Chapter 338: The Three Major Rulers, Power of Origin

News of the Dark Canopy of The Heavens taking place soon had completely messed up Meng Lei’s plans. He had originally been planning on challenging all 108 Prefecture Masters, but it obviously looked like his plans were going to be held up now.

Meng Lei absolutely had to go to the Boundless Plane.

After a brief moment of consideration, Meng Lei said, “I’ll need to make a trip back home, Dodola.”

“Back home?”

Dodola cocked an eyebrow.

“Each round of Dark Canopy of The Heavens lasts for at least 20 years from the point of commencement to the end. This is too long a period of time. I need to properly settle all the matters in Heaven’s Vault Continent before I can leave with peace of mind,” explained Meng Lei.

“It’s certainly pretty long.”

Dodola nodded lightly.

20 years were nothing more than just a fleeting moment to the demons and deities of the Void, but to Meng Lei, it was instead an awfully long period of time. After all, he was only in his twenties at the very most.

After that, Meng Lei brought out his Fallen Angel alternate incarnation and got him to continue collecting birthday gifts on his behalf while he himself left Ice Demon Prefecture together with Dodola.

The duo returned to Light Continent a day later, which greatly surprised Ol’ Amos. It had only been ten days since Meng Lei’s departure, yet he had already gotten Dark Hell Continent under control?

“Something cropped up, so I had to make a trip back here.”

Meng Lei then brought out a couple of divine cores and more than ten Crystallized Divine Spirit Extracts. He said, “Here’s a couple of higher deity divine cores and 16 Crystallized Divine Spirit Extracts, Ol’ President. Take them.”

“What?”

Ol’ Amos shuddered all over and exclaimed loudly, “H-higher deity divine cores?!”

“Yep, higher deity divine cores. One has assimilated three types of laws of nature, while the other has assimilated two types.”

A smiling Meng Lei said, “I’m giving them to you. You can decide for yourself whether or not you want to assimilate them.”

He had already given Ol’ Amos five lesser deity divine cores previously. Once Ol’ Amos assimilated them all, he would own five divine incarnations and become a pinnacle-level intermediate deity.

At that point, as long as Ol’ Amos could assimilate any two types of laws of nature contained within, he would be able to become a higher deity. If he could assimilate three types, then he would become a mid-level higher deity, and so on and so forth.

In other words, Ol’ Amos would still have a shot at becoming a higher deity even if his intermediate deity status had only come about through assimilating divine cores!

However, if Ol’ Amos directly assimilated a higher deity divine core instead, while he would experience a meteoric rise and become a higher deity right away, his road of cultivation would end up becoming completely sealed off after that.

Unless Meng Lei could find divine cores of even higher grade—such as Chief God ones—for Ol’ Amos, he would no longer have any chance at further progression.

“And these, too,” said Meng Lei as he took out another few higher deity-level divine weapons and a pile of other random treasures. “Take all these with you, and just use them whenever you need to. I have no lack of them.”

Then, he left with Dodola, leaving behind only a stunned Ol’ Amos.

...

Upon returning to Heaven’s Vault Continent, Meng Lei then went to Puhaman and the others and distributed divine cores, divine weapons, Crystallized Divine Spirit Extracts, and random treasures to them.

“The divine cores must be assimilated, but the migration process must also be expedited.” Meng Lei instructed, “I hope to be able to see the migrations’ preliminary results upon my return.”

“We definitely won’t let you down, Master!”

Puhaman and the others bowed and gave their promise.

“Great!”

Meng Lei then went to the Magical Beast Village after that.

Thanks to the vast amount of resources the Magical Beast Village had received, the villagers’ combat strength had undergone a massive change during the last few years. Several Saint Domain experts had even emerged from the village, including Captain Hudders, Uncle Leo, Jonah, Joseph, and Andrew.

The older ones like Hudders continued to stay in the village, whereas the youths like Jonah, Joseph, and Andrew had headed to various corners of the continent to adventure and explore the world.

The village had undergone a great change. The shabby and primitive thatched houses of the past were gone. What replaced them were instead lavish, brand-new buildings.

Additionally, there were also a lot of new faces in the village. There were women that had married into the village, as well as children born during the recent few years...

Apart from the people whom Meng Lei knew, the rest of the village had undergone a tremendous change. Even Meng Lei himself found the place somewhat unfamiliar to him now. Both the people and environment had changed, indeed.

Meng Lei had initially wanted to catch up with Hudders and the others, but at the sight of the village in its current state, he lost the desire to. After leaving behind a few lesser deity divine cores, he prepared to quietly leave.

“Boss, is that you?”

