It was frighteningly quiet at the Dragon God Cathedral.
From the royalty and nobles all the way to the civil and martial officials, every single person was immensely astounded. None of them would have ever imagined that the battle’s outcome would turn out like that in the end.
Prince Barbarossa, who had crushed his gold pendant and strengthened his abilities by quite a few times, was actually still no match for Meng Lei!
Was the gap between the two of them that massive?
“The interval between each Myriad of Nature is no more than three seconds!”
Emperor Frederick the 32nd marveled, “With an interval of just three seconds, it’s practically an instant release of first-class spells. Is that little fellow’s prowess in wood-elemental laws of nature that deep?”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Since one could do instant release for normal spells, they could also do the same for first-class spells, of course.
However, to achieve instant release for first-class spells, the caster needed an extremely high degree of comprehension of the laws of nature. Only then could they operate from a strategically advantageous position and see everything at one glance.
There was no way an average Saint Domain Great Magician could achieve something like that!
Yet, in spite of that, Meng Lei was able to do so. This showed that his degree of comprehension of wood-elemental laws of nature had already reached a terrifying stage!
“This...” President Fred could only laugh wryly at that.
“Am I wrong in saying that, President Fred?” A look of puzzlement came over Frederick the 32nd’s countenance.
“Your Majesty, to tell the truth...” President Fred had no choice but to explain, “Right before just now, I didn’t even know that Meng Lei had wood-elemental magic talent.”
Frederick the 32nd frowned slightly and asked, “You don’t even know that?”
President Fred answered honestly, “Your Majesty, all I know is that Meng Lei has thunder-elemental, fire-elemental, and earth-elemental magic talent. I indeed am not aware that he has wood-elemental magic talent.”
“Thunder, fire, earth, and... wood?”
“Four elements?”
“Meng Lei actually has four types of magic talent?”
“Gasp! How terrifying! How terrifying, indeed!”
“On top of possessing both Golden Colossal Dragon and Fire Dragon bloodlines, he also has four different types of magic talents! O great Dragon God above, aren’t you favoring that guy too much?!”
The people couldn’t help but gasp, every one of them astounded by Meng Lei’s terrifying talent.
Double bloodlines! Four different types of magic talents!
Either aspect was enough to drive one crazy with jealousy, let alone both. Even the Dragon God’s illegitimate son wouldn’t have been that much of a mutant!
Frederick the 32nd praised from the bottom of his heart, “With such talent, he’s surely the most talented member of the royalty in the last 10,000 years. This greatly comforts me!”
At the same time, in the Lost Continent...
The battle had already come to an end at this point. No matter how unwilling Barbarossa was to admit it, it had indeed already ended!
“You’ve lost, Your Highness!” Meng Lei said meaningfully.
Then, he paid no more heed to Barbarossa, who was so infuriated that he was close to killing someone. He picked up the Crocohawk Albatross King’s carcass, and then, he left the area.
“He’s gone!”
“That guy has finally left!”
“He’s too powerful! And too frightening!”
“Is there anyone among you that knows who that guy is? Just where did he pop out from? Why is he so strong?”
“With such strength, he can probably fight on par with those four mutants from the academy...”
...
“You’re totally famous now, kid!
“Tsk, tsk! Beating up a prince! That’s something I’d wanted to do back then but hadn’t managed to, y’know!
“Speaking of which, though, when did you awaken the Golden Colossal Dragon bloodline? How is it that I never knew? Just how much are you keeping from me, kid?”
Meng Lei laid back down on the Multi-Armed Behemoth, which resumed its journey. Then, he started to chat idly with Ol’ Amos.
Roughly half an hour later, a huge canyon entered their sight, and Sacas the Multi-Armed Behemoth stopped in its tracks.
“Boss, that’s the Golden Corpse Canyon—the Golden Corpse Bugs’ territory—ahead!”
“The Golden Corpse Canyon?”
The canyon was wide and deep, and the path through it rough and rugged, long and winding. One couldn’t see to the end of it at one glance. Filled with drifting smoke, it also gave off a shocking stench.
Strewn all over the bottom of the canyon were innumerable carcasses and remains. Some were already starting to rot, and flies, mosquitoes, and maggots were crawling all over them, while some were old, aged carcasses where ghastly white skeletons were the only things remaining...
