“It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about family love or one’s temper,” the young man said lightly. He smiled slightly. “Everything is Karma. Sooner or later, everything becomes empty after it has been severed and annihilated.” With that, he waved his right hand. Time almost seemed to flow in reverse as the crumbled South Heaven Gate instantly reformed, as good as new.

Of course, the young man knew that although the gate itself could be repaired, its collapse earlier had caused harm to the Cultivation bases of all living Ji Clan Cultivators connected to it. Such losses would not be easily recovered.

That was the true importance of this gate; it allowed all Cultivators who were part of the Ji Clan to utilize power of the Heavens of Ji to achieve Cultivation base breakthroughs.

Meanwhile, back in the Western Desert, outside of the Crow Divinity Holy Land, the stillness which had gripped the world was gone. Because of the failure of the Karmic Severed, the members of the five great Tribes once again had their memories of Meng Hao.

However, they were left with no sense whatsoever regarding the stillness. The last thing they remembered was Meng Hao suddenly flying up through the s.h.i.+ning golden doors.

The Crow Scout Tribe Greatfather shook his head and laughed heartily. “Grandmaster Meng is being a bit hasty, but there’s no harm in that. Let’s go meet up.” With that, his body flickered and he entered the glowing golden doors. He was followed by the Priest, the Grand Elder and the others, including the man-form Outlander Beast. The large man’s face was grim, and his eyes flickered with rage and humiliation.

At the moment, the parrot was the dominant one. It remembered everything that had happened, and understood the truth. This caused its fury to billow up as it urgently entered into the golden light.

As for the rest of the Tribes, they didn’t care a bit whether Grandmaster Meng barged in, nor did they say anything. In fact, were they in the place of the Crow Scout Tribe, they would do nothing about the matter. After all… Grandmaster Meng had displayed the power of a Grand Dragoneer. A person like that would be treated like an esteemed guest in any Tribe.

The members of the Crow Scout Tribe pa.s.sed through the golden doors and entered the Holy Land with the seven volcanoes. By this time, Meng Hao had Ji Nineteen thoroughly bound up. The four wooden swords were continuously crippling his Cultivation base, making it impossible for him to recover.

In fact, out of fear that his Cultivation base would rise too high, Meng Hao decided to use some additional methods. From within his bag of holding, he retrieved a large collection of poison pills that he had concocted. The power of these poisons was terrifying, not to mention any possible interactions they might have later. Meng Hao knew that even he himself would have a difficult time dispelling them. Without hesitation, he fed them to Ji Nineteen.

Ji Nineteen’s eyes went wide as he was forced to consume the vast quant.i.ties of poison pills. His face turned purple, and seven tremors ran through his body. With each tremor, he withered a bit, until his very aura seemed to ooze with poison. His eyes were green, and filled with terror.

“You…. Dammit! How many poison pills do you have? How many did you give me!?!?”

Meng Hao snorted coldly.

“We will end your torment for today. Once the poisons are fully fused into your body, I’ll concoct some more for you.” With that, Meng Hao waved his hand, wrapping Ji Nineteen up in the flag of three streamers and sucking him into the blood-colored mask.

Only binding him in such a way allowed Meng Hao to set his mind at ease. Otherwise, how could he feel safe, considering Ji Nineteen’s incredible power?

“Once he’s weak enough, I can use his blood to make a Blood Spirit. Also, I can use his soul to make a Soul of Lightning, just like the Li Clan Patriarch. If I can use some special methods, I can turn his body into a puppet. A high level expert like him is a treasure through and through. I can’t waste any part of him. The sad thing is, he didn’t have a bag of holding….” After a long moment of consideration, he came to the conclusion that he truly hadn’t wasted any opportunities. Finally, he nodded in satisfaction.

It was a good thing Ji Nineteen didn’t hear the conclusions he had reached, otherwise blood would spray from his mouth as he realized that being killed by Shui Dongliu would have been much better.

“This time I really did profit from misfortune.” He looked down at his bag of the Cosmos, and his heart began to twitch with excitement. On the way here, he had taken advantage of the power of the fis.h.i.+ng line to collect a huge a.s.sortment of ferocious neo-demons. There were some that, normally speaking, he would have had great difficulty in acquiring on his own.

That was especially true regarding some of the hordes he had acquired. In his opinion, he really had profited wildly.

“And then there’s the sword!” He started breathing heavily as he thought of his fourth sword, which was currently stuck into Ji Nineteen. Technically speaking it was the third he had found.

Meng Hao now knew that the swords must contain some incredible mystery. If he could somehow acquire more of them, he would probably be able to solve the puzzle.

“Immortal Murdering Sword, huh? And then there’s the flag of three streamers. Ji Nineteen called it a much different name than the meat jelly did. The Mountain and Sea Emperor’s Banner.” After more thought, Meng Hao slapped his bag of holding to produce a green fis.h.i.+ng pole. Hefting it in his hand, his eyes began to s.h.i.+ne with a bright glow.

“When Ji Nineteen launched his Karmic Severing, he used a fis.h.i.+ng line. I’m guessing that the fis.h.i.+ng pole he used was the same type as this one!” He looked thoughtfully at the fis.h.i.+ng pole. All of a sudden, the same cacophony of life he had heard before, once again began to sound out in his mind. There were babies crying, old people gasping for breath, men and women laughing and arguing.

