Rumbling echoed out, and simultaneously, Patriarch Vast Expanse's clone laughed. He didn't back down even for a moment; black mist swirled as he once again shot forward to block the path of the embodiment of the will of Allheaven.

Behind him, Meng Hao was trembling as the aura of the Ninth Hex exploded out from within him. Even as he shook, the necropolis also trembled, causing boundless ripples to spread out into the starry sky of Allheaven outside.

At the same time, within Meng Hao's sea of consciousness, the one hundred drops of black liquid were rapidly forming a shape!

Ten percent, twenty percent, thirty percent, forty percent....

In the blink of an eye, it reached a state of seventy percent completion. As it did, the complete outline of the Ninth Hex began to appear.

Eighty percent, ninety percent. Before the will of Allheaven could do anything to stop him, Meng Hao closed his eyes yet again. At the same time, a rumbling sound began to fill him, a sound so shocking it could shake Heaven and Earth.

Thunder and lightning boomed in the outside world as well, and although that occurred within the starry sky of Allheaven... it was not caused by the Vast Expanse. Instead, it was caused by the Ninth Hex; it was Heaven-Sealing lightning!

Within Meng Hao's sea of consciousness, the black liquid... had formed into something that caused the starry sky of Allheaven to tremble... the Ninth Hex!

The Seal the Heavens Hex!

In the instant that it appeared, the world of the necropolis shook violently, sending shockwaves out in the starry sky outside. Everything which existed, all living beings, felt themselves trembling, filled with indescribable astonishment.

Apparently... something new had come to exist within the Heavens above... a naturally occurring enemy of Heaven!

Apparently there was a new will which existed in the starry sky of the Vast Expanse!

Apparently, within the countless worlds of reality, there was a new natural law!

It was the Seal the Heavens Hex... a Dao which existed above all other laws!

RUUUUUUMMMMBLLLLE!

As the intense rumbling sound echoed out, Meng Hao took a deep breath. Then his eyes snapped open. He had completed the first step on his path to Transcendence. He had fully absorbed the Ninth Hex, which had been formed by the accumulation of the nine incarnations of his clone. They were now an inseparable part of him, completely and utterly part of Meng Hao.

However, that was only the first step. Meng Hao was acutely aware that time was of the essence, and that he needed to take the second step as soon as possible.

That second step was...

"Nine Hexes, combine!" Meng Hao said. As soon as the words left his mouth, all surrounding natural and magical laws shattered, as if they simply couldn't stand up to the domineering existence of the Nine Hexes.

In the moment that Meng Hao prepared to combine the Nine Hexes, the embodiment of the will of Allheaven looked on with widening eyes. A bright light began to shine within those eyes, and at the same time, the void outside of the Vast Expanse began to twist and distort, as a huge eye appeared.

The eye slowly began to open, and when it reached the halfway point, a shockingly powerful will began to surge out from it, its target being Meng Hao. It wanted to prevent him from Transcending.

However, it was at this point that, without any warning, a person appeared in front of the eye. It was a young man with white hair and a cold expression. Furthermore, it was possible to tell that this was a clone, not this person's true self.

The clone looked like Slaughter, as well as the young man who had appeared outside of the Immortal God Continent, the Transcendent cultivator.

He reached out and placed his hand onto the huge eye, preventing it from opening any further.

A tremor ran through the eye, and a roar of rage could be heard. Then, within the boundless void outside the Vast Expanse, a second figure appeared. He was also a young man, and he radiated a sinister aura of death. He had long, violet hair, and his eyes seemed to shine with starlight. His expression was calm as he hovered there, staring at the boundless eye.

As the eye struggled to open, an enraged voice roared, "You people failed back then. You do not qualify to try to eradicate me. You might have become more powerful since then, but you... do not qualify to stand in my way!"

Everything in the area began to tremble and shatter.

However, the two young men didn't seem ruffled at all.

"The Fellow Daoist who can wipe you out is currently Transcending. We might have lost our qualifications, but we can still stop you from interfering."

The eye remained half open, mysterious light glittering within.

Meanwhile, back in the necropolis, the embodiment of the will of Allheaven gritted his teeth. Eyes gleaming with ferocity, he ceased his attempts to call upon power from outside the Vast Expanse, and instead focused on drawing upon the power within the starry sky of the Vast Expanse!

