“Do you wish to attain eternal life?”

“Are you qualified to defy the Heavens and live forever?”

“Do you want to have a type of life that is unique in all Heaven?”

Meng Hao’s mind buzzed. As soon as he entered this world, three sentences entered his ears. They were not spoken by the same person, and they resounded like thunder into his mind and heart.

At the same time, he saw that the sky of this world was a familiar gray color. No gray mist covered the ground, but Meng Hao could see hundreds of thousands of figures, all of them Bridge Slaves, moving at high speed in the direction that he and Zhixiang were standing in.

They moved with incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, these hundreds of thousands of Bridge Slaves neared. However, they did not even glance at Meng Hao and Zhixiang. Their expressions were frustrated, even anxious, as if they had just received a summons. They charged past Meng Hao and Zhixiang, pouring out through the border of the world and into the void.

In the s.p.a.ce of about ten breaths, hundreds of thousands of Bridge Slaves had all charged out into the void. After they were gone, the only thing that remained were the faint echoes of their voices.

“When will the Bridge of Immortality reappear like new…? Sir, on what day will we again lay eyes on you…?”

To have so many Bridge Slaves whistling through the air directly next to him caused Meng Hao’s scalp to go numb. He panted as the rock he stood on suddenly stopped moving. Zhixiang looked over at Meng Hao, obviously shaken by the huge number of Bridge Slaves in this world.

Both Meng Hao and Zhixiang heard the voices of the Bridge Slaves, although the voices didn’t seem to be directed just toward the two of them. The words uttered by the hundreds of thousands of Bridge Slaves seemed to be a collective expression of their heartfelt wishes.

Meng Hao and Zhixiang remained motionless as the Bridge Slaves swept past them like spectres. As they left, the world returned to normal. The grayness disappeared, and normal color returned. Meng Hao found that he was completely soaked with cold sweat.

As for Zhixiang, her expression was still one of fear. Even for her, her first thing she thought upon seeing so many Bridge Slaves was that she was going to die.

“According to my understanding,” she said, “it is only because of their h.e.l.lish destiny that the Bridge Slaves of the Realm of the Bridge Ruins instinctively gather together in groups of a few hundred. But there were so many just now. Could it be that this place… is some immense historical remnant of the ancient Immortal Demon Sect?

“Is that why there were so many of them gathered here? If my speculations are correct, then why would they all leave so suddenly? Their expressions looked anxious. Such emotion should be impossible. Unless….” Suddenly, her eyes filled with terror.

“Unless they were summoned?” said Meng Hao slowly, his eyes glittering as he gave voice to his own speculation.

The two of them stood there silently. As they did, the restored world around them all of a sudden began to tremble violently. Everything shook as the previously clear sky suddenly filled with fissures. The fissures grew bright as a piercing shriek suddenly filled the air.

The ground was quaking so hard that it seemed it might collapse. This entire Immortality Bridgestone land ma.s.s seemed to be emitting a shocking howl which echoed into Meng Hao’s ears, shaking him and causing him to cough up a mouthful of blood.

He lost control of his body. It felt as if some incredibly powerful force had slammed into his face. He was tossed backward with a bang, slamming into the border of the void with a bang.

Fortunately, this part of the border had been ripped open, and wasn’t completely restored. Meng Hao flew like a kite with its string cut, directly out into the void.

Simultaneously, blood also sprayed from Zhixiang’s mouth. Several tremors ran through her and it seemed she was incapable of standing up to the force. However, she was apparently still in control of her body as she tumbled backward out through the gap, into the void.

Meng Hao’s face was pale and his mind spun. The coldness of the void surrounded him completely, and his body instantly began to grow stiff. Even worse, his torso was mangled bloodily; numerous bones were broken. Blood spurted out of countless wounds.

It was a critical moment. As for Zhixiang, she was tumbling backward, but clearly wasn’t seriously injured. A violet light appeared in Meng Hao’s eyes as the Violet Pupil Transformation took effect. By sacrificing some of his life force, he was able to heal some of his serious injuries.

The faster the healing went, the more life force was drained away.

Meng Hao’s chest quickly recovered, and all of his injuries vanished. Even his Cultivation base was at the peak of its power. However, the price had paid… was the loss of a sixty-year cycle’s worth of life.

Meng Hao’s instant recovery caused Zhixiang’s eyes to flicker. She could tell that whatever technique he had used to force such a quick recovery would have come at some great cost. As the two of them continued to fall back, they exchanged a glance and then looked back toward the enormous, trembling land ma.s.s.

The only thing they could see was the gigantic land ma.s.s shaking. Occasional roars could be heard, which grew stronger and stronger until finally, a gray mist rose up from within the land ma.s.s.

