Chapter 1558: The Heavenly Cordon Arrives

Zhang Lie was exceptionally calm even against the eighth Immortal King, so calm he was like the waters of an undisturbed pool. Despite the fact that he faced an immediate, life-threatening crisis, he remained unflappable.

The eighth Immortal King smirked. "Are you going to give up just like that?"

As expected, the son was far worse than the father.

Zhang Lie raised his head. "Are you finished?"

The eighth Immortal King stilled.

"I'm very disappointed," Zhang Lie replied, raising Guicang high in the air. "[Ninesoul Dragonblade—Third Form: Separating Earth and Sky]!"

The runes of the [Keys of the Elder Gods] appeared once more. They manifested outside Zhang Lie's body and glowed with light.

Strands of black hair floated around Zhang Lie. His eyes were like lightning, as though he were a martial god who had descended from the heavens.

With a sudden shout, as runes flared all over his body, his bones creaked, and his flesh trembled, his essence transformed into a dragon that soared into the air.

The radiance around him intensified.

At that moment, heaven and earth seemed to go silent. the world stopped revolving on its axis, and everything was still. He felt as though he had returned to a primordial era far into the past, to the creation of the universe itself.

As his mind resonated with the realm, Zhang Lie felt as though he was witnessing the creation of the virtual realm itself.

Dawn light shone all around him. His heart and soul seemed to unite with the world all around him, as though he were part of the genesis of the universe.

"Open!" Zhang Lie murmured softly, but the sound of his voice carried.

A divine chime rang out as Zhang Lie emitted radiant light and cut apart the horizon. The skies split; the black- and white-colored energy that went into the slash erupted like a volcano. White energy drifted toward the skies, and black energy caused the sea to quake.

The ancient hall was destroyed within moments. The sky turned dull; the sword strike was one of primordial genesis, of void and chaos.

Everything transformed into chaos.

This blow went beyond what could be described as strength. It bypassed structure and power, instead dealing with the fundamental forces of the world, of atavistic regression and subsequent evolution.

Zhang Lie's overwhelming strike snuffed out his opponent's attack.

This was a disaster, an apocalypse, an attack from which no one would be able to escape.

A single technique had crippled the culmination of all that the Hall of Immortals was and would be.

If any cultivators of the fifth realm were still present, their jaws would have dropped.

Not only had the technique destroyed the ancient hall, it even broke through the eighth Immortal King's defenses and struck at him directly.

The eighth Immortal King tried to run, but the technique endowed with karmic might blinded his sole remaining eye. Blood welled out from his eye socket.

The members of Team Zenith smiled in relief.

The eighth Immortal King clasped his bleeding eye as he gritted out, "You truly are as annoying as your father."

Zhang Lie shot forward with his twin blades as the eighth Immortal King roared, so angry that his face had distorted with emotion. "You're the second person who has been able to bypass my eight seals. I defeated the first person and took over his physical body."

The two cultivators fought from east to west and back again. They moved so rapidly that it looked as though they were blinking from place to place. Sword energy shook the heavens. A dragon howled; a phoenix shrieked. Holy dragons flew through the air, and heavenly fire exploded. The spectators watched the fight unfold with shock and awe.

The eighth Immortal King shot over toward Zhang Lie and activated his [Arms of the White Tiger] in a burst of holy light.

"Your pitiful techniques are no match against me," Zhang Lie said, standing proudly with hands clasped behind his back.

Before him, bright red genetic energy erupted like a volcano against his opponent.

The eighth Immortal King frowned mightily. His whole body was incandescent; he was so incensed that he was trembling. A pale blue lake of lightning formed before him.

As he dipped his [Arms of the White Tiger] into the lake of lightning, countless electric arcs caused the floor of the ancient hall to crack. The steps leading up to the platform were destroyed, turning into little more than powder.

Such bright light emanated from the pool that the other cultivators were forced to turn away.

The two combatants fought with sharp contrast.

Outside the ancient hall, a blue storm that filled the air drew near—the heavenly cordon!

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

As the fighting continued to rage within the ancient hall, the cordon drew nearer and nearer to it.

The golden toad and several other competitors rushed into the ancient hall, a scant few that had managed to emerge from the resulting melee. Among them, the golden toad and flaming centipede were beasts from the realm.

They wouldn't be directly eliminated; they counted as competitors as well. As long as they were able to kill sufficiently many competitors, they too had a chance of making it past the crystalline barrier. Even if they weren't able to obtain the rewards that the cultivators would receive, they would become the next batch of guardian beasts around the ancient hall.

To these beasts, survival was already the best prize they could receive.

A golden toad stretched out its tongue; a waterfall seemed to surge toward its target.

The next moment, amidst a shrill cry, the golden toad retracted its tongue and consumed its prey, a flaming centipede. Its wounds began to heal.

The centipede had been unprepared for a sneak attack, but the fact that the golden toad had taken it down in a single blow meant that it was far stronger than the majority of competitors.

Yang Ze and Li Feng blanched.

They had been the first two to meet up with Zhang Lie, and were naturally familiar with this golden toad. It had appeared the moment they entered the lake domain, and even Zhang Lie didn't want to take it on. It was a frightening foe indeed.

"Attack!" Yang Ze roared, drawing his sword.

[The Boundless Blade: Daybreak] flashed, the strike forming a long river through the skies. Spatial force struck his opponent.

"Captain, leave this to us. Keep fighting!"

Li Feng understood what was going on as well. The golden toad was an impressive foe, and it would be best to strike it down while it was still injured.

If they allowed it to recover its strength, not only would they suffer, Zhang Lie, who was fighting against the eighth Immortal King, would be affected as well.

Even though Zhang Lie now seemed to have the upper hand, if the eighth Immortal King found a way to retaliate and took advantage of the golden toad, the tide of the battle could yet turn.

"[Light Dragon's Remnants]!" Li Feng marshaled his genetic energy into the form of a large number of white dragons.