In the instant that his third Soul Lamp was extinguished, the others flickered as though a wind had passed by.

"The Seven Desolations...." Meng Hao said coolly, closing his eyes. He could sense the rumbling within him, the explosive rise of his cultivation base, and the increase of his divine sense by ten percent!

Right now, his divine sense was equivalent to sixty percent of that of a Paragon!

"If I extinguish the other thirty Soul Lamps, then my divine sense will be three times as powerful as a Paragon's! Even if it's only three times as powerful as a 7-Essences Paragon, that's still a terrifying level of power." Meng Hao's eyes opened, and they shone brightly. He took a deep breath as the rumbling sounds continued to echo out within him. Everything about him was still growing stronger, his cultivation base, his fleshly body, and his soul.

"To me, the Ancient Realm is no longer just a waypoint. Instead... it is a time of unprecedented transformation!" He swished his sleeve, causing a wind to spring up in all directions. He sent his divine sense out into the area, and could sense that he was now sixty to seventy percent more powerful than before!

"And I can get even stronger!" he said, eyes glittering. He looked at his fourth Soul Lamp, and then inwardly instructed it to be extinguished!

As the flame vanished, green smoke rose up, which rushed into Meng Hao's nose, causing further intense rumbling sounds. His cultivation base shot higher, causing a wind to spring up that filled the entire world.

His divine sense grew again, rising from its previous level of sixty percent all the way to seventy percent!!

His fleshly body issued cracking sounds, and his soul felt as if it would burst out from inside of him. Scintillating light shone out from his eyes, as if they had become the source of all the light in the world.

The First Desolation of the Seven Desolations created illusory visions that were completely meaningless to Meng Hao. They couldn't shake him in the slightest.

This might be the Ancient Tribulation of an Allheaven Dao Immortal, but it was incapable of comparing with Meng Hao's experience regarding the real and the unreal, nor could it contend with the Meng Hao who had searched through infinite time to find his present life!

A single look on his part could cause all illusions to shatter as if they had never even existed. They were smashed into smithereens!

When his fourth Soul Lamp was extinguished, Meng Hao's energy rocketed up. At the same time, just as he was about to extinguish the fifth lamp, a furious roar echoed out from the fourth lamp. The air distorted, and a huge hand became visible. It pierced through the rift between the illusory and the real, stretching out to grab Meng Hao.

"DIE!!" roared an enraged voice. Meng Hao was not unfamiliar with this voice or this hand. The owner of that voice was none other than... that entity which Meng Hao had encountered before, which hid in the Ancient Tribulation clouds, and had come to hate Meng Hao deep within its bones during the First Desolation.

It had been waiting for Meng Hao to return to the Desolation of Delusion, but could never have imagined that he would do so having experienced such transformations. Furthermore, there was only one more Soul Lamp left, and once it was extinguished, the First Desolation would be completely concluded. It would have no other chance to do anything to Meng Hao after that, so right now, it was incredibly anxious. Therefore, all it could do was attack now to prevent Meng Hao from extinguishing that lamp.

"I've been waiting for you for a while now," Meng Hao said as the huge hand bore down on him. He extended his right hand as quickly as lightning. In fact, it moved so quickly that it looked like his hand was still at his side, when in fact it had already grabbed onto the huge hand which was trying to grab him.

That hand was much, much smaller than it had been back when he was transcending his Ancient Tribulation, or when he had been inside the First Desolation. It was now only about three meters wide, and currently it had ground to a halt, completely immobilized by Meng Hao, unable to budge at all.

A flustered and exasperated roar echoed out, a roar that even contained disbelief. Meng Hao snorted coldly, then waved his right hand, causing his cultivation base to burst with power. Cracking sounds rang out, accompanied by a miserable shriek. Meng Hao then jerked back on the hand he was holding, causing a shadowy figure to be yanked out of the fourth Soul Lamp.

It was like a dragon formed of black mist, which twisted and jerked as it was pulled out. A cry of alarm could be heard as Meng Hao clenched down with his right hand. Rumbling sounds could be heard, and the mist began to shrink. It was almost as if Meng Hao's hand had become a black hole. In the blink of an eye, he had sucked all of the mist into the palm of his hand.

"Do you want to live, or die?" Meng Hao asked coolly, looking coldly down at the mist within his palm. The foggy ball churned and seethed until a terrified face came to be visible within. It looked surprised, shocked even. However, it seemed to still be holding onto its dignity, and Meng Hao's words caused it to let out an unyielding, hate-filled roar.

"You really want to die?!" Meng Hao began to close his hand into a fist, causing cracking sounds to ring out. The black mist appeared to be on the verge of shattering, and a miserable shriek rang out. All of a sudden, under the pressure of imminent death, the entity within the mist finally chose to submit.

"Too late," Meng Hao said, clenching his hand down hard. A boom rang out, and the mist collapsed as easily as a wet log. An anguished roar of despair rang out, filled with curses, as black strands floated out between the cracks of Meng Hao's fingers. They looked like vipers as they shot toward Meng Hao himself.

