Meng Ru nodded excitedly in response to Meng Hao's words. Meng Hao then smacked his bag of holding, and the mastiff flew out. It threw its head back and roared, transforming into a beam of red light that carried Meng Ru off into the distance.

With the mastiff to protect her, no one would be able to cause trouble for Meng Ru as she went about accomplis.h.i.+ng her task. Meng Hao looked around the bloodline mansion, at his excited relatives, and then took a deep breath. A brilliant gleam then appeared in his eyes; time was of the essence, and since he was going to help the bloodline rise to prominence... he would do it in spectacular fas.h.i.+on.

Meng Ru and the mastiff flew to the central continent of the Meng Clan and called back the bloodline members who had had no other choice but to follow the orders of the other nine bloodlines.

Meanwhile, the shocking deaths of all of the cultivators in the Xu Clan’s various auxiliary headquarters had caused quite a stir among the Xu Clan’s powerful experts in their ancestral mansion.

Everyone was in a rage, and finally, an ancient voice echoed out from within the Xu Clan ancestral mansion.

“The bedraggled bloodline thinks it can recover its former glory? Find the culprit and execute him! If anyone gets in your way, execute them too! Don’t forget that the old cripples there can’t do anything to you!”

The voice crashed like lightning, causing colors to flash in the sky and the lands to quake. Instantly, dozens of beams of light shot out, followed by hundreds of other figures, all of which headed toward the location of Grandpa Meng’s bloodline.

The Xu Clan was so enraged with the bloodline that there was no need to speak words. They decided to attack immediately, and the murderous aura they emanated was incredibly intense.

At the same time, back in the central ancestral mansion of the Meng Clan, another enraged shout could be heard coming from the courtyard where Meng Hao had crushed the Dao Seeking cultivator’s bones, turning him into a pile of mush. Three old men could be seen there, their faces grim and their eyes burning with fury. Behind them were ten other clan members, all radiating intense killing intent.

“What gall!” said one of the three old men. “Their bloodline is weak to the point of dissipating. Who needs them? Now they’re just intentionally provoking calamity. Men, come with me, we're going to crush this rebellion immediately!” With that, the old man flicked his sleeve and then flew up into the air, followed by numerous fellow clan members. All of them transformed into beams of colorful light that shot off in the direction of Grandpa Meng’s bloodline.

It took only a moment for vast proverbial winds to surge, giving rise to waves in the dead brackish water that was the declining Meng Clan. And it was all because of Meng Hao.

As those things occurred, Meng Hao sat cross-legged on a boulder in the bloodline mansion, surrounded by other members of the bloodline. They all looked very excited, and were in the middle of practicing various breathing exercises. The vast majority were female, and as they practiced cultivation, their cultivation bases slowly improved.

The person sitting closest to Meng Hao was a young man, the very same one he had just saved, Meng Han. He occasionally looked over at Meng Hao, his eyes filled with adoration and zeal.

The truth was that he wasn’t the only one; virtually everyone in the mansion looked at Meng Hao in the same way. The zeal they felt burned in their eyes; they finally had hope. This person that they were looking at had a cultivation base vastly greater than theirs. After years and years, he was the first person... to ever successfully enter the Immortal Realm.

“In the practice of cultivation, you must pa.s.s through the four Realms. Spirit, Immortal, Ancient, Dao. Each Realm bestows you with different types of power, and are all subdivided into smaller stages.

“It might seem complicated, but you must proceed forward one step at a time. The further along the path you tread, the more and more powerful you will become!

“The Spirit Realm is divided into the stages of Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Spirit Severing, Dao Seeking, and Immortal Ascension!

“I can see that most of you are in the Core Formation stage. Not many of you are in the Nascent Soul stage, and it seems you have no Spirit Severing cultivators....” Meng Hao spoke quietly, but his voice seemed to be filled with a strange power. As it echoed about the bloodline mansion, all of his bloodline relatives listened attentively.

Some of his bloodline relatives couldn’t hold back from pointing out, “Big bro Meng Chen, don’t forget that big sis Qiao’er is in the Spirit Severing stage. And big sis Yun is too....”

“Big sis Hong is in Dao Seeking....”

Meng Hao nodded and continued.

“Core Formation focuses on forming an inner core. You can use that core to coalesce your own pure qi, which can be used to conceive your Nascent Soul.... When I was in the Core Formation stage, I used the five elements as my foundation, making a five elements Gold Core, which then became my five elements Nascent Soul....

“... the true meaning of Spirit Severing lies, not in the Spirit, but in the Severing....

“There are three Severings, which are also Daos. Three Severings, three Daos. Afterward, you must seek answers inwardly to take the next step, Dao Seeking!

“As far as Immortal Ascension is concerned, it is actually simple; none of you really need to worry about it. You can simply imitate your ancestors and become false Immortals!” Meng Hao’s voice echoed out as he expounded upon the meaning of the Spirit Realm, explaining it in detail to his bloodline clan members.

They listened as if intoxicated; many areas which they had formerly found very confusing were now explained clearly. Furthermore, Meng Hao’s explanation was far deeper and more profound than any explanation they had received in the past.

Meng Hao’s voice also contained that strange power, something that gradually caused a type of seed to appear within the bodies of his bloodline relatives. It was a Dao Seed, not the bloodline of an Allheaven Dao Immortal, but rather... Meng Hao’s acc.u.mulated enlightenment regarding cultivation, his experiences within the Spirit Realm. It was... a Spirit Seed!

