As the gates opened, the darkness inside the first floor dwindled a bit. Light slowly creeped in, thus allowing Cheng Hao to finally gaze at the figure's outlines.

Six glowing eyes followed by a long, snake-like body charged towards the outside world. Suddenly, a part of the creature's face was inundated by the golden light from the Immortal Ascension Tower.

The head resembled that of a dragon, a completely black dragon, except it didn't have a mouth.

Instead, a small opening similar to a hole was there, dripping poison. The six eyes were all glinting with fury and hatred. If looks could kill (Which in this beast's case it wasn't that far from the truth), Cheng Hao would already have been turned to ashes and would have been blown away by the wind.

The young boy smiled in his mind and began to count calmly "1... 2... 3... 4..."

Seeing the enraged expression on the monster's face, Cheng Hao closed his eyes, smiled gently and waved his left hand: a stream of white energy appeared, it was just like a white flame and it looked as if it could freeze to death anything that crossed its path.

He waved his right hand: a stream of black energy appeared it was just like a black flame and it looked as if it could burn to ashes everything in its path.

After witnessing that, the monstrous head stopped where it stood, his expression one of terror. The beast's disbelief and astonishment were clear from the fact its mouth kept opening and closing without making a sound, even its eyes had opened so wide they seemed to be about to fall out.

"5... 6... 7... 8..."

Cheng Hao lifted his head and the only thing now visible on his face were his two eyes.

The left eye looked like a vortex to another world, wherein seas of blood, mountain of corpses and a cold golden sun appeared. The corpses were constantly withering, whereas the golden sun kept growing more and more majestic with each passing second.

Cheng Hao's left eye was something that could keep people awake at night and anyone who glanced in it would start withering just like those corpses in the vision... His right eye also seemed to change somehow, but it looked like the thing inside was still sealed and needed more strength to be able to break free.

"9... 10... 11... 12..."

Seeing that, the monster shrieked and jumped back into the tower, even going as far as retreating as much as it could into the room.

Let alone coming out, it even closed the gate himself! The monster's voice was now feeble even, as if it had run a long distance away!

"Cheater! Cheater! Those black and white flame-like gases... That illusion in your left eye!" The black monster cried, its voice filled with despair and unwillingness.

"13... 14... 15... 16..." Cheng Hao smiled, the laughter that he had kept repressed for the past few minutes needed all his control to stop it from bulging out.

"It-It was youuuu!" The beast had long since forgotten that the person in front of him was only an Inferior stage cultivator and had been scared witless.

"17... 18... 19... 20!" Cheng Hao's smile grew even wider as a fierce grin found it way on his face. He waved his hands, blinked his eyes and the abilities disappeared.

"Left White Flame That Steal Life, Glory, and Right Black Flame That Delivers Death, Oblivion! Even the Golden Sun Devouring Countless Corpses! And that right eye... Is that the Black Beast of Nightmares? You... you fooled me! You are no Cheng Hao!"

The voice paused "Xu Ling! Evil Saint! What are you doing here???"

Cheng Hao smiled and couldn't help but feel a bit of pity towards the monster, locked inside the tower against his will.

It had been given a chance at life but it would have never thought a thing like this would have ever happened...

Cheng Hao smirked as the pity vanished, replaced by greed "I won, so you are now my servant for a thousand years!"

"Xu Ling! How is it possible! You died that day by the hands of Tian himself!" The voice kept yelling nonstop. In its mind, it was repeating that it was impossible for Xu Ling to have survived Tian's final attack, and yet... Here he was!

Standing before him, the only thing separating the two were only the gargantuan frames of the golden gates.

"That is right... I died... But I came back! I built this tower to gain back my own power and that is why you will now bow to me and fight by my side like the old days, Monstrous Beast, Hellish Nightmare Dragon!"

...

It was night and even then, one part of the starry sky was as bright as the day.

There, two figures resembling two dancers entwined in the heavens, lightning crackling, the clouds roiling and the mountains crumbling to pieces...

One of the two was a gigantic black dragon: it had no wings yet it could fly thanks to his cultivation, it had no mouth, just an aperture from which it could spit acid. It also had no limbs like arms, yet its attacks using the wind were just as effective as if the dragon had a huge pair of gigantic claws.

The majestic beast was thousands of meters long and it was completely black, except for some wounds spurting golden blood and the six fearsome, glowing eyes.

Whole mountains could be erased with a single glance, armies of millions would get so scared that they would be unable to stand up straight with just a blink. Those eyes and the python-like body truly made the beast look as if it had just come out from some hellish nightmare!

Yet, this apparently extremely powerful gigantic beast was fighting someone and, noticing the blood gushing out from several wounds on its body, it could be deduced that it wasn't really going that well for it...

