Picking Up Attributes From Today

How many Dragon People nobles were they in the Dragon God Empire?

Meng Lei didn’t know the answer to this question, either.

According to Dragon God Empire laws, however, all the offspring that Dragon People nobles produced were also nobles. As a result, in spite of the Dragon People’s low reproduction rates, the number of Dragon People nobles nevertheless still reached frighteningly high numbers after 40,000 years.

How would so many Dragon People nobles possibly agree to having their titles stripped and financial assets confiscated?

“This policy was implemented four months after you left, Master. It was in progress for a total of ten months before it was officially completed.”

Puhaman gave him a bashful smile before he added, “In total, I’ve only killed fewer than 30-odd million people, I’d say.”

“Only”?

Fewer than… 30-odd million people?

Meng Lei almost wet himself in shock. A hint of shock and horror surfaced in his eyes as he looked at Puhaman.

What an impressive guy!

He didn’t actually bat an eyelid at having to kill so many Dragon People. He was practically a goddamn butcher!

“What a ruthless, bloodthirsty devil!”

Bubbles almost wet himself in shock, too. As he looked at Puhaman, his eyes took on a hint of fear and horror while Nadja and Seisia also put some distance between themselves and Puhaman.

They might be underground evil deities, but when had they ever killed that many? They didn’t even dare to think about it.

“It couldn’t be helped!”

Puhaman held his hands out. “Thinking that they had strength in numbers, not only did the Dragon People refuse to hand over their financial assets and land, but they even incited the common masses at the bottommost tier of the hierarchy, who didn’t know better, to stage rebellions and riots. Left with no other choice, I could only pick up my sword and go on a killing spree!

“With them alive, the empire couldn’t stabilize itself, and they may bring trouble to Master’s lands. In order to solve the problem once and for all, I could only cut the Gordian knot…”

“Isn’t that cut of yours a little too harsh?”

Meng Lei didn’t know what to say.

According to his ideals, once he had taken control of the momentum, once he gave the billions of humans in the Dragon God Empire an equal chance at education and cultivation, in fewer than a hundred years, large numbers of experts would definitely surface from among the humans. By then, why would they still need to fear the Dragon People?

Meng Lei had absolute confidence that under equal conditions, the Dragon People definitely wouldn’t be able to beat humans.

Hundreds and thousands of years later, the Dragon People would eventually disappear over the long course of history. Killing them? Was there a need to?

A sad Puhaman asked, “Have I erred, Master?”

“I can’t say that you’ve erred, either. Perhaps it’s I who is being too merciful.” Meng Lei waved the question off and said, “Go on.”

“Secondly, I’ve promoted human elites and allowed them to take control of imperial court affairs, as well as political control of various areas.”

Puhaman went on. “As of now, every crucial organization—such as the imperial court, regional executive governmental branches, and military troops—are all under the humans’ control. I have kicked out all the Dragon People.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that after two years of efforts, the humans have already thoroughly taken over the Dragon God Empire and are the one and only masters of the empire.”

“Not bad!”

Meng Lei nodded in approval.

“Thirdly, in order to crack down on religious faith in the Dragon God, I’ve also abolished the Dragon God Vatican and destroyed the Dragon God statues.”

Puhaman snickered and said, “This was extremely easy to accomplish. I left it to the Counter-Dragon Squad, and they completed the mission very effectively.”

“The Counter-Dragon Squad?”

A look of puzzlement came over Meng Lei’s features.

“The Counter-Dragon Squad is a Dragon People military troop that I built. They consist of Dragon People experts whose level of strength ranges from ninth-grade to Saint Domain!”

A resigned Puhaman said, “There are simply too many Dragon People in the Dragon God Empire. It’s a shame to kill so many Dragon People who are already at ninth-grade or Saint Domain level. It couldn’t be helped, so I assembled all of them in one place and founded the Counter-Dragon Squad. They specialize in doing things that’ll offend people.”

“Are those Dragon People experts actually willing to follow your command when you’re treating the Dragon People like that?” Bubbles asked, “Do you think they are fools?”

