Chapter 559: So We Meet Again…. Ah, Karma!
Multiple beams of teleportation light shot up from the great lands of South Heaven, causing ripples to spread about in all directions. The sky trembled. Light of teleportation spread out, filling the firmament with brightness and causing the clouds to churn.
For three full days in South Heaven… there was no night!
For three days in the Southern Domain, Black Lands, Northern Reaches, and Eastern Lands, even in the Milky Way Sea, Patriarchs in various Sects and Clans all looked up into the sky.
All of them knew full well that as of this moment, the path of the struggle for Immortality… had fully opened.
After the three bright days passed with no night, many people could sense that the spiritual energy in the lands of South Heaven was suddenly stronger. With the exception of the Western Desert, the spiritual energy in almost all locations increased by triple!
There were even some places which experienced an explosive tenfold increase in spiritual energy, and other extremely special locations where the increase approached the level of being terrifying. The lands of South Heaven were now vastly different than they had been before. The strength of the spiritual energy made cultivation easier. In fact, throughout the land, more than a hundred Spirit Springs were restored from states of being dried up to that of explosive abundance.
The strengthening of spiritual energy wasn’t the only thing that happened. The natural law of Heaven and Earth seemed to have been diluted to the point where it almost seemed as if it could be rewritten. Although reaching such enlightenment would be very difficult for Cultivators, the change made it so that it was easier to personally brand such shapeless laws.
Most shocking of all was that when the night returned, the starry sky up above had changed slightly. Stars were in different positions, almost as if the starfield up above was a different one than before. When people looked up at it, they had the feeling they were back in ancient times.
This was the true starry sky, and its appearance seemed to indicate that some sort of seal had been removed. As of now… Immortals could appear in the lands of South Heaven!
All of these various changes caused a huge stir among the Cultivators of South Heaven. Most of them were either confused or pleasantly surprised. It was only in the eyes of some of the most powerful of experts that intense stubbornness suddenly shone forth.
It was important to them too, that this path to the struggle for Immortality had opened. All of them had lived longer than a thousand years, and had experienced the previous struggle for Immortality a thousand years ago. After failing, they had no choice but to continue to wait until this day.
There were even some among them who had lived, not for a thousand years, but for thousands!
Those people weren’t anxious. Having lived for so long, they knew that after the path to the struggle for Immortality opened, the natural laws of Heaven and Earth would only continue to grow weaker as the end neared. Immortals would appear, and chances of success would grow greater.
Therefore, although they were filled with expectation, they were not anxious!
The great lands of South Heaven were thoroughly shaken!
While all those things were happening down below, up in the boundless starry sky was a great river. The river was composed of innumerable, resplendent stars that surged through the sky.
The stars that made up this great river were actually made up of uncountable motes and fragments. Within those motes and fragments were an assortment of a few dozen who were… Cultivators being teleported from the lands of South Heaven.
Meng Hao was one of them. However, his eyes were closed, and he wasn’t moving. All of the other people in the river of stars were in exactly the same state.
None of them could see each other, and therefore didn’t know… who exactly made up the group that would enter the Primordial Demon Immortal Plane.
An unknown period of time passed. The starry sky was calm and quiet. There was no aura, only the flowing river of stars. The group of people left Planet South Heaven and gradually grew near to a place where Meng Hao had been before, the Bridge of Immortal Treading.
This collapsed Bridge of Immortality hung there among the stars just as it always had. It did nothing as the river of stars neared it, then began to pass it by.
However, as the river of stars passed, suddenly… countless dots of light appeared on the surface of the Bridge of Immortality. They spread out throughout all the areas of the bridge, growing thick and dense, seemingly without end. However, their flickering seemed to be in accord with some pattern. Somewhere deep within the Bridge of Immortality, on a chunk of broken rock that no one could see, were two particular shining lights among the masses of others that bore the semblance of eyes.
Imagine that you could solidify all of this into a physical picture, and then zoom in on the Bridge of Immortality. What you would notice is that the vast chunks of rock were actually something like continents or land masses. If you zoomed in again, then you would see that in the very center of it all was a mountain. On top of that mountain were two dots of light that looked almost like electricity. Shockingly… they were two people!
A man and a woman!
The man was scholarly and refined. He wore a green robe, and his expression was, for the most part, indifferent and blank, although it would occasionally shine with clarity of mind. The woman stood with her arms wrapped around the man. The blankness in her eyes was occasionally dispelled by a faint smile.
This man was none other than Han Shan!
Reborn Demon Emperor Han Shan!
In this moment, his eyes suddenly became clear. He looked up into the sky, and apparently, could see that within the river of stars drifting past, among all the countless fragments of light that it contained, was a familiar face.
“So we meet again,” he said, his voice both light and hoarse. “Ah, Karma!” Although there was no loneliness to him any more, he was just as bleak and desolate as before. Yet, when he looked down at the woman next to him, the bleakness would transform into tenderness and… a lack of regret.
Han Shan lifted up his right hand and waved it toward the sky above. Instantly, all of the Bridge Slaves in the entire Bridge of Immortality lifted their heads up and roared a soundless roar.
