"The Fourth Hex... Self Hexing!" Meng Hao watched the world vanishing in front of him, and all of the various clones of himself fading away. Finally, he rose to his feet.

His cultivation base had not experienced any transformations, but now, he no longer had six Hexing magics, but seven!

"I'm now only two Hexing Magics away from the full nine. One of them is the original First Hex, and the other is my own Ninth Hex, the final one!" As Meng Hao thought back to all the different times he had acquired Hexing magics throughout his life, he sighed.

Turning, he waved his hand, causing his Soul Lamps to appear. He had a total of 33, with 10 of them being extinguished and 23 still burning.

"There are Seven Desolations, and I have already passed the first two. Now, after having consumed the power of Paragon Mythdragon, I can start the Third Desolation!" Meng Hao's eyes shone with a bright light as he focused on his 11th Soul Lamp.

"The Third Desolation, the Desolation of the heart...." After a moment of thought, Meng Hao extended his right hand and pointed at the Soul Lamp. A wind blasted out, and the flame was extinguished, transforming into green smoke that poured into Meng Hao's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

As he closed his eyes and sat down quietly, there were no changes to his fleshly body or to his soul. However, his heart... felt as if an enormous hand had begun to squeeze down on it.

Thump-thump!

Meng Hao's face paled as pain stabbed into his heart. In addition to the pain afflicting the actual organ, his figurative heart also filled with pain. It was like endless grief and loss that turned into complete emptiness.

Sweat began to pour down his forehead, and he began to tremble. There were no hallucinations, but the pain made him feel as if the entire world was dead, and he was the only thing left in Heaven and Earth.

"No...." he murmured. Suddenly, he threw his head back and bellowed, a sound filled with intense pain. It was as if he could not bear such loneliness, and wished to tear apart the Heavens and everything else.

The 33 Hells were still in a state of collapse, but when his powerful cry echoed out, a blast of energy erupted out above him, smashing into the lands above him, creating a huge vortex.

Countless ruins and pieces of rubble swirled into that vortex, with Meng Hao at the very center of it. There were also dozens of Outsider beasts, all of them trembling as they looked at Meng Hao. Apparently, the pressure and emotion radiating off of him were affecting them.

"The Seven Desolations... sounds impressive, but they are truly only seven tribulations, seven torments." Meng Hao opened his eyes and then slowly reached up to rub his chest over the location of his heart.

"The Third Desolation, the Desolation of the heart...." Sighing, he stood. His cultivation base had increased by a bit. Before, he had already exceeded the level of an Imperial Lord, and yet was still a step away from the Paragon level. With this current increase, he couldn't quite complete that step, but he was immeasurably close.

As he looked around, his energy surged, encompassing all of the collapsing 33 Hells, and all of the Outsider beasts, and causing incredible pressure to weigh down.

"Acknowledge allegiance, or die!" he said, not by means of his voice, but by means of divine will. All of the surrounding Outsider beasts could immediately detect his words.

They had already been terrified by the murderous aura Meng Hao emitted, having killed a Paragon. In response to his words, they maintained silence, and eventually bowed their heads.

In that instant, Meng Hao transformed into a beam of light that shot toward the exit, followed by the roaring group of Outsider beasts from the 33 Hells.

"The ten months have passed," he murmured. "The fighting must have already resumed outside...." He increased his speed, and moments later, shot out of the exit.

By the time that Meng Hao burst out from within the 33 Hells, fierce fighting had erupted within the Mountain and Sea Realm. Tens of millions of Outsiders were attacking viciously. Because of the numerous Dao Realm experts present, as well as the giants, the Mountain and Sea Realm was being pushed back in successive losses.

It was in that exact same moment that Wang Youcai and the others returned from the 33 Hells. Without the slightest hesitation, they waded into the fighting, finding the powerful experts among the Outsiders to do battle with.

The addition of these more that twenty Chosen, in concert with the Mountain and Sea Lords, ensured that the disparity between the two forces' elite-level cultivators was not as great. Now, the Mountain and Sea Realm's retreat slowed.

An 8-Essences Paragon destroyed the Fifth Mountain with the stomp of a foot, and yet that very same Paragon was now being pinned down by Sea Dream, the Paragon puppet, the three great Doyens, and others. However, they were not her match. The female Paragon snorted coldly and then performed an incantation gesture, causing an enormous vortex to sweep out in all directions.

RUUUUUUMMMMBLLLLE!

Blood sprayed out of Sea Dream's mouth, and the same thing happened to the three great Doyens. The Paragon puppet's chest caved in. Everyone was forced to retreat, being completely incapable of standing in the way of the 8-Essences female Paragon.

"What a bunch of insects!" she said. A single step took her past the entire group into the Sixth Sea, where she reached out and pushed her hand down viciously.

Instantly, a ball of green flame appeared in her hand, which rumbled down into the water. It only took a moment for the entire Sixth Sea to begin to boil and dry up!

