In the vast, deep hall, under the lights which shone as bright as the sunlight, metallic long tables were placed in perfectly straight lines, surrounded by maids, who were dressed as prettily as butterflies, and large groups of Yu Clan men in black uniforms and with serious expressions, who patrolled in the hall.
Seeing Yu Meng and his people, a Yu Clan man in a black uniform walked over with stiff, puppet-like steps, carefully asking Yu Meng for his name, family name, the name of the family that his ancestors belonged to, and the names of the worlds currently ruled by his family. Afterward, he took out a fist-sized jade slip and looked up in it.
"That's right...White Flower Skylark Family, a vassal family of Ado River Family, ninth-grade. Your original family name is Molo, and you're the conquerors of Pan Sha world and the other ninety-nine worlds...By conquering so many worlds, you earned the special permission to use the noble family name 'Yu'. Lord Yu Meng and his thirty-five people, please follow me to your seats!"
Yu Meng silently nodded to the man, and the man responded with a faint smile, but had an obvious scorn flashing across his eyes. He turned around and guided Yu Meng, Ji Hao, and the others into the hall, with that accurate but stiff pace.
Roughly speaking, Pan Yu world families were divided into nine grades. The families at grades one to three were large and powerful, true power-holders, and were all named after the famous rivers in Pan Yu world.
The name of Yu Meng's suzerain family was Ado River. Ado River was a very famous, vast river in the topmost continent of Pan Gu world, ranked top five in both terms of drainage volume and area. As a family named after such a great river, without a doubt, Ado River Family had a sublime status in Pan Yu world.
The families at grades four to six were the stabilizing force of the entire Pan Yu world. Most of the famous commanders, masters, and artists in Pan Yu world were born in these families. These families were named after the famous peaks and mountain ranges in Pan Yu world.
The families graded as seven to nine were literally low and small in Pan Yu world. Most of these families were vassal families of higher-grade noble families, and they barely had any liberty. Their territories, possessions, lives, all in all, everything they had belonged to their suzerain families.
People from the suzerain families held power over the lives and properties of these small families. They demanded everything they wanted from these lower-grade families...But in return, they provided these small families with nothing but nominal protection, and the leftover resources that they didn't want anymore.
These lower-grade families were named after animals, which would be embossed on their family emblems. The more powerful a lower-grade family was, a stronger creature they would be named after.
White Flower Skylark was a fragile kind of bird in Pan Yu world. These birds fed on grass seeds, and could barely defend themselves.
Yu Meng's family was named after this kind of bird. Apparently, even among ninth-grade small families, his family was the weakest type. It was reasonable for a family like this to fall because of its weakness, and be eventually forced to leave their hometown for an expedition journey.
While following the man in a black suit to the prearranged seats, countless thoughts flashed across Ji Hao's mind.
Even though Yu Meng was from the White Flower Skylark Family, a ninth-grade small family, he now ruled a whole hundred worlds, and had tens of billions of elite warriors like Su under his command. However, the power-holders from Pan Yu world still treated him like a lower-grade being, as if they could still take his life away at any moment they wanted...Ji Hao could not understand what was going on in these high-grade Yu Clan nobles' heads.
From a distance away, Ji Hao saw tens of long tables at the end of the hall. These tables were cast from gold, inlaid with countless pearls and gemstones. Under the bright lights, these tens of tables shone with dazzling brilliance.
Gathered around these tables were some tall, luxuriously dressed, handsome, god-like Yu Clan men. Every single slight movement they made described their aristocracy and elegance. Ji Hao could even sense the pride releasing from every single pore of theirs. The patterns embossed on the family emblems, which were worn on their left chests and carved out of precious crystals, were all rapidly flowing or mist-covered great rivers.
Abruptly, Yu Meng pointed at a middle-aged, golden-crowned Yu Clan man among these people, and said, "Yu Di, the current leader of Ado River Family. My fiancee, Lanxi, is an illegitimate daughter of a distance cousin of his...You see, this time, in order to gain a better control of my family, they did make some efforts."
His voice was low, such that only Ji Hao could hear him, and was filled with grievance. With that voice, he murmured, "A sl*t that every man can be with is going to become my wife, and one of our children will become the next leader of my family...When we have kids, who will be able to tell me if I am truly the father?"
Ji Hao patted Yu Meng on a shoulder while glancing at Yu Di.
'Yu', this word had a special meaning in the society of Yu Clan people. In Pan Yu world or colony worlds, anyone who managed to lay a finger on the power of great Dao and grow powerful enough would be gifted with the title 'Yu'.
Under the same title, as the ruler of one-hundred worlds, Yu Meng could only stand here and look at Yu Di from such a long distance away, without being able to go anywhere near him.
The man in a black suit stopped waking, pointed at a long bronze table, and said with a bland, emotionless tone, "Here, the seats of White Flower Skylark family. Please remember that without permission, you are not allowed to step in the frontal area, but can only stay in the bronze table zone...Please keep respecting high-grade families!"
Ji Hao looked around. In the vast hall, about three-hundred less dazzling golden tables were placed behind the tens of golden tables with pearls and gemstones. The golden table zone could hold nearly ten-thousand people.
Beside the golden tables, nearly two-thousand silver tables were in the hall, surrounding the golden table zone.
The number of bronze tables in the hall was the largest, higher than thirty-thousand. The bronze table zone was separated from the golden table zone and silver table zone by a, hundreds of meters wide area. A line of Yu Clan men in black suits stood in this area, hands resting on their lower abdomen while looking at these lower-grade family members with faint, frosty smiles on their faces.
Their expressions were weird. Their eyes were filled with disgust when they looked at Yu Meng and the other lower-grade family people, as if looking at a group of wild beasts which were covered in excrements.