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In almost the same moment that the Paragon puppet’s eyes fell on Xuan Fang, an indescribably shocking divine sense exploded out from it.

The divine sense was not flexible, but rigid. It was also boundlessly ancient. However, it was so majestic that Xuan Fang couldn’t help but gasp in disbelief.

Meng Hao’s eyes flickered in response to this change in the Paragon puppet. At the same time, the power of the exploding sun was weakening after destroying millions of nearby Outsiders.

Because Meng Hao was in the middle of the spell formation, he wasn’t hurt very much at all. Instead, his eyes glittered with killing intent as he looked in the direction of the 16th Heaven, and then back at Xuan Fang, whose face had completely fallen.

It had been a long time since Meng Hao had conned anyone, although in truth, this was not a case of him conning Xuan Fang, but more a case of Xuan Fang setting himself up for failure.

Meng Hao had always had his speculations regarding Choumen Tai’s true level of power, and Xuan Fang’s actions now were only giving him a deeper understanding.

“The Mountain and Sea Realm... has so many mysterious ent.i.ties.... Choumen Tai, that old man on the boat, and also Slaughter, who walked out of Dao-Heaven’s scroll painting. Then there’s Shui Dongliu....” Meng Hao’s eyes flickered. He had the intense premonition that, as the war reached its climax, as the 33 Heavens and the Mountain and Sea Realm headed closer and closer to the final battle, all of the secrets would be revealed, like a scroll being unfurled.

“In all of this... who exactly are the enemies, and who are the friends.... And who was it that saved me before? Was it Shui Dongliu? What exactly are his plans here in the Mountain and Sea Realm?” Meng Hao sighed inwardly. After awakening from his coma, there had been no time to ask Paragon Sea Dream about such matters. However, he had long since developed the feeling that the truth about the Mountain and Sea Realm was covered by a mist-like gauze, which made it impossible to see everything clearly. However, it seemed to him that there was someone behind the scenes influencing everything that was happening in the war.

He himself was only a p.a.w.n in this war. Perhaps everyone was, including the Outsiders. They were p.a.w.ns, with no idea who the chessmaster was.... It was brutal, but that was war.

It had been a long time since that bashful smile appeared on Meng Hao’s face when he was conning someone. The war had broken out suddenly, forcing him to mature, to grow up. He didn’t want to think about what it would be like to watch his family or friends dying in battle in front of him, or what that would turn him into.

He didn’t dare to contemplate such pain!

Therefore, the only thing he could do was make sure that any likelihood of such an outcome... was thoroughly wiped away!

“This time, one of these two Paragons will definitely peris.h.!.+” As the murderous aura spread out from Meng Hao, his eyes suddenly went wide, and he looked down at the spell formation beneath his feet.

The sun was gone, but... there was still something else that remained behind.

It was in that exact same moment that the Paragon puppet’s eyes locked onto Paragon Xuan Fang, and its enraged voice echoed out into the starry sky. “Was it you who severed my thread?”

Paragon Xuan Fang’s heart began to pound as he sensed something locking down on him, something locking onto, not just his body, but his mind and his soul.

The voice which had just spoken was filled with killing intent and murderous intentions. There was a brutality to it, something that made the starry sky around it turn icy. At the same time that the voice rang out, the Paragon puppet vanished, then reappeared directly in front of Xuan Fang.

Xuan Fang didn’t hesitate at all to fall back at top speed, his heart filled with an intense sensation of imminent crisis. However, no matter how fast he tried to flee, he couldn’t match the soul fragment of Choumen Tai which had been sleeping inside the Paragon puppet.

Rumbling sounds echoed out as the Paragon puppet extended its right hand and made a grasping motion. In reality, it was manipulating the flow of time, reaching backward a few moments into the past.

“Get back here!” said the icy voice which echoed out of the Paragon puppet’s mouth. Then, the puppet’s hand wrenched backward.

Off in the distance, Paragon Xuan Fang had been fleeing, but then his face flickered as he sensed an enormous hand in front of him, grabbing at his soul, pulling him toward the Paragon puppet.

“You’re not Eegoo, and you’re not Meng Hao! Who... who are you?!” Paragon Xuan Fang’s face flickered as he bit down on the tip of his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of life essence blood and simultaneously performing a double-handed incantation gesture. That mouthful of blood became an entire sea which spread out in all directions and transformed into a blood-colored magical symbol.

“Break!” It was a critical moment in which there was no time for contemplation. Xuan Fang attacked without any consideration for the negative ramifications to himself. Everything around him twisted, and the blood-colored magical symbol exploded, sending out a huge shockwave that he used to shake free of the Paragon puppet’s time-traveling hand. Then he shot back at top speed, mind reeling and heart pounding from the realization of how powerful the Paragon puppet was.

In fact, he was now coming to the conclusion that severing Meng Hao's connection to this puppet might have been... a big mistake.

“Dammit, this is no puppet! There’s a soul supporting it from the inside! This is a discarnate soul possession!!” Having come to this conclusion, Xuan Fang’s face looked more unsightly than ever, and the sensation of crisis within him grew even more intense.

However, no matter how he tried to flee, the sensation only got worse. He didn't feel like he was breaking free from anything. On the contrary, he felt more locked down than ever, incapable of extricating himself.

