The power of self-detonation was useless against Meng Hao because of the Eyeless Larva. After the explosion dissipated, Meng Hao looked at the panic-stricken, fleeing Nascent Soul, and then waved his right hand. Eyeless Larva silk whistled out through the air to surround it. The Nascent Soul’s face filled with despair, and its hands flashed an incantation. Immediately, brilliant light surrounded it as it tried to fight back. However, the instant it touched the Eyeless Larva silk, the light shattered. The Eyeless Larva silk wrapped crus.h.i.+ngly around the Nascent Soul, strangling it into death.

A miserable shriek could be heard as this Scorpion Branch Elder first lost his physical body, and then experienced complete death as his Nascent Soul was crushed into tiny pieces.

His death caused the minds of all onlookers to reel. The viciousness of Meng Hao’s tactics, and his cold-blooded attacks, made it clear that he desired to exterminate them all. When you added in the fact that he could teleport, that meant that he was firmly in the position to be able to battle with Nascent Soul Cultivators.

The surrounding Nascent Soul Cultivators had already sustained injuries. Furthermore, the sealing of their scorpion, cutting it off from the outside world, made their Nascent Souls unstable. The Supreme Priest’s face flickered with hatred, but he retreated unhesitatingly, no longer willing to be entangled with Meng Hao.

The other eight Nascent Soul Cultivators were scared witless. Were their Cultivation bases at the peak of their power, they could join hands to fight Meng Hao. But now, they had sustained severe internal injuries, and were no longer willing to fight. They began to back up, vigilantly putting as much distance as possible between themselves and Meng Hao.

Seeing this, Meng Hao inwardly gave a sigh of relief. Just now, he had known that he must either kill with extreme speed or kill more than one person. These were Nascent Soul Cultivators, each of whom had risen up to supersede countless contemporaries. They were crafty and scheming, and difficult to kill.

He had pulled a fast one just now to quickly exterminate one of their number. As a result, they didn’t wish to continue to fight. If they did, it would be difficult to continue killing them.

“So they don’t want to keep fighting? Fine,” thought Meng Hao. “The seed has been planted in their minds. If I ever face them again, it will be even easier to kill them!” He took a deep breath, confidence s.h.i.+ning in his eyes. This was the first time that he alone had killed a Nascent Soul Cultivator. As of this moment, his feet were truly planted firmly in the Cultivation world.

Before acquiring the Metal-type totem, Meng Hao could have killed a single early Nascent Soul stage Cultivator. However, he would not have been able to do so very easily. With the addition of the Fire-type totem, he now had three totems. Even though he was still of the great circle of Core Formation, in terms of battle prowess, he had already bridged the gap between Core Formation and Nascent Soul, that supposedly uncrossable divide!

Meng Hao once again disappeared. When he reappeared, he was standing next to Zhao Chunmu. Zhao Chunmu screamed, and his pale face was filled with terror.

“Well, since I can’t catch any of the big fish, then I guess there’s no need for the bait anymore,” said Meng Hao coolly. He slowly raised his right hand. Zhao Chunmu could do nothing to resist him as he tapped his forehead.

The slight tap turned into a roar as Zhao Chunmu’s head exploded. His body fell to the ground, twitching.

Meanwhile, back on the battlefield, the fighting was growing more intense between the five Crow Divinity Tribes and the Scorpion Branch. After successfully killing a Nascent Soul Cultivator, none of the other Nascent Soul Elders were willing to get near him. Then, he slew the Scorpion Branch Holy Son. The Scorpion Branch’s will to fight was now completely shattered. As they slowly began to retreat, the five Crow Divinity Tribes began to gain the upper hand. The sound of slaughter rose up as they seemed to forget their exhaustion. As of this moment, there were less than a thousand of them left, but they continued to attack with wild abandon.

Meng Hao’s neo-demon horde was a critical factor in the battle. Without his remaining seven thousand or so neo-demons, the five Crow Divinity Tribes would not be able to continue on with the fight.

Meng Hao stood on the battlefield, looking around until his gaze came to fall on Zhao Youlan. Instantly, her face paled. The two Nascent Soul Elders who stood next to her, as well as the High Priest, who had long since approached to protect her, started looking nervous.

Meng Hao’s valiance had shaken them to the core.

Suddenly, thunder could be heard from up above. The sound of it was very unique; it almost seemed to be like the sound of countless people wailing. It was so shocking that it even caused the soul to begin to tremble.

After the thunder rumbled out, rain began to fall. The rain was violet in color, and this time it didn’t fall in just scattered bits like before. This time the rain began to pour down heavily, splas.h.i.+ng all over the ground.

The rain contained a cold, destructive will, as if it wished for all life to become extinct. The rainwater fell down and spread out on the ground, and suddenly, it turned into an omen.

Meng Hao suddenly felt a sense of crisis. He looked up at the falling violet rain, and frowned.

“This rain… there’s something not right about it.”

Almost at the same time that the rain began to fall, a blinding light appeared up in the sky not far away. Countless figures began to emerge at top speed. These people were none other than members of the Five Poisons Tribe.

Their appearance instantly caused the looks of despair on the faces of the Scorpion Branch Cultivators to vanish.

Meng Hao’s pupil’s constricted, and he shot backward with the flick of a sleeve.

“Members of the five Crow Divinity Tribes, fall back to the area behind the s.h.i.+eld!” His voice caught the attention of the all the five Crow Divinity Tribes on the battlefield. One by one, they silently looked up into the sky, and then began to retreat. Suddenly, a huge gap appeared on the battlefield between the two forces.

The twenty thousand Five Poisons Tribe Cultivators whistled through the air toward the battlefied, smiling coldly, eyes filled with the desire to kill. Their numbers seemed to blot out the sky.

