Chapter 1078: Eight Gates, All Top 10!
Meng Hao hadn’t cultivated the Dao Divinity Scripture incorrectly. However, this was not a scripture that was meant to be cultivated while sitting cross-legged in meditation. This scripture was unique in that… it was meant to be cultivated during battle, when actually utilizing divine sense.
With every clash of divine sense, the Dao Divinity Scripture would grow stronger. This was… a scripture born for the purpose of battle!
Meng Hao didn’t understand that before, so no matter how he cultivated it, the result wasn’t optimal. The last time he challenged the seventh golden gate, he hadn’t used the Dao Divinity Scripture, but had relied solely on his divine sense and had gotten all the way to the 91st position, but could proceed no further.
This time, under the bombardment of so much divine sense, he finally understood the Dao Divinity Scripture much more clearly. It was like an epiphany.
“So that’s how it is!” Even as his voice echoed out, he transformed into a black hole. As the boundless divines sense power rumbled toward him, just as it seemed on the verge of harming him, it was actually rapidly devoured by his own divine sense!
This was clearly… a terrifying way of absorbing the divine sense of others to bolster one’s own!
Meng Hao was trembling, and yet, his eyes were shining brightly. He sped forward, trembling with every step as his divine sense rocketed up madly.
“More!” he cried, proceeding forward without stop. As the divine sense power smashing down onto him grew more intense, his own divine sense grew stronger.
Outside on the golden gate, his name rose higher on the list, passing the 91st position and quickly reaching the 40th!
An uproar of shocked cries instantly could be heard from the mouths of the audience.
Even more shocking to everyone was that the golden gate stone stele’s eternally resplendent golden glow… almost seemed to be fading, as if the innate power of the trial by fire were weakening.
“The golden glow is fading. W-what’s happening!?”
Everyone was shouting.
Even Granny Nine and her group, plus the Demonic Patriarch, were staring, clearly moved.
It didn’t take long for the Dao Realm Patriarchs to guess the truth.
“He’s absorbing the divine sense power inside of the stele!”
“The Nine Seas God World has been collecting divine sense in the seventh golden gate stone stele for all these years to ensure that it remains eternally in place! But now… he’s actually absorbing it!”
“A normal Daoist magic couldn’t do that! What technique has he cultivated?”
As everyone in the outside world was making various speculations, inside the stele, Meng Hao, who moments ago hadn’t been glowing at all, was now covered with a thin veneer of golden light.
That golden light appeared when he only had 20 more steps to go!
A tremor ran through him, and he coughed up blood, and yet, his laughter grew even more maniacal. He had never imagined that this seventh golden gate stone stele would be so beneficial to him.
It could definitely be considered good fortune!
Not only did it give him a deep understanding of the Dao Divinity Scripture, but his previously weak divine sense was now rapidly becoming more powerful. By now, it was already close to ten times more powerful than it had been before beginning the trial.
Plus… it was continuing to get stronger.
Meng Hao took a deep breath and proceeded forward again. With each step, the divine sense around him grew more intense; booms continued to ring out like muffled thunder.
Soon, there were only nine steps ahead of him, and his name was already in 10th place on the seventh golden gate stone stele!
Meng Hao started to stagger a bit, and he could sense that he was reaching his limit; he was already saturated with the divine sense that he had absorbed. However, he also had the intense premonition that if he gave himself enough time to fully assimilate all the divine sense, he would become even stronger, and would be qualified… to vie for 1st place on the seventh golden gate!
In that case, he would also be qualified to vie for 1st place in the ninth golden gate!
Meng Hao’s body rumbled as he vanished from the world of the seventh golden gate trial by fire. He appeared outside, the middle of an uproar as everyone looked at him in shock.
That was especially true… of a certain beautiful young woman not too far off in the distance. It was none other than Sea Daughter Bei Yu. Her name was currently listed in 3rd place on the stone stele!
She excelled in divine sense, but now, the sensation she got when looking at Meng Hao was completely different than before. His divine sense was far more powerful, and even just looking at him sent stabbing pains into her eyes.
Of the Nine Seas God World’s nine golden gate stone steles, he had already completed three. Now, he sped toward the eighth.
It wasn’t long before his name was climbing up the list on that stele too….
In the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Meng Hao’s name reached the top 10, then climbed to the 5th position before stopping. Then he appeared again, bursting with a domineering air that seemed incapable of being halted or blocked as he sped toward the sixth golden gate stone stele.
You could say that Meng Hao’s path embodied all of the various aspects of cultivation. Earlier, only his divine sense had been somewhat weak. As for his fleshly body and his cultivation base, both of them were incredibly powerful. Now that he had acquired good fortune regarding his divine sense, he was finally able to push himself to his peak.
That was also the peak of the Immortal Emperor Realm!
The Nine Seas God World was shaken, and increasing numbers of cultivators approached to bear witness to Meng Hao’s madness. It had been years since anything like this had occurred, as Meng Hao repeatedly challenged one golden gate stone stele after another, and got into the top ten of each one!