No outsider could hear the sound of their roars. Nonetheless, the sound shaped together into something completely shocking. It shot out from the Realm of the Bridge ruins, out of the Bridge of Immortality, and up toward the river of stars.
It pierced into the river, shooting through the countless fragments of light and motes of dust until it found… Meng Hao!
“Wake up!”
“Wake up!!”
“WAKE UP!!!”
The roaring of the innumerable Bridge Slaves echoed about in Meng Hao’s mind, transforming into thunderous roar capable of splitting Heaven and Earth. It filled his mind, his heart, to the point of explosion.
The explosion originated in the sound created by the countless Bridge slaves. It transformed into vast amounts of sharp thorns that pierced all of Meng Hao’s body. The provocation filled his brain and caused tremors to run through his body. After eight such tremors, Meng Hao’s eyes suddenly snapped open.
At first, his eyes were lit with confusion. The voices of the Bridge Slaves had been cut off without a trace.
As of this moment, Meng Hao was the only person who was awake within the river of stars. He looked around in confusion for the space of three breaths before his gaze shone with clarity.
In the moment he gained clarity, Meng Hao realized that he couldn’t move. It was as if he had been awakened with only enough power to open his eyes. His Divine Sense was being suppressed intensely, and was restricted to a space about thirty meters.
Even paralyzed, he could still see the stars, and the countless fragments of light and dust speeding along. Then he noticed someone off in the distance, floating there with his eyes closed. It was none other than Zhao Fang, who the Spirit Severing Patriarch of the great Cloud Sky Tribe had entrusted him with protecting.
“Am I the only one awake? But… why…?” Meng Hao suddenly caught sight of the Bridge of Immortality. When that happened, the image of Han Shan suddenly flashed through his mind.
Meanwhile, back on the Bridge of Immortality, the countless dots of light were beginning to fade away. The lights that represented Han Shan and his wife gradually disappeared.
Meng Hao’s eyes gleamed with understanding as he realized that the reason he had awoken was most likely… because of Han Shan.
Although he couldn’t be absolutely certain what had led to this state of clarity, Meng Hao couldn’t help but ponder how it might be useful to him in the Primordial Demon Immortal Plane. In any case… there couldn’t be a downside. In fact, now that he was clear-headed, he was sure that there must be a way to use this opportunity to get an advantage.
“If I can seize some unique opportunity, I might be able to get ahead. Perhaps this simple awakening of mind with have a big influence on other matters.” Meng Hao’s eyes gleamed as the river of stars passed the Bridge of Immortality and then shot out into the star-studded sky behind it.
As it passed into this region of the starry sky, an intense roaring sound echoed out. Meng Hao’s body shook, completely beyond his control, and the entire river of stars trembled. He slammed into countless motes of dust, although none of them harmed him in the slightest.
Ignoring the fact that he couldn’t control his own body, Meng Hao fixed his eyes up ahead.
He could just barely make out what was happening. Apparently, as it entered this particular area, the river of stars had slammed into an invisible barrier, causing everything to shake as if it were sustaining an attack.
At the same time, Meng Hao could sense that the river of stars… had actually slammed through the barrier, almost as if it had entered into another world.
When that happened, Meng Hao noticed that all of the dust motes around him suddenly stopped moving. Even he was suddenly motionless. Outside of the river of stars, a variety of bright colors could be seen shining.
What was strangest of all to him, while he was stuck in this state of motionlessness, a woman had appeared off to the right, although he had no idea when exactly it had happened.
She wore a long, blue gown, and was quite pretty. Her eyes were closed, and her features were so delicate it seemed as if a gentle breeze could shatter her. In addition, she seemed to be filled with a certain coldness.
This woman was unfamiliar. Meng Hao looked at her for a moment, then glanced away toward the colorful lights outside. Time passed. The river of stars was motionless, and yet somehow, Meng Hao felt the sensation of movement.
He pondered this point for a while as he looked around at this world of silence. After a bit of time passed, he suddenly came to an understanding. The river of stars wasn’t moving. What was moving… was Time!
Time was moving. Not forward, but rather, in reverse! Time… was moving backward!
This discovery caused Meng Hao’s mind to tremble. As he looked at the brightly colored lights, he suddenly had the intense premonition that if he could gain enlightenment regarding this strange place, he would have a much more profound understanding of Time, as well as matters relating to the usage and branding of Time treasures.
He also knew that such an opportunity… was exceedingly rare.
After much time passed, Meng Hao’s mind grew blank as he immersed himself in enlightenment regarding the reversal of Time. By combining this new information with what he had observed regarding the changes to Time in the Realm of the Bridge Ruins, his understanding grew deeper.
Suddenly, the river of stars shook again. Again it felt as if it had struck up against some invisible obstacle. After passing through, Meng Hao suddenly caught sight of a shocking world!
In the same instant in which he caught sight of the world, all the dust motes and fragments of light within the river of stars trembled. The movement suddenly caused the closed-eyed woman off to the right to bump into Meng Hao.
Meng Hao’s head, his face, was suddenly touching something very soft…. A delicate aroma washed over his face.