Time pa.s.sed one breath at a time. He had long since pa.s.sed the usual time limit for the Nirvana Fruit. However, after enough time had pa.s.sed for an incense stick to burn, he still sat there, Nirvana Fruit fully absorbed. He opened his eyes, grabbed the jade vial, and was about to open it, but then hesitated.

The hundreds of thousands of strands inside of him were growing dimmer, and would rapidly vanish. Unfortunately, the Nirvana Fruit still wasn’t completely fused with him, not even by half. In terms of percentages, then as of this moment, the Nirvana Fruit seemed to be about one percent fused.

“Even if I completely absorbed this entire sample of Paragon’s blood,” he thought, “then at most, I could achieve a four percent absorption....

“It’s not that the Paragon’s blood isn't strong, nor that it's fake. Rather.... this drop of blood is simply too diluted. Who knows how many dilutions it’s gone through.” He sighed inwardly. He knew that even if the Three Great Daoist Societies did have complete specimens of Paragon’s blood, they would still be incredibly scarce.

There was no way they would give him a complete drop. It was true that he was in the Echelon. However, taking a broad view, it was impossible to say whether or not another Echelon member might come along in the future. Although the Three Great Daoist Societies valued him, they couldn't possibly give him undiluted Paragon's blood.

Even a highly diluted drop could still be considered a precious treasure! From the very beginning, all they had agreed to give him was some Paragon's blood. They had never said that it would be complete.

“If I could get a complete, full drop, then I’m certain that after absorbing it, I would then be able to completely fuse with the Nirvana Fruit, and I would truly be an Immortal Emperor!” Desire gleamed in Meng Hao’s eyes as he thought about the possibility of being able to eternally retain a cultivation base that exceeded the Immortal Realm Paragon.

Meng Hao took a deep breath, and his eyes shone brightly.

“Not complete.... Well then, I’ll just have to create my own complete drop of Paragon's blood!” Gritting his teeth, he slowly pulled the copper mirror out of his bag of holding. He was of course concerned about how much it might cost him. In fact, he wasn’t even sure if the copper mirror was powerful enough to duplicate the Paragon's blood.

However, determination filled his face as he looked at the copper mirror for a moment, then placed the vial of Paragon's blood on its surface. Immediately, the vial began to sink down into the mirror.

Then, the mirror suddenly went berserk in a way it never had before. It shook wildly, flying out of Meng Hao’s hands and up into the air. Brilliant beams of light shot out in all directions, along with a shocking aura.

In the blink of an eye, the entire residence was inundated by a terrifying aura, which began to spread further out. If nothing was done about the spreading of this aura, it would go on to fill the entire Nine Seas G.o.d World, and the entire Ninth Sea. From there it would spread out to fill all of the Ninth Mountain and Sea, and eventually... the entirety of the Mountain and Sea Realm!

Outside the residence, the parrot was flying proudly through the air, looking extremely excited at the prospect of how happy its life would be after it exchanged all of the seafood for furry beasts.

Having reached this point in its train of thought, it immediately turned to all of the Demonic cultivators and roared: “Now listen well to Lord Fifth! All of you--”

However, before it could even finish speaking, a tremor suddenly ran through its body, as if some incredible power had suddenly sucked it dry. It withered rapidly, causing it to gape in shock. It suddenly turned to look toward Meng Hao and the residence, clearly astonished. Then it let out the most shrill, anxious squawk that it had ever uttered since it had begun to follow Meng Hao.

It was usually quite calm and collected. It had never reacted this strongly to anything, not even when it ran into the most luxuriantly furred or feathered creatures. It seemed so nervous that it might collapse at any moment, as if the sky were about to fall or the entire world was about to explode.

“He’s still alive!!” the parrot shrieked. Then it shot toward the residence at top speed, looking completely fl.u.s.tered. It went so fast that numerous feathers were stripped off of it, falling to the ground. Its body s.h.i.+vered with unprecedented terror.

Inside the residence, Meng Hao’s eyes widened at the intensity of the aura, an aura that seemed to either ignore or trample upon all natural laws. It was vastly domineering, as if the Heavens and the starry sky both might be crushed by its terrifying energy.

Suddenly, he could hear a pulsating voice murmuring from within the mirror. It was archaic, seemingly stretching out from ancient times, causing his mind to reel. All of a sudden, countless images flickered in his eyes.

Of all those various images, there were only three that he could see clearly. The rest were flickering blurs. However, the three images he could see caused his scalp to go numb, and his expression to fill with a look of disbelief and utter astonishment.

The first image was that of the Heavens and a starless sky. It was a picture of chaos. There were no heavenly bodies, only emptiness. Then, a beam of light appeared, shooting along at top speed. Within the flickering light, shockingly... was the copper mirror!!

As it flew along, the surface of the mirror flickered. Immediately a heavenly body appeared off to the side. It proceeded along, one after another heavenly body appeared without pause.

In the end its flickering... caused the starry sky to appear, as if it were creating whole worlds!!

It continued on without stop, as if there were no end to its movement. Eventually, however, it vanished, having created innumerable stretches of starry sky that formed countless worlds!

Meng Hao’s mind reeled with shock.

The second image he saw was of the uncountable ent.i.ties which inhabited the various heavenly bodies and worlds that had been created. They were not cultivators, but rather, a vast mult.i.tude of indescribable living things.

