A month flashed by.

During that time, Meng Hao swept freely across the Third Ring. Considering the level of his Cultivation base, there were no Sea Demons who could stand up to him. The instant any appeared and got close to him, he would destroy them.

Sometimes he didn’t actually even need to do anything personally. He would simply send the Wooden Time Sword tip flying out to circulate around him. A mere thought could send the tip speeding to the attack at any time.

Twenty-five days earlier, a group of adventuring Cultivators, roughly a dozen or more in number, had been speeding along, pursued by two roaring Sea Demons.

Even in the midst of their hopelessness, a black beam appeared. It shot through the two Sea Demons, transforming them into ash. The Demon hearts flew out, and then vanished into thin air.

Twenty days earlier, a haughty-faced man was fighting at close quarters with a Sea Demon, when a black beam suddenly appeared out of nowhere to transform the Sea Demon into ash.

Fifteen days earlier, ten days earlier, five days earlier, similar scenes played out in different areas in the Third Ring. In fact, almost every day such things occurred. Gradually, rumors began to spread about the black sword tip.

After a month of domination, Meng Hao had collected nearly a thousand Demon hearts. Most were low-grade, with only a few being mid-grade.

Meng Hao wasn’t very happy with the results, although anyone else would have been wild with joy.

“Chosen from the Sects and Clans of the Southern Domain, Northern Reaches, and Eastern Lands all owe me large quant.i.ties of Spirit Stones. My gains in the past month have been too negligible. This doesn’t compare at all to conning people.” He currently hovered in mid-air, looking out at the boundless sea, wondering how many Sea Demons existed underneath the waters.

“If I could get some high-grade Spirit Stones, or even… ultra high-grade Spirit Stones, then things would be worth it!” He had some ultra high-grade Spirit Stones in his bag of holding, but not many. They were incredibly valuable, and every time he thought about how he had wasted two thousand of them all those years ago, it made him sick.

“Short on money again…. If I had enough Spirit Stones, I could copy more Wooden Time Swords, or maybe even the Time Sword tip. Except, I would need, at the least, more than ten million Spirit Stones to do that.” He looked down at the surface of the sea, and clenched his jaw.

“If the w.a.n.g Clan Patriarch isn’t dead, then danger will be coming my way. The most important thing for me to do now is get stronger as fast as possible. I need to go all out!” Determination appeared in his eyes, and then he vanished into thin air.

Several days later, Meng Hao sat cross-legged on a certain large island within the Third Ring. The entire area around him had long since been cleared, and the Time Sword tip circulated around him. He looked down at his bag of holding as a small mountain flew out.

Sealed inside of the little mountain was a battle-ax, which was none other than the thousand-symbol spirit he had captured.

After looking at it for a moment, he lifted his right hand up into the air, causing the mountain to vanish. The battle-ax instantly began to emit a rumbling sound, and was just about to attack when Meng Hao waved his wide sleeve, causing a huge pressure to envelop the area. He reached out with his hand, but the battle-ax made a popping sound and transformed into over a thousand magical symbols. Meng Hao’s hand grasped nothing but air.

The magical symbols cascaded about, seemingly quite proud of themselves. They swirled behind Meng Hao, where they once again formed into a battle-ax, which then chopped down toward Meng Hao.

“Hex!” said Meng Hao coolly. He didn’t even turn his head to look; he simply pointed backward with his left index finger.

The thousand magical symbols trembled and struggled in mid-air. However, when Meng Hao punched out, the battle-ax collapsed into a ma.s.s of magical symbols. Then he performed an incantation, and the Mountain Consuming Incantation appeared in the form of a thousand mountains, which covered over all the magical symbols.

Meng Hao performed all these actions smoothly and spontaneously, as if he hadn’t been troubled in the least bit. Then, his expression indifferent, he caused the magical symbols to approach him one by one. He imprinted them with Divine Sense, a process that took several hours to complete. After it was all done, his eyes glittered as he allowed the thousand mountains to loosen and free the magical symbols.

The symbols seemed as if they had lost their sentience. They simply floated there, flickering with light, but unmoving.

“Consolidate!” said Meng Hao coolly. Immediately, the symbols formed together into the shape of a battle-ax, which then rotated around him. After exercising control over it for a few moments, Meng Hao then used the same method on the more than twenty thousand-symbol spirits in his bag of holding. He finished a few days later, after which, more than 20,000 magical symbols all whistled through the air around him.

They turned into a vortex of storm winds that emanated an incredibly threatening pressure.

A strange light appeared in Meng Hao’s eyes. The incredible power of this treasure was second only to the symbol spirits he had seen in the Stormwind Divide that formed into enormous ferocious beasts.

“However, it wastes too much of my Cultivation base,” he thought after a moment. After consuming some medicinal pills, he sat down to meditate. It wasn’t until dawn of the following morning that he finally opened his eyes.

“The time has come!” he said. Taking a deep breath, he performed an incantation, placing multiple seals onto his body that caused his energy to rapidly weaken. Soon, the aura of the Resurrection Lily once again appeared.

