Chapter 1571: The Man in the Palace!

Another possibility was that this was not something from a jade slip, but from the memories of the starry sky of the Vast Expanse.

As the will descended onto the Immortal God Continent, it converged upon the body of the young man with the bow, who still stood some distance off. A tremor ran through him, and he let out a piercing howl as his body began to transform. His hair turned white, and his eyes became cold. With that will upon him, it was as if he were a completely different person.

He hovered there in midair, emanating an aura which surpassed the 9-Essences level. His eyes were bright red as he looked over at Meng Hao. Meng Hao looked back at him.

As their gazes met, the young man suddenly pointed his finger at Meng Hao and spoke in a hoarse voice: "Call the Wind!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a black wind sprang up around Meng Hao, which rapidly converged into the shape of nine black dragons. When the dragons roared, black wind spewed from their mouths, wind that tore at Heaven and Earth.

"Summon the Rain!" he said. His body trembled, as though the will's act of unleashing magic using this body was resulting in serious injuries.

As soon as the words left his mouth, drops of black rainwater appeared within the destructive wind. In the blink of an eye, they transformed into a downpour which descended upon Meng Hao.

"Magic Pod Soldiers!" growled the young man. As the raindrops fell, plopping sounds rang out, and they transformed into tiny vicious figures. Apparently, these were all people who had fallen in death to this magical technique countless years in the past.

"Mountains Crumble!"

"Lands Collapse!"

Things weren't over yet. The young man coughed up a mouthful of blood as the force of the will caused his body to wither rapidly. However, he didn't hesitate to unleash even more divine abilities.

Everything shook and shattered as he used the shocking magical technique of Mountains Crumble, Lands Collapse.

"And finally... Dark Moon, Clear Skies!" The young man threw his head back and let out a piercing cry. His body instantly withered even more dramatically, until an intense aura of rot emanated out from him. The will inside of him erupted out with full force, merging with the magic, causing the image of a dark moon to appear on Meng Hao's forehead. 1

"Exterminate!" the young man roared.

BOOOOOOOOOMMM!

Meng Hao stood there, allowing the black wind and rain to batter him. Vicious figures pounced on him. The lands beneath his feet collapsed, and the surrounding mountains crumbled. The dark moon mark on his forehead seemed to be on the verge of ripping him to shreds.

After a long moment passed, and Meng Hao was able to fully experience the nature of all of the divine abilities and magical techniques, he took a deep breath and slowly looked up. His gaze fell upon the distant figure of the trembling young man, and his eyes shone with anticipation.

"First the light of the suns dispelled the darkness, then that old man manipulated the reflections in the well. And now this six-faceted divine ability.... All of this leaves me with nothing but respect for the ancient Transcendor from the Immortal God Continent!" With that, Meng Hao waved his sleeve. The young man laughed bitterly as his body was destroyed. However, to Meng Hao, he was nothing more than a clump of qi and blood. He might have died, but that was nothing but a scattering of raw qi and blood.

By this point, Meng Hao had his answer regarding the mysteries of this place. What he needed now was to investigate the eight soul strands that were different from the others.

He looked around at the various buildings and cities which made up the Immortal God Continent, and then took a step forward.

The architecture here was different than in the Mountain and Sea Realm. Somehow, it was more refined and graceful.

Soon, Meng Hao appeared in the air above the Wang Clan. He looked down at the spell formation, and could tell that it was almost completely activated. It wouldn't be long before all of the members of the Wang Clan were able to leave this place.

As he examined the various members of the Wang Clan, his gaze eventually came to rest on someone off to the side.

It was a skinny old man, sitting there cross-legged. Almost as soon as Meng Hao saw him, the man shivered and looked up into the sky.

The man had a somewhat lecherous look to him, and at the same time, Meng Hao could tell that he was very ancient.

The man's face flickered, and after a moment, he looked back down. Meng Hao could tell that he was nervous.

Eventually, Meng Hao shifted his gaze to Wang Tengfei. Then, he turned to leave. When that happened, the skinny old man breathed a sigh of relief. Even now, he had a hard time believing that Meng Hao could have reached such a terrifying and unbelievable level.

After leaving the Wang Clan, Meng Hao went to find Dao-Heaven. Although Paragon Sea Dream had successfully implemented her plan from all those years ago, the final result was failure.

Dao-Heaven had become something like a rock thrown into a sea, which made little more than a splash upon entering. Paragon Sea Dream had taken the Immortal God Continent to be a real place, an actual world. Of course, it was anything but that. Because of this discrepancy, Dao-Heaven, even with his incredible latent talent, was a completely different type of person than everyone else.

He was different from everyone, and yet no one ever told him that.

Even so, he had made a great sacrifice for the Mountain and Sea Realm, and Meng Hao respected him for that. It took only a moment for him to be standing directly in front of Dao-Heaven, whereupon he reached out and touched his forehead.

Dao-Heaven blinked subconsciously, and when he saw Meng Hao standing in front of him, his jaw dropped. He began to shiver, and then clenched his teeth as Meng Hao's divine sense poured into him. The black mist was driven out, and his body withered rapidly. Afterward, he struggled to his feet, and although he was very weak, his eyes shone with bright light.

"You came.... I knew that you would.

"I've been here for two thousand years, and during that time, I learned of a secret. The Immortal God Continent is a very bizarre place. Everyone here... seems to be living under a unique set of natural laws.

"I suspect... that they're all Outsiders, and not cultivators!" The effort it took Dao-Heaven to explain his suspicions resulted in him coughing up a mouthful of blood. Then he collapsed into unconsciousness.

Meng Hao looked at him. It was hard to even imagine the trials Dao-Heaven had experienced over the past centuries. Meng Hao clasped hands and bowed to him, then waved his sleeve, sending him directly into the Mountain and Sea Realm.

"You're right, this is a very bizarre place," he murmured. "And you're right, the people here... really are Outsiders, not cultivators." With that, he turned and vanished. Upon reappearing, he was in one of the eight unique locations he had noticed earlier.

There, he saw eight people who, despite being formed of mere qi and blood, were devoid of black mist. It was a very strange situation, and Meng Hao had his speculations about what was going on. The first place he went to was a palace in the capital city of one of the mortal worlds.

Everything was quiet there. A burly man lounged on the stairs leading up into the palace. He wore fine garments, and looked like a prince. He was currently sipping alcohol from a flagon, which he put down next to him when he saw Meng Hao approaching.

The man looked directly at Meng Hao and smiled. "I bet you think it's pretty strange that I don't have any of those damned soul strands from the will of the Vast Expanse in me?"

—-

IMPORTANT NOTE: The grand finale contest is coming in about two weeks. In order to participate you MUST register for an account to comment on prior to the contest (wordpress is fine). I'm not sure what the exact cutoff date will be, perhaps 5-7 days before the contest starts. Make sure to register for a username and password ahead of time, otherwise you might miss out!

Chronicles of Baby Deathblade: I've been getting more and more requests for some updates about Baby Deathblade. After some discussion with Madam Deathblade, we decided to start an Instagram account to share some pictures of him. I'm not sure how long we'll keep the account active, check it out and follow if you'd like to see some pictures of the junior Patriarch!

1. All of these different magics form a complete verse (or maybe two) that was one of Wang Lin's powerful divine abilities