Picking Up Attributes From Today c1-406
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“I... I’m fine!”
Meng Lei tried to put up with the agony that felt even more painful than being tortured to death. He gave him an awful smile and said, “I... I’m... fine... It’ll be okay in a while.”
“What do you mean you’re fine when you’re behaving like this?” Ol’ Amos was terribly anxious. “Tell me, what exactly is going on?”
“Ha... Haha!”
Meng Lei gave him a dreadful smile, unable to even utter a proper sentence anymore. The sticky, viscous golden flames seeped out of his body like blood before returning into his body again.
They burned the surface of his body and burned the inside of his body. The cycle repeated again and again as it burned his whole body, running amok and weaving about unbridled.
Everywhere the golden flames passed by underwent modifications!
His bones, meridians, skin... His blood, internal organs, heart, and lungs... Every single inch of his blood and flesh... every little nook and cranny... All of them were modified by the golden flames!
The immense pain was like the gushing rivers, endless and eternal.
They assailed his senses madly, like the Yellow River beyond one’s control in a flood.
“Why is this happening? What exactly is going on?”
Ol’ Amos was in such a panic that he was going round and round in circles.
Roar!
In their daze, as though made out of gold, a strange ant hologram covered in golden armor and with 16 pairs of golden butterfly wings on its back suddenly appeared behind Meng Lei.
It bared its fangs and brandished its claws, its teeth waving about!
It threw its head back and roared into the sky, its voice resounding throughout the heavens!
“That... That’s...”
Ol’ Amos stared at the magnificent golden ant that had appeared out of the blue and exclaimed, “G-golden... Golden...
“No! That’s impossible! Absolutely impossible! Creatures like that have already gone extinct since a long time ago! It’s impossible that they still exist!”
Ol’ Amos rejected the notion vehemently. However, he suddenly discovered that Little Gold was actually prostrating and watching the golden hologram behind Meng Lei fearfully, quivering and shaking in its boots as it did so.
That expression on its face looked way too familiar to Ol’ Amos.
It was exactly how a Drake looked like when its bloodline got naturally suppressed upon encountering a pure-blooded Colossal Dragon.
“Could it be that...”
Ol’ Amos looked at Little Gold and then at the golden ant hologram behind Meng Lei, his heart gradually sinking.
Crackle, crackle!
At this point, a sudden change occurred again.
Amid spine-chilling cracking sounds, the surface of Meng Lei’s skin began to wriggle about violently, as though worms were crawling about underneath.
In the next instant, bloodstained golden scales began to emerge on Meng Lei’s skin like mushrooms sprouting after rain.
One scale, two scales, three scales...
It went out of control right after it started. A few breaths later, shiny, golden, strange-looking scales had covered Meng Lei’s entire body.
At the same time, bloodstained golden barbed spikes began to poke through his flesh and bones. Gleaming with a chilly glint, they grew out of his forearms, calves, knees, elbows, and other parts of his body.
Finally, two feelers that looked like triangular spike bayonets and covered in golden scales gradually grew out of Meng Lei’s forehead.
Everything finally came to a stop after that.
Just like that, with golden scales all over his body, golden feelers growing from his head, and barbed spikes all over him, the current Meng Lei had turned into a half-human, half-ant... monster!
Whoosh!
The pain faded rapidly like the receding tide, and Meng Lei’s consciousness gradually returned. He took huge gulps of air and panted heavily, feeling as though he had just gone to hell and back.
That sensation of living hell just now had simply left too deep of an impression on him. Compared to when he was assimilating the Fire Dragon bloodline and the Fire Demon bloodline previously, the pain he had felt just now was more than tenfold of those times.
Meng Lei swore that he never wanted to experience such pain that was worse than death itself ever again.
“Meng Lei...”
Ol’ Amos opened his mouth and called out Meng Lei’s name, only to find that the current Meng Lei looked so foreign to him, so much so that he didn’t really dare to acknowledge him.
“Ol’ President!”
