and time is sufficient, we can always raise more.”
First Elder felt a bit anxious as he looked at Meng Hao. With Zhou Dekun gone, the only person they had left was this Grandmaster Meng. He gritted his teeth and said, “You are absolutely correct! Grandmaster Meng, please, fear not. The Frigid Snow Larva will be delivered into your hands within a year’s time!”
Meng Hao was inwardly rejoicing, but on the outside he appeared to hesitate. This was something he had just learned to do from Zhou Dekun.
His hesitation caused the surrounding Cultivators to all call out, urging him to stay. Meng Hao continued to hesitate, and then started to shake his head. A second round of crying out then began, and finally he appeared to be vacillating.
“It’s not that I don’t want to stay,” he said with a sigh. “But this place is very dangerous. My Cultivation base is low, and I’m afraid I won’t be powerful enough to protect myself…. Furthermore, I can only stay here for about half a year. There’s simply no way I can stay an entire year.”
First Elder and the others exchanged glances. Finally, the old woman spoke up, looking at Meng Hao with a strange expression. “If the four of us work together, we can reduce the time by more than half. We can produce the Frigid Snow Larva in less than half a year.”
“After you have the Frigid Snow Larva, Grandmaster Meng, you can simply leave,” said First Elder. “We won’t do anything to stop you.”
Many of the Cultivators in the audience were continuing to call out to Meng Hao, urging him to stay. Considering that there were so many solemn requests, Meng Hao finally reluctantly agreed. This caused vast amounts of respectful words of thanks to ring out.
It was in this manner that Meng Hao ended up staying in Holy Snow City. It was also how he became famous there. Regardless of outside Cultivators or Frigid Snow Clan members, the name of Grandmaster Meng resounded in their ears like thunder.
Were it not for Zhou Dekun’s presence in the city earlier, it would not have been so easy for them to accept him, nor to view him with such importance.
Thankfully, Zhou Dekun had laid a strong foundation, and had caused everyone in the city to develop a healthy respect for the Dao of alchemy. The fanaticism with which the locals viewed alchemists made the Frigid Snow Clan members accept Meng Hao with complete courtesy.
It was only logical under such circumstances for Meng Hao to take the foundation Zhou Dekun had built up and make it completely his own.
If poor Zhou Dekun knew what was happening, he would surely cough up several mouthfuls of blood and be filled with endless regret. He would certainly sigh and think about how it’s impossible to constantly put on an act. Sadly, what he had worked so painstakingly to create, now belonged to Meng Hao.
However, Meng Hao also felt somewhat wronged. After all, he hadn’t set out to achieve this situation; it was the result of a series of lucky coincidences. Everything had landed directly in front of him, and there had been no way to avoid it. It had just smacked right into him.
In the following days, almost all the Cultivators in the city were talking about Grandmaster Zhou. Meng Hao’s residence was under special guard by Frigid Snow Clan members.
During this time, quite a few powerful Cultivators came to pay him a formal visit. They were all extremely polite. The way that Meng Hao dealt with them was very different than the mysterious vagueness that had been the hallmark of Zhou Dekun. Meng Hao would smile and give them actual pointers regarding the Dao of alchemy. With only a few words, he was able to cause the local Cultivators to instantly be lost in thought.
Half a month later, Meng Hao had thoroughly cemented his place within Holy Snow City. His name was even beginning to spread throughout the world outside the city walls.
As for the ninety meter tall Wild Giant, people already viewed it as Meng Hao’s personal mount. The Western Desert Dragoneer was viewed as Meng Hao’s footman.
Many of the Cultivators who planned to request pill concoction services from Meng Hao found out that he liked lotus flowers. As such, they spared no cost in searching a variety of locations to find lotuses for him. Soon, Meng Hao’s courtyard was thoroughly festooned with snow lotuses, the aroma of which covered everything.
Regarding the Black Lands Palace invasion, as Hanxue Zong had promised, they truly would not make any military incursions for three months. This gave the Frigid Snow Clan a bit of a buffer period. As the time slipped by, more protective spell formations were erected. All of the Cultivators in the city were mobilized by the Frigid Snow Clan as they strengthened the various districts of the city.
Only Meng Hao was relatively idle. Most of the time, he sat in meditation by the lotus plants. Occasionally he would take out some Celestial soil, and the magical symbols within, to study. Other times he would call Gu La over to examine his totem tattoos