Picking Up Attributes From Today

Panda Novel

“The vitality core! Yes, I must find its vitality core! Only then will I be able to kill it!”

With that, Meng Lei began to dig swiftly.

Compared to the tree bark’s tough, solid defenses, the Tree of Life’s insides were relatively much weaker. In fact, there were even a great number of sap-filled vessels.

Meng Lei had no way of knowing whether the vessels were used for transporting moisture and nutrients or not, but these spacious and convenient vessels that led everywhere certainly provided him great convenience—weaving through them was extremely convenient.

“What fragrant sap! I wonder if it’s potable?”

Meng Lei communicated with Ol’ Amos while he weaved through the vessels.

“This sap is the Tree of Life’s life essence. It contains a rich, surging lifeforce and is an invaluable treasure.” Ol’ Amos said, “But before you kill the Tree of Life, I’d suggest that you not drink it. On the off-chance that it contains the Tree of Life’s divinity, then it would be poison itself!”

I can’t drink it? But I can at least take it away with me, right? I’m a penniless pauper that urgently needs to replenish his wealth now!

Gurgle~

Meng Lei brought out a spatial ring and turned into a hardworking little bee as he furiously stored the sap into the ring.

Gurgle~

He filled a spatial ring to the brim!

Gurgle~

The second spatial ring was filled to the brim!

Gurgle~

And then, the third, the fourth, and the fifth!

When he reached the sixth spatial ring, Meng Lei was somewhat astonished. “This spatial ring can store so much! It actually isn’t full yet when I’ve been filling it with the sap for so long? Just how big is the space inside…”

Meng Lei quickly released some spiritual power to check the capacity, upon which he couldn’t help but gasp.

“It’s… It’s so huge! It’s pretty much a freaking continent! Ol’ President, have you ever seen a spatial ring that spans dozens of kilometers wide?”

“Is it that big?” Ol’ Amos was rather astonished. “That’s no longer a spatial ring, but a spatial magic device of half-divine weapon level. I daresay that an existential plane fragment is sealed within that spatial ring for sure. Otherwise, it couldn’t possibly hold such a huge space.”

“This is President Fred’s ring!”

Meng Lei couldn’t help being moved when he took a close look at the spatial ring’s design.

President Fred was actually willing to lend him even a spatial ring of half-divine weapon level!

What kind of level of trust was that?

“Looks like your academy president trusts you very much!”

Ol’ Amos was full of praises. “An existential plane fragment is an extremely precious treasure because it’ll only form when a material plane is destroyed. It’s very hard for a Saint Domain to get their hands on it in most typical situations.

“An existential plane fragment measuring two to three kilometers-wide is worth hundreds—even up to a thousand—Laws of Nature Origin Crystals!

“You can do the math yourself on how precious that spatial ring of President Fred’s is.”

“I understand now.”

Meng Lei nodded silently.

“Let’s go. We must hurry and continue on our journey. Follow the life essence. The vitality core is the origin of a botanical lifeform’s life essence. The nearer you are to the vitality core, the life essence usually also becomes richer.”

“Alright!”

…

“That goddamn human!”

The Tree of Life was boiling mad. Never did it expect things to develop to such a point.

It was a great half-deity, yet not only did it fail to kill a Saint Domain, but it had even allowed him to enter its body.

A disgrace! This was an extraordinary disgrace!

What infuriated the Tree of Life even further was that it could clearly sense that Meng Lei was currently furiously plundering its life essence.

That was its life essence! How dare Meng Lei?!

“I must kill him! I must kill that bastard! Only with his blood can my fury be vented!”

Boom!

A divinity personification formed in an instant and descended out of nowhere before Meng Lei.

It was actually a miniature version of the Tree of Life, except with legs, arms, a mouth, a nose, and eyes.

“Damn you, human!”

The divinity personification’s glowering eyes glared furiously at Meng Lei. How it wished it could dismember him into a million pieces!

“What the hell!”

Meng Lei did an emergency brake at once.

“That’s the personification of the Tree of Life’s divinity. There’s no need to fear it.” Ol’ Amos said as a reminder, “A divinity personification holds less than even 0.0001% of the original form’s power. Release the Gods-Slaying Spear and kill it!”

“Alright!”

The Gods-Slaying Spear appeared out of thin air. Meng Lei hurled it forward forcefully, upon which the divinity personification snorted icily and easily evaded the attack with a flash.

“Turn around!”

With a mental command from Meng Lei, the Gods-Slaying Spear reversed its course at once. The divinity personification was unable to react in time, resulting in the Gods-Slaying Spear piercing right through its head.

Then, something shocking happened:

Buzz!

