Cheng Hao firmly grasped Megalodon with his two hands as he stared towards the group of nine people in front of him. The blade crackled with lightning as the illusion of a gigantic whale appeared coiling around his body: it was none other than the illusory body of Megalodon, the Ruler of the Storms and the sinker of ships!
Great pressure forced the nine people to use all of their strength in order to be able to stand straight, and this was all because of the single weapon, it was not even the real one but a mere copy of the original, born through the sacrifice of thousands of souls.
Dagger gritted his teeth below the helmet "Damn it! We can't even hit him! He is not agile, he is not using his great speed nor does he have some sort of enhancing technique... He simply is at the perfect place at the perfect time, as if he knew exactly where he should be to dodge an attack coming from a blind spot! Our weapons cannot even hope to catch him!"
Behind the group of eight, Veil clenched her hands "Damn... If only I could help..." her red eyes burned with anger... But it was not tied to the fact that one of her brothers had been slain! Strangely enough, she had long since forgotten all about Fist.
No, the reason she was angry was because of something else: she only felt powerless and was angry against herself for not being powerful enough!
Truth was that, although they called each other brothers, they simply were part of the same group. Some were closer than others, but only few were real siblings.
Veil glared at the young boy with dazzling golden eyes and long black hair, her eyes full of hatred, envy and despair. She felt hateful because of her powerlessness, envy because of the power Cheng Hao was showing and despair because she knew that, if he were to target her, nobody would be able to stop him!
Cheng Hao stretched his waist and then smiled "Well now, isn't this just so much fun?" He chuckled and swung Megalodon once "This little guy is so amazing! The Seven Summoned Leviathans are just too great when fighting Mortals! They are simply above comprehension. After all, gravity, space, future, past, present, life and death are not stuff anyone with the lowly cultivation of the Mortal realm is capable of understanding..."
Suddenly, his expression darkened "Still, it is not enough! I cannot attack and dodge at the same time, and you guys are simply not giving me time to retaliate properly!" He sighed as he caressed the massive halberd "You are making this beautiful piece of art look like a useless stick!"
He looked up at the battle in the sky and saw Lao Jianghu clearly had the upper hand, Yin Hei was giving it his all, but the Glowing Longsword was simply too overpowered, it cut through the monster's tough hide as if it were tofu!
Cheng Hao grinned "Looks like he is going to end this soon! Well, I guess I ought to stop playing as well..." he let go of Megalodon and made a strange hand seal.
The weapon flashed with bright grey light and then it slowly began to fall apart, sparks of light flew up in the dark sky nonstop until the weapon had disappeared completely.
Greatsword suddenly had a weird feeling and he clenched his weapon tightly "Watch out everyone! Something is wrong!" His red eyes widened as he focused his five senses into catching the slightest movement the boy could make.
Cheng Hao smiled as he ripped off the upper part of his robe "This is quite comfortable, but it is way too impractical during battle, it slows down movement too much. I have to remember to tell Bi Liang about it..."
When his toned muscles and well developed upper body appeared, it stunned the people looking at him: this was in no way the body of a eight years old... Well, actually, the only thing about Cheng Hao truly resembling a child was his face, height and tone of voice, so that was not too shocking.
What really shocked them were the scars. Countless scars could be seen on the child's otherwise fair skin. There where many that looked like the wound could have been life threatening, others were simple scratches. Still, they couldn't help but tremble at the sight of such an amount of wounds.
After all, Cheng Hao was only a child, yet he looked like he had gone through countless battles and fought countless ordeals... Which was true! Ever since he was reborn, he had been fighting nonstop and brought his body to break past its limits ever since he had awoken in this new body..
Cheng Hao tensed his muscles as he breathed in and then relaxed as he breathed out. His eyes grew determined as he eyed Greatsword and he targeted him first.
He kicked off the ground and appeared right in the middle of the Shadow Legion's members group, his fist was incredibly pressuring and it was moving at great speed towards the Shadow Legion's Greatsword at great speed. Suddenly, eight weapons flashed and closed in on the child's body.
Greatsword scoffed and dodged to the side, evading the blow. He then slashed with his weapon at the child in front of him 'Foolish boy... To actually lose your mind like this when you could win by tiring us down, you have simply signed your own doom!'
One after the other, seven more people attacked: this time, their blows were well coordinated and didn't show the slightest flaw, not even a god would be able to evade such a barrage of attacks!
The great blade was about to hit the child's body when, suddenly, Greatsword flinched and he jumped backwards. Veil also trembled and waved her sleeves, making the veil of black silk wrap around Greatsword's waist.
It was as if they could read each other's mind: Greatsword twisted in such a manner that the cloth could wrap around him faster and then smashed the blade against the ground, making him fly backwards. The duo's actions made it possible for Veil to swiftly bringing Greatsword away... From what?
