“Patriarch, Disciple went through innumerable trials and tribulations to bring those people here. I don’t mind if there’s no reward, but this poison….” A look of indignation had appeared on Meng Hao’s face. But before he could even finish speaking, the fissure in the ground closed up completely. There was no trace that it had even existed. Patriarch Reliance was nowhere to be seen and didn’t speak. The only things that remained were the seven burning lamps and the flickering light they cast. The seven Cores and the one Nascent Soul let of thin streams of Qi. The streams didn’t emanate up, though. As soon as they left the lamp, they were sucked into the ground.

“Patriarch Reliance, I allowed myself to be poisoned because of you. You're from the senior generation, and you're a powerful expert. How could someone as powerful as you do something like this?!”

“I’m neither an expert nor powerful,” replied the Patriarch with a light cough. “I’ve been like this since I was young. And that is not an ordinary Spirit Stone, kid. Your Cultivation base just isn’t high enough to be able to tell. Wait until you’re at the Spirit Severing stage, then you will know how amazing that treasure is.”

“You… Patriarch, what’s going on? I went through a lot of trouble! Why are you doing this!?” Meng Hao was furious. But everything around him was completely silent. Patriarch Reliance didn’t say anything; in fact, he seemed to be ignoring Meng Hao.

“Patriarch, I don’t need any other rewards. I just need help dispelling this poison. You… Patriarch, Disciple was constantly trying to figure out ways to bring those people here to help you recover your Cultivation base. How can you do this to me?!?!”

Meng Hao shouted out a few more times, but could see that Patriarch Reliance wasn’t responding. Even though he was just a simple scholar, he was enraged to the extreme at the moment. He had been deceived, and couldn’t help but begin to curse.

“Patriarch Reliance, you’re a b.a.s.t.a.r.d!” For Meng Hao to say something like this showed that he was exceedingly incensed.

Suddenly, Patriarch Reliance’s voice could be heard. “Kid, who do you think you’re cursing? Do you really dare to cuss at me? I’ll slap you to death!”

“I’m cursing you!” replied Meng Hao angrily. “If you’re gonna slap me, then go ahead. I’m poisoned, so I’ll die soon anyway. Get out here!”

Patriarch Reliance coughed a couple times. “Ahhhh. Never mind, never mind. I’ve always had a good temper. Hey, you’re the sole heir of the Reliance Sect. At the moment, we’re the only people in the whole Sect! I’m not going to get angry at you. Actually, a lot of people have cursed me over the years. It doesn’t really matter. Look, you can’t really blame me. I can’t even go back out! My secluded meditation zone has been sealed. I could only come out if you brought another group of people. I couldn’t help you now even if I wanted to.” His words became more and more convincing as he spoke. He really had just renewed the seals, and if he wanted to break through, would need to spend several months doing so.

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!” said Meng Hao, finally understanding the truth of the situation. He could only gnash his teeth and continue to curse. But no matter what he said, Patriarch Reliance didn’t respond. In the end, he just started humming a little tune. The happy little tune echoed out, and eventually Meng Hao realized that nothing he did would accomplish anything. Shameless Patriarch Reliance was not going to make an appearance.

His face filled with dark anger, he looked around. There were no bags of holding left behind from the Core Formation experts. Patriarch Reliance was obviously incredibly stingy and had taken them for himself. Meng Hao’s gaze fell upon the seven Demonic lamps. Gritting his teeth, he slapped his bag of holding. Ten flying swords appeared and flew straight toward the lamps.

Before they could even get close to the lamps, however, the swords began to tremble and glow brightly. Then they shattered into pieces.

Meng Hao was livid. Seeing the Qi from the oil lamps seeping into the ground, he smacked his bag of holding again and the two wooden swords few out. They didn’t meet the slightest resistance, but when they reached the oil lamps, they pa.s.sed right through them, as if they weren’t even there. There wasn’t the slightest reaction from them.

“A Nascent Soul Cultivator and six Core Formation Cultivators,” said Patriarch Reliance, his voice cheerful. “Their spiritual energy is quite abundant. As for your c.r.a.ppy swords, well, my seven demonic lamps are cut off from all other magical items. Non-sentient items can’t affect them. Maybe if you were a bit more skilled, you would have some more options. But sorry, you can’t steal things from me!” He continued to hum his merry little tune. At the moment, he sat cross-legged in front of a small Feng Shui compa.s.s about the size of a hand. The strands of Qi that sank down from above became bright red, and then were absorbed by the compa.s.s.

Meng Hao’s face grew more and more grim as he retrieved the wooden swords. He had never imagined that Patriarch Reliance, being of the senior generation and having such an elevated Cultivation base, would treat Qi Condensation Cultivators with such shamelessness. A reward of a simple low-grade Spirit Stone? What was worse was how he claimed the Spirit Stone was an extraordinary object.

No matter from which angle Meng Hao looked at it, it appeared to be completely ordinary. It was nothing more than a low-grade Spirit Stone.

Before, Meng Hao had thought he cared a lot about Spirit Stones. But it turned out Patriarch Reliance was as stingy as an iron chicken from which feathers could not be plucked! He was a complete miser!

“One low-grade Spirit Stone. You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you did this on purpose!” Meng Hao clenched his fists. He felt like he was about to go crazy. Not only were his words impolite, but in his heart, any and all good impressions he’d even had of Patriarch Reliance were wiped clean.

