Meng Hao’s hand slowly tightened around the jade slip.

Although he kept his thoughts concealed deeply in his heart, and would not easily reveal them, Patriarch Song had practiced cultivation for many years, and was able to pick up on some clues from the motion of Meng Hao’s hand. He knew that his gamble had paid off.

Meng Hao took a deep breath, then clasped hands and bowed deeply to Patriarch Song.

“Many thanks!” he said.

He said nothing more than those two words, but to Patriarch Song, that was enough. He nodded and clasped hands in return.

“Meng Hao, my young friend, if you ever go to the Eastern Lands, the Song Clan’s branch there may be able to provide you with some a.s.sistance.”

Meng Hao nodded, then, without another word, transformed into a beam of light that shot off into the distance.

Patriarch Song watched him fly off. After a long moment, when Meng Hao was no longer visible, he turned and headed back into the Song Clan ancestral mansion.

As Meng Hao flew through the air, a complex expression could be seen on his face. Images from his childhood appeared in his mind, which had not faded after the pa.s.sing of years, but were clearer than ever.

“Mom, dad… just… why?

“Why did you have to leave? Why did you leave me behind? Why?! Why would you come to the Song Clan… and not tell me?! You were obviously there!

“WHY?!?!”

Meng Hao felt as if his heart was being stabbed with a knife. These questions had been buried in his heart for far too long, with no answers.

The answers… were in the Eastern Lands!

Finally, Meng Hao sighed and regained his composure. He was a powerful expert who had practiced cultivation for hundreds of years. The only thing that could cause him to lose control was the matter of his father and mother.

“The Eastern Lands,” he thought. “It was always my dream to go there…. That… is where I MUST go!” Decisiveness appeared in his eyes. He took a deep breath and then sped onward.

As evening deepened, he shot forward at top speed. He had called upon the Song Clan and visited the Violet Fate Sect. Now, it was time to return to the Blood Demon Sect and spend the rest of the hundred years with Xu Qing.

Even as he continued along, his gaze was suddenly drawn to something that was happening off in the distance.

“So, it’s him….” he thought, surprised.

Currently, he was in the border region between the Song Clan and the Blood Demon Sect. Fifty kilometers or so from his current position, three streaks of light sped through the air.

Clearly, there were two cultivators chasing a third cultivator. The target was a middle-aged man who wore a blood-stained white robe. From the look on his face, he had experienced many things. He seemed exhausted, and even more so, full of grief.

It was easy to see that once upon a time, he had been incredibly handsome. Now he looked old, but still carried himself with an extraordinary, heroic spirit. However, the years had not been kind to him, and he had undergone a baptism of ruthlessness. Now, his life was one of pain.

“w.a.n.g Tengfei, where do you think you can run to now?!”

“You used to be a top Chosen of the w.a.n.g Clan, but now you’re nothing more than a stray dog! All you know how to do is run away!”

“What are you running for? Come on, show us some of your skills from all those years ago. You used to be the pinnacle of arrogance! You chased me and my brother for years trying to kill us. Now we finally get to meet again, and you’re running away?!”

“Hahaha! Of course he’s running. There’s no w.a.n.g Clan in the Southern Domain anymore! It was wiped out in a single night! w.a.n.g Tengfei just got lucky and escaped death! Unfortunately for him, he ran into us here! w.a.n.g Tengfei… you’re dead!”

The person being chased was none other than w.a.n.g Tengfei!

The pursuers were two middle-aged cultivators with late Core Formation cultivation bases, only half a step away from the Nascent Soul stage. As for w.a.n.g Tengfei, he was also in the late Core Formation stage. However, he was clearly wounded, and could do nothing more than flee from his two opponents.

His face was ashen, and filled with intense grief. Apparently, the words spoken by his pursuers stabbed deeply into his heart. After the w.a.n.g Clan was destroyed, he had experienced far too many slanderous insults. He had once been Chosen, but in the blink of an eye had turned into an outcast. Originally, he told himself that he could get used to this new situation, but every time he heard words such as those being hurled at him now, they hurt deeply.

It felt as if people were digging his heart out of his chest, and it made the pained expression on his face grow even more intense.

He had been there that night when the w.a.n.g Clan was wiped out. He had personally witnessed the Patriarch’s insanity as he slaughtered one clan member after another. That night, it felt as if the sky had fallen.

His father and mother died. His grandfather died. Everyone died, one by one.… As for himself, he had been consumed by terror and sorrow. And then, his older brother… the older brother who he had always wanted to surpa.s.s, struck him on the head with a palm.

That palm swept through him like thunder, rendering him unconscious. The last thing he remembered was his brother murmuring in his ear, “Hey kid, you need to stay alive….”

When w.a.n.g Tengfei woke up, he opened his eyes to find himself in a sea of blood. He was surrounded by the corpses of his fellow clan members. Laying directly on top of him… was the body of his older brother.

His brother had covered him with his own corpse, using the aura of death to hide w.a.n.g Tengfei. That was how w.a.n.g Tengfei… managed to escape the disaster caused by the 10th w.a.n.g Clan Patriarch, who in his demented state had not bothered to search very carefully. [1. Although he is not mentioned by name, w.a.n.g Tengfei’s brother was w.a.n.g Lihai, a recurring character who appeared in the Blood Immortal Legacy Tournament arc, the Dao Geyser arc, and the Demon Immortal Sect arc, and perhaps some other places that are currently skipping my mind]

At that point, w.a.n.g Tengfei had begun to weep.

He had nothing. No clan. No family. Everything was gone.

