Meng Chen
Meng Chen is the only Immortal-level protector available to Meng Hao's declining maternal branch, although his power comes from a false-Immortal breakthrough. Forced into service as a bodyguard, he dies in the 33 Hells and becomes the immediate reason Meng Hao intervenes in the Meng Clan.
Biography
Service without status
Meng Chen is introduced on a Meng Clan merchant ship as a handsome young man with a scarred face. A senior servant reminds him that his position exists only through an old debt to his grandfather and orders him to satisfy Young Master Meng De and a Han Clan young lord regardless of humiliation. Because the tenth bloodline has almost no cultivators left, Meng Chen accepts abuse to preserve what little protection and resources his relatives receive. (Chapter 1221)
When Patriarch Blacksoul names Meng Hao during the pursuit, Meng Chen briefly reacts with hope, recognizing the possibility that the famous Echelon cultivator is connected to his family. He conceals the reaction. Concern remains visible when the ship's leaders order attacks, but his low status gives him no power to redirect them. (Chapters 1231–1232)
The 33 Hells
Meng De sends expendable retainers into the newly opened 33 Hells to retrieve treasure while remaining outside under protection. Meng Chen is among those forced in. He survives the initial slaughter longer than most, covered in blood, but the necropolis's death aura infects his wounds. His organs and flesh decay, then the aura begins dissolving his soul beyond even a Dao Realm healer's ability to reverse. (Chapters 1233 and 1235)
As he dies, Meng Chen thinks not of status but of younger siblings and relatives. He remembers being the branch's only cultivator to break beyond the Spirit Realm and the promises he made to restore them. His death occurs in Chapter 1242, not Chapter 1247; Meng Hao later finds and recovers the corpse. Reading the weight of that unfinished obsession, he takes Meng Chen's appearance and vows to bring the body home and fulfill the goal of raising the bloodline. (Chapters 1242 and 1247)
Later actions performed under “Meng Chen's” name belong to Meng Hao's impersonation, not to the deceased guard.
Appearance and personality
Meng Chen is a handsome young man with a fair face marked by a scar. He is proud enough to feel humiliation but disciplined enough to endure it for his family. His final thoughts reveal ambition rooted in collective survival rather than personal luxury.
Abilities and cultivation
False Immortal cultivation
Meng Chen is the only member of his branch with Immortal-level power, but he attained it by worshipping an ancestral object and receiving false-Immortal strength. That makes him vastly stronger than the branch's few Spirit Realm cultivators while still the weakest member of the 33 Hells expedition.
Guard training and endurance
He serves as a shipboard bodyguard and can fly, fight, and survive the expedition's opening casualties. No named combat spell is demonstrated. His endurance cannot counter the necropolis's death aura once it enters wounds and corrodes organs and soul simultaneously.
Explicit limits
His social position prevents him from refusing Meng De's orders, and his false-Immortal cultivation is inadequate against the 33 Hells. Once soul dispersal begins, even hypothetical Dao Realm treatment is stated to be too late.
Relationships
- Meng Hao: Maternal kinsman who recovers his body and adopts his unfinished duty.
- Meng De: Young master who coerces his service and sends him into the 33 Hells.
- Tenth bloodline: Younger siblings and relatives for whom he accepts humiliation and danger.
- Han Clan young lord: Abuser whose past treatment contributes to Meng Chen's hatred.
Items
No personal notable item is documented. The ancestral object that enabled his false-Immortal breakthrough belongs to the bloodline and is not described in enough detail to identify further.