Chapter 278: Netherworld Divine Fire Upgrades, The End of The Demonic Dragon

Chilly winds blew fiercely above the Camor Plateaus.

Bubbles and the nine other deities were covered in wounds and appeared extremely worse for the wear. They had even been firmly subdued by the 45 Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords.

Had the Dark Demonic Dragon not been afraid of Dodola backing Meng Lei up and thus acted with caution, Bubbles and the others would have been executed a long time ago.

Dodola had not only protected Meng Lei but also indirectly saved Bubbles and the others. From this, one could tell just how fearsome a higher deity’s influence was.

“That’s going too far, human deity!”

The Dark Demonic Dragon glared at Meng Lei, its eyes spitting flames of fury as it gnashed its teeth hatefully.

“Let’s fight, then!”

The corners of Meng Lei’s lips quirked upward as he said, “I believe you’ll make a wise decision when the battle ends.”

The Dark Demonic Dragon hadn’t completely lost all reason yet. It roared, “Human deity, leave before you enrage me!”

“Cut the crap!”

Meng Lei snorted, and then he promptly launched an attack. This time, he didn’t transform into the Divine Netherworld Phoenix but attacked in human form instead.

He wasn’t being arrogant and presumptuous. Rather, it was because he had confidence in himself. After his rebirth, Meng Lei’s strength had undergone an overwhelming change.

Meng Lei believed that he could defeat the Dark Demonic Dragon while still in human form and that there was no need for him to shapeshift.

Boom!

As he took a step forward, his fist also instantly reached its target. A thunderous boom rang out, and the Dark Demonic Dragon was sent flying.

Its nose bridge had sunken inward, and blood spurted high into the air from its nose—Meng Lei’s punch had actually broken its nose bridge and caused him to bleed from the nose.

“You bastard!”

The Dark Demonic Dragon was alarmed and incensed. It roared furiously, “Suppress him, Power of Existential Plane!”

The existential plane’s omnipresent power weighed down on Meng Lei, but this time, he teleported above the Dark Demonic Dragon instead.

Then, he stomped down with his foot!

Boom!

Vast, mighty force erupted as Meng Lei made a deep pit right in the Dark Demonic Dragon’s head. Then, its enormous body plummeted straight down onto the ground.

“Power of Existential Plane is certainly very fearsome,” Meng Lei stood proudly in the sky, light flickering in his eyes as he said, “But it takes time for it to take effect on me after you’ve cast it. This interval is enough for me to escape!”

Once was more than enough when it came to suffering disadvantages.

Meng Lei was confident that he could evade Power of Existential Plane even if he hadn’t been reborn, let alone when he had become much stronger after his rebirth.

“Damn it!”

The Dark Demonic Dragon was exceptionally enraged.

Meng Lei had broken its nose bridge and even trampled upon its head!

That was an incredibly huge insult to it. How could the great Dark Demonic Dragon possibly take it lying down?

“Die! Go to hell!”

The Dark Demonic Dragon took on a terrifying 500,000-feet-long size, opened its mouth, and sprayed a beam of dragon breath that crushed down on Meng Lei from every direction.

Spanning several hundred meters long in diameter, the beam of dragon breath was simply too wide and thick. Most people had no way of resisting it at all, but to Meng Lei, it was futile.

He teleported and vanished from the spot. By the time he reappeared, he had already shown up behind the Dark Demonic Dragon out of the blue.

“It looks like you don’t have any methods that are superior to physical attacks, Demon’s Domain, and Power of Existential Plane. In that case, it’s time for this battle to end!”

Having seen through the Dark Demonic Dragon’s moves, Meng Lei lost interest in battling any further. Netherworld Divine Fire flames started to blaze in Meng Lei’s eyes as he glared at the Dark Demonic Dragon. They began to burn fervently and ultimately turned into two black pillars of fire so tall that they connected the heavens and earth before shooting onto the Dark Demonic Dragon’s back.

From appearances alone, it didn’t look like the Netherworld Divine Fire flames had changed much. They were still as black as ink and as though Itachi[1]’s Amaterasu[2] flames.

However, it had undergone a qualitative change at its core.

