Chapter 1169: Returning to the Crow Divinity Tribe! (1/2)
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Meng Hao felt somewhat like a stranger on Planet South Heaven as he looked around at all the familiar sights. In his heart, this was his home, the place where he had grown up, and the place where he learned about cultivation. This was where he had laughed, developed his ideals, and thrived on his youthful energy. This was also the place where he had married Xu Qing.
The rain passed, and a rainbow appeared up above in the dawn sky. Meng Hao went to various places in the vast Eastern Lands. He went to the mountains where lay the Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite temple. Long ago, it had been a place of extreme danger to him. Now, nothing there was even worth paying attention to.
He walked through the mountains, through that long, narrow path, and then finally reached the edge of the crater where the temple had once stood. He stood there for a long time, thinking.
He recalled everything that had happened here, how he had taken the bronze lamp, and how everyone had chased him. The events in the subsequent days and nights had been like a sort of baptism.
That was his first time he had truly become embroiled in the affairs of the Ninth Mountain and Sea.
As he stood at the edge of the crater, he sighed. Much time had passed. The mountains were still the same mountains, and there was grass everywhere just like before. However, the trees and other vegetation had changed. Although they seemed the same at first, their colors had deepened from the ones that he remembered.
After a long while, he left.
He went to the Northern Reaches, and from there, to the Milky Way Sea. As he passed over the water, he looked down at the waves, and recalled everything that had happened there. He thought about Patriarch Reliance, the 10th Wang Clan Patriarch, and the Resurrection Lily.
After crossing the Milky Way Sea, he found himself in the Western Desert. It was a vast place, and was still mostly submerged by violet seawater. The Violet Sea was tranquil and lifeless.
He proceeded along over the Violet Sea, eventually reaching the area the Crow Divinity Tribe had once called home. He sank down into the water there and looked at the mountains and valleys in the area, all places with which he was familiar.
From there, he proceeded along under the water, telling himself that he was going to take all of the details about Planet South Heaven and place them in his heart, in order to never forget. As he sped along under the surface of the Violet Sea, he eventually reached the South Cleaving Mountains, which seemed to stretch out endlessly.
Eventually, he reached something that looked like a huge wall, or a city gate. It kept the Violet Sea out of... the Black Lands.
The Black Lands were now very different from how Meng Hao remembered them. They bustled, even thrived. Numerous cultivators scurried back and forth between there and the Southern Domain. Apparently, the Southern Domain was very accepting of the Black Lands cultivators.
Over the years, the former powerful tribes of the Western Desert, as well as the native Black Lands power groups, had all thrived and grown powerful.
Many Northern Reaches cultivators had settled down in the Black Lands, and had come to call the place home. Their path of cultivation had been cut off by Meng Hao years ago. No matter how they cultivated, they could only reach a certain height. Their fates were sealed, and they were forced to atone for the crime committed by their ancestors from the Northern Reaches, when they had invaded the Southern Domain.
The Crow Divinity Tribe was now the largest tribe in the Black Lands and also the number one power, with many other sects and clans subservient to them.
Almost as soon as Meng Hao entered, he realized that there were statues everywhere. Some were large, some were small, but all of the important groups in the Black Lands had them.
Those statues depicted... Meng Hao!
The largest of the statues was covered in spirit stones. When the sunlight fell onto it, it glittered resplendently with a multitude of colors. That statue was located on the highest mountain in the Black Lands, which belonged to the Crow Divinity Tribe.
That statue was the symbol of the Black Lands, and represented the spirit of the cultivators there.
Every so often, the members of the Crow Divinity Tribe would gather around the statue to offer worship and sacrifices. As it happened, that was exactly what they were doing when Meng Hao arrived.
He hovered there above the huge statue, looking down at all the Crow Divinity Tribe members gathered around the mountain. There were tens of thousands of them, all prostrating themselves in worship.
No one could sense Meng Hao’s presence. It was as if he existed in a different world.
Ten old men in resplendent robes stood apart from the tens of thousands of tribe members, eyes burning with passion. Raising their hands high into the air, they cried out, “Crow Divinity Tribe, bow to the Sacred Ancient!”
In response to their call, tens of thousands of tribe members bowed low and joined their voices together in worship. As the sound echoed out, the tribe members looked at the statue with gazes of awe. From the look of it, if this statue were alive, and gave them orders, they would follow those orders without question.
Meng Hao’s statue had replaced totems as the symbol of the cultivators of the Black Lands.
Meng Hao hovered there in midair, looking down at the scene playing out below. He heard the voices of the crowds, and was also just able to detect that their worship contained vestiges of the power of Joss Flame. It was faint, but it was there.
The ten old men once again cried out with loud voices, “Crow Divinity Tribe, bow to Patriarch Fifth and Patriarch Third!”
Again, the crowds bowed in worship. A strange expression appeared on Meng Hao’s face. He had noticed earlier that this particular statue belonging to the Crow Divinity Tribe had a parrot attached to its shoulder, upon whose ankle was a tiny bell.
The ceremony of offering worship continued.
Meng Hao sighed, and was just about to leave, when all of a sudden, he said, “Eee?”