Cheng Hao didn't lower his gaze, even when those two eyes that seemed to hold the flames of hell within looked down on him. They were seemingly attempting to eradicate his very existence by glaring at him.
The two pairs of eyes stared at each other for twenty breaths until, suddenly, the pair of red flaming eyes shuddered: the two illusions of the shadow beast and of the mountains and seas of corpses had appeared in the child's pupils, instilling great fear in the owner of the blazing eyes.
The two flames suddenly broke contact as a deep roar could be heard from within the black cocoon.
Cheng Hao smiled bitterly "Looks like somebody doesn't like losing in a staring contest..."
The cocoon slowly begun to unravel, the black silk didn't fall down on the ground and instead began to morph into a gigantic pair of black angel wings.
When the black thread had completely unveiled, the figure was still hidden within the two black gigantic wings. It looked as if, if it were to spread them, he would have the power rule over all and everything!
Silence ruled the whole Sect, those disciples and elders who had not witnessed what had happened in the Grudge's End had already drawn some conclusions after the gigantic golden seal had appeared in the sky and the fierce battle had taken place.
Now, they had seen that black cocoon, which had been exuding evil energy up until some time ago, suddenly change and turn into a pair of angel-like wings. The only difference between these and an angel's being that these ones were black.
These disciples and elders could feel that a great battle was underway and that the stakes would be much higher than their measly life. At this point, many other Sects and Schools were using special means to look at what was happening within the Mysterious Light-Shadow Sect.
Normally this shouldn't be possible, but the restrictions of the Sect had long since been destroyed during the previous battles. Right now, countless Sect Heads and Sect Elders as well as some School Leaders were staring with both shock and disbelief at the events that were taking place.
Everything was silent as countless people gulped, praying to whatever deity they believed in to allow them to live through the day.
Suddenly, rumbling sounds could be heard as the wings... Spread open! Down below, countless people stared in shock and stupor as the figure of this new Shadow Dragon was revealed!
Contrary to what his name would imply, right now the Shadow Dragon was once again in human form. Long, white hair fluttered behind him as red tattoos stood out on his pale white skin. The two wings were moving up and down and black feathers fell down on the ground: the thread had long since fused together and now the appendages were truly wings made out of real flesh.
They were Yin Hei's wings just like his limbs were Yin Hei's arms and legs, they were a part of him.
The man looked down to examine his body: his hands had sharp, red nails and purple veins stood out. Down below, his feet were also longer and pointier, the legs even resembled a dragon's limbs.
A red and purple dragon's tail swished behind him and snatched one of the feathers from midair swiftly. His face and his torso were covered by red tribal tattoos that made him look even fiercer. Two big horns protruded from his forehead, red in color, and in between the two flickered a dense black flame.
His eyes were still yellow and a single vertical pupil existed in each eyeball, resembling a snake's. Deep in his pupils could be seen great arrogance as well as disdain towards the world itself, as if he was a being above all else.
He opened his mouth and a calm, bewitching voice came out "This body... To think that your little attempt at killing would actually turn out to be a great gift to me. I actually have completely broken free of the seal!" He chuckled and his laughter traveled in all directions without dissipating. Soon, everyone in a few miles radius could hear that voice that seemed to come from the deepest of hells.
"What's more, this new form of mine actually has a potential superior to my true body!" This time, he laughed uproariously and he looked down below where Lao Jianghu was resting "Old tiger... To think that all your planning would end up with you actually aiding me! Don't worry, I will be sure to torture your soul less than others when I completely destroy this plane..."
His expression changed and he concentrated, accumulating energy in his fist: soon, black flames swelled up around his body like countless black dragons made out of black fire.
He punched out and the air trembled: cracks appeared in space as what looked like a small black hole formed, destroying everything in the radius of a few meters from it before disappearing as if it had never appeared at all.
