turn out the way they did. After all, she came from the Demon Immortal Sect which was started by people who escaped death all those years ago. Their understanding regarding the forbidden areas of the ancient Demon Immortal Sect wasn't absolutely complete. When you added in the passage of time, and all the changes that had occurred, it was impossible to know everything.

Meng Hao left the cistern waters and stood in the outside world. He was tall and slender, and his skin was no longer dark like it had been all those years ago. It was white and clear, causing him to look completely refined and cultured. His scholarly air was even more obvious and intense than ever.

He slapped his bag of holding to produce a long, green robe, which he quickly donned. Now, he looked absolutely different than before.

He was even more handsome, more naturally graceful, more youthful. However, deep within his eyes flickered a dim ancientness.

After a long moment, he closed his eyes and focused on his dantian region, and his eighth Nascent Soul.

Qi and Blood Nascent Soul!

After a moment, his eyes opened, and he slowly merged the eight Nascent Souls together. This was just a test, but even still, his mind shook as if lightning were smashing about inside. An indescribably powerful Cultivation base, and a terrifyingly strong fleshly body appeared.

Furthermore… his Divine Sense also increased, spreading out to cover the entire area.

"Eee?" said Meng Hao. The first thing he noticed was that deep within the forbidden zone was something emanated strange ripples. As soon as his Divine Sense touched the ripples, a backlash spread out that caused his Divine Sense to collapse.

As for everywhere else, they were all areas that had been destroyed during the war.

At the same time, Meng Hao's Divine Sense noticed a person outside of the forbidden zone…. As soon as he caught sight of him, killing intent flickered in Meng Hao's eyes.

Sitting there cross-legged and meditating was Patriarch Huyan, wearing a cold smile on his face!

"Laying in wait to ambush me, huh?" thought Meng Hao. His eyes glittered, and a smile appeared on his face. The smile was one of ridicule, and was filled with coldness and killing intent that was impossible to cover over.

The killing intent still flickering, Meng Hao turned to look back at Zhixiang. The area was safe, and Zhixiang was in the midst of transmogrification. No one would be coming around to disturb her. Meng Hao swept the area with his Divine Sense one more time, then turned to head toward Patriarch Huyan. It was time to resolve the Karma between the two of them. However, it was at this point that he suddenly paused in mid stride, and looked back into the depths of the forbidden zone.

He had swept the place twice with Divine Sense, and it was in exactly the same location both times that his Divine Sense had collapsed apart. It made it impossible to even get some clues about what existed in that particular area. The only thing he could see was blurriness, and what appeared to be a corpse.

His eyes flickered, and he temporarily did not continue on toward his battle with Patriarch Huyan. Instead, he turned and headed deeper into the forbidden area. After all, he had promised Zhixiang to stand guard over her; therefore, he needed to ensure that the area really was safe.

It didn't take too long before Meng Hao reached the place that had caused his Divine Sense to collapse. There was a boulder here, and beneath the boulder lay a corpse. Clearly, it was a woman.

In her hands, the woman held a wooden sword.

The sword emanated a faint glow, which was the source of the collapse of his Divine Sense. In fact, it might be less proper to say that it collapsed, but rather, was consumed.

As soon as Meng Hao laid eyes on the wooden sword, a tremor ran through him. It was not one of his Spring and Autumn tree Wooden Time Swords, but rather… one of those other swords, the ones he always found next to a corpse… an Immortal Murdering Sword!!

Currently, he had four Immortal Murdering, and was now looking at a fifth.

His eyes glittered, he stared at the corpse for a very long moment. However, it was decayed beyond recognition, making it impossible to tell who it belonged to.

Meng Hao silently made a grasping motion with his right hand, causing the wooden sword to fly out to hover in front of him. He waved his sleeve to collect it up, then stamped his foot onto the ground, causing a deep pit to appear.

After placing the woman's corpse inside and laying her to rest, Meng Hao clasped hands and bowed deeply toward the tomb. Then he turned, sending his Divine Sense out once more. This time, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. His body flashed as he transformed into a beam of light that shot out of the forbidden zone.

"Patriarch Huyan, the time has come to settle matters between us!" he thought, his eyes flickering with killing intent as he shot forward at top speed. "I'm going to use him to prove whether or not my Eighth Anima can exterminate the Spirit Severing stage!"

He shot through the air like a lightning bolt. Even in the First Anima, his fleshly body was even more fearsome than it had been in the Seventh Anima. As he shot forward, the air collapsed, and roaring sounds filled with air.

The roaring grew stronger until it seemed powerful enough to shake Heaven and Earth. When it reached the region outside of the forbidden zone, Patriarch Huyan heard it, and his eyes went wide. It was at this point that he saw Meng Hao appear.

"Meng Hao!" he said, with a vicious smile. Without hesitation, he performed an incantation gesture and then pointed forward.

Meng Hao's expression was the same as ever as he proceeded forward. He pierced directly into Patriarch Huyan's spell formation, instantly causing multiple black-colored figures to rise up and pounce toward him.

