A figure of lightning rose up into the air, able to fly despite the tremendous restrictions of this domain.

Its skull glowed with light. Lightning arced from his body, forking hundreds, thousands of times before concentrating on that old ox. Lightning and flame filled the air.

The figure was a mammoth that had taken a humanoid form, but its head was still that of a mammoth. It was unbelievably strong and wielded a giant blade a few meters long. When it moved, space distorted.

Faint traces of divine flame burned around it. The blade it held was of ancient make, made of ivory, and possessed overwhelming strength.

It could easily topple a mountain or flatten plains.

The blade released glowing light as it smashed into a halberd.

Zhang Lie saw another cultivator who seemed to have come from the Hall of Immortals, bearing the same make of weapon as the ninth Immortal King.

He clashed against the mammoth, forceful and imposing, as his eyes transformed into runes. In just a flash, the mammoth's actions slowed and were captured in his mind's eye.

The halberd struck the ivory blade time and time again.

Suddenly, with a final cleave, the man who seemed to have come from the Hall of Immortals drew blood, beheading the giant mammoth in a river of blood.

From five hundred paces away, a shout rang out. A particularly strong cultivator had been killed.

His opponent was a scorpion whose exoskeleton glittered like blue diamond, translucent and sparkling with ocean blue.

It was the size of a millstone, and its carapace was a color that seemed more out of place in reality than illusion. Its sharp stinger glittered with frosty light. It hid itself in the void; when it struck, its stinger transformed into blue lightning that shot toward the ground in a spray of blood punctuated with terrible screams.

It was precise, deadly, and cold. Its stinger was sharper than a lance as it pierced through the young cultivator's lower back and impaled him.

The cultivator struggled. Those who saw his plight shivered and shuddered in sympathetic resonance.This was a killing blow. Even without any poison, it would have sufficed to take the lives of many. The scorpion's stinger was simply too sharp.

The stinger shook as the cultivator's body split and exploded in the air.

The scorpion was overwhelmingly strong.

Such was the nature of the battlefield; even the strongest cultivators would easily fall under such circumstances, and all this was taking place at the foot of one of the mountains, a minuscule fraction of the battlefield.

There were nine holy mountains in all, bathing their surroundings in a haze of purple air. Precious, ancient herbs grew all over them.

Suddenly, the grind of metal against metal could be heard amidst the void—a group of copper beetles, numbering perhaps in the tens of thousands.

The cultivators goggled. This was an overwhelming swarm of beetles. They could devour everything around them, flesh, metal, and weapons. Tens of thousands of them together boasted an overwhelming might.

At the foot of the mountains stood a youth with black hair draped over his shoulders, a golden lamp in his hands. He inclined his head toward the skies and roared.

He shot forward and activated the lamp, sending divine flame into the air that combusted the copper beetles in high-pitched screams.

The beetles were all lit aflame. They struggled violently as they fell to the ground.

The flames melted their bodies into liquid metal, which dissolved rock, the ground, and ancient wood.

This was a huge battlefield, chaotic, cruel, and amazingly dangerous. Cultivators perished one after another, and even those that were strong enough to control divine flame would be struck by calamity beyond what they could counter.

Such was the enormity of what Zhang Lie faced. All manner of weapons flew through the air.

Zhang Lie encountered a spot of trouble himself and immediately retaliated in kind.

His opponent looked like a red-crowned crane but with blue coloration and red spots all over its body. Whenever it flapped its wings, fire flared.

It was a particularly strong avian, almost like the legendary Bi Fang.

Pale blue genetic energy rippled about Zhang Lie's arms. He flicked his wrists, causing a frightening aura to descend on the world. The sky began to darken, and a fish the size of a whale materialized in the air.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar]!"A howling gale swept over the arena. As more and more genetic energy gathered around Zhang Lie's arms, it looked as though he were at the heart of a whirlpool.

A huge wave soared into the air. As Zhang Lie punched forward, the fish slammed its huge tail on the ground and sent a torrent of water surging.

Ripples of energy spread out from Zhang Lie, warping the space around him. The towering waves looked like enraged black dragons, flooding the area.

As the waves burst apart, the air filled with echoes of Zhang Lie's signature genetic energy, shattering space and swallowing up all life in its vicinity.

The ground quaked.

Fire evaporated water and turned it to steam.

As they fought, the crane's energy slowly flagged. The red flames that emerged from the red spots along its body began to weaken and sputter.

Suddenly, a golden whip shot over, causing the Bi Fang to cry out in pain as it was struck by a sneak attack.

The 'whip' was the trunk of a golden elephant, dozens of meters tall. Its thick, golden trunk was even more fearsome than an ordinary whip, and the force of the blow was enough to crush the Bi Fang's bones.

The golden elephant then turned to Zhang Lie.

Zhang Lie snorted. The strongest beasts of this mountain hadn't even shown themselves yet.

"[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.

Starlight draped over his body, causing it to glow resplendently.His speed reached an extreme as he shot forward like a sharp blade and struck the elephant's trunk.

Suddenly, the trunk curled around him, as though the elephant was about to eat him up.

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

The [Fists of the Silent Sea] formed a fist in combination with the black serpent form and a mallet with the golden tiger. The condensed genetic energy solidified into sharp crystal, each seeming to contain an entire nascent galaxy.

The thousands of shards of crystal exploded like a blooming flower. The golden elephant shrieked as it released Zhang Lie, transforming into radiant golden flame as it shot away. Its trunk had almost been cut apart, and it was barely hanging by a flap of skin.