[/expand]

Yuwen Jian was still sitting behind the shield on the mountain, and as he watched what was happening, he began to pant. By this point, Meng Hao had already made a deep impression on him.

Meng Hao looked up at Hai Dongqing, then coolly said: “And now, it’s your turn!”

His energy erupted, and the healing of his body by his Eternal stratum was plainly visible.

Hai Dongqing’s eyes went wide. He found Meng Hao’s strength to be terrifying, and his heart had long since filled with towering waves of shock. He had personally witnessed Meng Hao slay his two compatriots, using ruthless tactics and lightning-like attacks. The whole thing caused his heart to pound.

“This Meng Hao is too strong! I can’t handle him. Only Dao-Heaven could possibly take him out!” When he realized this, he immediately decided to retreat from the battle. The shadow of death seemed to fill his mind, covering every aspect of his thoughts. Without any further hesitation, and in almost the exact same moment that Meng Hao looked over at him, he turned and fled for his life.

“Think you can just leave?” Meng Hao said. He began to walk forward, and his energy spiked as he unleashed the Seven God Steps. One step. Two steps. Three steps.

With each step he took forward, his killing intent surged. Although he physically looked no different than before, the sky flashed with bright colors, the heavenly bodies trembled, and a huge wind kicked up. To Hai Dongqing, it almost felt like Meng Hao was growing larger with each step, until he was so huge he could hold up the Heavens!

Hai Dongqing’s face fell as he recognized the magic. He had personally been watching on a projection screen when Meng Hao used this art to defeat Lin Cong.

However, in this critical moment of the battle, Hai Dongqing had no time to flee very far. He quickly performed a double-handed incantation gesture, then pushed his hand down toward the ground. Immediately, his body began to tremble as countless streams of sword qi erupted out of his body. 1,000,000. 5,000,000. All the way to... 10,000,000!

10,000,000 streams of sword qi blotted out the sky, transforming into a tempest that raged across the land toward Meng Hao. It was at this point that Meng Hao took a fourth step, a fifth step, a sixth step... a seventh step!

A massive foot descended from up above, smashing down into Hai Dongqing’s sword qi tempest. As it passed through, countless streams of sword qi were shattered and destroyed.

In the blink of an eye, the 10,000,000 streams of sword qi, incapable of standing up to the power of the foot, were crushed. The foot stamped through the air, destroying all resistance as it slammed toward Hai Dongqing.

His eyes went wide from the sensation of deadly crisis. He performed an incantation gesture, causing his body to wither rapidly, with the exception of his hand, which turned translucent and crystalline. Then, he waved his finger toward the foot, his expression one of ferocity and madness.

“Paragon Sky, Daoist Magic Mountain!” he roared. Instantly, a mountain of swords materialized in front of him, emanating shocking ripples as it slammed directly into the descending foot.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!

The mountain of swords trembled beneath the weight of the foot. Cracks spread out, and then the mountain shattered, exploding into countless fragments.

The backlash hit Hai Dongqing, and blood sprayed out of his mouth. He looked at the foot, eyes wide with despair. It descended, unstoppable, destructive, ripping his sword mountain apart and blotting out the sky. It was a huge shadow that descended onto him with a shocking boom.

It was impossible to stop, and he was incapable of holding it up. It was as if the energy of the will of Heaven were weighing down onto him, and he was nothing more than an ant. A bloodcurdling scream rang out, and he was stamped, crushed, his body exploding into bits of blood and gore that turned into a mist. He was completely killed.

The foot faded away, and the borrowed energy and momentum Meng Hao had also dissipated. However, he didn’t relax in the least. As soon as the energy faded, he transformed into a beam of light that shot toward the location where Hai Dongqing had exploded.

In the moment that he closed in, the mist of blood rapidly formed back together. In the blink of an eye, a power like that of time reversal could be sensed in the area, and Hai Dongqing once again appeared, a look of astonishment on his face. He immediately bit his tongue and spit out a mouthful of blood, which spread out to form a blood shield. At the same time, he fell back rapidly.

Terror filled his eyes, as well as an overflowing hatred.

“I can’t believe I just died! Damn you, Meng Hao, you forced me to waste one of my Echelon lives!!

“I refuse to accept this!” he roared. Despite his posturing, inside, he was shaking with fear, and retreated at top speed. Rumbling filled the air as he instantly fell back by 3,000 meters.

Meng Hao snorted coldly, but didn’t seem surprised. After fighting with Han Qinglei and Lin Cong, he had long since come to understand how the soul of an Echelon cultivator couldn’t be destroyed. That was the exact reason why he had remained so on guard after killing Hai Dongqing moments ago, and had even continued to advance.

“You don’t even deserve to be in the Echelon,” Meng Hao said. “I’ve never truly killed an Echelon cultivator before, and I’m curious to find out if there will be a reward for doing so in the Windswept Realm.” With that, he waved his right hand, causing the Blood Demon head to appear. As he shot through the air, wind buffeting his face, he took a deep breath, and the Blood Demon head slammed into the blood shield, first shattering it into pieces, and then absorbing it.

Meng Hao pierced over the lands like an arrow, passing through the Blood Demon head to appear directly behind the fleeing Hai Dongqing. As he closed in, his killing intent erupted out explosively.

