Chapter 860: The Final Xuluo Lord
A nine-headed spider with thousands of eyes on every head emerged from the bloody sea. Nine hundred and ninety-nine hands grew out of various parts of its body like fur or hair. Its nine heads sprayed out purplish-black flames.
Zhang Lie raised an eyebrow. Clenching his fists tightly, he gathered blue genetic energy around him. Ripples of genetic energy emanated from his arms. A frightening aura descended on the world. The skies began to darken, and a fish the size of a whale materialized in the air.
Howling gales shook the air around him. The surface of the sea raged, and the purplish-black flames that Vemacitrin exhaled were sent flying by the gales of wind that Zhang Lie conjured. As more and more genetic energy gathered around Zhang Lie's arms, it looked as though he were at the heart of a whirlpool.
"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar]!" 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 into the air.
Ripples of energy spread out from Zhang Lie, warping the space around him. The towering waves looked like enraged black dragons, and they swamped the nine-headed spider.
The spider's heads tilted in shock. Zhang Lie's attack had snuffed out the flames that it produced. Its eight legs flung waves of the bloody seawater into the sky, clashing against Zhang Lie's pale-blue genetic sea.
Zhang Lie's energy easily won out. As the pale-blue genetic energy overwhelmed the spider's defenses, the nine-headed spider leapt high into the air.
Underneath it, the pale-blue genetic energy exploded upon coming into contact with the bloody sea. The pale-blue genetic energy rampaged like a storm, causing the bloody seawater to swirl up into the air and strike the nine-headed spider.
The spider's sneak attack had failed miserably. Not only had it not managed to hurt Zhang Lie, it even lost three of its legs to Zhang Lie's counterattack. Even so, the nine-headed spider didn't seem to mind. "You must be the fellow who killed Fuzhang, Luohou, and Qiantuo—and Pozhi as well, I suppose."
"Looks like the xuluo predicted I would be coming..." Zhang Lie wasn't too surprised. If the xuluo couldn't even sense enemy presence in their own world, they would have no right to call themselves inhabitants of a superior world.
The nine-headed spider continued, "Let me introduce myself. I'm Vematricin, last of the four great xuluo lords, prince of the xuluo. We've been waiting for you."
Battalions of xuluo warriors surrounded Zhang Lie.
Zhang Lie didn't speak. Instead, a tidal wave of water-attuned genetic energy appeared behind him. A violent shark appeared from behind Zhang Lie's body as the energy circled around his body and condensed by his index finger.
Vematricin's thousands of eyes gleamed. "Today will be the day of your death."
"I have no intention to be a guest to the xuluo," Zhang Lie replied mildly. The shark swelled as it merged with Zhang Lie's body.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"[The Boundless Blade]!" Zhang Lie swung his sword, and a wave of water-attuned genetic energy spread out all around him.
While Zhang Lie and Vematricin were deep in battle, Feitian found himself at a mountain range deep within the sea of blood. Feitian reached out with a hand and prodded at the mountain, which began to crack. The cracks propagated at an extremely fast rate, and the entire mountain began to collapse. Huge boulders fell and tumbled down the mountain, causing seawater to surge forth.
A localized whirlpool formed at the scene, and a centipede's head poked out of the eye of the whirlpool. The centipede looked around until it saw Feitian. Curiously, it asked, "Father, what are you doing? I was having a good sleep. Why did you wake me up?"
The centipede who had poked its head out of the eye of the whirlpool was none other than Feitian's first son, Potian.
Feitian informed him, "A strong foe has come to the xuluo world."
Potian replied in exasperation, "So what? I was having such a nice nap!"
"As you know, I'm quite skilled with heaven's might. I can see that this person brings with him the karmic retribution for the xuluo's indiscriminate slaughter of so many newly evolved superior worlds."
"And then?"
Potian didn't seem as though he wanted to do anything about it. His relationship with his father was rather poor, and he lived a relatively indolent life.
If not for Feitian waking him up and trying to pester him to fight, Potian might have been interested in the intruder who had dared to step into the xuluo world, but now that Feitian had come over himself to seek his assistance, Potian was far less happy about the idea of doing so.
He wasn't Feitian's tool, after all; wasn't it embarrassing for him to make a move just because his father wanted him to?
Feitian continued, "Vemacitrin is in battle now, and I don't expect he'll be able to survive."
"Oh, that fellow?" Potian murmured, without any intention of helping out.
Vemacitrin worshiped Potian, but Potian didn't necessarily like him back—at best, he tolerated Vemacitrin's presence. After all, Potian and Vemacitrin shared the same lineage.
