Meng Lei took out his Gods-Slaying Spear and checked with his divine cognition. However, after a round of inspection, nothing could be found.
“Ol’ President isn’t inside the Gods-Slaying Spear...”
Meng Lei was utterly disappointed.
“Then there is only one possibility,” Amolin said. “Big Brother had other incarnations.”
“Other incarnations?”
Meng Lei frowned. “Since there are other incarnations, why didn’t he come back and look for you? It doesn’t make any sense!”
“I don’t know...” Amolin said with a bitter smile.
“Ol’ President!”
Meng Lei clenched his fists, “No matter where he is, I will find him!”
“If you can find him, please tell him that I’m waiting for him, please!”
Amolin wiped her tears.
“Definitely!”
Meng Lei nodded when a night owl-like voice echoed.
“You ugly lizards! Wait till I come out and turn all of you into the Undead, and I’ll burn your souls with divine fire!
“Hoo... hoo... hoo! Burn in eternal flames, and you’ll neither live nor die...”
“What was that sound?”
Meng Lei’s brows knitted together slightly.
The sound came from underwater below the island. To be exact, it was not a sound, it was actually an aura from divine cognition.
“Master, this was the sound of an ancient evil fiend, Puhaman,” Thaniel replied with respect.
“Evil ancient fiend Puhaman?”
A shrewd glint flashed across Meng Lei’s eyes as he asked with great interest, “Tell me more.”
“Speaking of Puhaman, it all started 50,000 years ago.”
Thaniel spoke faintly. “50,000 years ago, we Dragons ruled the Heaven’s Vault Continent. We are the only masters of this world. Even the Beast People, Fairies, Titans of the current age could only be holed up in their homelands and live off the breath of us. Moreover, the far northern wastelands, Fairy woods, and Titan highlands of the three empires were our backyard!”
Thaniel’s eyes were brimming with pride. “The Heaven’s Vault Continent was truly the Colossal Dragon’s continent! Unfortunately...”
Thaniel let out a wry laugh. “As the Dragon God left the Heaven’s Vault Continent along with his high-end combat power, our Dragon God Empire was in jeopardy. The Beast People holed up in the Beast People imperial courts, the Fairies concealed in the Goddess Lakeside, the Titans hidden in the Sierra Mountains, and other intelligent species like Goblins, Dwarfs, Trolls all appeared. Even all sorts of fiends and devils burst into the scene!
“Virtually overnight, our Dragon God Empire disintegrated. Not only did we lose a large tract of territories, but our elites suffered heavy casualties too. This was when the ancient evil fiend, Puhaman, appeared. As a Dead Souls half-deity, Puhaman’s destructive powers were no less than of the three empires!”
“Dead Souls half-deity?”
Meng Lei’s eyes lit up.
“Yes! Dead Souls half-deity!” Thaniel nodded slightly. “The evil Puhaman, though he only had a staff, and he could cast dead souls magic to summon countless evil Undead from the Underworld. The Undead army was formidable and dreadful. Any living things would be slaughtered wherever they went and turned into dead souls by Puhaman. In short, Puhaman made us suffer heavy losses. The empire had to send out several half-deities to suppress and seal him away.”
“So the Dead Souls half-deity is sealed here?” Meng Lei was very interested.
“Yes, Master,” replied Thaniel.
“Let’s go down and take a look.”
“Master, isn’t that a bad idea?” Thaniel objected hurriedly, “Puhaman is very evil—”
Meng Lei glanced at him as he asked in reply, “Evil? Is he as evil as me?” M
Thaniel shut up instantly.
Evil? Puhaman would be as innocent as a newborn baby compared to you!
“Get down then.”
Meng Lei flew down below the Dragon graves. Thaniel had no choice but to lead the way in front.
In a short while, both of them went into the sea and saw a brightly lit cave.
The cave reflected a soft milky halo, emitting fluttering light movements.
“Let’s head over and take a look.”
Meng Lei teleported before the entrance and saw a cave that was bright as day. Its walls were embedded with milk-white light elemental crystals.
