Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Something amazing happened.
Bit by bit, Abbe’s face started to plump up and turn rosy. Her weak aura also began to strengthen again…
“It works! The Tree of Vitality’s branch is working!” Meng Lei couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief. “How are you feeling, Abbe?”
“You shouldn’t have saved me, Meng Lei.”
Abbe, who had recovered a bit of spirit, stared at Meng Lei in a daze as a layer of mist formed in her beautiful eyes. “You shouldn’t have!”
“No matter what, we’re housemates and classmates. It’s inexcusable behavior if I leave you to die when saving you is within my means.”
With a laugh, Meng Lei helped Abbe up and said, “Let’s go. We’ll leave this place and talk again when we reach somewhere safe.”
“Okay!”
Abbe didn’t speak any further. She rested her head against Meng Lei’s chest, listening to his strong heartbeat…
Meng Lei’s embrace suddenly felt so safe, so firm, and so warm to her…
At the same time, the Royal Holy Knight Order also rushed over to rescue the other 100-odd contestants, who didn’t receive the same treatment as Abbe, of course. Whether or not they would survive would depend on fate itself.
The Golden Colossal Dragon Person urged them loudly, “Hurry! Evacuate the contestants!”
“Since you’re here, then don’t bother leaving!”
The aged voice rang out again at this point, upon which a shocking scene then played out—countless golden rays of light appeared out of nowhere, and then they converged into yet another golden shield which trapped everyone within.
Bam!
Meng Lei was thrown right out upon crashing against the golden shield. The others were no better—every single one of them was also flung back to where they’d originally been. Everyone’s expressions took on a dramatic change.
“What’s going on?”
Meng Lei, who was flustered and panicked, asked, “Didn’t I already break the seal, Ol’ President? Why has it appeared again?”
“I don’t know, either!”
The situation was driving Ol’ Amos rather mad, too.
“Damn! The barrier has appeared again!”
“Attack!”
“Attack the barrier at once, everyone!”
Boom, boom, boom!
The Royal Holy Knight Order launched into yet another series of frenzied attacks.
“Wait a moment here, Abbe!”
The dark gold hammer appeared in Meng Lei’s hand again. With flames of fury burning in his eyes, he imbued all of his strength into the hammer and smashed it heavily against the shield.
Boom!
As the dark gold hammer smashed against the golden shield, the terrifying recoil of the impact threw Meng Lei out.
Yet the golden shield didn’t shake even a little, let alone become destroyed.
“No way!”
Meng Lei roared furiously, “One more time!”
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
One hit! Two! Three!
In spite of that, the golden shield stood as enduring as rock, not wavering in the least.
“Why is this happening?” Meng Lei’s eyes were bloodshot. “Why has the golden shield become so much sturdier?”
Ol’ Amos’ voice was deep, low, and trembling a little as he replied, “Meng Lei, we might have been tricked!”
“Tricked?”
A huge jolt went through Meng Lei.
“Don’t bother trying anymore, little fellow.”
The aged voice rang out once more. Then, a gigantic human visage appeared on the Tree of Life’s trunk.
The human visage’s mouth opened and closed as it scoffed. “This is my territorial barrier. How can a Saint Domain like you possibly break it?”
“The Tree of Life!” Meng Lei exclaimed as he swung around.
The others also looked toward the huge human visage on the tree trunk. Under everyone’s gazes, the golden chains all around the Tree of Life disappeared little by little until they were all gone.
The seal… was gone?
At the same time, a vast, mighty divine power emanated from the Tree of Life, crashing down on everyone’s hearts.
Boom!
One after another, everyone plummeted onto the ground. They felt as if a mountain was crushing down upon their shoulders, as if great boulders were weighing down on their chests, and as if something was clenched tight around their hearts. Hardly able to breathe, it felt exceptionally horrible.
“We’ve been tricked! We’ve indeed been tricked!” Ol’ Amos bellowed madly, “It wasn’t sealed! Brat, the so-called seal doesn’t exist at all! It tricked us! It tricked us all!”
