Meanwhile, Cheng Hao had not stopped counting nonchalantly, not noticing, or more accurately not caring to notice, the poor beast's dilemma of having his second least favorite person appear in front of its six eyes without so much as a notice.

"Nine... Ten... Eleven... Twelve..." The golden-eyed youth's voice was monotonous as he yawned and kept counting to the agreed total of twenty. Was he actually this calm? Of course not. He had been bottling up a roaring laughter for minutes now. He was on the verge of exploding already! He restrained himself however and kept a poker face as his expression.

"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.

"Thirteen... Fourteen... Fifteen... Sixteen..." Cheng Hao finally allowed himself to smile, one that he had been keeping repressed for the past few minutes: that smile that he had needed all his control to stop it from bursting out was therefore allowed to slowly emerge, accompanied by the wails of the beast.

"It… IT WAS YOUUU!" The Hellish Nightmare Dragon had long since forgotten that the person in front of him was only an Inferior stage cultivator and a small child at that: his rationale and thought processes had already been thrown into disarray.

Up until mere moments ago, the gargantuan snake had been basking in the image of the golden-eyed child's bloodstained corpse. Now however, the only thing it could think about were events from a thousand years prior... memories it had forcefully sealed away so as to sleep peacefully at night. How could it possibly think straight when, all of a sudden, those nightmares had actually come back to haunt it???

"Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, aaaand... Twenty!" Cheng Hao's smile grew even more evident as a wide grin found its way on his face. He waved his hands, blinked his eyes and the abilities disappeared.

"Left White Flame That Steal Life–

Glory!"

"Right Black Flame That Delivers Death–

Oblivion!"

"Golden Sun That Steals Lifetimes–

Chrono Wheel!"

"And that right eye... it's not clear yet, but that's for sure the Black-Golden Beast of Nightmares–

Live Golden Gate!"

The Hellish Nightmare Dragon gulped as he illustrated one by one the abilities of the Evil Saint. Although Xu Ling's might was enough for tales of his abilities to reach every corner of the known Planes of Existence, would just anybody be able to name them all with just a glance? Well, Blacky, the dragon of nightmares, could. And the reason for that was the number of times he had been the target of those attacks. Way too many too count, and according to Xu Ling and Blindlight, all for the sake of 'enlightenment'.

"You-You fooled me! W-What Cheng Hao and Cheng Hao! You are no Cheng Hao!" The voice of the fearsome serpent rang out once again, and finally exclaimed in a fit of rage and fear, "Xu Ling! Evil Saint! What the hell 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 its will for more than a few months. The power of the Spark had allowed him to accomplish astonishing feats, finding and capturing a few overgrown snakes had thus been as easy as flipping over his palm.

One thousand years ago, with the Evil Saint's death, the Hellish Nightmare Dragon Blacky had been given a chance at a new life free of conflict and pain. However, how could it possibly ever have thought that a thing like ‘Cheng Hao’ would ever happen?

Well, not that this is my problem.

Cheng Hao smirked as the pity vanished, replaced by greed. He spoke again in an overbearing tone, "I won, so you are now my servant for a thousand years! Welcome back, Blacky, did you miss me perhaps?"

With those words, any shreds of doubt that had remained in the serpent's mind evaporated like snow in the desert.

"So, you really are... Xu Ling, how is this possible? You certainly died that day at the hands of Tian himself! I felt your soul leave your body and personally saw Yama drag it into the yellow springs!" The voice kept yelling nonstop. In its mind, the Hellish Nightmare Dragon was repeating that it was impossible for Xu Ling to have survived Tian's attacks, and yet... Here he was! Standing before him, the only things separating the two were only the gargantuan frames of the golden gates.

"That is right. I died. My soul staled in the underworld… But I came back! I built this tower of mine, the Immortal Ascension Tower, to gain back my own power and eventually surpass even the past me! That is also why you will now bow to me and fight by my side like the old days, Heavenly Beast, Hellish Nightmare Dragon!"

What fight side by side? Back then, I clearly remember you riding on my back and abusing me! Fuck you, Xu Ling!

Of course, those words never left the snake's mouth. After all, even in a fit of rage, he would not forget the pact of absolute obedience he had just signed: although a finger would be enough to kill the golden-eyed youth, it would merely take a thought for the boy to accomplish the same thing to its scaly ass!

Still, to think it had actually fallen for it twice... not only was it defeated by the Evil Saint a thousand years ago, it had just been fooled a second time by a cultivator at the mere Inferior stage!

Face? What about it? What's 'face'? Oh, you mean those swollen butt-cheeks attached to his neck? Yeah, that might still count as face anatomically, but he was well aware that his 'Face' had long since been blown into smithereens by that one, resolute slap Xu Ling had figuratively landed on his ugly mug when he had kicked its ass.

The Hellish Nightmare Dragon would never forget the way the human had looked at himself: it was as if, at the slightest slip up, he would become a roasted dragon for the golden-eyed youth to enjoy!

Such a thought had 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 would have long since swallowed 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.

When he lost the fight and became Xu Ling's slave, he had been forced to free all the prisoners from the World's End, second highest security prison in the True Heaven, and even followed them to fight Tian head on. Indeed, back then, his face had long since been sent flying away. However not only was Cheng Hao's face-smacking skills so advanced he accomplished the same feat again, he did it with a cultivation that was more than two whole realms weaker than Blacky's!