Unexpectedly, an agitated voice suddenly rang out in Meng Lei’s mind at this point.

“Teddy?”

Meng Lei was surprised.

“It really is you, Boss!”

A flash of lightning whizzed across the sky, and then a Magical Beast appeared right in front of him. It stood at 100-feet-tall and had a pair of wings on its back, yet it also possessed a powerful and muscular giant ape-like body. It was Meng Lei’s very first Magical Beast pet, Teddy the Titanic Dragon-Ape!

“Boss, you’re finally back!” Teddy dived into Meng Lei’s arms at once, so worked up that tears welled up in its eyes. “Teddy missed you, Boss!”

“Don’t cry. You’re already a half-deity-level Magical Beast, so how can you still snivel like a child? Aren’t you afraid that the other Magical Beasts in the Magical Beast Forest would laugh at you?” said Meng Lei teasingly.

“As if they would dare to!” Teddy snorted and said, “See if I don’t pummel them dead if they dare to laugh at me!”

“Alright, alright! I get it. You’re super strong!”

Meng Lei stroked Teddy on the head and asked, “Weren’t you staying in the imperial palace all along? Why have you returned to the Magical Beast Forest?”

“The imperial palace was awfully boring without you around all the time, Boss, so I left.”

Teddy wrinkled its nose and added, “I’m a Magical Beast, so the Magical Beast Forest is ultimately still more comfortable for me. I bet you don’t know this, Boss, but I’m one of the four great kings of Magical Beast Forest now! I’m really impressive now!”

“The four great kings of Magical Beast Forest?” Meng Lei raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why isn’t it just ‘the king of Magical Beast Forest’ instead?”

A look of resignation came over Teddy’s countenance, and it replied, “I can’t beat the other three, so I can only take fourth place.”

“Who are the other three?” Meng Lei asked curiously.

“The Cerulean Ox-Flood Dragon, the Titanic Giant Gorilla, and the Golden Carp.”

A gloomy Teddy then added, “They are the three major rulers of Magical Beast Forest and have already dominated the forest since a very long time ago. Also, they’ve all already deified.”

“I see.”

Meng Lei nodded in response. He couldn’t help but spread his divine cognition into the surroundings. It quickly spread to the Magical Beast Forest’s central region, where he then spotted a lake that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Occupying the lake’s bottom were a 100,000-feet-long Cerulean Ox-Flood Dragon and a sparkling, crystal-clear Golden Carp. Both emanated pure divine power and were actually lesser deity-level divine beasts!

A 100,000-feet-tall gorilla was snoozing away in the forest a short distance away from the lake. The trail of drool trickling down its mouth measured over a dozen meters long and was pretty much close to becoming a waterfall.

Meng Lei let out an emotional sigh and commented, “Never would I have expected presences like those three rulers to be in Magical Beast Forest’s central region.”

A puzzled Teddy asked, “What are you mumbling about, Boss?”

“Nothing much.”

Meng Lei gave it a smile, and then, he brought out a higher deity divine core and gave it to Teddy. He said, “Teddy, you’ll be able to beat them after you assimilate this.”

“This is...”

...

Meng Lei headed to the underground world after he left Magical Beast Village. There, he also gave a higher deity divine core to Little Gold, his other Magical Beast pet. He then went to New Dragon Island after that.

After several years, the Colossal Dragons had already settled down peacefully on New Dragon Island. They occupied volcanoes, lakes, deserts, forests, etc., and made them their dens.

New Dragon Island had completely become the Colossal Dragons’ homeland, and soaring Colossal Dragons could be seen everywhere.

As the Dragon Emperor, Fatty Hart had been leading a fairly comfortable life during the last few years. He held command over tens of thousands of Colossal Dragons and ruled over a whole continent, leading an extraordinarily free and unfettered life.

True enough, the moment Meng Lei arrived on New Dragon Island, he discovered the fellow fooling around in bed with a female Colossal Dragon whose hoarse cries resounded far into the distance.

“That dimwit!”

Rather lost for words, Meng Lei flicked a higher deity divine core over and left immediately. He had initially wanted to catch up with Fatty Hart, but that was clearly out of the question now.

Meng Lei was relieved of everything weighing on his mind after he was done, and he returned to Demon Ravine once more.

“I’m leaving, Ol’ President. I’ll leave Heaven’s Vault Continent in your care.”

“Don’t worry. You can leave with peace of mind.”

Ol’ Amos nodded heavily and said, “Everyone can forget about making any trouble on Heaven’s Vault Continent as long as I’m alive. I’ll definitely watch over it well.”

“Alright!”

Meng Lei nodded lightly and turned to leave.

“Come back alive, brat!”