Dazzling violet lightning erupted from the Gods-Slaying Spear. Then, a terrifying suction force emerged from it and started to absorb the divinity personification with a vengeance.

Gurgle~

The divinity personification began to shrivel up visibly. In the span of a few breaths, it was completely absorbed by the spear, turning into a bunch of green light participles and dissipating.

“What’s going on?”

Meng Lei looked stupefied.

“I-it’s absorbing the power of divinity!” Ol’ Amos couldn’t help but gasp. “To think the Gods-Slaying Spear can actually absorb the power of divinity!”

“Absorbing the power of divinity?”

Meng Lei stared at the spot where the divinity personification had dissipated. A huge jolt couldn’t help but go through him.

“No, this is no longer just plain absorption, but plundering!” Ol’ Amos murmured absentmindedly, “To be able to fully absorb the Tree of Life’s divinity personification in just the span of a short two to three breaths, of what level is that divine weapon?”

Of what level?

No-one knew!

After absorbing the divinity personification into itself, the Gods-Slaying Spear circled about as though it hadn’t had enough yet. Only then did it return to Meng Lei with utmost reluctance.

“What a great treasure! To think it can even do something like that!”

Meng Lei stroked the spear’s icy-cold shaft as he marveled. He didn’t get overly hung up on the Gods-Slaying Spear’s abilities. As the saying went, “Whether it is a black cat or a white cat doesn’t matter; all cats that can catch mice are good cats!”

Meng Lei didn’t give two hoots about the reason why the Gods-Slaying Spear was able to absorb the power of divinity. All he knew was that this additional ability of the Gods-Slaying Spear was definitely something positive.

Or at least, it came right into play at the moment.

“Let’s see how you’re gonna fight me, Tree of Life!”

Meng Lei let out an icy laugh, and then he continued on his way.

…

“W-what exactly was that just now? My divinity personification has actually been absorbed?”

The Tree of Life was dumbfounded.

As a powerful botanical lifeform, it had always been the one plundering, absorbing, exploiting others, and using other lifeforms as food and nutrients all this time.

As the saying went, “What goes around, comes around.”

It was now its turn to be absorbed by others. It certainly didn’t feel good. In fact, the feeling could even be said to be frustrating!

On top of that, the frustration wasn’t even the most important thing here. The key was that the Tree of Life had been presented with information that made it shiver in fear.

This was because…

What the Gods-Slaying Spear had absorbed wasn’t blood, tissue fluid, lifeforce, or magic power. Rather, it was… The power of divinity!

It fed on the power of divinity!

That was simply too frightening!

As a half-deity that had only just achieved half-deification through faith, the Tree of Life had only taken a tiny little step forward on the road to deification. It had neither kindled the divine fire nor had it formed a state of divinity yet, much less establish a divine nation.

To put it nicely, the Tree of Life was no different from a little newbie that had only just embarked on the road to deification.

To put it bluntly, it was the weakest and wussiest half-deity! How weak was it?

Without kindling the divine flame, one wouldn’t be able to convert the endless, infinite power of faith into the power of divinity.

This was too fatal of a flaw!

What was the power of divinity?

Power of divinity was electricity, fuel, an energy source, a driving force. It was the rice and pork that one ate every day.

If a human were iron, then rice would be steel.

If one skipped a meal, they would be drained of energy.

This was the case for humans, as well as deities.

Wouldn’t a half-deity without the power of divinity be the weakest god, then?

In the songs and tales frequently sung by bards where humans managed to slay gods, the ones that were slew were usually gods like that!

Of course, as a half-deity, the Tree of Life was nevertheless still able to create the power of divinity. However, without the divine fire as a tool, the creation process’s efficiency was appallingly low. Every drop of power of divinity required an extremely long amount of time.

Thus, one shouldn’t be fooled by the Tree of Life’s thick and sturdy trunk and incredible height and size. It really didn’t possess that many drops of power of divinity.

To put it bluntly, not only was it the weakest half-deity, but it was also the poorest half-deity.

Precisely because it was poor, how the Tree of Life wished it could use every drop of power of divinity as if it had the capacity of three. How would it possibly have extra power of divinity lying around to squander and waste?

After all, its father was no Li Gang1 or Little Big Brother Ma2, much less the Heavenly Emperor or the Creator.

Therefore, how could the Tree of Life possibly not be filled with fear when faced with a weapon that could consume one’s power of divinity?

“What kind of weapon is it, exactly? To think it can actually consume the power of divinity? Could it be a divine weapon?

“And that hammer, too. It’s even sturdier than my body! It has to be at least a half-divine weapon!

