Chapter 1289: Extinguishing the First Lamp! (2/2)

It was a strange sight; Meng Hao seemed to be hovering on the verge of death, his aura becoming weaker and weaker.

If anyone could observe him in that moment, that is what they would see.

The truth of the matter, though, was that although Meng Hao’s eyes were shut, he was looking at... a different world. The inside of the asteroid was completely gray, and in fact, everything that he could see was also gray.

He rose to his feet and was shocked to find that his body remained in the same position as before, sitting there cross-legged. What had risen up was apparently his soul, which was in the process of dispersing.

He stepped forward and looked back at his fleshly body sitting there in meditation. He could see that his body was withering, and that his blood was wasting away. He saw the thick aura of death, and realized that his soul was dispersing. All of that made Meng Hao feel as if he were right at death’s door.

“So this is what it's like to extinguish the Soul Lamps of the Ancient Realm....” he murmured. It was back in the Fang Clan that he had learned about extinguishing Soul Lamps. What he had learned was that every Ancient Realm cultivator experienced something different in the moment of extinguishing. Not only every person, but every single lamp was different.

However, throughout all the years, a certain general set of rules become clear to cultivators.

“My extinguishing of Soul Lamps in the Ancient Realm will be comprised of the Seven Desolations!” he murmured, eyes shining.

“Every five lamps brings one Desolation. Few people experience the Fourth Desolation, and even rarer is the Fifth Desolation. Some people only experience the Third Desolation.... The further along you get, the more dangerous they become....

“The First Desolation is also called the Desolation of Delusion....

“Well then, this must be the Desolation of Delusion.” Meng Hao walked back, sat down cross-legged in the same position as his fleshly body, and attempted to re-connect his soul.

However, nothing worked. It was as if his body were rejecting his soul. Meng Hao frowned, then stood up again. His fleshly body was even more withered than before, causing his expression to turn grim. He suddenly flickered into motion, appearing outside of the asteroid. When he looked around, he saw nothing but endless fog, swirling and churning. Everything was completely silent.

“The Desolation of Delusion,” he murmured, “The Desolation of Delusion.... Where does the ‘delusion’ part come in...?” He turned to look back in the direction of the asteroid, and suddenly realized that the asteroid had changed. It was now a huge, crimson heart, thumping and writhing. Countless faces could be seen on its surface, all of them howling at Meng Hao. Furthermore, those faces... looked familiar.

They were all the people he had killed in his life.

He looked coldly at the faces, and began to back up slowly. In that instant, a huge hand appeared, covered with blood-colored scales. It shot out from within the heart, rumbling toward him as it sought to crush him, causing everything in the area to shatter.

Its power caused the surrounding fog to writhe, and as it stretched out, it was joined by a vicious voice that echoed out from inside the heart.

“Meng Hao... I’ve been waiting for a long time.... Didn't I say that when the time came to extinguish your Soul Lamps, I would come back!?” The roar echoed out in all directions, and the heart began to shrink. In the blink of an eye, it shattered, disappearing along with the hand.

However, the cold voice continued to echo out.

“I've erased the projection of your fleshly body. You’ll never find the path back now. You’re stuck here. Soon, your fleshly body will wither up completely, and your blood will run dry. Your divine sense will vanish, and your soul... will dissipate within this place.”

Meng Hao’s face darkened, and he waved his sleeve. Instantly, the shattered pieces of the heart which had been flying about stopped falling down.

“The Desolation of Delusion is this entire place….” he thought. “A desolate, illusory world which appears after extinguishing the first Soul Lamp. My soul was pulled in here, and if I can't get it back into my fleshly body before my body withers up, then I’ll definitely die. Whoever thought that the extinguishing of the first Soul Lamp would be like this?

“If I hadn’t consumed that divine sense from the 33 Heavens’ Paragon, then this might have been a bit of a difficult situation. But now....” Meng Hao laughed coldly. After all, despite being only a soul, his divine sense was still there. Suddenly, that divine sense exploded out, sweeping around him in all directions.

In the blink of an eye, his divine sense spread out to cover an area the size of what his previous divine sense could reach at its very limit. To him, however that was merely thirty percent of his total divine sense.

“Again!” he said, sending his divine sense sweeping out even further in all directions, sending out boundless ripples that caused the fog to seethe.

“Gotcha!” he said, eyes glittering. Astonishingly, he had just caught sight of an asteroid off in the fog, an asteroid which was the location of his fleshly body.

“Impossible!!” someone roared madly from within the fog. It was the same voice that had spoken just now, which was also the same voice he had heard during his Ancient Tribulation.

Chapter 1289: Extinguishing the First Lamp!