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Meanwhile, back in Meng Hao’s Immortal’s cave, rumbling sounds could be heard coming from within two of the stone chambers in his residence. It didn't take long for the two chambers to completely collapse.

Two Ghost Eyes suddenly emerged from within the cloud of dust. When they saw each other, sparks of hostility could be seen, but instead of fighting each other, they flew out of the residence, apparently intent on making their escape.

However, as soon as they emerged, they found themselves facing the parrot, who was in the middle of coaching the Demonic cultivators in their singing. The parrot stared in shock, and then immediately looked displeased.

“They look so familiar, but I can’t quite place them. Anyway, why is their fur so spa.r.s.e?”

“You fool, they don’t have fur, those are tentacles!” Off to the side, the meat jelly jumped at the chance to correct the parrot. All of a sudden it felt as if it knew about everything in the world, which also caused it to feel superior to and wiser than the parrot.

“Well it doesn’t matter if its fur or tentacles,” the parrot responded angrily, “they just don’t have enough! Come, come, you two, time to practice some singing with Lord Fifth!” It flew toward the two Ghost Eyes without any hesitation.

The two Ghost Eyes emanated mysterious glows, and without hesitation charged the parrot in attack. Shockingly, the two imps inside of the eyes opened their mouths wide, as if to possess the parrot.

They all slammed into each other, and surprisingly, the parrot wasn't hurt at all. In contrast, the two imps let out miserable shrieks. They had sensed some sort of terrifying aura within the parrot, and began to flee. The Ghost Eyes faded away, revealing the imps, which transformed into black pods as they shot backward.

The parrot looked very proud of itself, and was just about to start speaking, when the two black pods suddenly shrieked: “Dagger!”

It was a shrill sound, tinged with madness. Next, two black daggers shot toward the parrot.

The parrot gaped in shock.

“Black pods that become daggers? Pod daggers? They seem so familiar....”

Meanwhile, back in the ninth golden gate stone stele, the black pod in dagger-form stabbed into a crimson-robed body cultivator, causing him to instantly vanish. Unexpectedly, he was completely absorbed... consumed by the dagger.

Meng Hao’s eyes flashed, and he kept fighting. Not much more time pa.s.sed before he was able to wipe out the remaining two hundred or so enemies. Then, the void up ahead rippled once again. 512 body cultivators appeared.

A new round of slaughter had begun. Considering how many people he was fighting now, it was impossible for Meng Hao to maintain his previous momentum. He began to edge backward, and yet, his expression was calm. Despite being forced backward, he occasionally looked over at the blackpod imp, who was battling with increasing courage. As it continued to absorb the body cultivators, it was beginning to emanate a sensation of qi and blood.

That caused Meng Hao’s awe of the imp to increase.

Outside, the more than 10,000 disciples stared in shock as Meng Hao’s name rose from 101st place to 97th, 85th, 78th, 63rd, 54th....

Finally, Meng Hao’s name appeared in the 46th position!

The golden light which shone from the name made it clear to everyone. Furthermore, in terms of time... Meng Hao reached that position only two hours after beginning the stone stele trial by fire!

Everyone was completely shaken by this. Furthermore, the glittering golden light which rose up attracted the attention of disciples in other areas of the Nine Seas G.o.d World. They came over and began to ask about what was happening, and were shocked when they found out.

The Demonic cultivators were more affected than the ordinary cultivators. They stood there with grim faces and swirling killing intent.

As for Fan Dong’er, her face was extremely unsightly, and her hands were balled into fists.

“Considering the power of his fleshly body, he shouldn’t have any problems making it into the top 30,” she thought, gritting her teeth. “But... why is he going so fast?!?!” Meng Hao had long since pa.s.sed up her own name on the list, which was not unexpected. However, according to her calculations, Meng Hao should have taken a whole day to get to his current position. Instead... he used only two hours.

By now, many of the Ancient Realm experts had sensed what was happening in the ninth golden gate stone stele, and were sending divine sense over to investigate.

Inside the stone stele, Meng Hao looked around at the hundreds of crimson-robed cultivators who surrounded him, and sighed. Even with the a.s.sistance of the blackpod imp, it was not an easy thing to go up against the combined qi and blood might of these body cultivators.

“I wonder how high up I am on the list,” he thought. “Definitely not 1st. How did all those the other people from the Nine Seas G.o.d World get so high in the rankings? How did they cultivate fleshly bodies more powerful than mine?!” Meng Hao’s eyes glittered.

“Perhaps it has something to do with body cultivation itself, or perhaps... the Nine Seas G.o.d World has true body cultivators!” He hadn’t been in the Nine Seas G.o.d World for very long, but even in that short time, he had made incredible gains. Not only had his fleshly body grown stronger, but he now had some clues about the path of body cultivation.

Were it not for that, he would have long since already reached his limit. Now, however, he felt that his power was just a bit lacking.

