Picking Up Attributes From Today
chapter-195

Chapter 195: A Half-Deity’s Body, Vast Wealth

As of now, Meng Lei had discovered two effects that the divine tree’s fruits held.

The first—enhancing one’s power.

Upon consuming the fruits, Magical Beasts could become Saint Domain Magical Beasts within a short few years. The Uni-Horned Rose Python was an example of this.

Humans could also consume them, of course.

Meng Lei had personally witnessed many contestants, who were stuck at the ninth-grade pinnacle-level, break through the gates of Saint Domain to successfully promote to Saint Domain level after they had consumed the divine tree’s fruits.

Next, the second effect—refining one’s bloodline.

Abbe was an example of this.

According to Abbe, she had only been a Golden Colossal Dragon Person prior to eating the fruits and couldn’t transform into a Golden Colossal Dragon at all.

However, she had managed to do it after consumption because her body’s Golden Colossal Dragon bloodline assimilation rate had gone past 70%.

It was evident from this that the divine tree’s fruits were indeed capable of refining one’s bloodlines. As for other effects it might hold, he hadn’t discovered any for the time being. However, just these two effects alone were already enough to make the divine tree’s fruits an invaluable treasure.

But… Meng Lei still didn’t dare to consume them.

Why?

“According to Ol’ President, the divine tree’s fruits are the same as one’s life essence, so they may contain the Tree of Life’s divinity.” Meng Lei took a breath as he muttered, “If they really contain its divinity, then they would be highly poisonous!”

What was divinity?

It was a kind of mysterious energy that within which laid a deity’s will, personality, beliefs, memories, laws of nature comprehension, principles of conduct, favored factions, and so on.

Plainly put, divinity was akin to a deity’s soul fragments. A great amount of information was contained within them.

By absorbing divinity, mortals could raise their abilities, extend their lifespans, and increase their laws of nature comprehension, thereby greatly reducing the amount of time required for them to achieve deification.

However, there was one deadly risk to absorbing divinity—there was a high chance of the fallen deity coming back to life through the divinity absorbed by mortals and taking over their bodies. After all, a deity’s divine spirit was near-immortal. Just a tiny little divine spirit fragment was enough to give them a chance of revival.

This was absolutely no joke!

Pray tell, should the divine tree’s fruits and its life essence really contain the Tree of Life’s divinity, if even something like that wasn’t considered a poison, then what would be?

Or at least, before he was absolutely sure, Meng Lei dared not eat them at all. Neither did he dare to let his friends or Magical Beast pets eat them. He’d rather they be a little weaker than run a risk like that.

“Divinity… How do I examine it? I should look that up. I have so many divine tree fruits and life essence with me. I can’t just let them go to waste!”

Boom!

The Groundfire Iguana strode over at this point. Its enormous form gave off a fearsome aura, causing Teddy to tense up all over as if it were facing a great enemy.

An anxious Teddy urged Meng Lei, “Hurry and get onto my back, Boss! Let’s retreat!”

“Withdraw? Why are we withdrawing?” Meng Lei shook his head lightly. “That luscious piece of meat has delivered itself to our doorstep. How can we let down its good intentions?”

(⊙o⊙)

Teddy was rather stupefied. Then, it turned flabbergasted.

The weeds around them began to grow excessively before turning into several strong yet pliable grass whips that shot toward the mighty-looking Groundfire Iguana.

Roar!

The Groundfire Iguana let out a furious roar. It opened its mouth, and then several bouts of flames sprayed forth from within as it tried to burn the innumerable grass whips.

Alas, it was to no avail. The grass whips penetrated the flames’ blockade to wind around the Groundfire Iguana, binding it into a dumpling.

Roar!

The infuriated Groundfire Iguana roared into the sky and struggled fiercely, but the more it did, the tighter the grass whips contracted around it. The final outcome was evident.

Bound by the grass whips, the Groundfire Iguana died of asphyxiation.

“I-it’s dead?”

Teddy was rather flabbergasted. “Boss, it’s dead?”

“Of course it’s dead!”

Meng Lei flicked his fingers several times in succession, turning grass blades and leaves into razor-sharp blades. In just a few minutes, the Groundfire Iguana had been cut into several pieces and placed on the roasting rack.

