Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The Milky Way dazzled as it hung suspended in the sky. Sparkling and brilliant, it was vast and boundless.
Meng Lei sat cross-legged on a large tree fork as he did his daily meditation. Cultivation was a process akin to rowing against the tide—one must constantly forge ahead, or else they would be driven back. One must be diligent and relentless with their cultivation.
The forest in the night wasn’t a quiet and peaceful place, and beast roars distracted one’s mind every once in a while. Meng Lei had already gotten used to it by now, though, and he concentrated on refining his magic power and improving his spiritual power.
Little Teddy lay sprawled on the tree branch beside him, deep asleep. Its snores thundered all the way up to the skies, but in spite of this, its sense of vigilance was exceedingly high. Not even the slightest bit of activity escaped its ears and nose, proving itself to be even more useful than an actual poodle. As a result, Meng Lei could meditate at ease.
“How strange!” Meng Lei suddenly opened his eyes. “Why am I able to sense Wood Elements all of a sudden? This shouldn’t be happening. Are the Wood Elements especially rich and abundant here?”
Countless magic elements floated in the air around him. Dense and packed as if stars in the night sky, they sparkled brilliantly and spread everywhere in a vast and boundless manner.
There were fiery red Fire Elements, silvery-white Thunder Elements, and ocher-yellow Earth Elements. The three different types of magic elements added radiance and beauty to each other, and they looked as if they were fairies.
Prior to this day, Meng Lei had only been able to detect these three types of magic elements, and he’d also been meditating and refining these same three types of magic elements. But now, it’d actually increased by another type!
Green magic elements!
They were obviously Wood Elements!
Now, mixed among the Fire, Thunder, and Earth Elements were countless Wood Elements. Much like a myriad of green fireflies, they circled around Meng Lei as they danced.
Even if Meng Lei didn’t actively try to absorb them, they made their way wave upon wave into his body anyway. He was just like a magnet or a whirlpool that was continuously attracting them.
This scene practically couldn’t get any weirder because Meng Lei didn’t have any wood-elemental magic talent at all!
Besides, he had never been able to attract Thunder Elements and Fire Elements in the same way as this, despite his superior-grade thunder-elemental affinity and fire-elemental affinity!
“When did I gain wood-elemental magic talent?” Meng Lei looked absolutely stupefied. “And the magic talent is so crazy, no less. It’s even more terrifying than my thunder-elemental and fire-elemental affinity?!
“But this shouldn’t be happening...
“This didn’t happen at all when I was meditating last night!
“Could it be because of that golden leaf?”
Meng Lei suddenly thought of the golden leaf that had forcibly taken up residence in his sea of consciousness. Thinking back to the events from the day before and today, the biggest change that had taken place was that there was now an additional golden leaf in his sea of consciousness.
“That golden leaf is the cause for me suddenly gaining wood-elemental magic talent? Isn’t that kinda ridiculous?”
A corner of Meng Lei’s mouth was spasming, his mood somewhat complicated. He had initially thought that the golden leaf was an inanimate object because the moment it had entered his sea of consciousness, it had behaved like a grand overlord, indifferent to everything and obeying nothing!
Little did he think that it would actually “bestow” upon him wood-elemental magic talent!
This was honestly too...
“Could it be that it really is like what Ol’ President mentioned? That the golden leaf is a divine weapon of exceptionally high quality, but I’m not qualified to use it yet?” Meng Lei’s eyes were gleaming awfully bright. “I’m gonna strike it rich so bad if that’s really the case!”
“Hehe! Never mind, I’ll just refine some wood-elemental magic power for now. Since I have wood-elemental magic talent now, how can I let it go to waste?”
The night passed peacefully as Meng Lei entered a cultivation frenzy.
Meng Lei was roused from his sleep the next morning.
Roar!
Teddy squatted on the tree as he glowered at a Magical Beast. It snarled at the Magical Beast as it pounded its chest and stamped its feet, its senses on high alert.
This was a huge red python over 30 meters long and as thick as a water barrel. A fiery red color throughout, it had a crimson chicken comb at its crown and a pair of black wings on its back and was as tall as a ten-story building.
“The Eighth-Grade Magical Beast, Black-Winged Comb Python!”
A hint of a smile appeared at Meng Lei’s lip corners when he recognized the Magical Beast. After the last half a month spent exploring the Magical Beast Forest, he loved seeing Magical Beasts sending themselves up to death’s door the most now.
All of these were money, after all.
