Chapter 706: The King of Moxing
The silver-sleek craft looked like a battleship, so large it could fit thousands of men inside.
The king of the realm introduced, "My father made this craft himself. Supposedly, he intended to use it to conquer other worlds."
"Oh? It'll be very useful, then!"
Zhang Lie stored the beasts and hypnotized Jinghun in the shuttle as he steered it into a wormhole.
Thus began the legend of Zhang Lie and the Jinghun. With the scalemen world as their home base, they began to attack all the middle-sized worlds around them. Using Zhang Lie's disaster-grade mistmeld clam soulshard and the Jinghun's ability to control lifeforms, they sent whatever they could capture back to the scalemen world.
Zhang Lie's actions were initially very successful. By hypnotizing the alien races of those worlds, he was able to obtain information about the location and number of peak- and superior-grade lifeforms within.
Although there were also reports of disaster-grade lifeforms, most of those were legends or myths, and Zhang Lie didn't have the time to confirm each one. At the beginning, in what now seemed like a fit of idiocy, he had done something like that following the sura monarch of stars' notes, wasting three years of his time.
It was far more efficient to cultivate disaster-grade lifeforms instead. However, Zhang Lie and the Jinghun made such a big disturbance as they captured more and more lifeforms that they aroused the attention of the kings of the realm of those worlds.
For instance, in a world known as Moxing, Zhang Lie had just controlled a large number of beasts when the king of the realm himself appeared before Zhang Lie and asked in a high-and-mighty tone, "Who are you and what are you doing here? Are you planning to start a war of the worlds?"
Zhang Lie ignored his questions and asked calmly, "Does your world have any disaster-grade lifeforms? I suppose you would call them fifth-level beasts."
The king of Moxing frowned. "Fifth-level? what are you planning?"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"To absorb their cores. If you refuse, that's fine, we can search for them slowly on our own as well. We might also bring a few specialties from this world home with us—you won't mind, will you?"
They had caught enough lifeforms from this world already, at any rate. If the king of the realm were able to direct them to a disaster-grade lifeform, that would just be the cherry on top.
Zhang Lie had no time to spare; he knew what was coming. Before then, he had to acquire as many disaster gene fragments as he could to strengthen himself.
The king of the realm glanced behind Zhang Lie and saw a huge procession of lifeforms being transported through the wormhole. The procession of lifeforms was crowded and stretched as far as the eye could see, like a long river trailing down from the distance.
Genetic lifeforms weren't particularly valuable, and they were nuisances in that they frequently attacked cities and villages. However, these were resources that the aliens depended on to grow stronger.
Furthermore, once too many lifeforms were removed from the world, past a critical mass, they would find it difficult to reproduce, destroying the food web in the local ecosystems and even causing some species to go extinct.
Such occurrences weren't purely theoretical, either. In the past, there had been a kingdom surrounded by forest. The citizens of the kingdom were allowed to gather whatever resources they needed from it, and were even encouraged to do so by their king. When the entire forest was cut down, the kingdom turned into a desert.
These genetic lifeforms that were everywhere didn't seem particularly important, but it would be far too late to regret it once they went extinct.
Most importantly, these were lifeforms of Moxing! Why should he allow the arrogant alien in front of him to claim them?
The king of Moxing shouted, "Stop your foolish actions. All these lifeforms are important to this world, and if you continue seizing them unreasonably and illegally, I'll expel you forcefully!"
Zhang Lie was unperturbed. "I believe I've made myself clear. Tell me where the disaster-grade lifeforms are, and I'll leave after acquiring their cores. Otherwise, I'll have to search for them myself."
The king of the realm narrowed his eyes. "Are you threatening me?"
"If you want to understand it that way, I doubt I can dissuade you."
Zhang Lie remained calm despite knowing that the alien in front of him was the king of this realm.
The aliens of this world were pitch-black, with two long antennae growing out of their heads. Serrated blade-like protrusions grew out of their arms and legs, and their skin was reflective and shiny. In some sense, they looked like cockroaches.
The king of this realm was far larger and muscular compared to those of his cohort.
"A mega-cockroach?" Zhang Lie murmured to himself.
The king of the realm was so angry he looked as though he could explode at any moment. Although he didn't understand what a cockroach was, he was certain it couldn't be anything good. Red light and white smoke flared from his body.
"No one has dared to speak to me like that for a very long time. None of you will leave this place!"
"Ha!" Zhang Lie glanced at the king as though he were a fool, while the nearby Jinghun shot him pitying glances.
The Jinghun warlord, Ren Kunjing, asked, "Do you need me to make a move?"
Zhang Lie waved a hand at him curtly. "There's no need. A king of the realm of a medium-sized world is hardly someone I have to worry about."
Ren Kunjing sighed and shook his head, glancing at the king as though he were a corpse.
This was the first time in years that the king had been so humiliated.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe struck first, so rapidly that he broke through the constraints of the world in mere moments. His fist was just about to land on Zhang Lie's body when Zhang Lie widened his palm and caught the fist easily as an explosion struck the point of impact.
"Is this all you've got?" Zhang Lie's voice was somewhat condescending.
The king of the realm howled. Energy flared from his body, and he rained punches down on Zhang Lie.
However, Zhang Lie easily deflected or blocked each of his blows. A gust of wind surrounded the two combatants. The difference between them was apparent: one of them was attacking at full strength, and the other was defending leisurely with just a hand.
"[Rune: Control]!" As he dealt with the king's punches, Zhang Lie summoned his gravity and anti-gravity tablets and sent them down crashing by the king's side.
Black ripples emanated from the two gravity-altering tablets, forming a localized region of distorted gravity.
The field of energy distorted the king's blows, and he frowned immediately as he loosed a punch. "This—control over gravity?!"
In his panic, his punch went wide. He used his powers over the realm to try to correct the misaligned gravity, weakening his defenses considerably.
Fights between experts were concluded in mere moments; even the smallest opening could be exploited and turned into a lethal flaw.
Zhang Lie combat experience meant that he caught all such openings. His fists rippled with energy. Streams of water revolved more and more quickly around his wrist, augmented by spatial force, summoning what seemed to be a massive whirlwind that sucked up even the genetic lifeforms and made the shuttle toss and turn.
Ren Kunjing summoned a crystalline barrier in front of the lifeforms and the Jinghun to shield them from the aftermath of the attack.
As Zhang Lie punched forward, space shattered before him.
The king of Moxing grew alarmed, unable to believe that a mysterious alien would be able to command such strength. He had no further time to think before Zhang Lie's tsunami swallowed him whole...