Chapter 658: Hometown Alcohol

The red-robed man was none other than one of the three Saints of the Milky Way Sea, Saint Sun Soul of the Sun Soul Society!

He was fond of red garments, and his three swords could shake Heaven and Earth. The last time the Demon Tide arrived to destroy Seahold, he single-handedly wielded his three swords in defense. The Sword Qi penetrated all the way to the Second Ring.

It was completely shocking, and frightened the Demon hordes into retreat.

Meng Hao had learned of these things before coming to the Third Ring. Therefore, when the red-robed man appeared, he easily guessed who exactly he was.

At the moment, Meng Hao’s Time Sword tip pressed on toward Saint Sun Soul, even as Saint Sun Soul’s three swords stopped 7 inches away from Meng Hao, emanating a frigid aura.

The two of them stared at each other as they carried out their invisible struggle. This was no battle of magical techniques, but rather, a contest of Divine Will. Any observer would not be able to see or hear anything. However, to the two of them, everything was rumbling violently, lightning crackled, and the world seemed on the verge of collapse as even the wind moved in reverse.

Red-robed Saint Sun Soul looked at Meng Hao, and his pupils slowly constricted. “You’re not a match for me.”

“And you can’t kill me,” replied Meng Hao calmly.

Saint Sun Soul looked back at Meng Hao silently. He had to admit that what Meng Hao said was true. He really had no way of killing him. Meng Hao’s Cultivation base was very strange, and although he couldn’t say exactly why, it gave him the feeling that Meng Hao could trample all of the Sea Cities in the Milky Way Sea.

It was as if… he had some indescribable, unknown connection to the whole place.

Saint Sun Soul suddenly raised his right hand and flicked his sleeve, causing the three swords to instantly vanish. When they reappeared, they were circulating around him.

Simultaneously, Meng Hao’s eyes glittered, and the Time Sword tip flew back to rotate around him.

Saint Sun Soul looked at Meng Hao and then slowly said, “In the past, I swore an oath to never again kill a Cultivator. My sword will only kill the Outsiders!

“You may stay in the Milky Way Sea, but that aura of yours displeases me. If I discover you have anything to do with the Sea Devils of the Second Ring… well then, I will be forced to use the precious treasure of the Sun Soul Society ancestor and its Dao Seeking power to destroy you.”

Meng Hao looked back at the red-robed man. Although it was only moments ago that they had drawn swords on each other, he didn’t find him to be detestable. In fact, he could sense that the man was proud, and not the type to speak falsehoods.

People such as this, while simple, had unshakable principles.

“I’ll do as I please,” said Meng Hao coolly his eyes shining with a bright, cold light.

Saint Sun Soul’s eyes gleamed with a similarly cold light. His face cold, he gave Meng Hao a final deep look, then turned to depart.

Before he could leave, Meng Hao quickly said, “It took a lot of effort for me to collect those magical symbol spirits.”

Saint Sun Soul stopped and looked back. “These symbols belong to the three Sects.”

Meng Hao didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he slapped his bag of holding to produce a bottle gourd with alcohol in it. He tossed it over.

Saint Sun Soul caught it. When he looked down to examine it, he stared in shock.

“That’s bit of alcohol from my hometown,” said Meng Hao unhurriedly. “I took some with me when I left.”

Saint Sun Soul looked at the alcohol flagon, then looked back at Meng Hao. He thought for a moment, his face expressionless. Then he turned to leave. As he did, he flicked his sleeve, causing the 10,000 magical symbol spirits he had taken to suddenly flicker as he severed his connection with them. Then, they flew back to swirl around Meng Hao.

Meng Hao looked away, then turned into a beam of colorful light that vanished in the blink of an eye.

Several days later, on a relatively small island in the Third Ring, Meng Hao sat cross-legged, the 10,000 magical symbol spirits circulating around him like a shield.

The parrot was in front of him, glaring at him angrily, as was the meat jelly, who stood next to the parrot.

The three had been facing off against each other like this for nearly ten breaths of time.

“Five creatures with fur or feathers. No discussions and no wiggle room. When Lord Fifth risks life and limb, it’s not for nothing!”

“Yeah. Lord Third wants three bullies! No discussions! When I say three, I mean three!”

Meng Hao was silent, and a pained expression could be seen on his face. After a long moment, and seemingly completely against his will, he forced himself to nod. Seeing Meng Hao like this caused the parrot to laugh proudly. Then it tossed out a feather, which flew off not too far into the distance, then exploded with a popping sound. Instantly, it transformed into a heaping mountain of Demon hearts.

The meat jelly also looked extremely proud of itself. It opened its mouth and spit out a multi-colored cascade of lights that transformed into a second mountain of Demon hearts.

Meng Hao laughed inwardly. He was all too familiar with these two nitwits. Their demands were simple, but Meng Hao knew that if he agreed too quickly, or gave them the feeling that he didn’t care, then it would only lead to more trouble.

Therefore, he intentionally pretended to consider and struggle in order to please the two ninnies.

Having dealt with them, Meng Hao’s eyes shifted to look at the two mountainous piles of Demon hearts. There were clearly well over 100,000 of them.

Furthermore, it seemed that nearly half were mid-grade Demon hearts. There were even some high-grade hearts, which vastly increased the value of the collection.

