Cultivators were just people, so naturally, they also possessed the seven emotions and six pleasures, and tended to think of themselves as superior to others. Such a feeling of superiority would often turn into a type of happiness.

Oftentimes, that feeling of superiority really is… the source of happiness.

For example, the feeling that you are safe while someone else is not, can be happiness. Another example would be drinking a cup of water when you are thirsty, while someone else has nothing to drink except their own saliva. That can also be a kind of happiness.

The people in the boat were currently experiencing exactly that type of happiness.

Because of such happiness, they were not as nervous about the danger that surrounded them. Instead, they were laughing and chatting about the unlucky fool on the outside who had overestimated himself.

Of course, Meng Hao was the unlucky fool to whom they referred. Booming surrounded him as the mountain around him collapsed. At the same time, the gigantic battle-ax also started to collapse too.

The backlash rocked the battle-ax, causing it to be torn to pieces right in front of Meng Hao. However, the magical symbols that had formed it did not disperse; instead, they formed back together into a huge hand. Instantly, the hand grabbed toward Meng Hao, radiating intense ferocity and hatred.

Meng Hao’s expression was calm as he lifted his hand and pointed forward. Instantly, his finger turned the color of blood. This was the Blood Finger!

Next was a second finger, a third… and finally, five fingers stretched out, turning into the Blood Palm! It was fully thirty meters wide, seemingly illusory, but at the same time, incredibly realistic. Backed by the power of the Ninth Anima, it shot directly toward the ax-c.u.m-hand.

A huge boom could be heard as both the Blood Palm and the huge hand formed of magical symbols both exploded into little pieces. Meng Hao didn’t hesitate for a moment; he instantly moved forward, performing an incantation gesture with his right hand and then waving his sleeve. A killing air immediately spread out. The glow of the Greenwood Tree could be seen, along with the extinction of the Violet Sea, raging flames, and the Frost Soil.

This was a five elements magical technique that instantly caused five characters to appear. They exuded vicious pressure down onto the dissipating magical symbols of the battle-ax.

A rumbling could be heard as the hundreds of magical symbols which had made up the battle-ax began to tremble. They seemed to be struggling to escape, but before they could, Meng Hao neared. His hand clenched into a fist, which then punched out, backed by the intense power of his fleshly body.

The air vibrated, and a gust from the surrounding storm winds bore down on him. It slashed into the magical symbols, instantly cause them to scatter and disperse.

This time, the magical symbols flashed, but did not re-form back together. Meng Hao gave a cold snort, then performed another incantation, simultaneously rotating his Cultivation base. Instantly, no less than a thousand tiny mountains appeared and then shot out.

This thousand mountains technique was formed by the Mountain Consuming Incantation, and as it descended, each mountain exerted intense pressure onto a magical symbol. Instantly, they were all suppressed. Meng Hao waved his hand, and the mountains crushed down onto them.

In the blink of an eye, the mountains began to consolidate together. Rumbling could be heard as a thousand-meter tall mountain appeared, sealed inside of which, shockingly, was a battle-ax.

It struggled, attempting to free itself, but Meng Hao waved his hand through the air and the mountain shot toward him. As it did, it grew smaller and smaller, until it could fit onto the palm of his hand.

The battle-ax inside was suppressed down, shrunken. It struggled more and more fiercely, until cracking and popping sounds could be heard. After the s.p.a.ce of a few breaths of time, the battle-ax successfully destroyed the mountain, and then began to charge out from within.

Meng Hao’s face was calm as the index finger of his left hand pushed onto the mountain.

“Demon Sealing, Eighth Hex!”

His coolly spoken words caused a ‘hex’ character to appear and cover the mountain peak, sealing it. The battle-ax let out a mournful wail. It was completely incapable of extricating itself now.

Meng Hao felt a bit relieved, finally. He left behind a strand of Divine Sense, added a few more restrictive spells, and then finally smiled and put the mountain into his bag of holding.

“This will count as a treasure,” he thought, his eyes glittering brightly. Although it had seemed a simple matter to subjugate the item, it actually took all the power of his Cultivation base, as well as the support of his incredibly powerful fleshly body. Were it some other Spirit Severing Cultivator along the likes of Patriarch Huyan, they could by no means collect up the battle-ax in the relaxed manner which Meng Hao just had.

“The more spirit treasures I have like this the better,” he thought. “Who knows what kind of price I’ll be able to sell them for in the future.” Eyes s.h.i.+ning brightly, he looked around until his gaze fell upon a group of one hundred magical symbols floating around off in the distance.

The collection of symbols seemed to possess a certain amount of sentience. Perhaps because he had been touched by the aura of the battle-ax, as soon as he looked at the one-hundred symbol spell formation, it instantly appeared to be shocked, and then attempted to flee.

“Since this entire area was planned out like a structure to block Sea Demons, it wouldn’t be very reasonable of me to take away all the spell formations. Besides, the one-hundred symbol formations can’t even form into anything specific, so it would be mostly useless to try to take them away.” Muttering to himself, Meng Hao turned and flew off into the distance, ignoring the one-hundred symbol spell formations.

Quite some distance away, the pa.s.sengers on the pitch-black s.h.i.+p could hear the m.u.f.fled booms off in the distance, and their smiles grew even happier.

“That guy must be dead already.”

