The Southern Domain was in an uproar. Eight columns of blood rose toward the Heavens, sending ripples throughout the sky above. The phantasmic war chariot formed by the Ancient Temple of Doom caused astonishment to fill the hearts of any and all who could see it.
At the same time, Meng Hao stepped foot into the Blood Immortal Legacy zone. When his foot touched onto the platform outside the sixth matrix, a tremor ran through the entire world, and a shocking rumble filled the air.
The platform continued to shake, all of the spell matrixes started to radiate light, and a roiling mist began to fill the surroundings. Countless beams of greenish light shot up from the sacrificial altar, swirling around and then shooting toward Meng Hao. The glittering beams seemed to be filled with excitement and hope as they waited for Meng Hao to select one of them to be his Blood Divinity.
Some of the greenish beams emitted auras that seemed to be even more powerful than the Blood Dragon or the Blood Sprite.
Even more hard to describe was how the spiritual energy of this place surged toward Meng Hao as he breathed in. It entered his body, causing his Cultivation base to begin to rotate. With every breath he took, his body grew stronger.
Wind and clouds surged, and the entire Legacy zone trembled. Thunderous roars sounded out everywhere.
A strange feeling rose up within Meng Hao; it seemed as if the Blood Immortal Legacy was calling out to him. The spell matrix, the platform, the aura, everything seemed different than from before!
Of course, the people the outside world in the Southern Domain couldn’t see any of this. What was happening inside was now cut off from them; not even the slightest image was visible. The only person who could see anything… was Li Daoyi. Having charged through the seventh matrix, he now stood on the platform beyond it. His face was grim, and his eyes shone with an intense light. He glared back at Meng Hao standing on the platform outside the sixth matrix.
Next to him was the three thousand meter long Blood Dragon possessed by the Li Clan Patriarch. It too was looking at Meng Hao, its eyes radiating both intense jealously as well as a complex, hard-to-describe expression.
“So the Legacy belongs to him….” Li Daoyi raised his head up and let out a hearty laugh. “There’s nothing I love in life more than stealing away the rightful Legacies of others. What a wonderful feeling.” His laughter rang out as he stepped forward into the eighth matrix.
When the laughter reached Meng Hao’s ears, he looked up, and a profound look of enlightenment shone from within his eyes. He looked at Li Daoyi with intense killing intent.
He did not race in pursuit. Instead, he waved his right hand, causing all of the greenish beams of light in front of him to fall back. He did not pick any of them to be his Blood Divinity.
“I only have one Blood Divinity!” he said to himself, his eyes radiating stubborness.
He did not enter the seventh matrix. He did something that no compet.i.tor had ever done throughout the ancient history of the Blood Immortal Legacy tournament. He… turned around and walked back into the sixth matrix!
“I promise that I will find you and take you out of here with me,” he said quietly, and then disappeared. When he reappeared, lightning filled the sky. Innumerable arms stretched out from the sludge that covered the ground. Off in the distance, the frozen, motionless form of the gigantic statue still stood next to the pitch-black form of the Ancient Temple of Doom.
It was the same world, but Meng Hao was not the same person.
He no longer had a Flawless Foundation. His rapidly healing Dao Pillar had propelled him into the realm of the legendary Perfect Foundation!
As soon as he stepped forth into the sixth matrix, he flew up into the air, radiating power from within his Cultivation base. He took a breath, and everything shook. Thunder and lightning crashed, and the earth trembled. Because of his Perfect Foundation, Meng Hao could not absorb even the slightest bit of spiritual energy in the outside world, but this place was filled with ma.s.sive amounts spiritual energy which rushed toward Meng Hao, filling him. As he breathed, Meng Hao could sense that he was like… the lord of this world!
Lightning and thunder crashed in the sky, and Meng Hao’s long hair whipped about. He lifted his right hand and waved it downward toward the ground.
As his palm descended, the sludge began to quiver. The grasping hands suddenly stopped moving, and the countless faces all looked toward Meng Hao. Their expressions were no longer hostile, but rather filled with veneration and even excitement.
Suddenly, a ma.s.sive crack split the earth and the sludge. It grew wider and deeper, splitting apart the hands and faces along with it. Meng Hao flew down toward it.
As he approached it, the sludge crept away, not daring to come close to him, as if a deep fear of him existed within it.
Meng Hao shot inside, his body flas.h.i.+ng like lightning and radiating determination. The crack grew wider and wider, and within the s.p.a.ce of a few breaths, Meng Hao came to a stop. Even as the crack grew larger, he saw it, there, deep within… a body.
