Picking Up Attributes From Today
chapter-183

Chapter 183: The Divine Tree Reappears, Five Fruits

The changes brought about by the Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline assimilation rate’s rise to 3% were all-rounded as usual.

His Physical Body Constitution received a spike of 10 billion points to reach a shocking 34 billion points, while his speed and defenses also underwent a dramatic change.

A spike in physical strength!

A spike in speed!

A spike in defenses!

The change between one moment and the next was the most clearly felt by Meng Lei, the one currently being beaten up.

What Meng Lei felt just a moment ago when he was facing Mond Aston’s beating had been severe, intense pain. His whole body had been close to breaking apart. But now, the pain had reduced significantly to become a normal level of pain that was completely within an acceptable range.

What did that imply?

It implied that despite how Mond Aston’s attacks hadn’t eased up, his pain had instead been reduced. This could only mean that… Meng Lei’s endurance had increased.

His defenses had been greatly enhanced!

“To what extent has my speed reached?”

Meng Lei’s eyelid twitched. He ducked the instant Mond Aston’s fist came smashing toward him. With a flash, he was already 100 meters away.

Mond Aston’s punch landed on thin air, and he stumbled forward, almost falling onto the ground. His expression changed as he looked at Meng Lei, who was standing 100 meters away.

He’s… actually managed to duck!

He clearly couldn’t just now, yet he has managed to now!

“Your attacks are extremely sharp. In particular, your speed is the fastest among all the opponents I’ve faced.”

As Meng Lei floated in mid-air and took in the endless strength pumping through his body, he couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

“It’s just a pity that I’m even faster!”

Whoosh!

His voice was still reverberating in the air when a series of afterimages flitted by. By then, Meng Lei was already behind Mond Aston.

With a bend of his elbow, his hand balled into a fist and went flying out.

His series of actions reached the absolute pinnacle of speed. It was so fast that his fist struck Mond Aston before he could even react.

Boom!

It held great impact and a heavy force that broke through everything.

“Ugh!”

Blood sprayed from Mond Aston, and he doubled over at once, the impact almost causing him to throw up the beef brains that he had eaten earlier.

A single punch alone had heavily injured him!

“Why has your strength suddenly spiked so much?”

Stunned by the change, Mond Aston was shocked and horrified.

“This…”

“How did that happen?”

The audience at the Dragon God Cathedral was close to breaking down. Was that a battle or a goddamn roller coaster ride? Could they finish it in one go instead of having so many twists and turns?

Their hearts couldn’t take it!

…

Up against Meng Lei, whose physical strength and speed had undergone a dramatic spike, Mond Aston’s outcome had long since been destined—in other words, to be beaten up!

Whoosh!

As though a ghost, Meng Lei appeared at one place one moment and another place the next. He was like an afterimage constantly striking at Mond Aston.

A punch, two kicks, three elbow jabs…

A series of attack combinations later, Mond Aston was reduced to a punching bag and pummeled by Meng Lei once more.

And this time round, it was different from the previous time. Not only was he unable to make a comeback, but he instead started to suffer injuries—and serious ones—the kind getting more and more serious, too—at that!

As they watched Mond Aston, who was heavily injured and throwing up blood, the audience’s wishes at the cathedral finally came true.

The battle didn’t undergo any more twists and turns.

But… They simply couldn’t rejoice at all.

“He’s lost!”

“Mond Aston has actually lost!”

“Oh my dragon god! Is that guy the devil? He’s only 16 years old, yet even Mond Aston is no match for him?”

“Isn’t Mond Aston a double bloodline-holder? His transformation just now was only for one of his bloodlines, right? He still has another bloodline that he hasn’t used. Why isn’t he using it?”

At the spectators’ words, President Luke instead gave a wry chuckle. Mond Aston indeed held two different bloodlines, and the other one—the White Tiger bloodline—was, in fact, even stronger than the Netherworld White Tiger bloodline.

However, how would the heavily injured Mond Aston possibly be Meng Lei’s match, even if he activated his White Tiger bloodline?

“The outcome is clear!”

Frederick the 32nd sighed a little emotionally and said, “Mond Aston has lost the battle!”

“How brilliant, Your Majesty!”

President Fred bowed slightly.

“President Fred, your academy’s Meng Lei is indeed extremely outstanding!” Frederick the 32nd marveled, and then, he asked in puzzlement, “But there’s something I find rather odd—why did his speed suddenly spike just now?”

“That… I wouldn’t know!” Fred shook his head lightly. “Perhaps he was hiding his strength. There’s also a chance that he had derived a greater degree of comprehension of some kind of laws of nature at the critical moment.”

“Is that so?”

Frederick the 32nd’s brows drew together lightly, clearly not quite satisfied with such an explanation. Regardless, he didn’t press any further but continued to watch the magic screen instead.

And like what he had said, the outcome was clear.

A few rounds later, the heavily injured Mond Aston wasn’t able to make any sort of effective attack at all, and at last, he collapsed from his wounds.

“I’ve finally settled the case.” Meng Lei heaved a sigh of relief.

That fellow was indeed a difficult one to deal with. If he hadn’t spent 10 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals to raise his Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline assimilation rate, he might just really have flopped unexpectedly and gotten pummeled by him.

“The Dragon God Empire has many talents in hiding, indeed.” Meng Lei was rather emotional as he muttered to himself, “I’m already cheating so much, yet there are still people who could beat me into the ground. Just how rich is the Dragon God Empire’s heritage?”

The exchange competition’s contestants were no older than 30 years old.

To Saint Domain experts with long lifespans, 30 years old was no more than just a fraction of their lifespans.

Just how strong would those old freaks more than 30 years old be when Mond Aston was already that monstrous before he had even reached 30 years of age?

I’m still too weak. I have to redeem more credit and work even harder.