“That bastard! Why does a Saint Domain like him have that many divine weapons? Is there even any justice in this world?!”

The Tree of Life felt terribly frustrated. How venerable and how powerful was a great half-deity like it?

Yet, it was still an impoverished pauper even to this day. On the other hand, Meng Lei instead had divine weapon after divine weapon. How infuriating!

“What is he trying to do? That location…! Could he be…”

The Tree of Life’s countenance changed greatly. It had suddenly realized what Meng Lei wanted to do.

“Damn! His goal isn’t the life essence but my vitality core! I have to stop him! I have to!

“Not only does he hold two divine weapons in his possession, but he’s even ridiculously strong. Once I allow him to go near my vitality core, I’ll be in great danger!

“Divinity Personification!”

Upon realizing the severity of the situation, the Tree of Life was no longer miserly with its power of divinity. It created an even stronger divinity personification and charged toward Meng Lei at all costs!

“Here to deliver food again?”

At the sight of the divinity personification that’d appeared once more, Meng Lei threw the Gods-Slaying Spear over again without any hesitation.

The divinity personification had come prepared this time. It easily dodged the Gods-Slaying Spear, and then it unleashed its skill.

“God’s Domain!”

A terrifying energy wave descended and froze Meng Lei to the ground.

“Divine Technique: Deprivation of Life!”

Meng Lei gave an icy chuckle. Then, a great force erupted from all over him, and he knocked away the shackles of God’s Domain. The Hammer of Destruction appeared in his hand, and he smashed it ruthlessly at the divinity personification!

“Hmph! This is home ground for me here. How can I possibly let you attack me?”

The divinity personification snorted and evaded the Hammer of Destruction’s attacks. To its surprise, however, the Gods-Slaying Spear actually ambushed it from the back and, with a splurt, pierced through its head.

“So what even if it’s your home ground?” Meng Lei sneered, “I can kill you insidiously with a pincer attack all the same!”

Buzz!

Lightning dazzled brightly on the Gods-Slaying Spear’s surface. Then, as though drinking sweet dew, it began to absorb the divinity personification once more.

“You bastard!”

The divinity personification roared furiously. Nevertheless, amid utmost indignation, it was ultimately still cleanly and totally absorbed by the Gods-Slaying Spear, leaving behind not even a trace of itself.

“Let’s continue forward!”

Meng Lei pushed on continuously.

Boom!

The third divinity personification descended. It was obviously an even more solid manifestation than the previous two. Its aura was also more ferocious, and its divine power even more fearsome. The Tree of Life had clearly invested heavily in it.

However, this time round, without even needing Meng Lei’s command, the Gods-Slaying Spear that had gotten addicted to the taste shot forward by itself, chasing after the divinity personification and chomping down on it.

“What the hell!”

The Tree of Life was so frightened that it darted about everywhere. It didn’t have the leisure to attack Meng Lei anymore.

“Here’s my chance!”

It wasn’t attacking Meng Lei, but that didn’t mean that he was going to let it off. Upon finding an opportune moment, Meng Lei smashed the hammer over.

Bam!

The divinity personification was utterly stunned by the blow.

“Ahhh!”

The Gods-Slaying Spear took advantage of the opportunity and impaled the divinity personification’s buttocks in one strike.

“Third divinity personification down!”

Meng Lei chuckled, and then he darted swiftly toward the vitality core.

“Almost there! The life essence is becoming richer and richer! The vitality core must be nearby! Hurry! C’mon! Find it!”

Ol’ Amos was incredibly agitated, so much so that even his voice was somewhat shaking.

Meng Lei broke into another mad dash.

Boom!

Dazzling light suddenly erupted ahead. The light was so piercing that Meng Lei couldn’t even really open his eyes. He had actually arrived at a massive hollow zone.

It was hollowed out.

The area ahead was straight up hollowed out.

And in the center of the hollowed-out zone, a golden sun-like bead hung suspended.

Spanning 100-meters-wide, the surface was covered in mysterious magic runes. It gave off a surging, gushing sense of vigor as if one would extend their lifespan by a thousand years just by taking a breath of it.

Root-like strands extended from the golden bead, connecting to every area of the Tree of Life.

They led everywhere, crisscrossing and intertwining as though one’s neural networks, yet also like a sheep’s intestinal tracts.

Dense and packed, innumerable, and infinite!

“The vitality core! That’s the Tree of Life’s vitality core!

“The most dangerous and most critical moment has come, Meng Lei. You must be careful of its counterattacks. A moment of carelessness will doom you to hell!

“Of course, should you succeed, then congratulations, you shall achieve the great feat of slaying a deity—though just a half-deity!”