Within the depths of the starry sky were numerous vortexes which housed various worlds and realms. Within thousands of those locations, bloodcurdling screams echoed out as the living beings there withered up. Their flesh and blood, along with their life force, was all sucked away.

It wasn't just the life forms within those locations. The worlds themselves were all transformed into ash, their World Essences sucked away.

Thousands of worlds were gone in the blink of an eye, completely wiped out of existence. There were even entire regions near the border of the starry sky of Allheaven which withered away as if they had just died.

Most shocking of all was that the energy of Heaven and Earth within the starry sky was suddenly reduced by thirty percent. If it were reduced by any more than that, the entire Vast Expanse would collapse. It was a limit which apparently couldn't be passed.

All of that power was absorbed by the embodiment of the will of Allheaven. It took a single thought to accomplish, and then an indescribable power converged outside of the necropolis, and began to tear it open!

The sky of the necropolis was completely destroyed, revealing the starry sky of the Vast Expanse beyond. The will of Allheaven descended in full, completely destroying the first land mass. Next was the second, third, fourth, and in fact, all of the land masses except for the ninth. Everything was transformed into rubble by the will of Allheaven.

The descending will of Allheaven was like a flood of water. In the blink of an eye, it converged onto its embodiment. Instantly, that embodiment's features twisted and changed. Six more arms sprouted out of its body, giving it a total of eight. Furthermore, three heads emerged!

It had a total of four heads and eight arms!

A roar of rage transformed into a powerful sound wave that blasted into the ninth land mass, causing it to tremble violently. Patriarch Vast Expanse's clone looked on with widening eyes.

"I am... Allheaven!" said the four-headed, eight-armed figure, its voice echoing like thunder. At the same time, its body began to grow blurry, revealing something completely unexpected inside: countless stars, planets, vortexes and worlds.

It was as if the entire starry sky of the Vast Expanse had become its body. It was using the full power of the starry sky to try to wipe out the clone of Patriarch Vast Expanse.

It would destroy that clone, then wipe out Meng Hao to prevent him from Transcending, and bring everything back under its control!

Patriarch Vast Expanse had only left a clone behind here. However, because of the bronze lamp inside of Meng Hao, that clone chose to help him.

With that bronze lamp, Meng Hao became the legacy successor of Patriarch Vast Expanse. That legacy was a legacy, not of the cultivation base or the bloodline, but rather, of thought!

It was... a continuity of thought, a desire to destroy the will of the starry sky of the Vast Expanse. Because they both harbored that intent, the clone chose to help Meng Hao.

However... it was only a clone. The real Patriarch Vast Expanse was a figure from countless years in the past. It was impossible to say where he was now. As for his clone, he could hold out for a while against the will of Allheaven, but considering how madly that will was fighting, sparing no cost to win... it meant that the clone was reaching its limit.

And yet, it continued to stand against the attack. It was falling apart into destruction, but it knew that if it were completely destroyed, then Meng Hao, who was still in the midst of his effort to combine the Nine Hexes, would be facing grave danger.

In this critical moment, the clone's eyes suddenly flickered. His right hand shot out toward Meng Hao and made a grasping motion. What it was beckoning to though, was not Meng Hao, but the parrot!

The parrot blurred into motion, transforming into the Battle Weapon, which the clone grabbed and slashed out into the air!

Heaven shook and the Earth trembled. A huge rift opened up, which erupted with the explosive power of time travel. That power became a windstorm which swept out to cover the ninth land mass, as well as the rest of the crumbling necropolis.

Time was being reversed!

Instantly, 10,000 years passed. Then 100,000 years. 1,000,000 years. Endless years blurred by in a tempest, and when everything became clear again, the world was completely different.

The sky was now bright blue, and the eight destroyed land masses were restored. Countless cultivators could be seen flying here and there. It was a bustling, flourishing place.

A gentle breeze blew as the lands of the necropolis returned to ancient times!

The Sect Leader and the others gasped in response. However, it wasn't a huge shock, considering that they had seen similar things occur in the past. Every time the necropolis experienced the apocalyptic catastrophe, it returned to ancient times, when the will of Allheaven destroyed the world.

However, this time it was the clone of Patriarch Vast Expanse who had reversed time, taking all of the memories of the apocalypse which existed in the necropolis and unleashing them early.

With that, the clone took a deep breath, and then stabbed the Battle Weapon down into the ground. Rumbling echoed out as the clone's divine sense filled all the lands with a single thought.

And that thought was... destroy the starry sky of the Vast Expanse!