Chapter 1261: One Option... Amputate!
By means of illustration, you could say that his grandfather’s bloodline had fallen into dire straits and was now at a point of extreme weakness, consisting of the elderly, the frail, the ill, and the crippled. The younger generation was forced into servitude, and the older generation was sick and decrepit. However, its soul was still present, and the heart was strong. They still stuck together like a family, and as such, would one day be able to rise to prominence again.
It was possible to sense that spirit within Meng Ru, Meng Chen, and the other two young women from just now. They all clung stubbornly to their hope for the future.
However, when it came to the rest of the so-called Meng Clan, Meng Hao felt quite disappointed.
“Even scum like these can be called Young Lords?” Meng Hao shook his head. During his entire life, starting in the Ninth Mountain and Sea and then in his short time in the Eighth Mountain and Sea, he had seen all sorts of Chosen, including Young Lords and Sect Princes. However, he had never seen people like he was seeing now in the Meng Clan.
“When dealing with such malignant rot, there’s only one option... amputate!” Meng Hao’s eyes flickered with killing intent as the Meng Clan cultivators attacked him. He waved his right finger, causing rumbling to fill the air and ripples to spread out in all directions.
The ripples filled the area in the blink of an eye, and any cultivators they touched, regardless of their cultivation base, instantly exploded into ash.
The ripples spread, shaking everything, turning everything into dust. The two incredulous Young Lords didn’t even qualify to try to flee. In the briefest of moments, they were inundated by the ripples. Of course, life-saving magic flared to life in the form of shields as they tried to defend against the ripples.
However... they were completely useless. All they did was to buy a few breaths’ worth of time. Then the shields collapsed. The eyes of the two young men widened with disbelief, and then bangs could be heard as they were transformed into ash as well.
All of the cultivators behind them were also transformed into dust.
Soon the only people left were Meng Hao, the Meng Clan girls, and the other young women. Everyone else... was gone.
Everything happened so quickly that the young women could only gape in astonishment and stand there trembling and panting. As for Meng Ru, even if she were a stupid person who knew little about the Immortal Realm, she would still be able to understand that the power unleashed by Meng Chen just now... was definitely not that of an Immortal!
As for the other two young women from the same bloodline, their eyes were even wider. Their cultivation bases were significantly higher than Meng Ru’s, so they could pick up on even more of the clues. They looked over at Meng Hao, trembling with awe and reverence.
Meng Ru hesitated for a moment and then said, “Big bro Meng Chen... you--”
Before she could finish, one of her older cousins held out a hand to stop her from speaking.
Meng Hao looked at the three young women and nodded, his gaze gentle. Then he looked off into the distance, and once again his expression turned icy and somber. Suddenly, a powerful aura began to roil out from him, filling the area, causing the sky to dim and the lands to quake. The surrounding buildings and structures seemed incapable of withstanding the pressure, and soon creaking sounds could be heard.
Then, the creaking turned into rumbling as one building after another began to collapse. It was at this point that, from two different locations, a group of a few dozen beams of bright light each began to shoot toward them from off in the distance. Roaring shouts echoed out, filled with fury and killing intent.
“Who are you that dares to get out of line in the Meng Clan!?”
“Are you looking to die!?” The two enraged shouts echoed out like thunder, causing two powerful shockwaves to speed toward Meng Hao.
Meng Hao stood there looking coldly at the incoming cultivators. The highest cultivation base among them was merely in the great circle of the Ancient Realm, and the others were far from that.
“You people don’t even bother to determine who is in the right and who is in the wrong?” he said coolly. “Leaving you alive would also be pointless.” He took a step forward, vanishing. When he reappeared, he was right in front of the lead cultivator, a middle-aged man in extravagant clothing. The man’s eyes were red with rage, but the instant Meng Hao appeared in front of him, he began to shake, and his anger instantly faded half away into shock.
He had no idea what sort of technique Meng Hao had used to vanish and then reappear, but that was actually of secondary importance. Most important... was the fact that he could sense a boundless power radiating off of Meng Hao, in fact it was far more intense than the pressure that he would feel when standing in front of a Patriarch.
The man gasped and blurted, “You--”
The killing intent in Meng Hao’s eyes caused the man’s scalp to tingle so hard it felt like it would explode. He began to fall back, looking completely shocked by the terrifying power he sensed.
“You’re too slow,” Meng Hao said, shaking his head and simultaneously waving his sleeve. A massive tempest sprang out, transforming into a tornado that connected the sky and the land. It was so conspicuous that anyone in the Meng Clan would be able to see it.
