Chapter 217: 1,000 Pickup Attempts, A Divine Beast Carcass
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Look the other way? Head to the Lost Continent and take up permanent residency there?”
Smack!
Flit the 66th broke the imperial desk in front of him with a smack. His eyes were close to spitting fire. “Meng Lei is going too far!”
Fred could only give a wry smile, as did the Fighting Dragon Academy president and the others.
Going too far?
Indeed, Meng Lei certainly was, but what could he do about him?
He had killed even the seven half-deity grandmasters on Dragon Island, as well as the empire’s emperor! Let alone him, Flit the 66th?
Heaven’s Vault Continent was ultimately a place where the strong was revered. Whoever was stronger would hold more influence.
This was the eternally unchanging truth!
Didn’t the Dragons bully and humiliate the humans all these years simply because they were stronger than them?
“Is there no chance of things turning for the better at all?”
After his fit of fury, Flit the 66th gradually regained his composure. He was filled with indignation as he gazed at all the court officials and Saint Domains in the hall.
All the court officials in the hall were silent, as were the Saint Domains.
“Everyone, do think of something!”
Flit the 66th started to bellow furiously. “Am I really supposed to abdicate the throne and move to that godforsaken Lost Continent?!”
All the officials were as quiet as a mouse.
At last, President Fred stepped forward and said with a wry smile, “Your Majesty, we cannot overcome this situation at the moment. A head-on collision definitely won’t work.
“However, Meng Lei is someone that bears old friendships in mind and cherishes relationships. You can tackle it from this angle instead.”
“Bears old friendships in mind? Cherishes relationships?”
...
As a half-deity, Thaniel’s speed was no joke. In just a short half an hour, he’d flown back to the Dragon God Empire Imperial City.
The current Imperial City was already showing initial signs of impending chaos. Large numbers of eunuchs and palace maidservants fled from the palace while the members of royalty, the nobles, and the officials behaved as if a great enemy was looming over them. This caused fear and unease among the general public that didn’t know what was going on...
Meng Lei and the other two stood above the Imperial City and personally witnessed everything.
A frowning Meng Lei asked, “What do you make of this, Puhaman?”
“It’s better that it’s a little chaotic. Otherwise, how would a new administration come about? If chaos doesn’t break out, it’ll be hard to change their faith.”
Puhaman gave him a sinister smile and said, “If Master trusts me, why don’t you leave this matter to me? A month later, I’ll hand a stable Imperial City back to Master!”
“Alright, I’ll leave this to you.”
Meng Lei nodded slightly as he then said, “Thaniel can act as your deputy. The two of you can handle this together.”
“Master, I’d better just follow you instead!”
At the sound of that, Thaniel immediately shook his head vehemently. He didn’t want to go too near to that evil ancient fiend. It was too dangerous.
“You’re a half-deity of the Dragons. You’re the most suited to taking charge of handling these trivial matters.”
Meng Lei brooked no dispute and waved him off.
“Yes, Master,” replied Thaniel with a woebegone expression.
“Elder Thaniel, I believe that we’ll be able to form a very pleasant working relationship!”
Puhaman gave him a sinister smile, causing goosebumps to rise all over Thaniel. How he wished he could flee right away.
“The two of you may go.”
After dismissing the pair, Meng Lei found a hall in the imperial palace grounds and went into seclusion with peace of mind.
Things like taking control of the court were beyond him. Neither could he be bothered to waste any energy on it. Thus, he decided to might as well just leave it to the professionals.
Being an absentee manager was pretty good, too!
After all... Everything was within his control!
...
“Now that the Dragon half-deities are dead, the native Dragons on Heaven’s Vault Continent won’t really be able to cause much trouble. The upcoming threats will highly likely come from two areas—the Dragon God and the other three major empires.”
Meng Lei rested on his side on the imperial couch meant for the emperor’s use and mused over the current situation.
“The importance of the power of faith to deities is obvious on its own. The Dragon God will never give up the Dragon God Empire, his power of faith domain, that easily. It boils down to how he intends to move.
“The three major empires, too! They likely won’t pass up such a good opportunity and watch as I gain complete control over Dragon God Empire.
