Meng Hao benar-benar terkejut bisa merasakan aliran qi Alam Gunung dan Laut di sini. Hal itu tiba-tiba membuatnya teringat fakta bahwa Penguasa Gunung dan Laut dari Gunung dan Laut Kedelapan seharusnya berasal dari Klan Meng....
Namun, setelah tiba di Gunung dan Laut Kedelapan, segala sesuatu yang ia dengar dan lihat tampak menunjukkan sebaliknya, seolah-olah ingatannya keliru.
Sejak awal, Meng Hao merasa bingung akan hal itu, terutama setelah mendengar bahwa Penguasa Gunung dan Laut Kedelapan disebut sebagai Heavengod. Sejak saat itu, ia mulai berspekulasi mengenai situasinya.
“Heavengod. Heavengod.... tidak memiliki nama keluarga yang menyertainya.” Dengan mata yang berkedip, ia menatap patung itu, merasakan aliran qi Alam Gunung dan Laut. Itu adalah sesuatu yang tidak bisa dideteksi oleh siapa pun selain dirinya.
Berdasarkan fakta bahwa wajah patung itu telah dikikis, Meng Hao merasa ada hubungan rahasia antara Heavengod dan Klan Meng di masa lalu.
“Kita pulang!” teriak Meng De. “Akhirnya... kita pulang!! Meng Chen, kita pulang!” Meng De berdiri di samping Meng Hao, menatap benua Klan Meng dengan penuh semangat dan menarik napas dalam-dalam. Dari raut wajahnya, seolah-olah ia baru saja mendapatkan kehidupan baru.
“Pulang....” gumam Meng Hao. Saat ia memikirkan anggota garis keturunan kakeknya, matanya berkedip dan beralih fokus ke salah satu dari sembilan benua kecil yang melekat pada benua yang lebih besar.
Berdasarkan Soulsearching yang ia lakukan terhadap para kultivator Klan Meng di atas kapal, garis keturunan kakeknya berada di benua terkecil di antara kesembilan benua tersebut.
Tak lama kemudian, kapal itu mendarat di benua pusat, di kota besar yang mengelilingi patung tersebut. Itu juga merupakan lokasi kediaman leluhur Klan Meng.
Meng De terbang keluar, menuju tempat ratusan kultivator Klan Meng sedang menunggu untuk menyambutnya. Begitu ia muncul, mereka menangkupkan tangan, membungkuk, dan berkata, “Kami menyampaikan salam hormat, Tuan Muda Kesembilan!”
Tentu saja, Meng De adalah Tuan Muda Kesembilan, dan hampir seketika setelah mendengar sapaan itu, ia tampak kembali ke sifat lamanya yang manja. Ia mengangguk sedikit saat orang-orang berkerumun di sekitarnya untuk mengantarnya pergi ke kejauhan. Ayah dan ibunya sudah lama pergi, dan tepat saat Meng De hendak berangkat, ia tampak teringat pada Meng Chen, lalu berbalik. Ia menatap Meng Hao dengan senyuman, kemudian melambaikan tangannya, mengirimkan liontin giok terbang ke arahnya.
Meng Hao menangkapnya, setelah itu Meng De berbicara dengan suara lantang: “Aku akan mencarimu dalam beberapa hari lagi.”
Meng Hao menimbang liontin giok itu dan tersenyum. Awalnya, tidak ada seorang pun di area tersebut yang menaruh perhatian sedikit pun padanya, tetapi setelah Meng De memberinya liontin giok itu, orang-orang mulai memperhatikannya, dan mata mereka berkilat.
Meng Hao tidak memedulikan semua itu. Ia turun dari kapal, lalu melihat ke sekeliling bangunan-bangunan yang ada. Seluruh tempat itu terasa asing, dan arsitekturnya berbentuk melingkar, jauh lebih luwes dan tidak kaku dibandingkan keteraturan Klan Fang dengan tata letak yang tajam dan bersudut. Mengenai kediaman leluhur, bangunan itu juga dibangun dalam bentuk melingkar, dan memancarkan suasana yang canggih dan megah.