Some looked like beasts, others were liquid. Some were made of gas, and others were made of metal or stone. There seemed to be an infinite variety, and they were all currently engaged in a chaotic battle!

All of these ent.i.ties were far, far more powerful than Meng Hao. They were in the Dao Realm!

Meng Hao could scarcely even comprehend how there could be so many Dao Realm ent.i.ties. There were simply too many, and they were all fighting each other, fighting to acquire one object....

That object was none other than... a copper mirror!

Their battling gave rise to countless indescribable ripples. All of a sudden, the copper mirror trembled, and two pearls shot out from it, one black, one white. Each pearl then sped off in a different direction.

Meng Hao could now see that actually, those two pearls had previously been inlaid on opposite sides of the mirror. The pearls were not the primary components, but rather... just subordinate objects belonging to the copper mirror! [1. The black and white pearls will likely make some readers recall the scene from the Ancient Demon Immortal Sect in chapter 613]

Even still, they emanated an aura that left Meng Hao feeling completely suffocated, as though the two pearls contained an indescribable, paramount power!

And yet... despite that incredible power, they were still... subordinates to the mirror!

They were mere secondary objects!

In the third image, Meng Hao saw another world. It was a world filled with corpses, corpses that had lain in place for innumerable years. The whole world felt like a graveyard.

A beam of light flew along, within which was the copper mirror. The mirror was just pa.s.sing by, and yet, as soon as it appeared, something happened which caused Meng Hao’s scalp to tingle. He saw the corpses... rising up one by one. Flesh grew anew, and the blink of an eye, they were resurrected. Their eyes were filled with madness, and even more so, hope. It was as if they had been waiting for ages for this very moment.

Suddenly, a hand shot up, a hand that was mostly white bone, upon which flesh and blood was rapidly forming. The instant it appeared, blood sprayed out of Meng Hao’s mouth, and his mind trembled. The feeling he got from that hand was a feeling he had only ever gotten from one other cultivator.

And that person was... the white-robed Paragon Sea Dream!

Except, from what Meng Hao could sense, the power of that hand exceeded that of Paragon Sea Dream!

It stretched out toward the copper mirror and made a grasping motion. That grasping motion caused the starry sky to be crushed, as if the hand could shrink down the stars and the Heavens until they were tiny items that rested in its palm.

At that point, the vision ended. Meng Hao coughed up a mouthful of blood, and the images faded away.

“This copper mirror... where does it come from...?” he thought. He felt as if his whole world had been turned upside down. He looked down at the copper mirror, and the vial of Paragon's blood, which was still sinking down into the mirror.

Most shocking of all to Meng Hao was that once again, he could see that the surface of the copper mirror... was not complete!!

It was shattered, and only had one piece in place. How could he possibly forget how he had helped the mirror to acquire that piece in the Ancient Demon Immortal Sect!? [1. He added a piece to the mirror in a scene that started in chapter 618 and ended in 619 ]

Everything that happened takes some time to describe, but actually happened in a flash. It was at this point that the parrot suddenly appeared, and then sped into the mirror itself. The copper mirror trembled, and the light s.h.i.+ning out grew even more intense. At this point, the vial of Paragon's blood finally vanished inside.

The terrifying aura ceased to spread out, and instead remained only inside of the residence. After about ten breaths of time pa.s.sed, it faded away completely, returning to the copper mirror, after which it could not be detected.

After the aura faded away, the parrot emerged. It was emaciated, as if it had just undergone an indescribably desperate ordeal. It smiled wryly as it looked at Meng Hao, then flopped noisily to the ground. After a moment, it struggled to rise up and fly, but could only lay there, panting.

Seeing the parrot in this condition caused Meng Hao to think of the images he had just seen, and he couldn't help but ask: “If I hadn't placed that Paragon's blood onto the mirror…?”

The parrot gaped for a moment. Sounding astonished, it replied, “What’s it got to do with you? I was just careless and didn’t notice that someone was using some magic on this mirror. If the copper mirror wasn’t used, then it wouldn't matter. But once it was used, no matter what you duplicate, it will... Huh?”

About half way through speaking, the parrot suddenly seemed to come to its senses. It rolled its eyes s.h.i.+ftily and squawked: “That’s right. Dammit! It’s you! It's all because of you! You owe me now!”

At the same time that the parrot was berating Meng Hao, something was happening outside of the Mountain and Sea Realm, outside of the 33 Heavens. Far out in the void of the starry sky, in the middle of the world projection with the huge coffin, an archaic voice filled with excitement and determination suddenly echoed out to fill the entire world.

“I've found it! It’s there... right there!!

“After all these years, hope has finally appeared. Clan of G.o.ds, prepare to send orders down!!

“It is time to wage war! In order to awaken our clan’s Underworld G.o.d, we will once again... go to war with the Paragon Immortal Realm!!” As the ancient voice echoed out, the world projection began to shake.

At the same time, the three women who stood near the coffin exchanged glances, then nodded to each other silently.

In that instant, the entire world projection began to grow blurry. In the blink of an eye, it vanished from within the void of the Heavens.

“Unleash the power of the world. Employ the maximum possible speed of our G.o.d Realm’s true form to travel there, in order to let our true world descend!” The voices of the three women echoed out into the void, filled with a decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron.