Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The underground cave was deep and bottomless.
After Meng Lei walked for 15 minutes or so, an enormous underground pool finally appeared. Mist drifted about above the pool, such that one couldn’t see how deep it was or how wide it spanned. It looked just like a celestial pool.
In the center of the pool laid an exotic-looking Magical Beast that bore a striking resemblance to a Chinese giant salamander. A milky-white color throughout its body, it looked as if it was made out of fine white tallow jade. It looked incredibly soft, smooth, white and tender, sparkling and translucent, bright and clear, and as tender as though water was going to ooze out of it...
Its skin could make countless noblewomen and young debutantes ashamed of their own unseemliness, as well as countless beauties and young ladies insanely jealous.
“What the heck? That’s such a huge giant salamander!” Meng Lei exclaimed in a low voice, “It’s probably at least 70 to 80 meters long, isn’t it? How impressive!”
“Waaa~”
His voice greatly alarmed the gigantic salamander-like creature, and it turned to look over.
Perhaps it wasn’t quite apt to say that it had “looked over”—because its eyes were actually tightly shut. Evidently, its body had regressed in order to adapt to the dim underground environment.
Nevertheless, it had still discovered Meng Lei’s presence.
“Waaa~”
“Waaa~”
The giant salamander’s mouth opened, and it emitted sharp, ear-piercing cries, which sounded just like the crying and wailing of a child. It sounded awfully terrifying.
“Ol’ President, what kind of Magical Beast is that?”
Its cries were making Meng Lei rather creeped out.
“If I’m not wrong, that’s likely a Saint Domain Magical Beast that has long since gone extinct in Heaven’s Vault Continent—the Split-Body Devil Salamander!” Ol’ Amos commented with slight astonishment in his voice, “The Lost Continent is truly an amazing place! There are a lot of creatures here that have already gone extinct in Heaven’s Vault Continent a long time ago!”
“The Split-Body Devil Salamander? Why does it have such a strange name?” Meng Lei was rather puzzled.
“That’s because that Magical Beast has the ability to split apart its body.”
Ol’ Amos explained, “When it encounters lethal attacks, the Split-Body Devil Salamander will split into several individual parts to mitigate the damage from the attack. In other words, the Split-Body Devil Salamander is immune to physical attacks.”
“It can split its body into different parts?” Ol’ Amos’ explanation stupefied Meng Lei. “As expected, fact is really stranger than fiction in this boundless universe. To think there are actually such amazing Magical Beasts in this world!”
Splitting its body?
Wouldn’t that make it very similar to the slugs in Naruto?
“There are a lot of creatures beyond your imagination out there. What’s the big deal about this?” Ol’ Amos smiled noncommittally. Then he said, “You’ll have to be careful later on. The Split-Body Devil Salamander may look cute and silly, but it’s undoubtedly highly irritable and extremely hostile. That’s where the ‘devil’ in its name comes from, after all.”
“Understood!”
Meng Lei turned around. True enough, the Split-Body Devil Salamander, which was snarling and had its fangs bared, entered his sight. It growled deeply and entered an offensive stance.
“Waaa!”
The next moment, innumerable silver water spears glittering coldly in the light abruptly appeared around it. Then, it brazenly launched its attack.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
As though they wanted to jab countless holes into Meng Lei, the silver water spears pierced through the air toward him, emitting shrill whizzes as they did.
“Eighth-Grade Spell, Water Judgment? Am I being underestimated?” Meng Lei shook his head lightly. Then, he slowly uttered two words, “Absolute Zero!”
Buzz!
The Ice Elements in all directions suddenly converged, and then they turned into a surging white air current that rushed toward the Split-Body Devil Salamander.
“Waaa!”
The Split-Body Devil Salamander let out a strange cry. Before it could even react, the white air current had already thoroughly engulfed it.
Crack!
Crack!
In a split second, the innumerable water spears shooting toward Meng Lei were frozen.
The Split-Body Devil Salamander, as well as the pool underneath it, was also frozen.
Everything in the cave was frozen!
For a moment there, the dim, humid cave turned into a crystal palace that emitted an astonishing chill. It was so cold that even one’s breath would turn into mist.
A whitish mist permeated the air!
The solid ice was bright and clear!