“Boss, that’s a Ninth-Grade Groundfire Iguana. Just like that, it has died by your hand?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you already that impressive now, Boss?”

“…”

One must admit that Meng Lei’s casual act of slaying the Groundfire Iguana had thoroughly astounded Teddy.

Like a curious little baby, the little fellow pestered Meng Lei with questions. Even the roast wasn’t that attractive anymore.

By the time they were done with the Groundfire Iguana, three hours had already gone by. Seated on Teddy’s back, Meng Lei flew toward the Magical Beast Village.

He didn’t plan on returning to the Imperial City for the time being. Instead, he intended to stay a couple of days in the village to readjust his frame of mind. As for the suspended exchange competition… He would think about it again in the future.

…

“All of you’d better put in some strength! Stop being so limp and floppy like a pansy!

“Remember this! The chance to cultivate doesn’t come by easily. If you want to get ahead and become someone strong like Meng Lei, then you must train hard! Do you understand?”

“Yes!”

“Great!”

“One, two! One, two!”

A loud, clear whistle rang out at the square in front of the village entrance. Even from afar, one could see a group of adults and children standing in the square, moving according to Captain Hudders’ commands and training.

They waved their swords and swung them, again and again!

“Not bad, even the children are cultivating!”

A comforting smile couldn’t help but appear on Meng Lei’s countenance. Staying in the mountains would never lead anywhere; only by cultivating could one hope to see the vast skies.

The villagers were doing pretty good.

Whoosh!

Teddy’s descent from the sky attracted the villagers’ attention, and they turned to look. At once, they were delighted, and looks of joy came over their countenances.

“Meng Lei!”

“Big Brother Meng Lei!”

“Big Brother Meng Lei is back!”

They swarmed toward him at once.

“I thought that Teddy had gone Magical Beast-hunting when I saw it flying out in a rush. Little did I expect that it was going to you instead!”

Captain Hudders was elated. He said, “By the way, I heard from Jonah and the others. Weren’t you heading to the Imperial City to take part in the exchange competition? Why—”

“There was a small accident during the competition. I went to the Magical Beast Forest to see to something, so I decided that I might as well come back to check on the village.” Meng Lei eyed Hudders up and down. Then, he asked with a smile, “Captain, you’ve become a Fourth-Grade Warrior?”

“Hahaha! All thanks to those high-grade Battle Aura manuals of yours!”

A rosy Captain Hudders said, “Of course, it’s also to do with the fact that the meals have been great recently. Teddy has been going to the forest every day, and every time he does, he returns with a Magical Beast.

“Eating mid-grade to high-grade Magical Beast meat every day halves the effort yet doubles the efficiency of cultivation. That’s how I’d managed to advance by two grades in such a short amount of time!”

“That’s right, that’s right!”

Meng Lei turned to the villagers to see that all of them had improved by varying degrees. Almost all the Trainee Warriors of the past had improved a lot and become Second- or Third-Grade Warriors.

As for the ordinary villagers, they had also become much stronger and sturdier than before. They were no longer skinny and sallow with haggard faces; instead, their skin had become supple, and their bodies strong and energetic.

“That’s great!”

A smile appeared on Meng Lei’s face.

“It wasn’t easy for you to come back, Meng Lei. We must show you hearty hospitality today!”

Hudders instructed the villagers loudly, “Training for today ends here! Inform everyone—we’ll hold a bonfire feast to give Meng Lei a warm welcome home tonight!”

“Yay! Captain Hudders’ the best!”

“Big Brother Meng Lei’s the best!”

The village held a grand bonfire feast that night. The aromatic fragrance of meat permeated the village as the villagers sang and danced and ate and drank happily.

As he ate the delicious roast and listened to the villagers’ cheerful voices and laughter, Meng Lei’s mood gradually improved, and he enjoyed a rare moment of happiness with the villagers.

Late at night…

Despite resting in his run-down house, Meng Lei wasn’t sleepy at all. Even though Ol’ President was no longer around, life still went on. It was time for him to come up with a clear plan for the future.

“I’m still too weak. If I’d been stronger, Ol’ President wouldn’t have died. At the bottom of it all, it’s still a matter of strength.

“System, bring up the stats interface!”

Whoosh!

