Ultragenic Warlord

Chapter 541: Swallowed Up

The tablets were only able to stop the whirlpool tyrant momentarily, but that was enough for Zhang Lie.

"[Time's Passing]!" The blades infused with the power of time immemorial landed on the tyrant's body, but they had little effect. A century, a millennium—all that was but a moment to the disaster-grade whirlpool tyrant, who had lived for eons.

The pressure of the sea washed over Zhang Lie. Under the tyrant's control, the pressure hindered Zhang Lie's movements to a startling extent, making him feel as though he were trying to swim in the deep sea.

If not for the strength of Zhang Lie's own constitution, he might have been compressed into nothing more than a ball of meat.

The whirlpool tyrant keened once more with the power of its station and the depth of its being. The entire sea reverberated with it, causing the water pressure to grow stronger and stronger.

It sounded like a warning, or perhaps a threat. It was announcing that it had the upper hand, that all this terrain belonged to him and him alone.

Gritting his teeth and bearing the increased pressure, Zhang Lie rushed forward.

The whirlpool tyrant began to make a move, swimming so quickly that it seemed to drag the entire sea along with it. Caught by the currents, Zhang Lie was swept up by the tyrant's trajectory. He activated the first form of his [Ninecarp Transformation], transformed into a carp, and swam nimbly against the current.

The tyrant's movements became more and more rapid, forming an underwater cyclone that had the entire sea trembling and revolving in its wake. The tyrant opened its maw wide, and the seawater gushed into it as though it were a never-ending abyss.

.

Everything around it, fish and marine lifeforms alike, coral and granite and debris, was sucked toward its maw. Not even Zhang Lie was able to escape from its grasp.

The whirlpool tyrant's appetite seemed to be endless.

On careful investigation, Zhang Lie noticed that the seawater that flooded into the tyrant's body was forced out through its gills, leaving the solid matter behind.

Zhang Lie felt his whole world turning topsy-turvy as he smashed against all sorts of debris.

A stellar river descended from the heavens. The stellar light contained flecks of gold, green, silver, and blue, and it was a miraculous sight to behold. The sea shimmered with an otherworldly glow.

That river led right into the whirlpool tyrant's maw—under the tremendous suction it created, even the starlight was unable to escape its grasp.

Deep in the sea, despite the effects of [Ninecarp Transformation], Zhang Lie found himself being drawn toward the tyrant's maw. He was certain the tyrant could keep this up for the entire night if it had to—and if that were the case, then he would need to take the initiative.

Instead of resisting the current, Zhang Lie activated his white-grub soulshard and had it envelope his entire body, then allowed the current to carry him toward and into the tyrant's maw.

The moment he was swallowed, the turbulent waters turned calm and placid as the tyrant slowly swam through the sea.

In mid-air, Zhu saw the whirlpool that had suddenly appeared in the sea vanish, and she heard the whirlpool tyrant keen loudly. Her heart skipped a beat. Could Zhang Lie have lost?

After Zhang Lie was sucked into the tyrant's body, he entered a rather large space. He activated his dragon's eye soulshard and looked all around him—he was now within its body. The body of this whirlpool tyrant actually seemed to be connected to an extradimensional storage space, just like that of his potbellied-toad pouch.

A strange power in his surroundings was corroding whatever had been sucked in and causing it all to decay. Once all the solids had liquefied, that liquid was absorbed by the walls of the space and then filtered out of the tyrant's body as waste.

If Zhang Lie's body weren't protected by his superior-grade white-grub soulshard, he would likewise have suffered the same fate. Even with his genetic energy as a barrier against the strange corrosion, he would only be able to survive a little while longer.

Zhang Lie anticipated that none of this solid matter would be able to provide any form of sustenance for the whirlpool tyrant. Its main diet was the evening sunlight and starlight, and it had to consume an entire night's worth of it to feel satiated.

Only that quantity of energy would be able to support such a massive lifeform.

Every day, the tyrant would wake up at sunset, consume a night's worth of energy, before falling back asleep.

That sunlight and starlight was composed of the genetic energy that ran through the entirety of the second realm, though hardly any lifeforms were able to absorb it.

The pocket dimension was unusually corrosive, and even the white-grub soulshard wouldn't be able to protect Zhang Lie for long. Once the soulshard's protection was exhausted, the corrosion would target Zhang Lie himself.

He couldn't waste any more time.

"[Second Form: Piercing the Soul]!" Zhang Lie infused spiritual energy into his blade, and the blade gleamed more and more brightly as he charged up his technique.

The silvery-white glow illuminated the entire pocket space, and the sword seemed to turn immaterial, as though it belonged to another plane of reality. No matter how large this space was, it was still part of the whirlpool tyrant, and it connected to its belly.

As long as the whirlpool tyrant had a soul, Zhang Lie's soul-targeting attack would have an effect.

The whirlpool tyrant howled as its body was suddenly attacked and its soul impaled from within. The seawater began to froth, and tall waves formed over the surface of the sea.

The whirlpool tyrant could hardly believe that its prey had hurt it from within. Every other foe it had met could be swallowed cleanly into its stomach, where the foe would be dissolved into nothing. What was so different about this puny fighter?

In the past, the whirlpool tyrant had only encountered oceanic lifeforms, none of which could target the soul directly.

The whirlpool tyrant's body was particularly large, so large its outer walls could hardly be found. Even if its prey somehow ended up against a wall, those walls were sturdy and protected by a durable barrier.

On the other hand, Zhang Lie was different. He could strike at the whirlpool tyrant's soul directly, a direct counter to its physical-based attacks.

The tyrant was only now realizing how fearsome an opponent Zhang Lie was...