Chapter 1138: Obvious Bait! (1/2)

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Meng Hao’s face flickered, and the sensation of an oncoming catastrophe grew even stronger. His eyes glittered, and the threw his head back and roared. Rumbling sounds echoed out as his body grew rapidly from its normal size to 9 meters tall, 21 meters, 30 meters, 60 meters, 90 meters!

He was now a 90-meter-tall giant, whose body rumbled as he fought back against the invisible pressure weighing down on him. He stamped his foot onto the ground and transformed into a meteor that shot toward the Emperor.

Zong Wuya stepped forward to block his way, causing Meng Hao’s eyes to flicker as he unleashed the God-Slaying Fist with his right hand. Instantly, the two of them began to fight.

Booms echoed out, and in a relatively short period of time, the two of them exchanged hundreds of blows. Everything shook violently, and Zong Wuya’s eyes filled with a strange light. He was clearly aware that Meng Hao had just reached a level of power that could cause problems for even himself.

“Zong Wuya!” Meng Hao growled. He waved his right hand, unleashing the Essence of Divine Flame. However, Zong Wuya all of a sudden fell back, doing nothing more to interfere with Meng Hao.

Meng Hao stared in shock for a moment. However, he had no desire to fight with Zong Wuya to begin with, plus, the sensation of imminent crisis was growing more intense. He waved his hand, sending Divine Flame out in a huge blast toward the Emperor.

The Emperor laughed loudly, and didn't even deign to look at Meng Hao, simply allowing him to approach without even dodging to the side.

A boom rang out, and Meng Hao's face flickered. His Divine Flame, and his attacking palm, were only about a meter away from the Emperor when suddenly, they slammed into some sort of impassable barrier.

It almost seemed like the will of the Windswept Realm had sprung up around the Emperor, making him... completely invincible!

Not only that, a backlash hit Meng Hao, flinging him backward by about three hundred meters.

“No one can alter the Imperial Lord’s plan. There is no power that can interfere with the hopes of the Windswept Realm. Everything... is for the true Dao. For freedom!” He stood there, eyeless, laughing maniacally as he raised both hands into the air. His cultivation base was clearly not very high, but as of this point, there was an astonishing power of will that had come to converge on him.

“Hear me, Echelon cultivators from the Immortal World: what you want is nothing other than the natural laws and Essences of the Windswept Realm. As the Emperor... I now give them to you!” The Emperor continued to laugh as he waved a finger toward the sky. The Heavens rumbled, and the sky seemed to shatter. Rumbling sounds echoed out as the Windswept Realm suddenly seemed to lose its sky altogether.

In its place was a void, within which, if you looked closely, could be seen a blood-colored vortex, rumbling as it spun. It exerted a massive power that relentlessly pulled the entire Windswept Realm higher and higher.

Simultaneously, countless natural laws and Essences that had previously been invisible, were now revealed because of the lack of a sky overhead.

The natural laws were visible as flickering magical symbols that formed a huge net which covered everything. In the locations where the threads that made up the net intersected, colorful motes of light could be seen. Sometimes they were transparent, sometimes they shone brightly. They were... Essences.

Natural laws and great Daos. For the first time ever... they were directly made visible to all onlookers.

All they had to do was send out some divine sense, and they would be able to see the huge net of magical symbols that represented the natural laws. Furthermore, if they touched the colorful motes of light with divines sense, they would be able to detect the presence of Essence.

“Natural laws. Great Daos. There they are, right in front of you!” said the Emperor, laughing. “Echelon cultivators of the Immortal World, you may contemplate them as much as you like. However many you get will depend on your own personal good fortune!” The man’s laughter contained derision, contempt, and most of all, disdain.

Dao-Heaven was about to leave the area, but suddenly, a tremor ran through him, and he looked up at the huge net up above. He saw the colorful lights, and began to pant. Then he sent his divine sense out in all directions and began to contemplate enlightenment.

At the same time, the other Echelon cultivators in the Windswept Realm were completely shaken. When they saw the events transpiring up above, they maintained silence for a moment, but then suddenly began to fly through the air toward the central temple area.

Lin Cong was the first to arrive, whereupon he immediately began to contemplate enlightenment.

Next was Han Qinglei, then Yuwen Jian. Finally, the pudgy Echelon cultivator from the Fifth Nation came, the one who had been seriously injured by Dao-Heaven, and had subsequently fled. He flew through the air toward one particular corner of the central temple area, then, body trembling, began to contemplate.

The Echelon cultivators quickly converged in the central temple area and began to contemplate enlightenment of the Windswept Realm’s natural laws and Essences. Meng Hao was the only one who, despite all of the natural laws and Essences, continued to feel the sense of increasingly intense crisis. He was just about to take another step forward toward the Emperor when suddenly, the eyeless man turned and seemed to look directly at him, despite his lack of eyes. Dark pits of blood stared directly at Meng Hao.

“There’s no need to get anxious, Meng Hao. I might have underestimated you, but that won't happen again. Actually, I hope that you can get stronger.... In fact, I’ll even help you!” The Emperor lifted his right foot up and stamped it down violently, sending a huge boom echoing out through the temple region.

The final 300 Essences, which should have remained in the temple, the final prize for the most powerful Echelon cultivator, began to spread out through Heaven and Earth, thanks to the violent stomping of the Emperor's foot.