Host: Meng Lei

Race: Human (Fire Dragon bloodline <53%>, Fire Demon bloodline <48%>, Golden Colossal Dragon bloodline <51%>, Golden Gods-Slaying Ant bloodline <10%>, Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline <10%>)

Wealth: 3.2 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals

Physical Body Constitution: Half-Deity (Elementary-level)

Spirit: Saint Domain (1,039,876,198/100 billion)

Magic Power: Saint Domain (1,037,108,765/100 billion)

Laws of Nature: Fire-Elemental (0.2%), Wind-Elemental (0.1%), Thunder-Elemental (0.1%), Metal-Elemental (0.2%), Light-Elemental (0.1%)

Others: Some increase

“‘Physical Body Constitution: Half-Deity’? ‘Elementary-level’? Where are the numerical values? They’re gone?

“Since the numerical values are gone, does that mean that I can’t directly improve my Physical Body Constitution through credit redemption anymore?

“Is that so, System?”

The system gave him a definite answer. It replied, “Without concrete numerical values, the host naturally cannot redeem any credit.”

“Alright! So be it, then!”

Meng Lei curled his lip in disdain. “Well, as long as I can still redeem credit for bloodline assimilation rate. That way, I can enhance my body all the same.

“But as someone that also has the body of a half-deity, why was I unable to kill the Tree of Life?”

Meng Lei’s eyes were cold and dark.

What he didn’t know was that even though the Tree of Life was one of the weakest half-deities out there, it had a fairly fearsome half-deity build. Botanical lifeforms had always been known for their tough and durable bodies, as well as their astonishingly high defenses.

A half-deity of a similar level would usually find it challenging to break through a botanical half-deity’s defenses. In Meng Lei’s case, his body had only just broken through to become a half-deity, so how could he possibly kill the Tree of Life?

“Never mind, I won’t think about this anymore.”

Meng Lei’s gaze then landed on the Spirit attribute after it with a shake of his head.

From a Saint Domain with a Physical Body Constitution value of 34 billion points, he had broken through the 100-billion-point upper limit to become a newbie half-deity with a half-deity build. His improvement was undeniably fast, and the distance he had crossed undeniably great.

But… The disadvantages were too obvious, and that was… His soul!

Or rather, his spiritual power.

It was precisely because his soul was too weak that it had ended up giving the Tree of Life the chance to counterattack and give him one final blow, thereby indirectly causing Ol’ Amos’ death.

“I have to improve my soul’s durability. I mustn’t have such an obvious weakness. Unfortunately… I don’t have enough money…”

After a moment’s hesitation, Meng Lei ultimately still brought out the spatial ring that Ol’ Amos had left him. Stored within the ring was Ol’ Amos’ lifetime’s worth of assets.

“Ol’ President…”

Meng Lei heaved a sigh. His spiritual power entered the ring, and then, he was stunned at once.

“I-it’s so huge!!”

“Huge”? How could the word “huge” even cut it?

One practically couldn’t see to the end!

Inside the spatial ring was actually a continent that stretched on for hundreds of kilometers!

Standing tall and proud in the continent were mountains of gold, heaps of magic cores, Magical Beast carcasses, hills of elemental crystals…

The mountains of gold were big and lofty, tall and towering!

The innumerable magic cores came by the billions and more!

All the carcasses were of Ninth-Grade and Saint Domain Magical Beasts. There wasn’t any weaker than that!

Multi-colored magic crystals and glittering elemental crystals almost blinded Meng Lei!

“These are Ol’ President’s lifetime worth of assets? Isn’t this a little too much… and a little too incredible?!”

Meng Lei couldn’t help but gasp, intense feelings of gratitude welling up within him.

“Thank you, Ol’ President. I will put these things to good use!”

“System, collect all the gold coins!”

Whoosh!

As the mountains of gold vanished one by one, his Wealth value on his stats interface also began to spike.

4 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals, 5 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals, 6 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals…

20, 30, 40…

In the span of a few breaths, his Wealth had surpassed his previous 73 Laws of Nature Origin Crystal milestone and was continuing to rise at a terrifying speed!

At last, when the number reached 238 Laws of Nature Origin Crystal, it finally came to a stop.

“It has increased by a whole 235 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals! That’s 2,350 billion gold coins! Just the gold coins alone have amounted to so much, not to mention that there are still so many Magical Beast carcasses, magic cores, magic crystals, and elemental crystals…”