Fang Shoudao maintained his silence. After a long moment, he rose to his feet and swished his sleeve. He did not take the Crown Prince command medallion, but instead sent it floating back into Meng Hao’s palm.
“In three months, the Three Great Daoist Societies will come for you. I’ve already prepared 1,500,000,000 spirit stones for you to take with you to use in your cultivation. I wasn’t going to tell you about this originally, but considering you can’t accept the marriage, well… do you dare to make a little wager with me?
“If you win, then I’ll take responsibility to cancel the marriage contract!
“But if you lose, then you can’t reject the arrangements made by the clan, and you’ll go through with the formalities!”
Meng Hao stood there silently.
“Hao’er,” Fang Shoudao continued with a sigh, “if your grandfather was still here in the clan, he would definitely persuade you for me….” Fang Shoudao thought of Meng Hao’s grandfather, who was actually the person that he had most favored among the junior generations. In fact, in his view, Meng Hao’s grandfather would have eventually become the clan’s third Dao Realm expert!
A tremor ran through Meng Hao as he recalled the vague image of his grandfather, an image he would never be able to forget.
Meng Hao’s parents had left to guard Planet South Heaven for 100,000 years. As for his grandfather, he had gone to search for an Outsider to ask for help. The Outsider came, but his grandfather had gone missing, and had never made contact with the clan again.
Feeling quite bitter, Meng Hao looked up at Fang Shoudao.
“What’s the bet!?”
“Before the Three Great Daoist Societies arrive, do everything you can to earn 1,500,000,000 spirit stones. Immortal jade doesn’t count. If you can do that, from then on the clan won’t require that you do anything you don’t want to.
“You must not resort to trickery, theft, or borrowing. I won’t interfere either.”
Meng Hao stared in shock for a moment. Then, he lowered his head and made some calculations. When he looked back up, his expression was calm again. Gazing at Fang Shoudao with a slightly pained expression, he nodded.
Fang Shoudao said nothing further. He stood up, turned, and vanished.
After he left, Meng Hao began to breathe heavily. A thousand ideas were running through his head. He knew that he was a member of the clan, and that it was impossible to sever that blood connection. His parents, his grandfather, and his other relatives would not agree to him severing ties with the Fang Clan.
Furthermore… the clan had not given Meng Hao any reason to do anything that would violate the rules.
If there was a wager, he would win it!
“Three months…. 1,500,000,000 spirit stones.” Although he wasn’t aware of it, a bashful expression had appeared on his face at some point. As far as he was concerned, winning that bet… wouldn’t be difficult at all.
He put away the Crown Prince command medallion and stood up. Then he turned into a beam of prismatic light that shot away to find Fang Xi.
Two days later, word began to spread throughout the Fang Clan. It didn’t take long before all the clan members were talking about the same thing.
“Did you hear? The Crown Prince is going to challenge the Medicine Pavilion!! Last time, he got through six levels with perfect marks! The Dao bell even rang!”
“Last time he challenged the Medicine Pavilion, he got to the seventh level, where he grafted 75,000 types of medicinal plants!”
“Everyone is saying that this time, the Crown Prince is definitely going to charge all the way to the tenth level!!”
The news quickly spread, until everyone in the clan had heard about it. All of them were inwardly shaken. Lately, Meng Hao was the like the sun at high noon within the clan, and was the focus of all attention.
Everything he said or did was noticed. Besides, the glory he had already achieved in the Dao of Alchemy Division was well known. Now that he was going to be heading back there, everyone in the clan was filled with anticipation.
That anticipation reached a peak on one particular morning at dawn, when Meng Hao flew out of his residence and headed toward the Dao of Alchemy Division, his Immortal Realm Paragon cultivation base surging with power.
He was followed by numerous members of the Fang Clan, who all wanted to witness the spectacle.
More and more people started to tag along. By the time he reached the Dao of Alchemy Division, huge amounts of Fang Clan cultivators were there, filling the sky as he headed toward the Medicine Pavilion.
The alchemists and apprentice alchemists of the Dao of Alchemy Division were all very excited as they joined in the procession.