Chapter 136: Attaining Saint Domain, System Upgrade

“That little fellow...”

Flit the 66th was frowning badly. “He’s too unbridled in his behavior. There are tens of thousands of spectators watching the competition here, yet he dares to cast a fire-elemental first-class spell? He’s got a lot of nerve!”

“If not for the Fighting Dragon President acting in time, who knows just how many casualties it would have caused? He must be severely punished!”

“What’s he going to be like in the future when he’s already so ruthless at such a young age? President Fred, this is your negligence in duty!”

“How dare he cast an ultimate first-class spell like Meteor Fall in a place where there are so many people around? I really can’t tell whether it’s because he’s out of his mind or if he just doesn’t give two hoots about the spectators’ lives!”

“Severe punishment! He must be given severe punishment!”

All the academy presidents spoke up one after another, severely criticizing and condemning Meng Lei’s actions. Evidently, they were extremely displeased with his actions just now.

Flit the 66th nodded lightly. “Initially, because he had made a meritorious contribution by fighting the ant tide and because he’s also of royal blood, he should have been conferred the title of an Earl. I had intended to confer the title upon him at the end of the exchange competition, but we’ll just forget about it now.”

...

The challenge matches continued all the way till 8 p.m. at night before it concluded. 52 victors were successfully selected from the matches.

It was then followed by the King’s speech.

Then, the qualifying round was officially declared over.

Meng Lei and Fatty Hart left the arena together and headed to Juxian Restaurant for a meal. They gobbled down meat and gulped down wine, stuffing their faces silly. It was almost midnight by the time they finally returned to the academy to rest.

“Previously, I had always thought that by a stretch, my battle capabilities were enough, and should have been more than enough to handle the exchange competition, but now...”

As he laid on the sofa, Meng Lei thought back to the battle that afternoon. First, it had been Elizabeth and then followed by Francis. Although he had defeated the both of them in the end, it hadn’t been an easy feat.

In order to defeat Elizabeth, his hands had transformed into the ant-form—one could consider this a partial exposure of his trump card.

Then, in order to defeat Francis, he had cast a first-class spell. Casting a round of Meteor Fall had cost him over 100,000,000 gold coins!

While it had seemed like a cinch for him, to be honest, it hadn’t actually been.

“The situation is already this bad in the qualifying round. What more when it’s the official exchange competition? My opponents will definitely be even stronger.

“When it comes to strengthening battle capabilities, time is of the essence!”

With that, Meng Lei opened up the stats interface right away.

Wealth: 25,876,546,539 gold coins

Physical Body Constitution: Ninth-Grade Warrior (769,879,108/1,000,000,000)

Spirit: Great Ninth-Grade Magician (1,388,760/1,000,000,000)

Magic Power: Great Ninth-Grade Magician (968,678/1,000,000,000)

“System, redeem 2.4 billion gold coins and add them to my Physical Body Constitution!”

Whoosh!

His Wealth decreased by 2.4 billion gold coins in an instant.

At the same time, a warm, surging current started to barge about in his body, spreading to every part of his body and strengthening them fervently.

Meng Lei felt his body visibly being strengthened at a rate so fast as if he had launched off in a rocket.

.8 billion, 0.88 billion, 0.9 billion, 0.99 billion...

Boom!

His body finally broke through the one billion milestone and entered an all-new domain! A terrifying aura emanated from Meng Lei and swept through the entire room in an instant.

However, Meng Lei instead felt like his whole body had become as light as a feather at this moment. It was as though he had blended with the universe; if he so wished, it seemed like he could fly up high into the sky anytime he wanted and ride on the wind for a thousand miles.

“This feeling...”

Meng Lei didn’t resist it. He started to float into the air slowly like a balloon before becoming suspended in mid-air quietly in the end, still and motionless.

Standing suspended in the air and riding on the wind!

“Brat, you’ve actually broken through to Saint Domain!?”

Ol’ Amos flew out of the spatial ring. He was staring so hard that his eyeballs almost fell out of their sockets as he gazed at Meng Lei, who was suspended in mid-air.

Previously, when Meng Lei kept mysteriously enhancing his abilities, even though he had been astonished, he could still somewhat accept it—but that wasn’t the case this time.

Saint Domain!

Meng Lei had actually become a Saint Domain!

