Chapter 1587: How Could It Be

The tides surged forward like a battalion, like hordes of hungry tigers and wolves. The waves were a few hundred meters high, like pitch-black city walls.

Zhang Lie 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, dividing the waves and splitting apart heaven and earth.

Waves surged one after another, accompanied by the sound of incredible howls. Corrosive, pitch-black froth sprayed all over.

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]!"

Zhang Lie's 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, pitch-black like the neverending universe and shining with twinkling stars.

The stars transformed into dragons that shot out alongside Zhang Lie's punch.

The waves grew larger and larger, rumbling like thunder.

The stellar dragons, in the end, possessed only limited strength. They were ultimately battered down by the incessant waves. The next moment, a wave of annihilation exploded around the dragons. Pitch-black energy swallowed everything in the vicinity like a storm at sea, covering up the sky.

Zhang Lie thought that this technique would deal significant damage to Cthaat, but Cthaat surprised him again.

The nature of its body transformed into annihilation—and it directly absorbed the energy of annihilation that the stellar dragons gave off as they exploded.

Zhang Lie gaped in disbelief. How could someone else in the fourth realm command the same sources of energy that he did?

"You've learned how to wield annihilation?"

Cthaat roared in laughter. "I have you to thank for it. Although I lost a third of my mass, being able to wield such fearsome strength more than makes up for it. Your strongest technique is now mine!"

Zhang Lie stared for quite a long time, stupefied that his strength had been stolen by an opponent.

The sea continued to rage. The energy of annihilation destroyed everything in sight as Cthaat absorbed it all.

Darkness fell throughout the realm. Even light itself was destroyed, swallowed up by the darkness. The black sea seemed even more impenetrable and massive than ever before.

Cthaat had become a demon king who was poised to devour the world.

Black genetic energy burst forth from Zhang Lie, as though there were hundreds, thousands of dragons surging throughout his body.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Hundred Dragons Soaring]!"

A horde of dragons launched out of Zhang Lie's left arm as he expended half his genetic energy in one supercharged attack.

Howling with the force of thunder, the hundred stellar dragons soared through the air. They struck the black sea.

Cthaat roared in laughter. "It's useless, it's all useless!"

A storm of annihilation struck his body, but as he had claimed, the energy of annihilation had already become Cthaat's strength. Zhang Lie's black dragons, which were composed of that energy, could hardly do anything against Cthaat.

Not only did Cthaat command annihilation, it retained its own unique characteristics.

The waves approached in a staccato rhythm. Zhang Lie knew that danger was drawing near, but at the moment, he couldn't see anything at all.

"A perfect sparring partner," he murmured to himself, neither despairing nor dejected. Rather, he smiled with excitement, his eyes bright. Guicang appeared in his hand. As he slashed forward, Cthaat's pitch-black mass was divided by his sword. White light filtered in from the heavens.

Cthaat gaped in disbelief. "How could it be?"

How could such a small sword slice apart his invincible sea of annihilation?

Zhang Lie bared his lips in a feral grin. "Your sons weren't able to please me, so I hope you'll do the trick."

Cthaat's sons were so weak that Zhang Lie could finish them all off in one fell swoop, without being able to try out or get a sense of his newfound strength. Cthaat, on the other hand, seemed like a far stronger opponent. How long would Cthaat survive against Zhang Lie?

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Zhang Lie couldn't help but anticipate the upcoming fight.

"Watch out. This is going to be a strong blow!"

Water-attuned genetic energy surged around Zhang Lie as his giant whale manifested in the air.

Cthaat couldn't help but scoff. It was well aware of Zhang Lie's elemental attunement.

His water-attuned techniques were ineffective against Cthaat, itself the manifestation of a black sea and a master of water.

It was hardly as if Zhang Lie could transform water into a sword and cut it apart.

The next moment, the water-attuned genetic energy rushed into the air, manifesting in the form of a boundless blade.

"[The Boundless Blade: Daybreak]!" Zhang Lie manifested a sword will that rose into the heavens, strong beyond human understanding, vast as the ocean.

The sun glowed with splendor. Golden runes patterned the air. Starlight shone through the heavens.

His surroundings were resplendent and blazing, so bright that the spectators had to look away.

The spectators found their souls trembling.

Heaven and earth resonated with the will of the sword in a burst of golden light that made even the skies submit.

Cthaat cried out, "What? How can this be?!"