Chapter 178: The Tree of Vitality, The Hammer of Destruction
Ever since he’d assimilated the Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline, Meng Lei had become awfully picky about his bloodlines. He honestly turned his nose up at most typical bloodlines now!
Be it the Fire Dragon bloodline, the Fire Demon bloodline, or the Golden Colossal Dragon bloodline that he’d just assimilated, they were but just white elephants.
If it were possible, he didn’t even want them!
Therefore, Meng Lei held even less interest in the Golden Corpse Bug Emperor bloodline that he’d just picked up.
“Assimilate the metal-elemental Laws of Nature fragment!”
After a split second, a wave of information about metal-elemental magic elements and metal-elemental laws of nature surged into his mind, rapidly boosting Meng Lei’s comprehension of “metal”.
“Metal—sharp and solid, it specializes in slaughter...
“Metal—reserved and austere, it specializes in revolution...”
After a long while, Meng Lei finally exhaled a long breath of pent-up air. His comprehension of metal-elemental laws of nature had obviously moved a whole step up!
“Thank you for your metal-elemental Laws of Nature fragment!”
Meng Lei’s gaze fell onto the Golden Corpse Bug Emperor, and he said, “To thank you, I’ll leave your body in one piece!
“Ice-elemental first-class spell—Absolute Zero!
“Wood-elemental first-class spell—Judgment of Life!”
With two first-class spells tossed out successively, the Golden Corpse Bug Emperor didn’t have the chance to flee at all before it lost its life.
“Ding! 1 Golden Corpse Bug Emperor killed, 11.8 billion gold coins gained!”
When the carcass came falling down, Meng Lei caught it in his hand casually. He couldn’t help but sigh. “If only all Saint Domain Magical Beasts’ carcasses were this small. I wouldn’t need to be troubled over storing it anymore...”
Then, he ordered, “Sacas, look for the next Saint Domain Magical Beast!”
“Yes, Boss!”
The Multi-Armed Behemoth resumed its journey once more. As per usual, Meng Lei also started to take stock of his rewards. He wouldn’t have known just how scary his rewards were had he not done so, but the moment he did, he received a huge shock!
“My Wealth points have increased by so much?”
Meng Lei was rather astonished.
.6 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals!
When converted to gold coins, that would amount to 586 billion gold coins!
“How much did I have before this again?
“22.3 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals, so that makes it 223 billion gold coins...
“And now... It has become 58.6 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals.
“It has increased by a whole 36.3 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals!
“Oh my goodness! Why did it suddenly spike that much?
“Wait a minute! Let me calculate this...
“One Golden Corpse Bug is worth ten million gold coins, so ten of them makes it 100 million gold coins.
“36.3 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals is equivalent to 363 billion gold coins. In other words, that’s 36,300 Golden Corpse Bugs?
“36,000 Golden Corpse Bugs? They’re worth that many gold coins?
“Oh my goodness! Hunting Ninth-Grade Magical Beasts is more lucrative than hunting Saint Domain Magical Beasts?”
“...”
It was only after a long time that Meng Lei finally regained his composure.
He understood that it wasn’t so much as Ninth-Grade Magical Beasts were more valuable than Saint Domain Magical Beasts; rather, it was because the number of Golden Corpse Bugs he’d just killed was simply too high!
Every little bit counted when winning through sheer numbers!
That was how he’d gotten the windfall of 363 billion gold coins!
“Little did I imagine that casually killing those Golden Corpse Bugs would actually bring me this much benefits! Looks like hunting pack Magical Beasts is still the most cost-effective when it comes to money-making!”
Meng Lei ordered resolutely, “Sacas, prioritize going to Saint Domain Magical Beasts with a clan! The bigger the clan, the better! And the stronger, the better! Understand?”
“Yes, Boss!”
“Great!”
A satisfied Meng Lei nodded. Then, he looked at his massive Wealth again. 58.6 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals was a huge sum of money. How should he spend them?
His gaze swept across his stats interface. At once, Meng Lei had an idea. He instructed, “System, raise my Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline assimilation rate!”
The system’s icy-cold voice rang out. “Ding! Raising the Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline by 1% requires 10 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals. May I know whether you’d like to raise it?”
“Yes!”
Meng Lei looked absolutely unwilling to part with the money, but he still gave the order to do so anyway. He was already aware of the cost beforehand, so it didn’t surprise him.
