Chapter 1593: Loneliness (1/2)

Chapter 1593: Loneliness

Years had passed. A thousand. Two thousand. Three thousand.

Five thousand years had gone by in a flash.

After ten thousand years in which Meng Hao never appeared in public, his name had largely been forgotten by the successive generations of cultivators.

All of the older generation in the Mountain and Sea Realm had returned to the dust, and virtually no one now living had ever even heard of Meng Hao.

During the ten thousand years, it wasn’t just people in the Mountain and Sea Realm who died. Cultivators passed away in other parts of the starry sky, such as in the Vast Expanse School, although the effects in those other places weren’t as pronounced.

In the current starry sky of the Mountains and Seas, few people were aware that the starry sky even had a will of its own. People even stopped telling stories about the battle ten thousand years before, between Meng Hao and Allheaven.

There was a very, very small group of people who remembered, but most of them were Paragons. Because the Karma connecting them to Meng Hao wasn't very profound, and because of their incredible cultivation bases, the power of the curse didn't affect them in a significant way.

After several thousand years, Perfect’s longevity eventually ran out. Meng Hao collected her soul seed and sealed it in the ice mountain. That ice mountain contained all of the memories of Meng Hao’s entire life. Everyone he cared about, all of the good things, were there. That ice cave was also his weak spot.

He spent most of his time sitting at the foot of the ice mountain, with only his memories to accompany him.

Occasionally he would go out into the Mountain and Sea Realm. However, every time he did, things seemed unfamiliar. He almost felt as if he wasn’t even a part of the world any more.

Although he wasn’t aware of it, there was something building up within him, something that could only be described by a single word. Loneliness. And it was growing stronger.

He was the most powerful entity within the starry sky, but the feeling of loneliness only continued to grow. He never aged, and yet he felt more and more tired.

His body was not growing older, but his heart was. And he could do nothing to change that.

Years marched along within the starry sky, faster and faster. Meng Hao felt as if those years were passing him by. All he could do was sit and watch them go. He looked at the living creatures that existed within the starry sky. He watched generations come and go. He saw gifted and talented individuals rise to glory. He saw people that others would call inhuman. He saw new powerful experts make names for themselves.

The Mountain and Sea Realm continued to prosper. Few people bore the mark of the curse any more. As people forgot Meng Hao, the Karma connecting them to him grew faint. Although many of them still had slightly limited longevity, their speed of cultivation was greatly enhanced because of living in the precious treasure that was the Mountain and Sea Realm.

In the Nine Mountains and Seas, the natural laws were based on the nine great Hexing magics of the League of Demon Sealers. Because of that, it was much easier to reach the Dao Realm. In fact, throughout the ten thousand years which had passed, numerous outstanding cultivators had risen up. They created cultivation techniques unique to their generation, and also invented many, many new divine abilities.

Throughout the millennia, the cultivators from the Mountain and Sea Realm were always considered to be one of the most powerful forces within the starry sky of the Mountains and Seas. Eventually, wild ambitions began to grow within the hearts of many cultivators. It was hard to say when exactly it began, but eventually they began to expand, and to subjugate one group of life forms after another within the starry sky.

Meng Hao watched it happen. He watched the wars being fought. He even strolled through battlefields sometimes, watching the Mountain and Sea cultivators die, watching the other living beings die. He watched the blood flow, and smelled the stench of gore.

He watched it all, but did nothing. He didn’t help either side, and certainly didn’t fight.