Banyak kultivator terlihat di kota leluhur saat Meng Hao berjalan menyusuri jalanan, dan ia dengan cepat menyadari bahwa sebagian besar dari mereka berada di Alam Roh. Kultivator Alam Immortal lebih jarang ditemui; dari setiap seratus orang yang ia lihat, hanya segelintir yang merupakan Immortal.
Tidak ada toko di area tersebut, begitu pula penginapan. Faktanya, mungkin lebih tepat menyebut tempat ini sebagai pinggiran kediaman leluhur, daripada kota yang terpisah. Namun, dari ukurannya saja, tempat ini sebanding dengan sebuah kota.
Tempat itu dibagi menjadi distrik-distrik tertentu, persis seperti Klan Fang. Ada distrik di timur, barat, selatan, dan utara, di mana terdapat kediaman pekarangan besar tempat para anggota klan penting dari berbagai garis keturunan tinggal.
Tidak ada Distrik Pusat, begitu pula mausoleum, yang mungkin diharapkan. Namun, Meng Hao bisa merasakan lima aura unik di dalam patung besar itu sendiri. Aura-aura itu jelas merupakan aura Alam Dao!
Namun, dari kelima aura tersebut, dua di antaranya sangat redup, hampir di ambang kepunahan. Tiga lainnya jauh lebih kuat, dengan salah satunya milik kakek Meng De.
“Lima kultivator Alam Dao.... Tiga memiliki aura yang berkembang, dua di antaranya adalah 1-Essence, dan satu 2-Essences. Dari aura yang lemah, ada satu Dao Lord dan satu lagi... yang tidak bisa kupastikan. Namun, dari apa yang bisa kulihat, aura itu berada di ambang kepunahan.” Meng Hao mengalihkan pandangan dari patung itu, matanya berkedip saat ia mengirimkan kesadaran spiritualnya menyebar lebih jauh lagi.
Hanya butuh sesaat bagi kesadaran spiritualnya untuk memenuhi seluruh kediaman leluhur, dan bagi semua makhluk hidup di dalamnya untuk muncul di benaknya.
Ia melirik kembali ke patung itu, terkejut bahwa tidak satu pun dari kelima kultivator di dalamnya mendeteksi kesadaran spiritualnya, atau mengaktifkan pertahanan Klan Meng. Meng Hao kemudian dengan penuh pertimbangan mulai menarik kembali kesadaran spiritualnya dan menuju ke arah benua tempat garis keturunan kakeknya berada.
Namun, hampir di saat yang sama ketika ia hendak pergi, ia tiba-tiba berhenti di tempat. Ada pemandangan yang terjadi di suatu tempat di dekatnya yang bisa ia lihat di dalam kesadaran spiritualnya, yang kemudian ia fokuskan.
Seorang wanita tua terlihat di sebuah kediaman pekarangan, wajahnya pucat pasi saat ia memohon kepada seorang pria paruh baya yang dingin dan sombong. Seorang wanita muda terbaring di kaki pria itu, tertutup memar dan luka. Tangan kanannya menggenggam sesuatu dengan erat, dan wajahnya pucat pasi saat pria paruh baya itu menendangnya dengan kejam berulang kali.
“Kakak, berhenti!” mohon wanita tua itu. “Meng Ru hanya khawatir dengan kerabat garis keturunannya, itulah sebabnya ia mencuri pil obat itu. Kakak....”
“Dia hanya seorang pelayan,” sembur pria itu, “dan dia benar-benar berani mencuri pil obat! Tidak peduli apa alasannya, dia pantas mati! Jika aku tidak memukulinya sampai mati, bukankah orang lain akan mencoba menirunya?!” Mata pria paruh baya itu berkilat dengan niat membunuh saat ia membungkuk dan menjambak rambut wanita muda itu. Dia cantik, tetapi memiliki tanda lahir merah di wajahnya, yang tampaknya membuat pria itu merasa jijik. “Kau tidak buruk kecuali tanda lahir itu. Menjijikkan sekali!”
