The area around the vortex in the Vast Expanse was in complete chaos. Numerous auras from the Immortal God Continent and the Devil Realm Continent spread out in all directions. The forces which had revealed themselves earlier from those two land masses had seemed strong, but were actually only a portion of the full strength of either force.

As of this moment, the explosion of the Mountain and Sea Realm had unleashed a shockwave that apparently exceeded that of the ordinary 9-Essences level, forcing the two powers to unleash their true strength.

Numerous streams of divine sense spread out, none of which were weaker than that of the old man who had just launched the massive palm strike from the Devil Realm Continent!

Apparently, the resources at the disposal of these two powers were so profound that they defied imagination. Such shocking power was what made them so terrifying, and was also why Nine Seals, who was more than half a step past the 9-Essences level, had died all those years ago.

Although everything was in chaos, and the forces arrayed against Meng Hao were all affected by the blast, there were two people who, not being at the center of the blast, and possessing powerful enough cultivation bases, were able to force their way forward to attack Meng Hao.

One was the rugged, muscular man from the Devil Realm Continent, and the other was the cold woman from whose head Meng Hao had ripped out a chunk of flesh. Those two were a bit more powerful than the other eight, and thus, were now able to bear down aggressively on Meng Hao.

However, even as they closed in with killing intent, Meng Hao suddenly slapped his bag of holding, pulled a woman out by the throat and held her up into the air.

"If you get any closer, I'll kill this woman!"

As soon as the muscular man saw the young woman, his eyes widened, and he stopped in place without even thinking about it. His eyes were filled with shock and even disbelief.

"You..."

That young woman was same one that Meng Hao had captured years ago... Su Yan. As soon as he saw the muscular man using the Seven God Steps, Meng Hao had deduced that Su Yan was somehow connected to the Devil Realm Continent.

The cold woman from the Immortal God Continent didn't stop at all, though. If Meng Hao couldn't stop her, it could well be imagined the dangerous threat she would instantly pose to the Mountain and Sea cultivators in the butterfly.

The butterfly was vanishing into the black hole, passing by rift after rift. As it did, the cold woman's murderous aura flared, and she began to summon a huge hand of ice to grab the butterfly.

Meng Hao had nothing to block her with, and was in fact having trouble even staying in an upright position. His vision swam, and his life force was fading rapidly. Without the last scrap of Demonic qi within him, he would already have been destroyed.

In this moment of great danger, Meng Hao chuckled and shot backward. A wild light of madness flickered in his eyes as, without any prelude or warning, all of his Soul Lamps suddenly appeared.

20 extinguished, 13 lit!

As of this moment, what he was planning to do, though, was not to extinguish lamps... but to detonate them.

"Detonate!" he cried hoarsely, voice still filled with ferocity despite his current state of weakness.

Fighting up to this point had left Meng Hao drained and lacking in energy. He had used virtually every trick he had at his disposal, and although the fighting hadn't lasted for very long, that short period had been one of incredible and shocking bitterness.

He had destroyed the Paragon Bridge and the Sun Bow. All of his various divine abilities had been defeated. He had combined his Hexing magics, unleashed the Seal the Heavens Incantation, and by now, all of those magics had faded away. He had even detonated the Mountain and Sea Realm. Those actions had blocked his opponents again and again, allowing the butterfly to proceed into the black hole toward the green coffin.

In fact, the butterfly had almost passed the point of no return.

Therefore, how could Meng Hao possibly let all his hard work be for nothing? He wasn't even sure what name this cold woman went by, but he did know that... he would die before he let her get past him!

As his voice echoed out, all of his extinguished Soul Lamps exploded into a hail of rubble!

Detonating Soul Lamps was similar to detonating one's cultivation base. The massive force turned into an attack that swept toward the cold woman to block her path. Her face fell and, gritting her teeth, she unleashed the coldness within her to form layer upon layer of blue ice. As soon as they appeared, she instantly sent them shooting forward toward the destructive power sent out by the 20 exploding Soul Lamps.

BOOOOMMMMMM!

The entire area had already been thrown into chaos because of the detonation of the Mountain and Sea Realm. Now, the power of the exploding Soul Lamps, when it slammed into the ice attack of the cold woman, caused a massive boom to echo out in all directions.

The ice shattered, and blood sprayed out of the woman's mouth. However, she was strong enough to slough off the power of Meng Hao's exploding Soul Lamps, and once again advanced aggressively.

"I'm not done," Meng Hao said. "You're not getting past me!" His vision was swimming, but his mouth was twisted by a strange laughing-crying smile, and his eyes burned with a soul fire that seemed to reflect the mysterious, blue-violet flames of his other 13 Soul Lamps.

"Detonate!"

