Meng Hao emerged onto the platform, and behind him, the sixth matrix collapsed in complete destruction. If onlookers from the outside world could see this, they would be shocked.
In the entire history of the Blood Immortal Legacy tournament, never before had a spell matrix been destroyed!
It didn’t stop there…. Not only did the sixth matrix crumble, further back, the first matrix also began to tremble. With a bang, it shattered, and as it did, ma.s.sive amounts of spiritual energy spread out.
The spiritual energy immediately flew toward Meng Hao and the mastiff, who both absorbed it. The boundless spiritual energy thrummed within Meng Hao.
At this moment, his second Dao Pillar coalesced. It was Perfect, without even the slightest crack visible. A second Perfect Dao Pillar! Meng Hao’s Cultivation base soared up with explosive momentum.
An intensely powerful aura emanated out from Meng Hao, and as it did, his body flashed. Behind him, the second matrix as well as the third suddenly began to collapse into pieces. It seemed as if the entire Blood Immortal Legacy tournament would not continue past the eighth tournament.
Meng Hao lifted his head and looked at the seventh matrix. His eyes radiated with killing intent as he stepped into it.
The mastiff lifted its head up and roared, then turned into a beam of light and followed Meng Hao into the seventh matrix.
Within the seventh matrix was an enormous tomb with three shocking, blood-red characters inscribed above it.
Tomb of Heaven!
As soon as Meng Hao stepped foot inside, the Tomb of Heaven began to shake. Cracks appeared on the wooden coffin inside, and the countless white bones began to disintegrate into ash. A black mist emanated from the dilapidated flag.
Boom!
A ma.s.sive booming sound echoed out as the Tomb of Heaven exploded like an erupting volcano. The three-sectioned flag flew up, fluttering in the air and emitting a power which instantly caused Meng Hao to look at it with narrow eyes. In an instant, it had disappeared, soaring out of the seventh matrix and flying directly toward the altar beyond the ninth matrix, and the throne. The flag flew past the corpse wearing the featureless mask, transforming into three white hairs on the corpse's black head of hair.
At the same time, the seventh matrix crumbled to pieces in front of Meng Hao’s eyes. Along with its collapse, vast amounts of spiritual energy thundered toward him.
This nearly indescribable force of majestic spiritual energy caused a third Dao Pillar to begin to appear within Meng Hao. He moved forward to stand on the seventh matrix’s pillar. Behind him, the second, third and fourth matrixes all toppled into fragments. The way back was now gone. Only the fifth matrix remained behind him and it too was showing signs of fragmentation.
Multiple matrixes had collapsed, sending out dense spiritual energy which formed a mist that covered the sky of the Legacy zone. The mist began to swirl into a vortex, at the very center of which, was none other than Meng Hao!
From a distance, the sight was nothing more than shocking.
Meng Hao sucked in the spiritual energy, as did the mastiff.
The Cultivation bases of both man and dog climbed upward. Meng Hao’s cold eyes stared forward toward the eighth matrix. Though the figure there was blurry, it was obviously Li Daoyi, whose head was turned back to look at Meng Hao.
“How can he destroy the matrixes so quickly!?” Li Daoyi’s heart trembled. He knew that Meng Hao was the destined successor of the Legacy, but was still completely shocked.
The blood dragon roared. “These matrixes have been waiting for his arrival. They’re all destroying themselves to make way for him. But the Blood Immortal is dead. As long as you are fast enough, the Legacy will be yours!”
A cold light shone within Li Daoyi’s eyes and he immediately strode forward into the ninth matrix.
“Maybe the Legacy belongs to you…” he said, “but I’m here now. I’ll s.n.a.t.c.h it right out of your grasp!”
Seeing Li Daoyi and the anxious-looking Blood Dragon enter the ninth matrix, Meng Hao’s killing intent flashed brightly. Without hesitation, he shot forward toward the eighth matrix, followed by the mastiff.
As they entered, a frightening howling emerged from the abyss that was the eighth matrix. The howling was mixed and disorderly, as if countless souls were crying out at the same time with both excitement and hope. As the sound echoed out, the world of the eighth matrix began to crack and fall apart.
The matrix was destroying itself, which was a mystical command left behind by the Blood Immortal before his death. One of his commands had been that the first person to stand before him could acquire the Legacy. However, another command was if any person rejected by the Heavens appeared, then the nine matrixes would collapse, transforming into spiritual energy to help him acquire the Legacy.
The instant the eighth matrix fell apart, majestic spiritual energy rushed toward Meng Hao and the mastiff. The mastiff lifted its head up and roared. Its Cultivation base had just broken through from Core Formation to Nascent Soul!
Its body grew to three hundred meters in length, and looked even more ferocious than before. The violet-furred mastiff lifted up its head and roared, causing everything to tremble. Its body emanated an unprecedented power, difficult to even describe!