“Although I haven’t reached the point of needing to use THAT item, still... my fleshly body power just isn't sufficient.” He took a step back, eyes glittering.

“In that case,” he said, taking a deep breath, “let’s see what types of body cultivators are here in this fleshly body trial by fire!” Although his Immortal meridians were sealed, and he couldn’t unleash magical techniques, he had sensed earlier that the secret magic of his Immortal meridians was still accessible.

His fleshly body was modeled after a single one of his 123 Immortal meridians. Therefore, he should be able to... transform all of his 123 Immortal meridians into fleshly body power.

He truly wanted to know exactly how powerful he would become if he transformed his fleshly body that way using the secret magic.

He closed his eyes, and the crimson-robed body cultivators closed in on him. When they were almost upon in, his eyes snapped open, and rumbling sounds filled his body. It was like a giant beating on a drum, intense booms that shook the entire world.

Inside his body, 123 Immortal meridians, despite being sealed and incapable of unleas.h.i.+ng magical techniques, were not prevented from transforming into fleshly body power. Rumbling sounds could be heard as Meng Hao’s power exploded upward. Qi and blood power surged, and ma.s.sive energy rose up.

RUUUUUUMMMMBLLLLE....

The incoming crimson-robed body cultivators were instantly smashed to bits by the surging energy. They became nothing more than ash that swirled around Meng Hao.

The blackpod imp let out a shriek and immediately evaded, looking back at Meng Hao with intense fear in its eyes.

All of the red-robed body cultivators were instantly destroyed.

Meng Hao clenched his fists and looked up, and his eyes shone with a bright light. Outside, his name instantly shot up from the 40’s into the 19th position!!

From ancient times until now, only eighteen people had ever performed better than Meng Hao, and they were all Ancient Realm cultivators with at least five extinguished soul lamps.

Furthermore, their fleshly bodies were not necessarily more powerful than Meng Hao's. After all, he had cleared the entire stage in only a few breaths of time, whereas many of the others had been forced to slowly kill all of their opponents.

The result was the same, but the process was vastly different.

The outside world was in an unprecedented level of uproar. The disciples of the Nine Seas G.o.d World couldn't believe their eyes when they saw his name leap from the 40’s all the way to the top 20.

Meng Hao!

Fan Dong’er’s eyes were wide, and she was panting with disbelief and shock. She even gasped.

“The top 20!!”

“Meng Hao got into the top 20! Only four hours to reach the top 20!”

“It’s hard to say whether or not... he might actually get into the top 10!”

Boundless golden light rose up from the stone stele, catching even more attention. More disciples were arriving in beams of brilliant light.

Meanwhile, back in the world of the stone stele, Meng Hao hovered there, looking every bit like a celestial warrior. His energy was impossible to describe.

He was a celestial warrior, the Immortal Realm Paragon. And now, his fleshly body had also reached the level... of the Immortal Realm Paragon.

The blackpod imp was trembling as the void distorted up ahead. Soon, rumbling sounds could be heard as distortions could be seen, from within which emerged a black-robed man.

It was only a single person, wearing a black robe and a mask. However, when he appeared, his explosive qi and blood power caused cracks to appear everywhere!

A terrifying energy rose up from him, which was the power of the peak of the Immortal Realm, a level of power equivalent to Meng Hao’s before he had used the Immortal meridian secret technique. However, compared to Meng Hao’s present state... this man’s energy was far too weak.

Meng Hao advanced, extending his hand. He didn't use a fist, but rather, just waved his arm, causing fleshly body power to shake the natural law in the area. A huge concave depression appeared, which immediately overwhelmed the black-robed man.

“Break,” he said softly.

A boom could be heard as the black-robed man shattered. Next, 2 men appeared. Then 4, 8... all the way until 512 black-robed figures could be seen. Each and every one of them were crushed by Meng Hao.

His face was one of determination, and he attacked with lightning speed. The power of his fleshly body had already reached the pinnacle of the current generation, and even exceeded that of Ancient Realm experts. However, Meng Hao knew that this was not his most powerful state.

An even more powerful state would be one in which he could successfully absorb the four Nirvana Fruits. At that time, before he entered the Ancient Realm, he would have the most powerful fleshly body state to ever exist in the Immortal Realm from ancient times until now.

That would be... something that might even exceed the Immortal Emperor Realm!

512 black-robed men were smashed, causing Meng Hao’s name to jump from 19th place on the stone stele to 5th!!

Outside, the crowd went wild.

“5th! Meng Hao got 5th place! The only people ahead of him are the legendary Four Celestial Warriors!”

“From ancient times until now, from the beginning of the Ninth Sea and the Nine Seas G.o.d World, the top 4 of the ninth golden gate stone stele have never been surpa.s.sed. Those four names have always been there!”

“Those four people aren't like Chosen from our era! They have been in that same spot for ages! Their record has never been broken by anyone!”