This force was incredibly pervasive and terrifying. It was much heavier than Mount Tai and Mount Everest putting on millions of G forces on Meng Lei’s body!
Meng Lei froze at his spot as his bones made cracking sounds as if he could be crushed into dust anytime.
“What powerful suppression!” Meng Lei’s expression changed a little. “It’s not Demon’s Domain. It’s also not one of those special suppression abilities, while it seems very similar to Horace’s divine kingdom’s power. What exactly is that then?”
Meng Lei was rather puzzled.
“Human deity, you’ll pay the price for your foolishness and ignorance!” The Dark Demonic Dragon let out a roar before sweeping its claw down.
This time, under the restraint of the existential plane’s power, Meng Lei could neither use Teleport or Elemental Transformation as he got hit cleanly.
Boom!
A great, vast force erupted. An unmatchable force hit Meng Lei’s body as if he was thunderstruck, almost breaking his bones apart.
“F*ck! This power is really... strong!”
Meng Lei licked the blood on the corner of his lips and gasped.
“Die! Ignorant fool!”
The Dark Demonic Dragon let out a sinister laugh, and rounds of frenzied attacks like a thunderstorm ensued—using either its sharp claws, or its heavy tail, or its destructive dragon breath...
At this juncture, the situation had turned around completely, opposite of what happened just now.
“Master!”
Bubbles and the rest shouted angrily and tried to rescue Meng Lei, but 45 Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords were in their way.
“Kekeke! Your opponents are us!”
“Lowly human deity, I can’t wait to taste your flesh!”
“Kill these damn deities...”
Boom, boom, boom!
Under the 45 Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords attacks, Bubbles and the rest were in a precarious circumstance, which might be worse than Meng Lei’s situation.
“Human deity, the only thing you can blame is your arrogance to trespass into my territory! If not, I would not have been able to deal with you!” The Dark Demonic Dragon attacked while it laughed sinisterly. “Here in the Demonic Dragon Continent, you are just meat on the chopping block waiting for me to kill anytime!”
“What exactly is this ability?” Meng Lei barked a question.
“Since you’re about to die, there’s no harm telling you. This is the power of the existential plane.” The Dark Demonic Dragon gave a smug smile. “I have refined the Heart of the Existential Plane, and I am able to use the power of the existential plane of the Demonic Dragon Continent! Human deity, you might be powerful, but you are no match against the power of an existential plane on the material level.”
“Power of an existential plane?” Meng Lei came to a sudden realization as he asked further, “Then how did you refine a Heart of the Existential Plane of a material plane?”
“To refine a Heart of Existential Plane, you need to find one before you can refine it!” The Dark Demonic Dragon sneered. “But you’ll never get the chance since you’ll die in my hands without any chance to rise again!”
“Die? I’m not certain about that!” Meng Lei took a breath and said, “You are indeed rather powerful to be able to push me this far, Mr. Cyrus. But it would be a pity since you can’t kill me!”
He had only just spoken when thick black flames lit up around Meng Lei and completely engulfed him from inside out.
His head was burning;
His limbs were burning;
His intestines were burning;
Every part of his body was in flames.
Gradually, the viscous Netherworld Divine Fire formed a huge solid-like black cocoon, wrapping up Meng Lei within!
The cocoon was inscribed with strange fire runes. They were like tadpoles full of life squirming around in a special rhythm.
“That’s...”
The Dark Demonic Dragon watched the fire cocoon forming abruptly before its pupils contracted suddenly, and it exclaimed, “Rise From The Ashes! Damn it! This rascal dares to use Rise From The Ashes at this timing!”
The Divine Netherworld Phoenix’s race was well known across the Void, dominating in the Netherworld. Hence, it would be difficult for Cyrus not to have heard about them.
Of course, Cyrus knew the Divine Netherworld Phoenix’s exclusive Innate Special Ability—Rise From The Ashes!
In the lifetime of a Divine Netherworld Phoenix, it must complete nine rebirths before it became a true adult and reached its peak, but it was incredibly difficult.
This was due to every rebirth came with an immense amount of risk—any carelessness would burn itself to death till it turned into ashes and the divine spirit was destroyed. That was why it was so dangerous!
For that reason, every time before it went through Rise From The Ashes, the Divine Netherworld Phoenix would normally do a full preparation and find a safe hidden spot to perform this Innate Special Ability.
Who else would be like Meng Lei who—midway through the battle—decided to perform Rise From The Ashes after seeing that he was losing?
This isn’t a goddamn Rise From The Ashes, it’s just the same as a moth flying into the fire—seeking death!
“Foolish human deity, since you’re seeking death, then don’t blame me for granting your wish!”
The Dark Demonic Dragon gave a deep roar as demonic aura gathered in its mouth and shot the demonic aura ball toward Meng Lei like a cannon.
“Die! Human deity!”
The demonic aura ball was formed with an extremely compressed demonic aura containing huge destructive powers. If it hit, the black fire cocoon would surely be blasted into pieces.
“Master!”
