Meng Hao's flesh and blood expanded, then withered. The cyclical process gave birth to an indescribable pain that caused Meng Hao to tremble and sweat profusely.

However, his eyes were filled with unprecedented staunchness. He clenched his jaw and persisted on. Refusing to lapse into unconsciousness, he immersed himself in the sensation. His fleshly body constantly withered and then expanded, giving rise to a terrifying power.

Boom!

The indistinct light from the Greater Demons of Heaven and Earth drained his body to the point of collapse and destruction. His hair fell out, and he looked like an oilless lamp, like a withered corpse.

Boom!

The secret art of Fleshly Sanctification and the magical symbols from the Demon Immortal Pagoda swirled into his body, causing it to expand and grow until he looked like a giant.

The paradoxical transformation was something that had never been seen from ancient times until modern times, an unprecedented molding of the fleshly body. As the cycle continued, Meng Hao continued to grow more and more powerful!!

Zhixiang's body was also trembling. She did not have any secret art of Fleshly Sanctification. She only had the pure transformation of the Demon Immortal Body. At the moment, her body was withered, but within the withering was shocking Demonic Qi.

The two of them each practiced their own type of cultivation, constantly growing more powerful. As for the waters of the Demon Immortal Cistern, they were slowly shrinking down.

After some period of time passed, a rumbling sound could be heard, echoing out in all directions. Meng Hao suddenly raised his head, although his eyes were closed. Right now, his body was no longer expanding dramatically, nor was it withering to the point of death. Instead, he was tall and thin.

He currently looked almost like he didn't have any power at all in his body. However, deep inside was hidden a fearsome and indescribable strength that far exceeded the previous limits of his fleshly body.

He was now in possession of an extraordinary, enchanting power. Every single scrap of muscle was filled with shocking, explosive power. His bones were solid to an indescribable degree. As Meng Hao lifted his head, his entire body erupted with an intense aura.

The wind whipped about as the vortex screamed. Shockingly, Meng Hao's aura… had the fleshly body power of the Seventh Anima!!

However he had not entered the Seventh Anima, but rather remained within the First Anima.

The mist around him seethed, and the vortex rotated around and around. In the middle of it all, Meng Hao inhaled deeply and took a moment to sense the power within him. Although his Cultivation base was still the same as ever, his fleshly body power and his battle prowess were now completely different than before.

His eyes glittered as he entered the Second Anima.

Boom!

Third Anima, Fourth Anima…. As he sat there cross-legged, it was without hesitation that he went all the way to the most powerful state in which he could exist, the Seventh Anima!

His body shook as the same power as before surged through him, that of sixty-four great circle Nascent Souls. However… his fleshly body instantly reached an incredible, unprecedented state.

His fleshly body, his skeletal system, his physical frame, were now thick and strong in a way that did not conform to any rules. He was far taller than before, to the point where even sitting cross-legged as he was, he was still taller than previously.

The fearsomeness of his physical body made him seem to be, not a Cultivator, but something Demonic!

His facial features were vicious. Countless veins popped up all over his body, and his hair was even longer than before. When he looked up, his eyes radiated a ferocious will. It looked like a single punch… could shatter the earth.

Meng Hao wasn't sure exactly how to describe the current state of his fleshly body. He clenched his fists as the explosive, terrifying feeling of power exploded out from inside of him. He could tell that his current state of power far, far exceeded that from before.

"However…" he thought, "a fleshly body as powerful as this is still not Spirit Severing…." Although his fleshly body was terrifyingly powerful, he still had the feeling that for some reason, he had reached a bottleneck.

The appearance of the bottleneck did not cause him to be disheartened, but instead filled his eyes with excitement. He knew that the bottleneck could only be one thing….

The bottleneck of… acquiring a Spirit Severing fleshly body!

Once he broke through the bottleneck, he would have a complete Spirit Severing fleshly body, and would truly be able to fight back against First Severing Cultivators. He would truly be within the Spirit Severing stage!

Although his Cultivation base would be different, his fleshly body would definitely have that terrifying power.

"I should be able to break through!" he thought, his eyes glittering. After taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. The Greater Demons of Heaven and Earth once again unleashed their indistinct light.

One beam of light after another passed into Meng Hao's body. This time, they did not stir his skeletal system, nor whither his flesh and blood. Instead, they wreaked fatal havoc onto his Qi and blood vessels.

Meng Hao wasn't Zhixiang, who possessed a special physique and constitution. She could turn the fatal transformations into something not fatal, and thus acquire something like a rebirth in the form of the Demon Immortal Body.

However, Meng Hao had something even more special and shocking than Zhixiang when it came to his physique. He had a secret art that was completely incompatible with the Demon Immortal Body, and was even something like an enemy to it!

That secret art was something that Ke Yunhai had described as being extremely rare in Heaven and Earth, with an origin veiled in mystery.