“I wonder if I can use Demon hearts to duplicate things with the copper mirror?” he thought, his eyes glittering. He lowered his head thoughtfully. Currently, the greatest danger he faced was the deadly threat of the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch.

“That old codger’s Cultivation base is just too high, so I’m not a match for him at all. The only thing I can do… is figure out a way to escape from him next time I run into him.” He looked over at the Time Sword tip.

“If I had ten or more sword tips, I could form them into the Lotus Sword Formation. With that, maybe I could take him by surprise…. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough Spirit Stones.” He frowned, but then his eyes began to shine with a bright light.

“I can duplicate Wooden Time Swords, though. Given the level of my Cultivation base now, I should be able to seal seven sixty-year cycles of Time into the sword. If I had over a hundred of them…

“Then I could unleash the third form of the Lotus Sword Formation. I wonder how powerful that would be.” Having reached this point in his train of thought, Meng Hao immediately produced a Wooden Time Sword. Then he took a deep breath and began to seal Time into it.

During the half month that followed, rumbling booms occasionally echoed out. Meng Hao’s brow was furrowed the entire time. On the last day, though, his frown disappeared. Floating there in front of him was now the only Wooden Time Sword that he possessed.

The veins of wood were clearly visible on it, and when the power of Time emanated out from within, it contained the ripples of seven sixty-year cycles of time. Meng Hao had no other magical item that possessed as much power of Time.

“All the other Wooden Time Swords were destroyed in the process. This is my only one left, but it was worth it…. It’s a good thing that in the end, I only need one instance of success!” With that, he pulled out the copper mirror and began to duplicate it.

Unfortunately, it required a vast amount of Spirit Stones to duplicate a Wooden Time Sword with seven sixty-year cycles of Time. This time, the pain Meng Hao felt in his heart was real. By the end, he used all of the Spirit Stones in his bag of holding to make ten copies.

Including the original sword, he now had a total of eleven.

After a moment’s thought, he tried to use the Demon hearts to duplicate some things. After putting seven or eight Demon hearts into the mirror and then observing the results, he stopped.

“They’re no different than Spirit Stones…” he thought with a frown. Originally, he had assumed that although the Demon hearts seemed very similar to Spirit Stones, they must have some other unique function.

After all, they were Demon hearts, not Spirit Stones.

“I’m able to attract large quantities of Sea Demons here in the Third Ring. But that’s unique. Other people would probably be able to save up a few hundred Demon Hearts at the most.

“People really come risk there lives here for a trifling few hundred Demon hearts?” A contemplative look appeared in Meng Hao’s eyes.

“That Saint Sun Soul also mentioned wanting Demon hearts. Considering the level of his Cultivation base, and his status, he wouldn’t care about a few million Spirit Stones, much less a few hundred Demon hearts…. Therefore, Demon hearts must have some use of which I’m unaware!” After further thought, Meng Hao was sure that there must be something he had overlooked. After a bit more consideration, he rose to his feet, his eyes glittering. He then waved his sleeve to collect up all the Demon hearts.

He remained on the island for a while thinking. Finally, his eyes flashed and flew up into the air, heading off into the distance at top speed.

“Since I don't know,” he thought, “I guess I’ll need to find someone who does.”

As he flashed through the air, he changed his appearance and reduced his Cultivation base to the Nascent Soul stage. After speeding along for a few days, he suddenly stopped and looked off into the distance.

Not too far away, he spotted a several hundred meter wide whirlpool, within which was an enormous seahorse. It roared as pulses of coldness emanated out from it, causing everything around it to freeze.

Hovering in mid-air in front of the seahorse were two people, a man and a woman. The man was old and hunchbacked. He had a Cultivation base at the early Nascent Soul stage, and wizened features. His face was pale, and he clutched a pearl in his hand, which emanated pulses of flame power. It transformed into a rain of fire that filled the entire area, including the spot occupied by the seahorse.

Next to the old man was the woman, who wore a mask that made it impossible to see what her face looked like. However, from the rest of her skin that was visible, it was possible to determine that she wasn’t very old.

Her Cultivation base was at the early Core Formation stage, and although she watched intently as the old man fought back against the Sea Demon, deep within her eyes flickered intense hatred.

Seeing the old man’s pale face, she said, “Senior, let’s just forget about it. Why don’t we go find a weaker Sea Demon….”

“We’ve been out here for months,” said the old man through gritted teeth. “This is the first Sea Demon we’ve found. How could we possibly let it go!?” He spit out a mouthful of blood, causing the pearl he held to turn bright red. Next, a sea of flames exploded out, causing steam to rise up from the seawater below. The seahorse, which was caught up in the flames, roared. Intense coldness exploded out from it as it charged forward into the fire. Immediately more than half of the sea of flames was extinguished.

The old man’s face flickered, and he clenched his jaw. However, it was in this exact moment that suddenly, a bright beam of light approached from off in the distance.

Inside the beam, of course, was Meng Hao.

His sudden appearance shocked the old man. The face of the young woman next to him also flickered. As for the old man, when he saw that Meng Hao’s Cultivation base was at the early Nascent Soul stage, he relaxed a bit, but at the same time, also frowned.

“Fellow Daoist,” he said, “please keep your distance. I discovered this Demon, so according to the custom, it belongs to me.”

-----

This chapter was sponsored by Stephen Lucas