Previously, Meng Hao had a.s.sumed that only he could sense the aura. However, after arriving in the Third Ring, he understood that to Sea Demons, the Resurrection Lily was like some hitherto unknown tonic that, if consumed, could provoke incredible transmogrification.

As soon as the aura spread out, the surrounding sea began to churn. Countless glowing red eyes snapped open in the depths of the sea in the Third Ring. In the blink of an eye, the Sea Demons shot with incredible speed in the direction of something they instinctively knew they had to consume.

Some distance away, a multicolored jellyfish was just under the surface of the water, stalking a group of Cultivators, waiting for the right opportunity to attack. However, just in the moment when it was about to make a move, it suddenly trembled and then shot away under the water.

In another location, a group of a few dozen Cultivators were locked in close combat with three Sea Demons. Suddenly, the Sea demons roared, dove down into the water, and vanished.

Scenes like this played out throughout various locations in the Third Ring. Quite a few Cultivators noticed the phenomenon. Some Cultivators up in mid-air were shocked to see waves sweeping across the sea, and the countless Sea Demons swimming through the water.

“Don’t tell me it’s a Beast Tide!!”

Even while so many people were shocked, Meng Hao sat calmly waiting on the island. After enough time pa.s.sed for an incense stick to burn, an enormous pincer suddenly shot out from the seawater toward him.

At the same time, multiple Sea Demons burst out from the water to charge toward Meng Hao.

His eyes glittered with coldness as he waved his right hand, causing a thousand-symbol battle-ax to fly out. It swept out, filling the area with the sounds of explosions as it destroyed the Sea Demons.

Even as they died, an additional hundred or more Sea Demons emerged from the water, their visages that of wildness and greed. It was almost like Meng Hao had turned into a whirlpool that caused desire to well up within all the Sea Demons of the Third Ring.

Meng Hao was calm and unhurried as he manipulated the magical symbols. With the wave of a finger, 1,000 magical symbols flew out, surrounding the island, making it impossible for any Sea Demon to get even more than three hundred meters onto the island.

Four explosion-filled hours pa.s.sed. More than a thousand Sea Demons had charged out from within the shocking waves. They didn’t seem to even understand the difference between life and death; disregarding even their own lives, they charged forward relentlessly.

Booms rang out as Meng Hao’s hands moved even faster to control the 8,000 magical symbols, which whistled through the air. They formed into various magical items, including the battle-ax, and emanated incredible might.

Another four hours pa.s.sed, during which time, Meng Hao consumed medicinal pills on three occasions to support the rotation of his Cultivation base. Currently, the island was surrounded by densely packed groups of Sea Demons. There were so many that he almost couldn’t see anything else.

The sight was enough to shock anyone who might see it, even Meng Hao. However, he wanted even more Sea Demons. The magical symbols were now 13,000 in number, whistling about to create a droning sound that filled the ears.

From afar, the island appeared to be surrounded by a vortex of storm winds, and a black fog. Outside of the storm winds were endless amounts of Sea Demons that charged forward in their attempts to get onto the island.

The roaring was astonis.h.i.+ng, and blood showered about everywhere. Meng Hao was unsure of how many Sea Demons he had killed in the relatively short period of time. The only ones who knew were the parrot and meat jelly.

That was because they were flying around, boring their way in and out all over the place. As the Sea Demons died, they gleefully collected up the Demon hearts.

It was in this moment, however, that a howl split the air from off in the distance. This howl was unique; it sounded like a weeping girl, and it instantly caused Meng Hao to look up. His Divine Sense swept out, and off in the distance, he could see the Sea Demons all trembling and making way for an enormous seven-colored jellyfish which was slowly swimming forward.

On top of the head of the jellyfish, shockingly, was… a white flower!

It was a Whitebone Lily, a flower that looked like bleached bones. It swayed back and forth, causing all the color in the area to vanish and be replaced with only black and white.

As Meng Hao looked over, he suddenly felt the island shake beneath him, as if some enormous creature down below were attacking it.

His face flickered for the s.p.a.ce of a few breaths, but he was powerless to support the island. Cracks spread out on its surface, and then the island simply collapsed into countless pieces.

Huge waves rolled out across the seawater as, in the blink of an eye, the entire island sank down into the water. As for Meng Hao, he was also pulled down into the sea.

In that instant, the Sea Demons in the area grew even more frenzied. The world underneath the surface of the waters was their domain, so it was with even more madness that they charged forward.

Meng Hao’s eyes glittered. The world underneath the surface might be the domain of the Sea Demons, but it was also his world!

He had formed the water character of the five elements totem, and had also practiced cultivation on the bottom of the Violet Sea for a hundred years. Why would he possibly care about the pressure exerted under the sea? His expression was cold as he lifted his right hand to cause 20,000 glittering magical symbols to circulate out. They transformed into twenty magical items which shot toward the Sea Demons and began to slaughter them.

The explosions did not pa.s.s out of the seawater, but they did give rise to enormous waves which swept out through the Third Ring. The Cultivators who saw them were shocked, and intrigued about what was happening.

Furthermore, some of the incredibly powerful Sea Demons of the Third Ring were now in motion, heading toward Meng Hao, filled with madness.