“It’s hard to say for sure,” Choumen Tai said softly, his eyes flickering with reminiscence. “There is an eighty percent chance that he's from somewhere else in the Universe, from some world that even I have never heard of....

“Actually, my Master speculates that the will of our starry sky wasn’t originally that of Allheaven!

“My master, along with the G.o.d and the Ghost, are now unable to remain inside the starry sky of the Vast Expanse with their true forms. In fact, their connections to this place have been almost completely severed. Now they roam the eternally boundless Universe, where they walk the path of that which exists beyond Transcendence.

“As for you... you are also destined to walk that path. They... are waiting for you out in the Universe.”

Choumen Tai’s body gradually began to fade, transforming into a huge, rumbling vortex that sucked the Li Clan into it before vanis.h.i.+ng.

The starry sky rumbled as a huge rift was torn open into it. Then the Devil Realm Continent went silent. The only things that remained behind were the faint echoes of Choumen Tai’s parting words.

In the silence that reigned after Choumen Tai’s departure, the forces from the Vast Expanse School looked around in shock at the decay around them. They had their various speculations about what exactly was happening, but they did nothing. One by one, they began to look over at Meng Hao.

Meng Hao closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. They were profound and deep, to the extent that no one would ever be able to tell what he was thinking. He looked around at the ruins of the Devil Realm, then sighed.

“It's over,” he said softly. “My hatred for the Immortal G.o.d and Devil Realm Continents has come to an end. The hatred which festered for countless years is now resolved.” As of this moment, Meng Hao realized that his hatred for the Immortal G.o.d Continent and the Devil Realm wasn’t even as intense as his hatred toward the 33 Heavens.

He had walked a path of slaughter and confusion, and as of this moment, despite having Transcended, his heart was exhausted.

“My enmity with the Immortal G.o.d and the Devil Realm has come to an end, but the true battle has yet to be fought!” His eyes flickered as he looked up at the starry sky. Within his divine sense, he had long since come to detect that out there in the starry sky, there were countless figures speeding in his direction.

Those were countless living beings of all sorts, heading in his direction under the control of the will of the Vast Expanse.

He knew full well that he and the will of the Vast Expanse had reached a point where only one would come out alive. The other would die.

Even as he looked out into the starry sky, the Devil Realm Continent began to shake. Just like the Immortal G.o.d Continent, it began to transform into a huge giant that radiated the aura of the will of the Vast Expanse.

Everything here had been defiled. This land ma.s.s was not the true Devil Realm; it was merely a doppelgänger made from the will of the Vast Expanse.

Intense rumbling shook Heaven and Earth as the Devil Realm Continent transformed into a giant. The mountain peaks became spikes that protruded from its skin. The mountain ranges became blood vessels, as did the rivers and the seas. Lands shook, and mountains were rocked.

Intense rumbling could be heard as a face appeared. Two of the land ma.s.s’s seas sank down into pitch black holes that were like eyes.

Then, those eyes opened.

A huge arm appeared, and its hand clenched into a fist which rumbled toward Meng Hao.

If that were all there were to it, it might not much to be concerned about, but it was at this point that, off in the distance, countless beams of light appeared. They came from all directions, seemingly endless, charging forward in a murderous attack.

The ent.i.ties within those beams of light were all very bizarre. The only similarity between all of them was that they were life forms from the starry sky of the Vast Expanse. They had been born here, and thus, had no choice but to heed the commands of the will of the Vast Expanse.

If the starry sky of the Vast Expanse wanted them to attack and exterminate Meng Hao and everything around him, then they wouldn’t hesitate at all to accomplish that mission.

Rumbling could be heard as they got closer and closer. The old lizard roared as it went on the offensive. Behind the gigantic lizard was the head, then the cultivators of the Vast Expanse School. After all the fighting they had just gone through, their killing intent was no less, and they didn't hesitate to charge towards the host of ent.i.ties. Instantly, fierce battles broke out.

Meng Hao looked around at everything, at the host of living beings, and the giant’s fist, and he began to laugh.

“The Vast Expanse and I cannot exist together. Therefore, I will... topple the Vast Expanse!

“Without destruction, there cannot be creation. Allheaven, if you can become the will of the starry sky, then you can also be replaced. Neither the Ghost, the Devil nor the G.o.d succeeded in that. But this time... I will!” Meng Hao’s eyes were glowing as brightly as suns. The incoming horde of living creatures was completely shocked by the sight of it, and yet there was a voice in their minds urging them on, telling them to pay any price to unleash slaughter.

The entire starry sky was soon shaking. Meng Hao turned, clenching his hand into a fist to meet the incoming fist of the Devil Realm giant.

He was like a bug compared to the giant, completely insignificant. When their fists met, a ma.s.sive boom echoed out. Meng Hao’s hair rose up a bit, and he s.h.i.+vered slightly. However, the Devil Realm Continent giant immediately began to shake, and then began to fall apart.

Before it could retreat, Meng Hao took a step forward, placing himself at the giant’s abdomen, where he stamped his foot down. Cracks spread out like a spiderweb, whereupon he took a second step, right above the giant's dantian. Another ma.s.sive boom echoed out. Then Meng Hao took a third step, a fourth step, and a fifth step....

With every step he took, he stamped his foot down onto the giant’s body. By the time he reached the giant's chest, he was on his fifth step. The giant was shaking visibly, swaying back and forth, seemingly incapable of holding itself together. It was at that point that Meng Hao took his sixth step.

That step placed him onto the giant’s forehead!

Cracking sounds echoed out, and more rifts snaked out, spreading from the forehead out across the giant’s entire body. The giant roared as if it were about to fight back, but then Meng Hao snorted coldly and took his final step... the seventh step.

That step put him on the crown of the giant's head!

One final step crushed anything and everything!

-----

I would like to highly recommend a book for all of you to read. It’s not crazy long like a Chinese web novel. It’s Unsouled by Will Wight, and you could probably read the whole book in the time I'm taking off. I heard a while back that an established indie fantasy author had written a xianxia-style book, and had to check it out. I got in touch with the author, and he was kind enough to send me an e-book version, and I have to say, it’s definitely worth reading.

Instead of writing a full review of the book, I’ll mention quickly what I liked and didn’t like. What I liked was the excellent writing, as well as the intriguing universe he built. The action flows great, the descriptions are awesome, and he clearly put a lot of thought into the story.

One minor thing I didn’t like was that the main character was not particularly compelling to me. He seemed almost like a carbon copy of Qin Yu from Stellar Transformations, especially in the early chapters.

Another thing I didn’t like, and in fact the main thing that stuck out to me, was that despite the xianxia-esque setting and the names of everything being “Asian,” the characters and the society they live in were not Chinese at all. You could change their names to Western names, and the story could have taken place in your standard fantasy setting. I’ve seen this kind of thing before in which Western authors try to make kung fu, wuxia, or xianxia settings more “realistic” by “fixing” the things that seem odd to the Western audience. Unfortunately, that tends to make things not authentic at all, especially to someone who understands the culture. Believe it or not, many of the oddities you laugh at in Chinese web novels are actually founded in reality. I did this same thing back when I was an aspiring writer and had just started to get interested in Chinese culture.

However, that aspect is actually a positive in some ways. Do you have any friends or family who you’ve been trying to convince to read translations on wuxiaworld, but they just can’t “get into it”? This would be the perfect novel to read as an introduction, to hook them into some of the themes and concepts that readers of Chinese novel translations are already used to. I also have to point out that the universe of Unsouled is not supposed to be ancient China, so it all works out fine in the end as long as you aren’t expecting an authentic “Chinese experience.”

Check out Unsouled here!