Its opponent was something that in its perspective would be any different than an ant.

It was a human.

But he was not a simple human: whenever that monster that seemed to have come out straight from a nightmare, a being that could barely be called a snake rather than a dragon, used his eyes to send a mental attack to his opponent's mind, it would fail!

Instead of shocking and terrifying the opponent, the dragon had actually started to wither, its life force absorbed by the human's strange left eye.

After it had found out its abilities didn't work, the dragon was in full retreat but it couldn't hold a candle to the human in speed. Even though it wasn't the speed of lightning falling from the heavens, he truly did look like one as he attacked the humongous monster, not leaving it any space to breathe.

The battle went on for twelve whole hours and, in the end, the dragon was subjugated and made into a mount from that one human.

It was forced to free all the prisoners from the World's End, second highest security prison in the True Heaven, and he even led them to fight Tian head on! The Hellish Nightmare Dragon would never forget the way the human had looked at him: it was as if, at the slightest slip up, it would become a roasted dragon for him to enjoy!

Such a thought deeply terrified him.

Not to mention the even more gigantic Heaven Devouring Dragon Blindlight that, if it weren't for the fact that it was under that human's control, let alone roast the black dragon, the golden beast could swallow the 'tiny' snake in one gulp!

Those trauma from the past which he had attempted to forget had actually never truly left him and had now come back to haunt him, and what could he do to escape that? Nothing.

"I... I... Agh, fine! Just don't cause too much trouble for me!"

The beast gave up and a stream of golden light flew towards Cheng Hao's right hand.

At that moment, a single light tattoo appeared floating on top of the back of his hand. On it was a black dragon, it had no arms nor any mouth, but his long body was enough to wrap around the mountains and a single stare from its golden eyes were enough to stun weaker foes...

The guardian of the first level of Tian's dungeon for life-long sentences prisoners, the guardian of the World's End, the Hellish Nightmare Dragon!

The tattoo wasn't imprinted on the skin but was actually a light hologram so it could be hidden or showed on the owner's whim. However, this was just a temporary measure as it would soon disappear, absorbed in to the boy's very consciousness.

The golden gate closed. It had no lock but Cheng Hao was sure that the beast wouldn't try any tricks with him there, especially since he had made a Soul Contract. He basically held control over that monster's life and death.

He decided it was time to turn back so, with a whim, the tower and everything surrounding him shrunk until it could be seen they were actually inside his Pseudo-Core all along!

He put the tower in the very middle of the golden pellet and a heart-wrenching, Heaven-shaking roar could be heard as the Pseudo-Core finished absorbing all the energy it had been fed from the Immortal Ascending Tower... And Cheng Hao stopped holding back his cultivation!

Suddenly, a golden pillar could be seen rising into the sky! It was many times larger than Xiao Wu's and was even many times denser. It also gave people an uneasy feeling.

It wasn't the bright and cheerful golden color of the flames, it was the dark and uneasy golden color of the cold metal, and it looked as if it could suck souls away with just a thought! Yet, it was dazzling... This, this was the color of a golden emperor, cold and ruthless!

Orbiting around the pillar where two gaseous masses, one black, one white. The two entwined and sometimes mixed together but passed by each other as if they weren't in the same plane of existence altogether.

As Cheng Hao opened his eyes, he saw his body surrounded by a glowing, golden illusory Avatar of his own Immortal Ascension Tower.

The Tower was the exact copy of the tower in his Pseudo-Dantian. This time though, unlike when he had first materialized the illusory Martial Way, the first gate was open! Within the first floor, six big, golden eyes instilled fear and terror upon anybody unlucky enough to look into them!

The illusory outline of a black, wingless, mouthless and limbless snake-like dragon could be seen wrapped around Cheng Hao's wrist and, although it was small, it wasn't any less terrifying than it would have been if it had been a thousand times its current size.

Its black scales and cool aura gave it a somehow deathly feeling, as if such a beast shouldn't exist in the world of the living. This was none other than the Soul Contract's manifestation. It would only be visible by the two contractors and it would only fade away once the contract was completed.

Suddenly, Cheng Hao's eyes glowed and he dispelled both the golden pillar and the illusory Avatar.

The dragon's physical manifestation within the tower though, remained. It wrapped around Cheng Hao's neck like a scarf. An illusory, yet at the same time growing more and more solid at each passing moment, black scarf.

The scarf was just like a live, breathing dragon. Unfortunately though, it was asleep. Cheng Hao knew that, after it slept for a while, the dragon would grow real from illusory and would then fight besides him.

He turned towards the wide eyed, slack jawed, Xiao Wu and Goldy with a smile "I have broken through!"

Chapter 10 - I Have Broken Through!