The Saint Domain that countless people dreamed of, yet was beyond their reach!

There was no way Ol’ Amos wouldn’t be astounded.

Ninth-Grade!

Saint Domain!

Seemingly only a step away, yet akin to an insurmountable gap. So many people were stuck at the pinnacle of ninth-grade, unable to take another inch forward for the rest of their lives. Yet Meng Lei had stepped into the Saint Domain without any warning whatsoever.

This made no sense at all.

“Yes! I’ve broken through to Saint Domain!”

As Meng Lei took in the sensation of the surging flood of energy in his body, he felt exceptionally strong and powerful. It was an unprecedented sensation of strength and power where he could smash an enormous mountain into smithereens with his fist.

“The most critical thing is that I can fly now.

“I don’t need to borrow any other source of power or any other tools, and I can already fly. It’s as though it’s part of my instincts.

“Is this what the Saint Domain is?”

“Mutant! You’re a mutant!” Ol’ Amos was going crazy. “First, you’ve comprehended fire-elemental laws of nature for some strange reason, and now, you’ve become a Saint Domain for some strange reason! Why? Why exactly is that? Just how did you manage to do that?!”

Ol’ Amos had indeed gone mad. If it were possible, he really wished he could open up Meng Lei’s head and take a good look at what exactly his secret was.

“Calm down, Ol’ President.” Meng Lei chuckled and replied, “There’ll be even more ridiculous things happening in the future. After being astonished, again and again, you’ll get used to it over time.”

“Hmph!”

Ol’ Amos snorted, exceptionally dissatisfied.

The moment it concerned critical matters, that damn brat always clammed up, avoided the topic, or changed the topic. He was too much!

“Ding! Congratulations to the host. You’ve leveled up to a Saint Domain Warrior. Please continue to work hard and strive to break through again!”

“Ding! It has been detected that the host has attained the Saint Domain realm, thereby fulfilling the system upgrade condition. Dear host, will you upgrade the system immediately?”

“Upgrade? You’re upgrading?” Meng Lei was dumbfounded.

“Yes, host!” the system replied.

“Alright, go ahead and upgrade!” Meng Lei was full of anticipation.

“Ding! The system upgrade will consume 10 billion gold coins...”

“Wait a minute! 10 billion gold coins?” Meng Lei was stupefied. “Why do you need to consume 10 billion gold coins in order to upgrade?”

Meng Lei glanced at his Wealth—he was only left with 23.4 billion gold coins now. Should he upgrade the system, wouldn’t he only be left with 13.4 billion?

What a huge loss!

“Ding! Dear host, after the system upgrade, the system will become even more powerful and the functions even more well-rounded, and it will provide even better service to the host!”

“Dear host, will you upgrade the system immediately?”

“The functions will become even more powerful? Even more well-rounded? Meng Lei gritted his teeth and then said, “Yes, proceed with the upgrade!”

“Ding! System upgrade commencing!”

“Upgrade Duration: Half an hour!”

“During the upgrading process, all functions of the system will be shut down. Dear host, please wait patiently!”

Then, the system’s voice died down in an instant, and even the stats interface disappeared. Meng Lei returned to his bed with his eyes full of anticipation.

“I wonder what kind of additional functions the system will gain after the upgrade?”

Waiting always felt too long—a short half an hour seemed as long as a century.

At last, the familiar cold, icy voice sounded in his mind.

“Ding! System upgrade of The Most Powerful Pickup System is complete!”

“Ding! The Most Powerful Pickup System at your service!”

“It’s finally done upgrading!” Meng Lei was overjoyed. “Hurry, tell me. System, what functions have you gained after the upgrade?”

“Dear host, after the system upgrade, I have now gained two major functions pertaining to the Pickup function!”

“They are respectively Limitless Pickup and Brutal Plunder!” the system replied coldly.

“Limitless Pickup? Brutal Plunder?” Meng Lei blinked and remarked, “It certainly sounds very dramatic. Except I don’t know what exactly they are. Hurry and explain it in detail, System!”

“Limitless Pickup: One can pick up dropped items from other existential planes at random. It includes, but is not limited to Wealth, Bloodlines, Laws of Nature Fragments, Divinity, Divine Weapons...”

“It costs 10 billion gold coins per pickup!”