Chapter 1309: Follower of Eternal Sun
The mud that fell from the skies glommed together and were reconstituted into a man composed of black mud. "Oh? You're quite strong. Are you interested in becoming my slave?"
Zhang Lie punched the black mudman, who exploded and then reformed. "Your attacks are useless. As long as this dark swamp exists, I'll be able to revive indefinitely."
Zhang Lie smirked. "No existence is invincible. Let me guess—the reason you're able to reconstitute yourself indefinitely, despite my energy of annihilation, is that your core or main body isn't here."
Zhang Lie's words struck home. The black mudman immediately shouted, "Ridiculous!"
"Oh? If you're making such a big fuss, it must mean that I'm right. Let me guess where your core is, then—it must be somewhere in this swamp."
The black mudman snorted. "And so what? This swamp is so large that you can hardly search it all."
"That's fine. I just have to attack the entire swamp—I'll destroy it sooner or later." Zhang Lie unsheathed Guicang and raised it high, causing a rain of blades to fall on impact.
Zhang Lie was carrying out a carpet bombing over the entire swamp.
The rain of blades spread out from all around Zhang Lie. Sooner or later, they would strike the area where the swamp was hidden. The black mudman hurriedly shouted, "Do you know who I am?"
The rain of blades continued.
"I'm an envoy of Eternal Sun, son of Cthaat!"
If Zhang Lie weren't mistaken, Eternal Sun was one of the two strongest and most ancient organizations of the fourth realm. He hadn't expected to encounter them so quickly.
Cthaat's son shouted, "If you don't want to die, submit to me now!"
On his command, the mud from the entire swamp rose up and transformed into a giant. The giant seemed somewhat amorphous, as though the energy of annihilation had been imbued into it. Somehow, the mud giant had absorbed a fraction of Zhang Lie's strength.
"I was going to spend some time digesting your unusual strength, but if you so desperately want to die, so be it!" the black giant roared. A huge palm of mud slammed down on Zhang Lie.
"[The Boundless Blade: Yawning Wave]!"
With a huge flash of sword energy that illuminated the heavens, Zhang Lie cut apart the mud giant's arm. A raging shark swam forward, carried by the sword energy, opening its bloody maw and biting a hole through the mud giant's chest.
Black mud fell over the hole, patching it up but causing the mud giant to shrink significantly in size. As it waved an arm, black mud crested over Zhang Lie like a tsunami.
Zhang Lie leapt up high into the air to avoid the attack. He raised his sword, encircled by black genetic energy.
"[The Boundless Blade: the River Lethe]!"
The temperature of the air dropped to sub-zero values, and a strong wind buffeted the air above the swamp. Blood-colored frost appeared all around.
The black mud was freezing over, bit by bit.
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 serpents tore at the mud giant, consuming the mud that made up its body.
Cthaat's son shouted, "I'm an envoy of Eternal Sun, son of Cthaat!"
"You've said that before," Zhang Lie replied, his eyes cold.
"If I perish, my father won't ever forgive you. Eternal Sun itself will be your enemy!"
"I'll look forward to it." The pitch-black genetic energy expanded as it swallowed up the sky, replacing the dark clouds above the swamp with black genetic energy.
"[The Boundless Blade: the River Lethe]!"
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.
The netherworld river swallowed up Cthaat's son in a torrent of darkness.
Deep within the fourth realm, the sea itself roiled, its surface transforming into a giant's face. "Who? Who was it that killed my son?!"
Zhang Lie stepped out of the disaster-grade dragonwhale soulshard, having consumed the black salamander's flesh and gaining ten peak gene fragments.
