Chapter 683: Henceforth (2/2)
“Dead…. Dammit, who killed him? He’s the Patriarch’s only Inner Sect disciple! The little bastard is endlessly scheming, how could he have died?!?!”
On the island, Guyiding Tri-rain also seemed to have sensed something, and her face paled. She leaned up against the old Boat Spirit, sorrow filling her eyes.
“Didn’t you promise me that you would help me turn into a sea…? You broke your promise….”
In the lands of the Southern Domain, in the Violet Fate Sect, Pill Demon was smiling as he concocted a batch of pills especially for Meng Hao. Recently, he’d gotten the feeling that Master and apprentice would be reunited before too long.
He wanted to finish concocting the special batch of pills before they met in person. However, it was in that moment that the pill furnace suddenly exploded. Pill Demon suddenly seemed to age by hundreds of years. He silently looked off into the distance for a long, long time.
Chu Yuyan was sitting cross-legged in meditation, practicing cultivation in her Immortal’s cave. Then, for some unknown reason, her heart suddenly felt troubled. Her eyes opened, and she looked up into the night sky. A shooting star flew by.
“When I was young, my dad always said that when you see a shooting star, it means someone just perished.”
In the Black Sieve Sect, Xu Qing sat with eyes closed, seeking enlightenment of a Daoist magic she had acquired in the Demon Immortal Sect. Suddenly, a tremor ran through her body, and her eyes opened. Her face was deathly pale, and she lifted her hand up to her chest.
An intense, uneasy feeling made her suddenly stop cultivating. She walked out of her Immortal’s cave, her face growing even more ashen.
“Pain. This is the second time I’ve felt pain like this…. The first time was the time by the Rebirth Cave.
“Meng Hao, is it you? What… happened? Why am I suddenly so frightened?” Xu Qing didn’t know why, but she suddenly found herself weeping. She didn’t dare to think too deeply about her sudden premonition. Trembling, she flew up into the sky.
Although she didn’t know the source of the feeling, for some reason she looked toward the Milky Way Sea and then began flying.
On that day, Fatty was very irritable. He violently lost his temper countless times in the Golden Frost Sect, although he wasn’t sure why.
On that day, Chen Fan killed. Although he looked calm, deep in his heart existed a boundless desire to slaughter. He flew out of the sect and killed numerous villainous cultivators.
On that day in the Blood Demon Sect, Wang Youcai made a cultivation base breakthrough into the Nascent Soul stage. However, he felt no joy. He looked in the direction where the State of Zhao used to exist, and thought of his childhood, and of his old friends. [1. Wang Youcai was one of the group of four boys who were taken to the Reliance Sect by Xu Qing in the first chapter. Although Meng Hao came to the conclusion that he was killed, he reappeared later as a member of the Blood Demon Sect. He has popped up at various times throughout the story such as the Blood Immortal Legacy tournament and the Song Clan search for a son-in-law]
On that day in the Northern Reaches, a Blood cultivator rose to prominence. Acting alone, he slaughtered an entire small-scale sect, then occupied the location. He was young, but unfeeling and coldblooded. In his blood-soaked hands, he held a magical item, a pearl. The young man had a name, too. Dong Hu. [2. Dong Hu, a.k.a. Little Tiger, was another of the group of four boys who joined the Reliance Sect at the same time. Meng Hao encountered him again in chapter 71, where he had a pearl. During Meng Hao’s fight with Shangguan Xiu in chapter 75, Dong Hu loaned him the pearl, which allowed Meng Hao to temporarily break into the tenth level of Qi Condensation. Meng Hao returned the pearl to him in chapter 76. You might also be able to deduce that the pearl was even alluded to vaguely in chapter 19. In chapter 613, Meng Hao saw a similar pearl in the Fourth Plane of the Demon Immortal Sect]
On that day, in the Great Tang of the Eastern Lands, in a tall tower, a husband and wife got into an argument the likes of which was virtually unprecedented. The woman eventually stormed off, her eyes filled with tears. The man looked silently off into the distance. There was no one to see it, but tears streamed down his face.
Time slowly passed by.
Xu Qing arrived in the Milky Way Sea. No matter how she searched, she found nothing. An entire sixty-year cycle passed before she silently picked an area on the border of the Southern Domain where she sat down to meditate. Every day she would look out at the Milky Way Sea. She had the feeling that out there somewhere, was Meng Hao.
It was only a feeling, but she believed it.
As for the couple who had argued, the woman also reached the Milky Way Sea. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she went to the Third Ring, to the Second Ring, to everywhere. She found nothing. She searched and searched, and even fought a battle with the Dawn Immortal in the Second Ring.
The battle shook Heaven and Earth. All of the Sea Devils in the Second Ring were killed, and black seawater spread out to cover the entire Third Ring. Heaven and Earth grew dark, and as for who won the battle, and who lost, nobody knew.
One hundred years passed….
In the Inner Ring of the Milky Way Sea, the water was red. An ancient battleship floated across the surface of the water, at the prow of which sat an old man in a suit of armor. He sat there cross-legged, apparently looking off into the distance. It was impossible to tell what exactly he was looking at.
Next to the old man rested a body. It was a man with no hair or eyebrows; he was completely shriveled up. Wrinkles covered his skin, and he looked as if he had just climbed up out of a grave. The entire body stank of putrefaction.
He had no right arm, and a gaping hole could be seen in his chest, where there existed… no heart whatsoever.
A flame burned above him, casting out a gentle light that covered over his body. As the light was cast out, it transformed into glittering dots, within each of which could be seen flickering, incomprehensible magical symbols. Oh so slowly, those dots of light bored into the hole in Meng Hao’s chest.
Inside of Meng Hao’s chest, the flesh and blood writhed, as if it were slowly growing.
The years seemed as if they would flow by in this manner forever, and because they were in the Inner Ring of the Milky Way Sea, there was no one who could find the ancient ship, or Meng Hao.
On one particular day, the armored old man slowly opened his eyes. Hidden within them were the sun, the moon, and the stars. Endless years of time permeated those eyes, as if the man could see into their boundless depths.
He turned his head, and his abstruse gaze fell onto Meng Hao.
When that happened, Meng Hao’s body seemed to experience the passing of thousands of years. The fire burned intensely, emitting more crystalline dots of light that merged into the hole in his chest. The wriggling of the blood and flesh increased, and soon the healing process was visible to the naked eye. A new heart formed, and the wounds were healed. Even the bones and flesh of the right arm slowly began to grow out.
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Meng Hao was completely restored. Not a wound could be seen on him. However… his hair was pure white, and he looked incredibly old, as if he were an elderly man.
Weakness radiated out from him as he opened his eyes.
His eyes were filled with confusion. He lay there thinking for a long time before memories started to trickle into his brain. He thought of the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch, and how he had chosen to end in common ruin with him rather than give up his freedom. In the end, he had landed a sword blow on the Wang Patriarch’s soul!
“My cultivation base….” He closed his eyes and cast his senses inward. After a while, he slowly rose into a sitting position and looked at the armored old man, who sat with his back to him. The old man seemed as if he would sit on this ship for all eternity as it roamed about.
Meng Hao clasped hands and bowed deeply. “Senior, thank you for your kindness in saving my life!”