As far as the black dragon was concerned, its face had already been slapped clearly off a thousand years prior, but it looked like Cheng Hao was not happy to leave it at that. So he had taken a thousand years off to allow the poor beast to piece that face back up, only to send it back to hyperspace a second time!

At least, this was the way the Hellish Nightmare Dragon had interpreted the whole thing. Still, he had already signed a contract. What could he do to escape that? Absolutely nothing. At least, not anytime soon.

"I... I..." Blacky gulped and finally shook his head, "Agh! Fine! Just don't cause too much trouble for me, you golden-eyed dick!" The beast gave up as a stream of golden light flew towards Cheng Hao's right hand: this was none other than a clear connection to Blacky' Soul. Prior to this, Cheng Hao having won the bet would only have amounted to him being able to kill the snake anytime he wished. Now however, he had really become the beast's master and anything he would order from that moment forward would be absolute, whatever it may be.

At the moment the ray of light approached him, Cheng Hao raised his right hand and allowed the ray to hit his palm; following this, a single golden light tattoo appeared floating a few inches away on top of the back of his hand. The tattoo depicted a black serpent: it had no arms and his mouth was a grotesque, teeth-filled, pointy beak, but his long body was enough to wrap around mountains and a single stare from its eerie, white eyes would be enough to stun most foes...

This was none other than the guardian of the first level of Tian's dungeon for life-sentenced prisoners; World's End! It was the one and only Monstrous Beast, 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 until it eventually disappeared, absorbed into the boy's very consciousness. This wouldn't take any longer than a few hours, a day at most.

The bronze gate issued a loud clacking sound as it closed shut. 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 but a thought, the tower and everything surrounding him shrunk.

The golden-eyed youth then put the tower in the very middle of the golden pellet that was his Pseudo-Core and relaxed as he allowed the Martial Way to stabilize the object in his place. Then, he finally relaxed and the golden core made a single rotation upon its imaginary axis, feeding upon the Qi from the tower until it had grown so dense the treasure's outline could only be barely noticed... finally, the semi-transparent pellet turned completely golden!

"ROOOAAAR!!!"

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 Ascension Tower... And Cheng Hao stopped holding back his cultivation base! Suddenly, a golden pillar could be seen rising into the sky beside the black-white-purplish pillar from before. It shot upwards and almost immediately reached the ten thousand feet mark! However, it did not seem discouraged as it failed to progress any further vertically, and instead increased its radius and expanded horizontally! By the time it had stabilized, it became clear that it was many times larger than Xiao Wu's.

Within the majestic pillar of golden light, the faint outline of a tall mountain peak stood out from the golden surrounding... Cheng Hao felt this change and furrowed his brows: the Qi Apparition also served to identify one's Qi attributes if for some reason the cultivator had failed to understand them prior to a breakthrough. However, the apparition of an object within the apparition was unheard of, or at least there were no recorded cases of such a thing happening. As for whether that would be a good thing or not, he had no idea.

"Phew..." he exhaled and relaxed his body, shrugging his stiff shoulders and massaging his neck. He paused for a second and then raised his right hand! "Come, my Tower."

Whoosh!

Cheng Hao smiled and finally opened his eyes: his body was encased within a glowing, golden illusory Avatar of his own Immortal Ascension Tower.

The Tower was the exact copy of the tower in his Pseudo-Core. This time however, unlike when he had first shown Xiao Wu his Martial Way, the first of the fifteen gates was open! Within the first floor, six big, eerie, white eyes instilled fear and terror upon anybody unlucky enough to look into them!

The illusory outline of a black, wingless and limbless snake-like dragon crawled out from behind the giant doorway and wrapped around Cheng Hao's wrist. The black scales and cool aura gave the snake a somehow deathly feeling, as if such a beast shouldn't exist in the world of the living.

Suddenly, Cheng Hao's eyes glowed an even brighter golden hue and he dispelled both the golden pillar shooting into the sky, and the illusory Avatar.

The dragon's physical manifestation however did not vanish, and climbed up the child's arm, shoulder and finally wrapped around Cheng Hao's neck like a scarf. It seemed somewhat illusory, but with each moment that passed it would grow more and more solid.

The scarf was really a live, breathing dragon. Unfortunately though, that dragon was still asleep. Cheng Hao was aware of the reasons for that: living for such a long time in a closed-off space such as the Immortal Ascension Tower would be detrimental to even a beast as powerful as the Hellish Nightmare Dragon.

At best one month, at worst three or so: that was the time the dragon would need to grow real from illusory and regain its strength!

At that moment, the sound of a person falling caught Cheng Hao's attention. The golden-eyed youth turned towards the source of the sound: a wide-eyed, slack jawed Xiao Wu had been staring at him in utter silence for more than five minutes, without daring to interrupt. As for Goldy... His reaction was pretty similar, with the sole exception being his knowledge of the Immortal Ascension Tower far surpassing that of the purple-haired girl's, which allowed him to recover after swallowing a few mouthfuls of saliva.

Enjoying the looks of surprise and shock that were being displayed by his two companions, Cheng Hao scratched his neck nonchalantly and asked with a smile, "How does that 'Twelve-year-old-Ageless-Realm-genius plan of mine sound now?"

Xiao Wu blinked once, twice, twenty times, and was finally able to utter a broken sentence as a response. "It... It sounds," she gulped down some saliva, "Well, not too shabby..."

"Eheheh," Cheng Hao winked, "Told ya!"