The Bridge of Immortal Treading! [1. The Bridge of Immortal Treading arc started in chapter 453. Meng Hao met Han Shan in chapter 460, and the final arc in which Han Shan reunited with his wife began in chapter 468]

At one time, it was a majestic bridge that spanned the starry sky, constructed by the Ancient Demon Immortal Sect. But then... in the war waged by Ji Tian, it was destroyed....

That was the bitter, b.l.o.o.d.y war which was fought when the Ji Clan betrayed the Ancient Demon Immortal Sect. During that war, the Ancient Demon Immortal Sect was completely destroyed, and Blood Demon was seriously injured. With his life force mortally damaged, he fled to Planet South Heaven, where he was forced to divide his Nascent Divinity and become a clone.

The war also saw the body of the Frost Soil Demon Emperor destroyed, and his soul collapsed. Only a tiny aspect of his soul managed to escape, and was later reincarnated.

Mysteriously, no reports surfaced of the Withering Flame Demon Emperor having died; no one knew what fate he met by the time the war ended....

The Fang Clan led the resistance against the Ji Clan, vying with them for the Lords.h.i.+p of the Ninth Mountain and Sea. Even after the Ancient Demon Immortal Sect was laid to waste, the fighting continued to go on for years.

Eventually, the Eighth Mountain and Sea was drawn into the conflict. Two great Mountains and Seas fought battle after battle. In the end... Ji Tian secured victory, becoming the new Lord of the Ninth Mountain and Sea!

The Mountain and Sea War ended. The civil war was over....

Such historical facts were common knowledge among cultivators of the Ninth Mountain and Sea. Furthermore, the ruins of the Bridge of Immortal Treading bore testimony to the brutality and carnage of the war.

Nowadays, all that remained of the bridge was this seemingly endless stretch of rubble, floating out in the starry sky. The stones clung together, and from a distance, the general shape of a bridge was still visible.

It was part of the history of the Ninth Mountain and Sea, and cultivators were drawn there to struggle in search of good fortune. Some people entered the ruins, never to return. Others acquired the luck they sought, and from then on their life courses drastically changed.

Meng Hao had been here once as a mere Spirit Realm cultivator. This was where he had met Zhixiang, and was also where he had encountered... a benefactor.

Han Shan!

He was the reincarnation of the Ancient Demon Immortal Sect’s Frost Soil Demon Emperor.... Han Shan!

Han Shan’s wife had been eternally imprisoned within the Bridge of Immortal Treading, and Han Shan had been willing to pay any price to come to this place, find her, and awaken her from her state of sleep. Were he unable to do so, then he was willing... to remain there forever with his wife.

He gave his sword, his alcohol flagon, and his frost soil to Meng Hao, connecting them with ties of destiny. He had helped Meng Hao succeed in his efforts, and had also created a bit of hope for himself and his wife....

At that time, Meng Hao had promised that when he achieved his Dao, he would come to repay the kindness!

Han Shan knew that if Meng Hao was the type of person to honor his promises, then he would definitely come back. If Meng Hao was not that type of person... then there was nothing that could be done about the matter. Such future matters were impossible to predict. Back then, Han Shan had no idea what would happen in the end.

Perhaps if Han Shan had remained conscious, he would have occasionally thought about Meng Hao’s promise. Or maybe he would have forgotten about the ray of hope that he had given himself, which came from the opportunity he had given Meng Hao.

The truth of the matter was that Meng Hao would never forget the people who had helped him. Nor would he forget the promises he had made. Never would he forget Guyiding Tri-Rain, nor Han Shan. The promises he had made them existed eternally within his memory.

“Achieve the Dao, fulfill my promise!” he murmured, transforming into a prismatic streak of light that shot up into the starry sky.

“Although I haven’t truly achieved my Dao,” he said softly, “I can still take a shot at freeing big bro Han Shan and his wife....” When he entered the region of the Bridge of Immortality, the excited cultivators who had been following him were quite confused. They couldn’t imagine why Meng Hao would come to this place.

“Could it have something to do with the Ji Clan? That bridge was destroyed by Ji Tian years ago!” As people made their speculations, Meng Hao pa.s.sed into the bridge, shooting along without even a pause.

He was not the only person inside the Bridge of Immortal Treading. Other cultivators were there, all of them in the Spirit Realm, come from other planets to partic.i.p.ate in various trials by fire.

It was just the same as when he had come here years ago.

Meng Hao flew through the various crushed stones that made up the Bridge of Immortal Treading, revisiting places that he remembered from the past. He flew along silently, traveling ever deeper into the ruins.

He saw cultivators, some competing, some cooperating as they sought after good fortune. As he pa.s.sed familiar places, he thought about his own experiences in the past. He did nothing to interfere with any of the cultivators he saw, nor did they even see him as he pa.s.sed by. They continued on with their struggles and fights, completely oblivious.

He followed the same path he remembered taking last time. As he proceeded along, he soon realized that there was n.o.body else present in the locations he had visited formerly. He didn't stop to check if there was potential good fortune available. His only goal was...

To repay the debt of grat.i.tude.

Soon, a land ma.s.s of broken rocks appeared up ahead, and the color of frost soil became evident. Meng Hao had finally reached the depths of the Bridge of Immortal Treading, the place... where he had watched as Han Shan found his wife.

