As he hovered there at the 15,000 meter mark, Meng Hao took a deep breath. To him, the Ninth Anima was a state of rapid depletion. That was especially so considering the position he was in, halfway to the two Holy Lands and surrounded by incredible pressure. He could feel the terrifying pressure pus.h.i.+ng against him from all sides.

That pressure weighed down on every strand of skin and muscle, on every bit of flesh and blood. Cracking sounds could be heard from within him, as if his bones were chafing together. Despite the incredible power of his current fleshly body, he was still incapable of moving forward even a pace.

The power of 256 great circle Nascent Souls continued to fight back explosively against the pressure; however, it continued to be defeated, and would clearly be extinguished soon.

The intensity of the pressure was such that, if Patriarch Huyan hadn’t died, and was suddenly next to Meng Hao here, he would be destroyed in an instant, his body completely exploded into countless pieces.

Meng Hao took a deep breath and looked up at the two Holy Lands 15,000 meters away. His eyes gleamed.

Based on his current Cultivation base, he was incapable of treading that path. That was what Ke Jiusi had said, as well as true spirit Night. However… Meng Hao’s personality was not the type to just accept what others said.

Although he trusted Ke Jiusi’s opinion, he couldn’t rest until he tried it out for himself. It didn’t matter if the difficulty level was obviously high, he had to take a shot personally to see exactly how difficult it was.

“So this is the limit, huh?” he murmured hoa.r.s.ely. Underneath the pressure, his eyes were now bloodshot, and veins bulged out all over his body. The blood in his veins circulated sluggishly, and his life force was showing signs failure.

He looked down silently at Ke Jiusi, true spirit Night, and Zhixiang, who he had long since already noticed. They were 15,000 meters below him. If he wanted to give up now, all he had to do was relax, and he would descend down into safety.

“But,” he thought, his eyes glittering with determination, “I want to do one more test to see… if this is really my true limit!” With that, he looked up, and his energy exploded out. His half-white hair danced about him, and his clothes whipped in the wind. He lifted up his leg and, viciously forced himself higher by a large measure.

Another three meters!

Boom!

A tremor ran through him. His fleshly body emitted cracking sounds, and his Cultivation base was under enormous pressure. His Cultivation base of 256 great circle Nascent Souls was under so much pressure that it was about to disintegrate.

Meng Hao’s face was pale. However, it was at this point that he noticed something. He noticed something that quickly caused his face to fill with excitement and joy!

He almost didn’t dare to believe it. However, his eyes filled with determination and, underneath the intense pressure, coughed up a mouthful of blood and forced himself forward by another measure!

In total, Meng Hao had now moved nine meters away from the 15,000 meter mark!

A rumbling sound filled his body, and he swayed back and forth. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and his face was pale white. Marks of blood were now visible, tearing through his skin. It seemed that the incredible pressure was just on the verge of tearing him apart.

However, Meng Hao’s eyes were filled with wild joy nonetheless. His shocking discovery just now left him panting heavily.

“I never imagined… that there could be such a transformation!!” Inwardly, he still found it hard to accept. However, he was unable to think about the matter calmly. That was because he had found that underneath the incredible pressure, the power of the 256 great circle Nascent Souls was fusing together!

In any other place, such a thing could never happen. There wasn’t a place Meng Hao could think of that would produce results like this. Only in this place, right here, could something like this happen!

That was because the pressure here came from the three Greater Demon Mountains and the two Holy Lands. You could say that in all the Ninth Mountain and Sea, few places could display such overbearing power. And yet, at the same time, there was a gentleness within the pressure.

Perhaps there might be places more powerful than this, but they would not be suitable for anyone under the Immortal realm. This place, however, housed a legacy; therefore, there was a gentle side. To Meng Hao, a place like this was the perfect place to… fuse together his Cultivation base!

A Cultivation base of 256 Nascent Souls seemed terrifying, but by fusing them together, he could explode with… something that far, far exceeded the past level of power. That would be… true Spirit Severing power!

Meng Hao had considered this matter before. He had thought about Spirit Severing, and how one aspect involved enlightenment and another involved transmogrification of the Cultivation base. However, he had never been able to consolidate his thoughts. It had all been a waste of time, and he ended up slowly suppressing his Cultivation base until he could naturally arrive at a target transformation.

Right now, though, this pressure had an effect that Meng Hao simply couldn’t NOT be excited about. Instead of focusing on the legacy, he was focused on his path of cultivation, and that next, most important step!

If he succeeded, then he would be able to enter Spirit Severing even faster. It meant that he would be able to directly enter Spirit Severing without even having practiced cultivation for three hundred years.

“My fleshly body can also be tempered here!” he thought. Taking a deep breath, he sat down cross-legged in mid-air, using the pressure pus.h.i.+ng against him to begin to compress his Cultivation base.

Zhixiang’s eyes went wide with disbelief. “He’s actually practicing cultivation!”

Ke Jiusi watched on seriously, although a smile quickly began to tug at the corners of his mouth.

Time pa.s.sed slowly, enough for an incense stick to burn. Finally, a tremor ran through Meng Hao’s body, and his eyes snapped open. They were bloodshot, but they shone with a radiant light. He slowly stood up, and as he did, an incredibly intense energy exploded out from him.

