Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

A secret that he'd only be qualified to know when he broke through to Saint Domain?

Meng Lei rolled his eyes, dissatisfied with Ol' Amos' explanation. However, he didn't press on. Although 1 billion gold coins was an astronomical sum of money, it wasn't entirely out of reach.

Meng Lei believed that he'd definitely be able to save up 1 billion gold coins, break through the ninth-grade boundary, and become an existence that stood far above all others.

The Saint Domain realm was just a matter of time.

Meng Lei sped the whole way and returned to the Magical Beast Forest again. He didn't see any traces of the ant tide in the outer boundaries, but as he went deeper into the forest, the ant tide gradually began to show up.

The scale became larger and larger, and their numbers became bigger and bigger.

In the beginning, it was just a small group of stragglers and wandering soldiers, but in the end, they had turned into a large spread of red torrents.

Like a breached dam, the ant tide barged about everywhere in the Magical Beast Forest. They spread to every nook and cranny of the forest. Everywhere they pa.s.sed by, they left behind only ghastly white bones and a floor full of blood.

“Hiss, hiss!”

A huge python over 30 meters long and as thick as a water barrel curled into an S-shape and fled at high speed in the woods. Behind it was a deluge of red torrents surging toward it.

Meng Lei found the python—a Thorn Python—very familiar to the eye. The first Magical Beast that he had encountered back when he had first entered the Magical Beast Forest was exactly a Thorn Python, a snake-species Second-Grade Magical Beast.

He could clearly remember that the Thorn Python had attacked him back then. If he hadn't run fast enough, he would have long since been killed by it.

Only half a year had pa.s.sed since then, but Meng Lei no longer thought much of the little Thorn Python anymore. He could kill it even with just a light breath of his.

How things had changed with time, and how people had changed, despite the environment remaining the same…

“Hiss, hiss!”

The Thorn Python fled desperately, but it was ultimately still just a Second-Grade Magical Beast. The ant tide caught up to it in no time. A shrill, tragic cry rang out and then faded away very quickly.

The ant tide continued to advance, but the Thorn Python was gone forever. The Bloodthirsty Iron-Crystal Ants had split it among themselves, leaving behind not even a bit of the python.

“That's really crazy!” After witnessing this scene, Meng Lei's hair couldn't help but stand on end. “Scenes like this are probably taking place everywhere in the entire Magical Beast Forest.”

“That's what it's like when an ant tide erupts.”

Ol' Amos nodded with a sigh. “And this is just within the Magical Beast Forest where the ones being devoured are only Magical Beasts, too. If the ant tide invades the human kingdoms… Now, that's what you'd call tragic!

“I had once witnessed with my own eyes the ant tide cleanly devouring more than a billion people. Overnight, more than a billion people went missing, and the whole place within a radius of 5,000 kilometers turned straight into a ghost town. It was practically unbearable to look at.

“That is what a true catastrophe in the human world is. Despite how so many years have already pa.s.sed, whenever I think back to it, it still makes my hair stand on end, and I still remember it as though it had only happened yesterday.”

Meng Lei couldn't help but gasp chills running down his spine.

More than a billion people gone in just a night?

“There's nothing more terrifying about the ant tide than that!”

Ol' Amos said gravely, “They'll eat everything that can be eaten, be it Magical Beasts or humans. As long as it can be eaten, they won't let anything off!

“An ant tide is a disaster itself! A natural disaster that n.o.body can stop!”

Meng Lei agreed wholeheartedly with Ol' Amos' words. “Since it's a disaster, then let us stop this disaster. I don't believe that there's really no end to the Bloodthirsty Iron-Crystal Ants!”

If there's really no end to them, then that's just as well, too. Won't my 1 billion gold coins be settled, then?

“Seventh-Grade Spell, Flame Inferno!”

Boom!

A white fireball 100 meters wide plummeted from the sky and exploded right in the center of the ant tide wave. Amid the earth-shattering explosions, flames surged into the sky, and the whole area within several kilometers turned into a sea of fire.

Crackle!

A wide expanse of Bloodthirsty Iron-Crystal Ants was burned into ashes while the red ant tide's center turned into a void!

“Ding!”

“Ding!”

“Ding!”

Meng Lei's Wealth increased frantically!

“Wonderful!”

Meng Lei felt marvelous. Then, he went to the front of the ant tide and threw down another white 100-meter-wide fireball.

Boom, boom, boom!