He quickly released his grip on the fis.h.i.+ng pole. His eyes flickered as he muttered to himself for a moment, then put the fis.h.i.+ng pole back into his bag of holding.

“I wonder how you use the thing? Maybe I can get the answer from Ji Nineteen.” Meng Hao glanced at the mouth of the volcano and then looked at the Pool of Destiny.

His heart suddenly quivered. Earlier, he had stepped into the pool because of the Karma Line. As such, he hadn’t noticed anything too extraordinary about it. Now, his eyes glittered as he once again shot back to enter the pool. Once inside, he closed his eyes for a long moment. When they opened, they were filled with excitement.

“So, it contains totemic transmogrification powers…. If I cultivate here, my Greenwood Tree totem will grow even stronger. With enough power, I should even be able to transmogrify the totem itself! It should even provide benefits to the Eyeless Larva. It should be able to make it into something like a true totem. I won’t need Li Tao’s magic to cover it up!” Meng Hao’s eyes glittered brightly. The Wood-type Greenwood Tree totem was a legacy handed down to him from Ancestor Greenwood of the Crow Scout Tribe. Meng Hao wasn’t sure what it would turn into if he transmogrified it further.

He stood there thoughtfully for a moment, his eyes filling with determination. Then he sat down cross-legged in the waters to meditate. When he closed his eyes, the Greenwood Tree totem tattoo on his forehead and the Eyeless Larva totem tattoo on his hand immediately appeared.

The waters in the pool began to seethe as if they were boiling. A whirlpool formed, with Meng Hao at the center and the water rus.h.i.+ng around him.

Within the pool waters surged totemic power. As it circled around him, it fused into Meng Hao’s body and then, into the Greenwood Tree totem and the Eyeless Larva totem.

After the fusion began, the pool waters were clearly lessening. Moments later, mist began to rise up from the seething water. The mist rose up to surround Meng Hao and then fill the entire inner part of the volcano.

At the same time that Meng Hao was performing the fusion, the group from the Crow Scout Tribe was cautiously making its way through the region outside.

The Greatfather, the Sky Priest, and the Grand Elder all looked suspicious as they traveled through the Holy Land. Things weren’t exactly the way they remembered from previous occasions. Everything seemed much emptier.

“How strange. I remember last time there was a flock of crow neo-demons in this area. By using a special method, there was a high chance of acquiring a few of them.”

“Yeah, that’s right. And I remember that over there was a group of green mosquito neo-demons, completely fearsome in appearance. That year, the group I was leading happened to see someone from the Crow Fighter Tribe accidentally provoke them. He was drained up and turned into a withered corpse in the blink of an eye.”

“Weird, it’s much quieter than usual in here this time….”

They encountered almost no neo-demons during their entire way, nor did they need to use any of the ancestral techniques. They simply flew directly toward the centermost of the seven volcanoes.

According to the Tribe records, the center volcano housed the primary pool. If the water in the Pool of Destiny in the center volcano was reduced, then the water in pools in the other volcanos would also be reduced.

As soon as the Crow Scout Tribe members neared the volcano mouth, they saw the mist within in. They also heard a growling roar coming from within.

It was none other than the voice of Meng Hao. His long cry echoed out as the image of an enormous Greenwood Tree suddenly emerged from within the mist.

At the same time, the mist in the volcano began to shrink down, absorbed. Soon, the image of Meng Hao became visible, seated cross-legged within the pool, sucking in all of the mist.

The image of the Greenwood Tree existed directly above him.

“It’s Grandmaster Meng!” cried the members of the Crow Scout Tribe, instantly recognizing him. Their hearts trembled as Meng Hao’s eyes suddenly opened. He took a deep breath, and the waters around him lessened further. Wisps of white Qi rose up to be absorbed by Meng Hao and the Greenwood Tree image, causing the tree to become even more lifelike as if it really existed there.

It was at this point that rumbling sounds could be heard from the other six volcanos. White Qi rose up from them and shot toward the region of the Crow Scout Tribe members. It shot into the volcano mouth and directly toward Meng Hao.

The Greenwood Tree above him suddenly began to shake, and it expanded outward. Its bark began to look older and older, as if years were pa.s.sing. It seemed as if at this moment, the tree was growing so high it could reach the Heavens.

In fact, to anyone observing, it seemed… the tree wasn’t just growing. The ancient scars and marks on the tree’s surface seemed to be naturally occurring. This indicated that the Greenwood Tree….

The Sky Priest gasped. “Ancestral Awakening!” she said faintly. “Grandmaster Meng's Greenwood Tree totem is experiencing an Ancestral Awakening!!”

“Greenwood Tree Ancestral Awakening!” cried the Greatfather, shocked. He began panting, his eyes wide.

Down inside the pool waters, Meng Hao’s eyes snapped open again. Even he had never imagined that by absorbing the totemic power of the pool and fusing it into the Greenwood Tree totem would actually give birth to… the power of Ancestral Awakening!

Meng Hao was astonished. “What will be awakened in the end? An ancient Greenwood Tree?”

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This chapter was sponsored by Von Neuman, Henry Tizzard, and Nicos Theodorou