Chapter 1322: An Overbearing Foe  

A huge noise resounded from the impact of fist against fist, as though an explosion had taken place.

Ling Gu howled, his golden hair standing on end. His wings forked open and slashed forward.

Zhang Lie released a flurry of palm strikes to resist the golden wings.

Within moments, the two combatants had exchanged dozens of blows. Golden lightning surrounded them; it looked as though two deities were duking it out in the heavens.

Zhang Lie was shocked. Who was this? He had never heard or seen such a race in the fourth realm—in fact, he was quite confident that none existed in the dimensional world at large.

While in battle, he scoured his memories and impressions. There were quite a few similar races, but none so frighteningly strong.

He should have had some impression of a race as strong as the so-called spirit race. He knew that he hadn't reached the heights of cultivation in the fourth realm in his past life, that countless mysteries had been locked to him, but he should still have been aware of a race so strong. At the very least, this information should have been in the packet handed to newbie hunters.

Even so, Zhang Lie hadn't heard of it at all, as though the race had suddenly sprung out of nowhere. magic

The scene before him was clearly a historic battle in some sort of arena, but he had never seen the races that appeared here, and he was certain some artifacts were neither of the dimensional world or of the Milky Way.

Ling Gu's vertical third eye, situated at the center of his forehead, opened. Runes formed a beam of rainbow light, with a deific chant that struck at Zhang Lie's very soul.

No one would be able to avoid such an attack at close range.

"[Ninecarp Transformation]!"

A black serpent materialized behind Zhang Lie, by now so large and so developed that it resembled the world-swallowing serpent Jormungandr. It let out a threatening hiss as its scales clicked together.

This would be a confrontation of epic proportions.

Pitch-black genetic energy hung around Zhang Lie like clouds, bearing corrosive power. It blocked the advance of the rainbow light with a sizzle.

The beam of light fizzled as the eye shut again.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"

Zhang Lie punched forward, and the blood serpent behind him shot forth.

Within mere moments, Ling Gu's golden wings turned bloody as he was sent flying backwards.

Black corrosive energy dissolved the golden wings, continuing to spread around the wounds.

Just then, Ling Gu's left hand glowed with light. A spear of red light manifested over his palm, bearing immense power.

Red light flared across the heavens. In that single moment, everything else seemed to darken, leaving only a shining red spear the color of blood. It was only a meter long, but its light seemed to permeate the world.

It shone too brightly to be observed directly.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"

As Zhang Lie punched forward, a blood dragon roared in outrage and shot forward.

A wave of annihilation exploded around the blood dragon as it struck the red light. Pitch-black energy swallowed up everything in the vicinity like a storm at sea. The surroundings were consumed by the black-hole like energy of annihilation.

The two forces fought for dominion over the sky, neither willing to relent. Zhang Lie's body was hidden within the roiling, pitch-black clouds. Ling Gu and his bloody spear merged with the bloody haze. Both darted back and forth amidst the clashing energies, exchanging blows in a melee. Eventually, the energies dissipated. Zhang Lie's right hand bled. Ling Gu was sent stumbling back with the sound of breaking bones.

With each step he retreated, he coughed out a mouthful of blood. He had clearly been dealt a severe blow.

Even so, Ling Gu's aura was as strong as ever. He glowed in golden light, then took an immobile stance, as inevitable and unmoving as a mountain range.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Hundred Dragons Soaring]!"

Black genetic energy burst forth from Zhang Lie, as though there were hundreds, thousands of dragons surging throughout his body.

A horde of dragons launched out of Zhang Lie's left arm as he expended half his genetic energy in one supercharged attack.

Howling with the force of thunder, the hundred dragons soared through the air. They were fierce and domineering, and all hundred of them boasted the power of annihilation.

Ling Gu tossed out his blood spear once and again, piercing through the black dragon's body. Pitch-black energy of annihilation gushed out. As the battle dragged on, Ling Gu grew more and more wounded, golden feathers torn off his wings, his fresh blood anointing the ground. Even his golden glow seemed to dim.

"Greet the king of the netherworld for me!"

Zhang Lie unsheathed Guicang and slashed forward, intending to give Ling Gu a lethal blow when he suddenly turned.

Zhang Lie: ? ? ?

"Very well, I will!" Ling Gu turned to leave.

Zhang Lie stilled. You really know the king of the netherworld?!

Ling Gu had already taken two steps away when Zhang Lie came to his senses and made to attack him once more. He swung Guicang, but it passed straight through Ling Gu's body, as though it had only ever been an illusion.

