Within the Xiao Clan mountain village, Xiao Chang’en’s face was filled with enthusiasm as he gazed at Meng Hao. His fellow clansmen stared with similar fanaticism. Meng Hao nodded toward them, but said nothing. He entered his shielded room next to the lake, holding Sang Luo by the neck. The lightning mist appeared.
He sat down cross-legged and loosened his grip on Sang Luo. He didn’t fight back, but instead stood there pale-faced in front of Meng Hao, a look of respect shining in his eyes. Inside, however, he was nervously waiting for his older brother to arrive and save him. His tiny eyes darted around, eventually falling upon the hat, which still stood next to the lake. He heard the hat’s garrulous voice, but didn’t dare to stare. He suddenly got the feeling that this place was incredibly bizarre, even more ghastly than his own remote, lonely mountain.
Meng Hao looked at Sang Luo for a moment, trying to decide what to do with him. Finally, he lifted his hand into the air and made a grasping motion. The aura emanating from Sang Luo’s body condensed into Meng Hao’s palm. It seemed invisible, but to Meng Hao, it was very prickly and irritating in nature.
He frowned, looking closer at the aura. His eyes flickered.
“Could this be Demonic Qi….?” he murmured to himself. He let the aura disperse, and then looked closely over Sang Luo. Sang Luo felt goosebumps underneath Meng Hao’s gaze.
“Fellow Daoist….” he said, but was interrupted by Meng Hao.
“There’s an evildoing Cultivator here who needs to be converted….” he said and then coughed lightly. Hearing this, Sang Luo gaped in astonishment. Suddenly, the meat jelly, which had been talking to the fish in the lake just now, leaped up and seemed to stare fixedly at Sang Luo.
“Who? Who is it?” said the meat jelly excitedly, rushing over. “You? My poor evildoer, you can’t do that! It’s immoral. In the name of Justice, allow me to convert you….” Before Sang Luo could even react, Meng Hao flicked his sleeve, pushing him backward and snatching his bag of holding. At the same time, the black net shot out and wrapped up Sang Luo tightly.
Then Meng Hao shot backward, putting some space between himself and Sang Luo, who watched stupefied as all of this happened. At that instant, the meat jelly hat landed onto Sang Luo’s head.
It sighed. “Child, there’s no need to fear. Just behave, and allow the mighty embodiment of Justice to lead you back from the path of wickedness….” It seemed to be fairly leaping with excitement. “What a well-behaved little child. There’s no need to resist, no need fight back, no need to feel perplexed. I will help you. Listen, the first thing you need to do is….” As the meat jelly prattled on, Sang Luou’s body began to tremble. However, he didn’t dare to fight back.
Meng Hao felt a bit sorry for Sang Luo. He erased the branding within Sang Luo’s bag of holding. When he opened it, his eyes shined brightly. There was quite an accumulation of Spirit Stones inside, many times more than that which had been given to him by the Xiao Clan.
“This should be just about the amount I need for duplication purposes. Plus, I have a handful of bags of holding that I acquired in the Black Sieve Sect’s Blessed Land. There are a few Sieve Earth Pills in those. Not many, but a few.” He waved his hand, causing the lightning mist to condense so that no one in the area could see inside. Then, he pulled out the copper mirror and began to duplicate.
Time passed, and soon dusk fell. From outside the lightning mist, enraged shouting could be heard coming out of Sang Luo’s mouth. It seemed to be filled with an indescribable torment and misery.