“I bloomed at dawn,” thought the owner of the voice, “and my consciousness emerged…. On the day of vicissitudes, I achieved Immortal Ascension, and met someone I should not have met.
“Shui Mo stole away my heart, a heart… that contained all of the longing from my previous life…. It sank down into the Milky Way Sea and was sealed in a formation of stone, locked away in a copper coffin… restrained by countless chains.
“What was locked away was my goodness. Eventually, it transformed into a roc, which now weeps in the Rebirth Cave.
“The League of Demon Sealers. The Ninth is the pinnacle. Is he your hope…? I knew long ago that if I could not find you, then I would destroy the hope of the League of Demon Sealers.”
The gaze coming from the Second Ring looked at Meng Hao with complex emotions. There was coldness, confusion, hatred, and viciousness.
Meanwhile, in the Great Tang of the Eastern Lands, a woman was looking in the direction of the Milky Way Sea. Her gaze penetrated through the air, through the Milky Way Sea, all the way to Meng Hao.
It was a gaze filled with concern, worry, nervousness, and anxiety. All of that transformed into an endless love that wrapped up her heart.
She stood atop a lofty Tower of Tang, gazing far off into the distance. Next to her stood a man who silently clasped her hand. He could feel her trembling, and could feel the dampness of sweat in her palm. 1
“This is Hao’er’s tribulation,” he said softly. “I just wanted him to be able to live a normal, mortal life. And yet, he ended up choosing the path of cultivation…. Now there’s no looking back.
“If he fails,” he murmured, “then the both of us can go receive him when he is reincarnated. We can spend a whole life with him, walk a whole sixty-year cycle of springs and autumns….” He seemed to be speaking both to the woman, and himself.
“You know, you’re very cold-hearted,” said the woman. Tears flowed down her cheeks.
A tremor ran through the man, and he closed his eyes. Deep in his heart existed bitter pain, which spread out to fill his entire being. He seemed to be recalling the fragile child running through the fog that year, weeping as he cried out to his father and mother. He remembered how the boy limped about trying to find him. When the boy caught sight of him, he could see the tears in the boy’s eyes, and he realized how much the boy relied on him.
“Li, you don’t understand….” The man did not speak these words, but rather, whispered them in his heart. 2
RUMBLE!
At the bottom of the Milky Way Sea, Meng Hao’s eyes shined with an intensely bright glow. He slowly looked up at the blade in front of him as it rose ever higher. In the Heavens far above the sea, the astral blade also reared up simultaneously.
As they moved toward an apex, the blades seemed to be building up power. By the time they reached that apex, all living beings in the Milky Way Sea were watching on….
The astral blade then suddenly began to slash down toward the Milky Way Sea.
Rumbling filled the sky, and the sea suddenly started to split apart. The seafloor, which throughout countless ages had never been touched by sunlight… was revealed to the world for the first time.
Exposed therein was Meng Hao, as well as the Resurrection Lily, struggling in all of its madness.
Also visible was the multicolored blade hovering in front of Meng Hao.
The first blade of Spirit Severing!
“Heaven and Earth are just resting places for the myriads of living creatures,” he murmured. “Time represents the passage of hundreds of generations of passing travelers.” A glow of determination appeared in his eyes, and the blade descended. 3
“My life is just such a resting place. Wherever my footsteps lead, that is my direction!” His voice echoed out, softly at first, then louder and louder.
“Sever the fetters, and achieve true independence, acquire true freedom!” The sound of his voice caused everything in the area to shake and rumble. The parted sea water roared, and the glow of the astral blade increased tenfold!
It almost seemed to have formed a resonance with Meng Hao!
That resonance caused Heaven and Earth to dim. The wind whipped and the clouds churned. The glow of the astral blade spread without end, and the multicolored blade in front of Meng Hao emanated a shocking will.
This was… the resonance of a great Dao!