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Greed’s soul let out a miserable shriek as he attempted to get out of Meng Hao’s body. Unfortunately for him, the power exerted by the fourth Nirvana Fruit was completely shocking, causing his life force Essence to rapidly vanish.

To Greed, his life force Essence was his most prized possession; it was what kept him alive, and the foundation of his soul, and was now also what made it impossible for him to escape Meng Hao’s body.

Finally, he let out a vicious howl and ceased any attempts to flee. Instead, he faced Meng Hao’s soul and tried to consume it. He really had no other option than to risk it all in an attempt to fight for that tiny chance at life.

However, even as he lunged, Meng Hao snorted coldly, and a blood-colored light shot out from within his third Nirvana Fruit.

That blood-colored light contained Paragon power. Rumbling could be heard as it swept through Meng Hao’s body, surging toward the trembling Greed, who screamed, “Nine Seals, Nine Seals!!”

Greed was in a state of despair. By this point, how could he not understand that he had been set up by Paragon Nine Seals? Years ago, he had a.s.sumed that his act of splitting his soul had gone completely undetected. The truth was that Nine Seals had seen everything.

Greed now knew why he had been unable to see anyone else throughout all the years, not even when cultivators came into the 33 h.e.l.ls to explore. He could sense them, to be sure, and even try to possess them. However, the result was inevitable failure, as if there wasn't even a host to enter.

But then Meng Hao came along. Greed believed himself to have possessed him, but now, he realized that it had all been a trap, a ruse to lead him into an even greater snare.

“Nine Seals!!” Greed howled as his life force Essence continued to be consumed by the fourth Nirvana Fruit. With Greed’s help, the fourth Nirvana Fruit had already been more than half absorbed by Meng Hao. Thanks to its consumption of Greed, the process was becoming ever more complete!

Eighty percent, eighty-five percent, ninety percent!

Booms echoed out that no one could hear except for Meng Hao and Greed. To them, they seemed loud enough to cause everything to tremble. As Greed’s life force Essence faded away, his struggling grew weaker and weaker.

He was now lost in despair, thanks especially to the pressure of the Paragon's blood. Soon, he was suppressed to the point where he couldn't fight back. He could only watch as his life force Essence slipped away, consumed voraciously, and his soul fire slowly began to flicker out.

Worst of all was that Meng Hao’s fleshly body was far more powerful than before, like a rampart, such that the power exerted by the fourth Nirvana Fruit could grow boundlessly stronger without him needing to worry about the strain it would place on his body.

“I refuse to accept this! I refuse! I've been preparing for years! I endured the pain of splitting my soul apart, all to get free. I'm so close! So close!!” Greed’s miserable shrieks echoed out within Meng Hao’s mind. Meng Hao's body was shaking, and the image of four Nirvana Fruits appeared on his forehead, flickering brightly. An incredible power erupted from them, filling his body.

As Greed himself was absorbed into the Nirvana Fruit, Meng Hao then acquired... Greed’s memories. They weren't completely intact, and there were many blurry areas, but they still left Meng Hao completely shocked.

In addition to Greed’s memories, he also acquired... Xuan Daozi’s memories, which Greed had just Soulsearched. Those images were fresh, and were quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed up by Meng Hao.

It was at this point that his fourth Nirvana Fruit reached a state of ninety percent absorption. As for Greed’s life force Essence, there was only a strand of it left.

“I re-molded this body with my Essence. I made it stronger! It's the same with the cultivation base. I even sealed the Dao Fruit so it couldn't emerge. I was the one who refined his magical items. I spared no cost....

“I destroyed his enemies, and turned them into life force which he absorbed.... I... I... I refuse to accept this! That jinx overcame me so many years ago, and what’s done is done. But now, Meng Hao does the same thing!?!?”Greed laughed bitterly as his aura dissipated. His struggles ceased, and he was completely blotted out by the Paragon's blood inside of Meng Hao.

At the same time, the corpse sitting cross-legged in the middle of the nine stone columns suddenly trembled slightly. It wasn’t that the corpse once again had life force, but rather, the blue sun on its forehead was vibrating, causing the entire body to tremble.

As the last strand of Greed’s life force Essence was absorbed by the fourth Nirvana Fruit, as the last bit of Greed’s soul was wiped out by the Paragon's blood... Greed’s screams were cut off; he had been completely and utterly refined!

It was at that point that the blue sun on the corpse began to s.h.i.+ne with radiant light. Then, it suddenly dimmed. However, when that happened, a face became visible within the sun. Floating there... was none other than Greed!!

His eyes had been closed, but now they snapped open, filled with madness as he glared at Meng Hao, revealing that wild, unyielding air. He even opened his mouth and howled noiselessly.

His eyes were filled with venomous hatred, hatred toward Meng Hao and hatred toward Paragon Nine Seals, all of which had reached the pinnacle.