Its temperature had become even more insanely high!

Its ability to burn had also become even more fearsome!

The flames had also become more high-quality!

In other words, the Netherworld Divine Fire had also upgraded itself after Meng Lei’s rebirth.

To be honest, this was a very normal occurrence.

The Netherworld Divine Fire heralded as an inextinguishable fire that could burn even higher deities to death was actually referring to the one that had gone through several rebirths and upgrades, not a juvenile Divine Netherworld Phoenix’s Netherworld Divine Fire.

After all, no matter how powerful a juvenile Divine Netherworld Phoenix’s Netherworld Divine Fire was, how could it possibly burn a higher deity to death?

“Ahhh!”

After the Netherworld Divine Fire landed onto the Dark Demonic Dragon’s back, it began to blaze away furiously and spread throughout its back at a ridiculously high speed.

The astonishing thing was that every area that the Netherworld Divine Fire burned was actually reduced to ashes that scattered into the surroundings when the chilly winds blew.

After that, pitch-black holes that looked as if they were caused by sulphuric acid corrosion would appear in each area!

It formed an extremely frightening sight!

However, this was nothing because, more importantly, the Divine Fire had brought it unbearable pain.

The Dark Demonic Dragon let out shrill cries as it tried desperately to manifest its demonic aura and isolate the Netherworld Divine Fire. However, the flames were simply spreading too quickly.

The moment the chilly winds blew, the fire would spread like embers in a dry, withered field—the rate at which it spread was simply flabbergasting. The Dark Demonic Dragon’s isolation speed was far slower than the speed at which the fire spread.

In just a mere dozen seconds or so, the Netherworld Divine Fire had spread to every part of the Dark Demonic Dragon and totally enveloped its enormous, 500,000-feet-long body.

Hooowl!

The Dark Demonic Dragon cried out in pain and agony as it struggled mournfully. Its tough dragon scales turned into bits of drifting ashes while its robust and well-developed body swiftly shrank.

This badly frightened its subordinates. Overcome by shock and horror, the 45 Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords began to shake like a leaf.

“L-Lord Demon God!”

“What do we do now?”

What should they do?

Meng Lei didn’t know the answer to that, either—the Netherworld Divine Fire’s fearsome might had shocked him, too.

“Little did I think that the upgraded Netherworld Divine Fire would be that fearsome! It’s actually burned a great Demon God’s body into ashes, how frightful!”

However, the more terrifying and the more powerful the Netherworld Divine Fire was, the more advantageous it was for Meng Lei. This was good news!

“This is your last chance, Mr. Cyrus.” Meng Lei flew right up to the Dark Demonic Dragon and ordered, “Hand over your divine spirit origin energy and submit to me!”

“You despicable human deity!”

The Dark Demonic Dragon’s eyes were bloodshot. It said, “Even if I die; even if I’m destroyed; even if I’m burned into ashes, I’ll never submit to you!”

“In that case, you leave me with no choice.”

Meng Lei shook his head lightly and said, “Go in peace. I’ll look after your subordinates and those dozens of existential planes of yours well.”

“You bastard!”

The Dark Demonic Dragon gnashed its teeth loudly and glared hard at Meng Lei, the corners of its eyes nearly splitting from the intensity of its glare. If looks could kill, it wished for nothing more than to rip Meng Lei into shreds!

What a shame... that it couldn’t!

“Rest in peace, Mr. Cyrus!”

Meng Lei gave it a dispassionate smile before turning and walking toward the 45 Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords. He said, “The heavens are virtuous and cherish all life. Likewise, I’ll also give all of you a chance.”

“We’ll submit! We’ll submit!”

With barely any hesitation, the Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords dropped onto their knees and expressed their willingness to hand over their divine spirit origin energies and submit to Meng Lei.

“Submit to me? No, I’m afraid you’re mistaken.” Unexpectedly, Meng Lei shook his head instead and said, “They are the ones whom all of you should submit to, not me.”

“Them?”

The Demon Lords’ and Great Demon Lords’ expressions became fairly interesting to watch as they turned to Bubbles and the others.

