The shockwave was intense, but Meng Hao pierced through it, finally setting foot onto the Eighth Nation’s mountain. He instantly sent his divine sense sweeping out toward Han Qinglei to determine whether or not his suspicions were valid.
However, in the moment that his divine sense was about to touch him, Han Qinglei’s cultivation base erupted with the aura of a breakthrough. Colors flashed and the wind screamed, and soon, the power of the great Door of the Ancient Realm began to descend, scattering Meng Hao’s divine sense.
Although all of this seemed coincidental, it all aligned with his suspicions. Everything seemed to make sense. In fact, he could now see that nothing which was happening was coincidental, in fact… it was the opposite!
Meng Hao’s body blurred as he shot toward Han Qinglei, whose cultivation base was rising rapidly into the Ancient Realm. Seeing Meng Hao closing in, he clenched his teeth and, even while breaking through, performed an incantation gesture and waved his finger at Meng Hao. Immediately, illusory white bones appeared, which shot toward Meng Hao.
Behind the bones was a magical Wheel of Time, yet another unleashing of Paragon magic. Numerous divine abilities all struck out toward Meng Hao.
Rumbling echoed about, but Meng Hao didn’t pause for a moment. He waved his right hand, summoning the Paragon Bridge. Next was the raging Essence of Divine Flame, which swept out in all directions. The illusory white bones were shattered, and the magical Wheel of Time was destroyed.
At the same time, Han Qinglei threw his head back and roared, causing azure lightning to strike down and fuse with his body. Then he extended his right hand and pushed it out toward Meng Hao.
The gesture caused his entire right arm to explode into a cloud of blood and gore. Shockingly, a bolt of azure lightning filled with a strand of blood shot out from the remnants of his destroyed arm. Instead of shooting toward Meng Hao, though, it exploded, transforming into an azure shield that surrounded Han Qinglei, the statue, and the entire mountain.
At the same time that the azure lightning transformed into a shield, Han Qinglei threw his head back and roared. The breakthrough energy became more and more powerful, and up above, the energy of Heaven and Earth formed together into something that looked like a huge door.
“You can’t do a thing to me now, Meng Hao!” Han Qinglei cried, laughing uproariously.
However, in the exact moment that his words rang out, Meng Hao suddenly blinked his right eye nine times, causing the starstone there within to melt and then rapidly spread out to cover his entire body. In the space of a few breaths, he completely transformed into a planet.
This was none other than the Fang Clan Daoist magic… One Thought Stellar Transformation!
The sudden appearance of this technique caused Han Qinglei’s eyes to widen. He hadn’t seen Meng Hao use it in their previous encounter, and now, his heart started to pound. Before he could even do anything in response, Meng Hao in planet-form shot forward like a meteor. Anything standing in his way was like rotten wood, and he instantly slammed into the azure lightning shield.
A huge boom rang out as the shield shattered into pieces and Meng Hao burst in. The planet vanished, and Meng Hao appeared in normal form once again, directly in front of Han Qinglei. Instantly, his hand shot out and latched onto Han Qinglei’s neck.
Han Qinglei could do nothing to block him, and his breakthrough process was interrupted.
“I knew it!” Meng Hao said calmly. As soon as his hand had touched Han Qinglei, his divine sense flowed through it and swept through Han Qinglei.
“You were aware the entire time your so-called breakthrough would fail.. In fact, you never even intended to break through!
“That’s because this isn’t even your true form. You’re nothing but a clone!
“You tried to hide that fact from me with the aura of a breakthrough, plus, you kept my divine sense stuck outside your shield so that I couldn’t see the truth.”
“So what if you know?!” said Han Qinglei, laughing loudly, his expression one of derision. “My true form has long since fled! You won’t be able to find him any time soon. Besides, you don’t even have the time to go looking!”
No one in the Echelon was weak, neither in terms of cultivation base base nor intelligence!
“That’s because you intentionally lured other Echelon cultivators here, right?” Meng Hao said coolly. “With the Eighth Nation’s World Seal here as bait, plus the Ninth Nation’s seal, the other Echelon members will be trying to kill me, giving you a chance to slip away.”
His tone was tranquil, and his words calm. Han Qinglei had previously been quite smug because of his scheme, but all of a sudden, he got a bad feeling. Meng Hao was definitely completely beyond what he had expected.
“You….” He was just about to continue speaking when all of a sudden, the pressure weighing down on the Ei