Cheng Hao knit his brows when he saw that and he began to feel a great deal of pressure on him "He... Actually has broken past the Mortal Realm! He is... an Ageless Realm expert in the Royal stage! What's more, his aura just keeps rising nonstop!"
That was right, just a few moments ago Yin Hei had been into the Mortal realm, yet now he had broken through to the Ageless Realm, just like that!
Humans who knew nothing of the Ageless Realm regarded his power as simply being at the peak of the Reverend stage, but the truth was that he was now actually an expert way above Reverend stage, in a whole other realm even.
The proof other than his power was also the white hair: every single strand was white! This was a change that would naturally occur once a person made his first step in getting rid of his mortality, turning into a being to whom time was of little hindrance!
There were exceptions, such as Primordial Beasts or the four Divine Beasts, but most of the Heavenly Beasts were also affected by this rule and had white hair while in the Ageless Realm, of course they could color them, but ther natural hue would be a pristine white.
Once people reached the Ageless Realm, the stages would be divided slightly differently, simply because of the rift in strength between those in the same stage: the levels were referred to as infant, low, base, mid, high and finally peak of the said stage.
Yin Hei laughed as he felt his power quickly rise from the infant Royal stage to the low Royal stage "Ahaha! Wonderful! This is power! Power that came after you sealed my destiny away for so many years, Tiger! Because of that, now that I am free, I am blessed by the heavens even if I mean to destroy them! Isn't this situation just so comical?"
With a loud roar, the ground shook once more and Yin Hei's energy jumped up again as he stepped into the base level of the Royal stage.
Cheng Hao gritted his teeth and his pupils constricted "Damn! If this keeps going, the plane will fall apart! Such a low level plane with such a low density of special fabric won't resist so much power!"
He looked up and his expression grew firmer "I have to destroy him before he gains even more power!" He stepped forward and his whole body glowed with eerie golden light: it was none other than the Golden Aura!
Up in the sky, Yin Hei was still excitedly examining his body "Unbelievable, simply unbelievable! If I simply sit still, I will step into the Immortal Realm in nine days! In less than a hundred days, I will gain true immortality! I will become immortal! This... is my destiny! Immortal Destiny!"
He then began to ponder "Shadow Dragon is a thing of the past! What should I call myself now? After all, I am a being that will bring chaos to the heavens... That's right!" Yin Hei grinned fiercely as his eyes brightened "Chaos Dragon! That shall be my name! So imposing!"
The Chaos Dragon looked around him and saw that the atmosphere was beginning to grow hot and hotter by the minute, as the black flame floating in front of his forehead grew hot and hotter.
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The temperature had already risen considerably in short time, if this all wasn't stopped, the people below could give up fighting against the Shadow Dragon, now rebaptized as the Chaos Dragon, as they would evaporate or turn into ashes beforehand!
Cheng Hao gritted his teeth and flew in the air. He stopped a few meters in front of Yin Hei and his white robes fluttered. He waved one of his hands and blinding light came out.
When it dissipated, Cheng Hao stood there in mid air, his expression solemn and fierce
In his hand he held what looked like a golden tower: the first three floors were open and they exuded a great deal of pressure that helped him fight off the power of the Chaos Dragon's cultivation.
He felt his robes were about to catch fire and he was also about to pass out from the heat: the pressure from the tower could help him protect himself from the powerful pressure of the Dragon's cultivation base, but he could not resist the heat just as well.
Him, being higher than anybody else and on the same level of the Chaos Dragon, felt much more heat than those standing on the ground.
He paled but then he employed the full power of his cultivation to step forward again: inside his consciousness, the sword shaped Satellite was currently orbiting at great speeds and it also emitted sharp killing intent, as if it wanted to come out and battle the enemy as well.
Cheng Hao blinked his two eyes once and then two scenes grew clearer in his pupils: in the left pupil a golden sun shone down on a sea of blood and countless mountains of corpses. The corpses were withering, their essence feeding the astral projection in the sky.
