Ultragenic Warlord

Chapter 869: The World's Core

"Even if you think heaven's might beneath you, you can pass it onto the rest of your race. Heaven's might can skip the process between cause and effect, and it'll give your world a big boost. As a newly evolved superior world, you won't have the foundation, knowledge, or resources that other superior worlds have, and you'll easily become a target."

If Potian had a forehead, it would be beading with sweat. Whether or not it were able to convince Zhang Lie would determine its fate.

"You wouldn't want to face another enemy like us xuluo, would you? I know you might be strong, but if you had to defend against all nine other superior worlds together..."

Potian felt as though it had spoken more that day than during the last millennium combined.

"If your race has the power of heaven's might and its ascended form, given your personal strength, none of the other nine superior worlds would dare touch you. After all, who would dare to provoke such a race? Don't you think so?"

Zhang Lie replied not with words, but rather a slash of his sword.

Potian's body was bisected. As the left and right halves of its body split apart, its eyes widened, as though asking, "Why?"

Zhang Lie replied calmly, "I can learn what I need to on my own."

Shortly after Zhang Lie had ascended into the fourth realm in his past life, the xuluo race had gone extinct. Not a single xuluo survived. Back then, Zhang Lie was very surprised that even an ancient superior world couldn't avoid the fate of destruction.

Hundreds of thousands of years, even millions of years, of history—all that lost in a single moment. Were there really any races that could survive for eternity?

One of the more established hunters in the fourth realm had laughed at him then.

There were few existences that could survive for eternity, that was true—but the xuluo were destined to fall from the beginning. How could a ridiculous power like heaven's might not come without any drawbacks or consequences? They were simply not apparent at first glance.

The use of heaven's might was, in some sense, equivalent to taking a loan from heaven, the world, or natural law. A superior world was a large customer, and the will of the world would overlook small enough debts. Once the debts grew to a certain extent, however, debt collectors would be mobilized.

The xuluo had been destroyed because they couldn't pay back their loan on time.

It was precisely because of his past experience that Zhang Lie knew about the hidden downside to heaven's might, this debt that would ultimately have to be repaid. Heaven's might boasted an intoxicating strength—until it came time to pay the price for that strength.

Strong though it might be, Zhang Lie had no intention of allowing any other human to access this malicious power. "We humans can survive on our own strength."

The seabed of the xuluo world began to crack once again. Dark energy gushed out of the ground like ghouls clambering out of hell in search of souls and debts owed to them.

Within moments, the whole of the xuluo world was covered in black fog. The world itself seemed to be crumbling to pieces.

Zhang Lie's face turned serious. The black fog that tried to close in on Zhang Lie was vaporized by the scarlet genetic energy that surrounded him.

"This is—" Zhang Lie reached out and grasped a handful of fog, which he crushed in his palm.

The hunters of the Milky Way referred to this substance as apocalyptic essence. Across the three thousand worlds, it bore many names: energy of destruction, energy of annihilation, source of evil, and so on.

It appeared only rarely, but whenever it did, it marked the downfall of a world. The world's destruction was guaranteed; no one could stop it.

Zhang Lie recalled what a hunter had told him in his past life: that the king of the xuluo had realized the double-edged nature of heaven's might after long contemplation. However, xuluo society had been built on the premise of heaven's might, and it would be impossible for the xuluo race as a whole to discard that strength even if the xuluo king commanded it. The entire race would revolt—and even if all the xuluo were somehow willing to accept, the other superior worlds would take advantage of the xuluo's weakness to attack them.

All the superior races were crafty and self-serving. It was evident that the xuluo would be dramatically weakened if they were to give up heaven's might, and they would be devoured by the other superior worlds.

The xuluo king's hand was forced by internal and external pressure. Despite Feitian's knowledge of the perils of heaven's might, it had no choice but to keep using it.

It was easy for a thrifty person to spend more, but far harder for an extravagant person to cut down on spending.

The xuluo had worked hard to get to where they were, and Feitian itself had worked hardest among all the xuluo. Even so, Feitian 's error in judgment at that critical juncture had doomed the entire race.

The reason Feitian didn't ascend to the fourth realm, so fervently collected the energy from newly evolved worlds,and sealed the bulk of its body away was to strengthen both the world and itself in order to suppress the impending disaster and 'debt collection'.

Feitian knew that it couldn't delay the inevitable forever, but it didn't know what else to do.

Now that Zhang Lie had slain Feitian and the world's energy was allowed to run rampant, the disaster that had been held in abeyance now triggered in earnest.

Huge cracks criss-crossed through the world. The hole in the sky began to propagate, and the heavens cracked as though they were made of glass. Pitch-black energy continued to pour into the world as the xuluo began to howl and scream, their bodies dissolving upon being surrounded by the energy.

Zhang Lie had no intention to save any of the xuluo. Who knew how many newly evolved superior worlds they had destroyed all these years—and how many lifeforms were there in each such world? Their hands were sullied with blood, so much blood it would never be wiped clean from their histories. The other superior races were much the same.

Zhang Lie's target had never been the xuluo. Very quickly, he found a glowing beacon of light that came from deep within the world—the world's core.

By the time Zhang Lie closed in on it, it was already surrounded by the mysterious black fog, tendrils of which wrapped around the core and tried to steal its power away.

The world's core emitted pulses of energy in an attempt to resist the fog.

Zhang Lie reached out, slashed the tendrils of fog to ribbons with his swords, and claimed the core for himself.

This was Zhang Lie's primary objective, and what he believed would be a core ingredient for his limit-breaking disaster-grade potion. However, one superior core was insufficient. If Zhang Lie's hypothesis were right, he would need at least three superior world's cores for such a potion...