“Fools? Of course not! Those Dragon People hate me with every fiber of their being and wish for nothing more than to rip me into pieces. How would they possibly work for me?”

A laughing Puhaman said, “With no other choice, I could only use my Dead Souls Magic to turn them into puppets. That’s the only way they’d listen to me!”

“You devil!”

Meng Lei and the others couldn’t help but shiver. They didn’t know how they should be describing that fellow anymore.

Puhaman rebutted, “Don’t look at me like that, Master. Even if I didn’t do that, they would also be killed anyway. What I’m doing is saving their lives instead!”

Just listen to what he’s saying!

Was that something a human should be saying?

You’ve already turned them into puppets that are neither really dead nor alive, yet you claim you’re saving their lives? Can you get any more shameless than that?

“And then?” Meng Lei asked.

“Thirdly, I’ve built temples that worship Master and fashioned statues of Master to spread Master’s faith.”

Puhaman snickered and said, “Temples and statues are easy to build, but it’s not an easy task to re-build faith in people. For this, I’ve racked my brains, killed an endless number of brain cells, and exhausted a full year’s worth of time before I finally saw some results!”

“What did you do?”

Meng Lei wanted very much to know what exactly that unethical and underhanded fellow had done to cause the people of the Dragon God Empire to give up their faith in the Dragon God in such a short amount of time and believe in him instead.

“It’s pretty simple, come to think of it!”

A laughing Puhaman said, “It’s usually the easiest to build faith in people during their most hopeless, most fearful, and most helpless moments.

“Therefore, I created some man-made disasters such as an invasion of the Undead and even instructed the Counter-Dragon Squad to create some chaos. Not only can this damage the Dragon God’s reputation, but it can also trigger panic and chaos, thereby killing two birds with one stone.

“What I did was to let the people of the Dragon God Empire know that the Dragon God whom they worshiped has already abandoned them, and only by worshiping Master can they attain eternal life.

“Of course, the spread of faith requires an approach from two different angles. I also created a few miracles in Master’s name so that the people can witness Master’s strength.

“So far, the effects have been pretty good!”

“It has indeed been pretty good!”

Meng Lei nodded lightly. Excluding Puhaman’s cruelty to the Dragon People nobles, all the other empiric matters had indeed been handled in a clear and orderly manner. This greatly pleased Meng Lei.

“Anything else?” Meng Lei asked.

“Lastly, their riches and assets!”

Puhaman brought out a spatial ring and said, “Master, this ring contains all the riches that I’ve seized and levied from the Dragon People nobles during this past year and more.”

“That’s surprisingly thoughtful of you!”

Meng Lei was very gratified at his words. Then, he was stunned by what he saw.

“There’s so much?”

Meng Lei couldn’t help but gasp.

“Master, the Dragon God Empire’s true riches weren’t actually hidden in the imperial treasury. Rather, they were with those nobles.”

Puhaman smiling and said, “Every single noble is a huge, dirty rat. They hoarded vast amounts of wealth, and every one of them could rival a country in terms of wealth. Of course, the key here is that there were simply too many of them!”

“Is this what the proverb ‘Hiding wealth among the people[1]’ means?”

Meng Lei could see why. Even if each noble had only one gold coin, multiplying that by 100,000,000 would make that 100,000,000 gold coins!

Was it possible for the Dragon People nobles’ wealth to only come up to one gold coin each? Obviously not!

That was how the vast riches in this spatial ring had come to be!

Without a second word, Meng Lei transferred all the gold, gold coins, and Laws of Nature Origin Crystals inside into the system. His Wealth value began to spike sharply right away.

The whole process lasted a minute before it ended. The current Wealth value flabbergasted and deeply astounded Meng Lei.

Wealth: 688.82 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals

“Riches of 688.82 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals! That’s actually ten times the amount from before! Incredible! Unbelievable! I made a pretty fierce killing this time!”

Meng Lei suppressed the excitement in him and looked at Puhaman. He asked, “You’ve made a great contribution this time, Puhaman. What kind of reward would you like?”

Puhaman waved repeatedly and said, “Reward? How dare I ask for rewards for doing my best for Master?”