Zhang Lie: an emperor-grade lifeform
Techniques: Rippling Walk (pinnacle), Three-Wave Crescendo (pinnacle), Calm Waters (pinnacle), Fists of the Silent Sea (pinnacle), The Boundless Blade (pinnacle), Eclipse (pinnacle), Syzygy (pinnacle), Ninesoul Dragonblade (pinnacle), Blade of the Heavens (pinnacle)
Genes: Basic, 160; Mutated, 150; Superior, 150; Peak, 80; Disaster, 0; Monarch, 0; Emperor, 0
Soulshards: White Grub (superior), Blood Ant (superior), Potbellied Toad (mutated), Eternalspring Cocoon (superior), Dragonwolf (superior), Moonlight Wyrm (peak), Golden Roc (peak), Dragonwhale (disaster), Mistmeld Clam (disaster)
He sighed. His skill had been so strong that it had destroyed the entire dark swamp. Otherwise, he would have been able to acquire the flesh of an even wider variety of lifeforms.
He set off again, killing two peak-grade lifeforms along the way and obtaining twenty peak gene fragments. Only then did he arrive at the location indicated by the treasure map.
Where the treasure map was located was a barren mountain of rock. At the top of the mountain lived a huge group of superior-grade lifeforms, an army of what seemed to be stone soldiers.
"[Ninecarp Transformation: Golden Tiger]!"
The image of a golden tiger appeared behind Zhang Lie's back, and its roar echoed through the air. A golden aura suffused Zhang Lie. A mountain of blades rested atop the tiger's back, and Zhang Lie's body itself underwent a transformation. His hair turned silvery-white, until they became akin to silver needles.
His genetic energy likewise became more honed. Silvery-white genetic energy gathered over his body, and tigers' stripes appeared on his arms. His eyes became those of a tiger's, and steely sharpness erupted from every pore.
Zhang Lie transformed into a beam of silver light as he shot into the midst of the stone soldiers, bisecting them at their waist.
Although their exterior was that of stone, their interior was a body of flesh and blood.
[You successfully killed a superior-grade stone soldier. By consuming the flesh of the superior-grade stone soldier, you may receive one to ten superior gene fragments.]
[You successfully killed a superior-grade stone soldier. By consuming the flesh of the superior-grade stone soldier, you may receive one to ten superior gene fragments.]
[You successfully killed a superior-grade stone soldier. By consuming the flesh of the superior-grade stone soldier, you may receive one to ten superior gene fragments.]
The announcements of the will of the fourth realm continuously rang out in Zhang Lie's head.
As Zhang Lie continued his indiscriminate slaughter, he quickly aroused the attention of the leader of the army. A spear flew whistling through the air.
Over Zhang Lie's palm, concentrated genetic energy solidified into sharp silver crystal spears, which he tossed forward.
His spears knocked aside the stone spears as they shot deep into the mountain.
Zhang Lie followed straight behind the spears. Deep within the stone mountain was a huge soldier, at least ten times the size of those outside, but with a hole perforating its shoulder—clearly the result of the crystal spear Zhang Lie had tossed.
The peak stone soldier lifted a huge boulder and was right about to throw it at Zhang Lie.
"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"
Suddenly, Zhang Lie punched forward. Sharp silver crystal pierced through the soldier's head, which burst open. Its arms wobbled as it staggered, but it stabilized itself by taking a step forward. So heavy was its body that the ground under its foot cracked. It tossed its boulder, but its target had long since vanished. Zhang Lie had appeared behind the soldier's back.
The will of the realm hadn't rung out; Zhang Lie immediately understood that his attack hadn't been enough to kill the peak-grade head soldier. He immediately rushed to the soldier's back.
"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"
A crystal wall appeared behind Zhang Lie, reflecting light in five colors, so dazzling it dazed any who looked at it, so beautiful it sparked their desire.
As Zhang Lie manipulated space, that crystalline genetic energy shot out of the wall behind him in the form of sharp daggers, in a rain of crystals that were able to penetrate anything thanks to Zhang Lie's mastery of space.
The daggers tore through space in a storm of silver, causing rubble and boulders to explode. After a series of explosions, the will of the realm finally announced belatedly,
[You successfully killed a peak-grade stone soldier. By consuming the flesh of the peak-grade stone soldier, you may receive one to ten peak gene fragments.]