There was an altar in the middle of the cave.
On the altar stood ten pillars, and each of them was crafted using light elemental crystals. They were connected to ten metal chains, which were all linked to a person in the middle.
He was thin as sticks, with hair disheveled. Other than a layer of dry, wrinkled skin, there was no excess flesh, just like a mere bag of bones.
The ten chains went through his arms, ribs, belly, legs, shoulder blades, pinning him into the middle of the altar alive. He could neither sit nor lay on the floor. He could only stand there—that was worse than being dead.
However, these were nothing compared to the critical chain right between his eyes.
This chain locked his divine spirit, which prevented him from using his power of divinity, incapacitating him completely disabled.
“Hoot, hoot, hoot. Someone actually came here! How rare, very rare!”
As if sensing Meng Lei’s arrival, the skeleton raised his head slowly. Through the messy hair extending all the way to the floor, a pair of green eyes could be seen—they were like the frightening eyes of a wolf.
“Dead Souls half-deity, Puhaman?” Meng Lei sized up the skeleton on the altar.
“You have no scent of those nasty lizards on you. Who are you? How did you appear here?”
The skeleton glared with those green eyes and spoke in a raucous voice like an owl.
“If you’re willing, I can be your savior,” Meng Lei said leisurely.
“Save me? Who do you think you are?”
Puhaman paused before he laughed out loud. “If that smelly lizard behind you had said that, I would have believed it. As for you—”
“Puhaman, you evil Dead Souls half-deity, you better watch your tone!” Thaniel responded angrily. “Standing before you is my great Master—His Highness Meng Lei! If you offend him again, I won’t show any mercy!”
“Master?”
Puhaman was stunned and glanced at Thaniel before turning his green eyes toward Meng Lei, re-examining him.
“This fetid lizard is one of the few half-deities of Dragon Island. How did you subdue him?”
“Took out other half-deities, so he naturally submitted to me.” Meng Lei smiled faintly. “Now answer me, do you want to get out?”
“You killed the rest of the half-deity Dragons?” Puhaman was taken aback, shaking his head repeatedly. “No... This can’t be possible! These damned stinking lizards might be despicable and on the decline, but to kill them? Absolutely no way!”
“Tell him the truth.”
Meng Lei looked at Thaniel.
Thaniel gave a wry smile and told him of Meng Lei’s incredible dragon-slaying feat, honestly.
“...”
Puhaman was dumbfounded.
“Let me ask you one last time, do you want to get out?” Meng Lei was getting impatient.
“You’re really willing to let me go?”
Puhaman stared at Meng Lei.
“Of course!”
“And what do I have to offer?”
“Your loyalty!”
Chapter 216: Taking Control of The Empire, The New Dragon Island
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Puhaman had submitted!
In fact, he had offered up his divine spirit origin energy with nary any hesitation, making the process unexpectedly quick.
Meng Lei had initially thought that he’d have to go through a lengthy coercion-cum-wheedling process before he could subdue the Dead Souls half-deity—after all, he
was an evil ancient fiend and a Dead Souls half-deity, so how would he possibly submit to him that easily?
Snap!
Snap!
The Gods-Slaying Spear jabbed forward repeatedly, easily breaking the ten chains shackling Puhaman.
Having regained his freedom, Puhaman burst into loud, excited laughter as he exclaimed, “Kekeke! I’m finally out!”
It was just a shame that his laughter didn’t hold even a tinge of might. Instead, it sounded incredibly eerie, as if it were the wailing of vengeful spirits from hell!
Eerie, sinister, and terrifying, it sounded awfully creepy!
“Let’s go,” said Meng Lei dispassionately. Then, he turned and started to walk toward the exit. Thaniel hastily followed after him as he maintained a certain distance from Puhaman—he simply couldn’t help but feel unsafe being in the same space as that evil ancient fiend.
“Yes, my honorable Master, keke!”
Puhaman cackled strangely and followed Meng Lei and Thaniel out of the cave.