After some effort, Meng Lei barely managed a smile at Ol’ Amos. However, in Ol’ Amos’ eyes, his smile simply looked so evil and strangely demonic.
Meng Lei’s pupils were actually red in color! Just like Little Gold’s eyes!
Ol’ Amos was ultimately not just any old, average person after all. He quickly suppressed his shock and asked anxiously, “M-Meng Lei, what exactly is this all about?”
“I don’t know how I should explain this, either!”
Meng Lei balled his fists slightly, taking in the surging, torrential tsunami-like power inside him. This power was infinitely stronger than when he had broken through to Ninth-Grade Warrior!
Every muscle fiber, every single bone, every single inch of his blood and flesh—all of them contained incredibly fearsome power!
It was as though... he had been reborn!
“Ol’ President, you can just treat this as an alternative kind of... bloodline awakening,” whispered Meng Lei softly.
“Bloodline awakening?”
A look of horror appeared on Ol’ Amos’ face. “Are you saying that there... There’s really Golden Gods-Slaying Ant bloodline hidden in your body?”
Meng Lei didn’t answer. Instead, he took in the sensation of the surging, turbulent, and fearsome power inside his body in detail.
The next moment, he bent his legs slightly and leaped into the air.
Boom!
His legs were just like two ultra-powerful springs. Tremendous power instantly erupted, and Meng Lei’s body rebounded into the air violently.
Whoosh!
Like a cannonball, Meng Lei instantly hurtled into the sky. In the twinkling of an eye, he had actually shot several hundred meters up into the sky.
“Oh my dragon god!”
Ol’ Amos raised his head and stared at Meng Lei, who had already turned into a little black dot. His mouth formed an ‘O’ so big that one could stuff an egg in!
Isn’t that a little too goddamn high?!
It wasn’t over yet, however!
The next instant, Meng Lei plummeted back down from high up in the sky. He smashed his fist into the ground, and with a loud boom, a violent, raging energy wave erupted into the surroundings.
Gales wreaked havoc, causing dirt and earth to fly everywhere!
The lands shook, and the mountains broke apart!
A huge, 100-meters-wide pit was imprinted in the ground, and Meng Lei stood in the center of the pit like a meteor that had crashed into the earth.
“This, this...” Ol’ Amos was flabbergasted. “That strength... He can probably match up to a pinnacle-level Ninth-Grade Magical Beast whose specialty is physical strength!”
A Magical Beast’s strength was its own body, and one whose specialty was physical strength was even the Hercules among Magical Beasts.
Let alone pinnacle-level Ninth-Grade Magical Beasts whose specialty was physical strength? With their physical strength alone, they could already compete with humans that had just stepped into the Saint Domain realm!
It was practically inconceivable for a human’s physical strength to be this potent.
“Although I don’t know what a Golden Gods-Slaying Ant is,” Meng Lei said as he stared at his own fists, terribly excited, “Its physical strength must be extremely domineering! After all, I’ve only just assimilated its bloodline, yet my physical stre
ngth is already this strong!
“In terms of pure physical strength, it has definitely surpassed a pure-blooded Fire Dragon!”
Chapter 112: The Continent Sinks, The Deities Descend
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The night was quiet and soundless. There wasn’t even the slightest sound of crickets chirping.
A campfire blazed quietly in the quiet bushes.
A pig trotter marinated with spices was suspended at the top of the campfire. Golden-yellow grease dripped into the fire, producing sizzles and giving off an alluring fragrance.
Meng Lei’s eyes bore into the golden-yellow pig trotter, wishing he could scarf it down in one gulp. He was starving right now and had never been hungrier than this moment.
Meng Lei knew that this was an aftereffect of his transformation into an ant. Although the transformation had only lasted for a short few minutes, it had certainly exhausted all his strength.
“The ant transformation is truly too taxing on my stamina. Even with my Ninth-Grade Warrior-esque body, I actually only lasted five minutes!”
Meng Lei found this inconceivable.
A formidable Ninth-Grade Warrior! Yet it had only lasted five minutes!
Would anyone believe that?