Meng Lei swiped all the spatial rings on Mond Aston, and then he handed them to his loyal subordinate.

“Sacas, throw him away!”

“Yes, Boss!”

…

Meng Lei switched on his slacker mode again.

Swimming, fishing, sunbathing, eating seafood, occasionally robbing unlucky souls that he had baited… His days were carefree and leisurely.

His only regret was that aside from the magic cores that were slowly increasing in number day by day, there was pretty much no change in his Wealth. Meng Lei couldn’t help but reminisce about the days he had spent hunting Magical Beasts in the Dragon God Tower.

“Compared to the Lost Continent, the Dragon God Tower is more suited to me. This goddamn exchange competition should just hurry up and end!”

Day after day went by. The number of fish biting the hook also became fewer and fewer. By this day, despite Sacas giving off his aura all the way from the morning to the evening, it didn’t lure even a single person over.

“Three days. It’ll be a month in another three days. I’ll be able to leave this place at that time!”

Meng Lei thought idly to himself as he laid on the rocking chair and bathed in the gentle sunlight while gazing at the rolling waves rising and falling.

Suddenly, an aged voice rang out by his ear. Like a trickling stream, it flowed straight into the depths of his soul.

In that instant, Meng Lei felt his mind suddenly calming down and becoming tranquil.

“My children that believe in me devoutly, I am the spirit of the divine tree, the creator and guardian of this continent…

“This year’s ripened fruits have already been sent to various corners of the continent. I hope the lucky children can find them!

“Godspeed!”

“What?!”

Meng Lei jumped to his feet!

“Did you hear that, Sacas?”

To his surprise, he didn’t get any response.

Meng Lei turned to see Sacas kneeling on the ground and staring into the distance with an excited look on his face and fervent worship in his eyes.

“The divine tree! It’s the divine tree’s voice! O great divine tree, I am your child, Sacas! I sincerely offer up my faith and pray for you from the bottom of my heart…”

“…”

Meng Lei was rendered speechless and completely silent. Nevertheless, he contacted Ol’ President at once. “Ol’ President, did you hear that voice just now? The divine tree! It’s that divine tree’s voice!”

“I heard it.” Ol’ Amos’ voice rang out as he replied, “Not only did I hear it, but I’ve almost locked on to its location, too.”

“What? You’ve locked on to the divine tree’s location?” A huge jolt went through Meng Lei as he asked, “Where is it, Ol’ President?”

Ol’ Amos was silent for a brief moment before he replied in a low voice, “It’s not too far from us, 100 kilometers away at the furthest.”

“We’re so near to it?”

Meng Lei shuddered and hastily glanced about.

“Don’t bother. You won’t be able to find it.” Ol’ Amos lowered his voice and said, “Meng Lei, I have a very uneasy feeling about this.”

“Uneasy feeling?”

Meng Lei was stunned.

“Do you remember what the Uni-Horned Rose Python said?” Ol’ Amos asked in a grave tone of voice, “About the divine tree fruits.”

“Yes. The Uni-Horned Rose Python once said that the divine tree bears fruits once every 100 years and that there are nine fruits each round. When the fruits ripen, the divine tree will send the nine fruits to random locations in the continent for the lucky ones to consume.”

With a nod, Meng Lei went on and said, “I also remember that the last time the fruits had ripened was 25 years ago. There’s a whole 75-years-long difference from the 100-year ripening period that the Uni-Horned Rose Python mentioned. Ol’ President, why has the divine tree fruits suddenly ripened 75 years in advance? That doesn’t make sense.”

“That’s exactly what’s making me uneasy.” Ol’ Amos’ voice was grave as he said, “Before we came to the Lost Continent, the fruits have always taken 100 years to ripen. Yet the moment we came, the duration was suddenly brought forward. I suspect that the divine tree is doing this deliberately. It may be scheming something. In any case, this whole thing smells fishy!”

“What might it be scheming?” Meng Lei was greatly puzzled. “According to what you’ve said, the divine tree is highly likely a half-deity. Considering its venerable half-deity status, it could very well just kill us all. Is there the need to play schemes and games with us?”

“That’s exactly what puzzles me.”

Ol’ Amos shook his head lightly as he said, “Also, all of you have been wantonly hunting and killing Magical Beasts in the Lost Continent. It has almost reached the point of full annihilation, yet the divine tree has actually been indifferent to it.

“It’s only when they’ve been annihilated that it finally made a move.

“This is strange! Too strange!”

Meng Lei asked, “What do you think we should do, Ol’ President?”

“I’d suggest that we make a retreat.” Ol’ Amos said in a low voice, “Didn’t you frequently say that a gentleman doesn’t put himself in harm’s way? Considering how the divine tree is acting so abnormally, leaving now is the smartest choice of action!”

“Leaving?” Meng Lei hesitated. “The exchange competition hasn’t ended yet. If I leave now, won’t I be eliminated in advance?”

“You’re being muddleheaded!”

Ol’ Amos berated him, “What’s the big deal about the exchange competition? Staying alive should be your number one priority instead! I believe that with your talent, you’ll eventually surpass me one day to reach unimaginable heights.

“By then, what is there that you wouldn’t be able to get?

“Territory, money, power, status, women… You can have as much as you want. Is there a need to be hung up over a championship title?

“Listen to me, retreat first!

“No matter what, you must retreat to where the teleportation magic circle is first so that you can retreat safely immediately if an accident happens.”

“I’ll do that, Ol’ President.”

Convinced, Meng Lei sent a flying kick to Sacas’ butt and said, “Get up, we’re leaving!”

Whoosh!

At that moment, a few golden streams of light suddenly shot toward them and reached right in front of Meng Lei in just a few breaths.

One, two, three…

They were actually five golden fruits!