At this moment, an Eighth-Grade Magical Beast, the Bloodthirsty Violent Shark, happened to swim over.
At the sight of it, Puhaman made a grabbing motion.
Bam!
A huge verdant green withered claw appeared out of thin air and grabbed the Bloodthirsty Violent Shark toward him, upon which Puhaman immediately opened his mouth and sucked forcefully.
Lush green life essence drifted out of the Bloodthirsty Violent Shark and was absorbed into Puhaman’s mouth.
The Bloodthirsty Violent Shark started to visibly dry and shrivel up. A few moments later, it had turned into a piece of dehydrated skin.
Turning one’s gaze back to Puhaman, they would see that his dry, withered skin had plumped up a fair bit and gained a hint of rosiness.
“Kekeke~ The taste of blood truly makes one nostalgic!”
Puhaman licked his lips in such high spirits that he raised his head and burst into loud, raucous laughter.
“Master, that fiend is too evil!”
Thaniel’s voice shook as he shivered and shuddered, totally creeped out.
“Is that Dead Souls Magic?”
Meng Lei was unaffected. Instead, he even developed a keen interest in Dead Souls Magic.
Puhaman replied with a strange laugh, “Keke! Master, I can teach you Dead Souls Magic if you wish to learn it!”
“We can look into it a little when we have some spare time,” said Meng Lei with a slight smile.
“It’s rare to see someone interested in Dead Souls Magic. On top of that, he’s even my Master!”
Puhaman remarked as he cackled. Then, he started on his frenzied “devouring” feast.
None of the marine Magical Beasts they encountered along the way were spared.
He himself also began to plump up rapidly. By the time they were out of the bottom of the ocean, he looked like a completely different person.
A strong, ample, well-built body, crystal-clear skin, glossy jet-black hair...
Which part of that was a skeleton from the bottom of the ocean? It was clearly a graceful and gentlemanly middle-aged noble!
If it hadn’t been for the fact that they had exited the bottom of the ocean together, even Meng Lei and Thaniel wouldn’t have quite dared to believe their eyes.
Was that guy really Puhaman?
A smiling Meng Lei complimented, “That looks a lot more pleasant to the eye now!”
Puhaman was the picture of a mild-mannered and refined gentleman as he did a graceful nobles’ bow in response. “You may not know this, Master, but before I’d begun to cultivate Dead Souls Magic, I was a human king.
“Unfortunately, my country was destroyed later on. For the sake of seeking revenge on the Dragons, I had no choice but to switch to cultivating Dead Souls Magic and ended up a monster that was neither human nor ghost.”
At this point, Puhaman cast a glance at Thaniel. His eyes carried a look of malice, causing Thaniel to tense up all the way to his anus and become all creeped out.
“Little did I think that you’d have gone through something like that. That’s surprising!”
Meng Lei said with a laugh, “I happened to have just destroyed the Dragons and am intending to take over Dragon God Empire. Since you’re experienced in this aspect, you should be able to be of assistance to me, right?”
“Keke, I’m glad to offer my services to you, Master!”
Puhaman was awfully excited. “Don’t worry, Master. I had reigned for over 40 years back then, so I have great experience in governance. I should be able to provide you with some suggestions!”
“I hope so!”
A gratified Meng Lei nodded. He had previously been troubled over Dragon God Empire’s matter—after all, the Dragons were gone, and he had slaughtered all the court officials.
A moment of carelessness and the juggernaut that was Dragon God Empire might just collapse anytime.
When that happened, chaos ensuing would be nigh impossible to avoid.
The ones to suffer would still end up being the common people—this was something that Meng Lei didn’t wish to see.
As such, how he should go about taking over Dragon God Empire peacefully while avoiding strife was something that Meng Lei needed to think about.
If possible, he would also like to spread his faith along the way and get the empire’s citizens to believe in him. That would be even more ideal.
However, Meng Lei knew that this would be an extremely difficult task.
Taking control of the empire wasn’t that bad; the level of difficulty wasn’t very high.
