Chapter 1549: Hoisted With Her Own Petard

Beforehand, Zhou Ying was only at most able to make clones of others—and even then, all that she could clone were their genes and looks, not their signature techniques. However, as a result of the competition, she had blown through this restriction. Perhaps this too was part of the benefit she had gained from consuming the bug emperor.

Sheng Gu found it hard enough to go against Zhou Ying, let alone all the clones of the members of Team Zenith working together.

Now that Zhou Ying had numbers on her side, Sheng Gu was done for—that was what everyone had thought, at least.

The light that radiated from Sheng Gu was condensed into an exquisite blow, with light so concentrated that it seemed like it could pierce through the entire hall. The scorching light was like judgment from the very heavens. It boasted incredible strength and easily suppressed the clones of the five members of Team Zenith, wiping them out in one fell swoop.

Fang Yi was astounded. "Is that fellow that strong? He was able to take the five of us working together!"

Sun Xiaowu shook his head. "This Sheng Gu isn't all that strong. Rather, the replica of Team Zenith that Zhou Ying constructed doesn't retain our full strength. It's more like a shell than anything else; the techniques might look flashy, but they have no real power to them."

Sheng Gu scoffed. "What's the use of making these toys?"

Dozens of fruit 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. They had black hair and were surrounded by gray fog. Each was filled with vitality and looked like Zhou Ying.

This time, the tree had birthed replicas of Zhou Ying herself.

Sun Xiaowu and the other hunters gaped.

Zhou Ying was giving birth to herself—replicating herself. That seemed far too outlandish.

Dozens of Zhou Yings appeared in unison, taking the same actions.

Golden leaves whirled around her. The tips of her hair produced gray fog.

The gray power gathered around Zhou Ying's forehead, which cracked apart. A gray eye budded from her flesh. It opened up to reveal a chaotic opal iris, which seemed to be able to penetrate flesh, soul, and space.

Each leaf was like a miniature sun, orbiting around the woman's body. To her back was a pair of golden wings. Above those wings was a glowing sun, giving off a radiant, holy light.

Her jade-green eyes were flecked with gold, and she seemed to have become one with the land. The vitality radiating from her was visible to the naked eye. Stellar light surrounded her as though she were a goddess given form.

Black energy formed a gauzy dress around her, sticking closely to her limbs and revealing her curvaceous features—no, making them even more curvaceous than they originally were.

Two root-like tendrils writhed under her dress, but the result was more fearsome than alluring. The black humanoid figures were like puppets, their eyes lifeless.

Sheng Gu couldn't help but watch on seriously as dozens of Zhou Yings appeared out of thin air.

They channeled the same technique.

"[Avatar of the Fae: Earthbound Prison]!"

Zhou Ying released all her stored vitality at once, causing the ground to quake as jade-green wood dragons rushed out of the earth. Each dragon was about six hundred meters wide, with skin flecked with golden radiance.

Dozens of Zhou Yings unleashing the same technique had spawned tens of thousands of wood dragons.

Naturally, the lifeform with which Zhou Ying was most familiar was none other than herself.

Rather than clone the members of Team Zenith, it was far more effective for her to focus on herself.

A scroll unfurled, depicting a frightening apocalypse.

Within moments, the contents of that scroll transcribed themselves in reality. Stars fell from the heavens and the sun itself exploded, swamping Zhou Ying in destruction. The wood dragons surrounded the Zhou Yings protectively. As meteors fell, the dragons shattered in chips of wood.

The scroll glowed with light. A dragon's visage appeared in view, piercing through a swathe of the wood dragons.

What the dragon radiated wasn't divine light—but rather Sheng Gu, his hand holding on to his blood spear, golden flames roaring to his back, like two thrusters sending him speeding forward.

The cloned Zhou Yings stared at him numbly. They didn't react even when Sheng Gu's blood spear pierced through their bodies.

The blood spear exploded in a rain of golden flames, burning the cloned Zhou Yings to a crisp.

The wood dragons surged. The goldenflame wings to Sheng Gu's back morphed into two divine blades that cut everything they encountered. He whirled like a hurricane, chopping up the wood dragons that approached him into blocks of wood.

The wood then lit up with flame in mid-air. Sheng Gu stood in the middle of the golden flames like an invincible martial god.

Zhou Ying summoned hundreds of thousands of wood dragons from the ground, enough to fill up the entire hall. They were thrice as thick as before, and their barkskin shone with metallic luster.

The golden flames revolved around Sheng Gu's blood spear as he soared into the air and past the wood dragons.

A tremendous flood of energy transformed into an ocean of lightning, drenching the wood dragons before the energy exploded. The wood dragons cried out as their bark splintered and cracked.

Unlike before, however, there were dozens of Zhou Ying's clones providing the wood dragons with renewed vitality and natural energy. The sea of wood, bolstered by brimming lifeforce, was able to regenerate despite the destructive nature of the lightning.

Sheng Gu realized that he would have to take down Zhou Ying, or the sea of wood would only continue to spread. He was the one who would ultimately be battered to death.

After realizing that point, Sheng Gu immediately made his move. He unleashed explosive strength, his wings flaring with light as bright as the sun itself, so blinding no one could stare directly at them.

The blazing light was almost holy in nature. A divine halo appeared over Sheng Gu's head as his blood spear exuded murderous intent. At the tip of the spear, the specters of demons could be seen. A sea of blood seemed to manifest to his back. How much slaughter had it taken to forge this spear of blood?

The combined divine and charnel auras, simultaneously realized on a single cultivator, was more deadly and threatening than even Zhou Ying's priestess-and-succubus transformation.

The blood spear shot forward, destroying everything in its path. The dense sea of wood dragons couldn't stop its advance; all that wood might as well have been papier mache.

Surrounded by wood dragons as Zhou Ying was, the members of Team Zenith couldn't help her out even if they wanted to.

She had been ensnared in a trap of her own making.