Then, the Paragon puppet’s eyes flickered, and its hand clenched into a fist before punching out.

BOOM!

The fist strike causing rumbling sounds to fill the void as an explosive force suddenly appeared right in front of Paragon Xuan Fang. Despite how powerful he was, blood sprayed out of his mouth, and he fell back, a look of shock on his face. Then he looked at the Paragon puppet, and suddenly seemed to have realized something, and his face fell.

“Y-you’re... you’re not a cultivator from the Paragon Immortal Realm. Y-you’re... from the Barbarian Devil Realm!!”

“Barbarian....” A gleam of reminiscence could be seen in the eyes of the Paragon puppet before it then took another step forward and launched another blow at Paragon Xuan Fang. Booms rang out as Xuan Fang fell back, blood spraying out of his mouth. [1. This “Barbarian” is a term that comes up a lot in Beseech the Devil, and is a bloodline/clan/people/something-like-that in that novel. Unfortunately, some translators have transliterated it oddly as “Man,” which I think is incredibly confusing]

Meanwhile, back in Meng Hao’s position, the detonation of the sun revealed something completely shocking. There, numerous strands of light formed the outline of a spell formation design.

Within the heart of that spell formation was... a bow!!

It was an azure bow, floating in the nucleus of the spell formation, emitting boundless light. This was... Paragon Nine Seals' precious treasure!

Furthermore, Meng Hao was currently located above that spell formation… directly facing that bow!

The sun might have exploded, but the sun was only the outer sh.e.l.l.

Meng Hao paid no heed to the battle ensuing between Xuan Fang and the Paragon puppet. Instead, he looked down at the bow, his eyes glittering. Then he reached out, as if to grab it!

As soon as he reached out to touch the bow, it shuddered, as if in response. At the same time, the Paragon's blood inside of his Nirvana Fruit began to boil in an unprecedented fas.h.i.+on. Then the bow then began to slowly rise up toward Meng Hao.

Simultaneously, within the sealed Mountains and Seas, all of the Mountains began to shake, and the Xuanwu turtles in the celestial ponds began to howl as if because of some intense provocation. At the same time, the will of the Mountain and Sea Realm also seemed to erupt explosively.

Patriarch Reliance’s eyes went wide, as if he too could sense what was happening, and unexpectedly, he threw his head back and roared. At the same time, wave-like ripples filled the area around Guyiding Tri-Rain, and as for Mount Daqing, although it seemed to be just an ordinary mountain, all of a sudden... a completely extraordinary aura began to stir within it.

Also on Patriarch Reliance’s back was Dong Hu. A pearl floated in front of him, which radiated dazzling light. Dong Hu looked at it thoughtfully, and then looked up into the vast sky.

“My life has been devoted to preparing this treasure for someone I don’t know. Is it possible... that the fated master of this object is him...?”

As these things occurred, the cultivators who wielded the magical devices of the three Doyens redoubled their efforts, joining the Mountain and Sea cultivators to relentlessly attack the quivering seal which covered the Realm.

It was also in this moment that rumbling sounds could be heard as the bow emerged from the spell formation... and came to rest in Meng Hao’s hand.

The bow was azure, the string was black, and there were no arrows!

However, there was a boundless ancientness which erupted from within it.

It was as if in the moment he grabbed ahold of the bow, all of the qi and blood inside of Meng Hao erupted. The starry sky vibrated, and wild colors flashed. Meng Hao’s hair flew about, and his energy rocketed up.

However... his body instantly began to wither as his qi and blood were rapidly absorbed by the bow.

Meng Hao’s eyes grew bright, and he took a deep breath. Then he looked up toward the 16th Heaven, his eyes flickering with killing intent.

“Xuan Fang is pinned down by the Paragon puppet. If I join in, then it might be possible to kill him. However, it would be better to take down Paragon Mythdragon when he's injured. There won’t be another chance to do that....

“Yes, I’ll kill Mythdragon!” He made his decision in a split second, then took a step forward and transformed into a beam of light that shot toward the rest of the land ma.s.ses up above.

As he flew up, the majestic spell formation which surrounded him followed. His feet remained on the spell formation, and his hand grasped the azure bow. He was like the sun itself, rising with majestic splendor toward the land ma.s.ses in the starry sky.

The ordinary Outsiders, and their Imperial Lords, were all shaken, and quickly flew forward to try to stop Meng Hao. Paragon Xuan Fang’s eyes went wide, and although he instantly grew very anxious, there was nothing he could do but watch Meng Hao fly up.

As of this moment, the Outsiders were all astonished!

As of this moment, the cultivators of the Mountain and Sea Realm were all staring at Meng Hao as he rose up into the sky like a sun!

Meng Hao’s father, Xu Qing, his fellow clan members, his friends, and all of the other cultivators who were watching, no matter how far away they were, could see the sun-like figure transforming into something like an arrow of light that shot toward the land ma.s.ses up above!

“I am not indispensable to this war,” Meng Hao murmured. “If I weren’t here, there would be someone else who could take my place, and follow a similar path as mine....

“I can be a game piece. I can lack my own will. I can be a sacrifice. I just hope... that my family lives, that my wife lives, and that my friends live....”

With that, he drew the bowstring back!