Chapter 694: He Came!

Meng Hao emerged from the Rebirth Cave.

In that instant, his cultivation base exploded out. He really was like a bared sword emanating monstrous sword qi. His killing intent radiated out, causing the air in the area to freeze.

Frost spread out across the ground, covering stones in the nearby stone forest with sheets of ice. As he walked forward, his divine sense spread out until it encountered a familiar figure, standing outside of the Rebirth Cave Region, looking on anxiously.

“Fatty....” thought Meng Hao. He changed directions and, a moment later, reappeared directly next to Fatty.

“Who’s there!?!?” cried Fatty, clearly scared half to death and on the verge of fleeing. He backed up nervously, and popping sounds could be heard as several dozen magical items suddenly appeared.

When he saw Meng Hao, he stared in shock. Then he started hollering at the top of his lungs. “Meng Hao! Meng Hao!!”

A smile appeared on Meng Hao’s face. It had been many years since he last parted ways with Fatty, but as of now, he could clearly sense the feelings of friendship that existed in Fatty’s heart. Neither of them said anything more. They strode forward and shared a manly embrace.

Fatty’s heart was completely filled with joy. He looked at Meng Hao and then thought back to everything that had happened in the Reliance Sect. All of a sudden, he remembered Xu Qing, and his face fell. “You have to go save Elder Sister Xu!!”

When Meng Hao heard this, his eyes flickered. “What happened?”

Fatty hesitated for a moment and then shook his head. “N-nothing....”

It almost seemed like he wasn’t willing to explain.

Meng Hao was silent for a moment. He didn’t ask any further questions, but instead, flew up into the air. Actually, he didn’t need to ask anything else. All he had to do was go to the Black Sieve Sect, and he would naturally find the answers he sought.

Fatty understood Meng Hao quite well, so seeing him flying away like that, it wasn’t hard to guess what he was thinking. Fatty gritted his teeth and then yelled out, “Meng Hao, go save Elder Sister Xu. Because she got that medicinal pill for you, she’s now suppressed at the bottom of the Black Sieve Sect. The entire sect is working to dissolve her alive!!”

Meng Hao jerked to a halt in mid-air, his eyes instantly turning blood-red. “What did you say?”

A preternatural fury and desire to kill roared through him. His body trembled and the air around him rumbled as if it were about to shatter.

Fatty clenched his jaw. Having spoken up, he decided that he might as well explain everything. “Hurry up and go save her! Soon... it’s going to be too late!

“News leaked out that she is the first person in countless years to emerge from the Rebirth Cave! She risked everything to steal that medicinal pill, which she entrusted to me. I brought it here for her.

“In the end, the Black Sieve Sect captured her. They say that because she came out alive from the Rebirth Cave, her body is infected with its aura. The Black Sieve Sect Patriarchs want to refine her into treasured medicinal pills, which they hope to consume and thereby acquire the aura of rebirth.”

The roaring in Meng Hao’s mind was like that of millions of thunderbolts, all striking and exploding at the same time. Heaven and Earth shook, and it felt as if his mind were about to explode into pieces.

Meng Hao’s killing intent exploded out with incomparable intensity. He thought back to what he had seen, to Xu Qing delivering her life force to him. He thought about everything that had happened in their homeland, the State of Zhao. He thought about the grave she had dug, and the gravestone.

He thought about the determination in her eyes when she looked at him and murmured, “You live, I live. You die, I die!”

No other woman had ever treated him in such a way. No other woman cared about his life so much. Never....

Meng Hao lifted his head up and let out mournful roar that caused the colors to fade away from Heaven and Earth. The clouds and wind churned, and the power of his cultivation base exploded out. A tempest kicked up, which swept out in all directions. The air in the area seemed about to collapse.

“BLACK SIEVE SECT!!

“If you dare to harm a hair on her head, I, Meng Hao, will tear your bodies to pieces and crush your bones into powder! I will not rest until you are exterminated!!” He waved his right hand and slapped his bag of holding, causing the war chariot to appear. He stepped inside. Immortal Shows the Way had also been restored to normal; he rotated it and sent some Immortal qi out. The war chariot instantly vanished.

Fatty watched him leave, and then murmured, “Meng Hao, after everything Xu Qing did for you, if you let her down... it will be an intolerable injustice!”

Meng Hao’s eyes shone with a horrific balefulness. His rage and insanity fused into his killing intent, which exploded with monstrous intensity. “Xu Qing, wait for me. I’m coming to save you.

“Xu Qing, just hold on. I’m coming, I’m coming!!”

His cultivation base was at the Second Severing stage, and he was in the Eternal strata. He was the number one figure under Dao Seeking!

He was qualified to do whatever he wished. And he was even more qualified to fight back against an entire sect!

Even if it was the Black Sieve Sect!

Even if it was the countless discarnate souls that existed in the depths of the land!

Even if it was a super sect of the Southern Domain, the Black Sieve Sect!

Meng Hao didn’t consider those things. They weren’t worth even thinking about. In a situation like this, if a man worried about whether or not he would win or lose, worried about his own life, then he... was not even human!

The war chariot sped along, screaming through the air. The wind itself seemed to be filled with memories. Meng Hao saw the events at Mount Daqing. He saw the Reliance Sect. He saw the things that happened in the Blessed Land. He saw the Black Sieve Sect and the Rebirth Cave.

He saw all of the times he and Xu Qing had been together. The images floated there in the wind in front of him. He saw Xu Qing’s gentleness, her simplicity, her determination.

All of those things were now rooted deeply in Meng Hao’s heart.