“Kakak, sepupu tua Ru'er berada di Alam Immortal. Dia adalah salah satu pengawal Tuan Muda Kesembilan. Semua yang dia ambil hanyalah pil obat, kau... kau tidak perlu bertindak sejauh ini.” Wanita tua itu terus memohon dengan cemas, sesekali melirik ke arah wanita muda yang terbaring di sana, dengan darah mengalir keluar dari mulutnya.
Wanita tua itu tidak tahu bahwa, bahkan saat kata-kata itu meluncur dari mulutnya, Meng Hao sebenarnya hanya berjarak beberapa jalan di kediaman leluhur. Getaran merembes ke seluruh tubuhnya, dan ia berbalik, ekspresinya dingin.
Ia sudah mendengar bahwa sebagian besar anggota garis keturunan kakeknya ditempatkan di rumah-rumah anggota klan lain, di mana mereka bekerja sebagai pelayan dengan imbalan sumber daya kultivasi. Saat ini, Meng Hao yakin bahwa wanita muda yang ia lihat dengan kesadaran spiritualnya adalah anggota garis keturunan kakeknya, sepupu garis keturunan yang lebih muda dari Meng Chen.
Meng Hao tidak ragu sedikit pun. Ia melangkah maju dan menghilang, tindakannya tidak terdeteksi bahkan oleh kelima Patriark.
Kembali di kediaman pekarangan, pria paruh baya itu mulai tertawa dingin menanggapi kata-kata yang baru saja diucapkan kepadanya.
“Sepupu tuanya? Maksudmu bocah cantik Meng Siapa-namanya itu? Meng Chen, kan? Kau pikir seorang pengawal pantas mendapatkan rasa hormat dariku?” Pria itu berlutut dan meraih tangan Meng Ru. Dengan ekspresi dingin, ia mulai mematahkan jari-jarinya satu per satu. Dia gemetar karena rasa sakit, tetapi mengatupkan giginya dan tidak mengeluarkan suara.
Tak lama kemudian, pil obat di tangannya terungkap, yang sudah larut karena darah yang mengalir ke atasnya. Pria paruh baya itu meraihnya dan melemparkannya ke kolam terdekat.
Mata Meng Ru melebar. Dia tidak meneteskan satu air mata pun sebelum momen ini, bahkan saat jari-jarinya dipatahkan. Namun sekarang, saat ia melihat pil obat itu larut di air kolam, air mata mulai mengalir di wajahnya.
“Aww, ada apa ini? Menangis?” Pria itu tertawa dan membungkuk seolah ingin menghapus air mata itu. Namun, sebelum ia bisa menyentuh wajahnya, sebuah tangan muncul entah dari mana dan meraih tangannya sendiri.
Pria itu menatap dengan kaget, lalu menjerit saat melihat Meng Hao berdiri di sana di samping Meng Ru yang muda. Tanpa berpikir panjang, ia melangkah mundur.
“Meng Chen! Beraninya kau!!” Meskipun pria itu sempat ketakutan, setelah menyadari siapa itu, ia tampak mendapatkan kembali keberaniannya. Dengan teriakan, ia melepaskan dasar kultivasinya, yang hanya berada di tahap Dao Seeking.
“Kakak....” kata Meng Ru, perlahan mendongak. Saat ia menatap Meng Hao, ia mulai menangis dan gemetar karena penghinaan yang baru saja ia alami.
“Lepaskan tanganmu dariku, Meng Chen,” kata pria paruh baya itu. “Sialan, betapa lancangnya kau! Jika kau berani menyakitiku, aku akan memberi tahu kakakku, dan dia akan memusnahkan seluruh garis keturunanmu.”
“Tampaknya kau lupa bahwa aku juga bermarga Meng. Atau apakah kau tidak menganggap kami sebagai bagian dari Klan Meng lagi?” Meng Hao sempat memikirkan kondisi menyedihkan garis keturunan kakeknya saat ini, tetapi melihat apa yang sebenarnya terjadi membuatnya merasa seperti ada pisau yang mengiris hatinya.
Meng Hao tiba-tiba mengepalkan tangannya, menyebabkan suara retakan dan letupan terdengar. Pria paruh baya itu menjerit saat Meng Hao meremukkan tangannya menjadi bubur berdarah. Teror dan rasa sakit menyelimutinya, tetapi bahkan saat jeritan itu keluar dari mulutnya, Meng Hao menepuk punggungnya.