“Why would it do something like that?” Meng Lei couldn’t understand its motives. “Just how strong is a great half-deity? If it wishes to take our lives, all it needs is just a mere thought. So why would it go to so much trouble to scheme something like this?”
Ol’ Amos shook his head—he really had no idea why.
“Why?” Meng Lei’s eyes bore into the Tree of Life as he asked, “Why are you doing this? You’re a great half-deity, y’know!”
“A half-deity? But that’s ultimately still not a true deity.” The Tree of Life gave him a noncommittal smile as it said, “You must be very puzzled as to why I did all these, right?”
“Yes, why?!” shouted Meng Lei.
“Because of you,” answered the Tree of Life with a slight smile.
“Me?” Meng Lei was momentarily stunned. Then, he sneered, “I am but just a Saint Domain. Am I worth going to such lengths for?”
“Of course you aren’t, but there’s something on you that is!” The Tree of Life said aloofly, “For the sake of obtaining it, no matter how much I have to do, it’s all worth it. And now, it should return to its original owner.”
“Something on me?”
Stupefied, Meng Lei pointed at himself.
Ol’ Amos was just as stupefied as him while the others also looked at one another in confusion.
“What exactly are you talking about? I don’t understand what you’re saying,” A frowning Meng Lei shouted, “Are you talking about your fruits?”
“You cunning human, stop playing dumb!”
The Tree of Life snorted icily and said, “I’ve sensed that thing’s presence ever since you arrived at the Lost Continent. From that moment onward, I knew at once that that’s the object that I lost a long time ago.
“It has finally returned! It pleases me greatly to know that!
“But I’m also furious because you’re simply too sly. Not only did you not return it to me, but you even went into hiding and constantly avoided me!
“I was terribly enraged, so I could only resort to such painstaking measures. Fortunately, the outcome is still somewhat satisfactory.”
The Tree of Life’s voice grew louder and more sonorous as it commanded, “You cunning human, hand over that thing in your sea of consciousness. It belongs to me!
“Or else, you’d better not blame me if I come personally to take it from you! By then, you won’t be the only one dead—all of them will be, too!”
“That thing in my sea of consciousness? You’re referring to—”
A huge jolt went through Meng Lei, who had immediately thought of something. Aside from the soul flame, there was only one other object in his sea of consciousness—that golden leaf!
That golden leaf which he had obtained from the parchment manuscript had been occupying a spot in his sea of consciousness all this time. Apart from giving him the superbly strong wood-elemental magic talent, Meng Lei knew absolutely next to nothing about it.
What exactly was it?
Even now, Meng Lei still hadn’t figured it out yet.
But one could imagine that it must be no ordinary artifact.
It… belonged to the Tree of Life?
Ol’ Amos hurriedly asked, “Meng Lei, what is it talking about?”
“It’s talking about the golden leaf!”
Meng Lei didn’t keep it a secret from Ol’ Amos.
“The golden leaf?” A startled Ol’ Amos said, “But that’s a divine weapon. How can it be the Tree of Life’s? It shouldn’t be! Its aura differs completely from the Tree of Life’s. What the hell? It can’t be that that thing has taken an interest in the golden leaf, so it’s thinking of snatching it from you?”
“You don’t say, that might really just be the case!”
Meng Lei flew into a rage at once.
You keep going on and on about how it belongs to you, but in truth, it’s because you’ve discovered my divine weapon and are plotting murder for gain!
Disregarding the fact that it’s a divine weapon, so I can’t bear to give it to you at all; even if I do have the intentions to, I can’t get it to move, either!
Occupying a spot in Meng Lei’s mind, the golden leaf—apart from absorbing the Wood Elements in the universe every moment of the day—paid no heed to Meng Lei at all!
Hand it over?
Yeah, right! Am I supposed to burrow into my own sea of consciousness and gouge it out for you?
What a dumbass!
“Meng Lei, did you really take something that belongs to the Tree of Life?”