Countless denizens of the Sixth Sea screamed in agony as they succumbed to the heat and died.

The Sixth Sea was destroyed!

The entire battle now seemed somewhat one-sided. Although the Mountain and Sea Realm had evened the odds in terms of the elite-level cultivators, the 33 Heavens were fighting with everything they had at their disposal. The giants' skin was incredibly tough, and every stride they took forward was something the Mountain and Sea cultivators were powerless to stop. If they tried, they were crushed into pulp.

The army of tens of millions of Outsiders pushed the Mountain and Sea Realm cultivators back with deadly force. Miserable screams rang out as the Mountain and Sea cultivators were powerless to do anything except retreat. Gradually, a distinct sensation of despair began to grow within the hearts of the forces of the Mountain and Sea Realm.

Faced with this level of power, it was as if their previous preparations had all been for naught.

"This war has gone on for long enough," said the 8-Essences Paragon, her voice cool. "Today... it ends." She took another step forward, toward the Sixth Mountain. Her goal was clear; she wanted to destroy each Mountain and Sea in the Realm as quickly as possible.

When that happened, only the cultivators would remain, and they could be easily dealt with.

Sea Dream and the others watched with bloodshot eyes, and although they tried to interfere, they couldn't even get close. However, just when the 8-Essences Paragon seemed on the verge of setting foot onto the Sixth Mountain, the 17th Heaven suddenly shuddered, as though some enormous force were separating it from the other Heavens and sending it toward the Mountain and Sea Realm.

However, if you looked closely, you would see that it wasn't heading toward the Mountain and Sea Realm cultivators, but rather... the Outsider army.

This sudden twist caused the Mountain and Sea Realm cultivators to stare in shock. The Outsiders were equally astonished. Even the female Paragon stopped in her tracks, spinning around to look at the land mass that was the 17th Heaven.

"I should have known that there would be sleeper agents in the 33 Heavens!" she said, her face darkening. She took another step, this time heading toward the 17th Heaven. Then, she reached out and made a violent grasping motion, causing an enormous boom to ring out as the entire 17th Heaven was shattered. The whole land mass instantly collapsed into ash.

Even still, the 8-Essences Paragon was unable to determine who it was that had done such a thing. Frowning, she scanned the battlefield, but could turn up no clues.

"It wasn't Windswept, he's under strict surveillance. If it wasn't him, then who was it?

"Well it doesn't matter. With power like ours, we can crush anything that gets in our path." Snorting coldly, the female Paragon waved her right hand toward the sun that existed within the army of Outsiders. Instantly, that huge sun radiated boundless light, shrinking down as it shot in her direction. It then swirled around her, quickly transforming into a set of armor.

With that armor, the 8-Essences Paragon's battle prowess rose even higher. She quickly performed a double-handed incantation gesture, then waved her hand out at her army, causing the Outsiders to be stimulated by some unseen force. One by one, they threw their heads back and howled. Their eyes began to glow red as their battle prowess increased, and they then resumed fighting with increased ferocity.

Rumbling sounds could be heard as the Mountain and Sea Realm cultivators suffered instant setbacks. The casualties were severe as they were relentlessly shoved backward across the battlefield.

The female Paragon then turned and headed back toward the Mountain and Sea Realm. Once again, she appeared above the Sixth Mountain, which she struck with a palm. The Sixth Mountain began to vibrate, and moments later, its Xuanwu turtle shattered. As its agonized scream rang out, the entire Sixth Mountain... was destroyed!

The Mountain and Sea Realm cultivators were shaking and in complete despair, and some began to rave. The first to do so were powerful experts from the Three Great Daoist Societies, who unleashed all of the divine abilities they could; some even self-detonated.

However, in the moment that the Sixth Mountain collapsed, three dazzling beams of light shot out from within the rubble of the mountain. Instantly, they locked down onto the position of the female Paragon, where they transformed into a triangular sealing mark, completely trapping her!

"That's all you've got?!" she laughed coldly, seemingly taking it all in stride. In her original attempt to destroy the Sixth Mountain, the sudden development had occurred with the 17th Heaven, leaving her no choice but to destroy it. At that time, she had guessed that the Mountain and Sea Realm was now resorting to calling upon sleeper agents within the 33 Heavens to try to delay her. In that case, they would most certainly have other tricks planned.

Therefore, the sudden appearance of this sealing mark from within the crumbling Sixth Mountain was nothing surprising. However, even in the moment in which she prepared to cast off the sealing mark, the three Doyens, who had only just made their appearance in the battle, suddenly blurred and disappeared from their current locations. Shockingly, when they reappeared, they were positioned at the corners of that triangle!

"I am the Sublime Spirit Doyen!"

"I am the Dao Divinity Doyen!"

"I am the Heaven Severing Doyen!"

"Our mission has been to wait until your arrival, and use our lives, use our Daos, to seal you tight!!"