When the youthful-looking Patriarch Nine heard how many spirit stones were involved, he stared in shock, then looked deeply at Meng Hao.
“Young friend, you really are very magnanimous. In the future, you’ll surely be incredibly rich.”
“You’re too kind, really,” said Meng Hao clearing his throat, and backing up. “Since Ji Xiaoxiao and the other two aren’t here, they can’t return what they owe personally and it doesn’t count as them settling the debt.” As far as he was concerned, these people from the Ji Clan were a bunch of lunatics. Who would possibly offer to pay back so many spirit stones? If he owed so many spirit stones to someone, he sure wouldn’t pay them back, even if he were beaten to death!
“Really,” he said, “there’s no need to be hasty. How about this… you people get back to what you were doing. My dad asked me to help out around the house, so I’ll head home now….” By this point he was outside the main gate. However, just as he was about to leave, a bag of holding flew out and landed in his hand.
“Inside that bag are all the spirit stones owed to you from the people here. As of now, they have no Karma connected to you.”
There was a booming sound as the Ji Clan’s main gate slammed shut.
Meng Hao chuckled bitterly. The promissory notes in his bag of holding instantly turned to ash. Luckily… there were still three remaining, the ones belonging to Ji Xiaoxiao and the others. Since they weren’t here, they wouldn’t be able to resolve their Karma.
Meng Hao had his money, but was actually a bit depressed. Of course, what he didn’t know was that his matter of collecting his debts had actually shaken the entire Eastern Lands. Countless gazes were being cast in his direction at that very moment.
He looked at the Ji Clan’s main gate, then recalled the iron hoops in his bag of holding. He hesitated for a moment.
“Fudge, who cares about all that crap he said about Karma!? I’m keeping the iron hoops!” With that, he turned, clasped hands to the surrounding cultivators, then turned into a beam of prismatic light that shot off into the distance.
He moved with such speed that in the blink of an eye, no trace of him remained. He reappeared far off in the distance, in the sky above the Eastern Lands. He sent some divine sense out to make sure that no one was watching him, and then his expression darkened.
After a long moment, his eyes flickered.
“I think that in the future, I should get more people to write promissory notes. Getting them to personally write the notes… is Karma….
“Interesting. Perhaps these promissory notes will be of some use in the future!” Eyes glittering, Meng hao was just about to allow the Immortal Ancient Dao Medallion to guide him to the Daoist rite temple when suddenly, he stopped in place.
“If I remember correctly… I still owe money to some people too…. I owe Steward Zhou three pieces of silver….” When he considered the matter, something about it didn’t seem right.
“But when went looking for him before, Steward Zhou was already dead. Should I go find his descendants? Agh! That damned Patriarch Reliance has the State of Zhao on his back. And he left the lands of South Heaven! How… how am I supposed to settle that Karma!” After a moment, he smiled bitterly.
Shaking his head, he sighed, then sent some divine sense into the Immortal Ancient Dao Medallion. Following its guidance, he headed off into the distance.
Several days later, Meng Hao appeared at the edge of a boundless mountain range in the depths of the Eastern Lands. He then vanished as he entered the mountains. As he proceeded along, he saw no signs of life. He passed many treacherous locations, and faced quite a few dangers.
As he traveled further into the mountains, the air up above became restricted, and eruptions of black mist would occur frequently. Despite Meng Hao’s incredibly powerful fleshly body, he could still be injured by that black mist, which filled his heart with trepidation after it happened a few times.
“They don’t seem like restrictive spells,” he thought. “Could it be that somebody buried something here? Whatever they are, they’re incredibly dangerous!” After some careful examination, Meng Hao was certain that there were items buried beneath the ground that would explode if stepped on.
There were also naturally occurring restrictive spells which, if he got caught in their explosions, would certainly cause his cultivation base to drop.
Thankfully, the Immortal Ancient Dao Medallion was very effective in avoiding both the restrictive spells and the objects buried underground. Using the medallion’s guidance, he was able to proceed onward for several days with no incident. Finally, he found himself on a narrow path which cut deep through the mountains in such a way that he could only see a sliver of the sky up above. This path also was laced with the buried, explosive objects. Thankfully, by means of the medallion, and utmost caution, he was able to proceed a