Chapter 1213: HeavenG.o.d Alliance
A strange expression could be seen on Meng Hao’s face as he looked at the two old men, and then back down at the men and women kneeling in front of him. Having no time for delays, he once again asked,
“Is this, or is this not, the Eighth Mountain and Sea?”
The first of the women to have dropped to her knees quickly nodded and replied, “Senior, this most definitely is the Eighth Mountain and Sea.”
Hearing this, Meng Hao’s eyes glittered, and he waved his hand, causing a magical item suitable for the Immortal Realm to fly over to the woman.
“Take this treasure. Can you tell me how to get to the Blacksoul Society?” he asked.
The woman looked at the magical item, eyes flickering with pleasure. She quickly took it and was about to reply when suddenly, the two old men finally realized what was going on. Expressions flickering, they advanced.
“He’s not the Dao soul!”
“Dammit, he’s obviously got a fleshly body! He"s not the Dao soul, he just got here before us and already merged with it!” The two old men simply couldn"t think of any other reasonable explanation other than Meng Hao arriving before them and stealing the good fortune which they felt belonged to them.
The two men exchanged a glance, and then their killing intent surged. “If he just merged with the Dao soul, then he’s not stable and can’t awaken it! Kill him!”
They immediately shot toward Meng Hao.
Meng Hao frowned and glanced at the two old men. His gaze was like an azure bolt of lightning , like a sharp sword that stabbed deep into their brains. Their faces fell; minds reeling, they coughed up blood and staggered backward.
“Attack together! Kill him and get that Dao soul back!” Behind the two old men were the four mid Ancient Realm cultivators, who howled and attacked. All of the other nearly one thousand cultivators in the area unleashed various divine abilities and magical techniques.
Meng Hao snorted coldly. His action from moments before had been a simple warning to these people to not provoke him. He didn"t want to cause any trouble here, he just wanted to know how to get to the Blacksoul Society. And yet they simply couldn"t get the message. Therefore, he decided to stop holding back. He lifted his right foot up and took a step forward.
That single step caused power to erupt off of him. A huge shockwave spread out explosively in all directions, transforming into an attack that swept over all of the nearby cultivators.
Miserable shrieks rang out, and countless mouthfuls of blood sprayed about. The cultivators all felt as if an invisible wall had slammed into them, a backlash that left them seriously injured and spinning off in multiple directions.
As the blood sprayed out of their mouths, they trembled, looking at Meng Hao with astonishment and terror. They didn"t dare to approach even half a step closer to him. The four mid Ancient Realm cultivators were even more seriously injured. Blood sprayed out of their mouths, and their cultivation bases were seriously damaged. Even their souls became unstable, causing their faces to grow ashen.
However, it was in this moment that something seemed to awaken inside of them, which Meng Hao immediately noticed. As the four of them backed up, what appeared to be the shadows of souls appeared behind them, although they were faint.
“This... this....” The two old men were equally shaken with fear. However, they didn"t give up on their idea. They continued to advance toward Meng Hao, roaring and performing incantation gestures. Their late Ancient Realm cultivation bases exploded with power, and something seemed to awaken within them too.
As that happened, illusory images appeared behind him. They weren’t Dharma Idols, but rather Soul Shadows. They weren’t the souls of the old men, but rather, the souls of two unknown cultivators who were both at the great circle of the Ancient Realm.
By merging with them, the two old men were actually able to increase the power of their cultivation bases. They rapidly rose from the late Ancient Realm to the great circle of the Ancient Realm, causing their attacks to burst with increasing power, sending ripples out in all directions.
“Well, isn’t this interesting,” Meng Hao said, eyes gleaming. This was his first time in the Eighth Mountain and Sea, and although the cultivators here practiced the same system of cultivation as in the Ninth Mountain and Sea, there were obviously some details which were different.
For example, this awakening... must have something to do with the Dao soul they had just mentioned.
After a moment of thought, Meng Hao lifted his right arm and waved his sleeve. Although the motion seemed ordinary, the faces of the two old men instantly fell.
The man in the white robe began to shake, and then vomited up a huge mouthful of blood. His body rapidly aged, and the soul behind him let out a miserable shriek as more than half of it withered away. The old man went all out to dodge away, only stopping after he had fallen back by 300 meters. It was there that he looked at Meng Hao with an expression of unprecedented amazement.
“Dao Realm!! He’s in the Dao Realm!! He didn’t absorb a Dao soul, he’s actually... in the Dao Realm himself!!”
At the same time as his voice rang out, the yellow-robed man"s face flickered. He did not cough up any blood, and yet at this point he would rather have been the one coughing up. That was because he was being wrenched through the void, Soul Shadow and all, directly toward Meng Hao.
In the blink of an eye, the man was suspended in front of Meng Hao, a look of terror in his eyes. He was completely immobilized and, being so close to Meng Hao, he could clearly sense the vast, boundless power within him. He knew that Meng Hao was powerful enough to eradicate him with a simple thought.
“S-Senior....” the old man said, trembling.
Meng Hao’s expression was calm as he measured up the yellow-robed old man. His eyes flashed like lightning, as if he could easily see through him. A few breaths of time pa.s.sed, and then Meng Hao’s eyes came to fall on the Soul Shadow, which was also trembling as it sensed a force like that of Heavenly might emanating off of Meng Hao.
“Fuse the soul into the body, and use it to form blood vessels... thus... entering a symbiosis!