The Split-Body Devil Salamander had turned into a sculpture. It was still maintaining its previous pose and seemed like a freshly sculpted ice sculpture—vivid and true to life, animated and lively.
“Ding! 1 Split-Body Devil Salamander killed. 10.4 billion gold coins gained!”
“Absolute Zero sure is fearsome. But there’s nothing more suitable than that when it comes to dealing with the Split-Body Devil Salamander!”
Ol’ Amos took a deep breath and sighed from the bottom of his heart. As for why Meng Lei could cast an ice-elemental first-class spell, he had already reached a stage where he was nonplussed about it. There was no lack of inexplicable events when it came to Meng Lei, after all.
“Splitting? Something like that doesn’t even exist when Absolute Zero is around!”
Meng Lei laughed lightly. Then, he tapped lightly on the ice sculpture. With a crack, the enormous Split-Body Devil Salamander broke apart and turned into ice shavings at once.
“Collect!”
A watermelon-sized magic core flew out at once. Meng Lei stored it in his ring, and then he returned to the forest to continue his hunt.
At a level like Meng Lei’s, he was no longer satisfied with just ordinary Magical Beasts. His minimal target was Ninth-Grade Magical Beasts, while his priority was Saint Domain Magical Beasts.
As for low-end stuff like Seventh-Grade and Eighth-Grade Magical Beasts, he’d just wipe them out along the way should he encounter them. As for making the special effort to go after them, that was just a waste of time.
“Ol’ President, can you sense any Saint Domain Magical Beasts?”
“Not yet. But there’s a pretty good Ninth-Grade Magical Beast toward the southeast.”
“How far is it?”
“About 50 to 60 kilometers, I’d say.”
“Since there isn’t any Saint Domain Magical Beast around, then let’s go over and take a look!”
Meng Lei looked a little disappointed at that. Then, he flitted toward where the Ninth-Grade Magical Beast was. Unexpectedly, he’d barely taken off when Ol’ Amos stopped him.
“Wait a moment, brat!”
“Hmm?”
“I sense a Saint Domain Magical Beast aura in that direction!”
“In the northeast?”
“Yes!”
“Alright!”
Without any hesitation, Meng Lei flitted toward the northeast at the fastest speed he could muster. After he had assimilated the Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline, his speed had been boosted by multiple times, including his flying speed.
His current flying speed was even faster than a vast majority of flying mid-level Saint Domain Magical Beasts. It could be said to be as swift as the wind.
Whoosh!
A stream of light drew across the sky and crossed 100 meters in an instant.
A few minutes later, Meng Lei arrived at the Saint Domain Magical Beast’s location. What surprised him, however, was that it was currently in an extremely bad spot.
It... was actually being besieged! A team of six contestants had surrounded it and was currently pummeling it into the ground.
Those six people were evidently no kind souls. Their blades were sharp and keen, their strength fierce and brutal, their spells accurate and precise—every move of theirs was a lethal one. No matter how thick and sturdy that Magical Beast was, it wasn’t going to be able to withstand the six-man team’s joint attack.
Under their siege, that unlucky Saint Domain Magical Beast was struggling to cope. It was already injured and could die at any moment.
“A beautiful crimson red all over with rose petal-shaped scales and a single horn on its head—that’s the wood-elemental Saint Domain Magical Beast, the Uni-Horned Rose Python!”
A smiling Ol’ Amos said, “The Uni-Horned Rose Python is in charge of the beauty aspect among snake-type Magical Beasts. It’s very rare in Heaven’s Vault Continent.”
“In charge of the beauty aspect? When it looks as sad as that?”
Meng Lei rolled his eyes. As he looked at the six-man team besieging the Uni-Horned Rose Python, he remarked, “That’s the Dragon God Academy uniform. Are they from Dragon God Academy?”
“Judging from their academy uniforms, they probably are.”
Ol’ Amos concurred with Meng Lei’s evaluation.
“What a shame about the Saint Domain Magical Beast. They’re gonna kill it!” Meng Lei sighed as he shook his head.
“What’s all that pretense for? Don’t you know just what kind of person you are?” scoffed Ol’ Amos, his countenance full of contempt.
“Ol’ President, you’re not gonna have any friends if you’re that frank!”
Meng Lei curled his lip in response. Then, he descended from the sky and jumped right into the fray.
“What are all of you doing? Why are you attacking my mount?”