Bubbles and the rest shouted anxiously, though they could not help Meng Lei with all the Demon Lords surrounding them. They could only watch a ball of demonic aura shot toward Meng Lei!
“Human deity, you’re finished!” The Dark Demonic Dragon sneered. However, right before the ball hit the fire cocoon, a space vortex appeared out of nowhere and devoured the black aura ball.
“What?”
The Dark Demonic Dragon was stunned as it could not believe its eyes.
Where did that space vortex come from?
“It vanished?”
Bubbles and the other nine deities, plus the 45 Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords were all in shock. How did such a ferocious attack vanish just like that?
What kind of situation was this?
The Dark Demonic Dragon growled and sprayed out another dragon breath of destruction, the result remained the same as the dragon breath was devoured by the space vortex too!
“Goddamn it! What’s happening?”
The Dark Demonic Dragon was going crazy. Just then, a little demon flapping its wings appeared in front of the fire cocoon.
“Little rascal, taking advantage of others’ perilous state isn’t a good habit!” The little demon looked at the Dark Demonic Dragon angrily and shouted, “Wait till Meng Lei finishes his rebirth process before you fight him, understand?”
Compared to the Dark Demonic Dragon’s humongous body, the little demon was too small to command any authority, especially when it called the Dark Demonic Dragon ‘little rascal’. The scene was as comical as anyone would expect!
Yet, the Dark Demonic Dragon did not object. Instead, it looked at this little demon with a face in horror, as if it saw a primeval behemoth!
“You better follow as I say! Wait for him to complete his rebirth process before resuming your battle! Or else I’ll skin you alive!”
The little demon threatened one last time before it disappeared. The Dark Demonic Dragon was panting hard while it broke out in cold sweat.
It did not attack the fire cocoon anymore and stayed at the same place obediently!
This scene left the demon subordinates clueless about what was happening as they looked at each other in the eyes.
“W
hat happened to our great master?
“Afraid of a little demon?”
“What exactly is going on then?”
They could not understand what was in the mind of the Dark Demonic Dragon. If they did, they would be scared to death!
“Higher deity! That’s definitely the aura of a higher deity! This damned human deity, he has a higher deity supporting him!”
Terror gripped the Dark Demonic Dragon.
It neither knew the little demon nor its background, but the aura it emitted was definitely over the level of an intermediate deity!
That little demon was a higher deity!
A higher deity!
Even though it seemed mighty now, it could get smashed into pieces with one slap if it faced a higher deity!
That was the terrifying part of it. It would never have thought that there was a higher deity on Meng Lei’s side!
What could it even do now?
Chapter 277: Bankrupt Overnight, Reconstructing The Divine Body
“You little scoundrel, how dare you act so recklessly!”
In the Tower of Time, Dodola cursed as it watched Meng Lei, who was currently wrapped in a fire cocoon. Evidently, it was greatly displeased with what he had done.
“Rise From The Ashes is a highly risky move. A moment of carelessness and one will vanish in a puff of smoke, their divine spirit fully destroyed.
“Other Divine Netherworld Phoenixes only wish they could make even safer and even more perfect preparations, yet he actually went ahead and cast Rise From The Ashes under such circumstances. He shouldn’t have done that even if he has a death wish!”
Despite how fiercely Dodola was ranting, it couldn’t hide the look of worry in its eyes. The Dark Demonic Dragon was nothing to Dodola; it could smack the Dark Demonic Dragon dead with just one hit.
What it was worried about was Meng Lei!
“Can such a sudden casting of Rise From The Ashes really succeed?
“Never mind, the chances of success are simply too low, considering how he had cast it so recklessly. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll just lend him a hand. He mustn’t die... If he dies, I’ll suffer a huge loss...”
Could he succeed?
Meng Lei himself didn’t know, either.
All he knew was that the power of divinity inside him was currently being depleted at an alarming rate. Every second passing saw 100 Power of Divinity droplets being depleted!
100 droplets per second!
How ridiculous was a rate like that?
For many half-deities, that was all the power of divinity they had even after saving and accumulating them for tens of thousands of years. One could easily imagine just how frightening Meng Lei’s current power of divinity consumption rate was.
However, that was how Rise From The Ashes was. It had to fully burn every cell, every bone, every muscle, every organ...
...Until Meng Lei’s entire self was burned into ashes, leaving behind only his divine spirit and the purest, most refined blood essence!
His divine body will then be reconstructed using that as a foundation. To sum it up, the act of destruction was all for the sake of creation.
Naturally, the whole process required vast amounts of power of divinity. After all, divine bodies were incredibly difficult to destroy and even harder to construct.
Of course, because their divine body would be burned and destroyed—in fact, even burned to ashes—the process was also accompanied by immense pain and agony. One could easily imagine the amount of affliction involved in the process.
Meng Lei didn’t fear pain. He had already gone through innumerable hardships and painful experiences by now, so pain didn’t frighten him anymore.
Neither was he afraid of power of divinity depletion. Given the 888.88 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals in his possession, was there any need for him to fear the mere power of divinity depletion?