Everyone had been watching Meng Lei closely the whole time, so they had fully witnessed the changes in his facial expressions. Many of them became furious at once.
“What exactly did you take from the Tree of Life?! Hurry and hand it over!”
“That’s right! Bold of you to actually steal something from a half-deity!”
“Take it if you must, but you shouldn’t have implicated us! Take a look at Prince Barbarossa and the others; they are close to dying because of you…”
All the contestants trapped within the golden shield denounced Meng Lei, venting their anger and frustrations on him.
The Royal Holy Knights’ expressions weren’t very pleasant, either. The Golden Colossal Dragon Person leading them said in a low, deep voice, “Sir, for the sake of everyone’s safety, you’d better hand it over!”
“Hahaha!”
Furious to the extreme, Meng Lei burst into laughter instead. “Was it me that had embroiled all of you in this? If all of you hadn’t fought over the divine tree’s fruits, would you have landed yourselves in such a predicament?
“You can only blame your own greed for this, as well as yourselves for reaping what you’ve sown. What has it got to do with me?”
Meng Lei then looked at the Tree of Life and sneered coldly, “Not only have I not taken anything of yours but even if I have, do you think I’ll return it to you when it’s already in my hands?”
“Human, you’re challenging a deity’s authority!”
A vast, majestic wave of divine power weighed down on Meng Lei as the Tree of Life spoke in a low and deep voice, “I’ll give you one last chance! Hand over that thing, and I’ll spare your lives! Otherwise, don’t blame me for being heartless and ruthless!”
“Hurry and return that thing to the Tree of Life, Meng Lei! You’re holding everyone’s lives in your hands!”
“C’mon, return it to the Tree, Meng Lei!”
“Take it as I’m begging you. For the last 18 generations, my family has only had one son in every generation, so I can’t die here. Otherwise, it’ll be the end of my family lineage!”
“Meng Lei, I have a 200-years-old mother to support and a three-year-old toddler to feed…”
Upon hearing the Tree of Life’s threat, many of the contestants were badly frightened. They either cursed at him, threatened him, or pleaded with him…
But one thing stayed the same—all of them wanted Meng Lei to hand over the golden leaf.
“A bunch of fools!”
Ol’ Amos swore quietly. Then, he said, “Don’t listen to them, Meng Lei. Even if you hand over the golden leaf, the Tree of Life won’t let you off. You must understand that the leaf is a divine weapon. Once it gets its hands on it, the Tree of Life will definitely silence everyone and kill all of you.
“Why would that evil deity care about your lives when it doesn’t even care about the deaths of its countless Magical Beast worshipers? Begging for mercy?
“That’s just that bunch of fools’ wishful thinking!”
“Tree of Life!”
A hint of insanity flashed past the depths of Meng Lei’s eyes as he shouted hysterically, “Stop goddamn daydreaming! Even if we must fight it out, you can forget about taking even a strand of hair from me!”
Meng Lei had only just spoken when all the power in him erupted. Then, he smashed the Hammer of Destruction in his hand madly toward the Tree of Life.
“You foolish and ignorant human!”
The Tree of Life was enraged. “Now that you’ve rejected the final bit of a deity’s goodwill be prepared to suffer a deity’s fury!
“God’s Domain!”
A terrifying energy wave instantly came crushing down on Meng Lei. As if his acupoints had been sealed, he instantly froze on the spot, unable to move even a fingertip.
“It’s over! All over!”
Ol’ Amos heaved a sigh.
“It isn’t! It’s not over yet!”
Meng Lei, whose eyes were bloodshot and looked as if a crazed man, ordered, “System, raise the Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline assimilation rate!
“Don’t stop! Raise it as much as possible! Until all my Wealth has been redeemed for credit!”
“Ding! Dear host, your Wealth amounts to a total of 73.2 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals. It is possible to raise the Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline assimilation rate by 7%. May I know whether you’d like to raise it?”
“Yes!”
Whoosh!
His Wealth instantly shrank by 70 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals!
Boom!