The avalanches of boulders made no sound. The crumbling mountains were silent. The haze of dust seethed in terrifying quietude. It was as if time itself… were frozen in place.
The fleeing man also seemed to be stopped in midair, his expression that of terror and astonishment. His pupils were frozen in place, and the nine Soul Lamps behind him were motionless. It was as if everything in the world were completely incapable of moving.
The only thing that was moving was the statue’s greatsword. As it cleaved downward, blood oozed from the man’s forehead, then trickled down his nose, then his chin. Finally, the sword passed through his torso, simultaneously shattering his Soul Lamps.
The world returned to normal. The terracotta soldier’s greatsword once again stabbed into the ground, which trembled and quaked. Sound returned… in midair, the middle-aged man’s body had been completely cleaved into two pieces, and all of his Soul Lamps were destroyed.
The man had numerous magical items, all of which were shattered, and flew out in pieces along with the man’s flesh and blood.
There was no way for him to fight back or block. He couldn’t even struggle, let alone evade.
Blood sprayed out as his Nascent Divinity, his Soul Lamps, all of him… faded away.
Only his bag of holding remained, which came to float in front of Meng Hao.
Meng Hao sat silently on the statue.
High up in the air, the Seventh Patriarch took a deep breath. Even he felt a sense of fear when he looked at the statue, and also knew how shocking and terrifying its sword was.
“That sword has its own Dao that replaces the natural law of Heaven and Earth! That sword… can sever Daos, sever natural laws, can sever… anything that exists!
“This is definitely the power of a Quasi-Dao Paragon!! However… it’s obviously nothing more than a statue! If a statue could be so powerful, then whoever created that statue… must be even more terrifying!
“I suppose… only someone in the true Dao Realm, who also possessed some rare Heavenly material or Earthly treasure, would be able to create something like this. But…with such a treasure, it would make more sense to craft some other item, something that would be of more use to a Dao Realm cultivator.” Simply looking at the statue caused the Seventh Patriarch’s heart to tremble.
He knew that Quasi-Dao Realm cultivators… were a maniacal bunch. They were madmen who could ignore anybody; they were people who nobody dared to provoke.
They were people who had prepared for years, who had transcended one deadly Soul Lamp tribulation after another, who had reached the peak of the Ancient Realm filled with hope. But after extinguishing their final Soul Lamp, they were unable to enter the Dao Realm, and would exist forever half a step away from it. Their lifespans had crumbled away, and they would be left with only a few dozen years of life. People like that… were in the Quasi-Dao Realm!
They were doomed to die, and could not be saved by anything in Heaven and Earth. Therefore, they went mad, stuck half a step into the Dao Realm, possessing a certain level of Dao Essence that earned them respect and awe. No one dared to provoke them, and everyone called them Paragons.
For tens of thousands of years, only eleven such people had ever appeared in the Fang Clan. Some of them went mad and carried out slaughters. Some of them quietly waited until their life force reached its end.
When the Grand Elder had spoken of past Dao Realm Patriarchs of the Fang Clan who were buried in the ancestral land, he was referring to… Quasi-Dao Paragons! The only one among these who was a true Dao Realm expert was the first generation Patriarch!
Ke Yunhai had also met with failure at that final step. However, his cultivation base was so terrifyingly profound that, even after his failure, even being only half a step into the Dao Realm, even with a failing longevity… he had still managed to force out many more years of life to protect his son.
At that time, his battle prowess had far exceeded the Ancient Realm, and could actually be considered to be in the Dao Realm.
As for his final Soul Lamp, that was the very lamp with the body of a dragon and the wick of a phoenix, the one he had been buried with! 1
He had actually used that lamp to make the terracotta soldiers, which had thus contained much of Ke Yunhai’s life force. As a result… they were incredibly powerful!!
The Seventh Patriarch was panting as he looked at the statue in fear. He himself… was not in the Dao Realm; he was only in the Ancient Realm. However, he had summoned fifteen Soul Lamps, and to date had managed to extinguish thirteen of them.
“