Even though he had been very indignant about submitting to Meng Lei in the beginning, Meng Lei had ultimately rescued him, after all.

Rather than hiding in that prison at the bottom of the ocean, unable to see the light of day, he’d rather submit to Meng Lei.

Therefore, he didn’t think that Meng Lei owed him anything.

Subsequently, Meng Lei had even tasked him with heavy responsibilities and allowed him to govern the entire Dragon God Empire. Moreover, he had given him absolute trust and had never once dictated his actions. This made Puhaman feel as if Meng Lei had recognized his talent and capabilities, so he only had gratitude for Meng Lei now.

Thus, he did his best in everything and indeed had never once thought about wanting any rewards for it.

“Merit must be rewarded and wrongdoings punished. How can I not reward you after you’ve made such a huge contribution?”

Meng Lei brought out a divine core with a wave, a heap of half-divine weapons, and some true god remains. He said, “Take your pick from these things here. You can take everything you take an interest in.”

“So many treasures?”

Puhaman was dumbstruck. Every one of these treasures gave off strong, surging power of divinity energy fluctuations, and every single piece of the true god remains held terrifying might.

The divine core, in particular, gave off fearsome divine power energy fluctuations and made him incredibly fearful.

Puhaman knew that it was definitely a true god’s divine core right away. On top of that, it was no ordinary true god divine core, either.

He asked carefully, “Is this divine core also within the selection range, Master?”

Meng Lei smiled and said, “Of course!”

“I’d like this divine core!”

With a white-hot burning look in his eyes, Puhaman said, “I’ve been stuck at the half-deity stage for as long as over 50,000 years. It’s impossible for me to become a true god within this lifetime. So—”

“Take it if you like it!”

With a smile, Meng Lei then pointed at the half-deity, and true god remains—which numbered up to 100 of them—and said with a smile, “Didn’t you like to craft Undead Knights? These things should be very useful to you, right? I’ll give them all to you.”

“This… Is it alright?”

Puhaman was greatly tempted.

“Of course!”

Meng Lei waved in response.

“Thank you, Master! Thank you, Master!”

Puhaman expressed his gratitude repeatedly. He was pretty much only a step short of prostrating and licking Meng Lei’s shoes.

Meng Lei said dispassionately, “Go on. Hurry and assimilate the divine core. The empire’s matters still require your attention.”

“There’s no hurry, Master!”

Although Puhaman wanted very much to assimilate the divine core right away, he suppressed the urge to. Instead, he led Meng Lei to a grand and magnificent-looking palace.

Then, he summoned all the court officials and formally introduced Meng Lei to them.

“Greetings, Your Majesty!”

Without any hesitation whatsoever, everyone hurriedly bowed in greeting. They might be dubious of anyone, but they definitely didn’t dare to be dubious of Puhaman—that guy was the Devil himself!

“Listen up, everyone. Master is the highest authority and ruler of this imperial palace and the entire empire. His word is the royal decree and the oracle itself!”

In a cold and distant tone, Puhaman said, “Everyone, including myself, must unconditionally follow his orders. Those that dare defy his orders will be… Mercilessly killed!”

“Yes, sir!”

Everyone quickly responded.

Only then did Puhaman turn to Meng Lei. He asked, “Master, is there anything else you’d like to supplement?”

“No.”

Meng Lei waved. After looking at everyone and remembering their faces, he said, “You may leave, everyone. Bubbles, Puhaman, the two of you may also leave.”

“Yes, Your Majesty (Master)!”

After dismissing everyone, Meng Lei walked over to the lavish golden throne and plopped his butt down on it. Then, he eagerly glanced at his stats interface.

600 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals! How should he spend them? Now, that was the question!

“There are four things that I can buy credit for at the moment.

“Primordial Human bloodline (16%)!

“Metal-Origin Divine Body (1%)!

“Power of Divinity (0.1 Divinity Crystal)!

“And laws of nature comprehension!”

[1] A Chinese proverb referring to the ideal of reducing taxes so that the common people can have enough money to develop and produce, thereby, in turn, stabilizing the economy and bringing in higher revenue for the country