“Demonic art, Wolf Smoke!” Patriarch Reliance’s grim voice rang out into the mist. The mist seemed to devour Lord Revelation. Deep inside, a brilliant light shone out, and the vague image of flames and smoke could be seen. Nothing could be seen clearly, though. Only blood-curdling screams could be heard.
“Patriarch Reliance, I can do without this clone, but don’t think it will be so easy to consume me!”
The images and feelings seemed to lash against Meng Hao. This battle could no longer be described in terms of magical techniques. He couldn’t even think of any words that would do. Patriarch Reliance’s powerful voice and the howls of Lord Revelation made Meng Hao realize how much beyond the Core Formation stage this battle was.
He stared blankly, his mind reeling, as if a new door along the pathway of life had been opened. This was what being a Cultivator truly was. This was the true path of defiance against the Heavens. This was the true all-powerful might of a Cultivator.
A short time passed, during which the booming continued to sound out. The mist suddenly contracted, then returned to surround Patriarch Reliance. When he looked closely, Meng Hao was shocked to see that Patriarch Reliance’s features now closely resembled Lord Revelation’s.
It was almost as if Patriarch Reliance had occupied Lord Revelation’s body. Then the features began to melt down until Lord Revelation was completely gone, fully absorbed.
An immeasurable amount of black sealing marks rotated around Patriarch Reliance. As he floated there in the air, he exuded an extremely bizarre air.
In his hand he held the small image of a person. Its face was twisted ferociously, but its eyes were shut. It looked … like Lord Revelation!
This was his Nascent Soul!
The mist dispersed, and everything was quiet. No more breakage appeared on the restrictive spells. They seemed to be in the process of restoring themselves rapidly. From the look of it, it wouldn’t take very long for them to recover completely. Patriarch Reliance flicked his sleeve, and Lord Revelation’s Nascent Soul shot into the seventh oil lamp. The Nascent Soul acted as oil, and Lord Revelation’s life force became flames as the lamp burned.
Lamplight filled the Immortal’s Cave, illuminating everything with a flickering light that felt both ghastly and horrific.
Patriarch Reliance looked around, and his gaze came to fall on Meng Hao. He gave him a slight nod, and then turned to head back into the large fissure in the ground.
Meng Hao strode forward several paces nervously. Clasping hands, he bowed, and in a loud voice said, “Patriarch, in order to bring those people here, Disciple consumed some poison pills. Patriarch, can you please dispel the poison?”
“It’s just some poison, I can dispel it as easily as taking a breath. Just wait a bit. I need to absorb this Nascent Soul, as well as this guy’s true self. Then I’ll dispel the poison for you. Don’t worry about it. Oh, you did pretty well. I have a reward for you. Take this. This is your prize.” Without so much as looking back, Patriarch Reliance flicked his sleeve, sending a low-grade Spirit Stone shooting toward Meng Hao. His body had already landed on the ground, and he was beginning to step into the fissure.
Meng Hao stared blankly at the completely ordinary low-grade Spirit Stone. He clenched his jaw and then spoke again.
“The reward is a low-grade Spirit Stone?”
“Low-grade Spirit Stone?” he said coolly. “That’s right. It’s a low-grade Spirit Stone. But if you look closely, is it really a low-grade Spirit Stone?” He jumped toward the fissure.
Meng Hao gaped in astonishment, looking back at the Spirit Stone in his hand. As he watched Patriarch Reliance disappearing into the fissure, he spoke again. “Patriarch, you… how long before you can dispel Disciple’s poison?”
“Not very long. It’ll be soon. I only have three, maybe five hundred years of work to do. Okay, well I need to go into secluded meditation now.” He muttered to himself about the difficulty of dispelling poison, and the fact that his Cultivation base wasn’t completely recovered yet. Based on what it would cost him, it wouldn’t be worth it. Furthermore, he had his master plan to think about. As for the Spirit Stone… it really was just a common low-grade Spirit Stone. He didn’t have any qualms about deceiving members of the junior generation. He had done such things many times in the past. He had cheated many Cultivators back during the days of the Demon Sealing Sect. Giving another dry cough to try to gloss everything over, he lowered his head and disappeared into the fissure. As soon as he entered, it closed up behind him.