Chapter 1159: Dimensional Hounds

Zhang Hanxiang had asked for a hundred superior worlds' worth of energy.

The king of chaos waved a hand, causing a hundred colored orbs to appear before him. Each contained compressed world's energy.

Zhang Hanxiang's wish would really be granted! She had dared to ask for it, and the king of chaos had been willing to grant it.

The king of chaos sent the hundred colored orbs flying toward Zhang Hanxiang, who hugged them all tightly as she happily ran off the stage. "I should have asked for a thousand!"

Sun Mengmeng sighed. "You really chose wisely."

Zhou Ying asked, "Why did you ask for a hundred superior worlds' worth of energy, rather than some method to grow stronger?"

Zhang Hanxiang replied seriously, "This is how I'm going to grow stronger—and not just me, but all of us."

The members of Team Zenith were puzzled until they saw Zhang Hanxiang hand the energy to Zhang Lie.

She continued, "As long as my brother has all this energy at his disposal, he'll easily be able to cultivate more monarch-grade lifeforms. With those genes, we'll all be able to grow strong together."

Zhang Lie rubbed his sister's head as the other hunters' eyes lit up. This was a good strategy indeed!

However, Zhang Lie cut in. "Don't try to get more superior worlds' energy. We have more than enough for all of us—fulfill your own wishes."

The hunters nodded. Zhang Lie turned to the witch of dreams and asked, "How does the king of chaos have so much superior world's energy?"

The witch of dreams replied, "As far as I'm aware, our leader has never lacked for it."

Nightdemon explained, "There are many sources of superior world's energy: some collected and recycled from old worlds as they deteriorate, some produced from the world of primordial chaos when it still existed, and more harvested directly from the higher realms."

Zhang Lie stared. "You can harvest world's energy from higher realms?"

Nightdemon shrugged. "My main body can, at any rate."

While the two of them were talking, the Everbearing Lady had stepped onto the stage. Li Feng was about to join her when Zhou Ying tugged him back and strode out instead. "Hand this one to me. She's my nemesis, and I hers."

As Zhou Ying stepped forward, her long hair?fluttered in a spring breeze, the color of crystalline jade. It gave off motes of vitality. She was so beautiful no one could take their eyes away, and golden leaves whirled around her.

Each leaf was like a miniature sun, burning like ash. To her back was a pair of golden wings formed from energy. Above her head was a glowing sun, giving off a radiant, holy light.

The Everbearing Lady's black vines waved in the air. Her huge gray eye stared at Zhou Ying; both combatants could sense that each was the other's natural enemy.

The black vines whipped toward Zhou Ying.

"[Avatar of the Fae: Earthbound Prison]!" As Zhou Ying released all her stored energy, the ground began to quake. The sun at Zhou Ying's back shone with piercing light, illuminating the hall and forcing the guests to avert their eyes.

The ground quaked as thousands of golden wood dragons emerged from the earth, each three hundred meters wide, overwhelming the black vines.

The black vines wrapped around the golden vines and began to absorb their vitality. However, mixed in with that vitality was a portion of solar energy that Zhou Ying had absorbed from the golden mulberry tree in the world of blazing sun, which countered the Everbearing Lady's power to some extent.

The Everbearing Lady screamed, and her black vines were sent flying as though they had received a terrible electric shock. Her body began to smoke.

Zhou Ying's golden vines were, however, worse for wear. A thick layer of bark had been corroded away by the black vines.

As the golden vines counterattacked, pustule-like fruits fell from the Everbearing Lady's vines. As they landed on the ground, they squelched apart in a burst of rot and decay, showering the golden vines in acid.

From these fruits emerged a pack of dimensional hounds, which tore into the golden vines. However, Zhou Ying's near-endless vitality allowed those vines to restore themselves quickly and bind the hounds instead.

Despite the binding, the hounds were able to leap through dimensions. Within moments, they had appeared by Zhou Ying's side, and attacked her from different directions and angles, sealing off her path of escape.

The dimensional hounds were unable to cause lasting damage to the golden vines, so they had targeted Zhou Ying instead.

However, they had clearly made the wrong decision. Zhou Ying's eyes flashed with frosty light as she swung her dagger through the void.

"[Storm of Leaves: Void Cut]!" A leafstorm manifested into existence around her, each leaf a cutting blade that tore into the hounds' bodies.

The dimensional hounds took damage from Zhou Ying's spatial manipulation, their own specialty.

Zhou Ying was a frighteningly strong combatant at close quarters. She was able to move agilely, and she was a master with the dagger. She gutted the hounds one by one.

The golden vines grew forward and wrapped around the Everbearing Lady.

The Everbearing Lady's vines tunneled into the ground, causing black vegetation to grow out of the floor of the hall. Dark vines emerged from the ground and tangled with Zhou Ying's golden vines, preventing them from approaching.

"[Avatar of the Fae: Worldbound Enclosure]!" In response, Zhou Ying summoned tens of thousands of wood dragons from the grounds, thrice as thick as the vines, their barkskin shining with metallic luster.

The dragons swarmed toward the Everbearing Lady in a golden tide.

The Everbearing Lady's vines and dimensional hounds were completely unable to stop this tide. They were swamped and bound.

The dragons sucked away at the Everbearing Lady's strength. Golden branches grew out of their skin, but the leaves on those branches were gray.

The Everbearing Lady tried to struggle and burrow underground, only to find that the golden dragons had locked off any escape even there. No matter how she tried, she couldn't escape.

As the golden dragons drained her vitality, she had no choice but to do the same to them.

By then, the golden dragons had formed a giant tree, their bodies merging together into a strange, lumpy mass. However, that tree wasn't a pure golden color, but was instead rapidly turning gray. It gave off a moldy, rotten stench.

Zhou Ying stepped toward the tree and touched its bark, which fell apart into rotted wood and revealed the Everbearing Lady within.

The Everbearing Lady, having sucked up too much of the solar energy that was anathema to her being, had black vines now burning with golden flames. Her trunk had thinned by half its radius.