It was not thirty meters long. It was the mastiff, but only the size of a palm. Its eyes were closed, and patches of fur were visible through the sludge that covered its body. Its fur wasn’t red, but deathly gray. It was no longer fierce and savage. And the cute, furry puppy it had once been, now existed only in Meng Hao’s eternal memories.
He thought about how as it grew up, it would run in circles around his feet, letting out playful yipping sounds, its fur rippling.
Many images unfolded in Meng Hao’s mind. He thought of how he and the mastiff had rushed together head on into battle in the third matrix. He thought about how it had happily run back and forth around him in the desert of the fourth matrix.
He thought about how the poison flare-up had reduced him to little more than a mortal in the fifth matrix, and how the mastiff had protected him regardless of everything. He thought about how after every battle, it would crawl back to him, lick his hand and lay next to him, watching over him vigilantly.
He had tried to make it leave, but it chose to stay.
In the end, in the sixth matrix, it had chosen to help its master escape even at the cost of its own life. The last thing Meng Hao remembered was watching as the myriad of grasping hands pulled it away from him, not even giving it a chance to lick his hand.
“I do not permit you to die here. You’re not allowed to close your eyes!” Meng Hao’s eyes were filled with veins of blood. One of his hands came to rest on the mastiff’s tiny body. The other lifted up toward the sky. The power of his Cultivation base roared to life. Everything shook as the crack in Meng Hao’s Dao Pillar was completely sealed up!
When this happened, Meng Hao’s body trembled. He felt an incredible power within him, not a power of circulation between heaven and earth. This was a power of circulation in which he formed his own heaven and earth!
In this instant, he was not absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy, he was plundering it!
From this moment on, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth could only enter his body, it couldn’t circulate back. He was like a wound in heaven and earth that could never be healed; the spiritual energy lost to him, would never be returned.
His eyes glowed with a strange light, and his hair whipped around his head. His aura grew more and more powerful, and a golden light emanated out from his entire body. He bit the tip of his tongue and spit out some blood; the blood descended down onto the corpse of the mastiff, but it was incapable of absorbing it.
“Your life was born of my blood; you grew from ignorance into spiritual consciousness….” Meng Hao stretched out his hand, and the blood congealed onto his palm, forming into a Blood Globe, which he then pushed down onto the mastiff, forcing it to absorb into the body.
At the same time, his Cultivation base erupted and he began to forcibly suck in all of the spiritual energy within the sixth matrix. Meng Hao was like a black hole, causing everything to whirl toward him at fantastic speed.
Boundless spiritual energy poured into him, which he then transferred into the body of the mastiff. Time pa.s.sed. The sludge covering the ground was beginning to dry up, and the arms and faces were beginning to crumble. Even the lightning had disintegrated into power which Meng Hao then absorbed.
The sky grew dim, and cracks spread out across it….
Off in the distance, the statue began to fall to pieces….
The Ancient Temple of Doom began to grow blurry and eventually faded away. The entire world grew deathly still. Only Meng Hao and the mastiff remained….
Its body twitched. It seemed to be struggling to open its eyes. It could sense the aura of its master. Slowly, it opened its eyes and looked at Meng Hao.
Boom!
The entire sixth matrix began to fall apart! Meng Hao pulled back his hand. The mastiff’s body trembled, but its eyes were filled with the fire of life. As the world crumbled around them, it slowly rose to its feet!
It was not a true life, so it had not truly died. It was a Blood Spirit, a Blood Divinity and therefore… could be reborn!
Throughout the ancient history of the Blood Immortal Legacy tournament, no Blood Divinity had ever been reborn. It… was the first. The first thing it saw when it opened its eyes… was its master, who had raised it from an unaware puppy into spiritual consciousness.
ROARRRR!!!
The mastiff lifted its head up and let out a thunderous roar. Its body rapidly expanded. In the blink of an eye it grew to sixty meters in length. Luxuriant fur grew out that was not red in color, but violet!
Its fur was violet and its stature like a small mountain. Sharp spikes grew out of its limbs, and from the top of its head protruded a long horn. Its teeth were long and sharp. All of this made the mastiff look even more fearsome and powerful than it had before!
As far as this world was concerned, it was completely ferocious and bloodthirsty. It was a blood Divinity, emotionless and cold. But there was one person who could make it act like it had when it was small, who could make it lick his hand, who would pet its head.
There was only one person like this in existence!