Raising his bloodline assimilation rate by 1% required 100 billion gold coins, while raising his comprehension of laws of nature by 1% only required 10 billion gold coins.
In other words, if he’d used the 100 billion gold coins to raise his comprehension of the laws of nature instead, he’d have been able to raise his comprehension of a certain type of laws of nature by 10%!
%!
That was already 1/10 of the total!
From that, one could tell just how expensive raising the Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline assimilation rate was!
Meng Lei found it worthwhile, however.
The reason for that was because raising the Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline assimilation rate gave an all-rounded boost to his combat abilities. In particular, the boost it brought to his speed and defenses were even more fearsome.
There was an absolute need for him to boost his speed and defenses in the perilous Lost Continent, especially when there was also a mysterious divine tree eying them in the shadows. Speed and high defenses couldn’t get any more essential!
Whoosh!
His Wealth instantly shrunk by 10 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals.
At the same time, a blackish-green air current also abruptly emerged from the depths of his blood vessels and flowed rapidly into his limbs, body, veins, bones, and skin. It flowed into every inch of Meng Lei’s body, rapidly modifying and strengthening it.
“Here it comes again...”
The intense agony and sharp pain that accompanied the strengthening process assailed Meng Lei’s pain receptors, reaching straight into the bones and burning his insides. It was much, much more intense than when he’d assimilated the Golden Colossal Dragon bloodline previously!
Pain!
Pain!
Pain!
Meng Lei let out a muffled grunt and clutched Sacas’ fur. If he could, he really wished he could blackout and get it over and done with.
Unfortunately, when one’s spiritual power was as powerful as his, how would they possibly pass out that easily?
He couldn’t! Therefore, the only thing he could do was to endure it!
In that case, then that was what he would do!
Upon sensing Meng Lei’s abnormality, Sacas couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong, Boss?”
Meng Lei growled in a low voice, “Don’t bother with me. Just focus on moving!”
“Understood!”
For some reason, Meng Lei’s low growl seemed to contain a boundless sense of majesty that gave Sacas shivers from the depths of its soul. It hurriedly buried its head into traveling and asked no more.
The whole modification process lasted roughly half an hour before it ended. Although it was a painful process, the results were encouraging!
The Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline assimilation rate had successfully risen to 2%!
Apart from that, the biggest change was in his Physical Body Constitution—it had doubled and reached an astonishing 24.1 billion points!
Prior to this, it had been 12 billion points, but it had now reached 24.1 billion points. It had totally doubled!
In other words, at the same time, his Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline assimilation rate was being raised by 1%, his Physical Body Constitution had also increased by 12 billion points along the way!
Had he redeemed the 12 billion Physical Body Constitution points via credit, he’d have needed 120 billion gold coins to do that.
What a worthwhile transaction! It couldn’t get any more worthwhile!
Not to mention that his speed and defenses had definitely received a great boost, too!
It was absolutely no exaggeration to say that the practical benefits that Meng Lei’d received had far surpassed the value of 100 billion gold coins.
To sum it up in one sentence, these 100 billion gold coins were simply too well-spent!
“I’ve earned big! This is way more efficient than pure credit redemption.
“I don’t need to spend on Physical Body Constitution anymore in the future. If I want to spend on credit redemption, I can just put it all into the Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline assimilation rate. It’s obviously way more cost-effective! It’s just that the process is a little more painful...”
Meng Lei took a breath and steamed off the perspiration and bloodstains on himself. Then, he continued to browse his personal stats interface.
Host: Meng Lei
Race: Human (Fire Dragon bloodline <52%>, Fire Demon bloodline <47%>, Golden Gods-Slaying Ant bloodline <10%>, Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline <2%>, Golden Colossal Dragon bloodline <50%>)
Wealth: 48.6 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals
Physical Body Constitution: Saint Domain (24,124,607,410/100 billion)
Spirit: Saint Domain (1,028,314,896/100 billion)
Magic Power: Saint Domain (1,025,888,951/100 billion)
Laws of Nature: Fire-elemental (0.2%), Wind-elemental (0.1%), Thunder-elemental (0.1%), Metal-elemental (0.2%), Light-elemental (0.1%)
Others: Some increase
“Now that I’ve boosted my absolute combat strength, it’s time for the game!”
Meng Lei switched into a comfortable position and laid down. Then, he took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes.
“System, I want to use the Limitless Pickup function!”
