The incoming figures flew with incredible speed, but Zhou Jie was even faster. His howls echoed up as he transformed into a beam of light that sped through the air.

He wasn’t far from Meng Hao, and soon grew even nearer. Meng Hao could clearly see Zhou Jie’s insanity and confusion. His eyes were bloodshot and filled with pain.

It seemed as if he truly wished to die!

“Kill me!!” he screamed. It was at this point that the other Black Sieve Sect people arrived. There were five of them, all Core Formation Cultivators. Their hands flickered in incantation gestures, and suddenly the ground around Zhou Jie sank down. A booming sound rippled out, and Zhou Jie seemed to be suddenly suppressed. His face warped, and the frenzied agony in his eyes reached a pinnacle of intensity.

A ma.s.sive boom exploded out from Zhou Jie’s body, sending the five Core Formation Cultivators tumbling backward several paces, their faces pale and blood spewing from their mouths.

Seeing all this, Meng Hao’s mind was reeling, and he had trouble believing it all was real. Zhou Jie was of the great circle of Foundation Establishment, halfway to Core Formation. However, his attack just now caused five early Core Formation stage Cultivators to spit up blood. Meng Hao gasped at the sight of it.

Suddenly, Zhou Jie’s Cultivation base started to climb. Explosive power emanated out, and his howls reached up to the heavens.

The voice of the Demon Sealing jade suddenly rose up in Meng Hao’s mind, although it was a bit different from earlier when he had seen Han Bei for the first time. “Discarnate souls possess the body, returned from the afterlife, a quickening. Intentional or not, the soul has already been harmed.”

Suddenly, a person appeared next to the crazed Zhou Jie. He lifted his hand and pressed down onto Zhou Jie’s shoulder. Zhou Jie’s body trembled, and his power began to dissipate. The insanity seeped out of his eyes, and the confusion disappeared. The only thing that remained was a strange pain.

His body trembled. The pain in his eyes seemed to contain immeasurable torment. This was a Dao Child who had won Meng Hao’s respect all those years ago. He seemed clearheaded now, but he still uttered two words. “Kill me….”

Most people are not capable of truly seeking death; the desire to live is ever-present. The only people who will truly seek death are… those whose lives are a living h.e.l.l!

After speaking, Zhou Jie lost consciousness. The figure who had appeared next to him was none other than Patriarch Violet Sieve. His expression was dignified as he grabbed unconscious Zhou Jie and made to leave. Suddenly, he turned his head to look at Meng Hao.

“Grandmaster Fang Mu, we’ve incurred your ridicule. This kid Zhou Jie became addled while practicing cultivation, and went a bit crazy.” He sighed and shook his head. With that, he carried Zhou Jie away, followed by the five Core Formation Cultivators.

Meng Hao stood there silently. Everything that had just happened had left him shaken. The Dao Child from five years ago and the Zhou Jie from right now were completely different. What had happened to cause such an unfortunate change?

He began to think subconsciously about his battle with Zhou Jie that rainy night.

Late morning had arrived. Meng Hao turned and headed back to the Black Welcoming Peak, and his residence there.

He sat down cross-legged, reviewing everything that had just happened with Zhou Jie, as well as the words of the Demon Sealing jade. The bizarre secrets of the Black Sieve Sect seemed to grow even more numerous. A long time pa.s.sed, and Meng Hao finally shook his head and put the matter aside. He slapped his bag of holding to produce a pill furnace.

He was outside of his Sect, but he still would maintain his custom of concocting pills every day. He tapped the pill furnace, and a roaring could be heard. He produced some Earthly fire crystals and prepared to concoct a batch of poison pills.

After becoming a Furnace Lord, poison pills were what he concocted the most often. Based on the various interactions of plants and vegetation, powders or poison pills could be created.

There were countless varieties, each with their own unique characteristics.

Based on the requirements, Meng Hao would produce a medicinal plant and catalyze it. At the moment, he held a Treasure Leaf flower in hand, which wasn’t poisonous. Meng Hao catalyzed it until it was almost withered.

By catalyzing it to this point, and then grafting it onto another medicinal plant, he could create traces of undetectable poison.

A purple glow rose up from Meng Hao’s palm, the power of catalysis. The Treasure Leaf flower began to sway and grow. It was at this point, that a tremor suddenly ran through Meng Hao; his eyes went wide and began to s.h.i.+ne. He began to breathe heavily, and in his mind, thoughts flashed about like lightning. He’d just had an idea.

It was an idea related to Zhou Jie, Han Bei and the East Pill Division!

As soon as the idea flashed into his head, great waves seemed to seethe within his mind. His concentration was broken, and his spiritual power grew unstable. The precious Treasure Leaf flower in his hand suddenly began to collapse.

At the moment, Meng Hao didn’t care about how valuable the Treasure Leaf flower was. His breathing was agitated and his eyes glittered. He stood up, forgetting about his pill concocting and focusing fully on the idea, which grew and expanded in his mind.

Meng Hao began to mutter to himself. With each statement, his eyes began to s.h.i.+ne more and more brightly. “East Pill Division…. Violet Will Incantation…. The power of catalysis… it causes medicinal plants to grow… speeds up pill concocting…. the Han Clan, one of the Nine Great Families…. Han Bei…. Refining Time…. Forging a treasure of Time… something which can transform Time….” By this point, his eyes seemed to be s.h.i.+ning as brightly as the sun. He suddenly lifted his head up and gasped.