However, the peak-grade stone soldier's body was a mess of blood and flesh, and its flesh had combined with the stone powder in the vicinity. It was, again, inedible. Ñøv€l-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.
Zhang Lie was having a hard time consuming peak-grade flesh. He was so strong that peak-grade lifeforms were unable to withstand his attacks, and he could beat them to a pulp before they could do a thing.
He searched for quite some time around the stone mountain, but didn't discover an entrance that seemed to lead to the purported treasure.
"It looks like I'll have to destroy the whole mountain, then."
He had painstakingly accumulated the pieces of the treasure map, then traveled all this way to the location of the treasure. Even if he had to dig three feet underground, he would uncover the treasure at any cost.
Zhang Lie rose into the sky, leaping up from the tip of the stone mountain. From high in the air, he condensed his genetic energy in the form of sharp white crystals that floated around his body.
[Fists of the Silent Sea: Hundred Dragons Soaring]!
As Zhang Lie cocked his fist, dozens of crystalline dragons formed behind his back, roaring in unison and causing the sky to tremble.
The next moment, they shot out through his fists, smashing into the rock mountain and obliterating it within moments, thanks to hundreds of explosions that rang out all throughout.
"It really does exist, after all!"
There was a door hidden deep below the rubble of the mountain.
It wasn't clear whether the rock mountain had formed naturally, or was intentionally designed to hide this door.
Zhang Lie opened the door and stepped inside, only to see six different colors of light. The red light scorched like flame, the black light was as heavy as the earth, the purple light was charged with lightning, the blue light flowed like water, the pale white light felt like living frost, and the golden light let out a blinding glow.
These six different lights came from six different rocklike lifeforms, each of which was above peak-grade, and with a gem embedded in the head of each one.
A ruby was embedded in the forehead of a stone qilin; an onyx, a black tortoise; an amethyst, a lion; a sapphire, a dragon; a diamond, a tiger; a topaz, an ox.
The gems flashed with light, as though forming a hexagonal formation.
Suddenly, the gemstones all glowed with incredible light, suffusing each other with energy. The stone qilin opened its mouth wide and sprayed out scorching heat. From its attack, Zhang Lie could tell that it went beyond peak-grade and was now disaster-grade.
Zhang Lie punched forward with a fist, cleaving the flames. magic
Next, the amethyst lion summoned a field of lightning around itself as it charged forward. Not only was it strong, it was blindingly fast.
"[Ninecarp Transformation: Fourth Form]!"
The image of a dragonturtle manifested behing Zhang Lie, and his water-attuned genetic energy turned heavy, sluggish, and a dark yellow color. Ripples of genetic energy spread out all around him like mud, slowing down the lion to such an extent that it almost seemed to stop entirely..
Zhang Lie kicked through the shield of lightning and sent the lion flying away.
The onyx tortoise slammed the ground with a claw. A crack propagated toward Zhang Lie.
"[Rune: Gravity]!"
Zhang Lie raised an arm high into the air once more, and the image of a dragonturtle manifested behind him. Runic tablets crashed down onto the ground, preventing the crack from spreading.
The interaction between these tablets and the Keys of the Elder Gods had strengthened the power of the tablets immensely. Runes of unknown provenance appeared from the tablets, then floated down and surrounded the tortoise until it was trapped in a localized gravitational field. Each movement would take dozens, hundreds of times its original strength, and those within would feel as though they were shouldering the weight of a huge mountain. The six stone lifeforms slowed down, their power and momentum sapped away.
From earlier observation, Zhang Lie was certain that the reason these supposedly peak-grade lifeforms had been able to employ disaster-grade attacks was because of the gems embedded into each of their foreheads. The gems seemed to have the ability to temporarily transmit the power of all six lifeforms into just one attacker.
If this were true, the gems would undoubtedly be an incredible treasure. As Zhang Lie attempted to confirm this hypothesis, the genetic lifeforms attacked. The sapphire dragon's gem pulsed with blue light as it shot out a jet of compressed water.