Meng Lei stared from afar at the carcasses and skeletal remains littered all about. Coupled with the overwhelming stench, he hadn’t even gotten anywhere near the area when he felt his stomach churn, and he almost threw up the contents in his gut.
“Sacas, why did you bring me to a place like this?”
Meng Lei clapped his hand over his nose, somewhat displeased.
“Aren’t you looking for Saint Domain Magical Beasts, Boss?” Sacas explained, “The emperor of the Golden Corpse Bugs is the Saint Domain Magical Beast that was the nearest to us. It dwells right in this Golden Corpse Canyon!”
“Fine!” While pinching his nose, Meng Lei asked, “Is there any way to get the Golden Corpse Bug Emperor out? I have no interest in going into the canyon and dying from the stench!”
“Easy-peasy!”
Sacas grabbed a huge rock and then, he hurled it forcefully into the canyon. The impact caused the canyon walls to shake and tremble and rocks and stones to roll and fall off.
“Boris, you motherf*cker! Get the hell out here! I’m going to beat you up so bad that even your mother wouldn’t recognize you!”
Sacas let out a thunderous roar as he thumped his chest, his voice resounding in the canyon like roiling thunder.
“Compared to Clara, Sacas’ way of doing things is so simple and crude!”
At the sight, Meng Lei couldn’t help but laugh. When he’d sent the Uni-Horned Rose Python to call on others in the past, that fellow was always cowering in fear, afraid of every single thing. Even the sight of it was an embarrassment!
In comparison, Sacas was much wilder!
Buzz, buzz!
A brief moment later, a buzzing sound cut through the air and rushed toward them. Then, they saw a golden cloud floating out of the canyon.
With Meng Lei’s eyesight, he could naturally see that that was no golden cloud at all—it was obviously innumerable golden insects that had clustered into something like a locust swarm!
Dense and packed, they were a large golden mass!
“Boss, those are the Golden Corpse Bugs!” Sacas shrank back a little as it said, “They are a type of repulsive insects with tiny little bodies but an extremely shocking level of destructiveness!”
“Which grade of Magical Beasts are the Golden Corpse Bugs?” Meng Lei asked as he watched the glittering golden cloud intently.
“Boss, a Golden Corpse Bug barely makes the cut as a Ninth-Grade Magical Beast, but their mouthparts can easily pierce through a vast majority of Ninth-Grade Magical Beasts’—and even Saint Domain Magical Beasts’—armor and skin!”
In a low voice, Sacas explained, “A large swarm of Golden Corpse Bugs can polish off a Saint Domain Magical Beast in a matter of minutes. Therefore, they are highly dangerous entities!
“Unless I absolutely have to, I’d never come to this damned canyon to provoke those damned stinky bugs. They are simply too fearsome. The moment I imagine them crawling all over me and worming into my fur, I can’t help but shudder all over!”
“Haha! Look at how scared you are!” Meng Lei couldn’t help but laugh, though he also wondered, “Since every Golden Corpse Bug is a Ninth-Grade Magical Beast, with so many around, imagine the amount of money I can earn!”
Buzz, buzz!
Just as Meng Lei’s imagination was running wild, the golden cloud of Golden Corpse Bugs also finally flew over to them. Then, they came together to form a huge insect.
Standing at 100-meters-tall and with a greenish face and ferocious fangs, the huge insect looked as though it was a gigantic louse, except golden-yellow in color throughout and with a pair of wings on its back. Armor-plated all over, it was incredibly savage-looking!
“To think you actually dare to come to my Golden Corpse Canyon, Sacas! Bold of you to do so!”
In a thunderous voice, the huge insect spoke the human tongue and said, “Since you are so bold as to come here, then I shall eat you today so that you’ll know that the Golden Corpse Canyon isn’t a place where a big guy like you can enter! My little ones, gobble it up!”
Buzz, buzz!
The huge insect instantly dispersed and turned into a golden cloud that covered the entire sky and rushed toward Sacas!
Roar!
Sacas roared furiously into the sky, fully displaying its tyrannic stance. Yet it had no effect whatsoever on the Golden Corpse Bug cluster blotting out the sky. The insects dispersed at times, converged at times, morphed into a humanoid form at times...
In a mere instant, it’d already charged all the way to Sacas!
Roar!!