Even as Meng Hao's blood and Qi passageways were being destroyed, the inexhaustible supply of magical symbols around him poured into his body. In the blink of an eye, his blood and Qi passageways were thoroughly restored.

The cyclical paradox once again exploded out inside of his body. Meng Hao had gotten used to the destruction of his skeletal system and the rending of his flesh and blood. Therefore, this feeling was something he could handle.

The only thing that happened was that he trembled a bit; his expression didn't change in the least.

Rumbling filled his entire body as his blood and Qi passageways were destroyed and then restored and strengthened. He became stronger, causing his fleshly body to experience yet another meteoric rise.

This rise grew stronger and more stable, transforming into an explosive power that could break through a bottleneck.

Boom!

His body trembled and blood oozed out of his mouth. The bottleneck was like an enormous battlement. As he bashed against it, cracks appeared, but it didn't collapse.

"One more time!" he said, his eyes glittering. He focused all the power he could muster, combining it together. The magical symbols in the area were few, and as Meng Hao gathered his power, the Demon Immortal Pagoda on the outside began to shake and erupt with even more magical symbols. The tower itself was beginning to grow dark and faded.

The magical symbols joined together to form a silver river that shot toward Meng Hao, pouring into his body, causing it to shake. The light from the Greater Demons destroyed his blood and Qi passageways; the secret art and the magical symbols poured into him to reforge them. He surged with more power, and then once again lashed out against the bottleneck.

BOOM!!

The bottleneck trembled violently, and the cracks spread out even thicker. Just when it seemed on the verge of collapsing, more light from the Greater Demons poured into Meng Hao, along with boundless magical symbols.

Roaring filled Meng Hao's body. He lifted his head up and let out a soundless howl. As of this moment, his body was no longer expanding dramatically, but rather, shrinking at high speed. He now seemed completely weak and thin.

At the same time, the blood and Qi vessels within him were completely restored.

The light from the Greater Demons was incapable of any further destruction, and the increasingly scant numbers of magical symbols could offer no further assistance.

His blood and Qi vessels having been completely restored, the bottleneck within him… directly shattered into pieces!

As the bottleneck vanished, Meng Hao's fleshly body experienced an incredible, shocking rise. He grew more and more powerful, to a world-shaking degree!

However, what caused Meng Hao to frown was that after breaking through the bottleneck, he didn't get any sensation that he was in a Spirit Severing state. That caused him to feel a bit confused.

However, even as he frowned, a completely unpredictable sensation suddenly rose up within him. Meng Hao suddenly noticed a transformation occurring that caused the sky to fade, the wind and clouds to seethe, the surrounding mist to shoot up into the air, and the vortex surrounding him to suddenly stop in place.

The transformation was caused by the increase in the three aspects of his fleshly body; his skeletal system, his flesh and blood, and his veins and arteries. He had the special aspects of the Demon Immortal Body, but also Qi and blood of a fleshly body forged from Fleshly Sanctification.

This was a never-before-seen combination that was essentially a paradox. It created… a shocking transformation that had never been seen before Meng Hao, nor would ever be seen again.

This transformation was not one of his fleshly body. Instead, it occurred within his dantian region. Next to his seven Nascent Souls, shockingly… a thick coagulation of Qi and blood appeared, shaped like a person.

Because his fleshly body had reached such an incredible pinnacle of power, he had formed… a Qi and Blood Nascent Soul!!

When the Nascent Soul appeared, Meng Hao's Cultivation base immediately began to emanate ripples. His hair whipped about, and his Cultivation base exploded with power. In this instant, Meng Hao… could sense the fluctuations of an eighth Nascent Soul!!

"Spirit Severing is within… the Eighth Anima!" he thought, panting as he gained enlightenment.

Meanwhile….

An old man sped along beneath the Seventh Peak, nearing the forbidden area where Meng Hao and Zhixiang were.

The old man came to a stop and looked up, his eyes gleaming coldly.

This man was none other than Patriarch Huyan.

"I can sense that little bastard Meng Hao inside there," he thought. "He has my precious treasure…. However, it belongs to the Heavenly Pursuit Tribe, so even though he stole it away, he won't be able to use it.

"When I was in the Second Plane, I was able to acquire the information I sought regarding its secrets…." He smiled coldly as he took a few steps back. Lifting his right hand, he quickly began to set up restrictive spells on the ground around him.

"Meng Hao, I'm going to bury you in this place. I'll wait here for you to come out, and when you do, I'll splatter your blood everywhere!" Smiling coldly, he finished setting up the spells, then took a deep breath and sat down cross-legged.

"Not even of Spirit Severing, yet you dare to fight with me!? In the Third Plane, the Demon Immortal Sect seals all personal items. Your mastiff won't be able to appear, so you won't be able to fuse with it to borrow the power of Spirit Severing.

"Well then, you shall die." Intense killing intent appeared in Patriarch Huyan's eyes.

"I'll kill you, then I'll go back and wipe out that Golden Crow Tribe of yours to join you in burial!"