What was difficult was to spread faith!
Having been established for over 40,000 years, Dragon God Empire’s faith in the Dragon God had long since become ingrained and deep-rooted.
Getting the citizens to abandon their faith in the Dragon God and switch over to worshiping him was definitely no easy task!
Meng Lei had also considered this problem previously. He had thought of a few ideas, but he ultimately still found them too unreliable.
Now that he had taken Puhaman in, he could, however, discuss this with him. That old fiend had once been a king, as well as even an evil god; surely he could provide some assistance in that respect?
“Where do we go next, Master?”
At the sight of Puhaman gaining Meng Lei’s trust so quickly and even vaguely seemed as if he’d be given great responsibilities, Thaniel panicked somewhat.
He’d clearly been the one that had submitted to their master first, so why was that fiend edging him out now?
After a moment of consideration, Meng Lei replied, “Let’s go to the Imperial City!”
“Alright, Master!”
After responding, Thaniel flapped his wings and flew toward Dragon Island’s exit.
Upon departing Dragon Island, as Puhaman overlooked all the sights outside, he became so worked up that scalding tears filled his eyes, and he fell to his knees before Meng Lei.
“I’ve finally seen the light of day again after being sealed for 50,000 years! I am grateful to my great, noble master! Thank you for saving my life!”
Isn’t that reflex arc of yours a little too slow? Why didn’t I see you thanking me when I saved you from that cave just now?
Meng Lei grumbled inwardly, though outwardly, he said, “Congratulations on regaining your freedom, Puhaman!”
“Thank you! Thank you, Master!”
Puhaman cried tears of joy as he sniffed the air intensely, an expression of intoxication all over his face.
“This is the smell of Heaven’s Vault Continent! It’s truly too wonderful and too nostalgic...”
“Let’s go!”
Meng Lei patted Thaniel on the back.
“Yes, Master!”
Then, Thaniel flew toward the Imperial City.
“Puhaman, I’d like to take control of Dragon God Empire. Do you have any suggestions?”
“I’ve been sealed for too long, Master. Therefore, I’m not very clear on Dragon G
od Empire’s current situation. May I trouble Master to give me a simple explanation first?”
“Alright!”
“...”
“Little did I think that Dragon God Empire would still be this much of a loser even after 50,000 years have gone by.”
Then, an emotional Puhaman said, “Master, if you wish to take control of Dragon God Empire, you can do it in four steps.”
“Four steps? Tell me about it,” replied Meng Lei with great interest.
“The first step is to take control of the empire’s court administration.
“Now that the Dragons’ high-end combat power have all been wiped out by Master, the remaining Dragons are not much of a threat anymore.
“The matter of highest priority now is to take control of court administration and control the steering rights of the giant ship that is Dragon God Empire, so as to stabilize the overall situation and prevent chaos from ensuing.”
“That makes sense. Go on,” Meng Lei commented with a nod.
“You can’t take control of court administration if no one’s there.”
Puhaman asked with a sinister smile, “Master, you previously mentioned that you’ve slaughtered all the court officials, both civil and martial, but I don’t believe that. If my guess is right, you’ve actually only killed the high-ranking or important officials, right?”
“I think so.”
Meng Lei’s brows furrowed slightly.
“That has to be it!”
Puhaman snickered and said, “Officials qualified to enter the conference hall to discuss state affairs are typically either the chief executives or their deputies from each department.
“Officials whose positions are too low aren’t qualified to step into the conference hall. Therefore, I dare make a bold guess that all you’ve killed are just the high-ranking officials and those in important positions.
“As for the lower-level officials and civil servants in minor positions, they should all be well and alive. These people are the key to us taking control of Dragon God Empire!”
“Go on.”
“As long as you can take control of them, it would be tantamount to you taking control of Dragon God Empire’s court. And there’s nothing more suitable to control them than my Dead Souls Magic!”
Puhaman gave him a sinister smile as a bloodthirsty look came over his countenance.
Picking Up Attributes From Today c1-406 Page 127
