Chapter 34: Fame from 1,000 Years Ago! (1/2)
Chapter 34: Fame from 1,000 Years Ago!
Fatty beamed with joy, happy beyond belief, heart pounding. For Meng Hao to become an Inner Sect disciple was almost like he himself had.
Shangguan Xiu stood in the crowd, face grim. After a bit of time passed, he lowered his head, turned, and left. As he left, his face grew darker, but there was really nothing he could do. Now that Meng Hao was a member of the Inner Sect, even his status as an Elder didn’t give him the right to interrogate him. Now, Meng Hao was a true member of the Reliance Sect.
“I reached the seventh level of Qi condensation before I was thirty. I was the number one disciple in the Inner Sect. But now…” Shangguan Xiu sighed. He was loath to give up, but had no choice.
Just then, something happened that no one noticed, neither Shangguan Xiu nor Grand Elder Ouyang. Not even Sect Leader He Luohua. Far away from the Reliance Sect, on the peak of the tree-covered black mountain, standing outside of the empty cave, was a mysterious, powerful figure.
The figure was indistinct, its face unclear. But its body was wreathed in an aura vastly different from the spiritual power of heaven and earth, an aura that actually seemed to have been rejected by the Heavens. The wind around the figure changed, filling with indistinct cracks that circled around him… and yet an onlooker would not be able to see any of this.
“Reliance Sect… what a vulgar name,” the blood-red figure’s voice was hoarse as it spoke, filled with a Demonic air. “The name was intentionally changed one thousand years ago to prevent the Heavens from carrying out the punishment of withholding reincarnation. But it is still… The Demon Sealing Sect! And a disciple of the Demon Sealing sect actually dared to consume the Core of the Flying Rain-Dragon, and accept its Legacy… interesting. It seems it was not in vain that I helped you those two times.” Even as its voice continued to echo out, bolts of red lightning began to fall. The destructive lightning fell over and over again, but it was over three thousand meters away, as if the Heavens had no power to touch the figure.
The red figure seemed to frown, then looked up coldly into the sky. “Sooner or later, you shall be defied, Heavens!” Then it turned toward the Southern Domain and took a step forward.
“My true self has been slumbering, and in my boredom, my divine clone has swept throughout heaven and earth. What I’ve just seen is interesting. Very interesting.” Laughter rang out, and the figure disappeared, gone in the blink of an eye.
The figure’s arrival and departure, the roiling heavens, the approach of the lightning, onlookers could not see any of it!
Time raced by, and soon seven days had passed.
During the seven days, everyone in the Outer Sect was talking about Meng Hao’s ascension to become an Inner Sect disciple.
Even though everyone had seen the event with their own eyes, it had left them shocked to the core. Despite seven days having passed, they would often lift their heads to gaze at the East Mountain, eyes filled with envy.
There were some people who felt sorry for Wang Tengfei, but they didn’t say anything. It was as if after the battle, Wang Tengfei’s name had become a thing of the past.
Disciples who had been Meng Hao’s enemies were even more disturbed than before, filled with dread. But Meng Hao was no longer present in the Outer Sect, so all they could do was find Fatty to fawn over.
Fatty’s prestige exploded in just a few days. He was the new shop owner at the Low-Level Public Zone, having taken over for Meng Hao. He revelled in the attention of his fellow disciples, filing away at his teeth triumphantly. He was even able to move into one of the nicer residences in the Outer Sect.
Meng Hao was quite busy during the seven days. The Reliance Sect might have been in decline, but there were still rules to follow. Meng Hao bathed and donned new clothes. He kowtowed to the image of Patriarch Reliance and the other Patriarchs of the Sect. Of course, there were many complicated procedures and details involved in all of this.
During this time, he didn’t see Elder Sister Xu at all, as she had secluded herself in meditation. However, he did see Elder Brother Chen Fan [1. Chen Fan's name in Chinese is 陈凡 (chén fán) – Chen is a common family name. Fan means “mortal” or “ordinary”], dressed in his silver robe. From his time in the Outer Sect, Meng Hao’s impression of him was that he rarely smiled and was rather old-fashioned. But after getting to know him he found that no matter what question he had, Elder Brother Chen would patiently give a detailed explanation. Meng Hao actually liked him. He thought back to the rumors he’d heard, that Elder Brother Chen Fan cared only about righteousness and the Dao, ignoring matters of the mortal world.
After the seven days had passed, Meng Hao was granted an Inner Sect Immortal’s Cave on the East Mountain. Its Spirit Spring bubbled with thick Spiritual Energy, much more so than his previous Immortal’s Cave.
Unfortunately, his good mood changed a bit the first time he laid hands on the Spirit Stones and medicinal pills available for Inner Sect disciples. He stood there, staring down at them stupidly.
These Spirit Stones were clearly better than the ones available in the Outer Sect. They were larger, and were not completely transparent, but rather filled with an indistinct, mist-like substance. Meng Hao’s face grew pale.
“These are mid-grade Spirit Stones?” murmured Meng Hao. “And Inner Sect disciples get one per year… It’s worth one hundred low-grade Spirit Stones from the Outer Sect…” His head spun as he absorbed the information from the ancient piece of jade in front of him, which described the identification methods and differences between the different types of Spirit Stones available to Cultivators engaged in Qi condensation.
“Above mid-grade Spirit Stones are high-grade Spirit Stones…. which don’t even exist in the State of Zhao. One of those is worth at least ten-thousand low-grade Spirit Stones… they’re basically priceless.” Meng Hao’s insides twisted, and he took out the few large Spirit Stones he had left in his bag of holding. His face looked more and more unsightly.
“You can tell the value of a Spirit Stone by looking at its size and its internal composition. High-grade Spirit Stones are the largest, and are at least half-covered inside with thick mist formations… The Spiritual Energy inside won’t leak out, and can only be used by a Cultivator who has reached Foundation Establishment.” Meng Hao looked mutely at the Spirit Stone he held in his hand. It was larger than a mid-grade Spirit Stone by at least three times, and was almost completely filled with mist formations. It was dazzling, and not a drop of Spiritual Energy emerged from it.
“This… this can’t be a high-grade Spirit Stone! I… I squandered two thousand high-grade Spirit Stones!” Meng Hao’s heart dropped, and he tried to comfort himself. He thought about the extraordinary wooden sword and how much Wang Tengfei cared about it. And then he thought about the price he had paid the copper mirror to duplicate it. He simply couldn’t comprehend the price he had paid in Spirit Stones…
“But how come it seems like this Spirit Stone is even bigger than the descriptions of high-grade Spirit Stones, and has even more mist formations inside?” His heart quavered, and he didn’t dare to think about it anymore. His face was pale, and he felt pained to the core.
It took him a while to get control of himself, whereupon he put away the Spirit Stones.
“An insignificant two thousand high-grade Spirit Stones,” muttered Meng Hao. “It was nothing, nothing at all.” But when he said the word ‘insignificant,’ it sounded a bit forced.
More days flew by.
“Junior Brother, I watched your battle. You used a lot of magical items. If you had run out, you would have been in a difficult situation. You should go to the Magic Pavilion more often. There are a thousand years of ancient Reliance Sect records there that you could study from.”