Meng Hao's expression was the same as ever as he waved his sleeve, causing the black viper-like strands to shatter, transforming them into ash.

At the same time, the final Soul Lamp of his First Desolation, the fifth of his 33 Soul Lamps, suddenly went dark.

When that happened, Meng Hao inhaled the green smoke, which caused his eyes to shine with a strange light. He threw his head back and roared; rumbling could be heard as his cultivation base rose up explosively, his soul surged within him as if it wanted to burst out, and his divine sense expanded rapidly!

His divine sense now swelled past seventy percent and reached... eighty percent of the level of a Paragon!

When Meng Hao sent out divine sense that was eighty percent of that of a Paragon, the surrounding world began to shake on the verge of collapse.

Meng Hao took a deep breath, and his eyes shone brightly. His current state was far beyond his previous peak, and as of this moment, he was completely confident in being able to secure victory over Lord White!

He rose to his feet and quickly absorbed all of his Soul Lamps, then turned and stepped out of the world. He emerged from the door, and was back on Patriarch Reliance's back. The first thing he heard was Patriarch Reliance roaring angrily, and then he saw an enormous head lurching toward him. An acrid odor blasted against his face as a huge mouth opened as if to consume him.

Of course, it was Patriarch Reliance, who had long since freed himself from the Hexing magic Meng Hao had laid upon him. He had been waiting for Meng Hao to reappear, and as soon as he did, reflexively tried to consume him.

Meng Hao's expression was the same as usual. He completely ignored the mouth, vanishing from Patriarch Reliance's back and reappearing out in the starry sky. Patriarch Reliance's mouth snapped down onto nothing, whereupon he swiveled his head and roared at Meng Hao.

"Meng Hao, you little bastard, you're nothing but an intolerable bully!"

Meng Hao looked back at Patriarch Reliance and smiled.

"Alright, enough is enough," he said. "Quit it with the act. You're free to go. However, if I need you, you'd better come." Meng Hao actually felt strong emotions regarding Patriarch Reliance. Flicking his sleeve, he turned to leave.

However, Patriarch Reliance didn't seem ready to give up. Roaring, he charged toward Meng Hao.

"Hey, get back here!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Patriarch Reliance regretted them. He began to shiver, and then began to curse himself inwardly for being so muddle-headed. However, considering that he had already let the words slip, he couldn't just back down. That would be far too embarrassing. Therefore, he continued to act as angry as before. But then, Meng Hao stopped in place, and Patriarch Reliance began to tremble.

Meng Hao turned back to look at Patriarch Reliance, a contemplative expression on his face. "Oh? You don't want me to leave? Could it be that you really do want to become my mount?"

Patriarch Reliance instantly began to tremble. His entire facade and demeanor was just about to crumble away, when he realized that Guyiding Tri-Rain was standing there on his back, giggling. Feeling embarrassed, he cleared his throat, and tried to sound wizened and profound as he said, "Well, no matter what you say, I'm still your Patriarch. Therefore, before leaving, you should at least kowtow to me. If you don't, well, hmph."

Patriarch Reliance had to force himself to not tremble, and in fact, it took all the courage he had just to say those words. Glaring at Meng Hao, he slowly began to back up.

Meng Hao chuckled. He could tell exactly what Patriarch Reliance was thinking at the moment, and considering how good of a mood he himself was in, he simply clasped hands and bowed.

"Keep safe and sound, Patriarch. May I take my leave now?"

"Hmmphhh! Take thy leave!" Patriarch Reliance instantly felt very pleased with himself, and suddenly had the feeling that there must be something about him that the little bastard Meng Hao feared. Instantly, his confidence increased.

Meng Hao's smile didn't change, but suddenly his cultivation base rumbled to life, and his divine sense spread out. Patriarch Reliance was so frightened he instantly shuddered intensely, and his eyes went wide. Without even thinking about it, a fawning expression appeared on his face.

"Hahaha, hahaha, I was joking! Meng Hao, young friend, you... you go ahead and take off now...." By this point, Patriarch Reliance didn't care that Guyiding Tri-Rain was secretly laughing. His scalp was numb, and he just wanted Meng Hao to be gone as quickly as possible. He was also cursing his careless remark from earlier.

With that, he backed up, instantly transforming into a beam of colorful light that shot off into the distance, reviling himself inwardly that he couldn't use more power to put distance between himself and Meng Hao even faster.

Meng Hao watched Patriarch Reliance leaving, a soft gleam in his eye. He had to admit that Patriarch Reliance was the source of many fond memories. From Mount Daqing to the Reliance Sect, all of them were precious parts of his past.

After a long moment, Meng Hao turned away. At that point, a bleakly murderous air sprang up around him, and his gaze turned as sharp as a blade. Then, he began to head toward the rift between the Eighth and Seventh Mountains and Seas.

"Lord White," he said softly, "this time, you will definitely meet your end!" With that, he vanished.