Meanwhile, six weapons - a needle, a sword with three blades, a mace, a spear, a battle axe and a flail - all charged towards and pierced, slashed, slammed into the child's body.
Finally, Dagger slashed down his own two daggers towards Cheng Hao's neck, the blade whistled through the air and the short man finally smiled excitedly when he felt the edge of his weapon bite into the child's flesh.
Cheng Hao spat out blood and he fell on his knees, his body pierced by seven weapons, the red liquid spat out everywhere. Coughing out blood, the boy's eyes grew hazy and he fell on his face.
Everyone couldn't help but feel great happiness: it was no illusion, it was no afterimage what their weapons had just slashed in half, they had really finally, this time they had truly killed that troublesome brat!
As he laid on the ground, the boy slowly closed his two eyes and, finally, stopped breathing.
The seven people's excitement and happiness, though, lasted only for a moment. Because, right when they had lowered their guard and the boy on the ground looked like he had truly passed away... A pair of eyes full of killing intent opened, each of them glowing with bright light just like before.
Except this time, the golden glow was replaced with...
"Life, Death, Two opposites, two faces of a single coin!" Cheng Hao muttered as he quickly lifted himself up, startling his seven opponents "As white as the glow of life, as black as the darkness of death! Glory! Oblivion! the two Flames of war, the Flames Of Life and Death!"
Two eyes, one white one black, shined as brightly as the sun, white light that was enough to blind at the slightest glance, a darkness so black that it was not darkness anymore and could be described as nothing less than a black light.
Two gaseous masses appeared behind Cheng Hao's back, they each wrapped around one of his arms and two flames, one extremely cold and one extremely hot, burned in Cheng Hao's palm.
"Yin and Yang Flames!" Cheng Hao yelled and smiled fierily and pointed at the seven men in front of him "... Devour!" The two gaseous flames seemed to turn into two fierce beasts as they rose up above Cheng Hao's head. Two gigantic mouths with sharp teeth, everything made by the monochrome flames, shot down towards the astonished group of cultivators.
Cheng Hao smiled and he grabbed onto the stunned Dagger's arm. Dagger widened his eyes in terror when he saw that he could not free himself. He gritted his teeth and spit out some of his Life Blood, special blood that resided in the heart of a cultivator and absorbed the Qi as the cultivator meditated. As it did so, it would be able to release great energy once that Qi is released!
No more than a few drops of such blood would be created in a cultivator's whole lifetime, in most cases they only had one, and if it was used one's cultivation would decrease greatly.
Cheng Hao smiled when he saw a huge tarot card appear behind the small guy's back: an old man sat on a throne, although he seemed to be on his last breath, the pressure he exuded was that of a ruler of heaven and earth. In his hands were a sword and a scale made of rusted gold.
Both items exuded an aura of ancientness and immense power, as if they had control over the world itself. The king looked down upon Cheng Hao and coldly scoffed, in front of him there were golden words floating in the air: "It Is Impossible To Tell When Law Stops And Justice Begins"
The card acted as a shield that kept the flaming beasts at bay, allowing the seven people to get back on their feet and glare at Cheng Hao with hatred and shock.
Dagger grinned as he felt his cultivation base rise and looked at Cheng Hao smirking "You brat, you are a fool! You thought you could defeat us with such tricks? Die! When I, Second in the Shadow Legion, Dagger, kill you, those beasts will disappear as well!"
Cheng Hao smiled, blood trickled down the sides of his mouth and his face ws pale, but his smile was confident.
He smirked "Oh? But isn't the Fool the one that may be anyone he chooses to be? I would prefer to choose death than to live bounded by chains!" Suddenly, his eyes lit up "And I have no intention of doing either of them!"
He made a hand seal and a speck of light appeared in front of him: it was one of the light sparks left behind from when he had dismissed Megalodon, he had kept it hidden. And now, now was the time to unleash its power and disintegrate all his opponents in one, massive attack... Not.
Cheng Hao only smiled as he simply opened his mouth and swallowed the speck of light whole.
The sea of consciousness is a vast realm unique to each cultivator. It differentiated a normal person to the gifted cultivators, as someone with no such realm would be unable to cultivate, no matter how hard he tried.
Cheng Hao's sea of consciousness had been still for a few months already, his Core was completely still and his Pseudo-Core was no different. They both floated in the vast realm of emptiness in Cheng Hao's consciousness, as still as millenary mountains, unmovable even by the fiercest of storms..
Suddenly, Cheng Hao had swallowed the speck of light. That single spark slowly made its way towards the floating Core... It coiled around the great sphere of solid Qi for a while and then... It slammed into the floating Core, bursting into a flash of light and then disappearing!
Nothing happened at first, but then, just like a sleeping beast poked with a stick, the Core suddenly twitched! Bright light emitted from the sphere as it rotated on itself at great speeds, revolving at such speeds that it looked like it was about to break apart!