“Also! Every time I assimilate a bloodline, my body will be strengthened. After I assimilated the first two bloodlines, my body improved by double to triple of what it originally was.
“And now, after assimilating the Golden Gods-Slaying Ant bloodline, my body has actually improved by a whole tenfold. That’s a whole tenfold!”
Meng Lei looked at his stats interface, still immersed in deep astoundment.
Host: Meng Lei
Race: Human (Contains Fire Dragon bloodline, Fire Demon bloodline, and Golden Gods-Slaying Ant bloodline)
Wealth: 7,541,721,863 gold coins
Physical Body Constitution: Ninth-Grade Warrior (10,158,587/1,000,000,000)
Spirit: Ninth-Grade Magician (1,345,142/1,000,000,000)
Magic Power: Great Ninth-Grade Magician (1,129,328/1,000,000,000)
“Before assimilation, my Physical Body Constitution was 1 million points!
“After assimilation, it became 10 million points!
“That’s a whole tenfold difference!”
Meng Lei was in disbelief, but he couldn’t help but think of what his physical body constitution was like before and after he had assimilated the first two types of bloodlines.
Before he had assimilated the Fire Dragon bloodline, it was 800 points. After assimilation, it became 2,400 points—a threefold increase.
Before he had assimilated the Fire Demon bloodline, it was 7,000 points. After assimilation, it became 14,878 points—a twofold increase.
“The results are easy to see!
“If we don’t compare the other aspects but look purely at just my body’s strengthening and increments, the Golden Gods-Slaying Ant bloodline far surpasses the Fire Dragon and Fire Demon bloodlines.
“Now, here’s the problem—what kind of living thing is the Golden Gods-Slaying Ant, exactly? Why is it such a mutant?”
Meng Lei’s gaze involuntarily landed on Little Gold. This bloodline must have dropped from Little Gold for sure.
Was Little Gold a Golden Gods-Slaying Ant? Or did it have Golden Gods-Slaying Ant blood in its body?
If that was really the case, then Little Gold’s background would truly be fearsome. It definitely wouldn’t be as simple as just the ant monarch of the Bloodthirsty Iron-Crystal Ants.
Upon detecting Meng Lei’s gaze, Little Gold was instinctively rather fearful. Meng Lei gave off an aura that made it restless and antsy.
“Don’t be scared, Little Gold.”
Meng Lei stroked Little Gold’s head lightly and comforted it softly. Little Gold relaxed slightly and enjoyed his caresses docilely.
When Little Gold had more or less relaxed, Meng Lei voiced the question in his mind, “Little Gold, do you know of the Golden Gods-Slaying Ants?”
“The Golden Gods-Slaying Ants?”
Little Gold raised its head and looked at Meng Lei. Puzzlement flashed across its eyes, and it shook its little head. “I don’t know of it!”
“You don’t?”
Meng Lei was mildly taken aback.
“I don’t!”
Little Gold was very sure.
“Why doesn’t it know?”
Meng Lei’s brows knitted together slightly.
“It’s very normal for it not to know.” Ol’ Amos popped out with a decidedly complex look in his eyes. “The Golden Gods-Slaying Ants are creatures that are stuff of legends. They’ve long since become extinct, and there are very few people that know of them.”
“Stuff of legends?” A huge jolt went through Meng Lei.
“Yes, stuff of legends. It’s said that the whole world was still under the rule of the ancient Titans during those times. The Titans ruled over the skies and also controlled the lands.
“The ancient Titans! They were the one and only ruler of the Heaven’s Vault Continent... Until a certain day!”
Ol’ Amos’ eyes flickered as he said, “Golden rain fell from the skies, and an ant disaster broke out. It was only then that the ancient Titans’ rule finally came to an end!
“Later on, people realized that the golden rain that had fallen from the skies was, in fact, the eggs of a type of creature known as the Golden Gods-Slaying Ants.
“As the ant eggs hatched, baby ants were born, and a catastrophe broke out.
