Years had pa.s.sed. A thousand. Two thousand. Three thousand.

Five thousand years had gone by in a flash.

After ten thousand years in which Meng Hao never appeared in public, his name had largely been forgotten by the successive generations of cultivators.

All of the older generation in the Mountain and Sea Realm had returned to the dust, and virtually no one now living had ever even heard of Meng Hao.

During the ten thousand years, it wasn’t just people in the Mountain and Sea Realm who died. Cultivators pa.s.sed away in other parts of the starry sky, such as in the Vast Expanse School, although the effects in those other places weren’t as p.r.o.nounced.

In the current starry sky of the Mountains and Seas, few people were aware that the starry sky even had a will of its own. People even stopped telling stories about the battle ten thousand years before, between Meng Hao and Allheaven.

There was a very, very small group of people who remembered, but most of them were Paragons. Because the Karma connecting them to Meng Hao wasn't very profound, and because of their incredible cultivation bases, the power of the curse didn't affect them in a significant way.

After several thousand years, Perfect’s longevity eventually ran out. Meng Hao collected her soul seed and sealed it in the ice mountain. That ice mountain contained all of the memories of Meng Hao’s entire life. Everyone he cared about, all of the good things, were there. That ice cave was also his weak spot.

He spent most of his time sitting at the foot of the ice mountain, with only his memories to accompany him.

Occasionally he would go out into the Mountain and Sea Realm. However, every time he did, things seemed unfamiliar. He almost felt as if he wasn’t even a part of the world any more.

Although he wasn’t aware of it, there was something building up within him, something that could only be described by a single word. Loneliness. And it was growing stronger.

He was the most powerful ent.i.ty within the starry sky, but the feeling of loneliness only continued to grow. He never aged, and yet he felt more and more tired.

His body was not growing older, but his heart was. And he could do nothing to change that.

Years marched along within the starry sky, faster and faster. Meng Hao felt as if those years were pa.s.sing him by. All he could do was sit and watch them go. He looked at the living creatures that existed within the starry sky. He watched generations come and go. He saw gifted and talented individuals rise to glory. He saw people that others would call inhuman. He saw new powerful experts make names for themselves.

The Mountain and Sea Realm continued to prosper. Few people bore the mark of the curse any more. As people forgot Meng Hao, the Karma connecting them to him grew faint. Although many of them still had slightly limited longevity, their speed of cultivation was greatly enhanced because of living in the precious treasure that was the Mountain and Sea Realm.

In the Nine Mountains and Seas, the natural laws were based on the nine great Hexing magics of the League of Demon Sealers. Because of that, it was much easier to reach the Dao Realm. In fact, throughout the ten thousand years which had pa.s.sed, numerous outstanding cultivators had risen up. They created cultivation techniques unique to their generation, and also invented many, many new divine abilities.

Throughout the millennia, the cultivators from the Mountain and Sea Realm were always considered to be one of the most powerful forces within the starry sky of the Mountains and Seas. Eventually, wild ambitions began to grow within the hearts of many cultivators. It was hard to say when exactly it began, but eventually they began to expand, and to subjugate one group of life forms after another within the starry sky.

Meng Hao watched it happen. He watched the wars being fought. He even strolled through battlefields sometimes, watching the Mountain and Sea cultivators die, watching the other living beings die. He watched the blood flow, and smelled the stench of gore.

He watched it all, but did nothing. He didn’t help either side, and certainly didn’t fight.

This was the path the cultivators of the Mountain and Sea Realm had chosen, and he wouldn’t interfere. As for exactly how it would all turn out, he wasn’t sure.

As the Mountain and Sea Realm waged war, its people grew stronger. They encountered many critical situations.

To Meng Hao, none of that was very important. The people he cared about were all gone, leaving him alone within Heaven and Earth.

One year, when he went out into the Mountain and Sea Realm, he seemed like an old man. No one could detect his pa.s.sage, not even the newly arisen Paragons of the realm.

His destination was Planet South Heaven, and the Violet Fate Sect. There were only a few things within the starry sky that Meng Hao cared about any more. One was the gradually weakening Patriarch Reliance. The other was in the Violet Fate Sect, where a woman rested in slumber, ever resistant to the idea of awakening.

Whenever Meng Hao thought about Chu Yuyan, his expression grew grimmer than usual.

Dark clouds filled the sky above Planet South Heaven. Snow began to fall, and as the snowflakes acc.u.mulated on the various mortal kingdoms down below, the world turned white.

Down below on one of the public highways, a horse-drawn carriage sped along through the night. Within the carriage was a scholar, reading a book by the light of an oil lamp.

Meng Hao hovered up above, watching the snow fall, and watching the carriage speed along across the highway. He looked at the scholar, and couldn't help but think of that time he had traveled through a snowy night in the State of Zhao. [1. This is a reference to chapter 58, in which he traveled on a snowy night and met a scholar in a horse-drawn carriage]

He sighed, and then continued along his way to the Violet Fate Sect.

The Violet Fate Sect was the most ill.u.s.trious and famous sect on Planet South Heaven, filled with countless disciples. Within that sect was a mountain that had once been called a Holy Land.

That mountain had no peak, only a basin. It was a place that, throughout all the countless years which had pa.s.sed, had come to be a restricted area. Not a single person from the Violet Fate Sect had ever set foot inside. The primary rule of the sect was that no one was allowed to go there. Many disciples of the Violet Fate Sect had speculated what was inside, and countless rumors existed about the subject.

Some of the stories were beautiful, and some were vile. Because of all the rumors, that mountain had become the most mysterious of places. For generation after generation, cultivators had stood guard around that mountain, although none of them knew exactly what they were guarding.

They only knew that no one was allowed to climb to the top. If anyone tried to do so, they would reach a certain point halfway up where progress was impossible. Likewise, anyone who looked at the mountain from up above would only see rippling distortions.

Years ago, one of the most powerful Paragons of the Mountain and Sea Realm had come to the conclusion that an ancient precious treasure was buried there. He even gathered an army to go to the mountain and take away the treasure.

However, not even that Paragon was able to get more than half way up the mountain.

Because of that, the mountain came to be known, not as a Holy Land, but as a restricted area. It was also the most mysterious location in all of the Mountain and Sea Realm.

Meng Hao appeared at the bottom of the mountain, and looked up toward the top. This was not his first time coming here. After Xu Qing left, and after everyone else he knew had died, he had come to visit.

This was actually his third time coming. He quietly took a step forward as he began to climb the mountain. No one saw him, and no one could detect his presence. He walked slowly, taking one step at a time as he headed toward the top.