The wave of Meng Hao’s finger caused a tremor to run through the Outsiders of the 14th Heaven. A ripple spread out from his hand, almost instantly reaching the fastest among the group of Outsiders.

In that instant, they began to tremble, and then suddenly, their flesh and blood was shredded off of them. A moment later, the ripple had pa.s.sed by, and they were skeletons.

The pain of having their flesh and blood flayed off of them caused the Outsiders to scream, but as their flesh and blood vanished, their ability to emit sound went with it. Soon, all they could do was experience the pain within their souls.

Meng Hao calmly stepped forward, and the ripple continued to spread, flaying alive all of the Outsiders it pa.s.sed, transforming them into skeletons.

Cracking sounds began to emanate out as the skeletons, which were not yet dead, began to tremble. As they fell down, they transformed into chunks of bone and ash. However, their skulls remained, within which their souls were still trapped, letting out indescribably miserable screams.

The hosts from the Vast Expanse School were left completely shocked. Meng Hao was like an underworld deity, whose pa.s.sage caused flesh and blood to vanish, and left behind only skeletons.

By the time he pa.s.sed through the entire 14th Heaven, not a single Outsider remained who had a flesh and blood body. They were all skeletons, who toppled down to the ground. Inside their skulls, their souls writhed, screaming in voices that only divine sense could hear.

Their pain was impossible to describe, both the pain of being flayed alive and also the twisting of their souls. Their bodies were telling them that they were dead, and yet the pain was telling them that they weren’t.

Meng Hao looked out over the land ma.s.s, and some of the hatred within his eyes faded. And yet it was still intensely powerful. He waved his hand, causing all of the skulls to fly up and converge together in the air. It was a sea of skulls, each one containing a soul. Screams echoed out, pleading for mercy. They were begging Meng Hao, not to free them, but simply to kill them.

“Dying isn’t that easy,” Meng Hao said softly, waving his finger out in front of him. Cracking sounds emanated out as fissures spread out across the surfaces of the skulls. Instantly, the pain inflicted upon them was increased by tenfold.

As they screamed, more cracking sounds echoed out, and more fissures appeared.

A moment later, the pain was so intense that the souls were slamming against the bone, trying to escape. They tried to kill themselves, but were unable. The only thing they accomplished was adding further cracks to the skulls, leading to even more shocking pain.

Meng Hao took his time. Several hours later, the skulls were transforming into ash. The pain experienced by the souls exceeded that of h.e.l.l, or of death. Their screams caused Heaven and Earth to grow dark. The Outsiders down below trembled. Some were so shaken that they collapsed mentally, and yet, because dying was not permitted, they remained alive.

However, the fate of the souls was not complete. After their torment, they didn’t fade away. Meng Hao waved his sleeve, sending them into the sea of flames up above, to endure eternal torment.

Having accomplished these things, the hatred within Meng Hao’s eyes had faded a bit. He reached down and pushed onto the surface of the land ma.s.s, and the 14th Heaven shattered. Rubble rained down onto the 13th Heaven, which shook violently. The screams of the Outsiders echoed out as mountains were destroyed and rivers choked up.

Meng Hao hovered in midair, looking down coldly at the terrified Outsiders below. Some of them flew up into the air, and just as he was about to wave his finger, a bellow echoed out from the 13th Heaven, a bellow filled with both rage and supplication.

“Meng Hao!” An Outsider flew out who looked like an old man, an 8-Essences Paragon. He looked up at Meng Hao, clasped hands and bowed.

“Meng Hao, it is right and proper for you to come to the 33 Heavens to seek revenge. Considering what we did, it is fitting that you to wish to exterminate us. But... why must you torment everyone? Just kill us!

“Not everyone here partic.i.p.ated in the destruction of the Mountain and Sea Realm. There are innocents here, people who never fought in any war. I beg of you, torment us, but spare them!” Trembling, the man dropped to his knees and kowtowed.