After a while, he turned, his jaw clenched. He wanted to throw the low-grade Spirit Stone away, but finally, he put it into his bag of holding. Then, he stalked off angrily.

“Aiya, you’re leaving? Okay, okay. Don’t forget to come back some time to hang out with Patriarch! You’re my only heir, and the Sect only has the two of us now. This is your home; you can come back any time. I get lonely sometimes, so make sure to come back and keep me company.” He continued to hum his happy tune.

Meng Hao didn’t say anything. He walked away angrily, Patriarch Reliance’s little tune echoing in his ears.

“Ai, it’s too bad I’m sealed in here, otherwise I would see you off personally.” Patriarch Reliance’s voice was incredibly cheerful as he watched Meng Hao from within his secluded meditation chamber. “Meng Hao, you’re such a good kid. You’re just a bit too uptight. Hopefully in the future you can learn to be a bit more like me.”

“You’re really not going to come out?” said Meng Hao wrathfully. At the moment, he was walking past an area covered with a gray-colored restrictive spell. Suddenly, he stopped walking.

“Of course. Listen, I never tell lies. If I say that I can’t go out, then I can’t. It’s not that I don’t want to help you, it’s just, hey…. Uh. What are you doing?” In the middle of his complacent little speech, he suddenly stopped talking and his eyes went wide.

Meng Hao had turned and was looking closely at a gray restrictive spell. During the battle between Lord Revelation and Patriarch Reliance, the restrictive spells in the entire area had been damaged. They were slowly recovering, but at the moment, there were still cracks visible. Some of the cracks were large enough to be holes, actually, although they were slowly sealing back up.

Within this restrictive spell was a veritable mountain of Spirit Stones. They had been collected by Patriarch Reliance over the course of his entire life. Most of them were low-grade Spirit Stones, but more than a few were mid-grade Spirit Stones, which were far more valuable.

Without a word, Meng Hao slapped his bag of holding. A wooden sword appeared and stabbed directly into the hole. Immediately, the sword’s ability to absorb spiritual energy was manifested. The restrictive spell shook, trying to repair itself, but was unable to. The second wooden sword appeared, and it too was stabbed into the hole. The swords spread apart, and soon the hole was as wide as the hand of a child.

Normally, Meng Hao couldn’t do something like this. But because of the cracks and holes in the spell, he had a unique chance.

“What are you doing?” echoed Patriarch Reliance’s voice from within the ground. He stared in shock. He had a stingy personality, but enjoyed being able to put his lifetime acc.u.mulation of treasures on display. He liked to watch people’s eyes turn red when they could look at, but not touch the treasures. He was also supremely confident in his restrictive spells. They were connected to his life force, so unless he died, no one would be able to break through them.

However, because of some strange properties that existed in Lord Revelation, some problems had cropped up when Patriarch Reliance absorbed him. Because of that, the restrictive spells were a bit slow in their recovery. This was a bit of a slip-up on his part.

“Meng Hao, even with that hole there, you won’t be able to take all those Spirit Stones,” laughed Patriarch Reliance. “There are too many. You won’t be able to fit them inside. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I’m a generous person. Go ahead and take a few, I don’t care.”

Meng Hao let out a cold harrumph. Now that the wooden swords had opened up a hole, he reached deep into his robe and pulled out the bag of the Cosmos and aimed it at the little hole.

Meng Hao’s Cultivation base charged into action like a wild horse. The mountain of Spirit Stones began to shudder, and then, one by one they began flying out of the hole, sucked into the bag of the Cosmos.

Faster and faster, the Spirit Stones flew into the black-hole that was the bag of the Cosmos. Patriarch Reliance watched the dazzling display, and a horrified shriek rang out from his mouth.

“A bag of the Cosmos…. Dammit, how can you have that! It’s invisible to Spiritual Sense, and can contain mountains and rivers. You, you, you…. My Spirit Stones! I went through innumerable trials and tribulations throughout my life to acc.u.mulate that many Spirit Stones. Meng Hao, leave some behind for me!” His agonized cry continued to echo out, and the ground began to quake. He was obviously releasing some of his power. And yet the seal had just been put in place….

Meng Hao laughed coldly as he listened to Patriarch Reliance’s miserable cries. Soon the mountain of Spirit Stones shrank to become a small hill. Meng Hao was truly venting his spleen.

“You dare to rip me off?” thought Meng Hao, gritting his teeth. “Then I’ll rip you off even more! I’m going to clear out all of your treasures!”

“Meng Hao, you traitor! This is too excessive!” Patriarch Reliance felt as if the organs in his body were going to explode. He wanted to burst out of the seal, but it had just been put in place. It would take months before he could break it.

He could never have imagined that Meng Hao would have a bag of the Cosmos, nor that he would be able to s.n.a.t.c.h away his lifetime acc.u.mulation of Spirit Stones. At the moment, Patriarch Reliance felt as if a giant invisible blade were rotating around him, slas.h.i.+ng him for every Spirit Stone that he lost.

It was as if he were being hacked to pieces. His heart ached.

He had always had a strange personality. In comparison to other Cultivators of his generation, he was a true weirdo. His greed and stinginess grew along with his Cultivation base and his age. He didn’t have even the slightest bit of an aura of a powerful expert. He didn’t seem to have a bottom line in anything either.

Several hundred years ago, during his first Severing, his Dao enlightenment had been regarding greed. You could say that it had been branding onto his spirit, and was a part of his Cultivation.