Gerakan itu menyebabkan lebih banyak suara retakan bergema saat setiap tulang di tubuh pria itu hancur menjadi bubuk. Tanpa kerangka untuk menopangnya, pria itu ambruk menjadi tumpukan daging yang berkedut.
Tidak ada lagi suara yang keluar dari mulutnya saat ia terbaring di sana, tidak lagi dalam bentuk manusia. Kondisinya saat ini adalah rasa sakit yang jauh melebihi kematian. Wanita yang berdiri di samping sangat ketakutan hingga rahangnya jatuh. Sesuatu yang terjadi secara tiba-tiba membuatnya berada dalam keadaan tidak percaya.
Adapun Meng Ru, ia juga menatap dengan kaget.
“Kakak....” gumamnya saat Meng Hao membantunya berdiri. Ia meletakkan tangannya di atas tangan Meng Ru, menyembuhkan jari-jarinya yang patah dan organ dalam yang terluka. Saat ia kembali sadar, ia mulai terengah-engah saat tiba-tiba teringat sesuatu. Sambil menggenggam lengan bawah Meng Hao, ia berkata, “Kakak, cepat, kita harus kembali. Nenek, dia... sedang sekarat....”
“Nenek.... Nenek Meng!!!” Getaran merembes ke seluruh tubuh Meng Hao. Tanpa ragu sedikit pun, ia menggendong Meng Ru di lengannya dan terbang ke kejauhan.
[/expand]
Meng Hao was completely shocked to be able to sense the qi flow of the Mountain and Sea Realm here, and it suddenly caused him to recall the fact that the Mountain and Sea Lord of the Eighth Mountain and Sea was supposed to be from the Meng Clan....
However, after arriving in the Eighth Mountain and Sea, everything he had heard and seen seemed to indicate the contrary, as if his memories were incorrect.
Meng Hao had been confused by that from the beginning, especially after hearing that the Lord of the Eighth Mountain and Sea was called Heavengod. From then on, he had begun to speculate about the situation.
“Heavengod. Heavengod.... has no surname attached to it.” Eyes flickering, he looked at the statue, sensing the qi flow of the Mountain and Sea Realm. That was something that no one other than him could detect.
Based on the fact that the statue’s face had been scraped off, Meng Hao got the feeling that there was some secret connection between Heavengod and the Meng Clan in the past.
“We’re home!” Meng De shouted. “Finally... we’re home!! Meng Chen, we’re home!” Meng De stood next to Meng Hao, looking excitedly at the Meng Clan continent and taking in a deep breath. From the look on his face, it was as if he suddenly had a new lease on life.
“Home....” Meng Hao murmured. When he thought about the members of his grandfather’s bloodline, his eyes flickered and turned to focus on one of the nine smaller continents attached to the larger one.
According to the Soulsearching he had performed on the Meng Clan cultivators on the ship, his grandfather’s bloodline was on the smallest continent among the nine.
Soon, the ship landed on the central continent, in the huge city that surrounded the statue. That was also the location of the Meng Clan ancestral mansion.
Meng De flew out, to where hundreds of Meng Clan cultivators were all waiting to receive him. Once he appeared, they clasped hands, bowed, and said, “We offer respectful greetings, Ninth Young Lord!”
Of course, Meng De was the Ninth Young Lord, and almost as soon as he heard that greeting, he seemed to revert to his old silkpants self. He nodded slightly as people clustered around him to escort him off into the distance. His father and mother had long since departed, and just as Meng De was about to leave, he seemed to remember Meng Chen, and turned. He looked at Meng Hao with a smile, then waved his hand, sending a jade pendant flying out.
Meng Hao caught it, after which Meng De spoke in a loud voice: “I’ll come looking for you in a few days.”
Meng Hao hefted the jade pendant and smiled. At first, nobody in the area had paid the slightest attention to him, but after Meng De gave him the jade pendant, people began to take notice of him, and their eyes glittered.