Most moving of all was how she had sacrificed her own life force for him. It caused his heart to fill with stabs of pain. As of this moment, the killing intent he felt was greater than at any point in his entire life.

“Xu Qing, if you can sacrifice your life for me, then I can do the same for you!

“From this day forward, you are my beloved. Heaven and Earth can bear witness to my words. You live, I live. You die, I die!”

**

The Black Sieve Sect was a grand place. The Hundred Thousand Mountains surrounding it served as a foil to the Ninety-Nine Mountains within their center. Above the Ninety-Nine Mountains floated the First Mountain, upturned to create something that was almost a continent. On its underside, willows draped down, some a few dozen meters long, others hundreds. Clouds curled up around this massive land, giving it a truly celestial feeling.

Richly ornamented buildings, pagodas, and temples covered it. Beneath it, the Ninety-Nine Mountains were all connected with colorful arching bridges. It was extraordinarily beautiful.

Gurgling water dripped off of the ragged rocks on the bottom of the floating mountain, making the sect a place of indescribable beauty. The faint sound of bells filled the air, creating an incredibly serene air.

Currently, the entire Black Sieve Sect was enveloped in a thick, black fog. Outside of the black fog were Black Sieve Sect spell formations, all in full rotation. They let out pulsing ripples, filled with crushing energy that formed the shape of a lotus.

The lotus had ninety-nine petals, each one of which was made up of ninety-nine lotuses. The entire thing formed into a gigantic, shocking lotus.

Inside the formation were the disciples of the Black Sieve Sect, sitting cross-legged in meditation. From up above in the sky, it was possible to tell that of the hundreds of thousands of disciples of the Ninety-Nine Mountains, all disciples were participating in the meditation, regardless of the level of their cultivation bases.

As for the Ninety-Nine Mountains themselves, they formed a central spell formation within the larger spell formation. They too rotated, combining their power with that of the hundreds of thousands of cultivators, all of the Black Sieve Sect’s resources, to pour into the First Mountain... into the sect’s legacy precious treasure.

It was a gigantic incense burner that existed on top of the First Mountain, which was so high that it seemed connected to the Heavens. The enormous incense burner was the subject of generation after generation of worship and sacrifice. Three huge sticks of incense eternally burned inside of it, and the smoke that rose up into the sky was blown by the wind into wisps that resembled willow branches. It was as if within these strands, one could see visions of fleeting, ever-changing lives that belonged to spirits from the underworld.

Sitting cross-legged around the incense burner were three old men. Each one had ancient features, and rarely stepped even half a foot outside of the Black Sieve Sect. As for their cultivation bases, all were in the Spirit Severing stage.

These were the Dao Reserve of the Black Sieve Sect, its very foundation.

The strongest of the three was the ruddy-faced old man in the center position, Murong Duo. His cultivation base was at the Third Severing level.

Of the other two, one was in the Second Severing level, the other the First.

These were the Patriarchs of the Black Sieve Sect!

They sat cross-legged, using the power of the spell formation, and thus, the power of all the cultivators of the sect, to operate the sect’s precious treasure, and refine the person inside of it into medicinal pills!

This was a magical technique known as Heaven and Hearth Reincarnation Refinement, in which the subject was dissolved over a period of forty-nine days. No one could hold out for any longer than that. Eventually, the subject would melt into blood, which would then congeal into the medicinal pill.

An indistinct figure could be seen within the incense burner. It was only possible to tell that it was a woman; her face was not clearly visible, and her body was covered with countless magical symbols. The symbols were deeply imprinted into her flesh and blood, and glittered with bright light as they slowly worked at dissolving her.

The woman was trembling, gritting her teeth as she continued to endure. It seemed that her body might be fully dissolved at any moment.

The aura of the Rebirth Cave pulsated off of her. Every time it did, it would be absorbed by the incense burner, which would then burn hotly and send out a shocking red glow.

The three old men began to discuss the matter.

“So, it turns out that she has been able to endure for thirty-seven days!”

“This Xu Qing sure has unswerving determination. Sadly, her body is infected with the aura of the Rebirth Cave. She’s the first person in years to emerge alive from the Rebirth Cave....

“In that case, she is simply destined to be refined into Rebirth Pills. With such medicinal pills... the slumbering ancestor of the Black Sieve Sect will have a chance to be reborn!”

“It’s a real pity she has the soul of Matriarch Phoenix within her. Unfortunately, her Dao of Nirvana will be lost, never to be handed down. However, sacrificing her and losing a single legacy to improve the entire sect means that her death will be worth it!”

“This matter is not just something that must be done by the Black Yang Sect, but also your Sieve Yin Sect. After all, our ancestor is your emperor!”

The three old men looked at the incense burner, and their eyes burned with passion.

At the same time, the trembling, indistinct figure inside of the incense burner let out a quavering murmur.

“Meng Hao, are you okay...? If you ever are reborn, by the time you emerge, it will be too late.... Well, I was the one who failed to keep my promise, you’re not to blame....

“If it turns out that you weren’t reborn, well then... I’ll be going to accompany you soon.

“As we said. You live, I live. You die, I die....”

In that exact moment....

An incredible boom could be heard outside of the Black Sieve Sect spell formation. It was far more shocking than thunder; an ancient war chariot appeared, emanating intense killing intent and madness. The air shattered as it appeared!

Meng Hao stood in the war chariot, clothed in a green robe. He gripped the flag of three streamers in his right hand, which he waved out in front of him. It stretched out, creating a black screen that seemed capable of blotting out the entire sky. At the same time, Meng Hao’s eyes flashed with an unprecedented desire to slaughter.

He came!

He came to keep his promise!