Ultragenic Warlord

Chapter 964: Another Advancement

Zhang Lie shrugged. "The king of keys is more refined than that. The other kings are just thinking about how to avoid paying you, but the king of keys is already scheming about what will happen after the war against the death spirits."

Li Zongming frowned. "You mean that the king of keys is thinking that far ahead already?"

"Indeed."

Li Zongming couldn't help but ask, "Just what is it trying to accomplish?"

"After this bet, the other superior kings must hate us. They'd have ambushed us already if not for the impending war against the death spirits and the presence of the king of keys and king of chaos nearby."

Li Zongming understood Zhang Lie's implication immediately.

"Once we resolve the threat of the death spirits, these kings will strike immediately—and the king of keys is masterminding all this indirectly. Winning this bet and obtaining thirty superior worlds' worth of energy is both a blessing and a curse," Zhang Lie surmised.

They would be able to obtain the overwhelming majority of the spoils from the death spirits, but the kings who would be forced to give up those spoils would get madder and madder until they launched an assault against the Zongming world themselves.

Li Zongming sighed. "Would it be better if we gave up on this debt?"

Even he quailed at the idea of going up against four superior worlds who had existed since antiquity.

"Not necessarily. We'd destroy the image that we worked so hard to build up in front of the superior kings—and they'd again try to treat you and the Zongming world like playthings, to manipulate you into becoming nothing more than a source of superior world's energy for them."

Li Zongming tugged on his hair in vexation. "Stuck between a rock and a hard place..."

"This was destined to happen the moment the Zongming world evolved into a superior world. There's no way the other superior kings would induct another member into their midst immediately.

Either you would have become their toy, or you would have been destroyed. Fortunately, the death spirits are a larger threat, and the superior worlds don't have time to worry about you at the moment."

Once the threat was resolved, however, they would strike.

Li Zongming sighed. "I'm starting to want to join the death spirits..."

Zhang Lie smiled wryly. "Ignoring the consequences to the third realm if you do so, the first step to joining the death spirits is to surrender the will of your world. Would you be willing to do so?"

Li Zongming shook his head.

Could a world without a will still be considered a world at all? A world that had lost its will would become a world of death, one devoid of life.

Zhang Lie suddenly began to laugh. "Actually, there's nothing much to worry about. Even if our enemies don't attack us, I'd think up a reason to attack them. The current superior worlds are all far too arrogant."

Li Zongming asked, "Do you have a plan in mind?"

"We've already destroyed one superior world—we could easily destroy more."

Zhang Lie had predicted that the other superior worlds would eventually become the Zongming world's enemy. That was why he had hidden the members of Team Zenith and restricted them from participating in the war.

Zhang Lie and Li Zongming passed through the tunnel and back into the Zongming world.

Li Zongming said, "I'll inform the worlds in the vicinity and start mobilizing our forces."

After the superior worlds' meeting, each superior world was responsible for mobilizing the worlds in their vicinity in preparation for the offensive against the death spirits.

What the Zongming world had to do now was take over the information network that the xuluo world had set up, and Li Zongming had a lot on his plate.

Zhang Lie replied, "I'll return to the draconian world and start preparing myself, then."

Li Zongming nodded. "Please take Qianlin with you."

Zhang Lie thought for a moment. Once war broke out against the death spirits, the safest location for Li Qianlin wouldn't be the Zongming world, itself a superior world and hence a target, but rather the draconian world, which was a peak large world and hence far safer.

Li Zongming wouldn't be heading to the battlefield; Zhang Lie and the warlords would go in his stead. Although the Zongming world would be protected by Li Zongming, there were stronger forces in the draconian world—the draconian sage, as well as Zhang Lie's elites, the members of Team Zenith.

Unlike the Zongming world, which had roused the attention of the other superior worlds and lesser worlds alike, the draconian world was largely unheard of. It would be a superior location with regards to safety, but Zhang Lie didn't immediately do so.

"I'll respect Qianlin's decision and ask about her intentions."

Li Zongming nodded. "A good decision."

Li Qianlin chose to remain in the Zongming world.

"This world might have changed, but it's still my homeworld. Don't worry—my father will keep me safe."

Zhang Lie respected Li Qianlin's opinion, and he didn't believe that she would be in danger in either world. The draconian world was safer, but as long as Zhang Lie and the other superior worlds' forces could prevent the death spirits' expansion, the Zongming world would be safe.

On the other hand, if Zhang Lie were to fail, then the draconian world would be equally dangerous for Li Qianlin.

Everything rested on being able to prevent the death spirits' expansion.

Zhang Lie rode the disaster-grade multicolored dragon back to the draconian world. He set off for the disaster-grade farm, where Zhu awaited him with good news.

"Thanks to the world's energy you provided, Zhang Lie, two disaster-grade lifeforms have evolved into monarch-grade."

Zhang Lie was elated. He had found the key to the evolution of disaster-grade lifeforms—a world's energy.

Zhu continued, "However, these disaster-grade lifeforms have to prepare by fighting and devouring strong foes before their evolution in order to maximize the world's energy they can absorb."

"That's an easy problem to solve. The third realm will be facing a massive war in the near future, and I'll have you lead these lifeforms onto the battlefield. It'll be an excellent opportunity for these lifeforms to fight and gain experience, and we'll have sufficient world's energy to feed them after the war."

The monarch-grade lifeforms were, to some extent, capable of resisting the effects of Zhang Lie's disaster-grade mistmeld-clam soulshard.

Because they had been reared artificially, neither monarch-grade lifeform was an opponent for Zhang Lie, and he easily killed them both in the blink of an eye. After consuming the monarch-grade lifeforms,

Zhang Lie reached an unprecedented 25 monarch gene fragments, with an accompanying monstrous boost to his strength. In the past, he had needed to activate a soulshard or technique to truly be at the level of a superior king—but now, he was naturally at that level without doing anything.