A short while later, the red mist reformed into the shape of Meng Hao. His skin was now roughly fifty percent restored. He no longer looked so hideous, but the coldness of his expression made his Devilish aura even more intense.
He flicked his sleeve, and then, under the shocked gazes of the Southern Domain cultivators, pierced through the air to disappear off into the distance in a beam of prismatic light.
Of the six fronts, hostilities had now ceased on four, and only two remained.
Meng Hao flew as fast as possible. The air shattered around him and lightning crackled as he sped across the land. Soon he appeared at the fifth front. Few Southern Domain cultivators remained on this front, only a few thousand. In contrast, there were more than 10,000 Northern Reaches cultivators, battling fiercely, pus.h.i.+ng the Southern Domain force back in constant retreat.
Shockingly, Fatty was there in the crowd, spattered with blood, his expression fierce. Although his cultivation base was not incredibly high, he abounded with magical items. Furthermore, as the Golden Prince of the Golden Frost Sect, he was constantly guarded by other members of the sect.
Even so, currently facing a dangerous situation. After coughing up some blood, he leaped out, enraged, and bit a chunk out of the enemy’s flesh.
When Fatty bit things, it didn’t matter if it was flesh, bone or magical items; everything would be crushed and ripped. It was an incredibly fierce and cruel sight.
The Northern Reaches forces who pursued Fatty were covered in wounds that appeared to be bite marks.
“Dammit! Is this a person or a wild beast? How can he have such sharp teeth!?”
“What technique does he cultivate?!?!”
“Slay him and pry his teeth out! I’m positive that you can refine them into a shocking magical item!”
Their killing intent seethed, and the glow of magical items swirled around their bodies as they gave chase to Fatty.
“Bring it on!” roared Fatty. “Grandpa Fatty’s gonna bite you to death!”
The fighting raged, and the Southern Domain cultivators fell back again. The Northern Reaches army advanced with unbridled frenzy, and from the look of the situation, it seemed that the Southern Domain Cultivators would soon be completely wiped out.
Fatty’s eyes had long since been shot with blood. Off to the side, one of his beloved concubines received an injury, causing him to leap to her aid. He pulled her back and then lunged out, snapping his teeth at the arm of a Northern Reaches cultivator who was about to land a palm strike on her.
The Northern Reaches cultivator immediately fell back, scalp numb. Although Fatty only ended up biting air, the sound it emitted was completely shocking.
“Dammit!” cried the Northern Reaches cultivator. Shamed into rage, he waved his arm, causing a lump of bronze to appear. He tossed it out in front of him, whereupon it exploded with a bluish light that was apparently sentient; it immediately shot toward Fatty as if to consume him.
Fatty’s face fell, and a sensation of deadly crisis washed over him. He shot backward at high speed, pursued by the blue light.
Just when the light was about to slam into Fatty, a cold snort echoed out across the land. It was a mere sound, but it instantly caused the Northern Reaches cultivators’ bodies to tremble. There were some who coughed up blood and felt their minds reeling unstably.
The cultivator who was after Fatty suddenly went pale in the face. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and he turned his head in astonishment. What he saw was a blinding red light filling the sky.
The following moment, a hand stretched out from behind Fatty, grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. It was then that Meng Hao appeared.
“Meng Hao!” cried Fatty exuberantly. Immediately, the spirits of the surrounding Southern Domain cultivators lifted.
“The exalted Meng Hao has arrived!”
“We’re saved! Meng Hao is here!”
The Northern Reaches cultivators had all heard of Meng Hao; they knew that he was the one who had wiped out the first wave army. When they heard his name, many of them gasped and subconsciously backed up.
Someone who could wipe out an army of 100,000 cultivators was clearly an astonis.h.i.+ng figure, no matter how he accomplished the task.
As soon as Meng Hao appeared, his energy transformed into an oppressive air that sent the minds of the Northern Reaches cultivators spinning. At the same time, Meng Hao stretched out his hand and flicked the blue light that had been bearing down on Fatty.
“Disperse!” he said coolly. The blue light shuddered, then emitted a screech as it shot backward and swallowed up the Northern Reaches cultivator. Unable to escape, it then shrank back down into a lump of bronze and was pulled back through the air into Meng Hao’s hand.
The lump of bronze trembled, seemingly pleading for its life with Meng Hao, who looked at it for a moment and then put it into his bag of holding. Then he glanced around at the more than 10,000 Northern Reaches cultivators.
A dark look gleamed in his eyes, and he stepped forward. Vast quant.i.ties of red mist instantly roiled out, like countless vipers. They shot toward the more than 10,000 enemies, boring into their bodies, causing shocking miserable shrieks to fill the air.
Meng Hao still stood there, arms raised into the air, eyes closed. Rumbling sounds filled the air as one after another, the Northern Reaches cultivators transformed into desiccated corpses. Red mist poured out from their eyes, ears, noses and mouths, which then flowed back to Meng Hao. His skin grew rapidly, and in the time it takes half an incense stick to burn, the screams faded away. The corpses toppled over, and Meng Hao opened his eyes.
