East Heaven Gate was the only gate that had large numbers of cultivators lined up outside of it. The gates for the Church of the Puppet G.o.d and the Church of the Blood Orchid had no lines whatsoever, nor did the Fang Clan’s gate.

“Elder Brother Meng, the only way to get onto Planet East Victory is by going through this gate. I’m actually from Planet East Victory, and even though the Medicine Immortal Sect has no gate, I have special privileges. However, since this is your first time here, I’ll wait in line with you.” Feng Xun ended his words by clasping hands and bowing.

Meng Hao clasped hands in thanks and the two of them took their place at the end of the line. He looked around at everything that was happening and mused about how completely different this was from Planet South Heaven.

Planet East Victory was huge, and in terms of how it was guarded, as well as how orderly everything was, there was a sense of sternness to everything. There also seemed to be an excess of rules.

Any cultivator who entered the Planet was carefully inspected. Only members of the sects from Planet East Victory enjoyed any sort of special treatment, and the most special treatment of all went to the Fang Clan.

As Meng Hao stood at the end of the line, he noticed that virtually all of the cultivators around him were in the Immortal Realm, although the majority were only stage two or three. There were few who were stage five or higher. Furthermore, although there seemed to be large numbers of them, they were all False Immortals.

After all, only cultivators in the Immortal Realm could step out into the starry sky. Cultivators in the Spirit Realm could only go there temporarily.

As time pa.s.sed, the cultivators in line slowly pa.s.sed through East Heaven Gate. Meng Hao remained in place, his expression calm, as he watched the cultivators handing over spirit stones in exchange for jade medallions.

Occasionally, miscellaneous cultivators from the Church of the Puppet G.o.d or the Church of the Blood Orchid would return from the stars, and would disappear into the gates specially set up for their sects. Every so often, people would leave from those gates as well.

Four hours pa.s.sed rather quickly. Soon, Meng Hao was toward the front of the line, with only about seven people ahead of him. It didn’t take long until their turn arrived. It was in this moment that ripples suddenly spread out up above in the starry sky. In the blink of an eye, eight streaks of light shot down.

They were eight cultivators, dressed in luxurious clothing, laughing and chatting as they proceeded along, as comfortable as if they were walking through the garden of their own house. The two cultivators in the lead position seemed to be in high spirits, full of energy and with extraordinary cultivation bases. They emanated an air of elitism.

“Look, people from the Fang Clan!” Feng Xun whispered to Meng Hao. “I recognize the two in the front. They’re from a collateral bloodline of the Fang Clan that is second only to the direct branch of the clan.”

The cultivators in the area immediately began to whisper to each other. Meng Hao’s expression didn’t change, though a barely detectable flicker could be seen in his eyes.

When the hundred or so cultivators gathered in front of the East Heaven Gate saw the eight newcomers, their expressions turned solemn. They immediately stepped forward, clasped hands, and bowed deeply.

“Greetings, Princes.”

The two cultivators in the lead position among the eight smiled and turned back to a young woman among their number.

“Junior Sister Hong,” one of them said, smiling, “9th Uncle has been waiting for some time for you to return from your outside training!”

The pretty young woman smiled in response. Then she and the rest of the group walked past the bowing cultivators, nodding to them as they headed toward the Fang Clan gate. One by one, they pa.s.sed through the gate, and as they did, glowing beams of light rose up into the air. The height of each beam was different, and when the young woman who had been addressed as Junior Sister Hong stepped through the gate, the light shot up roughly 300 meters into the air.

Expressions of envy could be seen on the faces of the cultivators around Meng Hao as they discussed what was happening in low tones.

“A 300-meter Bloodline Gatebeam! That young woman… she definitely has a high position in the Fang Clan! Could she really be THE Fang Hong!?” [1. Fang Hong’s name in Chinese is 方虹 fāng hóng. Hong means ‘rainbow’]

“It probably is. The Fang Clan gate only opens for members of the Fang Clan, and the thicker their bloodline is, the higher that beam of light!”

“Last year I was fortunate enough to catch sight of Prince Wei. When he walked through the Fang Clan gate, the Gatebeam was 24,000 meters high! It was spectacular!”

Of course, despite their envy, there was nothing they could do to alter their own bloodline backgrounds. Even if they became Outer Clan disciples, having Fang Clan blood was still an honor they wouldn’t have.

Feng Xun was a disciple from the Medicine Immortal Sect, but even he was sighing in envy. Then he proceeded to explain all the advantages of being a member of the Fang Clan on Planet East Victory to Meng Hao. Of course, despite everything he said, it was still possible to hear how proud he was of his own ident.i.ty.

“The Fang Clan might be powerful, but I’ll never leave the Medicine Immortal Sect,” he concluded.

Meng Hao listened silently during Feng Xun’s explanation.

Eventually, the bowing cultivators straightened up. Their ingratiating expressions became once again solemn, and they resumed collecting spirit stones from the line of cultivators in exchange for allowing them to enter one by one.

Finally, Meng Hao was standing directly in front of the gate. The cultivator responsible for collecting spirit stones had a black birthmark on his forehead, making him look quite ferocious as he stared coldly at Meng Hao.

“How long do you plan to stay?” he asked. “If you have no ident.i.ty medallion, then you’ll have to pay 100 spirit stones per day. If you exceed a month, the price increases to 1,000 per day. After two months, the price is 10,000 per day.”

Meng Hao frowned. He had heard the prices mentioned earlier, when he was further back in line, and they seemed extremely expensive. In contrast, if you did possess an ident.i.ty medallion, then the price was only 10 spirit stones per day.

“I have no ident.i.ty plaque,” Meng Hao muttered, holding out a hundred spirit stones.