The golden sun was incredibly cold and it soon proceeded to emanate a great amount of pressure.
In the right pupil, a shadow darker than any other appeared, its mouth snapped open and close, as if it wanted to devour everything that laid in its path.
It began to grow large and larger while the golden sun began to grow colder and colder... But they were still illusions, so they could not possibly affect the real world!
Cheng Hao was about to completely pass out when, suddenly, his eyes burst open with never seen before energy! A wheel appeared behind him, in its center was what looked like the depiction of a sun!
It had a total of ninety-seven rays and, at the moment, sixty-eight were glowing with an eerie light. The wheel began to rotate and started absorbing the heat around him as a sixty-ninth ray began to glow slightly.
This was none other than the true body of the sun in the illusion! The atmosphere suddenly began to cool back down as the sun and the black flame began fighting back and forth for the control over temperature.
The wheel began to turn at rapid speeds, feeding on the warmth in the air while the flame flickered with incredible intensity as it burned even more fierily. The temperature rose and then cooled as the heat replenished the golden sun.
The Chaos Dragon's expression flickered "What divine ability is that? It actually rivals my Burning World Flame!" He didn't have more time to be shocked as what appeared to be smoke rose from Cheng Hao's left eyelid: it looked like a black beast, except its body was only a mouth made out of shadows and smoke.
The beast snapped at the air for a while before locking on Yin a Hei. It immediately let out an excited shrill as it opened its mouth wide. Soon, the mouth had grown to be ten meters tall.
Then one hundred, then two-hundred, three-hundred...
All the way to nine-hundred ninety-nine meters tall!
With one final push, it then grew a meter more, turning into one thousand meters tall!
This single meter might have looked like not much of a difference, however the difference in pressure that the beast was emitting before and after that meter was that of heaven and earth!
The mouth then began to solidify... And it turned golden! It was a golden gate made out of black gold, encrusted within the black gold were countless gems and there were even many engravings depicting fearful demonic beasts drawn on the gate itself!
The Chaos Dragon felt his hair stand on end and his skull tingle when he looked at the massive gate. He subconsciously wanted to run, but he was one step too late: the gate bursted open and the millions of chained beasts within screamed all at once, their roars turned into a sound attack that completely bewildered Yin Hei.
He was dazed for a second and spat out a mouthful of blood while his skin began to crack. That was more than enough for Cheng Hao to close in: the two flames of Yin and Yang had already materialized and his two arms looked like flaming meteors as they slammed into the Chaos Dragon's chest.
"Cough!" Yin Hei's eyes pupils shrank in shock as he spat out a mouthful of blood. His eyes widened but then his voice rang out as he furiously flapped his black wings "Are you looking to die! Die then, but it won't be a peaceful death!"
"Eighteen Controlling Triagrams!" He roared.
He blinked his eyes nine times and nine triangles appeared on the circumference of each of his pupils. At the same time, eighteen orbs of black flames surrounded by a red hue appeared: Cheng Hao recognized it as the same technique that had been used by Chu Sai back when he had been fighting Bi Liang. The exception was, of course, that its power now was much more intimidating!
"Eighteen Meteors Destruction!" The beast called out once again and the orbs glowed with bright purplish light as they sped towards the young child in front of them.
Cheng Hao gave a confident smile and stepped forward as the eighteen orbs of destruction floated towards him. He gritted his teeth and punched out with the might of his Fleshly Body as well as the power of the two flames Glory and Oblivion, now fused into a single, grey flame.
The two attacks were both powerful enough to qualify as attacks capable of shaking the Heavens with their might. It could be seen by this exchange that both opponents were in a league completely different than the cultivators below.
Cheng Hao heard creaking sounds come from his bones and muscles, as if they were about to break and tear apart, but he was still able to block the blows.
He sighed in relief when he found out that his Fleshly Body combined with the two flames, Glory and Oblivion, was just enough to resist the barrage of destruction orbs. But still, they were not enough to repel them!
