Sixty percent… was not enough!
Meng Hao produced the lightning cauldron and attempted to pour the curse power into it, but it didn’t work. The lightning cauldron and the curse were two completely different things. He thought about using the Wooden Time Swords to afflict the curse with the passage of time, but doing that would also affect the curse power in the bodies of the Southern Domain cultivators.
Once the Time power activated, it might end things… but it would also cause the destructive power of the curse to be inflicted faster.
He thought of many other options, but none could resolve the problem.
The only thing left to do was to continue to absorb the curse power. He once again sent the Withering Character Incantation into operation. Once again the land rumbled, and the color changed.
Seventy percent!
The Withering Character Incantation was reaching its limit. With seventy percent of the curse power absorbed, even it was incapable of absorbing more.
Meng Hao had truly reached his limit.
His Eternal stratum was on the verge of fading away. His body couldn’t handle any more withering from the curse. He was ancient now.
Tears rolled down Xu Qing’s face.
The four peak Dao Seeking cultivators from the Northern Reaches had already been completely shaken by Meng Hao. However, now they could see that he had reached his limit, and they heaved sighs of relief.
“It’s over. He’s reached his limit. He can’t absorb any more!”
“He absorbed seventy percent of the curse power and yet didn’t die. The power of withering even seems to exist within him! As far as I can tell, this guy… is the number one figure in the entire Southern Domain!”
“To destroy the Southern Domain we must first destroy him! Damnation! There’s only thirty percent of the curse power remaining!”
Back on the island, Meng Hao saw the tears on Xu Qing’s face, and it seemed as if the entire world went completely silent.
He looked at her, and his life force ignited. His cultivation base exploded with power. The mark on his hand that had appeared in the past appeared once again.
He raised his head up and laughed. It was a shrill laughter that echoed out. Meng Hao was burning everything he had in one mad, desperate attempt to absorb more curse power.
“NO!” Xu Qing cried weakly, trembling. The moment she cried out was the same moment that Meng Hao made his final, crazed attempt.
The ground trembled and the color changed again, growing more faded.
Eighty percent!!
After eighty percent of the curse power entered his body, Meng Hao attempted to absorb all the way to ninety. But then, his body trembled and he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood. Some sort of massive power pushed back against his palms, and he was sent tumbling backward. Blood sprayed out. He was now… incapable of absorbing any more curse power.
“Impossible!!” thought the four Northern Reaches peak Dao Seeking experts.
Without Meng Hao to absorb it, the remaining twenty percent of the curse power suddenly exploded out to inundate the hundreds of thousands of cultivators…. Their cultivation bases surged with all the power they could summon as they fought back. The result was… the curse power was reduced by another ten percent.
As of now, ninety percent of the curse power had been wiped away. Only ten percent was left behind. That ten percent seemed to erupt with unprecedented power. The hundreds of thousands of cultivators all coughed up blood.
However, there was an intense, murderous look in the eyes of each and every one. To these cultivators, the remaining ten percent of the curse power was no catastrophe. It was something they could bear. Furthermore, there was little weakening to their cultivation bases.