Meng Hao didn’t care about all of that. He disembarked from the ship, and then looked around at all the buildings. The entire place was unfamiliar, and the architecture was circular in design, much more flowing and unconstrained than the Fang Clan’s orderliness and stark, angular layout. As for the ancestral mansion, it was also constructed in a circular shape, and gave off a sophisticated, courtly air.
Numerous cultivators could be seen in the ancestral city as Meng Hao walked down the streets, and he quickly noticed that most of them were in the Spirit Realm. Immortal Realm cultivators were less common; for every hundred people he saw, only a handful were Immortals.
There were no shops in the area, nor were there any inns. In fact, it would probably be more appropriate to call this place the outskirts of the ancestral mansion, rather than a separate city. However, in size alone it was comparable to a city.
It was divided into certain districts, just like the Fang Clan was. There were the districts in the east, west, south and north, within which were huge courtyard residences where important clan members from the various bloodlines resided.
There was no Central District, nor was there a mausoleum, which might be expected. However Meng Hao could sense five unique auras inside the huge statue itself. Those auras were clearly auras of the Dao Realm!
However, of those five auras, two were very dim, almost on the point of being extinguished. The other three were much more vigorous, with one of them belonging to Meng De’s grandfather.
“Five Dao Realm cultivators.... Three have flourishing auras, two of them being 1-Essence, and one 2-Essences. Of the weak auras, there’s one Dao Lord and another... who I can’t ascertain. However, from what I can tell, that aura is on the verge of being extinguished.” Meng Hao looked away from the statue, eyes flickering as he sent his divine sense spreading out even further.
It only took a moment for his divine sense to fill the entire ancestral mansion, and for all the living beings therein to appear in his mind.
He glanced back at the statue, surprised that none of the five cultivators inside had detected his divine sense, nor activated any of the Meng Clan’s defenses. Meng Hao then thoughtfully began to retract his divine sense and head in the direction of the continent where his grandfather’s bloodline resided.
However, in almost the same moment that he made to leave, he suddenly stopped in place. There was a scene playing out somewhere nearby that he could see within his divine sense, which he then focused on.
An older woman could be seen in a courtyard residence, face ashen as she pleaded with a cold, arrogant middle-aged man. A younger woman lay at the man’s feet, covered with bruises and wounds. Her right hand was clenched tightly around something, and her face was deathly pale as the middle-aged man kicked her viciously over and over again.
“Big bro, stop!” the older woman pleaded. “Meng Ru is just worried about her bloodline relative, that’s why she stole the medicinal pill. Big bro....”
“She’s only a servant,” the man spat, “and she actually dared to steal a medicinal pill! It doesn’t matter why she did it, she deserves to die! If I don’t beat her to death, then wouldn’t everyone else try to imitate her?!” The middle-aged man’s eyes gleamed with killing intent as he reached down and grabbed the young woman by the hair. She was pretty, but had a red birthmark on her face, which the man seemed disgusted by. “You’re not bad except for that birthmark. How nauseating!”
“Big bro, Ru’er’s older cousin is in the Immortal Realm. He’s one of the Ninth Young Lord’s bodyguards. All she took was a medicinal pill, you... you don’t have to go so far.” The older woman continued to plead anxiously, occasionally glancing down at the younger woman, who lay there, blood oozing out of her mouth.
The older woman had no way to know that, even as the words left her mouth, Meng Hao was actually only a few streets away in the ancestral mansion. A tremor ran through him, and he turned, his expression icy.
He had already heard that most of the members of his grandfather’s bloodline were stationed in the houses of other clan members, where they worked as servants in exchange for cultivation resources. As of this moment, Meng Hao was certain that the young woman he was seeing with his divine sense was a member of his grandfather’s bloodline, a younger bloodline cousin of Meng Chen.
Meng Hao didn’t hesitate for even a moment. He took a step forward and vanished, his action undetectable even by the five Patriarchs.
Back in the courtyard residence, the middle-aged man began to laugh coldly in response to the words just spoken to him.
“Her older cousin? You mean that pretty boy Meng Whatshisname? Meng Chen, right? You think a bodyguard deserves to get face from me?” The man knelt down and grabbed Meng Ru’s hand. Expression icy, he began to break her fingers one by one. She trembled from the pain, but gritted her teeth and didn’t make a sound.