However, the events that followed next showed Meng Lei that he had grossly underestimated the amount of power of divinity he needed—it took only two hours for the 10,000 Divinity Crystals’ worth of power of divinity to be completely depleted!
Left with no other choice, he could only buy and redeem more.
“System, redeem 10,000 Divinity Crystals’ worth of power of divinity for me!”
Whoosh!
His Wealth instantly shrank by 100,000,000 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals. At the same time, he also received 10,000 Divinity Crystals’ worth of power of divinity.
The burning continued!
The depletion continued!
Another two hours later, the 10,000 Divinity Crystals’ worth of power of divinity that he had only just redeemed were fully depleted again.
Left with no other choice again, Meng Lei could only spend another 100,000,000 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals and replenish his reserves with another 10,000 Divinity Crystals’ worth of power of divinity.
After four hours of burning, Meng Lei could feel that his physical body had already been completely burned away. His bones, his muscles... Everything had been reduced to ashes, leaving behind only his divine spirit flame and a ball of blood essence floating in the air.
The divine spirit flame was a bunch of flames fully golden in color, and it gave off rich divine spiritual power.
The blood essence gave off a pale golden glow and was also filled with a strong aura of vitality—it was the essence that had formed using all of Meng Lei’s blood and life force.
“Now that my physical body has been burned away, it’s time to reconstruct my divine body.”
He let out a long sigh and infused power of divinity into his blood essence. As though injected with hormones, the blood essence began to replicate and proliferate furiously...
For a while, the blood essence expanded swiftly like an inflating balloon. In the short span of a few breaths, it had already expanded by quite a few times of its original size and become as big as a basketball!
The blood essence’s rapid expansion was accompanied by a frighteningly high power of divinity depletion rate. The depletion rate was a whole multiple times that of what it had previously been. Up to 1,000 Power of Divinity droplets were depleted every second.
,000 Divinity Crystals’ worth of power of divinity had originally been able to sustain him for two hours, yet it couldn’t last even half an hour now. The depletion rate was simply too scary, and it filled Meng Lei with alarm and trepidation.
“I still have 680 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals left. Can it guarantee me a successful divine body reconstruction?”
Meng Lei was rather nervous. Like what people usually said, “Destruction is easy, but creation is hard.”
If it had taken 20,000 Divinity Crystals’ worth of power of divinity to burn his divine body away, then how much would he need to reconstruct it?
Meng Lei had no idea at all, but now that things had reached this point, it was impossible for him to stop halfway. He had to successfully reconstruct his divine body in one go.
Ten minutes passed...
Twenty minutes passed...
Half an hour passed...
“System, redeem 30,000 Divinity Crystals’ worth of power of divinity for me!”
His blood essence was still expanding and had already become taller than an average human’s height by now. Then, it began to form and grow meridians and blood veins, internal organs and bones, muscles, tendons, marrow, and so on.
The meridians and blood veins came first, followed by internal organs and bones, while the muscles, tendons, marrow, hair, and skin came last.
Only when everything had fully formed did the power of divinity depletion gradually stop.
It was then that Meng Lei discovered to his horror that he was only left with 880,000 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals and 200 Divinity Crystals’ worth of power of divinity!
This meant that his rebirth had, in total, consumed 888 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals, leaving him with only a fraction of the original amount now!
This also meant that he had gone right back to square one—Meng Lei had become a pauper again!
“At least it’s succeeded, though.”
Meng Lei couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief. Had his wealth been any less, his rebirth would really have sent everything he had previously achieved down the drain and destroyed everything he had in one day.
He would have been doomed if that had happened.
Meng Lei balled his hands into fists. He could feel that his physique had changed completely and could sense great power constantly gushing out from the depths of his blood.
“What a powerful sensation! It’s much, much more powerful than what it had previously been! Surely I can be considered a young adult Divine Netherworld Phoenix now?
“Since my divine body has been successfully reconstructed, it’s time to go out.”
A boom rang out with a thought from Meng Lei, and the black fire cocoon enveloping him instantly exploded. Meng Lei showed himself in front of everyone once more.
“He’s out!”
Dodola, Cyrus the Dark Demonic Dragon, the 45 Demon Lords and Great Demon Lords, as well as Bubbles and the others who had been subdued, all looked over.
“That guy’s actually succeeded!”
Dodola was so astonished that it widened its eyes so large that its eyeballs almost fell out of their sockets. It had already gotten all ready to lend him a hand, yet Meng Lei had actually succeeded in the end!
“Just how did he manage to do that?”
Dodola couldn’t help but somewhat question its own life.
The Dark Demonic Dragon was also questioning its own life. It simply couldn’t understand—despite casting Rise From The Ashes so recklessly, Meng Lei had actually succeeded?
Was there even any justice in this world?
Who the hell was it supposed to reason with?
Nevertheless, now that things had come to this, it was meaningless no matter how indignant he was. The Dark Demonic Dragon knew very well that with Meng Lei’s successful rebirth, it would have to face an even stronger Meng Lei now.
Meng Lei’s physical body was already comparable to an average intermediate deity’s previously, but it must be even stronger now. Was it a match for him?
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