"If you slay the invader, I'll free you from captivity."
"And why do I need freedom? I was doing fine sleeping all day. Wouldn't you agree?"
Potian continued, "If there's nothing else, scram! Don't bother me any further."
Feitian sighed. "I know that you're upset at me because I've been suppressing your strength, but your natural affinity for heaven's might is simply too strong. If I don't do it, the entire xuluo world would be destroyed!"
"This is something that happened so long ago that I don't care about it any longer. Just leave!" Potian couldn't be bothered to deal with Feitian and slowly slunk back into the whirlpool.
Feitian felt a headache pounding. His son, who had once claimed that he would rule over the third realm, had lost all that motivation after being chained down for ten thousand years.
Perhaps he had been too harsh.
Feitian continued, "If you don't stop that fellow, you won't have a place to sleep any longer."
Potian frowned. "That would be troublesome indeed, but there are three thousand worlds in this realm. I can find somewhere else."
"You—you really do hold a grudge against me, don't you? Your brother's about to die! What will it take to get you to fend off the invaders?"
"Can't you do it yourself, Father?"
"I have my own plans!"
"Then carry them out—goodnight!" Potian slunk back into the blood-colored whirlpool.
"Half of the world's energy from the new superior world—I'll give it to you!" Feitian shouted.
Potian turned back around. "Ninety percent."
"Sixty percent, at most."
"Eighty percent, and the freedom to choose which eighty percent I want."
"Deal!"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Haha, haha!" Frightening laughter came from within the whirlpool of blood, as though thousands of people were simultaneously laughing.
"Father, you should have opened the negotiation with these terms. I wouldn't have had to waste time on this charade in that case."
The whirlpool of blood burst apart, turning into a red mist. A long, segmented body rushed out of the whirlpool. The centipede was composed of thousands of segments, each of which had a human face embedded in it. On either side of each segment were human-like hands and legs.
Feitian was exasperated by the behavior of his eldest son. "Just who does he take after, I wonder..."
Meanwhile, Zhang Lie's battle with Vemacitrin was growing more and more heated.
Zhang Lie's shark burst apart into a horde of smaller pale-blue sharks that spread out over the sea, sweeping away the xuluo that had prepared an ambush for Zhang Lie.
They tore apart the xuluo as Vemacitrin barely defended against Zhang Lie's blows. As more and more sharks manifested in the sea, Vemacitrin found itself hard-pressed to handle the horde of sharks with its five remaining legs.
Its nine heads frowned as over eighty percent of the xuluo strike force was defeated at once. The remaining were being chased by Zhang Lie's sharks and forced to scatter.
Although they were all fighters from a superior world, and elites at that, they seemed weak and pathetic in front of Zhang Lie.
Zhang Lie laughed coldly. "Is this the famed might of the xuluo?"
"You!" Vemacitrin's nine heads spat out purplish-black flame, condensed to an extreme.
"[Ninecarp Transformation]!" A black serpent materialized behind Zhang Lie, by now so large and so developed that it resembled the world-swallowing serpent Jormungandr. It let out a threatening hiss as its scales clicked together.
Zhang Lie sneered. "You think these flames can hurt me? You really are overconfident! [Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"
Zhang Lie punched forward, and the black serpent behind him shot forth. Its skin sizzled as it came in contact with Vemacitrin's flames, but the black serpent was able to survive the flames intact with the power of its corrosion.
Vemacitrin imbued heaven's might into its flames, sliced the serpent apart, and rushed toward Zhang Lie.
Zhang Lie's body glowed as he transformed into a russet dragonwolf, his aura instantly magnifying. As a blood-colored storm formed over the battlefield, Zhang Lie vanished and reappeared near-instantly behind Vemacitrin.
Black flame appeared in mid-air and flew toward Zhang Lie like heat-seeking missiles, but Zhang Lie ignored them all. He swung his sword, causing green blood to spurt out from Vemacitrin's body. Its nine heads howled as the flames flared around Zhang Lie, but he snuffed out the flames with nothing more than a few slashes of Guicang as Vemacitrin watched in disbelief.
How could heaven's might be ineffective against Zhang Lie? Vemacitrin quickly realized how the three xuluo lords had fallen against Zhang Lie—their opponent was completely immune to heaven's might.
The black serpent coiled around Zhang Lie. 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]!" It charged along with Zhang Lie's fist, roaring in rage as it flew toward a stunned Vemacitrin...