Soon, the medicinal pill in her hand was revealed, which was already dissolving because of the blood that had oozed onto it. The middle-aged man grabbed it and threw into a nearby pond.
Meng Ru’s eyes went wide. She hadn’t shed a single tear before this moment, not even when her fingers were being broken. But now that she saw the medicinal pill dissolving in the pond water, tears began to flow down her face.
“Aww, what’s this? Crying?” The man laughed and reached down as if to wipe away the tears. Before he could touch her face, though, a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his own hand.
The man stared in shock, then let out a shriek as he saw Meng Hao standing there next to the young Meng Ru. Without even thinking about it, he took a step backward.
“Meng Chen! How dare you!!” Although the man had been frightened, after realizing who it was, he seemed to regain his courage. With a shout, he unleashed his cultivation base, which was only in the Dao Seeking stage.
“Big bro....” Meng Ru said, slowly looking up. When she laid eyes on Meng Hao, she began to weep and shake from the humiliation she had just endured.
“Get your hands off me, Meng Chen,” the middle-aged man said. “Dammit, what gall you have! If you dare to hurt me, I’ll tell my big bro, and he’ll wipe out your entire bloodline.”
“Apparently you’ve forgotten that I’m also surnamed Meng. Or is that you don’t consider us to be part of the Meng Clan any more?” Meng Hao had put some thought into the current miserable state of his grandfather’s bloodline, but to see what was actually happening made him feel like a knife was slicing away at his heart.
Meng Hao suddenly clenched his hand down, causing cracking and popping sounds to ring out. The middle-aged man screamed as Meng Hao crushed his hand into a bloody pulp. Terror and pain washed through him, but even as the scream left his mouth, Meng Hao patted his back.
That motion caused more cracking sounds to echo out as each and every last bone in the man’s body was shattered into powder. Without a skeleton to hold him up, the man collapsed into a pile of twitching flesh.
No more sounds came out of his mouth as he lay there, no longer in the shape of a human. His current state was one of pain that far exceeded that of death. The woman standing off to the side was so frightened that her jaw dropped. The suddenness of what had occurred left her in a state of disbelief.
As for Meng Ru, she was also staring in shock.
“Big bro....” she murmured as Meng Hao helped her to her feet. He placed his hand over hers, healing her broken fingers and injured internal organs. As she regained lucidity, she began to pant as she suddenly recalled something. Grasping Meng Hao’s forearm, she said, “Big bro, hurry, we have to get back. It’s grandmother, she’s... dying....”
“Grandmother.... Grandma Meng!!!” A tremor ran through Meng Hao. Without the slightest hesitation, he picked Meng Ru up in his arms and flew off into the distance. [1. As you may be aware, there are numerous very specific forms of address for relatives in Chinese. In this case, Meng Ru specifically mentions her “paternal grandmother” which causes Meng Hao to think of his “maternal grandmother.” This would indicate that Meng Ru is an actual member of the Meng Clan, with her father having been surnamed Meng, whereas Meng Hao is related to them through his mother, but would not be considered an actual member of the clan. After all, his father’s surname is Fang. I’m going to forgo translating the literal forms of address because they tend to get very clunky, especially when used in dialogue as a form of address. Instead, Meng Hao’s "maternal grandmother" will be "Grandma Meng" or simply "grandmother" depending on the context. Please note, her surname is not Meng; in Chinese culture women don’t change their surname upon marriage. However, you can address a female by the surname of her husband in Chinese culture, assuming you use the right form of address. If I remember correctly, Meng Hao’s mom Meng Li was even called “Madam Fang” at one point. Similar forms of address exist for other relatives. I did the same thing in the past with Meng Hao’s grandfathers. Instead of referring to them as paternal and maternal grandfathers, I’ve been calling them Grandpa Fang and Grandpa Meng. I think this way makes it much more simple to understand who is being referred to, and at the same time keeps the same familial feeling as the original Chinese. By the way, astute readers might remember a few times where an “Old Lady Meng” was mentioned, a real mythological character who serves people the tea of forgetfulness in the Underworld. Meng Hao’s grandmother does not have any connection to that woman!]
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