Gradually, all of the Fang Clan members returned to Planet East Victory. A new set of cultivators was brought to stand guard outside the gate. These new cultivators trembled nervously; they knew what fate was in store for the previous guards, and held deep respect and fear for Meng Hao.
Now, they treated the crowds lined up outside the gate with incredible courtesy as they let them through.
**
Back in the Fang Clan, clan members from various bloodlines returned from afar and gathered together in the ancestral mansion for a grand welcoming ceremony.
Compared to the gathering that had been prepared one year before, it was exponentially grander. After all, the previous gathering had been more for show. This time… many people came back of their own volition. They wanted to see for themselves exactly what Meng Hao looked like, this clan member who had a 30,000-meter Bloodline Gatebeam.
Roughly half of Planet East Victory was under the Fang Clan’s jurisdiction and was occupied by various auxiliary bloodlines. On this planet, there was no Imperial dynasty, only the Fang Clan.
Regardless of whether it was their mortal cities, or their cultivators, the Fang Clan… was so large and powerful that they eclipsed everyone else. Furthermore, the Church of the Blood Orchid and the Church of the Puppet God both had deep connections to the Fang Clan.
Of course, the Medicine Immortal Sect was independent, since it had been founded by a Patriarch of the Fang Clan who was still alive, creating a unique relationship.
The Fang Clan ancestral mansion was essentially a huge city, and served as the capital city of the Fang Clan. It was situated next to an ocean, and was the location where the innumerable bloodlines of the Fang Clan would come to gather. It was filled with extravagantly decorated palatial buildings and numerous pagodas that stretched out as far as the eye could see.
In the past, only the direct bloodline had occupied the ancestral mansion, but in recent years… as the direct bloodline declined, some areas had been occupied by an auxiliary bloodline. Now, the direct bloodline only controlled about half of the entire ancestral mansion. In fact, signs pointed to that auxiliary bloodline eventually coming to be considered the main branch.
The welcoming ceremony for Meng Hao’s return was an affair attended by tens of thousands of clan members, who were now gathered in the central square in the middle of the ancestral mansion. To Meng Hao, it looked vaguely similar to what he had seen in the illusory Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite Temple.
The ground was paved with green stone slabs, and numerous spell formations could be seen, which emanated incredible pressure. To Meng Hao, it almost felt as if an enormous ocean were covering everything and weighing it down.
The buildings he saw in all directions were luxurious, and it was as if an enormous sect that could shake all of the Ninth Mountain and Sea had suddenly revealed a tiny portion of itself to Meng Hao.
Yet, all of it was really just the tip of the iceberg. There were further layers of power that Meng Hao couldn’t even sense with his cultivation base. All he knew was that it was impossible for him to even imagine how many Fang Clan members there were on Planet East Victory, and that wasn’t even mentioning the Outer Clans or other cultivators who had been specially bestowed with the surname Fang.
Altogether… it was a staggering number of cultivators.
Furthermore, the people who had appeared earlier outside of East Heaven Gate were only the most illustrious members of their various bloodlines.
The Grand Elder presided over the welcoming ceremony, and introduced Meng Hao to many clan members. After sacrifices were made to the ancestors, he gave Meng Hao a command medallion and numerous other trifles. After that, he led Meng Hao to the Fang Temple in the ancestral mansion.
The temple was enormous, and from the outside, resembled some enormous beast sitting there cross-legged. Inside was a coliseum-like structure, with ten thousand seats arranged in concentric rings. At the moment, more than half of those seats were occupied by various elder members of the clan. All of them looked on with sparkling eyes, and had cultivation bases so profound that Meng Hao couldn’t assess them.
Grand Elder Fang Tongtian sat up in the front, his gaze as bright as fire as he looked at Meng Hao standing in the middle of the temple. There were many other clan members seated nearby, including his 2nd Uncle, as well as an old man covered with wrinkles, who gazed piercingly at Meng Hao as he measured him up. That old man… was Fang Wei’s paternal grandfather, the same old man within whom killing intent toward Meng Hao had flickered earlier.