His skin was now over seventy percent restored. His white hair floated around him, and he emanated a fiendish air that caused the Southern Domain cultivators to feel both anxious and shocked.
“The sixth level of the Blood Demon Grand Magic… soon….” murmured Meng Hao. Eyes gleaming with cruelty, he turned to look at the Southern Domain cultivators. When his gaze fell upon Fatty, he smiled.
Yet… the smile caused Fatty to inhale sharply.
“You….” he said hesitantly.
Meng Hao didn’t respond. He turned and shot up into the air, preparing to head to the final front. That was where… he would complete the sixth level of the Blood Demon Grand Magic!
Fatty looked at Meng Hao flying up into the air, and couldn’t hold back from shouting out, “You’re not Meng Hao! Who are you?!”
When Meng Hao had appeared, he had been filled with joy. But after a moment, he had realized that there was something unfamiliar about him. There was a coldness that hadn’t been there before. Fatty suddenly got the feeling that this person was not the Meng Hao that he remembered from the past. He was different.
Very different!
It was the same feeling Chu Yuyan had experienced, except that with Fatty, it was even stronger.
The Meng Hao he remembered was not the type of person to carry out ma.s.sacres. He was not so savage and cruel. He would not consume others’ qi, blood, life force and souls to further his cultivation. Those techniques were the craft of Devils!
Such practices would give rise to shock no matter what era or location they appeared in.
Cruelness, ruthlessness, the ability to treat life as worthless… that was how this Meng Hao was acting. He was completely different from the con-loving Meng Hao who existed in Fatty’s memories.
Meng Hao came to a halt up in midair, and Fatty’s words echoed about in his mind. He paused for a moment without looking back down at Fatty, then vanished off into the distance.
The sixth front was the location of the final remnants of the Northern Reaches’ second wave army. The cultivators responsible for holding them back were from the auxiliary branches of the Blood Demon Sect: the Solitary Sword Sect and the Golden Frost Sect.
This was the only front out them of all where… the Southern Domain maintained a superior position!
There were originally over 20,000 Northern Reaches cultivators, but now there were little more than half that. The Southern Domain cultivators fought back fiercely, and their enraged battle cries filled the area.
Chen Fan was in the middle of it all, along with Li s.h.i.+qi. The battlefield was filled with the glow of magical techniques and the power of divine abilities.
Chen Fan’s cultivation base had returned to the Nascent Soul stage, and he fought with a sword. He truly looked like a sword cultivator, fighting as he did with shocking, killing blows. Li s.h.i.+qi was surrounded by a blood-colored glow. Of course, she did not cultivate the Blood Demon Grand Magic, but rather, used other magical combat techniques of the Blood Demon Sect.
Booms filled the air, and the sky suddenly turned bright red. Rain began falling, red rain. It was completely unexpected, and both the Southern Domain and Northern Reaches cultivators were astonished.
It was at this point that the falling rain transformed into a red mist that shot, swirling, toward the Northern Reaches cultivators. In the blink of an eye, it bored into their bodies.
The Southern Domain cultivators were shocked, and immediately fell back. They watched, shaken, as the Northern Reaches cultivators began to scream with unprecedented misery. Their bodies withered up and their hair fell out as their cultivation bases and souls were extracted through every orifice.
It was the same with the nearby mountain-like giants. Even the ghoul-like spirit creatures that the Northern Reaches had brought were screaming. Their bodies faded as if they were being erased.
The Southern Domain cultivators gasped at the sudden, shocking turn of events. It almost seemed as if they were witnessing in a living h.e.l.l.
Corpses fell to the ground one by one. The giants died, and the evil spirits screamed and faded away. After that, everything was silent.
Within the silence, the red mist surged up toward the red clouds in the sky, taking the qi, blood, cultivation bases and souls with it.
The scene left a deep impression on all of the Southern Domain cultivators. The red mist churned and rolled, and as they looked up at the red clouds, they saw someone sitting there cross-legged.
That was the person who was absorbing all the red mist!
Meng Hao’s skin was now fully regrown. He was dressed like a scholar; however, his previously scholarly aura was now as cruel and merciless as a Blood Devil.
His white hair floated around him, and when his eyes slowly opened, it seemed as if red lightning were crackling within them. After absorbing all the power from the battlefield below, his body flickered, and he vanished.
There were friends down below, but he didn’t want them to see him like this.
“Living sacrifices! He used some evil technique to turn them into living sacrifices!!”
“Who was that person in the clouds!?” Most of the Southern Domain cultivators made such exclamations. However, there were some people whose faces flickered as they seemed to recall a similar, although not quite as vicious, scene.
Chen Fan stood there silently, a complex look on his face as he looked up into the sky.
Not too far off was Li s.h.i.+qi, who stood there trembling. She was a Blood Demon Sect disciple, and although she did not cultivate the Blood Demon Grand Magic, she was not unfamiliar with it.
“It was him….”
-----
This chapter was sponsored by Richard Nilsen Karlsen