Sacas roared furiously and incessantly as its sharp claws swiped about here and there, smashing huge rocks around it in a haphazard manner. Yet despite its violent, raging power, it gave off a rather helpless feeling, as though a tiger that didn’t know how it should be eating a porcupine.
Indeed!
Against a cluster of tiny insects like that, what use was its wild and extreme physical strength?
Sacas was on the verge of being surrounded by the overwhelming masses of Golden Corpse Bugs. When that happened, it would end up like the rest of the broken carcasses lying forgotten at the bottom of the Golden Corpse Canyon—devoured by the Golden Corpse Bugs and then, rotting, decaying, and becoming the food of maggots and flies!
Just as that was about to happen...
“Absolute Zero!”
Meng Lei attacked at this point!
Crack!
A white, chilly air current burst forth and engulfed the large golden cloud, sealing it in ice amidst crisp-sounding cracks!
At the same time, the white, chilly air current also continued to spread toward the Golden Corpse Canyon. It sealed everything in its path in ice, including even the all-pervasive stench and carcasses.
A brief moment later, the Golden Corpse Canyon from earlier was no longer anywhere in sight. In its place was instead a vast white glacier.
... And of course, an infinite number of motionless Golden Corpse Bugs frozen in mid-air!
“They aren’t dead yet?”
Meng Lei was rather startled. There hadn’t been any notifications from the system—this showed that the ice-sealed Golden Corpse Bugs hadn’t died yet. The spell hadn’t frozen them to death—not a single one!
“Well, that’s amazing!” Meng Lei was filled with marvel at once.
“Golden Corpse Bugs are metal-elemental and ice-elemental Magical Beasts. They’re practically immune to spells of these two elements,” Ol’ Amos’ voice rang out at this point, “Absolute Zero can’t kill them!”
“No wonder!”
Meng Lei nodded slightly. “They might not be afraid of Absolute Zero, but what about Prairie-Blazing Heavenly Fire?”
Boom, boom, boom!
With a mere thought from him, large expanses of black flames immediately descended from the sky and engulfed the whole area within 1,000 meters of where they were, including the Golden Corpse Canyon behind him!
Everything in the black flames’ path was set ablaze—even the solid ice giving off an astonishing chill was no exception!
Crackle, crackle!
Upon being scorched, the solid ice surprisingly didn’t melt. Instead, they became the black flames’ fuel, making them burn even more violently.
Boom, boom, boom!
The flames blazed furiously.
“Ding! 1 Golden Corpse Bug killed, 10 million gold coins gained!”
“Ding! 1 Golden Corpse Bug killed, 10.01 million gold coins gained!”
“Ding...”
At once, system notifications began to ring out. On top of that, they rang out without any pause!
“That’s more like it!”
Meng Lei nodded in satisfaction.
“Damn! You bastard! How dare you slaughter my children! You should die for that!”
A voice that sounded like an owl’s hoot rang out. Then, a Golden Corpse Bug the size of a baby’s fist abruptly flew out of the cluster. It glared furiously at Meng Lei, its teeth gnashing as it did so.
“Boss, that’s Boris, the Golden Corpse Bug Emperor!”
The Multi-Armed Behemoth supplemented in a timely fashion at this point.
“The Golden Corpse Bug Emperor?” Meng Lei couldn’t help but look over.
A normal Golden Corpse Bug was pitifully tiny and only about the size of a date seed. However, that particular Golden Corpse Bug was dozens of times—even up to 100 times—the size of other Golden Corpse Bugs! It was as big as a human’s fist!
“That’s a Saint Domain Magical Beast?”
Meng Lei was astonished. “A fist-sized Saint Domain Magical Beast... That’s probably the smallest Saint Domain Magical Beast I’ve ever seen...”
Right at this point, two golden light balls dropped from the Golden Corpse Bug Emperor.
“Ding! Dropped item detected. Will you pick it up?”
“Yes, pick it up!”
“Ding! Assimilation successful. You have obtained a metal-elemental Laws of Nature fragment!”
“Ding! Congratulations to the host. You’ve obtained the Golden Corpse Bug Emperor bloodline. Will you assimilate it?”
“Assimilate the metal-elemental Laws of Nature fragment! But I’ll skip the Golden Corpse Bug Emperor bloodline!”