Several days later, a great battle erupted within Ji Prefecture. It lasted for days, the battlefield stretching for hundreds of li. Heaven and earth darkened, sun and moon lost light. More than a dozen mountain peaks were leveled, three tributaries of major rivers were severed, and heavenly lightning and earthly fire were stirred forth. A wilderness nearly half the size of a county was utterly destroyed; for a hundred years or more, not a blade of grass would grow there, its spiritual essence cut off.
News of this battle spread through the Northern Lands with flying speed, then toward the Central Plains and even farther beyond.
It was said that the battle had been caused by Meng Zhao, Dragon King Meng, fighting the Heavenly Demon Palace Lord. The two had used boundless Primordial Spirit Power to flee into the void and clash, passing through a hundred cycles of reincarnation in the snap of a finger. Their wondrous mental arts shook heaven and earth, while incomparably powerful true qi and vital essence erupted, divine abilities appearing one after another.
The cause, it was said, was that Meng Zhao had discovered that the murderer who had recently massacred numerous forces at the intersection of the three provinces had been secretly instructed by the Heavenly Demon Palace Lord.
Meng Zhao possessed unrivaled divine skill. Though he was only a Great Grandmaster, he differed from ordinary men, having cultivated a Primordial Spirit. He had not hesitated to damage the foundation of his vital essence in order to battle the man and stop the Heavenly Demon Palace Lord's plot, and both sides had consequently been grievously wounded.
The moment this news spread, it shook all quarters. In streets and alleys, among peddlers and common folk, throughout the Jianghu Martial Arts World and powerful aristocratic families