“Therefore, the enemies I’ll have to face next will be even stronger, and the situation even graver.
“Power! I still need to boost my power further. Only with power will I not need to fear anything!”
Meng Lei looked at his stats interface—his Wealth, which amounted to as much as 13.57 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals, was the biggest reward he had reaped from his trip to Dragon Island this time.
“I can’t buy credit for my divine body and my divine spirit anymore, whereas the power of divinity and comprehension of fusion laws of nature are too expensive.
“Let’s just continue with the Limitless Pickups, then! If 100 times doesn’t work, then I’ll do it 1,000 times. I simply don’t believe that I can’t get anything good!”
Meng Lei ordered, “System, 100 Limitless Pickups!”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained 10 Dragon Blood Potions!”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained an earth-elemental magic scroll!”
“Ding! Assimilation successful...”
The 100 Limitless Pickup attempts ended in the blink of an eye, yet it didn’t manage to pick up anything satisfactory.
“System, another 100 times!”
“Ding! Assimilation successful...”
“I don’t believe this! Again!”
“...”
“Trash! They are all trash! You lousy system, can you be any more of a scam than this? Damn it, another 1,000 times!”
This time, Meng Lei went all out. 1,000 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals? Piece of cake!
At once, system notifications started to ring out constantly!
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained the flat sculpting-style stone statue, ‘Waking Up’!”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained Babe the Gods-Slaying Rat’s straw hat!”
“What the f*ck! I was all worked up for nothing! It’s just a lousy straw hat!”
“...”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained a Tree of Vitality sapling!”
“A Tree of Vitality sapling?”
With a thought, a small one-meter-tall tree sapling immediately appeared on his palm.
Crystal clear and lush, it gave off a rich sense of life and vitality all over.
“Not bad!”
Then, Meng Lei planted the Tree of Vitality sapling on the Tower of Time’s 95th level.
At the same time, he also set up a magical energy-gathering magic circle to collect the Wood Elements in the surroundings before he left.
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained 3 Dragon Bone Herbs!”
“...”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained a Fusion Laws of Nature Fragment! Will you assimilate it?”
“Another fusion laws of nature fragment? Never mind, let’s just assimilate it... It’s thunder-ice fusion laws of nature this time.”
“...”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained a Divine Core. Will you assimilate it?”
“Another divine core?”
Meng Lei perked up again, and with a flip of his right hand, a divine core appeared on his palm. It was a dark-elemental divine core that was pitch-black in color all over and emanated strong, surging dark-elemental power of divinity.
“The power of divinity energy fluctuations on this are about the same as those on the water-elemental one. It’s likely also a lesser deity’s divine core. What a shame that I can’t assimilate it. It’s so tempting!”
“...”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained a Fusion Laws of Nature Fragment! Will you assimilate it?”
“Assimilate it! ...This time, it’s light-water fusion laws of nature.”
“...”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained a Crystallized Divine Spirit Extract!”
“A Crystallized Divine Spirit Extract? What’s that?”
A golden rhombus-shaped crystal roughly the size of an infant’s fist appeared on Meng Lei’s palm.
Just a glance at it was enough to turn Meng Lei dizzy. It was as if his entire spirit had been lured into the crystal!
“Dodola, what’s a Crystallized Divine Spirit Extract?”
Meng Lei had no choice but to rouse the fast-asleep Dodola from its slumber.
“Don’t you know that disturbing someone’s sleep is very rude and immoral behavior?”
Despite being extremely displeased with Meng Lei’s actions, Dodola nevertheless still provided him with an answer.
“A Crystallized Divine Spirit Extract is the crystallized form of a divine spirit that has been extracted from a divine core and processed.”
Meng Lei asked, “Extracted from a divine core? What can this thing do?”
“Because it has gone through special processing, Crystallized Divine Spirit Extracts no longer contain the dead deity’s will, memories, divinity, laws of nature comprehension, and other information related to its original owner,” Dodola said, “Therefore, Crystallized Divine Spirit Extracts are the purest and cleanest material form of a divine spirit, and is a treasure that can enhance one’s divine spirit.”