As soon as he opened his mouth, his burning Soul Lamps began to explode. The first lamp, second, third, fourth... all the way to the sixth Soul Lamp successively exploded. These unextinguished Soul Lamps unleashed even more shocking power than the others, even more chaos, even more madness. Furthermore, their destruction was profoundly damaging to Meng Hao.

And yet, he didn't care. By this point, the only thing he cared about was the Mountain and Sea Realm butterfly.

BOOOOMMMMMM!

The cold woman's face fell, and then blood sprayed out of her mouth. Her hands flashed with numerous incantation gestures; divine abilities and magical techniques swept about in all directions to counter the detonation of Meng Hao's Soul Lamps. The seventh Soul Lamp, the eight, and then the ninth exploded!

As the explosions went on, black blood oozed out of Meng Hao's mouth, and also from his ears, nose, and mouth. By this point, his internal organs were shattered, and his life force was destroyed. He only had a sliver of Demonic qi left, and yet, he forced his eyes to remain open!

"Until the Mountain and Sea Realm and the butterfly are safe, how could I possibly close my eyes!?" Meng Hao spit out some blood and then started laughing.

Booms rang out as the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth Soul Lamps exploded. The cold woman roared in rage as her path was continuously blocked, and yet she could do little more than watch as the butterfly disappeared into the black hole. Soon, it would pass the point of no return, a point where no one could reach in and take it out.

"The foundation of the Immortal must be cut off!!" the woman screamed. Blood surged through her veins, and her face turned scarlet as she drew upon all her power to suppress the power of Meng Hao's exploding Soul Lamps, and take another step forward.

Meng Hao was still laughing. As of this moment, he only had one Soul Lamp left!

That was... his Prime Lamp, the most important of all the Soul Lamps. The Prime Lamp was a Soul Lamp which could not be treated lightly; if a cultivator took a wrong step with it, the result could be a deadly catastrophe.

In fact, it was even said that as long as the Prime Lamp remained, it wouldn't matter if all of the other lamps were destroyed. After all, the Prime Lamp was both the root and the seed, of everything!

Meng Hao's laughter rang out, and the cold woman's laughter rang out as she pushed forward. Then, a vicious flicker appeared in Meng Hao's eyes as... he chose to destroy his Prime Lamp!!

He detonated his Prime Lamp!!

The resulting explosion dwarfed the explosions of the other Soul Lamps. A massive force ripped at the void, creating a Heaven-destroying, Earth-extinguishing power that completely engulfed the cold woman.

An agonized scream rang out as her body was shredded into oblivion. Her soul flew out, and also seemed to be on the verge of being destroyed when a beam of light shot out from the Immortal God Continent and swirled around it protectively. Now that she was safe, the woman's soul glared back at Meng Hao.

She found herself looking into eyes as murderous as ever despite the fact that they were sinking into death.

Blood flowed out of Meng Hao's mouth. His Soul Lamps had all been destroyed, indicating that his cultivation base and his life force had been eradicated. And yet, he was still smiling, the reason being that the butterfly had already passed the point of no return in the black hole.

He wasn't sure if what he was seeing was real or not, but he felt as if he were watching as the butterfly alighted atop the green coffin, with all of his friends and family with it.... Then, a force of time spread out to cover it, and brilliant colors flashed.

Meng Hao's smile finally turned soft and warm. He was tired, so tired that he didn't even have the energy to keep his eyes open. Gradually, they began to shut.

The rumbling around him, the shouts of rage, gradually faded away into the distance....

But then he heard a shrill cry, desperate and angry, echoing in his ears, and within the Vast Expanse around him. It was at that point that he realized... that it was the parrot. A tremor ran through Meng Hao; there was a grief within that cry that caused him to shake, and even as his vision swam, he saw the parrot actually come into view.

As far as he could remember, he had never seen the parrot act this way, act so grieved....

All of its feathers were standing on end, and its expression was one of sadness. Tears of blood flowed out of its eyes, and its cry of pain echoed out clearly within the starry sky.

It seemed to be in a state of despair, in a madness wrought from sorrow.

It was hard to say when the parrot had flown out, but there it was, along with the copper mirror, right in the middle of the starry sky. Almost immediately, the powerful experts from the Immortal God Continent and the Devil Realm Continent noticed.

When they saw the copper mirror and the parrot, their eyes began to gleam with strange light.

At the same time, the meat jelly appeared. Weeping, it transformed into armor which surrounded Meng Hao. Without hesitation, it began to send its life force into him.

"Don't die, Meng Hao! Don't you die! I still have a lot of things to tell you, lots of things to say! You can't die, it's wrong! It's immoral! It's incorrect...."

The mastiff was seriously injured, but it also appeared, using its body to prop up Meng Hao. Although its life force was also fading, its eyes were completely focused. Even if it died, it wouldn't permit its master to be hurt any more.

The mastiff felt that way. The meat jelly felt that way. And the parrot felt that way!