He had given Meng Hao incredible good fortune, only to be consumed by him. Of course, it was only part of Greed’s soul, not the entire thing. The rest existed within that blue sun.

Back when he had been suppressed by Paragon Nine Seals, he had split his soul, with one half remaining on the outside. That part had now been absorbed by Meng Hao, which const.i.tuted a grievous injury to Greed.

In fact, not even the wounds inflicted on him by Paragon Nine Seals years ago had been as bad.

Half of his soul meant that half of his life force Essence was now gone as well. To Greed, that was like half of his life!

Even as Greed’s face howled noiselessly within the blue sun, Meng Hao trembled, and the glittering image of his fourth Nirvana Fruit appeared on his forehead. It was now almost completely absorbed.

However, the key was the word ‘almost,’ since it still lacked just a tiny, tiny bit before being completely absorbed.

It was now at ninety-nine percent. The last bit would need time, not any influx of life force. Based on what Meng Hao could sense, he was confident that it would take a few months at most before... he was ready to break into the Ancient Realm!

At the same time, he could sense from the rumblings of his cultivation base that he was far more powerful than he had been before. He was even confident that if he faced Dao Lord level opponents, he would no longer only be able to fight them to a deadlock, but rather, would be able to secure victory.

Even more shocking was that the Allheaven Dao Immortal blood inside of him was boiling, which affected the Fang Clan back in the Ninth Mountain and Sea.

On that day, the Dao seeds in many fang Clan cultivators sparked to life. There were even some whose blood awoke to the point of being in the initial stages of an Allheaven Immortal!

On that day, the overall power of the Fang Clan increased by a whole level. On that day, the Fang Clan was shaken, and all of the clan members were in shock. On that day, Fang Shoudao experienced a cultivation base breakthrough!

In one short day, the Fang Clan grew far, far stronger. At the same time, on that day, countless members of the Fang Clan could sense a distant, awe-inspiring aura surging up in the Eighth Mountain and Sea.

That... was Meng Hao!

Meng Hao’s eyes burst open, and they seemed to contain the stars hidden in their depths. If you looked closely, they seemed to house vortexes that could suck in the power of all types of divine sense!

Even more shocking was that... there was lightning dancing around him that came from none other than Greed’s Essence of lightning.

Meng Hao took a deep breath, and as a result, the entire aura of the necropolis seemed to begin to spin toward him.

Meng Hao’s eyes began to gleam with wild joy. He clenched his fists together and relished the sensation of power he felt from his body, which far, far exceeded that from before.

He could sense the resilience of his bones, and how much more terrifyingly strong they were. His qi pa.s.sageways were the same, and most importantly, his blood was too. Greed had paid an extremely heavy price to purify his blood, of which even a single drop now contained ma.s.sive power!

Right now, he didn’t need to use his cultivation base to fight the Dao, he could use his fleshly body alone!

In fact, there would surely be some powerful experts who would wish to refine his body into a Dao Realm treasure if they could!

Meng Hao began to laugh heartily. In his opinion, this Greed really was a good guy.

In addition to what he had done with his fleshly body, he had increased his cultivation base, something that left Meng Hao smiling broadly. He rubbed his forehead, thinking about how much time he had saved with the fourth Nirvana Fruit thanks to Greed. Suddenly, he felt very appreciative. Were it not for the fact that Greed had forcefully sealed the fruit inside of him, even though he still could have taken his body back, his cultivation base progress would not have been as incredible.

“What a great fellow,” Meng Hao said. Licking his lips, he smiled and smacked his bag of holding. Eyes s.h.i.+ning brightly, he took a deep breath and took out the long spear which had been turned into a dragon, and the superimposed swords. When he swung the long spear, the dragon roared. The pressure it now exuded was over ten times that of its previous power, as far as Meng Hao could tell in his initial estimate.

As for the superimposed swords, the murderous aura they emitted was even greater than before.

He suddenly regretted not leaving some more magical items sitting out in his bag of holding. If he had known things would end up like this, he definitely would have....

Then he looked up at the Lightning Cauldron floating above his head, and his eyes gleamed.

“Rich!” he murmured. “This time I've really struck it rich.... I wish I'd known earlier that lending out my body could lead to so many benefits. From now on I’ll loan it out a bit more often....” Then he looked over at the blue sun on the forehead of the corpse, and Greed’s face therein. Greed looked like he was about to go mad from the sight of Meng Hao’s glee regarding his fleshly body, his excitement regarding the transformations to his cultivation base, and his excitement at the items in his bag of holding.

All of it was too much for Greed, who let out a miserable howl. His heart felt like it was breaking, and his regret was enormous.

“Mine! All of that should be mine....

“I spared no cost to refine that body, and I wasted tons of Essence to mold its cultivation base. And I was the only one who could unseal those magical items.... Mine! All of that should rightly be mine....”

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