“He overestimated his own ability, and didn’t even have enough Spirit Stones to pay to get on the s.h.i.+p. No wonder he wanted to risk it all in the Third Ring. What a pity he’s not very intelligent. Who does he think he is to try to charge through the Stormwind Divide? One of the Three Saints?”

As the others chatted and laughed, the two calm Cultivators closed their eyes and ignored the goings on. The three old men from the Sun Soul Society who were responsible for the boat looked more arrogant than ever. They had been running this boat for a full sixty-year cycle of time, and during that time had never heard of anyone successfully charging through the Stormwind Divide.

However, after a few days pa.s.sed, the sense of happiness felt by everyone had lessened a bit. But then, more of the magical symbols in the area, as well as the lightning and even the gusts of wind, seemed to be under pressure, even nervous. More explosions could be heard from off in the distance.

The sounds caused the group to grow even more excited. This time, they didn’t need any explanation from the three old men. Everyone knew exactly what the sounds were, even if they couldn’t see the source. Soon, the sound of their conversation could be heard.

“Hahaha! Don’t tell me another person is trying to charge through?”

“Another person who doesn’t know their own limits? I never imagined that this trip to the Third Ring would be so fascinating.”

“What a pity. I truly wish I could watch with my own eyes.”

Everyone was excited, but the three old men were actually somewhat shocked. Just about every time they piloted the s.h.i.+p, they would hear explosions like this. However, it was very rare to hear such a series of explosions twice, like they had this time.

The three old men exchanged smiles, but didn’t think too much about it, and focused instead on piloting the s.h.i.+p forward.

The sounds didn’t last for very long, only as long as it takes an incense stick to burn. Then they faded away, and another round of talking and chuckling began on the s.h.i.+p.

However, about four days later, the sounds could be heard once again. The pa.s.sengers on the s.h.i.+p were astonished.

“What’s going on? How could there possibly be three people all trying to cross the Stormwind Divide?”

“Something doesn’t seem right….”

“Everyone; do you think… that perhaps the person from the very beginning didn’t actually die?” These final words were spoken by the person with the weakest Cultivation base of the whole group, the young Core Formation Cultivator.

As soon as he spoke the words, everyone went quiet. The two Cultivators who had sat there calmly the entire time suddenly opened their eyes, seemingly astonished by the implication of the young man’s theory.

The three men in charge of the s.h.i.+p also looked shocked, but quickly recovered.

“No unfounded ravings allowed onboard!” growled one of them.

“This is the Stormwind Divide!” said another. “Other than the Three Saints of the Milky Way Sea, n.o.body can cross it!”

“Obviously what we’re hearing is an entire Sect trying to cross. It’s not the first time something like that has happened.” The rest of the pa.s.sengers weren’t quite sure whether or not to believe the words of the old men. In any case, the happiness of their mood had clearly lessened by quite a bit.

Meanwhile, Meng Hao flew quickly through the storm wind gusts. Currently, he faced a 150 meter long whip. The whip was about three meters wide, and completely savage in appearance. However, it was surrounded by an enormous mountain, which was gradually suppressing it.

After enough time pa.s.sed for half an incense stick to burn, it made an unyielding howl. Then the mountain descended, completely sealing it. It shrank down into Meng Hao’s hand, after which he put it into his bag of holding.

“Number four!” he said, eyes s.h.i.+ning brightly. With a smile, he turned and proceeded to speed along his way.

Two more months pa.s.sed by. During that time, the group on the s.h.i.+p heard one set of explosions after another. Soon, they had heard the sounds seven times. By now, their mood had changed from one of curiosity to shock.

By the time the thirteenth set of explosions rang out, they were filled with dread. Even the three old men were panting.

After the two months pa.s.sed, and the twentieth set of explosions reached their ears. Everyone on the boat was now completely and utterly dumbfounded. That was especially so after they realized… that the sounds of the explosions were getting closer!

During the two months, Meng Hao ran into more magical symbols in the shape of treasures. Whenever he did, he would instantly attack and exert full power to subdue them.

By this point, he was in the very depths of the Stormwind Divide, and was getting much closer to the pitch-black s.h.i.+p.

As he got deeper in, his speed was continually reduced. The intensity of the wind was now hurting him, and was even causing his body to start to break apart.

Right now, he had to continuously disseminate power from his Cultivation base in order to hang on.

As for the lightning, it was now possible to see illusory figures within it that apparently possessed sentience. Meng Hao was shocked.

At one point, he suddenly caught sight of a bright white light in the otherwise pitch blackness. It seemed to be consuming lighting, which caused Meng Hao to take a deep breath and then change his course.

What he saw was a toad, gobbling up lightning. This was the first time he had seen magical symbols shaped into the form of a beast. The toad was at least three hundred meters long, and in Meng Hao’s estimation, was formed from around ten thousand magical symbols.

“I wonder how far away I am from the edge of this place….” he thought, avoiding the toad. The toad noticed him, but completely ignored him as it continued to consume lightning.

Meng Hao looked away, and was just about to speed off into the distance when suddenly he made a slight “eee?” sound. He turned his head and sent Divine Sense out. Sure enough, he could sense a s.h.i.+p, speeding along through the air.

“Perfect. I can jump onto this s.h.i.+p and rest a bit while I go the rest of the way.” His eyes glittering, he proceeded on toward it.

------

This chapter was sponsored by Edward Smith