At the same time, Meng Hao’s third Perfect Dao Pillar was more than half formed, and continued to coalesce. As soon as he stepped onto the platform past the eighth matrix, the fifth matrix behind him disintegrated.
There were no platforms left behind him. There were no spell matrixes. There was only dense spiritual energy, forming a foggy sea that enveloped the entire interior of the Legacy zone.
Ahead of Meng Hao was the ninth matrix, within which was Li Daoyi, receiving the aid of the Blood Dragon. However, he hadn’t emerged from it yet!
“Li Daoyi!” Meng Hao’s killing intent rose to the heavens. His Nascent Soul stage mastiff followed him as he rushed into the final matrix.
The instant he entered, the platform that he had been on collapsed. However, at that same moment, Li Daoyi emerged out of the ninth matrix!
As soon as he did, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. The Blood Dragon looked beleaguered. Obviously their swift pa.s.sage through the ninth matrix had come at quite a price for the Blood Dragon possessed by the four-thousand-year-old Li Clan Patriarch.
“The fact that the destined Legacy successor is here is a good thing. The spell matrix is weakened, which made it much easier to pa.s.s through. Daoyi, ascend the sacrificial altar! When you stand before the Blood Immortal, you will become the second generation successor!” The Blood Dragon roared, an expression of unprecedented excitement and antic.i.p.ation covering its face. If Li Daoyi acquired the Legacy, then it would be able to enter the Immortal treasure and become the Weapon Spirit. Then, he would never die!
Excited laughter spilled out of Li Daoyi’s mouth.
“This Legacy is mine!” he cried, laughing loudly, his face savage and cruel. The Li Clan had paid a heavy price for this Legacy, and he had been appointed to acquire it. In the past, he had truly believed in his heart that he was the person destined to receive the Legacy.
But then Meng Hao had appeared, and the Patriarch had said what he said. Then the spell matrixes had begun to collapse, without Meng Hao even striking a blow against them. Li Daoyi could not deny that this nameless Cultivator was the true destined successor.
But he refused to comply. He refused be resigned to this truth. He would s.n.a.t.c.h the Legacy for himself!
“I’ll take your Legacy and exterminate you!” laughed Li Daoyi. “I’ll wrest away your destiny!” He leaped forward, shooting straight toward the ma.s.sive, green-colored altar.
Within the ninth matrix, everything was black. There seemed to be no end to it. Buried deep below the surface of the land in this place was a skeleton. The skeleton looked up, and within its empty eyes, a burning light appeared. It seemed to be the fire of hope, piercing up through the earth until it reached Meng Hao.
“The Legacy of the Blood Immortal has waited countless years for that one certain person to appear…” murmured the skeleton softly. “I hope that in the end, you can avoid treading that path of no return which my Lord the Immortal tread….” The light in its eyes slowly faded into nothing. Its body transformed into drifting ash.
With that, the ninth matrix shuddered, and then split up into countless pieces. Again, ma.s.sive amounts of spiritual energy poured toward Meng Hao. This in turn caused Meng Hao’s third Dao Pillar to appear in full!
A third, perfect Dao Pillar!
Meng Hao had now reached the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage! His Spiritual Sense rapidly increased, far beyond that ordinarily seen at the late Foundation Establishment!
With one more Dao Pillar, he would be at the mid Foundation Establishment stage. That having been said, even though he wasn’t at the mid Foundation Establishment stage, his Perfect Foundation made him so strong that he could easily crush someone of the mid Foundation Establishment. Even late Foundation Establishment Cultivators with a Cracked or Fracture foundation were not his match.
Once Meng Hao formed his fourth Dao Pillar and reach the mid Foundation Establishment stage, the only Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the entire Southern Domain who would be qualified to battle him would be those who had completed the Great Circle of Foundation Establishment, and were on the verge of Core Formation.
People such as that were groomed by various Sects and Clans to be their most powerful disciples. Experts like that were addressed as… Dao Children!
For the most part, they all had Flawless Foundations, and because of their battle prowess, Cultivation bases, and various bits of good fortune, were the top experts in their stage. Yes, these were the Dao Children of the Southern Domain!
Li Daoyi was a Dao Child of the Li Clan. w.a.n.g Lihai had also been a Dao Child. These were people who could outcla.s.s Chosen. Within each Clan and Sect, there was only one Dao Child per stage!
The instant Meng Hao’s third Perfect Dao Pillar appeared, he strode out onto the platform outside the ninth matrix. Off in the distance, atop the greenish altar, sitting in the stone throne, was a corpse. It slowly lifted its head and looked at… Li Daoyi!
Its hand lifted to grasp the mask on its face. Then, it began to take off the mask!
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This chapter was sponsored by Hiram Perez Tamayo, Lucas Hillman and Abdelkrim Ouahasna