Meng Hao remained seated in his cabin, watching what was happening through narrowed eyes. Frowning, he turned his attention to the man in the mask.

"Well now, how much do we want to bet that this guy has Meng De's face?" he murmured.

In almost exactly the same moment, the man with the mask of eyes slowly reached up and removed his mask. Just as Meng Hao guessed, his face... down to the tiniest detail, looked exactly like... Meng De's!

They were exactly the same!!

Meng De's eyes went wide, and he stopped in place, pointing a quivering finger at the black-robed man. His expression was one of intense fear, and then he began to laugh bitterly with the realization that he was going to die!

"Kill him," said the man with Meng De's face, his voice cool. "Clean everything up. We're going... back to the Meng Clan." Even the man's voice sounded exactly like Meng De's.

As the words left his mouth, one of the other cultivators who had changed his appearance to look like one of Meng De's retinue smiled and reached out to end Meng De's life.

However, it was in that very moment that a sigh rang out, filling the starry sky. The man with Meng De's face looked shocked, as did the other cultivators, who immediately began looking around vigilantly.

"Whoever's out there with these parlor tricks, show your face!" said the fake Meng De. His divine sense spread out, and the aura of the Dao Realm suddenly exploded out. Although he only had one Essence, to Meng De, that was thoroughly terrifying.

That sigh came from Meng Hao, of course. He had no choice but to act. If he allowed these people to kill Meng De, infiltrating the Meng Clan would become vastly more difficult. Obviously, they wouldn't just let him join up with them, and if he killed them all and went back to the Meng Clan alone, it would be very difficult to explain. Obviously, people would suspect him of being complicit in the events.

Meng Hao's main goal was to free his grandfather's bloodline, which first entailed getting into the Meng Clan, then understanding the situation as a whole before finally making a decision on what to do.

"This is so annoying," Meng Hao thought, shaking his head. He took a step out, eyes flashing, and as he did, his face transformed. When he appeared out in the starry sky outside, no one could tell that he had just emerged from within the ship. It was as if he had materialized out of thin air, right in front of the black-robed men.

The man with Meng De's face backed up, eyes widening.

"Kill him!" he ordered. The other nine black-robed men were scared, but they immediately complied, erupting with cultivation base power. Performing incantation gestures, they caused that murderous battle-axe to appear, which then slashed down toward Meng Hao.

Meng De shrank back into a corner, watching with nervous excitement.

Meng Hao's expression was the same as ever. Now that every aspect of his cultivation base had been raised by Greed, he didn't even attack, he just looked at the descending weapon. Then, instead of evading, he raised his finger and flicked the axe.

He did not use any divine ability or magical technique; he relied only on the power of his fleshly body. As soon as his finger touched the battle-axe, a boom rang out. The black-robed men had vicious expressions on their faces; they were completely confident in their joint attack power. When they combined forces to use this Daoist magic, it was so powerful that it could shake the Quasi-Dao Realm. The only downside was that they could only use it a limited number of times. Even still, it had been praised by a Dao Realm expert in the past, leaving these nine men completely confident.

However, their faces were now frozen in shock, their eyes wide with disbelief and awe. Three of them even cried out in alarm.

"This...."

"Impossible!"

"He...."

To their astonishment, when Meng Hao's finger made contact with the axe, Meng Hao wasn't shaken at all, nor did his expression change. A rumbling boom rang out, as well as numerous cracking sounds. Those sounds all came... from the battle-axe!

The combined Daoist magic of these nine individuals, a magical battle-axe that filled them with complete confidence, was covered with cracks by its mere contact with Meng Hao's finger. The cracks spread out, growing more dense, covering the entire battle-axe, until it shattered....

The backlash hit the nine cultivators, causing blood to spray out of their mouths. Then they looked at Meng Hao with unprecedented terror and shock. Even the man with Meng De's face couldn't stop his eyes from widening.

Not even a white line appeared on Meng Hao's index finger, his fleshly body had become so powerful that this battle-axe had absolutely no chance of affecting him even a tiny bit.

Meng Hao smiled slightly, quite pleased with the power of his fleshly body. He looked up at the nine cultivators, eyes flickering with killing intent. Then he suddenly vanished, whereupon the minds of all nine men exploded with a sensation of life-or-death crisis. Without the slightest hesitation, they began to flee.

However, they were not qualified to do any such thing in front of Meng Hao. He appeared in front of the man in the great circle of the Ancient Realm and casually bumped into him with his body.

A boom rang out as his simple blow slammed into the man, causing blood to spray out of his mouth, whereupon his body exploded. His Nascent Divinity didn't even have a chance to escape, and was also destroyed.

That was from bumping into him!

The man with Meng De's face was astonished. Scalp numb, he fell back, transforming into a flickering shadow as he tried to escape. However, Meng Hao simply let out a harrumph.