He felt like he was the only person alive in the entire world. Bitterly, he had crawled to his feet and began to wander….

He was alive, but it was as if he had already died. People who had once been his friends now looked at him with cold mockery. The constant ridicule was a vast difference from how he had been treated in the past, and it caused the trembling w.a.n.g Tengfei to come to a realization.

All he could do was bow his head and bitterly accept the ridicule.

He wanted to find the 10th w.a.n.g Clan Patriarch, and ask him… why?!

Why did you eradicate the entire w.a.n.g Clan, sir?!

WHY?!

It turned into the only reason for w.a.n.g Tengfei to continue living. He began to search the entire Southern Domain, using his bloodline connection to try to find the 10th w.a.n.g Clan Patriarch. Even if he died in the process… he would get his answer!

It was finally in this area that he had sensed the presence of the 10th Patriarch. He had started a thorough search, but before he could track him down, ran into these two people who he had previously disdained as being unworthy to even be looked at. They were n.o.bodies whom he and his subordinates had hunted down and tried to kill over some magical item.

Now, he could only flee from them.

w.a.n.g Tengfei’s two pursuers performed incantation gestures, causing two flying swords to speed out. Glittering, they shot toward the ashen-faced w.a.n.g Tengfei, who quickly produced a small drum that he tossed behind him. It rapidly expanded and reverberated with a pounding sound as the two swords neared it. The items collided and…

Boom!

As the explosion reverberated out, w.a.n.g Tengfei spit out blood. His face was pale white as he braced himself and pushed forward at top speed. He didn’t take the time to try to retrieve the drum. The two pursuing cultivators laughed as one of them took the drum. Then they shot forward in pursuit once again, their eyes s.h.i.+ning with greed and killing intent.

They continued to fight back and forth, and w.a.n.g Tengfei continuously coughed up blood. The sword glow beneath his feet began to fade, and a look of despair could be seen in his eyes. To him, the whole world seemed...to have turned gray.

“You used to be so arrogant, didn’t you?!”

“Back then you were so high and mighty. You looked down on everyone else as if they were bugs, and you were the Chosen of Heaven! Where is your arrogance now, huh?!”

“w.a.n.g Tengfei, you’re dead! If you get reincarnated, then remember not to be so arrogant in your next life!”

The two pursuers’ eyes flashed with killing intent, and they attacked simultaneously, unleas.h.i.+ng their most powerful divine abilities. Sword qi swirled, and a ma.s.sive palm rumbled out toward w.a.n.g Tengfei.

w.a.n.g Tengfei smiled bitterly. He knew that he couldn’t escape, so he suddenly turned in place and started to laugh. He had had enough of life, and should have died with the rest of his clan anyway. He was just about to throw caution to the wind when….

Suddenly, a sigh could be heard echoing throughout the land.

Once they heard the sigh, w.a.n.g Tengfei’s two pursuers stopped, and their faces went pale. They instantly began to tremble as they looked behind w.a.n.g Tengfei.

“Blood… Blood Demon Sect. The Blood Prince!!”

“It’s Meng Hao!”

Meng Hao floated down from behind w.a.n.g Tengfei until he stood between him and the two pursuers.

“This person is an old friend of mine,” he said. “Fellow Daoists, would you mind giving me a bit of face?”

The two pursuers gasped, and their hearts filled with terror. They immediately clasped hands and bowed with the utmost respect.

“Senior, we didn’t know that w.a.n.g Tengfei was an old friend of the Blood Prince. Please don’t be offended, your excellency.”

“We’ll, we’ll be leaving now….”

The two cultivators were completely shaken. There wasn’t anyone in the Southern Domain who was unfamiliar with Meng Hao’s face. They didn’t care a whit about w.a.n.g Tengfei, but as for Meng Hao, he was terrifying to the extreme. Even as they spoke, the two men backed up, trembling.

w.a.n.g Tengfei gaped at Meng Hao’s back, then saw the expressions on the faces of the two men, and felt stabs of pain in his heart. Such expressions were the type that would fill the faces of people who looked at him, the kind of expressions he savored back before the w.a.n.g Clan was eradicated. But now….

w.a.n.g Tengfei’s face distorted. He felt as if a blade was stabbing through his heart as he glared angrily at Meng Hao. His hatred for Meng Hao ran deep, and even before the destruction of the w.a.n.g Clan, he had dreamed of personally slaying him.

He hated Meng Hao for taking away his legacy. He hated Meng Hao for taking away his fiancé. He hated Meng Hao for all his success. In w.a.n.g Tengfei’s mind, everything that Meng Hao had achieved, should have been his!

In recent days, whenever he heard stories of Meng Hao, he felt like his heart was being crushed. He almost felt as if he would go insane. His hatred ran all the way to his very marrow!

“I don’t need your help!” he cried out. “Kill me, alright? Just kill me! KILL ME!

“I’m done with living, Meng Hao. You wanna kill me? Fine! You don’t have to pretend! Come on! w.a.n.g Tengfei’s spirit is indomitable! I’m standing right here. Come on, kill me!

“You took away all my good fortune! You took away all my opportunities! You even took away my fiancé. I will NOT live under the same sky as you, you charlatan! You lowlife! Come on, kill me!

“You were NOTHING back in the Reliance Sect. I could have killed you with the wave of a finger. If Grand Elder Ouyang hadn’t interfered, I would have cut you down!

“I am Chosen! Chosen of the Reliance Sect! Chosen of the w.a.n.g Clan! And you? You’re… an insect!!”

w.a.n.g Tengfei started to laugh maniacally. He had repressed himself for too long, and now he hysterically shouted out all his grievances.