Chapter 1449: Hot-Blooded War

"[The Boundless Blade: Yawning Wave]!"

Zhang Lie manifested a sword will that rose into the heavens, strong beyond human understanding, vast as the ocean.

The beam of sword energy tore open a path for Zhang Lie.

"[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.

Pitch-black genetic energy revolved around Zhang Lie like dark clouds, then exploded forth in his vicinity. He shot down the log bridge, transforming into a serpent, bypassing all barriers before him, and pressing toward the other shore.

"What?!" Ming Youyu cried out. Things weren't progressing according to plan. He was dressed in dark gold battle armor and radiating light of a similar color. With a black netherworld weapon in hand, he slashed forward.

At the same time, the purplegold denglong shot into the air and exuded divine authority as it attacked Zhang Lie.

Zhang Lie countered with a burst of tremendous strength. His body glowed as black fog surrounded him.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"

Zhang Lie punched forward, and the black serpent shot forth.

Ming Youyu stumbled back.

As Zhang Lie activated his monarch-grade limitless universe soulshard, he glowed with stellar radiance, like a burning star. Starlight flowed through his body in phantasmagorical colors.

The starlight's allure captivated all onlookers.

Zhang Lie's body transformed into a glaze of the dark cosmos, as though the Milky Way itself flowed through his body. His aura grew tremendously.

Ming Youyu gritted his teeth and bore the tremendous pressure weighing down on him.

This would be a hot-blooded fight.

Knowing that he had encountered a strong enemy, Ming Youyu released a deathly aura. A black chain floated into existence out of his palm, a divine armament he had been born with—the chains of the god of death.

He attempted to restrain Zhang Lie and seal him, or, at the very least, to break through the restrictions imposed by this domain and break out. The black chains pierced through the void in a shower of umbral light.

The black chains were natural law made manifest. They sparked where they struck Zhang Lie's hands

The two cultivators exchanged hundreds of blows in an instant.

Zhang Lie simultaneously activated his dragonwolf soulshard. His russet fur seemed to glimmer with stellar radiance, each hair a shining star, as though he were draped with the entirety of the Milky Way. His four limbs were armored with a dragon's scales, each a burning golden sun. The two soulshards' power combined.

A dragon's horns grew out of Zhang Lie's forehead, shining with stellar radiance, surrounded by galactic starlight. To others, he would seem to have the boundless energy of a new galaxy.

Zhang Lie swiped forward with his claws. Starlight flooded forward, causing Ming Youyu to shriek in pain as his chains shattered.

Zhang Lie's claws of starlight split apart heaven and earth and even cut off Ming Youyu's arms in a spray of netherworld blood. He was grievously injured.

Ming Youyu turned and attempted to flee.

"You won't get away!" Zhang Lie shouted.

Starlight surrounded Zhang Lie. Countless stars whizzed away from his body. His pitch-black genetic energy seemed like the astral void, with shining stars scattered throughout.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"

His genetic energy condensed into a black dragon, whose scales were each a star.

The stars inlaid in its body formed a long stellar river, Zhang Lie's monarch-grade limitless universe soulshard was changing the very nature of his genetic energy, from pitch-black to dotted with starlight, as though it were a sample from the galaxy.

The galactic genetic energy shone with twinkling stars, which transformed into dragons that shot out alongside Zhang Lie's punch.

The purplegold denglong rose into the air in a flash of purple light, but the stellar dragon pierced through it and impacted with the denglong in a flash of light.

Within moments, a wave of annihilation exploded around the dragon. Pitch-black energy swallowed everything in the vicinity like a storm at sea, covering up the sky.

The explosion was like a black hole that sucked up everything in sight, land, sea, and sky alike. Ming Youyu's eyes widened at the outpouring of energy.

He wasn't a fool; he had prepared for retaliation when he first attacked the log.

Ming Youyu howled.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Who knew what he had prepared by the other end of the log bridge? Firelight bloomed where he stood.

Zhang Lie's energy of annihilation pierced through the light. The denglong vanished in pinpricks of light which floated toward Zhang Lie's seal, but Ming Youyu had vanished.

Zhang Lie and Sun Xiaowu rushed forward as quickly as they could to avoid other cultivators gaining the edge over them.

Another melee was occurring up in front as challengers fought each other to a standstill.

Zhang Lie was certain that Bu Wentian didn't know much about the official tournament at all. Far more challengers than he had predicted were fighting up in front.

Some tried to attack Zhang Lie. Zhang Lie's eyes grew cold. At this point, he retaliated against even a probing attack with lethal force.

Nine holy mountains appeared in the vicinity, tall and proud, magnificent in their glory.

This was a holy land.

Cultivators had killed to make it here, and all those who had arrived were bleeding in some manner or another, having sustained at least minor injuries during the melee. Many cultivators were present. Their eyes shone as they looked toward the mountains.

A group of firecrows took to the air, their feathers black. They looked like black suns that shot forward. It was evident they were from the same race.

Their leader burned with flames so intense that the void itself seemed to distort as they flew toward the mountains with extreme speed.

A purple centipede, only two meters long but brimming with purple flame, leapt up from the ground and into the air. It was a minor deity.

Eight of the crows dissolved in the spray of poisonous fog that it released, falling to the ground as a black, liquefied mass.

The leader of the firecrows glared at the centipede and commanded its flock to attack the centipede. A massive fight ensued.

The centipede's body was as tough as adamantium, ringing out like metal when struck with the firecrows' sharp claws and beaks and sending sparks flying.

The fight was brutal and finished quickly. The firecrow was badly injured, half its body corroded away and revealing bone. It fled toward the horizon, its flock all dead.

The purple centipede was surrounded by poisonous fog that it exuded. Any who touched it would find their skin blistering and boiling.

Not far away, a fiery red ox bellowed and charged forward, the ground turning into magma in its wake. Divine flame flared up around it, its horns glowing with resplendent light.