Chapter 1312: The Second Trial  

The turtle 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 turtle 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.

Silvery-white genetic energy spun around Zhang Lie's fists. His genetic energy split the turtle's aura in two as Zhang Lie punched forward. He glowed with radiant light, and runes appeared before him. This wasn't mere physical strength. As Zhang Lie activated his genetic energy, the black turtle spurred forth the energy of evolution that had suffused it. The combination was explosive and destructive.

When the two combatants collapsed, the turtle's hand, which seemed about to enclose Zhang Lie, suddenly spasmed. The turtle roared in pain.

A fist had punched through its arm, spraying crystalline shards everywhere. It shook in fright.

As the turtle howled again, the dark clouds of energy surrounding it grew even more solid than before. Its arms retreated into its shell as it vibrated, knocking Zhang Lie back.

Zhang Lie's fists pummeled the turtle's shell, causing a huge commotion.

The turtle roared and pounded its chest as the shell flew out of its body, surrounded by black light, and shot toward Zhang Lie with a tremendous aura. "What?!" Zhang Lie cried out in shock. The turtle's shell was large and moved surprisingly quickly. It was difficult to avoid, and quickly enveloped Zhang Lie. The turtle began to pound on its shell, causing it to toll loudly with every strike. The sound echoed and reverberated within the shell, so loud as to be ear-splitting; the turtle was trying to quake Zhang Lie to death, to turn him into a pile of mush.

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

An unusual sound came from within. It began to hum in a curious manner, and umbral light began to flood into its center.

"[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. magic

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 crystals struck the turtle's shell with repeated plinks. The turtle smirked. Its shell was far too hard to be broken by such weak techniques.

More and more crystals struck the shell. Under the concentrated and incessant attacks, a small crack finally appeared on its surface.

As Zhang Lie activated his blood ant and dragonwolf soulshards, he transformed into a dragonwolf with russet fur and limbs covered with dragons' scales. His aura became magnified as a hurricane of blood spawned around him. He struck directly at the crack that the white crystals had created.

Bloody light flared and pierced through the turtle shell as a huge wave of energy erupted from the point of impact. The turtle was sent flying.

It took a long time before the turtle 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 turtle, in a feat of extreme strength, lifted up an entire mountain and threw it toward Zhang Lie.

More shockingly, Zhang Lie didn't retreat. He withstood the attack with shocking might and majesty. The world quaked. The fight between man and beast shook heaven and earth, and the earth itself seemed about to crumble. After exchanging blow after blow, Zhang Lie found an opening. His fingers wrapped tightly around one of the turtle's fingers, then flung it up into the air and smashed it into a mountain of rock, still holding onto the finger.

The turtle roared; his finger had been broken.

Zhang Lie grabbed ahold of another finger 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 turtle alive.

The turtle 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 turtle's prone body.

This time, he grabbed the turtle 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 through the air, and the horizon itself seemed to shake.

Just how much strength was hidden in Zhang Lie's 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. The crystalline dragons harbored magnificent strength and beauty. The turtle gaped in shock, summoning its shell and hiding behind it as the crystalline dragons swooped down in an aerial bombardment. Black energy rippled across the air.

Zhang Lie had cracked the turtle's shell. Now, that crack continued to propagate. In the end, the shell was unable to withstand Zhang Lie's might and shattered into thousands of fragments. N♡vεlB¡n: Transforming Moments into Memories.

Silver light sparkled. Silver shards pierced through the fragments and the turtle's chest, striking its core.

The will of the fourth realm announced in Zhang Lie's head, [You successfully killed a disaster-grade heroic black turtle. By consuming the core of the disaster-grade heroic black turtle, you may receive one to ten disaster gene fragments.]

The black core was surprisingly dense, far more so than those of other disaster-grade lifeforms he had encountered.

Zhang Lie cut his palm with his sword, then dripped blood onto the core. The moment it touched the core, the blood was quickly absorbed into its interior. It sucked up more and more of Zhang Lie's blood until it turned blood-red.

Zhang Lie opened his wounds again and again until the core became perfectly transparent. Then, he closed his eyes and began pouring concentrated, black genetic energy from his body into the core.

As Zhang Lie clutched the crystalline orb, he felt some unusual sense of kinship with it...