“Innumerable frenzied Golden Gods-Slaying Ant devoured everything that could be devoured—animals, humans, Magical Beasts, Fairies, Beast People... Including the ancient Titans, of course!
“The ancient Titans rose up in a counterattack. Unfortunately, the Golden Gods-Slaying Ants were simply too strong; not only were they indestructible, but they also possessed incredible physical strength.
“This directly led to innumerable Titans falling in battle. The ancient Titans also suffered devastating losses as a result, which ended their reign.”
“What happened after that?” Meng Lei asked incessantly, “Since the golden ants were so terrifying, who were the ones that stopped them? And who was able to stop them?”
Ol’ Amos gazed at the starry nightscape and uttered two words—”The deities!”
“The deities?”
Meng Lei was stunned.
“Yes, the deities!”
Ol’ Amos’ eyes flickered as he said, “The deities exist above the starry skies and overlook the whole world. They heard the ancient Titans’ prayers and also saw the catastrophe taking place in Heaven’s Vault Continent.
“And so, they descended upon the world!
“In the faraway ancient records, on the day that the deities descended, innumerable divine light beams cascaded from the sky. As though pillars of light that reached into the heavens and went deep into the ground, they lit up the entire sky. Even the sun hanging high up in the sky was dim and dull under the divine light’s shine.
“After that, an earth-shaking holy war broke out.
“The heavens split, and the earth cracked, and hurricanes swept across the lands!
“The floods broke loose, and earthquakes erupted!
“Dead bodies were strewn all over the wilderness as the earth and mountains shook and swayed!
“Toward the end of the war, even Heaven’s Vault Continent itself broke into pieces!”
Meng Lei sucked in a breath of chilly air.
“It’s said that a very long time ago, Heaven’s Vault Continent used to be much bigger than what it currently is. It was a whole five to six times the size of what it is now.”
Ol’ Amos went on with a sigh. “However, after that war, the continent broke and separated into many fragments. The current Heaven’s Vault Continent is one of the bigger pieces of those fragments.
“The other fragments either wandered about in the endless ocean and turned into solitary, lost continents, or they
were submerged by the ocean and forever buried at the bottom of the deep ocean.”
“That great war was actually that terrifying?!”
Meng Lei was deeply astounded.
“The ones that partook in it were ultimately deities, after all.” Ol’ Amos shook his head repeatedly. “The deities’ strength is something you can never ever imagine. In front of the deities, Saint Domains are like ants in comparison to Colossal Dragons, and candlelight in comparison to the sun. It’s not something that can be clearly measured in numbers at all.”
“Are there really deities in this world?”
Meng Lei raised his head to the sky and gazed into the distance at the dazzling, brilliant stars in the night sky. A deep sense of puzzlement welled up within him.
Do deities really exist?
“Of course they do!” Ol’ Amos had no doubt about that. “Deities are higher beings that stand far above mere mortals. They are omniscient, omnipotent, immortal, and eternal. They possess a completely different lifestyle from mortals, and they truly exist at the other end of the starry sky!”
Taken aback, Meng Lei asked suspiciously, “Ol’ President, have you seen one before?”
“Of course!” A look of reverence appeared in Ol’ Amos’ eyes that were brimming with extraordinary splendor. “Our Lord, the Dragon God, that we, the Dragon God Empire, worship and believe in is a true deity. I once had the fortune to see his true form.”
“The Dragon God is actually real?”
Meng Lei was terribly shocked.
Calluses had already formed on his ears after hearing everyone going, “Oh my dragon god!” every day. He had initially thought that the so-called Dragon God was the same as the Venerable Master1, Buddha, and God on Earth, and was just an abstract, intangible religion.
Little did he expect that the Dragon God... truly existed!
That’s true!
This is Heaven’s Vault Continent where even stuff of legends like Colossal Dragons and Titans exist. Why can’t the Dragon God be real, too?
Chapter 113: Strengths And Weaknesses, The Ruler Descends
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Even stuff of legends like Colossal Dragons and Titans existed, so… Why couldn’t deities exist, too?