“Let’s go. Accompany me for a walk outside.”
Meng Lei then brought the three half-deities with him and started to wander about the city.
“Your Majesty!”
“Your Majesty!”
Everywhere they passed through, all the palace maidservants, eunuchs, and guards that they encountered bowed respectfully to them. Their expressions couldn’t get any more reverent.
“Is Puhaman still not out yet?” Meng Lei asked as they walked about.
“Not yet, Master!”
Bubbles answered, “Assimilating divine cores requires time. It’s not that fast.”
Meng Lei nodded slightly in response. Assimilating divine cores wasn’t as simple as claiming ownership of divine weapons where one needed only to drip their blood, and they would be done. Not only did one need to comprehend the laws of nature involved, but they also needed to refine their power of divinity. It was fairly a troublesome process.
“Please, we’d like to meet with Chief Director Puhaman. Something terrible has happened!”
Suddenly, some noise was heard coming from ahead of them—the palace guards had actually stopped a few officials.
“Let’s go over and take a look.” Meng Lei led the rest over. He asked, “What’s going on here?”
“Greetings, Your Majesty!”
The palace guards hastily got down on one knee. At the sight, the few officials also hurriedly got down on their knees and bowed.
“You may rise!” Meng Lei waved. Then, he asked, “What are all of you making such a fuss over here for?”
“Your Majesty!”
An official hastily brought out a piece of joss paper[1]. Slightly panicked and fearful, he said, “Your Majesty, a rain of light suddenly fell from the sky in the Imperial City during the wee hours this morning!
“The rain of light splattered onto the ground and actually turned into pieces of joss paper. On top of that, someone even wrote that... that...”
At this point, the official started stammering, actually somewhat unable to bring himself to continue speaking.
Meng Lei raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s written on it?”
“I... I dare not say it, Your Majesty!”
The official had a fearful look on his countenance.
“Dare not say it?”
Meng Lei became even more puzzled. He casually took the joss paper from the official and took a look at it. An article, written in a common language in Heaven’s Vault Continent, was written on it. The main gist of it was:
Meng Lei!
The great deity whom the Dragon God Empire worshiped was actually the reincarnation of a wicked devil from the Demon Realm. In order to rule over Heaven’s Vault Continent, he had scourged the lives of many and gone as far as to slaughter the Dragon God Empire emperor, wipe out the Dragon People nobles, forbid prayers to the Dragon God...
The long and verbose article painted Meng Lei as a perverse and heinous wicked devil that ate children’s brains raw and fed on human flesh every day.
“How dare they!”
Bubbles flew into a thundering rage. “Who is so audacious as to actually slander Master? If I find them, I’ll definitely rip them into shreds!”
“He’s already come all the way here even without you going after him.”
Meng Lei shook his head and chuckled. “The last part of the text on this piece of joss paper is essentially him throwing down the gauntlet. He’ll be coming to the Dragon God Empire’s Imperial City a month later to slay me, the wicked devil, and rid the world of an evil!”
“Who’s so bold to do something like that, Master?” Bubbles’ eyes widened in astonishment. He asked, “Did he sign off?”
“He did!”
Meng Lei passed the piece of paper to Bubbles with a slight smile.
Bubbles quickly took the paper from him and glanced at it. He couldn’t help but exclaim, “Horace Theodore! To think it’s him! How can that be?”
“Bubbles, do you know that guy?”
Meng Lei was rather astonished.
“Yes, of course! I grew up listening to legends about him. How can I possibly not know about him?”
Bubbles nodded slowly, though his countenance was extremely grave. He said, “Master, Horace is the most monstrous genius ever in the Titan Empire’s history.
“He started cultivating at the age of six, broke through to the Saint Domain stage at 15, and broke through to the half-deity stage at 57 to become the youngest half-deity ever in Heaven’s Vault Continent’s history!”
“A 57-years-old half-deity!!”
“What a freak!”
“How terrifying!”
A huge jolt went through both Nadja and Seisia, who were both rather astounded. 57 years old might sound very old, but to half-deities like them, it was really too tender an age!
It was already considered very rare for ordinary people to break through to the Saint Domain stage at that age, let alone completely comprehending a type of laws of nature and becoming a half-deity. This was totally impossible for ordinary people.
A curious Meng Lei asked, “Nadja, when did you guys break through to the half-deity stage?”
“Master, my aptitude is mediocre, so I only barely managed to break through and become a half-deity at 12,958-years-old,” A somewhat embarrassed Nadja replied, her pretty face slightly red.
“I broke through 4,000 years earlier than Nadja and became a half-deity at 8,976-years-old!”
Seisia looked a little proud of herself.
“What about you, Bubbles?” Meng Lei asked.
Bubbles gave Nadja and Seisia a smug look and replied, “I became a half-deity earlier than both of them. I broke through when I was 3,238-years-old!”
“That’s not counted!”
Both Nadja and Seisia turned to Bubbles with expressions of scorn. They said, “You only became a half-deity because you comprehended the Demon Realm’s laws of nature. That’s purely just opportunistic trickery!”
“What’s wrong with comprehending the Demon Realm’s laws of nature? I was still physically in Heaven’s Vault Continent!” Bubbles glared at them. “Am I not a