As of now, he did not have the power of 256 great circle Nascent Souls. He had 10 less! And yet, despite the reduction, in terms of energy, he had much more than before.

“This is a Blessed Land for me!” His eyes s.h.i.+ning strangely, he once again moved forward another measure.

Boom!

The pressure became more intense, and Meng Hao’s body shook. However, his Cultivation base was reduced by five Nascent Souls. Now, only the power of 241 remained.

It was a reduction of a mere five, but the intense fluctuations which emanated out of his Cultivation base supported him, allowing to move forward again!

Once, twice, three times….

His body trembled violently, as if he might explode at any moment. However, he continued onward relentlessly. As he did, his Cultivation base continue to shrink down and down.

236. 226…. All the way to 180! By this point, Meng Hao was now at the 16,000 meter mark!

If a Cultivator of the Second Severing reached this position relying only on Cultivation base as a protection, he would quickly become unstable and then be destroyed. Meng Hao felt like his body was exploding. The fleshly body exists outside of his cultivation, like a sh.e.l.l. In this aspect, Meng Hao was different from a Second Severing Cultivator. He was using his fleshly body to protect his Cultivation base.

Relying on the power of his fleshly body, he was using this place to pressure his Cultivation base into solidity. However, streaks of blood were appearing all over him as his skin split. He seemed to be on the verge of collapsing apart. Even the b.l.o.o.d.y flesh inside of him was becoming visible.

Meng Hao’s eyes glittered. Without hesitation, he slapped his bag of holding to produce vast quant.i.ties of medicinal pills. He consumed them to stem the wastage of his fleshly body. At the same time, he took longevity-increasing medicinal pills.

Of course, the main purpose had nothing to do with longevity. Instead, the life force contained within the medicinal pills nourished his fleshly body, causing it to be able to endure for even longer!

He took a deep breath and then once again proceeded forward. This advanced him to the 16,200 mark. A b.l.o.o.d.y haze exploded out around his body, and his trembling reached a pinnacle of intensity.

As of this moment, he had shrunk his Cultivation base down to only 163 Nascent Souls.

“This is going too slow….” thought Meng Hao. The struggle was clear on his face, although it was quickly replaced by determination.

“Rewards come only with risk. If I give up this chance, I won’t be likely to find another place that can exert such pressure on my Cultivation base. Next time I come here will be hundreds of years from now. I… can’t wait that long!” Without any further hesitation, Meng Hao began to rapidly rotate his Cultivation base. At the same time, he transformed into a green smoke, within which was a black moon. From his position at 16,200 meters, he instantly rocketed up.

The sight of it caused Ke Jiusi to be visibly moved. He instantly flew up into the air.

“Are you crazy!?” thought Zhixiang, her eyes wide. It was like watching a moth fly directly into a flame.

Meng Hao really was like a moth flying into a flame, although he was even crazier than that moth. As he sped upward, he began to burn. His fleshly body burned, his blood and muscles burned.

To him, it felt as if he was being hacked to pieces by tens of thousands of blades. Vast quant.i.ties of flesh and blood were destroyed. He looked like a shooting star made of blood. However, that b.l.o.o.d.y shooting star quickly advanced 1,800 meters. When Meng Hao reappeared, he was at the 18,000 meter mark.

He instantly coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. His body was mincemeat, and he was on the verge of completely falling apart.

“Violet Pupil Transformation!” In the instant in which his body was about to collapse, his eyes suddenly turned violet. His longevity was reduced, but in exchange, his shattering body was sustained for an extra breath of time! [1. Meng Hao learned the Violet Pupil Transformation when he was in the Violet Fate Sect in chapter 242]

During that breath of time, Meng Hao’s Cultivation base shrank down at a shocking, wild speed.

Boom!

It went from 163 to 98. Then it dropped to 32. The speed with which this happened was shocking to the extreme.

Meng Hao’s energy rocketed up, but even still, he had no way to prevent his fleshly body from nearing collapse.

“I can still hold on a bit longer!” he thought, once again employing the Violet Pupil Transformation. He sacrificed more longevity, causing his hair to turn white and his body to tremble, all to gain another breath of time.

Roaring filled his body. No outsider could hear it, but to Meng Hao it couldn’t be clearer. The power of 32 Cultivation bases dropped to 16. More pressure bore down, and then, it was 8!

At this point, Meng Hao couldn’t hold on any longer. His body began to grow limp, and he started to fall. From his position at 18,000 meters, he shot down at high speed. In the process of falling, the pressure lessened, and thus, his flesh and blood began to recover.

When he finally landed back down onto the hand of true spirit Night, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. However, he appeared to be completely restored to normal. The only difference was that the long hair which floated in the wind behind him was now gray.

As for his Cultivation base, its explosive growth caused the wind and clouds in the entire area to surge into motion, forming a twisting vortex around him.

As of this moment, Meng Hao was now far more powerful than before!

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Note from Er Gen: The name of the next book will be revealed along with the next chapter. It is four words long….

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End of Book 4: Five Color Paragon