Chapter 1213: A Sustained Fight  

Zhang Lie had apparently become a whetstone for the nine-headed lion.

"Be careful not to grind yourself to nothing!" Zhang Lie's sword flashed as he slashed forward horizontally.

Blood sprayed everywhere. The nine-headed lion had gained significant fighting experience after the short stint of combat. As Zhang Lie attacked, it leapt high into the air and avoided the devastating blow.

"[The Boundless Blade: the River Lethe]!"

The temperature of the air dropped to sub-zero values, and a strong wind buffeted the two combatants. Blood-colored frost appeared around them.

An underworld river materialized in the air. As though the doors to hell had just been thrown open, tens of thousands of serpents rushed out in a flood.

The lion agilely executed a backflip, retreating hundreds of meters in an instant. It landed on the ground with a huge crash, smashing a crater in the ground where it stood. Its body glowed with radiant light. Suddenly, a wave of black fog rose up from the ground, morphed into a hurricane, and surrounded the lion.

The lion sucked in a breath and seemed to expand multiple times in size. Its muscles bunched up around its body as it charged forward. Where it stepped, the ground cracked. Huge boulders were sent flying into the air, threatening to drown Zhang Lie in the resulting bombardment.

The nine-headed lion pounced toward Zhang Lie.

"Open!" Zhang Lie shouted. He stomped on the ground with both feet and rose into the air, looking for a moment like a martial god.magic

A vertical slash bisected the momentum of the charge and cut off the lion's golden claws. The nine-headed lion glared at Zhang Lie; from its wounds emerged a massive pair of hands that swung toward Zhang Lie with lightning's blistering might, as though intending to crush him into meat paste.

The lion had combined its physical strength with the energy it had retained from its sudden evolution.The two combatants clashed. The lion's hands, which were about to enclose Zhang Lie, suddenly contorted. The lion howled in pain.

A sword had pierced through its flesh, sending blood fountaining from the wounds.

The lion howled again, and the dark clouds of energy surrounding it grew even more solid than before. They transformed into a black timepiece, one which tolled loudly and sent Zhang Lie stumbling back.

Zhang Lie slashed at the timepiece with his sword, resulting in a huge toll that resounded for over hundreds of miles.

The golden light radiating from the lion dimmed and turned umbral. Within mere moments, the nine-headed lion had undergone another evolution—a minor one, but one which left it just a hair's breadth away from the next grade entirely.

It howled once again, beating on its chest with its heads held high. The timepiece shot toward Zhang Lie as the umbral light grew more intense and surged at him.

Zhang Lie's eyes brightened. The stronger the nine-headed lion became, the more benefit he would receive from killing it. Indeed, Zhang Lie's best-case scenario was for the lifeform to break through to the next grade, which would provide Zhang Lie with higher-grade gene fragments.

The timepiece was too large, and flying too quickly, for Zhang Lie to dodge. As he landed on the ground, he was beset by the timepiece and trapped within.

The nine-headed lion repeatedly smashed the timepiece with its fists, causing it to toll loudly with every strike. The sound was so loud as to be ear-splitting; the lion was trying to quake Zhang Lie to death, to turn him into a pile of mush.

However, the lion's attempts were ineffective. Zhang Lie's feet sunk down into the ground, as though rooted, and he resisted the effects of the timepiece.

The timepiece let out a curious hum, as though this were some form of religious rite, as umbral light flooded it.

"[The Boundless Blade: the River Lethe]!"

Pitch-black energy immediately spread outward and smashed the timepiece apart from within.

The nine-headed lion's body was flung up into the air, where it smashed into a mountain and began to vomit blood. An ocean of genetic energy swallowed up the sky, shrouding even the multicolored light emanating from Zhu. A pitch-black ocean appeared in its place. Waves surged forward, sounding like peals of thunder, like stampeding hooves.

The surface of the sea frothed with angry waves, like dragons emerging with the tide. The entire sea roiled, and lightning crackled amidst the void. Countless serpents swam across the raging sea as lightning flashed ominously overhead, a scene right out of an apocalypse.

As Zhang Lie struck, an underworld river hurtled into existence, roaring into the sea. The sword energy roiled like black waves. The sea had morphed into a boundless battlefield. The sea breeze was as a horn to action, and the serpents, thousands of courageous soldiers heeding its call.

It took a long time before the nine-headed lion was able to get back to its feet, at which point it roared in outrage and charged forward once more. Its limbs were glowing with light, and scales accumulated over its arms in layers. It looked particularly wild and violent.

The unified world made a move then. The nine-headed lion, in a feat of extreme strength, lifted up the entire mountain and threw it toward Zhang Lie.

Even more shockingly to the onlookers, however, the human male was equally strong. He withstood the attack with shocking might and majesty.

The world itself shook—not just the land, but also the onlookers.

The fight between man and beast shook heaven and earth, and it had far surpassed the limits of the third realm. The two combatants exchanged dozens of blows. Zhang Lie's serpents weren't able to get close to the lion, and dematerialized when struck by the waves.

Zhang Lie's fingers wrapped tightly around one of the lion's claw tips, then flung it up into the air and smashed it into a mountain of rock.

The onlookers watched in stupefaction—Zhang Lie was so much smaller in comparison to the lion that it seemed impossible for him to have done so.

The nine-headed lion roared; its claw tip had been broken.

Zhang Lie grabbed ahold of another claw tip and raised its body once more, smashing it down on another nearby mountain. Dust and smoke rose into the air as huge boulders rained down from the top of the mountain, almost burying the lion alive.

The lion roared again. After having suffered repeated attacks, its body shrank down to a few dozen meters in size.

Zhang Lie's eyes lit up. He rushed forward and began pummeling at the nine-headed lion's prone body.

This time, he grabbed the lion by its wrist and smashed it against the ground, causing cracks that grew dozens, hundreds of meters long.

Subsequently, he picked it up by its head and hurled it all the way toward the horizon. Where it landed, a huge thud echoed all the way back where the onlookers were standing, and the horizon itself seemed to shake.

Just how much strength was hidden in Zhang Lie's body?