The group included quite a few Dragoneers, each one of whom possessed thousands of neo-demons, and in the case of a few, even tens of thousands. The neo-demons flew behind the Cultivators like a gigantic sea.

Among the group were more than thirty Nascent Soul Cultivators, including six Priests. Even more impressive, one of their number was an old man in a white robe. His skin was dark brown, and his eyes shone with a threatening light. Shockingly, this man was of the late Nascent Soul stage!

This man was the leader of all the Priests in the Five Poisons Tribe. He was the High Priest of the entire Five Poisons Tribe, a position similar to Greatfather.

“Greetings, High Priest!”

“We offer you our respects, High Priest!”

It didn’t matter if they were from the Spider Branch or the Scorpion Branch, all of the remaining Cultivators on the battlefield dropped to their knees and kowtowed to the old man.

So did Zhao Youlan.

The Crow Divinity Tribes were clearly not capable of fighting back against someone so powerful. Furthermore, the source of their s.h.i.+eld was already gone, and the s.h.i.+eld itself was growing thin. From the look of it, it would only last another four hours.

Meng Hao stood there outside of the s.h.i.+eld. Next to him were the remaining Nascent Soul Cultivators of the Five Tribes, including the Crow Soldier Tribe Greatfather. All of them had extremely unsightly faces.

Under Meng Hao’s command, the remaining seven thousand or so neo-demons in his horde were positioned protectively around the s.h.i.+eld. Everything was very quiet, making the battlefield seem almost like a graveyard. The violet rain began to fall even harder.

Amidst this deathly silence, the Five Poisons Tribe’s High Priest, the brown-skinned old man, coolly said, “Leave none alive!”

All of the Five Poisons Tribe’s twenty thousand Cultivators and their neo-demons roared. As they did, they surged forward like seawaters toward Meng Hao and the others.

As the enemy neared, Meng Hao took a deep breath, and his eyes filled with coldness. He did not summon the Agarwood. That was something he could only use to protect himself, and was not a tool for a battle like this.

From beginning to end, Meng Hao had been filled with confidence regarding this battle. That was because, the entire time, he had kept one card up his sleeve. One trump card, yet to be played.

Suddenly, Meng Hao’s voice echoed out:

“Vines! Thorn Rampart!” As soon as the words filled the air, a howling noise could be heard coming from the body of the Wild Giant. There was a blood-colored vine wrapped around it that suddenly shot out. Instantly, thorns sprang out from its body as it burrowed into the ground.

The moment the vine burrowed into the ground, the earth in front of the attacking Five Poisons Tribe army exploded up as countless thorns exploded out. The shortest of the thorns were roughly twenty five meters long. The largest were over three hundred. They shot out in waves to protectively surround the Crow Divinity Tribes!

Even more bizarre, each of these thorns quickly began to bristle with even smaller thorns. Even as the Five Poisons Tribe charged, these vines formed a protective barrier, completely covering over the Crow Divinity Tribes!

These thorns were a sacred relic of the Frigid Snow Clan. Upon leaving Holy Snow City, the Patriarch of the Frigid Snow Clan granted them to Meng Hao as a reward. Later, Meng Hao fed them to his vine. After the pa.s.sage of much time, the vines absorbed the thorns, and then mutated. [1. Meng Hao first used the Thorn Rampart in chapter 369. He was given the Thorn Rampart seed in chapter 382.]

The appearance of the Thorn Rampart caused the face of the Five Poisons Tribe High Priest to fill with shock. “That’s the Annihilation Thorn Rampart of the Frigid Snow Clan! Supposedly, nothing under the Spirit Severing stage can break through it…. Well, let’s see if that legend is true or false!” With a cold snort, he waved his right hand. Immediately, the surrounding Cultivators and neo-demon hordes proceeded to attack the Thorn Rampart.

Meng Hao took a deep breath and then sat down cross-legged. He coagulated a drop of life blood which he then fused into the Thorn Rampart. Once his Spiritual Sense merged with it, he used this method to fight against the Five Poisons Tribe.

Roaring filled the air outside as the neo-demon horde slammed into the Thorn Rampart s.h.i.+eld. Rumbling rose up, along with the miserable cries of the neo-demons.

With the Thorn Rampart in place, nothing under the Spirit Severing stage could step even half a pace beyond it.

Outside, booms filled the air, along with the light of magical treasures and the glows of totems. Everything shook violently, and even the mountains seemed on the verge of collapse. The Thorn Rampart vibrated, and some cracks even appeared, but it did not fall!

At the same time, thorn shot out from the vines. In a relatively short period of time, a vast number of neo-demons had been killed. Of the twenty thousand Cultivators, more than three thousand had been stabbed through with thorns. They could only let out bloodcurdling shrieks as their life force was sucked away and they were transformed into desiccated corpses.

It seemed the battle would not stop until one side had been exterminated. However, it was at this time that suddenly more thunder filled the sky. It sounded like countless people weeping. The violet rain grew even harder. A bit of the rain was absorbed into the earth, but most began to pool up on the ground. Now, puddles were forming in some of the lower areas.

This caught the attention of Meng Hao as well as Zhao Youlan. The Nascent Soul Cultivators of the Five Poisons Tribe also noticed, as did the High Priest. He stared in shock for a long moment at the rainwater, and then suddenly… his face fell!

Thoroughly and completely fell!

“This… this is….” The High Priest’s body began to tremble. Considering his intelligence and the level of his Cultivation base, even something that could lead to the destruction of his Tribe would not cause him to lose control of his facial expression in such a way. The only thing that could… would be something shocking that far exceeded the destruction of a Tribe!

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This chapter was sponsored by Gregory Treat, Michael Harrison, and Joshua Evans