Chapter 254: Rain of Light, The Meng Lei Empire
“Awakening the Primordial Human bloodline by 1% requires as much as one 100,000,000 Divinity Crystals. This bit of Wealth I have is just a drop in the ocean. Rejected!
“Enhancing the metal-origin divine body by 1% requires 1,000,000 Divinity Crystals. The price is just as ridiculously high. Rejected!
“I can, however, buy some credit for my Power of Divinity. System, get me Power of Divinity equivalent to 10,000 Divinity Crystals!”
Whoosh!
His Wealth instantly shrank by 100,000,000 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals. At the same time, his Power of Divinity reserves also went up to 10,000 Divinity Crystals.
“As for laws of nature comprehension, I shouldn’t be in such a hurry to buy credit for it. I can do it after I’ve enhanced my divine spirit instead. The price will definitely be even lower at that point.”
Meng Lei hastily ended the credit-buying session. Then, he ordered, “System, give me 10,000 Limitless Pickups!”
“...”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained a Divine Core. Will you assimilate it?”
“...”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained a Fusion Laws of Nature Fragment. Will you assimilate it?”
“...”
Meng Lei didn’t go anywhere at all during the next two days but stayed in the palace and did Limitless Pickups instead. In total, he did more than 200,000 Limitless Pickups.
It was hard to tell whether it was because he did too many Limitless Pickups, but Meng Lei’s luck wasn’t too good. Everything he picked up was very mediocre.
Nevertheless, because of the sheer number of pickups he did, he still managed to pick up quite a few good things.
Firstly, he had picked up 26 divine cores.
Although they were all lesser deities’ divine cores, there were thankfully quite a few of them, so he could use them to reward his subordinates.
Next was laws of nature fragments.
A large majority of them were naturally single-elemental ones, with only a handful being fusion laws of nature fragments.
There were 19 double-elemental fusion laws of nature fragments and four triple-elemental ones.
These were considered commonplace. What was astonishing, however, was that he had actually picked up a quadruple-elemental fusion laws of nature fragment—ice, metal, dark, and fire!
Even though the assimilation rate was only 0.1%, it had nevertheless successfully opened the gates to quadruple-elemental laws of nature assimilation for Meng Lei.
This meant that once Meng Lei enhanced the assimilation rate to 100%, he would—in terms of cultivation stage—rival a higher deity who had already assimilated four types of laws of nature. He would then only be... One type away from becoming a Great Perfection higher deity that had assimilated five types of laws of nature.
This meant that once he enhanced it to 100%, Meng Lei would be able to manifest a divine core and become a deity. On top of that, he would go straight to becoming a higher deity that had already assimilated four types of laws of nature!
The tragic thing, however, was that it was simply too expensive to buy credit for quadruple-elemental laws of nature assimilation. He couldn’t afford it at all!
Thirdly, he also got 11 true god dead bodies. Out of which, six were divine beast carcasses, and five were true gods’ divine bodies.
The divine bodies were of mediocre strength, so they weren’t of much use to Meng Lei. However, one did bring him an amazing special ability—Transformation!
Yes, Transformation! The kind that was similar to Mystique’s in the X-men series and allowed people to transform into all kinds of forms.
Although it didn’t provide any combat boost, it was nevertheless still a very useful ability. Meng Lei liked it very much.
Lastly, he also picked up some random knick-knacks. They weren’t of any use at all, and Meng Lei couldn’t even be bothered to look at them.
After he was more or less done with the pickups, Meng Lei finally walked out of the palace. Bubbles and the other two, who were waiting outside the palace, bowed in greeting respectfully.
“Let’s go. Accompany me for a walk outside.”
Meng Lei then brought the three half-deities with him and started to wander about the city.
“Your Majesty!”
“Your Majesty!”
Everywhere they passed through, all the palace maidservants, eunuchs, and guards that they encountered bowed respectfully to them. Their expressions couldn’t get any more reverent.
“Is Puhaman still not out yet?” Meng Lei asked as they walked about.
“Not yet, Master!”
Bubbles answered, “Assimilating divine cores requires time. It’s not that fast.”
