Ultragenic Warlord

Chapter 854: Fuzhang's Strength

Zhang Lie pulled away, and the black serpent appeared behind him again. Its thick body wrapped around Zhang Lie and corroded away the force of Fuzhang's replica of Zhang Lie's attack. Its scales turned a blood-red color and horns protruded from its forehead as it transformed into a bloody dragon.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!" As Zhang Lie punched forward, the bloody dragon tore apart the shark and shredded the pale-blue genetic energy with its signature corrosion.

"It's useless!" Fuzhang defended with his palm again, and the bloody dragon was sucked inside his pitch-black skin. Just when it was almost entirely absorbed, Zhang Lie suddenly smirked.

His plan had succeeded.

With a snap of his fingers, the bloody dragon self-destructed, releasing a force of annihilation right in the middle of Fuzhang's palm.

Fuzhang's eyes opened wide as pitch-black energy billowed from his palm. His palm was unable to handle the impact of the destruction. The unstable energies formed a black hole over it, which devoured half his arm.

Zhang Lie smiled coldly. "Your ability isn't to devour anything, but rather to reverse heaven's might."

Heaven's might turned cause into effect, skipping the process in between. Fuzhang's genius was to reverse-engineer this process and revert effect into cause instead.

Although it looked as though he were devouring Zhang Lie's attack, he was simply reforming the energy into its basal state, then temporarily holding that energy in—though to someone not in the know, it would look as though he had absorbed that attack.

The reason Fuzhang was able to replicate Zhang Lie's attack wasn't because he had absorbed the technique and released it, but because he had used heaven's might to turn cause into effect once more.

And once Zhang Lie understood the principles behind the attack, it was trivial to defend against it.

Zhang Lie waited until Fuzhang had begun activating heaven's might before he triggered the power of annihilation, causing an explosion that spread to even the part of the energy Fuzhang had converted. That had cost Fuzhang an arm.

"Let's end it here! [Fists of the Silent Sea: Hundred Dragons Soaring]!" Zhang Lie cocked back his left arm, channeling his genetic energy into the attack, and sent its full force at the golden roc.

Howling with the force of thunder, causing even space itself to tremble, the horde of dragons flew toward Fuzhang as one. The black dragons were fierce and domineering, and their trajectories criss-crossed in mid-air.

All hundred dragons boasted the power of annihilation, as though Zhang Lie had used [Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade] a hundred times in succession.

Fuzhang was incapable of stopping even a single bloody dragon, let alone a hundred. The battle had come to a close—or so Zhang Lie thought.

However, Fuzhang remained calm even in what seemed like insurmountable odds. His fist clenched tightly. A serpent wrapped around it and shot forth as he punched forward with heaven's might, causing them all to explode at once.

The power of annihilation mushroomed through space, forming eddies and vortices of energy that devoured everything in the vicinity—not just a black hole, but a strip of barren void.

Even Red Comet and Li Zongming, who were fighting in the distance, had to hurriedly avoid the spreading devastation. Man and beast alike felt cold sweat dotting their back—no one but Zhang Lie could have unleashed such devastation.

If Zhang Lie had used this in a large world, he would have destroyed at least a full third of it.

Qiantuo and Luohou emulated their opponents and fled from the roiling waves of black, but the ordinary xuluo had no such capabilities. They were unable to escape the black clouds of annihilation and were killed in an instant.

Fuzhang unclenched his pitch-black hand and absorbed the energy of annihilation.

Zhang Lie's face turned ugly. He had intended on using [Fists of the Silent Sea] as a finisher, but he had failed.

"To think heaven's might could be used in such fashion..."

Fuzhang had used the power of heaven's might not on Zhang Lie himself, but rather on the black dragons. He might not have been able to hurt Zhang Lie himself, but he could certainly damage Zhang Lie's dragons easily.

As a result, Fuzhang was easily able to destroy all hundred dragons with just one punch.

"Thank you for the energy," Fuzhang called out, smiling. "Now, it's time for some payback."

Fuzhang cocked his arm and punched forward. Pitch-black annihilation shot forth like a cannon beam. The hundred black dragons had been sacrificed for this one attack.

"Do you really think I'll be hurt by my own attack?" Zhang Lie scoffed. He unsheathed the blade Guicang, then sliced at the beam with a will that seemed to be able to divide heaven and earth.

Zhang Lie easily cut open a path through the attack; the beam rushed forward on either side of him. "This energy is only the aftermath of my attack. If you think you can repurpose this waste to kill me—you must be the biggest fool in the realm."

Fuzhang lifted a palm to block Zhang Lie's sword slash, but his heaven's might was ineffective against it. As the slash struck Fuzhang, it cut his palm in half.

"Master!" Noticing that his master was on the losing end of the battle, Luohou tried to rush over to help, but his momentary distraction gave Red Comet an opening to slice off one of his arms.

"For the glory of the xuluo!" Fuzhang's eyes burned with the blaze of death. Energy erupted from his body; his chest cracked. Fuzhang pounced toward Zhang Lie, intending to send both of them to their deaths—but Zhang Lie was faster.

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

He struck once more. An underworld river materialized in space, one so vast the entire world could see it. Everything turned cold—the temperature had dropped to sub-zero values, and a strong wind buffeted the battlefield. Blood-colored frost appeared around them all. As though the doors to hell had just been thrown open, tens of thousands of serpents rushed out in a flood.

Fuzhang's snakelike tail curled around him and activated heaven's might on the flood of serpents, which began to explode one by one, but they came in such great numbers that heaven's might was unable to stop them all.

In the end, Fuzhang was drowned under a flood of serpents...