“The East Pill Division’s Violet Will Incantation is clearly the Time-refining skill of the Han Clan!!” Meng Hao slapped his bag of holding to retrieve the Time-refining jade page that he had acquired with Han Bei in the ancient Blessed Land.

This wasn’t the first time he had studied the jade page. It recorded information about how to refine Time and forge the Time treasure. Meng Hao strongly desired to possess such a treasure.

However, this was only one jade page of three. The first remained in the cauldron in the Blessed Land, and another had been swallowed by the meat jelly. Meng Hao had the third page, which did contain information on how to refine the Time treasure. However, to do so would require several hundred years to build up sufficient Time power. After learning this, Meng Hao had given up.

It would simply take too long; it was impossible for him to forge the treasure that way.

Time pa.s.sed, and soon it was nighttime. Moonlight covered the land. Meng Hao took a deep breath and began to compose himself. His eyes glowed with an unprecedented light.

“I should have thought of this earlier…. Refining Time, Violet Will catalysis…. They are both essentially the same type of divine ability! Basically, they are both magical techniques that were developed from the same magical source! This third page describes a time-sealing technique. The power of one year of Time can be locked in for every ten years. Six hundred years will lock in sixty years of Time. In that case, the power of ten sixty-year cycles could be used to create a lesser version of the Time treasure.” Meng Hao slapped his bag of holding to produce a Spring and Autumn tree.

“Perhaps the page swallowed by the meat jelly, the second page, or even the first page which is still in the Cauldron in the Blessed Land, contains a record of the East Pill Division’s Violet Will catalysis technique! In order to forge the Time treasure, Violet Will catalysis is absolutely necessary!” He looked down at the jade page and the Spring and Autumn tree, his eyes s.h.i.+ning.

“There’s only one way to find out for sure!” Without hesitation, Meng Hao caused a violet glow to appear in his hand. A look of concentration filled his face as he employed the full power of the Violet Will Incantation and poured it into the Spring and Autumn tree.

Time pa.s.sed. Soon two hours had gone by. Meng Hao frowned. The Spring and Autumn tree was like a black hole which relentlessly sucked in all the catalyzing power of the Violet Will Incantation. It didn’t seem to have any effect whatsoever on the Spring and Autumn tree.

Meng Hao muttered to himself and looked around. Finally, he let out a cold harrumph and then produced his Furnace Lord medallion. He pressed it, and a violet s.h.i.+eld emerged, surrounding Meng Hao’s residence.

This was a function of the Furnace Lord medallion; it would create a screening s.h.i.+eld that could block even Spiritual Sense. In this way, the Furnace Lords couldn’t be spied upon while concocting pills.

It had taken quite a bit of resources for the East Pill Division to develop such an art. To date, no one had ever been able to break it. Furnace Lords didn’t always use it when concocting pills. However, it would last for several hours, during which time it was impenetrable.

If too much time pa.s.sed, though, it was possible for Spiritual Sense to break through.

With the s.h.i.+eld in place, Meng Hao ceased to restrict his Cultivation base. Immediately the full power of his six Perfect Dao Pillars was unleashed.

The s.h.i.+eld around him glowed with a gentle warmth, covering everything with its protection. At the same time, the meat jelly’s transformative powers dissipated. Meng Hao exploded with the full power of his Cultivation base.

He knew that he couldn’t keep this up for a very long time; he didn’t want to cause any complications with his current situation. Therefore, he went all out with his power, employing the peak of the power of Violet Will catalysis.

In the blink of an eye, the Spring and Autumn tree slowly began to grow green. Suddenly, a bud appeared!

Seeing the bud caused Meng Hao’s eyes to fill with excitement. The power of his Cultivation base instantly dissipated. He lifted his left hand and performed an incantation. Phantom images appeared, ten seals, which he immediately slapped down onto the Spring and Autumn tree.

These ten sealing incantations were none other than the Time sealing magic.

Beneath the power of the sealing, the Spring and Autumn tree trembled, then slowly returned to its normal state. However, Meng Hao could clearly tell that something was different about the tree than from before. It seemed thicker and heavier, and deep inside was just a touch of a sensation that seemed to be the aura of Time.

“It worked!” His eyes glittered brightly as he put the tree away and dissipated the violet s.h.i.+eld emanated by the Furnace Lord medallion.

“Unfortunately, its not convenient to employ the full power of my Cultivation base. Once I leave the Black Sieve Sect, I can do some more tests and see how many years of Time I can add to the Spring and Autumn tree.” He took a deep breath to calm his racing heart. He had thought a lot about the Time treasure throughout the years. But when it came to the hundreds of years of refinement that were required, he could only sigh. Now, though, he had a method that seemed to be able to allow him to proceed with creating the Time treasure. He was confident that it wouldn’t take long for him to do so, and end up with a treasure that contained a full sixty-year cycle of Time.

He wasn’t sure exactly what powers such a treasure would have, but he keenly antic.i.p.ated finding out. He was sure that a treasure forged by either the Han Clan’s divine ability or the East Pill Division’s Violet Will incantation, would not disappoint!