Chapter 1198: Repay Your Kindness!
“Enough with the ruckus!” The Dao Realm Patriarch’s eyes glinted with coldness. Although he was shocked by Meng Hao’s battle prowess, he still couldn’t believe that he himself was no match for him. Although he wasn’t of a mind to kill Meng Hao, he fully intended to teach him a lesson. Even as the words left his mouth, he took a step forward.
As his foot descended, he stretched his arms wide, causing a tempest to spring up. All of the volcanoes in Mount Sun trembled, and the black smoke in the sky seethed and churned as they gathered towards him. Even the lava that covered the surface of the ground began to rise up into the air and converge together.
In the blink of an eye, a huge sealing mark formed!
It was bright red, and filled with Dao Realm Essence power that was strong enough to shatter Heaven and destroy Earth. Fully 300 meters wide, it floated there in front of the Dao Realm Patriarch, who then waved his hand, sending the sealing mark directly toward Meng Hao.
“I’ll put you in your place and then call some adults from your clan to come take you away!” he said coolly. The huge sealing mark rumbled through the air, bursting with Essence power.
“A piddling 1-Essence Dao Realm cultivator like you dares to to try and put me in my place!?” Meng Hao responded calmly. He truly qualified to say such a thing; if he unleashed his Battle Weapon, it would certainly be possible for him to cut this man down.
But he was here to collect debt. Although this Dao Realm Patriarch was blocking his path, after some thought, Meng Hao realized that he should act in good faith, and help Mount Sun consider the gains and losses that could be had.
“I might not have a sealing mark, but I have… this!” Eying the incoming sealing mark, he extended his right hand out into the air, making a snatching motion. Heaven and Earth trembled, and the air in front of him collapsed as a land mass shot out from his palm.
The piece of land started out very small, but in the next moment, it grew to the enormous size of 30,000 meters, blotting out the sky and casting everything into deep shadow.
A boundlessly archaic aura emanated out from the land mass, as if it had existed for countless years of time. That land mass had apparently existed for innumerable eons, and even seemed to contain the will of a Paragon!!
It wasn’t the specific will of an individual Paragon, though. It was… the supreme will of the land mass itself!
This 30,000-meter stretch of land was none other than… a piece of the Ruins of Immortality, enormously heavy, and now being wielded by Meng Hao as if it were a magical item. Immediately, he sent it smashing down toward the sealing mark down below.
Apparently, there was nothing in Heaven and Earth, nothing in the Mountain and Sea Realm, no precious treasures that could remain unshaken by this land mass, and even if there were, the sealing mark was not one of them!
The Dao Realm Patriarch’s face fell as he saw the chunk of the Ruins of Immortality descending. “That’s… part of the Ruins of Immortality! This is impossible!! You…. you actually have part of the Ruins of Immortality!!”
It was a spectacular scene in which everything trembled violently. When the land mass smashed into the sealing mark, the mark trembled. Incapable of standing up to the attack, it collapsed, and the chunk of the Ruins of Immortality continued to rip through the air and then slammed down toward the ground.
If it crashed into the ground, a large portion of the land would surely collapse. The ensuing earthquake would also cause all of the volcanoes in Mount Sun to erupt.
Everything that was happening caused the Dao Realm Patriarch to gasp. How could he ever have predicted that Meng Hao would have a piece of the Ruins of Immortality? This fact only added to his astonishment; his heart had long since begun to pound wildly with shock.
It was at this point that an ancient voice rang out from a distant volcano, filled with surprise. “So, you actually have a piece of the Ruins of Immortality!”
In the blink of an eye, an old man had appeared beneath the Ruins of Immortality. After reaching his hand up and pushing against the descending land mass, he was shoved down several hundred meters before coming to a stop.
He was able to resist the Ruins of Immortality with his power alone!!
The old man’s explosive aura contained swirling Essence power, not that of a single Essence, but rather, three!
Shockingly, this old man was… a 3-Essences Dao Lord!
After successfully collecting the power of three different Essences, one was referred to as a Dao Lord!
The old man’s energy soared, and rumbling echoed out from his hand as he floated up, pushing the Ruins of Immortality back up into the air
“Meng Hao, young friend, please put this thing away,” the old man said, his eyes gleaming with somberness.
Meng Hao’s expression was the same as ever. If there was no one in Mount Sun who could catch his chunk of the Ruins of Immortality, then they didn’t qualify to be one of the Five Great Holy Lands.
Even still, Meng Hao was convinced that if his piece of the Ruins of Immortality were larger, then even Dao Lords would be incapable of shouldering it!
He waved his hand, and the land mass flew back into his bag of holding. Meng Hao looked at the old man and said, “I came here today to collect some debts, not to duel with magic.”
The middle-aged Dao Realm Patriarch was apparently on the verge of saying something, but the old man silenced him with a look. The middle-aged man nodded, and the old man suddenly said, “Taiyang Zi!”
His voice echoed out like thunder, causing Taiyang Zi to hurry forth and kowtow.
“Greetings, Patriarch!” he said, head bowed. Inwardly, he was completely shaken to a Heaven-shaking, Earth-toppling degree. Although he knew that Meng Hao was powerful, he could never have imagined that he was strong enough to face off against Mount Sun’s Patriarchs.
In fact, it was even appropriate to say that Meng Hao was now capable of shaking the entire Ninth Mountain and Sea. With a cultivation base like that, now that he had come to settle accounts… there was nothing Taiyang Zi could do other than smile bitterly. He wasn’t sure whether to feel honored, or to sigh.
