Ultragene Warlord

Chapter 1574: At the Peak

More of the blue fluid emerged, forming a stream, a river. Zhang Lie sat in the middle of the river and allowed it to rush past him.

The next moment, the blue fluid transformed into a bundle of bright-red flames, like a sun that had been submerged in an underwater world. The water began to boil, the fish within it fleeing in fear. An apocalypse drew near.

The entire underwater world turned bright red. The heat transformed the water into water vapor, which bubbled into the air rather than become lava.

Scarlet steam filled the entire world in such quantity that even the trial chamber couldn't handle it all. It cracked and broke as the steam gushed out.

The lively fish within the underwater world swam through the scarlet steam. They had once been composed of water, but were now fully steam.

The underwater world wasn't destroyed, after all. It was transformed completely like the lively fish that now swam through water vapor.

This was the path of life through fire that Zhang Lie had intuited—not flames that burned endlessly, but flames that transformed and persisted, never to be snuffed out.

Even after unlocking this brand-new path of life, Zhang Lie didn't stop.

By then, Sun Mengmeng and the others had finished their metamorphoses and digested their gains from the virtual realm. They had advanced to different degrees. When Bu Wentian unlocked Zhang Lie's trial chamber and saw what was going on within, he screeched like a chicken.

Another of his worlds had shattered!

Zhang Lie ignored him as he began to digest his final treasure, which he had obtained from the underwater world right before its destruction.

Reality and illusion intermixed in Zhang Lie's body.

Above his head was the image of an illusory continent.

Despite the fact that it was clearly illusory, it seemed almost alive. The continent was expanding, and had stretched all the way to the borders of the trial chamber in the blink of an eye.

The members of Team Zenith saw that continent via a screen that Bu Wentian had activated that showed the interior of the trial chamber. They gaped.

Li Feng frowned. "What an impressive aura. This must be the final treasure that our captain obtained at the end of the tournament, that the eighth Immortal King risked his life to obtain."

Sun Xiaowu asked, "Doesn't this continent seem a little familiar?"

Sun Mengmeng's eyes lit up. "I see the ancient hall where we fought!"

"And where I was given an ultimatum," Fang Yi replied.

"That lake looks a little familiar," Zhou Ying murmured.

Sun Xiaowu frowned. "And that's the stone forest. I'm sure of it."

Li Feng nodded. "One of these places alone might have been a coincidence, but all of them together? We can't be mistaken."

Sun Mengmeng nodded. "This continent is clearly from the world of the virtual realm."

Sun Xiaowu exclaimed in shock, "Could our captain have brought back the entire world?"

The continent continued to expand, destroying the trial chamber.

Bu Wentian sighed. "Another one destroyed..."

He secretly moved all nearby trial chambers away to prevent what happened last time when Zhang Lie destroyed everything around him.

The illusory continent continued to grow. All manner of strange and colorful plants appeared.

Sun Mengmeng suddenly had a flash of insight. "Could all these plants represent some deep insight or intuition?"

Sun Xiaowu's eyes widened. "Just how many are there...?"

Each plant was grown from the seed of an idea. Zhang Lie hadn't been able to absorb all the insights in the short amount of time between encounter with the treasure and the realm's destruction. Instead, he did his best to memorize them all—before replicating them right here in the physical world.

As a result, most of the plants were blurry and fuzzy.

Only about a dozen were in high-resolution and glowing with light, seemingly alive.

Zhang Lie's body floated up through the virtual continent.

Sun Xiaowu asked, "Do you think our captain can manifest a virtual realm like the one we just came out of?"

Zhang Lie was attempting to combine his insights, both real and illusory,into his techniques.

At present, the only link between the illusory continent and Zhang Lie's [Ninecarp Transformation] came from his dragonturtle transformation.

Unfortunately, the dragonturtle didn't wield any powers related to reality and illusion. Zhang Lie didn't attempt to force the connection; doing so would be useless, and might even restrict his dragonturtle from unveiling its true strength.

Zhang Lie didn't cultivate for long. After all, he was simply replicating what had happened within the virtual realm. The illusory continent slowly melded back into his body as Zhang Lie opened his eyes. His status of life had increased to a remarkable extent.

His genes had been optimized for the dimensional realm as a result, and his understanding of his frameworks and techniques had deepened noticeably.

Zhang Lie: a demigod

Framework: Foundation, Lv. MAX, Ninecarp Transformation, Seventh Form: Phoenix

Techniques: Rippling Walk (pinnacle), Three-Wave Crescendo (pinnacle), Calm Waters (pinnacle), Fists of the Silent Sea (pinnacle), The Boundless Blade (pinnacle), Eclipse (pinnacle), Syzygy (pinnacle), Ninesoul Dragonblade (pinnacle), Blade of the Heavens (pinnacle)

Genes: Basic, 160; Mutated, 150; Superior, 150; Peak, 150; Disaster, 150; Monarch, 0; Emperor, 0

Soulshards: White Grub (superior), Blood Ant (superior), Potbellied Toad (mutated), Eternalspring Cocoon (superior), Dragonwolf (superior), Moonlight Wyrm (peak), Golden Roc (peak), Dragonwhale (disaster), Mistmeld Clam (disaster), Limitless Universe (monarch)

His [Ninecarp Transformation]'s seventh form, the phoenix, had reached a perfected state, but Zhang Lie didn't know precisely what that meant.

After his advancement, Zhang Lie decided to test out his newfound strength, only to find that the entire world had been all but obliterated. Zhang Lie was speechless. "Bu Wentian, are these trial chambers made of paper?"

Bu Wentian replied, "Considering how much energy you were giving off, is it any surprise that my trial chambers are so fragile?"

A beam of light encapsulated Zhang Lie.