Chapter 54: Chapter 51 Battle Realm Name
Li Hao followed the slippery, broken stone path for several miles, arriving at the edge of another deep pool formed by a waterfall.
“Strange, I thought I heard the sound of a flute.”
Li Hao looked around, wondering if it was just an illusion.
The waterfall in front of him was like a curtain, but through the gaps in the flowing water, there appeared to be a small temple inside.
Li Hao was slightly taken aback. His figure flickered as he used the top-level Bai Fengxing movement technique, darting through the water curtain like a bird through the trees, emerging on the other side without a single drop of water on him.
The previously reserved 3 Skill Points, he spent two on his movement technique, which allowed him to easily comprehend this high-grade Cultivation Technique.
As Li Hao entered through the water curtain, in the distance at another moss-covered stone platform, stood two delicate figures.
“Eh, Yue Yao, was there someone just over there?” Lin Feifei asked in surprise, pointing to the waterfall in the distance.
“It seemed like it.”
Song Yueyao also noticed, but the figure flickered and disappeared, appearing to wear the garb of an external academy disciple.
“It seems I’m not seeing things. What is an external disciple doing here? It’s not yet time for the new students’ annual exam, is it?”
Lin Feifei wondered with confusion, “He seemed to have entered the Regional Lord’s Temple. Could he be going into the Meng River?”
Song Yueyao withdrew her gaze, shook her head slightly, and continued to play her flute softly, uninterested in such extraneous matters.
Behind the waterfall, Li Hao looked at the temple before his eyes.
It was very small, about half a person tall.
However, it was exquisitely crafted, with two effigies inside, one male and one female. They appeared ancient, and time had blurred their features. On closer inspection, one could see that they were once gentle and kind.
But with mottled chunks of clay falling off and the faces decayed, the half-smiles on their lips now seemed somewhat eerie and ferocious.
On either side of the temple, there was a vertical couplet:
The earth can produce all things,
The soil can bury all lives.
Above it, there was a horizontal scroll: A Regional Lord.
As Li Hao was examining the temple, suddenly a small booklet flew out from inside, opening in front of his eyes.
Subsequently, a sheet of paper flew out from the booklet, shooting towards Li Hao’s head with divine swiftness.
Li Hao was shocked and tried to dodge, but even with his Fifteen Li Realm Cultivation Level, he could not react in time, and the divine light penetrated his head.
In an instant, the world around him seemed to be submerged in water light, and then as the water light faded, another layer of the world, both real and illusionary, revealed itself.
The dim cave became blurred, as if there was a barrier-like water glow enclosing him within three feet.
At the same time, illusory golden characters appeared before Li Hao’s eyes:
[You have entered the Meng River.]
[Your place of residence has been confirmed: Great Yu Dynasty, Qingzhou]
[Please leave your name for use within the Meng River.]
Li Hao paused, he had entered the Meng River?
He looked around. A flowing, film-like barrier enveloped him, and beyond the barrier’s dim light, he could vaguely see some broken mountains in a vast expanse, far from the narrow cave just now.
Was this the legendary place of mysterious perils?
Incredible!
Despite knowing some stories about the Meng River, experiencing it firsthand still left him astonished. This was beyond the scope of ordinary martial arts.
Still, it was unclear which level this Meng River belonged to?
Li Hao, who usually passed the time fishing, had heard from Second Master that there were five levels of the Meng River, and even Second Master and Elder Feng would not dare to enter a Meng River of the Youdu level lightly, as it contained great terrors.
At this moment, the previous divine light that had entered Li Hao’s forehead converged in his hand, forming a piece of gold paper.
The paper was blank.
As information flowed into his mind, Li Hao understood. He thought for a moment, bit his finger, and left his name for the Meng River on the gold paper:
Chong Er.
As he finished writing, the paper gleamed with golden light, engulfing and submerging the blood-written name, then transforming back into divine light that disappeared into Li Hao’s body.
Simultaneously, the water film-like barrier around him gradually faded, revealing the outside world of broken mountains and desolate lands.
In his mind, a message automatically appeared:
Realm: Fengshan Menghe River.
Meng River Completion Rate: 0%.
Li Hao looked up, seeing the red sky with the setting sun like blood, half-sunken into the earth on the other side.
In front of him lay a desolate mountain, within which a village and wisps of smoke from cooking fires could be seen.
Li Hao’s gaze shifted slightly as he released his divine soul to scout ahead.
A soul shadow that looked exactly like his real body flew out from the top of his head and, in the blink of an eye, soared thousands of miles into the sky above the village, overlooking the entire mountain below.