“How much money do you owe our young friend Meng Hao?” the old man growled.
“I….” Taiyang Zi opened his mouth, but couldn’t find any words. Deep depression filled his heart, and actually, he couldn’t recall exactly how much he owed. After all, he had never admitted to actually owing Meng Hao anything.
When Meng Hao saw what was happening, he coughed dryly and patted his bag of holding. Immediately, a stack of promissory notes appeared, which he began to shuffle through.
“Oh, not much, not much,” he said, kindly deciding to remind Taiyang Zi of the amount. “Let’s see, the trifling sum of 1,000,000 Immortal jades, that’s all.”
“It wasn’t that much!!” Taiyang Zi blurted, trembling as he turned to look at Meng Hao. Even though Meng Hao’s cultivation base was so much higher than his, this was too much for him to bear.
“There’s interest on that too,” Meng Hao said, clearing his throat seriously. “Alright, never mind, just give me the original amount, 1,000,000 Immortal jades, and we’ll call things even.”
Taiyang Zi wanted to cry, but no tears would come. “You–”
He was about to continue speaking when the old man waved his hand, causing a bag of holding to fly out to Meng Hao.
Meng Hao caught it and scanned it with divine sense. Inside were 1,000,000 pieces of Immortal jade, neatly arranged.
Meng Hao immediately looked delighted. Putting the bag of holding away as quickly as possible, he clasped hands respectfully to the old man.
“Many thanks for presiding over justice, Senior. Well then… unless you have other business to discuss, I’ll take off now. I still have quite a few other places to go collect debts. Waiting for too long will give them too much opportunity to prepare, and make the accounts too difficult to settle.” With that, he turned into a beam of light that shot back toward the teleportation portal, then vanished.
Everyone in Mount Sun was completely silent, and many strange expressions could be seen. When Meng Hao vanished, there were many hearts that still blazed with rage at the utter humiliation which had just occurred.
The middle-aged Dao Realm cultivator was one of those people, and stared coldly at Meng Hao the entire time until he disappeared. Finally, he turned to face the old man.
“Elder Brother, why did you let that little bastard off the hook? Once word spreads, how will Mount Sun maintain any face?”
The old man frowned. Looking back at the middle-aged man, he sighed and said, “Don’t provoke him. He’s… a person we can’t afford to rile up.”
The middle-aged man was about to say something when the old man suddenly transmitted a message into his mind.
As soon as the middle-aged cultivator heard it, his face fell, and an expression of disbelief and shock filled his face. Voice hoarse, he said, “What?!?! Is that true?”
“Your cultivation base isn’t sufficient,” the old man said softly, “but with mine, I can pick up on the clues. There’s no other explanation. So… do you really want to provoke someone like that?”
The middle-aged cultivator took a deep breath, then turned and spoke out loud.
“Disciples of Mount Sun, from now on, none of you are to have any dealings with Meng Hao whatsoever. Do not incur debts of gratitude, nor should you sow any enmity. We… must maintain a respectful distance from Meng Hao!”
Taiyang Zi stared in shock. Although he wasn’t sure what secret messages the two Patriarchs had passed between each other, from the look of things, Meng Hao was harboring some incredible secret that was powerful enough to cause the two Patriarchs from Mount Sun to fear him.
Taiyang Zi’s heart was filled with many complicated emotions. He couldn’t help but think about all the times he had interacted with Meng Hao. From the moment he had met him on Planet South Heaven down to this day, Meng Hao was always in the lead, and had transformed into an insurmountable mountain.
The speed of his ascent was incredible, such that Taiyang Zi could do nothing more than look up at him from down below.
In the following days, all of the sects and clans in the Ninth Mountain and Sea were thrown into a huge commotion. All of them heard of or experienced what it was like… to have Meng Hao come and settle accounts.
Any Chosen who had a promissory note in Meng Hao’s hand would eventually find him at their doorstep, asking for money. All of the sects and clans were shaken by Meng Hao and his show of power. As a result, his debt collecting went fairly smoothly.
After all, he was not the youngster that he had been in the past. He was now so powerful that he could rock Dao Realm experts. Therefore, the trifling debt and the promissory notes prompted everyone to simply pay up.
Even Meng Hao would never have guessed that his actions of collecting debt would quickly become the conversation topic of all the cultivators in the Ninth Mountain and Sea. Whenever he stepped out of a teleportation portal, everyone who caught sight of him instantly got excited. Word would spread… and countless cultivators would gather to personally watch him go to settle accounts.
It was because of this that Meng Hao happened to step out of a teleportation portal at one point, and was instantly recognized. People then began to take out jade slips to notify their sects of what was happening.
“Strange, there’s no sect or clan in the vicinity of this teleportation station. This asteroid field is merely a transfer station!”
“Look, his destination is actually near the Ninth Mountain….”
People looked on in confusion as Meng Hao vanished. When he reappeared, shockingly, he was walking out of another teleportation portal in another asteroid field. He looked up into the starry sky above him at… a stretch of crumbled stone!
Those bits of stone had once been complete, and when they were, they had formed… a bridge!
That bridge had actually been constructed in the Ancient Demon Immortal Sect. It was… the all-powerful Bridge of Immortal Treading!!
In this case, it was Meng Hao who owed someone else. He owed a debt of gratitude!
“Big bro Han Shan… I’ve come to repay your kindness!” he said softly. Then his body flickered as he shot up into the starry sky.