The system’s icy-cold voice rang out. “Ding! 1 Laws of Nature Origin Crystal is required for the usage of this function. May I know if you’d like to use it?”
“Yes! I’m loaded with cash!”
Whoosh!
His Wealth instantly shrunk by 1 Law of Nature Origin Crystal.
Following that, a system notification also rang out a few seconds later. “Ding! Assimilation successful. Host’s wealth +1 million gold coins!”
(⊙_⊙)?
Meng Lei was dumbfounded.
“Host’s Wealth +1 million gold coins? What does that mean? I spent 10 billion gold coins just to pick up 1 million gold coins?
“What the actual f*ck!!! What a huge loss! This is a terrible loss! 10 billion gold coins just to pick up something like this?!
“I won’t take this lying down! Again!”
“Ding! 1 Laws of Nature Origin Crystal is required for the usage of this function. May I know if you’d like to use it?”
“Yes!”
Whoosh!
His Wealth shrunk by 1 Law of Nature Origin Crystal again.
The system’s icy-cold voice rang out. “Ding! Congratulations to the host. You’ve obtained a branch from the Tree of Vitality!”
“A... Branch from the Tree of Vitality?”
Rather flabbergasted, Meng Lei hastily took it out for inspection. An emerald green tree branch approximately one-meter-long appeared in his hand.
A split second later, a surge of vitality emanated from it, revitalizing and refreshing Meng Lei and sweeping away his fatigue.
“Boss!”
Upon sensing the vitality surge, Sacas turned his head at once.
“Where did you get something like that, brat?”
It had caught Ol’ Amos’ attention, too. He emerged from the spatial ring and gazed in astonishment at the green tree branch in Meng Lei’s hand.
“Do you recognize this thing, Ol’ President?” asked Meng Lei.
“Duh! If I can’t even recognize something like that, wouldn’t I have lived these tens of thousands of years in vain?”
Ol’ Amos rolled his eyes. Then, he picked up the tree branch and took a light sniff. As if an opium addict that had caught a whiff of opium, a look of revelry and infatuation appeared on his face at once!
“A branch from the Tree of Vitality! This is definitely a branch from the Tree of Vitality!
“This is good stuff! It contains an astonishing amount of vitality. Not only can it revive and heal, but it’s also a treasure that can restore one’s magic power!
“With this branch in hand, not only will meditation be several times—even dozens of times—more effective, but the restoration rate of the magic power in your body will also increase by a few times!
“This is good stuff! Definitely good stuff!”
Meng Lei asked eagerly, “If I auction this off, how much can it sell for?”
This thing was completely a white elephant to him. If he could turn it into gold coins instead, then the 10 billion gold coins to pick it up wouldn’t be spent in vain!
“What? You want to sell it? You wastrel!”
Ol’ Amos broke into a rant at once. “The Tree of Vitality is the Fairy Empire’s holy tree! Outsiders can’t even catch a glimpse of it, let alone obtain a branch from it!
“But if you were to auction this small little branch off, it’ll fetch at least dozens of billions of gold coins, I guess? Perhaps even 100 billion?”
“Up to 100 billion? Phew, that’s not a loss, then!”
Meng Lei heaved a sigh of relief and quickly kept the Tree of Vitality branch before contacting the system.
“You lousy system, look at what you’ve picked up for me? You rascal, aren’t you scamming me too much?”
“Dear host, the Limitless Pickup system is a random pickup function. The quality of the item picked up is completely random.”
“Damn your randomness!” Meng Lei said huffily, “Can’t you pick up something better for me? Even at the worst, you shouldn’t make it too great of a loss. 10 billion gold coins per try is too hefty a price!
“Forget it. I won’t do it anymore. It’s too big a scam!
“But... I really can’t reconcile myself with this. I didn’t get anything good twice in a row. I really can’t reconcile myself with this!
“How about... I give it another go? Yeah! I’ll do it one last time! System, one more time!”
“Ding! 1 Laws of Nature Origin Crystal is required for the usage of this function. May I know if you’d like to use it?”
“Cut the crap, I’ll use it one last time!”
Whoosh!
His Wealth shrunk by 1 Law of Nature Origin Crystal once again.
“Please stop scamming me! If I get another piece of trash, I’m gonna go berserk!”
“Ding! Congratulations to the host. You’ve obtained the Hammer of Destruction!”