Meng Lei nodded slightly in response. Assimilating divine cores wasn’t as simple as claiming ownership of divine weapons where one needed only to drip their blood, and they would be done. Not only did one need to comprehend the laws of nature involved, but they also needed to refine their power of divinity. It was fairly a troublesome process.
“Please, we’d like to meet with Chief Director Puhaman. Something terrible has happened!”
Suddenly, some noise was heard coming from ahead of them—the palace guards had actually stopped a few officials.
“Let’s go over and take a look.” Meng Lei led the rest over. He asked, “What’s going on here?”
“Greetings, Your Majesty!”
The palace guards hastily got down on one knee. At the sight, the few officials also hurriedly got down on their knees and bowed.
“You may rise!” Meng Lei waved. Then, he asked, “What are all of you making such a fuss over here for?”
“Your Majesty!”
An official hastily brought out a piece of joss paper[1]. Slightly panicked and fearful, he said, “Your Majesty, a rain of light suddenly fell from the sky in the Imperial City during the wee hours this morning!
“The rain of light splattered onto the ground and actually turned into pieces of joss paper. On top of that, someone even wrote that... that...”
At this point, the official started stammering, actually somewhat unable to bring himself to continue speaking.
Meng Lei raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s written on it?”
“I... I dare not say it, Your Majesty!”
The official had a fearful look on his countenance.
“Dare not say it?”
Meng Lei became even more puzzled. He casually took the joss paper from the official and took a look at it. An article, written in a common language in Heaven’s Vault Continent, was written on it. The main gist of it was:
Meng Lei!
The great deity whom the Dragon God Empire worshiped was actually the reincarnation of a wicked devil from the Demon Realm. In order to rule over Heaven’s Vault Continent, he had scourged the lives of many and gone as far as to slaughter the Dragon God Empire emperor, wipe out the Dragon People nobles, forbid prayers to the Dragon God...
The long and verbose article painted Meng Lei as a perverse and heinous wicked devil that ate children’s brains raw and fed on human flesh every day.
“How dare they!”
Bubbles flew into a thundering rage. “Who is so audacious as to actually slander Master? If I find them, I’ll definitely rip them into shreds!”
“He’s already come all the way here even without you going after him.”
Meng Lei shook his head and chuckled. “The last part of the text on this piece of joss paper is essentially him throwing down the gauntlet. He’ll be coming to the Dragon God Empire’s Imperial City a month later to slay me, the wicked devil, and rid the world of an evil!”
“Who’s so bold to do something like that, Master?” Bubbles’ eyes widened in astonishment. He asked, “Did he sign off?”
“He did!”
Meng Lei passed the piece of paper to Bubbles with a slight smile.
Bubbles quickly took the paper from him and glanced at it. He couldn’t help but exclaim, “Horace Theodore! To think it’s him! How can that be?”
“Bubbles, do you know that guy?”
Meng Lei was rather astonished.
“Yes, of course! I grew up listening to legends about him. How can I possibly not know about him?”
Bubbles nodded slowly, though his countenance was extremely grave. He said, “Master, Horace is the most monstrous genius ever in the Titan Empire’s history.
“He started cultivating at the age of six, broke through to the Saint Domain stage at 15, and broke through to the half-deity stage at 57 to become the youngest half-deity ever in Heaven’s Vault Continent’s history!”
“A 57-years-old half-deity!!”
“What a freak!”
“How terrifying!”
A huge jolt went through both Nadja and Seisia, who were both rather astounded. 57 years old might sound very old, but to half-deities like them, it was really too tender an age!
It was already considered very rare for ordinary people to break through to the Saint Domain stage at that age, let alone completely comprehending a type of laws of nature and becoming a half-deity. This was totally impossible for ordinary people.
A curious Meng Lei asked, “Nadja, when did you guys break through to the half-deity stage?”
“Master, my aptitude is mediocre, so I only barely managed to break through and become a half-deity at 12,958-years-old,” A somewhat embarrassed Nadja replied, her pretty face slightly red.
“I broke through 4,000 years earlier than Nadja and became a half-deity at 8,976-years-old!”