If he kept going like this he was going to be defeated. He gritted his teeth and his Martial Way, the Immortal Ascension Tower, appeared once again.
It was tens of meters tall, yet it looked as tall as a mountain, its might seemingly overshadowing even the heavens: this was only a tiny fraction of the true power of Cheng Hao's Martial Way!
This was the true body: as he was way past the Advanced stage, he no longer needed to use the Pseudo-Core as his main cultivation base, thus he could remove the Martial Way from within it to use it in battle!
The glowing golden tower seemed to snort as the eighteen orbs shuddered and then broke apart completely, collapsing onto themselves.
Cheng Hao panted as he put away the treasure: although it's might seemed unparalleled, the energy consumption was just as high.
The Chaos Dragon trembled when he saw the object in Cheng Hao's hands, but it was not due to fear: it was due to excitement! "Such a treasure... I must make it mine!" He laughed to the sky.
He lifted his hand and a single black ball of flame materialized in his hand. It began to grow larger and larger until it became more than ten meters in diameter. He lifted both arms in the sky to support it and sweat could be seen on his forehead "How's this? Can you block this as well?"
Cheng Hao suddenly smirked and... Disappeared! Yin Hei trembled and suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood as he saw a blade was piercing his chest from behind.
Behind the shocked Yin Hei, Cheng Hao's figure appeared, the enchanted shortsword in his hands stabbing straight through the beast's heart.
Yin Hei let out a loud roar of rage but it soon turned into an agonizing howl when Cheng Hao twisted the blade "The first strike seldom kills... Twisting the blade usually does the job!" He muttered to himself as he smiled.
"I'll kill you!" Yin Hei's eyes burned with rage. He turned and slashed with his claws at Cheng Hao's body, but the child had already appeared a few hundred feet away. He was holding in his hand a sword snapped in half "Ugh! That thing's hide sure was tough! It actually snapped when I spun it!"
Cheng Hao looked at the Shadow Dragon and could see its hateful expression. He smiled knowingly and pointed "Are you sure you should be glaring at me right now? Don't you have other things to do, like, surviving?"
Yin Hei's eyes flickered then his expression turned into shock when he looked up.
His expression became even better when the massive orb of black fire, created by Yin Hei himself suddenly fell, crashing down on him. As nobody was holding it up, it descended and began to shine as it seemed on the verge of exploding.
With a loud shriek, Yin a Hei was absorbed into the ball of flame and a loud explosion rang out, seemingly obliterating everything in its radius!
The flame burned brightly and Cheng Hao smiled complacently "That should at least wound you gravely..." he smiled and suddenly his pupils shrunk when he had a sense of imminent danger!
He turned but could not react as a single ray of red light came out of the bright explosion and sank into his forehead! Nobody else noticed the red ray of light except for Lao Jianghu.
As soon as the ray disappeared in Cheng Hao's skull, in his mind the black flame soon superimposed with another flame.
It was a bonfire in a pitch black night, why he had suddenly remembered it he did not know, the only thing he knew was that he felt pain in his chest, as if somebody was squeezing his heart to the point that it was about to burst.
The reason was not the bonfire, but the girl that was dancing next to it. The dance was bizarre, yet beautiful, as if every movement had a meaning and was needed to make the next one. When she moved, bright red afterimages were left behind, like a trail made out of fire, making her look as if she had become one with the flame.
Cheng Hao gaped.
This was... The person that he owed so much to, his own life even. This was the girl he turned over the Earth and the Nine Heavens for when he had been Xu Ling.
And right now, she only existed in his memories. In them, she was a figure that danced for all eternity, a dance that he previously had loved but, with the passage of time, he had come to hate.
He hated it because that dance was so beautiful and vivid in his memories, as if it would exist for the eternity... And yet... She was not amongst the living anymore! And it was none other's fault... Than his own!
He had let her die!