The howl echoed out near and far, in all times and places, seemingly intent on burying Meng Hao. As for Meng Hao, he simply snorted coldly.

Immediately, ripples spread out, distorting everything as they spread out, seemingly taking the surrounding area and cutting it away from the starry sky of the Vast Expanse.

Ignoring the howl coming from the will of the starry sky, Meng Hao pushed the meat jelly's soul down into the armor with his right hand.

In the blink of an eye, the fossilized armor suddenly turned sleek and glossy. Then, it began to twitch and wriggle, as if life were being breathed into it.

Immediately, the will of the starry sky of the Vast Expanse began to descend, but before it could reach him, Meng Hao’s eyes flickered with cold light. His right hand flashed with an incantation gesture, unleas.h.i.+ng the Ninth Hex with the wave of a finger.

“How dare you try to threaten me with this paltry show of force. Don’t come at me again until you’re ready to pull out all the stops. Screw off!” Although he spoke calmly, every word echoed like thunder, causing rumbling sounds to echo out in all directions.

Instantly, the will of the starry sky of the Vast Expanse was crushed, destroyed as easily as a dried twig.

Paying the will of the starry sky no further heed, Meng Hao looked back at the meat jelly. More and more life force was building up inside of it, until it finally resumed its original form!

It opened its eyes, looking around in confusion before noticing Meng Hao and the parrot. It smiled.

“Hahaha!” squawked the parrot. “Third Bro, you’re finally back!” It was so excited it couldn’t stand still. It immediately flew over to the meat jelly and said, “Come, come. Do you remember Lord Fifth?”

The meat jelly blinked, and without even thinking about it muttered, “Who are you calling Third Bro? You can’t say that. It’s immoral. It’s wrong. Lord Third is going to convert you... Lord Third... Lord Third....” It’s eyes widened, and it glanced back and forth between the parrot and Meng Hao. Then it looked around the area in general. “Hey, what happened? I feel like I just woke up from a dream. In the dream, I died, and Haowie was also about to die.... Wait a second....”

The parrot began laughing uproariously in its high-pitched voice, and Meng Hao joined in. Meng Hao looked at the meat jelly, his gaze warm. He felt that this was one of the truly happy moments in his life.

“I will ensure that all which was lost is restored....” he thought. Taking a deep breath, he waved his sleeve, and a blast of wind rose up. The excited parrot and the confused meat jelly vanished.

After they all left, the natural and magical laws in the area returned to normal. The will of the starry sky of the Vast Expanse converged into the vague form of a person, who hovered there alone, looking in the direction Meng Hao had just vanished in, its eyes flickering with the intense desire to kill.

One day later... in another corner of the starry sky of the Vast Expanse.... Three land ma.s.ses existed inside of an enormous vortex. They were filled with an aura of death, and contained no cultivators, only countless lizards of varying sizes.

Those lizards had fully occupied the three land ma.s.ses, and were now the rulers of this place.

The central land ma.s.s was actually an enormous basilisk lizard, which spent most of its time in slumber. The world which existed on its back was a Holy Land occupied by its descendants.

All of a sudden, a figure appeared within the vortex. It was a young man in a long white robe, who looked like a mortal scholar.

He was none other than the Transcended Meng Hao!

On his shoulder was the parrot, who had a little silver bell attached to its foot. A face could be seen on that bell, and it didn’t look confused at all. In fact, it was arguing with the parrot.

In the day that had pa.s.sed, the parrot had explained everything to the meat jelly, including how Meng Hao had resurrected it. The meat jelly was simple-minded to begin with, so it quickly recovered from its confusion and began to talk incessantly.

“Shut up, you three-counting old fart!” the parrot squawked. “Do Lord Fifth a favor and just shut up!”

The meat jelly glared angrily at the parrot. “Lord Third was dead for countless three-year-periods. Countless three-year-periods, you hear me? You can’t even count them. That’s not countless two-year-periods, and not countless one-year-periods either. It’s definitely not countless zero-year-periods....” If it could, it would have continued on in this line of reasoning, but after thinking for a bit, it realized that its ability to count really was quite limited.

“Anyway, I haven’t been able to talk for countless three-year-periods. That simply won’t do. I have to make up for all of the things I would have said during those countless three-year-periods! There are also countless bullies that I didn't convert during those countless three-year-periods. That’s wrong! That’s immoral. I’m a sinner.... I have to make up for all of it!” The meat jelly was not happy at all, and if it had arms and legs at the moment, it would be waving and stamping them wildly.

The parrot and meat jelly argued back and forth, and Meng Hao smiled the entire time. He didn't feel annoyed at all. It had been two thousand years since he had experienced this sensation, and it felt like he was with family.

He hovered there in the void, looking around. This was the same place where he had found the first copper mirror shard, which he took from within the body of the gigantic lizard. Before leaving, he had mentioned that he would return to take the lizard away as his subordinate.