Fire blazed brightly, flames rushed into the sky, and a sea of fire flooded the ant tide!

Meng Lei then went to the ant tide's rear.

Boom, boom, boom!

“Ding!”

“Ding!”

“Ding!”

“Dragon-Language Magic sure is handy!”

Meng Lei was very pleased with the Seventh-Grade Dragon-Language Magic spell's might as he watched the white flames blazing on the ground. Not only was the spellcasting time shorter, but it was even double to triple an ordinary spell's might, despite only consuming 60% of the magic power. The advantage it held was simply too big!

Using less than 60% of the required magic power to bring out double to triple the spell's might—this was the difference between Dragon-Language Magic and ordinary magic.

“The Dragon race is favored by the magic elements from the beginning, so of course Dragon-Language Magic would be more powerful. Back then, in order to study and research on Dragon-Language Magic, you can say that I had spent my entire life's worth of blood, sweat, and tears on it!”

At the mention of Dragon-Language Magic, a smug look couldn't help but come over Ol' Amos' features. Dragon-Language Magic was the Colossal Dragons' exclusive privilege before him, and only Colossal Dragons could cast those spells. Not even Dragon People could do it.

It was exactly because of his, Amos Kroc's, diligent and relentless research that the veil shrouding water-elemental and fire-elemental Dragon-Language Magic spells had been removed, such that Dragon-Language Magic was no longer exclusive to the Colossal Dragons.

It was no exaggeration to say that he had made an enormous contribution to the study of Dragon-Language Magic. He could be said to be the forefather of Dragon People using Dragon-Language Magic.

“What a shame that you only know water-elemental and fire-elemental Dragon-Language Magic, Ol' President.” Meng Lei's greed was rather insatiable. “If only you knew thunder-elemental, earth-elemental, and wood-elemental Dragon-Language Magic spells, too!”

“That's only because you're such a mutant to possess four types of magic talent!” Ol' Amos said dryly, “I only have water-elemental and fire-elemental magic talent, so I could only conduct research on these two types of Dragon-Language Magic. I couldn't conduct research on the other elements even if I'd wanted to! But…”

“But what?” A look of confusion came over Meng Lei's features.

“More than 20,000 years have already pa.s.sed since my time. Development in Dragon-Language Magic should have already made significant progress. When you return to the academy, you should be able to learn thunder-elemental, earth-elemental, and wood-elemental Dragon-Language Magic,” suggested Ol' Amos.

“That makes sense!”

Meng Lei's eyes brightened. “It'll more or less be the beginning of a new term after this ant tide. I'll think of something when I get back to the academy. I should be able to find a chance to learn it!”

“Okay!”

Ol' Amos twisted his beard and gave a nod. He was very approving of Meng Lei learning the other three elements' Dragon-Language Magic. Given his wonderful magic talent, not learning it would be a waste!

Thunder, fire, earth, and wood!

Tsk, tsk. Magic talent of four elements!

What enviable talent!

“Let's go! We'll head to our next destination.”

Meng Lei cast a glance at his Wealth. Then, he steered the magic carpet toward the next area. The surging ant tide filled every part of the Magical Beast Forest. In less than half an hour, Meng Lei had already found several groups of Bloodthirsty Iron-Crystal Ants.

With regard to that, Meng Lei had only one course of action—burn them!

Burn them till the skies and the lands turned black!

Burn them till there weren't any more light left during both day and night!

Burn them till not a single one of them was left!

Burn, burn, burn!

He'd burn, burn, and burn!

He set them all ablaze the whole way as he searched for more of them.

Meng Lei then discovered another wave of the ant tide. The scale wasn't very big, but they stretched all the way for three to four kilometers, their numbers fairly big, too.

Another windfall!

Meng Lei was in a wonderful mood. However, when he got ready to cast his spells to burn the ant tide to a crisp, he discovered to his surprise that this particular group of ants didn't seem to be pursuing any prey. Instead, they were… fleeing?

“What's the matter with these ants? There's clearly a group of Iron-Backed Lizards not too far to their left, but why aren't they going after them? Can't they see them?”

“Yes, how strange, indeed!” Ol' Amos also looked puzzled. “All the ant tides that we've encountered along the way were madly pursuing their prey, but this wave of ants is fully ignoring their prey instead… Hmm?”

Ol' Amos' eyes suddenly widened. He pointed at the ants and shouted in a low voice, “Look over there, brat! Is there something in the middle of the ants?”