The only difference was that now that he had once again returned, there were none of the soulless Bridge Slaves in sight; all he saw was boundless frost soil. But then he spotted a cliff in the center of that soil. Sitting atop that cliff were a man and a woman.

The woman was leaning up against the man’s shoulder. Her eyes were closed, and a faint smile could be seen on her face. She seemed very content. The man’s hand was intertwined with her beautiful hair, and he was looking down at her, also smiling.

It was a tender, beautiful sight, and anyone who looked at it would be able to see how much they cared for each other.

However, they were surrounded by seemingly endless frost soil, even the cliff, all of which looked like a deep blue block of ice!

The ice did not emanate any coldness, and yet, it seemed to be sealing them, eternally preserving the two people where they sat.

Apparently, the will of his wife’s soul was also sealed there....

Meng Hao walked up silently and stood next to the cliff, looking at the man and the woman. Their familiar faces instantly gave rise to numerous memories.

“Big bro Han Shan....” he said, his voice hoa.r.s.e. Considering the level of his cultivation base, he could tell at a glance that Han Shan had sealed himself here intentionally.

Rather than live on soullessly, he had somehow used the power of the Frost Soil Demon Emperor to seal both himself and his wife. There they would sit, waiting quietly for a future day when they might awaken.

Meng Hao looked at the man and the woman sitting there on the cliff, and softly said, “Unless I can dispel all outrage of the Bridge of Immortal Treading, then even if I am able to undo this seal, big bro Han Shan and his wife will have to remain here silently, year after year, unable to leave.

“The outrage of the Bridge of Immortal Treading… was born because of the Ji Clan. It would require a sacrifice of Ji Clan blood to dispel.... Unfortunately, I don’t have the power to do that right now.

“I can only try to use my cultivation base to shake the Bridge of Immortal Treading. Maybe I can force it to submit....” He took a deep breath and sat down cross-legged beneath the cliff. He closed his eyes, rotated his cultivation base, and drew upon the power of an Allheaven Immortal. Explosive azure light immediately began to s.h.i.+ne out in all directions.

In the blink of an eye, the light shone for 30,000 meters, creating an entire world of azure light. At the same time, the Bridge of Immortal Treading began to tremble. Just as Meng Hao had said, he would make an attempt using his own cultivation base, to try to shake the bridge and wipe out its outrage!

As his divine sense spread out to fill the area, his hands flashed in a double-handed incantation gesture, and then he pushed them down onto the ground. Ma.s.sive rumbling could be heard, rolling out in all directions to fill the entire bridge, with Meng Hao at the center.

All of the stones that made up the Bridge of Immortal Treading were shaking, and soon, Heaven-shaking, Earth-shattering shouting could be heard from each one.

The shouts occurred so abruptly that all of the cultivators partic.i.p.ating in trials by fire were shocked, and their faces fell. Next, images which appeared to be souls rose up from the stones!

Those numerous souls were all parts of the soul of the Bridge of Immortal Treading!

They floated up from each stone, and then rapidly flew together, converging into... the actual soul of the Bridge of Immortal Treading!!

It floated there above the ruins of the bridge, emanating an indescribable pressure filled with outrage and unyielding hatred that descended upon Meng Hao.

Meng Hao’s eyes snapped open, s.h.i.+ning brightly as he looked up at the vengeful soul of the Bridge of Immortal Treading.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” Meng Hao said. “There’s no reason to be like this. Don't take your anger out on the wrong people. Please allow these two people here to leave....” His voice echoed out throughout the entire Bridge of Immortal Treading, causing all of the cultivators who heard it to stare around in wordless shock.

From what they could tell, some almighty expert had descended from the starry sky to force the bridge into capitulation!

They weren’t the only shocked ones. The cultivators who had been following Meng Hao earlier also looked around with wide eyes, completely shaken.

They could see the soul of the Bridge of Immortal Treading, and they could sense the boundless outrage and animosity radiating off of it. All of a sudden, they realized why Meng Hao had come here.

“He... he's actually going to try to use his own power to dispel the outrage of the Bridge of Immortal Treading!”

“This bridge’s outrage will last for all eternity. The bridge hates the Ji Clan and is outraged at the Ninth Mountain and Sea. It is that very outrage which allows it to stay in the rough form of a bridge, despite having been destroyed!”

“This Meng Hao might be powerful, but how could it be so easy to dispel the outrage of the Bridge of Immortal Treading?!”

It was at this point that the soul of the Bridge of Immortal Treading, radiating boundless, sinister light, formed into an enormous face which then glared at Meng Hao.

“NO!” it roared, the single word transforming into a shockwave, a windstorm that swept explosively through the bridge toward Meng Hao.

“Your outrage has nothing to do with me,” Meng Hao said slowly. “I came here to take away these two people. If you agree, fine. If you disagree, I don’t care. I’m going to take them.” He waved his arm, causing the entire starry sky to tremble as yet another bridge suddenly appeared.

That bridge abounded with the energy of a Paragon. This was Meng Hao’s Paragon magic, his... Paragon Bridge!

He planned to use the Paragon Bridge to subdue the Bridge of Immortal Treading!