The sound transformed into an explosive shockwave that rocked the starry sky. A tempest whipped up, sweeping across everything. Eight of the fleeing black-robed men were shredded to pieces, including their bones, organs, and Nascent Divinities. There was no need to mention their fleshly bodies. Popping sounds could be heard as they were transformed into a bloody mist that spread out into the starry sky.

"Dao Lord!!" cried the man with Meng De's face. Although he had already guessed at how terrifyingly powerful Meng Hao was, to see the destructive result of Meng Hao's single snort left him without any further doubts. No matter what Meng Hao actually looked like, his battle prowess... was something that only a Dao Lord could unleash.

The man's heart was trembling; he had never imagined that upon just beginning his mission, he would suddenly run into a terrifying Dao Lord. After all, in the Mountain and Sea Realm, Dao Lords were mighty figures who could affect the entire Realm with the stamp of a foot!

Dao Lords were only one step away from being Dao Sovereigns, who were qualified to vie for the position of Mountain and Sea Lord!

The black-robed man stared with wild eyes. He was already a blur as he attempted to flee; in the blink of an eye, he was gone, and the shockwave of Meng Hao's sound attack passed by the position he had just occupied.

When he reappeared, he was far off in the distance. Without even looking over his shoulder, he began to flee.

"What a strange Essence," Meng Hao thought, intrigued. He took a step forward and vanished. When he reappeared, he was right behind the fleeing man. Meng Hao reached out and made a grasping motion, using the Star Plucking Magic.

Instantly, a shocking gravitational force rumbled into being, spreading out through the starry sky as Meng Hao's hand turned into a black hole. The void distorted, countless motes of dust sped toward him, and fissures spread out.

The black-robed man's mind was rumbling, and his astonishment reached a peak as he flew back toward Meng Hao, his body completely beyond his own control. The sensation of deadly crisis in his mind caused him to hold nothing back as he unleashed all of his Essence power to break free from Meng Hao's grasp. Suddenly, ghost images sprang up around him.

A boom rang out as hundreds of black-robed figures suddenly began to pour out, all of whom fled in different directions. The only thing left behind in Meng Hao's hand was a piece of skin.

"Clones?" Meng Hao murmured, looking around at all the fleeing figures. His eyes began to shine; these were obviously clones, and the sheer number involved piqued Meng Hao's interest.

He was also shocked; given his current cultivation base, not even Dao Lords were a match for him, and yet this 1-Essence Dao Realm cultivator had eluded him twice now.

Of course, some of that was because Meng Hao had not utilized a powerful divine ability. By now, he was at the point where even a casual attack on his part was something that a 1-Essence Dao Realm cultivator couldn't easily avoid.

Although Meng Hao was surprised, the man in the black robe was already frightened to death. He had risked everything just to escape those two times, and even still, the backlash had left him seriously injured. That was especially true of his final move of splitting into hundreds of clones, which seriously damaged his Essence.

"Dammit, he's no ordinary Dao Lord! He must be at the peak of the Dao Lord Realm. We've kept track of how many Dao Lords there are in the Eighth Mountain and Sea, and he's not one of them!!" Even as the man fled in terror, Meng Hao's eyes gleamed with a gray glow.

He suddenly cried out, causing a huge wolf's head to appear behind him. This was one of Greed's magical techniques, although in Meng Hao's hands it was more wolf-like and less greed-focused. The wolf appeared in the middle of the starry sky, radiating bloody murder, completely domineering as it opened its mouth wide and began to inhale.

RUUUUUUMMMMBLLLLE....

The entire starry sky trembled and began to shatter, converging on Meng Hao at the center. It was as if... everything in the area, including the natural laws and the energy of Heaven and Earth, were now being sucked in by Meng Hao!

The hundreds of clones screamed as they were swept up and then began to explode. In the blink of an eye, countless showers of blood filled the starry sky.

In the end, there was only one figure that didn't explode, which then spun toward Meng Hao, who grabbed him by the neck, sealed him, and tossed him into his bag of holding.

A mighty Dao Realm cultivator was treated like a baby chicken!

Meng Hao could sense how powerful he was after being re-moulded by Greed. He was now... in a state far more powerful than a Dao Lord.

"Once I push open the Door of the Ancient Realm... I'll be even more powerful!" Meng Hao's eyes flickered, and he turned to look back at the Meng Clan ship off in the distance, and Meng De, who was gaping at him wide-eyed. Gradually, Meng Hao faded away.

The entire starry sky was completely silent. Meng De's face was ashen as he stared blankly out into the starry sky. Then he looked around at the corpses on the ship. Fear still lingered within him, and grief was now welling up. Despite his age, this was his first time experiencing anything like this. Because of the terror and confusion in his heart, he didn't notice at all that because of Meng Hao's interference, whatever had been blocking communications had already been broken, allowing connection to the outside world once again.

Meng De began to weep, but then suddenly recalled something. After looking around at the corpses, he rushed back into the ship. It had just occurred to him that apparently... there was another survivor on board.

As of this moment, anyone left alive with him on board was like a relative!