It swept toward the middle-aged man and the cultivators behind him, moving with such incredible speed that they were incapable of fleeing. They struggled and fought back, but it only took a moment for the tornado to sweep over them, after which miserable screams rang out. It was as if a gigantic hand were using a huge brush to paint the entire tornado bright red.
The entire Meng Clan was completely shaken. Numerous cultivators were pulled out of their meditative trances, and after looking up, many of them immediately shot up into the air with expressions of astonishment on their faces.
“An ambush!!”
“Another clan is invading!!”
“An enemy clan is attacking!! Dammit, why didn’t the clan’s grand spell formation activate!?!?”
Cries of alarm spread out, and the entire clan began to stir. There were also nine figures who began to fly toward the tornado from nine different directions.
They were followed by even more figures, and as their cultivation base power surged out, it transformed into a spell formation. Instead of flying directly to the tornado, they began to circle around it; soon colors flashed in the sky as the cultivators formed a massive vortex which thoroughly enveloped the area where Meng Hao was standing!
Meng Ru was trembling in shock, as were the other two young Meng Clan women. As for Meng Hao, he looked down at them from up in the air and smiled slightly. That smile seemed to contain the power to completely ease their hearts, and the fear the three young women felt instantly faded away.
Meng Hao turned. Completely ignoring the nine cultivators leading the formation, and all the others who were following them, Meng Hao looked off into the distance at one particular cultivator who had stopped in place and wasn’t moving.
He was an old man, and when Meng Hao’s gaze fell upon him, he gasped and began to tremble, then started to back up.
Even as he took a step back, though, Meng Hao waved his hand. A second tornado sprang into being, sweeping through the crowds toward the old man, provoking numerous bloodcurdling screams. The old man had a powerful cultivation base, but it didn’t matter. Nor did it matter what divine abilities and magical items he unleashed. He was still consumed by the wind.
Moments later, the second tornado was also stained blood red.
Meng Hao hovered in midair, looking around coldly. The two tornadoes whipped nearby, and if you looked at them long enough, it almost seemed as if two vicious wolves were lurking inside of them, peering out voraciously.
“Let’s go,” Meng Hao said calmly. He would not wipe out entire bloodlines this day. He would simply comply with Grandma Meng’s orders to bring the girls back. Furthermore, he could sense that although the clan’s defensive spell formation hadn’t been activated originally, the slaughter he had just carried out was causing rumbling sounds to rise up.
There were also ripples beginning to spread, and within them, Meng Hao could sense a terrifying power. That power was definitely... the Meng Clan’s grand defensive spell formation!
As soon as Meng Hao spoke, he took a step forward, and the three young women followed him anxiously. Before they could get very far, though, nine beams of light began to close in on them.
“Don’t even dream about leaving!” roared one of the nine. In response, Meng Hao looked back at the man. This man was a Clan Elder, with a cultivation base in the great circle of the Ancient Realm, very close to the Dao Realm. However, he suddenly stopped in place, as though a powerful hand had clasped him by the throat. Face flickering with shock, he fell back, then turned ashen as he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood.
One gaze seriously injured an Elder, which caused everyone else to gasp. They could sense how terrifying Meng Hao was, but they could never have imagined... that he was this terrifying!
“Dao... Dao Realm!” whispered the Elder in a shaky voice.
Completely ignoring the nine cultivators, Meng Hao continued on his way, followed by Meng Ru and the other two young women, who were incredibly excited. When they looked at Meng Hao, it was with complete enthusiasm and ardor. To them, Meng Hao was a towering mountain of their bloodline, someone who no amount of wind or rain could ever budge.
The nine cultivators didn’t dare to try to stop him. The massive vortex spell formation also stopped in place, and the cultivators who were powering it parted to make a path for Meng Hao, looks of astonishment on their faces. As for Meng Hao, his expression was calm as he proceeded through.
Everything was extremely quiet. On the ground, numerous members of the Meng Clan stood outside of their houses and other buildings, looking up into the sky at what was happening, completely shocked. Meng De was there in a temple, looking up at Meng Hao with an expression of utter disbelief.
In another location in the Meng Clan, there were three other young women who were now looking at Meng Hao, Meng Ru, and the other young women of the bloodlines. These other three had complex expressions on their faces, and they almost looked as if they were being stabbed in the heart.
They were the bloodline relatives who had chosen not to return, and had instead opted to remain as servants to other clan members!
They had forsaken their bloodline, and therefore, their bloodline had cast them off.
It was at this point that, all of a sudden, an intense light exploded out from the enormous statue in the middle of the Meng Clan ancestral mansion.
“State your name!”