Seisia looked a little proud of herself.
“What about you, Bubbles?” Meng Lei asked.
Bubbles gave Nadja and Seisia a smug look and replied, “I became a half-deity earlier than both of them. I broke through when I was 3,238-years-old!”
“That’s not counted!”
Both Nadja and Seisia turned to Bubbles with expressions of scorn. They said, “You only became a half-deity because you comprehended the Demon Realm’s laws of nature. That’s purely just opportunistic trickery!”
“What’s wrong with comprehending the Demon Realm’s laws of nature? I was still physically in Heaven’s Vault Continent!” Bubbles glared at them. “Am I not a Heaven’s Vault Continent half-deity?”
“What kind of Heaven’s Vault Continent half-deity are you? I told you, what you’ve comprehended is the Demon Realm’s laws of nature!”
The two female half-deities didn’t back down at all. They said, “Laws of nature are much clearer in the Demon Realm than in Heaven’s Vault Continent, so it’s also way easier to become a half-deity. You can’t be considered a true Heaven’s Vault Continent half-deity at all!”
“Why don’t the two of you try to sense the Demon Realm if you’re that capable, then?” Bubbles sneered, “I’m able to sense the Demon Realm because I’m capable—”
“Alright, alright! Cut it out, all of you!”
At the sight of the trio arguing, Meng Lei spoke up and broke up the fight. He said, “Bubbles, what’s a big man like you arguing so much with the ladies for? Continue with what you were saying.”
“Hmph!”
Bubbles glared viciously at the two women before he went on. “After he became a half-deity, Horace also met with the same problem as us—he didn’t have any worshipers.
“Master, you should also know that when one becomes a half-deity, things are no longer about talent, diligence, and opportunities anymore. One needs worshipers!”
Bubbles shook his head and said, “Without any worshipers, there won’t be any power of faith. Without any power of faith, there won’t be any power of divinity. Neither will one’s divine spirit become stronger!”
Meng Lei nodded slowly. “That’s right. No matter how great one’s talent may be, it’ll only be for naught.”
“Thus, Horace broke through the void and left Heaven’s Vault Continent. As for where he went, no one knows. All we know is that he has left for good.”
Bubbles said with a frown, “Nothing was heard of him in the following 30,000-odd years ever since. Never would I have ever thought that he would show up again!”
Meng Lei narrowed his eyes and asked cheerfully, “Someone who’s disappeared for 30,000 years is putting on such a flashy display after suddenly showing up again—is Horace trying to announce his return to everyone?”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple!”
Nadja, whose eyes were fixed on the joss paper, said, “These tricks that Horace is using are customary tactics that we underground half-deities use when fighting for power of faith.
“Slandering the other party, and then defeating and killing them in front of their worshipers is the fastest way to dissolve their worshipers’ faith!”
“You mean...”
Meng Lei raised an eyebrow.
“Horace is likely doing this because he wants to spread his faith, too!”
Seisia nodded and said, “Slandering Master and painting you as a wicked devil, killing you in front of everyone in order to dissolve the people’s faith in you, and then ultimately replacing you!”
“That guy is pretty scheming.” Meng Lei shook his head and chuckled softly. Then, he said, “Even if he wants to kill me, it’ll first depend on whether or not he has the skill to. Otherwise, it’ll only backfire.”
“Master is right!”
A smiling Nadja said, “As long as Master can kill him, all the rumors that he has spread shall naturally collapse in the light of facts. Instead, it’ll even leave behind the impression that Master is unbeatable, thereby deepening the worshipers’ faith in Master!”
“Exactly!”
Meng Lei nodded lightly. “Since that’s the case, then let’s make proper preparations for him. How can we not cooperate with him when he’s coming all the way from afar?”
“Master, you mean...”
The trio quickly turned to Meng Lei.
“Send the order—one month later, I shall ascend the throne at the summit of Mount Dragon God and become the new master of this empire!
“The official name of the dynasty shall be—the Meng Lei Empire!”
“Yes, Master!”
[1] Also known as ghost or spirit money, they are sheets of paper made into burnt offerings common in Chinese ancestral worship
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