There was grief, indignation, humiliation, disbelief, as well as the inability to accept such an outcome.

They had nothing more to say if Meng Lei had been the one whom they had to submit to. After all, he was stronger than them. To demons like them, submission to the strong was the norm.

However, Bubbles and the others had suffered defeat at their hands. Yet he was ordering them to submit to them?

This was practically worse than taking their lives!

“They are all my most loyal subordinates. Only by submitting to them will you have a chance to live. Otherwise, Cyrus will become a fitting example of your eventual outcome!” said Meng Lei simply.

The Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords were greatly frustrated, though none of them rebutted him. After all, Lord Demon God’s tragic outcome was still fresh in their minds.

Refusal to submit? Were they intending to have themselves burned into ashes by Netherworld Divine Fire, then?

Under the threat of death, the clever Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords made the wisest decision they could make—they lowered their noble heads!

“You can split them among yourselves,” said Meng Lei dispassionately.

“Yes, Master!”

Bubbles and the others answered resoundingly. Then, their gazes swept back and forth across the demons as they sought their ideal candidates. Even though the 45 Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords were filled with grief and indignation, all they could do was grin and bear with it.

Just like that, a grand loot-dividing session commenced, and various squabbles rang out continuously without pause.

A smiling Meng Lei asked leisurely, “Mr. Cyrus, does the sight of them taking their pick of your subordinates like livestock enrage you? Does it fill you with indignation?”

The Netherworld Divine Fire had already burned away and destroyed the Dark Demonic Dragon’s scales and hypodermis layer and was currently burning its flesh. It was an unbearable sight to behold.

The Dark Demonic Dragon’s hatred soared right into the heavens, and it roared hysterically and hoarsely, “I’ll never let you off even after I become a ghost, human!”

“Become a ghost? That can only happen if you even get the chance to!”

Meng Lei shook his head lightly and said, “I’m going to read your memory and then burn and destroy your divine spirit fragments so that even your soul will become fully destroyed. You’ll never be able to reincarnate for eternity!”

The Dark Demonic Dragon shivered non-stop upon hearing what he had said. It roared, “How ruthless of you, human deity!”

“Ruthless? I’m nowhere near when compared to you!”

Meng Lei shook his head and said, “Your life is the only one I’m taking, while you had wanted to kill all the living beings in Heaven’s Vault Continent. In comparison, you’re still the more ruthless one.”

The Dark Demonic Dragon stared straight at Meng Lei and said, “Human deity, I may admit defeat, but I will also curse you and pester you for all lifetimes to come so that you’ll never die in peace!”

“Alright, alright! Are you done?”

Meng Lei waved him off and shot out another few Netherworld Divine Fire flames at it. The fire blazed fiercely, swiftly turning the Dark Demonic Dragon into ashes.

The Dark Demonic Dragon’s 500,000-feet-long body was fully reduced to ashes in a few minutes, leaving behind only a crystallized demonic core that glowed a blood-red color.

Similar to a deity’s divine core, a demonic core was the core of a Demon God’s power and stored their soul and magic power within it. Simply put, it was actually also a divine core.

The demons just called them demonic cores to differentiate them from the deities’ divine cores.

The Netherworld Divine Fire continued to blaze even after the demonic core appeared. If nothing went wrong, the demonic core would also be burned into ashes like the Dark Demonic Dragon.

However, would Meng Lei burn it away?

Of course not!

Meng Lei was still intending to read the Dark Demonic Dragon’s memories, so he naturally wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen. At once, he grabbed hold of the demonic core.

Then, he removed the Netherworld Divine Fire on it and started to read the Dark Demonic Dragon’s memories.

“48 material planes! Oh my goodness, I’ve struck gold! Mine! Those 48 material planes are all mine, don’t anyone dare fight me for them!

“A windfall! This is a total windfall!”

Meng Lei had been upset over the loss of his 888 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals—after all, those were savings that he’d accumulated over many years—but now, all his unhappiness had been swept clean!

48 material planes!

Just how massive a windfall was that?

[1] Referring to Uchiha Itachi, a character from Japanese anime and comic Naruto

[2] One of Uchiha Itachi’s skills