At this moment, he could only grit his teeth and endure the pain, continuing to throw out spirit stones – three hundred, four hundred, up to a thousand. Meng Hao's face was pale, his hands trembling as he held the spirit stones.
"Is there no end to this, you destructive mirror? You've just snatched so many of my spirit stones!"
Meng Hao gritted his teeth. Having just thrown away over a thousand spirit stones, he couldn't give up. His eyes reddened, and he continued to throw spirit stones until the total reached two thousand. Suddenly, the bronze mirror emitted a dazzling seven-colored light – a light that had never appeared during previous replications. Meng Hao was stunned, staring blankly at the seven-colored light until it gradually faded after about half an incense stick's time.
As the radiance dissipated, two identical wooden swords appeared on the mirror.
Seeing the wooden swords, Meng Hao eagerly rushed over to pick them up. He felt like crying but no tears came, his heart aching unbearably, yet he could only console himself.
"It's fine, it's fine. It's only two thousand spirit stones, what's that worth? Out with the old, in with the new! Getting two wooden swords is truly worth it!"
Meng Hao gritted his teeth and muttered, speaking a few bitter words, then quickly put away the bronze mirror. He picked up the two wooden swords without another glance at the mirror, imagining their strangeness. He found a place to sit and calm his mind for a long time before returning to normal.
He secretly thought that in the future, he must be careful before replicating anything. After a long while, Meng Hao looked at the two newly replicated wooden swords, especially the second one. Meng Hao saw not a sword, but two thousand spirit stones... especially the spirit stones he had just taken from the large spirit stone block.
Meng Hao forced a smile and sat cross-legged in one spot. Waiting for the spiritual energy to fill the cave, his eyes suddenly widened as he took out the rice-grain sized demon core from his storage bag.
"Although I've just broken through to the fifth level of Qi Condensation, I wonder what my cultivation will be like if I swallow this demon core..."
Meng Hao showed a determined expression, put the rice-grain sized demon core into his mouth, and closed his eyes. His body immediately rumbled as the demon core, after dissolving, transformed into a dense mass of spiritual energy that enveloped him.
The process of spiritual energy diffusion was vastly different from any of Meng Hao's previous elixirs; it was incomparable, like a firefly to the moon. Within Meng Hao's body, a surging tide of spiritual energy exploded, sweeping through his entire being, causing blood to trickle from the corners of his mouth. His entire body trembled, yet he stood firm. The dantian lake within him continuously expanded, the water in the lake growing increasingly abundant. After a moment, Meng Hao felt a boundless sense of exhilaration.
However, each expansion was accompanied by immense pain, making Meng Hao's body tremble even more. His face turned pale, and his teeth chattered uncontrollably.
At the same time, the lake within him churned more and more violently, containing astonishing spiritual energy that caused Meng Hao even greater pain. He felt his cultivation rising. Initially at the fifth level of Qi Condensation, as time slowly passed – though he didn't know how long – the cultivation within his body surged fiercely, as if reaching the peak of the fifth level of Qi Condensation.
At that very moment, a resounding boom echoed in Meng Hao's mind. His cultivation broke through the fifth level of Qi Condensation, finally entering... the sixth level of Qi Condensation!
This didn't seem to be merely the early stage; it was only when he reached the middle stage of the sixth level of Qi Condensation that it gradually stopped. Meng Hao's clothes had completely turned to dust, with only his storage bag remaining. His body was covered in grime, as if enveloping his entire form, but upon closer inspection, one could see his body was translucent, faintly glowing with circulating light, appearing exceptionally ethereal.
His hair had grown to his shoulders, making him seem a bit taller, as if his body hadn't become thinner, but rather more slender and elongated.
His face, though still a bit dark, now possessed more vitality, enveloped in an ethereal aura.
The Elixir Core swirled and surged throughout his body. In its deepest part, a demon core the size of a grain of rice settled, yet for some unknown reason, it didn't dissolve; instead, it remained submerged and motionless within.
If that were all, it would have been fine. But it seemed that the moment Meng Hao's cultivation reached the sixth level of Condensation Qi, his head violently boomed. From that booming sound, a faint trace of inheritance spread out from the demon core, as if directly shooting into Meng Hao's mind.
This was... the legendary bloodline from the ancient Yinglong. The deceased Yinglong wasn't a powerful surviving ancient beast, but merely a relatively weak juvenile descendant. Yet, it still contained the vast sky inheritance, just like its ancestors, having hidden this inheritance within its demon core before death. That python had intended to devour the demon core after shedding its skin. Wang Tengfei also yearned for it deeply; after all, he had obtained its blood, making him the true successor. But today... it had been obtained by Meng Hao.
Meng Hao had a dream. He dreamed of a vast expanse of heaven and earth, where he flew high in the sky, majestic above the nine layers of clouds. The heavens and earth boomed, and winds and clouds surged.
In the high sky, he was the overlord. All beasts with flight abilities, upon seeing him, trembled as if losing their instinct to fly, allowing him to sweep past unchallenged.
He was the Monarch of the Sky, truly the favored child of the heavens. On the ground, countless living beings worshipped him, as if this was a time from the distant past, countless eons ago.
The sensation of flying in the sky delighted Meng Hao, even intoxicating him. He didn't know how long he had flown, or how many fierce beasts had retreated before him, or how many living beings had knelt in worship.
The wind and the earth were both beneath his feet. Only the high sky seemed unable to surpass him, as if he existed in parallel with the heavens.
Flying to a lake, he looked down and saw his own body. It was a dragon tens of thousands of *zhang* long, with two enormous wings, making him appear, at first glance, filled with an indescribable, overbearing grandeur.
Its head looked truly ferocious, its tail long. All of this formed an aura of supreme majesty, causing a thunderous flash in Meng Hao's mind, as if tearing open his consciousness to produce a sound.
"I am Yinglong, the ancient Yinglong!"
The sound from Meng Hao's mind echoed throughout the world. The heavens and earth trembled, and all living things roared softly. This was the ancient Yinglong. Although its true bloodline had now dissipated into the heavens and earth, its descendants still remained. Though weak, this inheritance was different from its descendants; it still held profound meaning.
At the same time, in the Reliance Sect, within a cave abode at the foot of East Peak, Wang Tengfei's face was utterly grim, his heart on the verge of madness. This sense of failure was unacceptable to him. He continuously used the drop of blood to sense the inheritance's location, but so far, there had been no results. This baffled him completely.
"How far has the investigation progressed?"
After a long while, Wang Tengfei suppressed his rage. He looked up at the young man before him, who, along with Shangguan Song, was one of the two who had accompanied Wang Tengfei that day.