Within each of these figures could be sensed a faint, shocking power. However, as they neared Meng Hao, his expression didn't change in the least bit. He continued forward, giving rise to an intense roaring. As soon as the figures touched him, the intense backlash from his fleshly body instantly destroyed them.

Exploding figures surrounded him as he proceeded forward.

The sight of it caused Patriarch Huyan's eyes to narrow slightly. He was shocked inwardly, but then recalled Meng Hao's identity in the Second Plane, and suddenly felt at ease. A cold smile appeared on his face.

"You're stuck in my net now," he said. "I don't even need to attack. I can just watch while you slowly march to your death."

"Oh really," replied Meng Hao coolly. As he moved forward, the area around him rumbled as countless illusory blades appeared. Their sharp tips whistled through the air as they slashed directly toward Meng Hao.

Up in mid-air, countless bolts of lightning appeared. They looked like silver snakes as they lashed out toward him.

As the rumbling booms filled the air, Meng Hao continued on without even pausing. As he walked forward, all of the restrictive spells within the spell formation collapsed as soon as they touched him, completely incapable of impeding his progress.

This caused Patriarch Huyan's face to flicker. However, before he could do anything in response, Meng Hao's eyes flickered and his speed increased rapidly. He transformed into a beam of light that sped across the ground toward Patriarch Huyan.

Booming sounds rose up into the sky. The restrictive spells and the spell formation seemed to be howling in anguish, as though a blade were slicing through them. They then exploded into pieces, and Meng Hao was standing in front of Patriarch Huyan.

"I thought I was going to have to track you down," said Meng Hao. "I never imagined that you would come to me of your own volition. This battle is going to last for eight finger attacks." With that he lifted his hand and waved a finger.

An illusory mountain appeared on Meng Hao's fingertip. Although this was only the power of a single finger, that power was like the might of a mountain.

BOOM!

Patriarch Huyan's face fell. He waved his left hand to block, and when the attack slammed into him, he was sent flying backward, his face pale. Killing intent flickered in his eyes as he waved his right hand in front of him.

"Area!"

"Second Anima!"

Patriarch Huyan's Area seemed to cause everything in the area to be confined as if with shackles. An intense pressure weighed down, and everything slowed; it almost felt as if everything were underwater. However, it was in that same instant that Meng Hao erupted with the power of the Second Anima. The increase in his Cultivation base was secondary to the intense strength of his fleshly body, which was the most important part.

Meng Hao broke through the confinement of the Area. A crisp sound rang out like the shattering of a mirror as the Area was completely defeated.

This defeat was something Patriarch Huyan almost couldn't believe. He remembered that Meng Hao had been powerless to face up against his Area before, but now, it had simply shattered.

One breath of time later, Meng Hao was directly in front of Patriarch Huyan.

"Here's the second finger attack," he said. Backed by the power of the Second Anima, he waved his finger down. Patriarch Huyan's face flickered, and he performed an incantation with his right hand. Instantly, a black mist appeared on his body, which formed together into a black shield that he used to defend against Meng Hao's finger attack.

A popping sound rang out as the shield collapsed. Meng Hao's finger landed directly onto Patriarch Huyan's chest.

Patriarch Huyan's face filled with shock as he tumbled backward. His mind reeled, but deep down, he knew that this was not the time for contemplation. He began to perform another incantation, his hair whipping about. He lifted his head up and shouted:

"Seven Emotions and Six Pleasures. Thirteen Transmigrations Dao. Seven Emotions! Seven Daos!" Instantly, a prismatic beam of light shot out from his body up into mid-air. There, it split apart into seven different streams of light, like unfurling bolts of silk. They shot toward Meng Hao, radiating killing intent.

If you looked closely, you would be able to see that within each of the seven beams of light could be seen, shockingly, an evil spirit that looked almost like a Nascent Soul. Each of these figures resembled each other, almost as if they were related in some way.

"Third Anima," said Meng Hao coolly, shaking his head. Instantly, his Cultivation base exploded up. However, the power of his fleshly body exceeded that of his Cultivation base. It did not expand and grow like in the past; instead, it sent out terrifying ripples of incomparable power.

Meng Hao took another step forward. He watched the incoming seven beams of light, allowing them to slam into his body. In that instant, a roaring sound exploded up into the sky. The seven beams of light collapsed into pieces and the evil spirits inside let out miserable shrieks as they were sent tumbling backward. With another step, Meng Hao… once again appeared directly in front of Patriarch Huyan.

"Third finger attack," he said, waving a finger.

Patriarch Huyan's eyes went wide. He raised up both hands, causing a glowing shield to appear to resist Meng Hao. A boom could be heard as the shield exploded. Patriarch Huyan tumbled backward like a kite with its string cut, blood oozing out of his mouth. His face was filled with astonishment.

"What… what type of Cultivation base do you have?!?!"

"The type that can kill you," responded Meng Hao calmly. He took another leisurely step forward.