The welcoming ceremony was cancelled. Eventually, they realized they had lost contact with Prince 19, who had been sent to escort the direct bloodline grandson back. His disappearance made the atmosphere even stranger than before.
All of the members of the direct bloodline were furious. Many of them even left Planet East Victory to conduct searches of their own, but it was all in vain.
It wasn’t just the direct bloodline clan members who went out searching. Ordinary clan members also went out to search for Meng Hao. Of course, the black-robed men were out searching as well, to find either Meng Hao or his corpse.
No one dared to deliver the news to Fang Xiufeng on Planet South Heaven. When Prince 19 finally returned and made his report to the Grand Elder, his face was extremely dark.
The Grand Elder appeared to be enraged, and even personally went out to where the teleportation tunnel had collapsed. Eventually, he determined that it had been an ambush set up by a sect who had harbored enmity with Prince 19.
The fact that Meng Hao had been dragged into this situation caused quite an uproar, and the Fang Clan eventually sent some experts to destroy the offending sect completely, which was quite a shock.
After three months with no news from Meng Hao, his 19th Uncle wallowed in guilt on a daily basis. He would constantly go out to search for Meng Hao, but never found anything. 19th Uncle felt especially guilty towards Fang Xiufeng, but didn’t dare tell him about the matter.
Of course, he had been scared of his older cousin from the time he was small, and knew exactly what type of personality he had. If Fang Xiufeng found out what had happened, who knew what could happen as a result. One thing was for sure… a catastrophic storm would definitely occur.
Slowly, things calmed down in the Fang Clan. Fewer people went out to search for Meng Hao, until eventually, only the direct bloodline members were interested in the matter.
The Fang Clan was huge, and the direct bloodline had once been at the peak of glory. Meng Hao’s grandfather had a monstrous cultivation base, there were other direct bloodline Patriarchs, and of course Meng Hao’s father was a Chosen who struck awe into the hearts of everyone in his generation.
Now, however, Meng Hao’s grandfather was missing, the other direct bloodline Patriarchs were reaching the point of Nirvanic Rebirth, and were in secluded meditation, and Fang Xiufeng had gone to Planet South Heaven.
In addition to all that, Meng Hao, the eldest grandson, had been born crippled. Gradually, the direct bloodline was now losing its power and influence. Before, it had been at the height of power, but now, only about ten percent of the other clan members were still loyal to the direct bloodline.
As the direct bloodline declined, auxiliary bloodlines rose. There was one bloodline in particular from which the Chosen Fang Wei descended. His father, and other Patriarchs of the bloodline, were shining radiantly, and in the past few hundred years, had worked hard in service of the clan. Their reputations had even spread outside the clan, and therefore, their power only continued to grow. Soon, they commanded the loyalty of roughly thirty percent of the clan.
The remaining sixty percent remained in a position of neutrality, maintaining their own power structures and assisting each other as needed.
An entire half year passed. It was now almost a year since Meng Hao had gone missing. By now, even the direct bloodline had little hope that he would return, and ceased virtually all searching.
Even the cultivators in the black robes gave up, having assumed that Meng Hao died out in space. Not even the black-robed expert whose cultivation base exceeded the Immortal Realm was able to find traces of Meng Hao. Space is an enormous place, and it was impossible to completely lock down the starry sky which surrounded Planet East Victory; there was simply too much activity there.
Planet East Victory gradually returned to normal, and people stopped thinking about Meng Hao.
On one particular day, two thirty-meter flying shuttles limped and tottered into the starry sky outside Planet East Victory. As they gradually approached the planet, Meng Hao could be seen sitting cross-legged in one of the shuttles. His clothes were in tatters, and his face was withered and yellow. However, his eyes shone brightly. At first glance, he seemed to cut a sorry figure, but deep in his eyes, he seemed even more powerful than when he had left Planet South Heaven.