“Hiss, hiss!”
The Black-Winged Comb Python hissed loudly as it flicked its tongue. A hint of greed flashed across its brown eyes as it watched Teddy and Meng Lei, who were perched on the tree.
“Is it treating us as its food?”
The corners of Meng Lei’s lips quirked upward, and he asked cheerfully, “How about having this Black-Winged Comb Python for breakfast today, Teddy?”
“Good... Good!”
Teddy bounced up and down a couple of times as he responded happily.
“Hiss!”
The Black-Winged Comb Python watched them for a brief moment before the wings at its back gave a powerful flap. Its body rose into the air along with the action, and its thick, muscular tail swept abruptly toward Meng Lei.
Its tail moved swiftly and forcefully, the friction from it whipping through the air producing a crisp and clear explosion. In just an instant, it had already reached right in front of Meng Lei. It could sense the threat that Meng Lei posed toward it, so it wanted to get rid of him first before taking care of Teddy.
“To capture the bandits, first seize the ringleader? You have it all planned out, don’t you?” Meng Lei shook his head with a laugh. “What a shame that you’ve picked the wrong target!”
Meng Lei raised his right arm in response to the gigantic tail sweeping toward him. He caught the huge tail that could easily cleave mountains, shatter rocks, and crush tall, towering trees in his hand, and just like that, the tail simply couldn’t cause much of an upheaval.
“Hiss?”
The Black-Winged Comb Python was alarmed and horrified upon feeling the surging great strength coming from its tail, and it realized that it’d run into a brick wall. However, before it could retract its tail, Meng Lei applied force in his hand, and all five of his fingers easily broke through the python’s scales to pierce deep into its flesh.
Blood seeped out of the wounds and splattered onto the ground.
The Black-Winged Comb Python let out a hissing cry and tried to forcefully retract its tail, but Meng Lei’s fingers were just like pliers firmly shackling it down, and it simply couldn’t move at all.
“Rise!”
Meng Lei’s arm muscles flexed with a light shout, and great, boundless power erupted with a boom. To the python’s horror, it realized that its body had uncontrollably flown into the air.
It crashed heavily against a huge, towering tree over 40 meters tall. With a crisp snap, the tree, together with its roots, broke at the base and its thick, solid trunk came crashing toward Meng Lei.
“Go!”
At the sight of this, Meng Lei waved his arm. The Black-Winged Comb Python immediately transformed into an iron chain that struck brutally against the tree trunk.
Crack!
The tree trunk broke into two in the middle!
“Again!”
Meng Lei waved about and began to slam the Black-Winged Comb Python against the tree trunk in a series of frenzied attacks. Amidst crisp cracking sounds, the tree trunk splintered into several pieces and turned into broken wood fragments in the end.
“Hahaha! Great!”
Meng Lei laughed loudly and chucked the Black-Winged Comb Python aside casually. It flew outward and crashed heavily onto the ground.
“Hiss!”
As an Eighth-Grade Magical Beast, the Black-Winged Comb Python evidently wasn’t going to fall to its death so easily. It shook its head forcefully to clear its mind. Then, it hastily tried to make a run for it, clearly intending to flee.
“Thinking of fleeing?”
Meng Lei snapped his fingers. A three-meter-long thunder spear shot down from the heavens and instantly pierced through the Black-Winged Comb Python’s head, pinning it to the ground.
“Hiss, hiss!”
The Black-Winged Comb Python had extremely strong vitality, and it managed to survive this time, too. Its body convulsed all over as it hissed, again and again, terrified and uneasy.
“I’ve already said that I’m going to eat you. Do you think I’ll let you go?” Meng Lei casually took out a dagger and instructed with a smile, “Teddy, gouge out its magic core!”
“Howl, howl!”
Teddy let out a few howls. With the dagger in its grip, it flew toward the Black-Winged Comb Python and happily went to gouge out its magic core.
Gouging magic cores was one of Teddy’s life pleasures!
Meng Lei had realized that whenever he killed a Magical Beast, Teddy loved to gouge out its magic core before he had a chance to do it. In the beginning, he’d thought that Teddy wanted to eat the magic core to increase its strength, only to find out in the end that Teddy simply just liked to... dig them out.
Eventually, Meng Lei entrusted this glorious but arduous task to Teddy. Since it liked to gouge them out that much, then it could feel free to go ahead. It was just as well that it could also allow Teddy to give play to its specialty and nurture its feral nature.
Killing two birds with one stone? Why not, right?