“He got into the top 10 in the fifth, seventh, eighth, and ninth!!”
“From ancient times until now, there have only been four people who made it into the top 10 of all nine golden gate stone steles! Now there’s going to be a fifth!”
In the beginning, the audience watching the scene hadn’t been small. However, there were many people who believed that he would never be able to make it into the top 10 of all the stone steles. Now, however, as he continued to make steady progress, more and more people arrived to watch with keen anticipation.
An unsightly look could be seen on the face of the Demonic Patriarch. In fact, all of the Demonic cultivators had dark looks on their faces. They didn’t want to admit that there was more than just hatred for Meng Hao in their hearts, and yet they had no other choice.
Meng Hao shot through the air in a streak of colorful light as he headed to the sixth golden gate stone stele. The Nine Seas God World was abuzz, and countless cultivators flew from all directions to watch. Meng Hao vanished into the sixth stele, and almost immediately, his name appeared on the rankings!
It rose up rapidly, almost exactly the same as in the others. Soon, cries of shock could be heard, and the members of the Demonic Cultivator Horde looked grimmer than ever. As with all the others, Meng Hao’s name eventually reached the top 10!
When that happened, the entire Nine Seas God World, including both Ancient and Immortal Realm cultivators, were all abuzz, and focused on nothing other than Meng Hao.
The next stele was the fourth, which Meng Hao rocketed toward and disappeared into. After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, his name appeared in the top ten!
The clamor among the crowd grew more intense, and Meng Hao’s image was even more deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of all the disciples.
The combination of his razor-sharp tongue, his towering killing intent, and the intense valiance on display at the moment ensured that Meng Hao had a unique air.
It was… a completely and utterly domineering air!
In the third golden gate stone stele, boundless golden light rose up when he reached 7th place!
In the second golden gate stone stele, massive rumbling could be heard as his name appeared in the 4th position! Everyone felt as if their hearts were being struck by thunder.
When Meng Hao appeared from within the second golden gate stone stele and headed toward the first, there were tens of thousands of disciples gathered to watch.
They crowded around, all watching and bearing witness to what was happening.
“The ninth golden gate! He’s already completed eight!! And gotten into the top 10 in all of them!!”
“The last one is the first golden gate stone stele. If he can get into the top ten in that one, then those 300,000,000 Immortal jades will be his!”
“For years, only four people in the Nine Seas God World have ever done this! Maybe there will now be five!”
“Not necessarily! The first golden gate is the hardest!”
The sound of countless discussions could be heard as Meng Hao arrived in front of the first golden gate stone stele, looking as firm and persistent as ever. He eyed the gate for a moment, and then took a deep breath.
“Trial by fire of the pressure of the Ninth Sea!” Without any further hesitation, he headed in!
When his vision became clear, shockingly, he found himself beneath the Nine Seas God World, surrounded by boundless sea water. In this position, the pressure weighing down from the Ninth Sea was even more intense than before.
A tremor ran through him as he sensed what felt like innumerable iron fetters weighing him down. Eyes glittering, he began to sink down.
300 meters. 1,500 meters. 3,000 meters.
6,000 meters. 9,000 meters. 15,000 meters.
The farther he sank, the more intense the pressure became. Gradually, it came to feel as if enormous mountains were crushing down on him. It didn’t take very long before he had to exert incredible force even to blink his eyes.
Everything was pitch black, and it almost seemed as if the Ninth Sea had no sea floor, as if it just stretched down and down infinitely.
Soon, Meng Hao had reached a depth of 24,000 meters. According to the list outside, this was the same position Fan Dong’er had reached. The biggest difference was that she had remained in this position for more than forty hours.
Meng Hao’s name had long since appeared on the first golden gate stone stele. It flickered as its position continued to change, getting higher and higher. The faces of the members of the Demonic Cultivator Horde grew darker and darker.
“I can still go deeper!” Meng Hao’s eyes glittered as he realized that he hadn’t reached his limit yet. He was different from the other disciples of the Nine Seas God World. They practiced cultivation at these depths, and gradually allowed themselves to endure more and more pressure. In contrast, Meng Hao wanted to feel the most intense stimulation possible, and then see how long he could stay in that position.
It might be dangerous, but that would be the fastest way to acclimate himself to the pressure, and would also ensure that he was ready to enter the Windswept Realm.
Meng Hao’s eyes shone with determination!
27,000 meters. 30,000 meters! 36,000 meters… and he kept going!
The pressure increased, getting more intense. However, it continued to meet with resisting power from within Meng Hao. It was as if Meng Hao, despite his fleshly body and cultivation base being at their peak, was still growing!!
By now, he could see nothing but blackness, and even his newly empowered divine sense could only spread out a short distance. He was now 60,000 meters down.
At this point, he began to shake, and he knew that this was his limit. He could tell that he was on the verge of collapsing. Trembling, he settled down cross-legged and waited to see how long he could hold on!