The other Outsiders fell silent. Some, in their bitterness, dropped to their knees. The sight of such supplication caused the cultivators from the Vast Expanse School to sigh.

Meng Hao looked quietly at the old man. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when they opened, his expression flickered, and he looked down at the land below.

As he did, his eyes were suddenly shot with blood. To the terror of the Outsiders, he took a step forward, appearing a moment later within a vast plain.

After the Outsider Paragon realized where Meng Hao was standing, he s.h.i.+vered, and suddenly looked very nervous.

As he stood there, Meng Hao waved his hand, and the lands around him began to quake and crumble. A huge crater opened up, revealing a huge basin. Apparently, the reason it was now a vast plain was because countless skeletons had been buried there....

Those skeletons even contained the remains of children. Bite marks could be seen on the bones, bearing witness to the unimaginable torment they had undergone prior to death.

These bones weren’t Outsiders. They were... people of the Mountain and Sea Realm!

Back when the Mountain and Sea Realm had been destroyed, not everyone made it onto the Mountain and Sea b.u.t.terfly. Many had been captured by the Outsiders of the 33 Heavens.

Cultivators and mortals alike had become playthings to the Outsiders, and even food....

The 13th Heaven actually served as a hub for such activity. These particular Outsiders indulged in unique proclivities. Because of that, and because of the fact that they eventually gave rise to a Paragon, it ensured that most of the Mountain and Sea Realm cultivators ended up here, where they became nothing more than commodities to be traded between Outsiders.

Among the skeletons were some which had died as shortly as half of a sixty-year-cycle ago. Furthermore, according to Meng Hao's divine sense, there were no longer any living cultivators of the Mountain and Sea Realm within the 33 Heavens. Clearly, they had been slowly exterminated over the course of the past two thousand years, and buried here in a ma.s.s grave.

It was a ma.s.sive pit of corpses.

There had been nothing like this among the land ma.s.ses of the other Heavens which had been recently destroyed. Meng Hao looked at the deep pit, and then the killing intent in his eyes grew even more intense. All of a sudden, he felt as if his previous methods had been too merciful.

He turned, then extended his hand and pointed out at the land ma.s.s. No ripple spread out. Instead, he altered the natural laws, simultaneously sending divine sense into the minds of the Outsiders of the 13th Heaven.

“I will give you one chance. Those of you who never killed any cultivators of the Mountain and Sea Realm may experience a quick death. In addition, your soul will not be cast into the sea of flames.

“Your fate will be determined by your own memories!” As the words left his mouth, Heaven and Earth trembled. The Outsiders of the 13th Heaven began to shake, and their eyes went blank as numerous images rose up in their minds, their own memories.

They recalled everything which had occurred when the Mountain and Sea Realm was destroyed, and after. Suddenly, all of the Mountain and Sea Realm cultivators who they had killed in the past suddenly seemed to live again, and began to charge toward them with hatred and murderous intent.

The Outsiders wanted to fight back, but were stunned to find that they couldn’t move. The cultivators they had killed in the past now pounced on them in their own memories.

Miserable shrieks began to ring out from the mouths of the Outsiders of the 13th Heaven.

All living beings in the 33 Heavens were Outsiders. However, their manner of giving birth was different than cultivators. The shortest pregnancy term among them was half of a sixty-year-cycle, and the longest was a hundred years.

As such, the Outsiders born after the Mountain and Sea Realm war, although they might not have actually partic.i.p.ated in the fighting, and had been referred to as innocents, had still partic.i.p.ated in the s.a.d.i.s.tic murder of many Mountain and Sea cultivators.

Meng Hao looked coldly at the Outsiders as black smoke began to rise up off of their heads, the density of which indicated how many Mountain and Sea cultivators they had killed over the years. As he looked out over the land ma.s.s, he could not find a single Outsider who had no black smoke rising up!

“Death cannot wipe out your crimes!” With that, he waved his hand.