Hai Dongqing’s face was ashen, and he let out a shriek as he performed a double-handed incantation gesture. His body twitched, and he opened his mouth. Shockingly, a beam of sword light shot out, which instantly transformed into five swords, each one a different color!

The five swords were all illusory, but their sudden appearance on the scene caused Meng Hao’s eyes widen.

Hai Dongqing began to chant:

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“Liver constitutes wood. The Arrival of Spring!

“Heart constitutes fire. The Eve of Summer!

“Spleen constitutes earth. The Halfway Point!

“Lungs constitute metal. The End of Autumn!

“Kidneys constitute water. The Dead of Winter!”

A vicious expression could be seen on his face as he roared, performing a double-handed incantation gesture that caused the five sword lights to interlace and transform into a sword formation!

“Five organs and five elements, complementary and correspondent! The ebb of day and night, no beginning and no end!!

“Minor Five Elements Sword Formation!” He spread his hands wide, causing the five sword lights to spin around each other, transforming into a five elements sword formation that rumbled toward Meng Hao.

This was a Heavenly sword magic of Hai Dongqing’s that was equal in power to his Paragon magic. In fact, this was a special trump card that he had kept secret from everyone, up to this moment.

Not even Dao-Heaven knew that he had this technique hidden up his sleeve. In fact, the main reason he had kept it hidden was that he hoped to use it to free himself from Dao-Heaven one day in the future.

After all, no Echelon cultivator would ever willingly become the follower of another Echelon cultivator. Although he pretended not to care about the matter, he cared very much!

Meng Hao’s eyes glittered as the Minor Five Elements Sword Formation shot through the air toward him. Then, he laughed, and instead of retreating, he pushed forward faster. As he and the five elements sword formation closed in on each other, he suddenly extended his palm out ahead of him.

“Fifth Demon Sealing Hex, Inside Outside Hex!” he said coolly. The Fifth Demon Sealing Hex could break through all sorts of restrictive spells and spell formations, and as soon as he unleashed it, a rift appeared on his palm.

Usually when such a rift appeared, it would consume and absorb. However, this time, it was the opposite. Everything was switched, and as Meng Hao pushed his hand forward, a rumbling sound could be heard. The five elements sword formation began to tremble, and was then shoved backward. It was as if some incredible, invisible power were pushing the sword formation out from the inside, causing it to expand.

Meng Hao appeared in just that moment. As the sword formation was spread out thin, he passed through a gap in the middle of it, shooting forward like lightning to appear in front of Hai Dongqing.

Hai Dongqing was astonished, and could hardly believe what was happening. Just when he seemed to be on the verge of going mad, Meng Hao’s right hand snapped out and pressed down onto the top of his head.

Almost in the same moment, though, Meng Hao inexplicably shot backward, not even taking the time to perform an incantation gesture. Hai Dongqing threw his head back and laughed maniacally, and a rumbling sound could be heard coming from inside of him as he chose to self-detonate.

Rather than allow Meng Hao to kill him, he killed himself. A huge boom could be heard as he exploded, transforming into a tempest that swept out madly in all directions. Meng Hao was shoved backward by the shockwave. However, in the same spot where he had self-detonated, a mist of blood could be seen that once again transformed into Hai Dongqing.

This time, his face was ashen; without the slightest hesitation, he shot backward in retreat.

He was trembling, and the courage he had felt when he self-detonated was now gone. That was because he knew... that this was his last life. The next time he died, he would be completely destroyed in body and soul.

Echelon cultivators had two lives. When he had fought Dao-Heaven, there were special circumstances that led to Han Dongqing choosing to capitulate instead of giving up one of his lives. Were it not for that, he really would have died just now.

Trembling, he went all-out to flee, raising his right hand to slap down onto his chest. Blood sprayed out of his mouth, and his body withered. At the same time, though, his head grew larger, giving him a bizarre and deformed appearance.

Blue veins even began to pop out all over his face.

“Air Aperture!” he roared. By sacrificing his body, he was able to enlarge his head. At the same time, an explosive influx of divine sense converged on his forehead, where it then spread out to form an invisible, enormous spell formation.

It was a teleportation portal, a bit of good fortune he had obtained years ago and imprinted on his soul. He was now using divine sense to activate it and use it to escape.

This spell formation was unique, and something that could only be used by an Echelon cultivator who had been killed twice. Were it not for that stipulation, he would have used it much earlier.

Ripples from the spell formation spread out in all directions as it prepared to whisk him away.

Killing intent flickered in Meng Hao’s eyes. Seeing how hard it was to actually kill Hai Dongqing gave him a much deeper understanding of what it meant to be in the Echelon. He stepped forward and transformed into a golden roc, bursting toward Hai Dongqing with incredible speed. As the ripples of teleportation spread out, he snorted coldly, extended his hand, and waved a finger toward Hai Dongqing.

“Eighth Demon Sealing Hex!”

The Eighth Hex was the Cultivation-Body Hex, and as soon as it was unleashed, Hai Dongqing’s cultivation base was sealed. With his divine sense locked down, the teleportation portal instantly lost the power that was driving it.

“NO!!” Hai Dongqing screamed in despair.

“This time, you’re really going to die, my first time... really and truly killing an Echelon cultivator!” Meng Hao’s voice echoed out behind him.

Chapter 1113: Killing Hai Dongqing Three Times!