The gray mist looked like a gigantic mushroom cloud. As it exploded out, it churned and seethed, transforming into an enormous beast. It looked like a qilin, completely formed out of mist. However, if you looked closely, it was clearly… a Bridge Slave.

Except, this enormous qilin was vastly more powerful than an ordinary Bridge Slave.

After it appeared, the mist-qilin lifted its head up and roared. It suddenly charged forward, its expression anxious, as though it had been summoned.

Meng Hao and Zhixiang were extremely close. Even if they used minor teleportation, even if Zhixiang relied on her incredible speed, there was no time to evade. They could only stare blankly as the gigantic qilin beast shot toward them. In the blink of an eye, its mist had enveloped them.

Roaring sounds filled the air. More blood sprayed from Meng Hao’s mouth. He quickly summoned the Lotus Sword Formation to rotate around him rapidly. The power of Time radiated out in waves.

By the time Meng Hao had coughed up four mouthfuls of blood, the Lotus Sword Formation radiated the fearsome power of a thousand years of time, which managed to melt all the mist its range — thirty meters in every direction. Of course, compared to the entire ma.s.sive frame of the qilin beast, that was a paltry size.

The result was that Meng Hao was carried along with the beast as it shot forward.

At the same time, Zhixiang coughed up several mouthfuls of blood. Then, she employed one of her own Immortal Divinity techniques to resist the mist. Just like Meng Hao, she cut out a s.p.a.ce for herself within the body of the enormous qilin beast.

They exchanged a mutual glance, and could see the somber look in each other’s eyes. They had been put into this situation involuntarily. However, there was no need to discuss how to extricate themselves. At the moment, that would leave them out in the void, directionless, exiled. If that happened, it would mean being lost forever, with no choice but to use an Immortality Bridgestone to give up and leave.

“Why do that when I can just hitch a ride on this qilin beast?” thought Meng Hao, his eyes glittering. “Let’s see what sort of thing it is that can summon Bridge Slaves!” Although the situation seemed to have taken a turn for the worse, he didn’t really have any other options. Since he still had his Immortality Bridgestone, if anything went truly bad, he could leave in an instant.

It was impossible to say what Zhixiang was planning. Most likely, after possessing Zhao Youlan, she too could use the Immortality Bridgestone to leave.

The two exchanged no words, but simply went along with the roaring qilin beast as it flew onward.

The coldness of the void was incapable of penetrating the mist. The blackness outside almost seemed like black waters as the qilin shot forward with fearsome speed.

The qilin beast moved far, far faster than the dust rocks. It was incredibly huge in size, making Zhixiang and Meng Hao seem like nothing more than mosquitos within it.

It carried Meng Hao and Zhixiang with it as it sped deeper and deeper into the Realm of the Bridge Ruins.

Time pa.s.sed. After seven days, they had traveled further than they could have traveled in a month on a dust rock.

A month later, Meng Hao’s mind trembled. Up ahead in the void, he had just caught sight of a matchlessly huge giant waving its arms. Its body was made of mist, and it bore the semblance of a Bridge Slave. Furthermore, it was charging… in the exact same direction as the qilin!

At the same time, Meng Hao saw a vast army of spectre-like Bridge Slaves, hundreds of thousands of them, all flying at top speed in the same direction.

As they continued to travel, he saw more and more scenes like this. It seemed almost as if all the Bridge Slaves in the entire Realm of the Bridge Ruins, big ones, small ones, were all appearing and heading toward the same place.

Meng Hao wasn’t the only one who was shocked by this. Zhixiang was panting. Her understanding of this place was even greater, and her speculations gave rise to a gripping fear inside her heart.

“Don’t tell me… that they’re going… to Bridgesoul Mountain!?”

Even as Zhixiang’s heart trembled, a mountain appeared off in the distance.

The mountain let off a mysterious glow as it hung there in the middle of the void. There were no Immortality Bridgestones near it. There was only the gigantic, enormous mountain!

Countless names were written onto the mountain, each one of which let out a mysterious glow. They looked like magical symbols, covering the entire mountain. It was hard to say, but it appeared as if there were several million names written there.

Every time the names pulsed with light, the faces of the Bridge Slaves who were nearing the mountain would grow more anxious, and they would fly forward with greater speed.

At the top of the mountain was a palace that brimmed with an aura of archaic rot. Within the palace was blackness, and silence.

In another location near the mountain was a person. He stood there, an azure sword swirling through the air around his body, and alcohol flagon in his hand. He wore a long, azure robe, and his hair danced in the air. His eyes gleamed with a fierce glow.

This was none other than… Han Shan!

He suddenly spoke, his voice filled with an icy cold that made the coldness of the void seem warm. “I’ll say it one more time. I want my wife… returned to me this instant!”