“Interesting. Not a bad technique. It ensures that the powerful party can avoid death and the weak party becomes more powerful. Now that I think about it, the green lightning Han Qinglei used back in the Windswept Realm was probably a secret magic derived from this method.” Nodding, Meng Hao looked away from the Soul Shadow. [1. Han Qinglei, the Echelon cultivator from the Eighth Mountain and Sea, was the guy who fought Meng Hao starting around chapter 1095, using lightning and bone magic. Like most of the other Echelon cultivators, he ended up getting saved by Meng Hao and then helping him]
“How do I get to the Blacksoul Society?” he asked slowly.
The yellow-robed old man immediately gushed, “The Heaven-- er, the Blacksoul Society is in the north, which is quite far from here. That region is controlled by the HeavenG.o.d Society, which means that unless you’re from the HeavenG.o.d Alliance, you can"t go there. Even if you obtain a writ of pa.s.sage, you’re only allowed as far as the outer borders of the HeavenG.o.d Alliance.
“Senior, if you want to obtain such a writ, that’s fine.... You can come to the Woodflame Society. Our sect has a teleportation portal that goes in the direction of the HeavenG.o.d Alliance....”
“HeavenG.o.d Alliance....” After a moment of thought, Meng Hao released the yellow-robed man and asked him to lead the way.
The old man was instantly excited, and respectfully agreed. Looking haughtily out of the corner of his eye at the white-robed man from the Watercloud Sect, he gave a cold harrumph and then led Meng Hao off into the distance along with this Woodflame Society cultivators.
The white-robed man remained behind, heart pounding. He was aware that Daoist Woodflame wanted to pander to a Dao Realm expert. In fact, he himself also wanted the same thing; however, when he thought about how terrifying Meng Hao was, he hesitated. In the end, he simply watched as the Woodflame Society cultivators escorted Meng Hao off into the distance.
After a long moment, a grim look appeared on his face.
“I simply can"t believe that Daoist Woodflame didn"t notice that this Dao Realm expert is not from the Eighth Mountain and Sea. He’s obviously from one of the other Mountains and Seas, and is obviously strong enough to break through into ours.
“People like that... always have some major plot afoot, and we can’t afford to get involved with something like that....” Murmuring to himself, the white-robed old man led his people off into the distance, and also gave orders that they were to speak nothing about what had happened. He even ordered that the entire sect was not to divulge even the slightest sc.r.a.p of information about Meng Hao.
Of course, Daoist Woodflame of the Woodflame Society absolutely could tell that Meng Hao had an extraordinary background. However, he was willing to make a gamble. In the Eighth Mountain and Sea, the Woodflame Society was a small sect that existed in the shadows of the HeavenG.o.d Alliance and the great clans. If he could acquire the favor of a Dao Realm expert, it would be of incalculable value to them.
As long as he could benefit it some way, then it didn’t matter where that Dao Realm expert came from....
Meng Hao was no fool either, and could tell what Daoist Woodflame was thinking. Therefore, as they proceeded along, he asked some questions about the overall state of the Eighth Mountain and Sea.
“Senior, there is only one alliance in the Eighth Mountain and Sea, and that is the HeavenG.o.d Alliance. It is made up of many sects and clans, and the Blacksoul Society is only one of them. The alliance as a whole is led by the HeavenG.o.d Society!
“The Patriarch of the HeavenG.o.d Society is none other than the Eighth Mountain and Sea’s... Mountain and Sea Lord! He is referred to as... HeavenG.o.d!
“In addition to the HeavenG.o.d Alliance, the Eighth Mountain and Sea also has the Three Great Daoist Societies. However, they rarely dabble in the affairs of the outside world. In fact, they"ve hardly been seen at all in recent years.
“In addition to that are the Two Great Clans, which are the Meng Clan and the Han Clan!
“The Meng Clan is on the decline, but based on their former glory, they are still considered a major player....
“As for the Han Clan, they are like the sun at high noon....
“However, neither the Three Great Daoist Societies nor the Two Great Clans can compare at all to the HeavenG.o.d Alliance....
“Of the four planets in the Eighth Mountain, the Han and Meng Clans jointly occupy one of them. The other three are controlled by the HeavenG.o.d Alliance....” Daoist Woodflame explained everything that he knew, and in the end, gave Meng Hao a jade slip that contained a detailed map of the Eighth Mountain and Sea.
“I"m not sure about the other Mountains and Seas, but in the Eighth Mountain and Sea, we have something called Arcane Pocket Realms. There are quite a few of them, and if you can find one that has never been opened before, then you can bury a corpse inside. Once the soul has escaped the body, you can provide it with a suitable body to meld with and they become undying. This kind of symbiosis can be considered a kind of awakening for those who practice cultivation.”
Meng Hao listened to everything that Daoist Woodflame told him, but when he mentioned the Meng Clan, Meng Hao’s eyes glazed over as he became distracted by his own thoughts. After a moment, though, they gleamed as he sent some divine sense into the jade slip he now held in his hand. Instantly, a map of the Eighth Mountain and Sea appeared in his mind.
“There are no Ruins of Immortality?” he asked suddenly.
“Ruins of Immortality?” Daoist Woodflame asked, looking confused. “What are they?”
Meng Hao’s eyes flickered thoughtfully as he considered certain matters, then continued to ask questions, especially about the Arcane Pocket Realms.
A day later, Meng Hao reached the Woodflame Society, having a much better understanding of the Eighth Mountain and Sea. That was especially true of the Arcane Pocket Realms, which made Meng Hao think of the Ruins of Immortality.
“Actually, the Arcane Pocket Realms of the Eighth Mountain and Sea are really... the Ruins of Immortality. However, they are fragmented and scattered about randomly here, which is why numerous so-called Arcane Pocket Realms appear. And that is why they were used... to become graves for cultivators!
“You could even say that the Eighth Mountain and Sea is actually one huge graveyard!” Meng Hao’s eyes gleamed with understanding.