At the same time, the perspective of the divine soul rapidly ascended, looking towards farther lands to get a clearer view of the whole Meng River Battlefield.
But as his gaze spanned the horizon, Li Hao saw that at the end of the Mo River, darkness enveloped the area. When the vision of his divine soul penetrated that darkness, he felt an eerie chill, as if something in the darkness should not be disturbed!
Li Hao quickly retracted the perception of his divine soul, limiting its range to just the village and its surroundings.
Inside the village, old and young walked about, men farmed, and women weaved, appearing very harmonious.
… provided one could ignore their faces.
Everyone’s face was withered and dry, the elderly looked as if they were corpses, children’s eyes were like black holes, tongues hanging down to their chests, women weaving by the windows had nails sharp as knives, teeth fierce, bearing sinister smiles.
Truly a paradise beyond this world… Li Hao sighed.
Having seen the fierce appearance of various fish demons, he did not find these dead souls of the Mo River to be that terrifying.
“Do I need to resolve all of them to complete the task?” Li Hao pondered with a thoughtful look in his eyes. He had thought about retreating, but he needed to enter the corresponding temple in the Mo River first.
Through the patrol of his divine soul, he had already found the temple’s location, right in the middle of the village, on a stage-like spot.
This positioning is really cunning…
“That person, he seems to be the boss around here, right? In the Soul Succession Realm, can the dead still have their own soul shadows?”
Li Hao’s gaze settled on the hill behind the village, where a black-robed scholar was seated, with the soul shadow of a woman billowing with black smoke prostrated on his back, giving off a rather eerie vibe.
After surveying the situation, Li Hao didn’t linger and, once his divine soul returned to his body, he strode towards the village.
The villagers loitering at the entrance soon noticed Li Hao.
“Hello, hello…” Li Hao greeted with a smile and a raised hand.
The elder originally leading a child barked violently and rushed towards Li Hao with a ferocious expression.
The child, who had originally appeared “naively silly,” suddenly looked vicious, revealing sharp teeth as he charged at Li Hao.
“Such enthusiasm.” Li Hao couldn’t help but feel helpless.
He casually broke off a dead branch and flicked it lightly.
Snowflakes fluttered down, the old man and child who rushed towards him had not yet reached within two yards of Li Hao when they suddenly stiffened, their heads breaking off, the wounds strangely sharp and clean.
After that, Li Hao casually carried the dead branch and walked into the village along the ancient path.
The villagers transplanting rice seedlings in the fields became violent after noticing Li Hao, roaring as they pounced on him.
Some farmers wearing straw hats and carrying grain also rushed over with their shoulder poles.
“Do you also dream of conquering the great sea?” Li Hao asked as he walked, his footsteps uninterrupted, swinging the dead branch casually as if snow was falling. Each snowflake that landed on these villagers seemed to act like a seal, causing their bodies to freeze suddenly.
As Li Hao went deeper into the village, more and more villagers surged towards him, including women carrying pots and those long-tongued women who were weaving.
“They’re all in the Zhou Tian Realm, tsk, and there are even a few at the Perfect Zhou Tian,” Li Hao mused as he swung the dead branch, walking along the broad road, leaving behind a trail of severed corpses.
These dead seemed to be ghosts, supposedly without physical form, but in this Mo River, they possessed bodies, blood, and flesh, spraying black blood when severed.
“Could this be the same Mo River that we’ll be tested at in a year?” Li Hao mumbled to himself.
The difficulty of this Mo River didn’t seem high to him.
The only real danger he had seen so far was the black-robed scholar behind the village in the Soul Succession Realm.
Using the Soul Succession Realm to test the disciples of Alpha Academy was indeed appropriate.
As villagers fell one by one, Li Hao glanced at the gold paper in his palm, which displayed a message:
Meng River Completion: 89%.
It seemed that with each villager he slain, the completion would advance by about 1%.
“Given the nature of the Mo River, even if I resolve all of them, it seems impossible to reach 100% completion, to completely disintegrate it,” Li Hao murmured.
The difficulty in suppressing the Mo River lied here; only with a hundred percent resolution could it be made to disappear.
It was said that someone tried exterminating all the dead in the Mo River, destroying everything, but still failed.
The Mo River couldn’t be destroyed or worn away; unless it was resolved, it would regenerate, come back again, and extend to any part of the world.
Li Hao passed by the temple next to the stage, glanced at it but chose not to exit right away.
Since he was here, he decided to try and see to what extent he could achieve this, as it was his first encounter.