Ol’ Amos shouted after him.

“Don’t worry, I will!”

Meng Lei gave him a wave. Then, he leaped into the space-time rift and arrived at Dark Hell Continent once more.

“I’ve settled all outstanding matters, so I can head to the Boundless Plane with peace of mind now.” Then, Meng Lei looked into the far distance and murmured, “I’ll go to Dark Hell Demonic Kingdom’s capital and meet up with the other Prefecture Masters first.”

Having read Cador’s memories, Meng Lei naturally knew the way to the capital. However, he also left behind his Abyss Skeletal Dragon alternate incarnation before he set off.

With his Fallen Angel and Abyss Skeletal Dragon alternate incarnations protecting Ice Demon Prefecture, it was unlikely that anything would go wrong.

Besides, Dark Hell Demonic Kingdom had also mandated that it was forbidden for anyone to challenge Prefecture Masters during the duration that Dark Canopy of The Heavens was taking place. Thus, he surmised that it was unlikely for anyone to take the opportunity to create trouble.

“Let’s go, Dodola!”

After ensuring that everything was foolproof, Meng Lei and Dodola set off for the capital together.

There wasn’t much time left before Dark Canopy of The Heavens would commence, so Meng Lei couldn’t afford any delays on the way there. Otherwise, he would definitely have ransacked all the places he passed by while on the way there.

Meng Lei didn’t stay idle in spite of that, however.

“I have 940 million Divinity Crystals now. There are a lot of things I can do with that!”

Meng Lei scanned through his stats interface, looking for options that he could buy credit for. He wanted to do everything he could to improve his combat strength so that he could make it into the Boundless Plane.

Host: Meng Lei

Race: Human (Primeval Bloodline: Primordial Human <26%>, Assimilated Bloodlines: Gods-Slaying Rat <Youth>, Divine Netherworld Phoenix <Youth>, Hundred-Armed Giant <Youth>, Ancient Tree of Life <23%>, Frost God <Juvenile>, Grim Reaper <Juvenile>)

Wealth: 940 million Divinity Crystals

Physical Body Constitution: Metal-Origin Divine Body (1%)

Spirit: Higher Deity (Elementary-Grade)

Power of Divinity: 200 Divinity Crystals

Innate Special Abilities: Teleportation, Dark-Elemental Transformation, Transfer, Absolute Zero, Rise From The Ashes, Thunder-Elemental Transformation, Mysterious Ice of The Depths, Grim Reaper’s Eye

Others: Some increase

“I can’t buy credit for any of my bloodlines at the moment, so I won’t bother with them... Next up is my divine body.

“My metal-origin divine body... Raising its assimilation rate requires one million Divinity Crystals for every 1%, so if I want to boost it to 100%, I’ll need a total of 100 million Divinity Crystals.

“Here comes the problem—is there any purpose to boosting my metal-origin divine body’s assimilation rate to 100%?”

Meng Lei fell into deep thought.

100 million Divinity Crystals was no small sum. He would be suffering a huge loss if he boosted his metal-origin divine body’s assimilation rate to 100%, only to find out that it didn’t provide much help to his combat strength.

Meng Lei was somewhat in two minds about it. He asked, “System, how many Divinity Crystals would it cost to enhance my divine body with Super Enhancement?”

“Ding! The host’s divine body is currently on par with that of a mid-level higher deity’s and will rival that of a high-level higher deity’s after enhancement,” the system replied coldly, “Thus, the enhancement cost is estimated at 900 million Divinity Crystals.”

“900 million?!”

Meng Lei couldn’t help but gasp.

Ascending from a limits-level intermediate deity to an elementary-level higher deity required only 3 million Divinity Crystals while ascending from an elementary-level higher deity to a mid-level higher deity required 60 million Divinity Crystals.

However, ascending from a mid-level higher deity to a high-level higher deity actually required 900 million Divinity Crystals!

What a ridiculous price!

“That’s too expensive.”

A wry smile appeared on Meng Lei’s countenance. In the end, he still ended up boosting his metal-origin divine body’s assimilation rate instead.

Whoosh!

His Wealth decreased by 100 million Divinity Crystals in an instant.

At the same time, an incredibly sharp wave of power also instantly spread throughout Meng Lei. It flowed into his limbs and every part of his body.

Buzz...

A powerful surge of golden light suffused the area all around Meng Lei right away. Filled with an austere and razor-sharp aura, he looked just like an ultimate peerless weapon that had been unsheathed.

The sudden change in him alarmed Dodola, who turned to him with a look of astonishment on its face and exclaimed, “M-metal-elemental Power of Origin[1]!”

[1] [Annotation text missing]