Meng Hao had a foundation in the Spirit Realm that was as rare as a phoenix feather or a qilin horn in the Mountain and Sea Realm. It would be no exaggeration to say that his understanding of the Spirit Realm exceeded that of any other person. No one had acc.u.mulated so much in that Realm, and no one had prepared more thoroughly to become a true Immortal. He had shaken the entire Ninth Mountain and Sea.

Because of that, his understanding, and his explanation, carried profound, indescribable meaning for all of his fellow clan members.

In addition to all that, the rich Immortal qi in the area vastly exceeded normal spiritual energy. The result was that the majority of his bloodline relatives were all sinking deeper and deeper into enlightenment.

Meng Hao’s grandmother and grand-uncles stared in shock at what was happening, and then excitement began to build up on their faces. Meng Hao’s two uncles had faces flushed with excitement, not only because of what was happening to all the members of the Junior generation, but also because the Immortal qi was helping them to revert from their crippled states.

The three middle-aged women were experiencing something similar.

Apparently, all of the bloodline relatives around Meng Hao were... slowly transforming!!

Meng Hao looked around at everyone in their states of enlightenment, until finally his gaze came to fall upon the young man Meng Han, whom he had rescued from the Xu Clan.

From what Meng Hao could tell, he had better latent talent than anyone else present, and although his cultivation base was merely in the Core Formation stage, he was clearly on the verge of a breakthrough.

A smile broke out on Meng Hao's face. He was now confident that within a few short years, his grandfather’s bloodline should be able to achieve grandeur once again, which caused excitement to stir within his heart. It was at this point that he suddenly looked up into the sky, and a cold gleam flickered in his eyes.

He waved his right hand, causing a cloud of black pods to fly out from within his bag of holding. They immediately flew off into the distance radiating murderous auras. As they flew along, popping sounds could be heard as they transformed into black imps, whose gaping maws were filled with razor-sharp teeth.

“EEEEEEEEE....” screamed the blackpod imps as they shot off into the distance.

Currently, outside of the 30,000-meter area Meng Hao had already set aside, hundreds of cultivators were flying around, radiating murderous auras and killing intent. The dozen or so in the lead had cultivation bases in the Ancient Realm, although the strongest of the bunch was only in the mid Ancient Realm. However, a group like this was not something to be underestimated, and comprised about half of the entire power base of the Xu Clan.

About thirty percent of the group was in the Immortal Realm, and the rest... were in the Spirit Realm. After all, the Xu Clan was one of eight subsidiary clans within the Meng Clan, which meant that it would be impossible for them to reach a terrifyingly powerful level. Even still, they had many powerful cultivators.

What they could see was a huge area filled with dense mist, and they could sense that within that mist was some invisible barrier. That barrier caused the eyes of the mid Ancient Realm cultivator from the Xu Clan to widen. He gasped, and his heart began to pound.

He had to ask himself if even he could breach that barrier, and as he looked closer, he realized that the mist inside was...

“Immortal qi... so much Immortal qi. It’s... it’s so dense it’s manifested physically. It’s like this area is another world, like an Immortal world!

“But... who could possibly do this!?!?” Although he was shocked, few of his fellow clan members noticed any of these clues, and their murderous aura boiled just as strongly as before.

Tempers provoked, some of the Xu Clan cultivators began to shout out in rage. “Anyone from the Meng Clan in the area had better get out here right now!”

It all happened too quickly for the mid Ancient Realm cultivator to stop, and his face flickered as, all of a sudden, a grating sound rang out from the mist.

“EEEEEEEEE....” Following the sound was a huge group of black-colored imps, moving as fast as lightning. Each one of those imps was radiating pressure equivalent to the mid Ancient Realm.

“It’s... run! Get out of here!!” The mid Ancient Realm cultivator’s scalp was numb. Although he had never encountered these blackpod imps before, he could tell how terrifying they were, and it filled his heart with an indescribable sense of deadly crisis.

He immediately fell back, to the shock of his fellow clan members. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t react quickly enough, and were quickly pounced upon by the blackpod imps.

Apparently, the imps had no inclination to possess any of these people. They simply bored into their bodies and began to chew them up. Miserable screams instantly began to ring out from the mouths of the Xu Clan cultivators.

A huge commotion was underway as more than a hundred out of the group of hundreds began to scream. Then their bodies exploded into clouds of gore and blood. As for the others present, their faces drained of blood, and they immediately began to flee.

In the blink of an eye, the blackpod imps shot out from within the gore, vicious expressions on their faces as they went on the attack again. Miserable shrieks rang out as another hundred or so cultivators were slaughtered. The blackpod imps were like Yamas from h.e.l.l, out to collect lives.

Not even the Xu Clan cultivators in the Ancient Realm were capable of fleeing. No matter how they tried to fight back, they ended up screaming, and their bodies withered rapidly as the blackpod imps sc.r.a.ped them clean from the inside out.

The strongest of their number, the mid Ancient Realm old man, bellowed in rage as he unleashed divine abilities and magical items to defend himself. However, it did no good. Soon, one of the blackpod imps bored into him. He screamed miserably and then... exploded.

The gory scene lasted for some time. Hundreds of cultivators died, and the air was awash with the reek of blood. As for the blackpod imps, they grinned cruelly and let out fearsome howls.

Finally, they formed back together into a black cloud that vanished back into the mist.

“EEEEEEEEE....”