Cheng Hao grinned as he suddenly began to feel a faint Qi in the air around him and his cultivation began to show itself!
He was not powerful enough to bind down a Reverend stage cultivator like Wu Rou with a seal, so how could he possibly do that? Simple. He used the seal Lao Jianghu had placed on him to seal her down... And at the same time freed himself!
Ever since he had sealed down Wu Rou's cultivation, the seal on his own cultivation had been lifted! All he needed was a single spark to enliven the dry wood!
The seal had been suppressing the Qi absorption of his Core for over two months, so now that he was going to release it... It would be pretty pleasant!
For him, of course.
His opponents would most likely wish to be have died beforehand.
Cheng Hao grinned as his body suddenly began to absorb all the Qi and spiritual energy in his surroundings: he would absorb as much as the amount he had failed to during those two months!
And since this place's spiritual energy was pretty scarce due to the fact that many powerful abilities had been used during the battle, that would mean that he would absorb not only a part... but ALL of it!
Dagger suddenly felt weak in the knees as his body lost all strength to fight back against Cheng Hao: cultivators focusing on Fleshly Body Strengthening were few amongst the few, only one would exist amongst thousands, that was why Cheng Zhao had been so shocked when he had found out that the Zi clan brat he had absorbed was enhancing his Fleshly Body.
Dagger was no exception to this rule, once the spiritual energy disappeared, his body became that of a mortal, anyone with a hint of cultivation would be more than enough to deal with him, as no technique, no matter how powerful or godly it might be, needed some kind of fuel to keep it going.
That fuel was spiritual energy. And all the spiritual energy in the radius of a few miles had been absorbed by Cheng Hao. This pretty much meant that everybody without a powerful body in that area was pretty much screwed.
Only powerful cultivators at the peak of the Mortal Realm would still be able to use their abilities, as they would have enough energy to fuel their own abilities, but only two such people were there. And they were both so high up in the sky that it would not affect them either way.
Dagger trembled as he saw the card behind him had disappeared. Cheng Hao's voice lingered over and the short warrior trembled in true terror for the first time "Your so called Justice... is an illusion. In this world, the winner is king and the loser is thief, only power matters. I will now show you what that Justice of yours really is! Justice is power! And you have none! You felled my comrades and you thought yourself as just, but now I am about to kill you because of that, I am also just!"
"We are both right so we are both in the wrong! So tell me, where is the Justice in that? We are both just and at fault, so who wins? I will tell you who!"
Cheng Hao licked his lips as a satisfied expression appeared on his face "It is those who have the strength to support their claims!"
Dagger whimpered and Cheng Hao stood still as Oblivion and Glory devoured the tiny man's flesh. The two flames then disappeared and Cheng Hao's eyes turned back to their normal, golden hue.
He closed his eyes and felt the boundless spiritual energy orbiting around his Core. He smiled and began to model it in the shape of another Core, a lot smaller but also purer than the original... a Satellite!
Suddenly, his aura jumped up! The cultivation that had staled for over two months at the low level Advanced stage jumped up and increased by an enormous amount!
Low level! Peak low level! After that, he broke through to mid level Advanced stage! When he did that, Cheng Hao modelled the forming Satellite to make it look pointier and longer, somehow resembling... A sword.
But it didn't stop there, no, it kept going! Mid level! Peak mid level! High level Advanced stage! But even then, it stunned those watching him from close and from afar as it ignored the bottleneck once again and broke through from high level Advanced stage to peak level Advanced stage!
At that point, the Sword-shaped Satellite was nearly completely formed, it only required sufficient spiritual energy to completely stabilise!
Cheng Hao smiled satisfied for a bit but then yelled as he laughed cheerfully "Great! But I know you can do more! Give me more!"
A crowd of people had been watching the fight between the child and the nine people wearing black robes from afar. They had been staring wide-eyedly and gaping each time the child made a move: a child had been fighting on equal ground as those crazy powerful demons, how could they not be shocked?
Those people that had been looking at Cheng Hao with admiration were now on the verge of vomiting blood: more? He wanted MORE? Was breaking through a whole level not enough? Just die already!
But then, their anger turned into shock once again and their admiration turned into veneration as the heavens seemed to obey Cheng Hao.
Under the unbelieving gaze of thousands of people, spiritual energy gathered once again and was absorbed by Cheng Hao all in one go! The peak Advanced stage cultivation base wobbled dangerously once and then it jumped up again...
The floating blade in his Sea of Consciousness shone with blinding light as incredible power could be felt coming from its figure, massive amounts of Qi and spiritual energy swirled around it like a hurricane and then got absorbed into the hovering satellite.
Cheng Hao licked his lips and laughed happily "Yeah, I guess Goldy is right" he smiled cheerfully "It is good to breakthrough! Superior stage after all, is only three stages away from entering the Ageless Realm!"