Chapter 1548: Frightening Reduplication

Sheng Gu's blood spear surged with killing intent. Golden flames surrounded the blood spear, which forked with golden lightning. It pierced through the wood dragons and the forest that they had formed.

Zhou Ying swooped forward, void rifts surrounding her body like wind.

"Kill!"

The two combatants struck each other in a clash of metal.

Golden light flared as the lance pierced through Zhou Ying's forehead. Her features turned stiff as blood shot through the air.

Zhou Ying's body cracked into pieces and scattered in the form of golden dust as the blood spear exploded.

Sheng Gu gaped. The wings to his back glowed and transformed into two divine swords, sweeping around him in a graceful arc and clearing the wood dragons in the vicinity. However, Zhou Ying was nowhere to be seen.

The earth crumbled as a black figure emerged from within—none other than Zhou Ying.

"[Storm of Leaves: Eightfold Void Cut]!"

Another tendril had appeared to Zhou Ying's back, and another dagger manifested. Zhou Ying whirled like a dervish, corkscrewing into the air.

Blue lightning burst forth.

The black slash pierced through the lightning as a blood spear manifested once again in Sheng Gu's hands. Golden flames and lightning crackled around it, clashing against the black vortex.

The skies were torn apart. Dimensional rends appeared in the air as lightning and flame continued to corkscrew. The golden divine flames burned violently as the flaming wings to Sheng Gu's back lit up with light. A halo above his head glowed in strength as the spiraling energy of lightning and flame shone with scorching light. The lightning crackled as the flames burst apart. The two forces were competing against one another.

Zhou Ying was right there. She gave her opponent a mischievous grin before two more black feelers extended from her back. A dagger curled around the end of each, and a pair of void cuts tore space apart.

The wings to Sheng Gu's black released a burst of ardent light. Dozens of beams shot forth and interrupted the void cut or even slashed apart her feelers, forcing Zhou Ying back.

Zhou Ying found a faint scar on her face. The bug emperor on Zhou Ying's chest buzzed madly, very dissatisfied by the fact that its mother had been attacked.

Zhou Ying transformed into the visage of a tree. The sun and the moon shone on the tree in turn.

In daytime, the tree's leaves were jade-green, filled with natural energy and vitality, like a tree of life.

In nighttime, the tree's leaves turned black, like a ghost tree that would have been planted in the netherworld. Its branches were like claws, ghastly, frightening, and steeped in the aura of death. Many tendrils suddenly grew out of the tree and flew around like tentacles. A large eye opened up on the tree trunk; onlookers staring at the trunk at any angle would feel as though the eye were looking at them.

Golden radiance and gray fog combined into a cohesive whole as Zhou Ying's body transformed. Her body turned to wood and grew rapidly. Within moments, she became a thick tree, the crown of which was pushing against the top of the sky.

The leaves of the tree were arrayed in gold, green, and gray, and a gray eye was embedded into its crown.

Fruits grew from the tree, as though children were being gestated within. It pulsed with life, and the fruits fell to the ground and released black humanoid lifeforms.

The humanoids were pitch-black all over, with golden hair and gray fog around them. They pounced toward her opponent like wild dogs the moment they spawned.

Sheng Gu frowned. Ignoring the sinister changes all across Zhou Ying's body, he thrust his blood spear forward. It crackled with golden flames and lightning, easily bypassing the pack of wild dogs.

As the moonlight struck the land, the trees turned into ghostly treants. They swung their branches madly like claws, and the vines that represented their feelers curled around Sheng Gu.

Sheng Gu intended to pierce through everything, but the ghostly treants boasted frightening reserves of vitality. Despite the fact that his blood spear could cut through anything, even Sheng Gu was disgusted by the near-endless supply of feelers and ghostly claws.

Sheng Gu flew up into the air to break free of the ghostly treants' assault. His goldenflame wings unfurled and suddenly expanded in size to cover up the air. They released explosive golden light that was infused in his blood lance.

Clearly, Sheng Gu intended to charge up for a blow of maximum strength in order to kill Zhou Ying in one strike.

The sunlight shot down as Zhou Ying's trees suddenly transformed into the jade-green trees of life.

Six fruits grew from the tree, as though children were being gestated within. It pulsed with life, and the fruits fell to the ground and released black humanoid lifeforms.

The humanoids were pitch-black all over. This time, they had black hair and were surrounded by gray fog.

However, the humanoids that had been born from the fruit were rather sinister this time around—no, they seemed to share the appearances of the members of Team Zenith, as though they bore the same origin.

Then, something even more sinister occurred.

The black specter that looked like Fang Yi manifested a black tree branch in its palm. The black specter had torn it off for use as a longspear.

Fang Yi launched his spear, crackling with wind and lightning, with incredible force.

The black spear sent wind howling and lightning flashing through the sky.

Fang Yi gasped. "Isn't that... me?!"

The members of Team Zenith knew that Zhou Ying had once extracted blood and hair from them in order to analyze the mysteries of life. In the end, she had produced a team of fighters on par with the members of Team Zenith.

A huge tree grew out of Yang Ze's clone's body, which it plucked out and whittled down into the shape of a blade.

"[The Boundless Blade: Ersatz Yawning Wave]!"

A sword flashed, the strike forming a long river through the skies. The genetic energy burst apart in a shower of droplets, the attacks infused with spatial force.

"[Blinding Flash: Thousandfold Echo]!"

Sun Xiaowu's body split into over a thousand clones, so many they seemed to fill the sky.

"[Golden Divide]!"

The thousand clones all used [Golden Divide] simultaneously, coloring the sky in gold and raining down golden feathers in such numbers that it seemed as though a thunderstorm had just formed out of thin air.

"[Light Dragon's Remnants]!"

The black figure that looked like Li Feng marshaled his genetic energy into the form of a large number of white dragons.

The black figure that looked like Sun Mengmeng drew a series of curved branches.

Three arrows, brimming with purple flame, flew forward like tracking missiles.

"[Lunarflame Shot]!"

The three flaming arrows exploded in mid-air in a brilliant burst of fireworks.

Team Zenith knew that Zhou Ying hadn't succeeded in her plans back in the third realm, because what they were learning then didn't stem from their genetic fragments, but rather from sweat and hard work.

Zhou Ying had been able to figure out how to construct the specters, but couldn't replicate the skills that they purportedly knew.

Although the members of Team Zenith were all close to being monarch-class lifeforms, they were strong not just because they had absorbed all manner of gene fragments, but also because of their own techniques, ultimate or otherwise, and combat experience.

They had been able to hunt down a disaster-grade lifeform right after maxing out on peak gene fragments because they had the superiority in combat techniques and experience. This was why a genetic hunter excelled over a genetic lifeform.

Genetic lifeforms were only able to take advantage of their own strength, whereas genetic hunters manipulated their strength with significantly more efficacy, converting it all into weapons that would serve them well.