“One day?” The cultivator with the black birthmark grinned slightly. Over the years, he had encountered many cultivators who had claimed to only plan to stay one day, but who actually intended to stay longer, and just wanted to avoid paying the spirit stones.

People like that were eventually arrested by the Fang Clan, and then ended up paying even more spirit stones.

The man looked Meng Hao up and down, then tossed him a white command medallion and looked at Feng Xun, who stood further back.

Feng Xun’s demeanor was different now than the one he used with Meng Hao. He looked a bit proud and arrogant as he threw his medallion over to the man. As soon as the cultivator saw the command medallion, his face broke into a smile, and, although he didn’t clasp hands the way he had for the members of the Fang Clan, obviously treated him differently than Meng Hao.

Meng Hao held the white command medallion in his hand and walked toward East Heaven Gate. Just as he stepped into the gate, a powerful repelling force surged out, enveloping him and ejecting him from within the gate.

This scene immediately caused expressions of sympathy to appear on the faces of the cultivators in line. Feng Xun gaped in shock, then suddenly seemed to realize something, and involuntarily frowned. As for the cultivators standing guard outside the gate, their cultivation bases exploded with power and they immediately surrounded Meng Hao.

“Ejected by East Heaven Gate, huh? Seems you must have some evil intentions! Come with us. If the investigation proves that you’re innocent, then you’ll obviously be set free!”

“East Heaven Gate only rejects people who harbor malicious thoughts. Your cultivation base isn’t very high, so if you resist us, we’ll just kill you!”

The guard cultivators all stared at him with cold eyes.

Meng Hao frowned and looked down at the ident.i.ty plaque he held. A moment ago, he had clearly sensed that the reason he had been obstructed by East Heaven Gate was because of the jade medallion, not he himself.

Feng Xun immediately approached, not hesitating to mention his status as he smoothed the matter over. After he finished speaking, the cultivator with the black birth mark, the one who had given Meng Hao the jade plaque, spoke up.

“Since Fellow Daoist Feng here is willing to vouch for you, we can forgo the investigation. Just hand over 10,000 spirit stones as bail, and we’ll forget the matter.” His eyes overflowed with scorn as he looked at Meng Hao. He was convinced that a person like Meng Hao, with no ident.i.ty medallion and a low cultivation base, had obviously run into trouble outside, and was now attempting to seek refuge on Planet East Victory.

Had Meng Hao been generous to begin with, and just handed over 10,000 spirit stones to purchase the right to stay there, then he wouldn’t have caused any problems for him. However, he was obviously seeking a favor from Planet East Victory, and yet at the same time was being stingy. Whenever the cultivators who guarded the gate ran into people like this, they would make sure to teach them a lesson.

Of course, if Meng Hao had an incredible cultivation base, then they wouldn’t dare to do something like that. But with his current cultivation base, he was definitely the type they would give a hard time to.

If it weren’t for the fact that they wouldn’t do anything to offend Feng Xun personally, they would definitely do everything they could to take advantage of Meng Hao.

Killing intent flickered in Meng Hao’s eyes. He had never imagined that just being a little stingy and handing over too few spirit stones for the toll would cause such a fuss.

Especially since… this was his home, the Fang Clan of Planet East Victory.

Especially since… he had experienced numerous twists and turns on his journey here, and had even had people trying to track him down and kill him. All of those things which had been brewing in Meng Hao’s heart were now on the verge of causing him to explode.

Originally, his plan had been to get onto Planet East Victory, look around a bit, and then go to the Fang Clan. But as of this moment, he changed his mind. Now that he had finally arrived at Planet East Victory, he actually needn’t keep a low profile any more. It was time for him to see who it was that actually dared to try to kill him!

He chuckled coldly, slapped his bag of holding, and caused 10,000 spirit stones to trickle out and form a small mountain.

The surrounding cultivators who guarded East Heaven Gate looked on with snide smiles. The man with the black birthmark made a grasping motion to collect the spirit stones. Then he looked scornfully at Meng Hao and threw him a jade plaque.

“If you’d done this to begin with you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble. Now, you may enter Planet East Victory.”

Feng Xun quickly walked over to Meng Hao and murmured, “I forgot to mention this earlier, Elder Brother Meng. These aren’t ordinary guards, they’re Outer Clan members of the Fang Clan…. If you had just spent a bit more money, then they wouldn’t have given you a hard time.

“But, you only bought one day on the planet, and you didn’t even have an ident.i.ty medallion….” Inwardly, Feng Xun was shaking his head; were it not for the fact that Meng Hao had saved his life before, he would never have intervened and vouched for him.

Meng Hao’s expression was the same as ever as he looked at Feng Xun and coolly said, “Many thanks for your a.s.sistance in this matter, Elder Brother Feng. However, on Planet East Victory, if somebody takes my spirit stones, they will pay me back a hundredfold.”

His words caused Feng Xun to gape.

Meng Hao turned and headed, not toward East Heaven Gate, but rather, in the direction of the Fang Clan’s gate.

This immediately caused all of the cultivators in the area to stare him shock.

The more than one hundred gate guards were also looking on in astonishment.

“Is this guy crazy? He’s actually heading toward the Fang Clan’s gate?”

The man with the black birthmark sneered and said, “How reckless! Well, if he tries to force his way through the Fang Clan gate, then he’ll be crushed to death. We don’t have to do anything.”

Feng Xun’s face fell and he immediately hurried forward.

“Elder Brother Meng, it’s… it’s impossible for you to enter this gate! If you don’t have the blood of the Fang Clan in you, then you’ll be killed!!”

Meng Hao paid him no heed, and in the blink of an eye, was in front of the gate. While all the other cultivators looked on in astonishment, he lifted his foot and stepped into the gate.