“Dammit!” Meng Hao’s face fell. Everything that had happened moments ago seemed almost like a dream. When Qian Duoduo drew out his Devilish will, it influenced Meng Hao on an emotional level, and had also changed his personality. Although he had seemed calm and cool-headed, it was merely an external thing. He had actually lost any sense of what was going on around him.
Situational awareness was something incongruous with the Devilish will.
And now, here he was being ejected from the arena into the outside.
Because of the intense power he had just unleashed, the Devilish will had been completely set aboil, and because of the force that caused him to shoot out of the arena, it had dissipated by more than half. Because of that, Meng Hao’s consciousness was not being interfered with any more; it was almost as if he had awoken from a dream.
There was no time to worry about expelling the rest of the Devilish will. Meng Hao was now in the middle of a maelstrom of danger. As soon as he left the arena, the half-headed man closed in and grabbed ahold of him.
His hand was ice-cold, and as soon as it latched onto Meng Hao, Meng Hao’s entire body turned icy. He was just about to try to struggle when, all of a sudden, his face flickered. This was a result of something the half-headed man did, a magical art that he unleashed that Meng Hao was very familiar with!
It was… the Eighth Demon Sealing Hex!!
In an instant, Meng Hao was completely confined, incapable of even the slightest movement. At the same time, his life force, his cultivation base, everything was instantly sent toward the half-headed man, as if he wanted to voraciously consume it.
Meng Hao’s mind was reeling as the half-headed man instantly shot off into the distance with Meng Hao in tow, to disappear into the mists.
It all happened too quickly. Meng Hao was gone before anyone on the Dao Tree could react.
Ling Yunzi’s face fell, and he flew up into the air. However, when he looked out into the boundless void, despite his anxiety, he knew… it was impossible for him to go out into the mists.
The other two old men also had dark looks on their faces as they stared out at the spot where Meng Hao had disappeared into the mists.
Everyone on the Dao Tree gaped in shock.
Everything had happened too quickly, and it was something nobody could have predicted. As for Zhao Yifan, he now lay crumpled on the ground beneath the Dao Tree, unconscious and hovering on the brink of death.
Outside in the Ninth Mountain and Sea, the cultivators who had been watching the battle now felt their minds trembling. Expressions of disbelief appeared on their faces as they watched the half-headed man take Meng Hao away.
“He… he got first place, but….”
“What’s going on? How could something like this happen? This is impossible!”
“Dammit! He got first place! He defeated Zhao Yifan! He got first place in the trial by fire, and then first place in the arena matches. He’s supposed to become famous in the Ninth Mountain and Sea. How come… how come it had to end up like this!?!?”
“I can’t believe the Ruins of Immortality are this dangerous! Why did they have to hold the arena matches in a place like this!?!?”
Many people in the crowds outside in the Ninth Mountain and Sea were furious. They had all just witnessed Fang Mu’s rise to prominence. Many had even come to view him as a future Paragon, and yet all of it disappeared in an instant.
There were some people who actually breathed sighs of relief. Fang Mu was far too powerful, to the point where cultivators of his generation felt stifling pressure. For him to simply disappear was the best outcome, as far as they were concerned.
“Fang Mu is definitely dead. That half-headed man took him away to experience an untimely death.”
“What an unlucky Chosen. Well, now there’s one less person for me to challenge in the future.”
While the crowds in the Ninth Mountain and Sea were abuzz, the Patriarchs in the starry sky palace looked on in shock. The Patriarchs from the Three Great Daoist Societies also wore grim expressions as they slowly rose to their feet. First, they looked toward the spot where Meng Hao had disappeared, and then they turned their attention to the white-robed woman who hovered above the Dao Tree.
The woman glanced down at the unconscious Zhao Yifan, then turned her head to look out into the void. She appeared to be muttering to herself for a moment, and then suddenly she turned and disappeared in the same direction Meng Hao had gone.
After seeing this, the Patriarchs from the Three Great Daoist Societies were extremely excited.
“Perhaps… Fang Mu isn’t dead!”
“Perhaps… we really will succeed this time!!”
“Ah the Echelon. In the great Nine Mountains and Seas, only the Ninth Mountain and Sea have yet to send someone into the Echelon….”
Meanwhile, outside of Planet East Victory, Patriarch Reliance floated among the stars, his eyes wide with astonishment, breathing heavily as he looked at the vortex screen.