“It’s true.”
“Congratulations,” Zhixiang said with the same calm smile as ever. “Oh, there’s one other bit of news that I wanted to tell you. It won’t be long now before something big happens in the Ninth Mountain and Sea. The Three Great Daoist Societies will be hosting a disciple recruitment event, which will be supported by the Five Great Holy Lands, and the Three Churches and Six Sects!
“This sort of thing happens every so often, and when the time comes, any cultivator in the Ninth Mountain and Sea who is above the Nascent Soul stage and below the Immortal Realm may participate.
“Some people do it in the hopes of joining a sect. Others do it for the precious treasures that are prepared as rewards for the momentous occasion!”
Meng Hao’s eyes filled with a look of concentration. After a moment of thought, he nodded his head and then walked into the vortex, whereupon he vanished.
Silence reigned inside the Demon Loach. The two old women’s eyes flickered as they exchanged a hesitant glance.
“He did me a great favor,” said Zhixiang calmly.
The two old women nodded.
“Oh well. He appeared to be injured, but he is obviously as cautious as ever. A Chosen like him would definitely have other tricks up his sleeve.
“Besides, after he woke up, he appeared to be confident in having someone to back him. Now that I think about it, that makes sense, especially considering he was able to get into the Immortal Ancient Daoist Rite Temple before everyone else.”
**
Meng Hao left the Demon Loach via the vortex, emerging beneath an evening sky. A tongue of flame appeared in the bronze lamp above his head, which caused Meng Hao to breathe a sigh of relief.
The lamp was still unextinguished, and if Meng Hao’s calculations were correct, there were only four more days left of the 49 day period.
“Four days….” he thought, a cold gleam appearing in his eyes.
“In four days, the good fortune of the bronze lamp will be completed. When that happens, I won’t have anything holding me back from making all of these people pay the price for coming here!” He snorted coldly and then disappeared as he flashed off into the distance.
The first thing he did was find a suitable place to act as a hidden Immortal’s cave. He sat down cross-legged to meditate and wait for time to pass.
As the days went by, the situation in the outside world reached a frenzy. In the boundless mountain range, numerous Chosen and Dao Protectors had spread out in all directions in their search for Meng Hao.
They had set up sealing spells all over the mountains to ensure that Meng Hao couldn’t flee. They literally did everything in their power to find traces of him.
The battle that had resulted from the ambush made it so that none of his pursuers looked down on him any more. In fact, to them, he was now viewed as the cream of the crop when it came to the Chosen.
After all, any other Chosen who ended up trapped in an ambush like he had been, would surely have been killed!
In contrast, Meng Hao had seriously injured Zhao Yifan, severed Fan Dong’er’s limb, and severely hurt a Dao Protector. During the process, he himself had been seriously injured, and yet had managed to escape from the ambush.