Never before in his life had 5,000 meters been such a difficult distance to cross. After walking only about 1,500 meters, he coughed up a mouthful of blood, which was purplish-black and exuded an aura of rot.
His eyes were even more cloudy than before, and his body was ice cold and stiff. His consciousness was fading, and the only thing he could think about was walking forward….
He proceeded on toward the Rebirth Cave, where he would struggle for his chance to be reborn.
He didn’t know how much time had passed. He walked on, trembling, his death aura growing stronger with every step. In the end, his consciousness grew even weaker. Behind him, the path he had walked was stained with the purplish-black blood that he had coughed up, although he couldn’t see that.
Everything was quiet, as quiet as a world of death….
Inside the Rebirth Cave, the ten streams of will stared at him coldly. From further within the depths of the cave, eight other streams of will emerged to sweep over him. They were filled with the feeling of ancientness and time, as if they were archaic divine beings.
As Meng Hao got closer and closer. He walked on further until he was only 500 meters away. It was at this point that a single stream of will silently appeared deep within the Rebirth Cave. When it did, all the other streams of will scattered, trembling.
The solitary stream of will focused on Meng Hao, 500 meters outside of the cave.
Eventually, Meng Hao reached his limit. A tremor ran through him; his head began to sag, and his knees were so stiff they couldn’t bend. He looked almost like a dried up corpse.
There was no life force left in him, only a tiny strand that was his stubborn determination to resist fate!
However, as his consciousness faded, even that strand turned dark. He fell to the ground, 250 meters away from the Rebirth Cave.
“Is it over…?” he murmured as his consciousness disappeared.
In the moment that he fell, a sigh could be heard echoing out from within the cave. All of the wills present slowly retracted, apparently no longer interested in what was happening. Only the solitary will from earlier remained, looking at something behind Meng Hao.
Then, the wills which had retreated just now slowly began to tremble. All of them appeared once again, to look at what was behind Meng Hao.
Within the white mist of death, a woman could be seen trudging along. Each step was taken with difficulty as she entered the forest of stones. Her life force seemed to be filled with determination, dredged up from some unknown place within her.
Her body was slowly withering, her cultivation base dim, and her previously lovely features now elderly as she walked slowly toward Meng Hao.