Back then, the old lizard had mocked his words inwardly, and yet, here Meng Hao was.

Smiling, Meng Hao said, “Hey lizard, an old friend has come for a visit, why haven’t you come out yet?” His voice filled the three worlds in the vortex, causing all of the lizards to suddenly go stiff. At the same time, an enraged roar echoed out from the central land ma.s.s.

The entire land ma.s.s began to move as the huge basilisk lizard lifted its head. As it glared in fury at Meng Hao, an intense pressure erupted out from within it.

“Dammit, you little punk, how dare you show your face in front of... wait... what?” The huge lizard’s first reaction upon seeing Meng Hao was to roar with rage. However, before it could finish speaking, its eyes went wide with disbelief. Then it gasped.

Meng Hao hadn’t unleashed any pressure at all, but as soon as the old lizard caught wind of his aura, it could tell that something was off. Staring at him, it began to tremble. Although it had never encountered a Transcendent cultivator before, it could instantly tell what Meng Hao was. It could sense that a single glance from Meng Hao could completely eradicate it.

“.... Transcendor?” The old lizard's mind felt as if it were being toppled over.

“What did you call me just now?” Meng Hao asked coolly.

The old lizard s.h.i.+vered, and its eyes darted back and forth for a moment before it looked back at Meng Hao with a gaze of awe and reverence.

“A true genius, someone you might only see once in a hundred years! Heaven has laid its eyes upon me with grace, otherwise little old me would never get to lay eyes on a Chosen like this!” An expression of grat.i.tude appeared on the lizard’s face, and even as its words were echoing about, it bowed its head in respect.

“Many thanks, exalted one, many thanks. The fact that I’ve been able to lay eyes on you makes my entire life worth it, oh exalted one. What’s more, I've actually been able to see you twice! Oh exalted one, back then, I could sense that you were beyond ordinary. Exalted one, your gaze is like the gaze of an eagle or a wolf. Back then, your bearing was that of a n.o.ble hero, striding forth like the dragon or tiger. You seemed like an intrepid and honorable warrior, gripping your sword as you patrolled vigilantly!”

Meng Hao looked at the lizard through the slitted eyes of a smile. Discerning someone’s true feelings by seeing their reaction to your brown-nosing was a childish ploy that Meng Hao had come to master long ago. Although he was a bit surprised that the old lizard would speak in such a manner, he took it in stride.

However, the parrot and meat jelly looked over with looks of complete disdain.

“Uncouth!” the parrot said with a snort.

“Shameless!” the meat jelly said with a cold harrumph, its eyes s.h.i.+ning with contempt.

The old lizard was at the peak of 9-Essences, and thus had no choice but to speak words to Meng Hao that it actually found revolting. However, it still had the same temper it always had, so the reactions from the parrot and meat jelly left it feeling even more humiliated than before. It instantly glared over at the parrot and meat jelly, eyes s.h.i.+ning with a ferocious light.

“Well, what have we here?” squawked the parrot, flapping its wings excitedly as it looked at the lizard. “Not going to back down?

“Come, come, Third Bro, we need to have some words with this old b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Let’s see, how many mistakes did it make when it was speaking just now!?”

A popping sound could be heard as the bell transformed into the usual meat jelly shape. It looked over at the old lizard, and began to speak in a very wise and knowing tone: “I'm not going to give a lecture here, but listen, you need to do things earnestly. Even when you’re brown-nosing, you have to do it earnestly. Only by doing things earnestly can you do things well. You need to brown-nose as if you were practicing cultivation. That’s the way to do things perfectly. Ai. All this reminds of something that happened countless three-year-periods ago. It was a fine spring day when....” The meat jelly continued speaking emotionally. However, before it could say much more, the parrot smacked it with a wing.

“Hurry up and get to the point!”

Off to the side, Meng Hao looked on with amus.e.m.e.nt. He suddenly felt very warm inside. Seeing the parrot and meat jelly talking like this reminded him of memories from more than two thousand years in the past.

After being smacked by the parrot, the meat jelly wasn’t very happy at all. The old lizard looked on with wide eyes, unable to keep himself from wondering if this meat jelly and this parrot were complete idiots. However, even as the thought occurred to him, the meat jelly cleared its throat.

“Fine, fine. Listen up, old lizard. Again, I'm not going to be giving any lectures. However, I couldn’t help but notice that you mentioned something about only being able to see someone once in a hundred years, right? Nonsense! Rubbis.h.!.+ You call that brown-nosing? A hundred years? My little Haowie is a Chosen you couldn’t see once in 100,000 years. No wait. From the beginning of the starry sky of the Vast Expanse, to now, there’s never been anyone like him!” The meat jelly’s eyes glowed with ardor. As soon as the words left its mouth, everything went quiet, and the old lizard gaped in shock.