Time continued to pass. Soon, it was two months later.
Meng Hao was shocked by how large the Fourth Ring was. He had been flying for three months, although he hadn’t gone nonstop. Occasionally, he would catch sight of islands populated by various Sects and Clans.
These were groups who had inhabited the Milky Way Sea for generations, and were quite knowledgeable about the area. Considering the level of Meng Hao’s Cultivation base, it was a simple matter for him to acquire maps from such groups. It didn’t take long before he had a thorough outline of the entire Fourth Ring area.
In addition, he also learned a bit about the Third Ring.
“There are three Saints in the Third Ring!
“The so-called Three Saints are three Spirit Severing Cultivators who lead three Sects. The Sea Divinity Sect, the Flying Immortal Sect, and the Sun Soul Society!
“Those three Sects determine who is allowed to enter the Third Ring. In addition, they built three Sea Cities in different locations surrounding the Third Ring, where people have to pass through on their way in and out. Anyone who wants to go in must pay a certain amount of Spirit Stones. Furthermore, anyone who leaves must also pay Spirit Stones, based on how long they stayed inside….” Meng Hao floated there in mid-air thinking about the information gleaned from the jade slip he held in his hand.
“Those three Sea Cities all possess a special method for bringing people in and out of the tempest safely.
“According to the rumors, there wasn’t always a tempest surrounding the Third Ring. Supposedly, the ancestors of the Three Saints joined forces to summon it. Then, successive generations of descendants were able to pass through it.
“The three Sects have vast resources, and tens of thousands of members. For unknown reasons, each Sect only produces a single Spirit Severing expert. However, because of their deep resources, even Dao Seeking Cultivators would think twice before tangling with them.”
Meng Hao’s eyes glittered as he put the jade slip away. After some thought, he decided not to head toward one of the three Sea Cities. Instead, he would use the maps he had acquired to make his way directly through the hurricane.
“If the Wang Patriarch is truly not dead, then getting into the Third Ring via the Sea Cities would leave behind a trail that he could follow. The best method will be to force my way through on my own!
“That way, the three Sects won’t have any record of me. Even if the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch comes looking for me, with my altered aura, it will be difficult for him, at least temporarily.” Having made his decision, Meng Hao flared his aura and shot forward at top speed.
A few days later, a gray mass of storm winds appeared up ahead.
Rumbling sounds emanated out, and the closer he got, the more the storm winds resembled a huge wall that stretched up into the Heavens. It was ring-shaped, and seemed to have no end; it stretched off as far as the eye could see.
Fog pulsed in and out, along with howling, screaming sounds. It almost seemed as if devils and fiends lurked inside, waiting to stop any Cultivators who entered, and preventing any Sea Demons from charging out.
“According to the information from the jade slip, though, the Fourth Ring also has Sea Demons. That just goes to show that the storm winds might be powerful, but do contain weak spots.” He hovered outside of the storm winds, his hair flying around him, his clothes whipping violently.
Inside the storm winds, lightning crackled. As for the seawater in the area, it seemed to be divided. Although waves surged outside the tempest, they were incapable of entering inside. They could only crash on the outside, which caused the whole area to be filled with an almost permanent blanket of rain.
Meng Hao examined it for a moment, then looked down at the surface of the sea. His eyes glittered for a moment, and then he rotated his Cultivation base. Soon, the surface of the sea began to grow transparent to his eyes, allowing him to see into the world underneath.
What he saw was that the storm winds actually extended down into the sea. Although they didn’t appear to interfere with the flow of the water, when Meng Hao extended his Divine Sense deep down, he could vaguely sense that there were shocking things in the water that he didn’t dare to touch.
He pulled back his Divine Sense, then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Currently, he fluctuated with only five portions of Cultivation base power inside of him. As time passed, he would slowly be able to fuse them together into one.
After adjusting his aura, Meng Hao’s eyes opened, and they glowed with a light that made it seem as if he was prepared to take Heaven and Earth by force. His aura exploded up, and he entered the Ninth Anima.
Meng Hao’s fleshly body hummed, and in the blink of an eye, reached the pinnacle of his power. A dreary expression of death covered his face, and the energy of his Cultivation base surged out with monstrous power.