Zhang Lie tried a few more swings, but none could strike him, as though they had never had a bout at all.

Zhang Lie suspected that he had fallen into an illusion array, but with his willpower, he could hardly have been affected by any such illusions in the fourth realm. Zhang Lie couldn't help but think of this like a scripted fight in a game.

As Ling Gu vanished from sight, another unexpected event occurred. A huge crash came from the sky as a set of golden doors appeared in a frightening burst of energy.

The figures of light all around knelt on the floor, suppressed by incredible pressure. They slumped to the ground, unable to resist.

Zhang Lie believed that those figures of light represented people that truly existed—or rather, had once truly existed.

Subsequently, a resplendent golden sun appeared, descending with a will so mighty it seemed as though the universe itself had been given physical form. Seated within the sun was a man who seemed like a god, his eyes shut, the source of all the illumination.

The sun bore down on Zhang Lie.

Formless will billowed out from the man, as though no one in the world would be able to halt his advance.

Zhang Lie raised his eyebrows. This new enemy was far too arrogant, to think that he could quash him by physical might alone.

Zhang Lie raised his sword into the air, manifesting a sword will that rose into the heavens, strong beyond human understanding, vast as the ocean.

The man in the golden sun was unmoved, his eyes closed.

What manner of pride was this? The man in the golden sun descended from the skies, suppressing Zhang Lie with aura alone.

The sun glowed with splendor. Golden runes patterned the air. Starlight shone through the heavens.

Zhang Lie's sword will struck the sun's divine glow in a resplendent explosion too bright to witness with the naked eye.

Any spectators would find their soul trembling.

Heaven and earth resonated with the will of the sword and the aura of the godlike being within the sun. This confrontation was one between two paragons.

As the divine light dissipated, the two figures could be seen once more through the blinding haze.

Zhang Lie stood on the platform, his robes shifting in the wind, silent and head unbowed.

In the sky was a resplendent golden sun, with a saintly man still meditating with eyes closed within. Neither seemed to have won out in the confrontation; both parties retained their original stances.

The other entity's aura seemed almost deific in origin.

"I know who he is—he's from the clan of the solar gods, a divine stem!" one of the figures of light shouted, clearly recognizing Zhang Lie's opponent.

"Is it really him, Radiant Sun? The young lord of the Redgold, invincible and undefeated in battle?"

Zhang Lie frowned. It looked as though his opponent was famous.

"You're strong, stronger than I expected," Radiant Sun commented.

His body seemed to shine with divine light imbued into his flesh. When he attacked, the world itself would quake.

The void distorted as Radiant Sun made his move, forming seals with his hands. His left hand invoked the divine moon, his right the great sun.

The heavens glowed with divine light, dyeing the skies golden and scorching the air.

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

Zhang Lie raised the blade in his hand high into the air, encircled by black genetic energy. The temperature of the air dropped to sub-zero values, and a strong wind buffeted the two combatants present.

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 two combatants struck each other in a clash of celestial wills.

Radiant Sun's right hand curved and sketched out a sun. He slammed his palm down, bathing the world in purifying radiance.

Zhang Lie shot forward, his hair fluttering.

"[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 skies shone with radiant solar light, cleansing and scouring.

The earth was dark and chilly, where Zhang Lie had invoked a portal to the netherworld. Pitch-black genetic energy formed a boundless ocean over the platform.

The two combatants warred over heaven and earth themselves.

"[Celestial Convergence]." Radiant Sun formed the seals of sun and moon with his hands. Stars peeked out from amidst the void and descended on Zhang Lie with incredible might.

Zhang Lie stared up at Radiant Sun, both hands on his sword. "[The Boundless Blade: Dragon's Wrath]!"

Guicang unleashed a barrage of sword energy in the form of a blood dragon. A dragon's roar shook the void as the pitch-black genetic energy turned blood-red. The underworld river roiled, forming a gigantic blood-colored hurricane.

The sun and moon darkened; the falling stars shattered.

The two combatants' battlefield was foundational natural law itself.

Zhang Lie was shocked by the ferocity of his opponent. His blood dragon had torn apart the sun and moon's radiance, breaking through Radiant Sun's seals, but had fallen short of taking Radiant Sun himself down.

Radiant Sun continued to sit cross-legged in the void, encircled by an eponymous radiant sun, holy and dignified. His eyes closed, he formed seals with both hands and raised them high overhead.