“Enhance one’s divine spirit?” Meng Lei’s eyes lit up as he asked, “Are there any side effects?”
“No, there aren’t!”
“Got it. You can go back to sleep now.”
“Why are you suddenly asking about that?”
“Nothing much. It’s just a casual question.”
“There’s no use asking about that because it’s impossible for you to get any Crystallized Divine Spirit Extracts anyway. That thing is ridiculously expensive. Even one that’s processed from a lesser deity’s divine core is worth tens of thousands of Divinity Crystals!”
A mumbling Dodola then went back to sleep.
“Impossible to get?”
Meng Lei was beside himself with joy as he gazed at the golden rhombus-shaped crystal sitting on his palm.
“Not only can it enhance my divine spirit, but it doesn’t carry any side effects, either!”
What was he waiting for, then?
“Assimilate!”
Buzz...
At once, the Crystallized Divine Spirit Extract disappeared!
At the same time, Meng Lei felt a strong, torrential, and icy aura gushing into his sea of consciousness and furiously strengthening his divine spirit.
Boom!
In the span of a few short breaths, his divine spirit had been enhanced by quite a few times.
His mind became even more agile, and his consciousness even more alert right away. The range of his divine cognition became even wider, and the laws of nature became even clearer and more distinct.
“It feels so strong!”
The feeling of his divine spirit continuously strengthening was simply too wonderful. If it were possible, Meng Lei really wished that it could continue strengthening.
Alas, there was a start and an end to everything.
A brief moment later, everything came to an end and vanished.
When Meng Lei opened his eyes and glanced at his stats interface, he couldn’t help but be awfully comforted.
Host: Meng Lei
Race: Human (Contains Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline <100%>)
Wealth: 13.57 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals
Physical Body Constitution: Half-Deity (High-Grade)
Spirit: Half-Deity (High-Grade)
Power of Divinity: 0.1 Divinity Crystal
Laws of Nature: Wood-Earth Fusion (0.1%), Metal-Dark Fusion (0.1%), Thunder-Ice Fusion (0.1%), Water-Light Fusion (0.1%)
“Enhancing my divine spirit from elementary-grade to high-grade had required only a tiny, little Crystallized Divine Spirit Extract!”
Meng Lei couldn’t help but marvel, “This thing sure is good stuff! Here’s hoping I can pick more up in the future!
“Oh, right! Dodola once said that the level of difficulty in laws of nature assimilation is related to how strong one’s divine spirit is.
“Now that my divine spirit has strengthened by so much, surely it has become much cheaper to buy credit for laws of nature assimilation now?”
Meng Lei promptly contacted the system. “System, how much does it cost to raise my wood-earth fusion laws of nature assimilation rate by 1%?”
“10,000 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals!”
“10,000? Haha!” Meng Lei was overjoyed. “I was right! The cost has indeed lowered significantly!”
Previously, it had cost 100,000 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals to raise his wood-earth fusion laws of nature assimilation rate by 1%!
But now, it required only 10,000 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals, making it only 10% of what it had previously cost. It had become so much cheaper!
“Little did I think that enhancing the divine spirit would actually bring such benefits. Say no more, we’ll talk again after I’ve raised all eight fusion laws of nature—wood-earth, metal-dark, thunder-ice, and light-water—to 100%!”
Whoosh!
His Wealth instantly shrank by four million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals. The stats interface also underwent a change.
Wealth: 9.57 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals
Laws of Nature: Wood-Earth Fusion (100%), Metal-Dark Fusion (100%), Thunder-Ice Fusion (100%), Water-Light Fusion (100%)
“Someday, I’ll definitely be able to fuse all ten types of laws of nature into one!”
Meng Lei was filled with confidence for the future!
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained the Succubus’ lace organza skirt!”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained the Skeleton Soldiers’ will-o’-the-wisp!”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained the divine beast Tricannon Pig’s carcass!”
“A divine beast carcass?”
Rather taken aback, Meng Lei quickly brought out the divine beast carcass.
Boom!
It instantly blasted the hall apart...