Chapter 338: Hong Xi's Objective

It was somewhat annoying to travel through the forest at night, but hardly impossible. Following Hong Xi's directions, the two of them managed to find the treasury at noon the second day.

At the bottom of a clear pond, hidden in a stone cave almost submerged by silt, weathered golden doors appeared before the two hunters. Engraved on the doors was a half-moon blazing with dark fire.

Hong Xi took out a dagger, sliced her palm, then pressed it against the half-moon. The doors blazed golden. The treasury slowly opened up, allowing the two of them access to its interior. There wasn't much space inside. A plinth stood in the middle of the room, supporting a battered old chest.

Hong Xi's eyes widened as she glanced at the chest, her lips bursting into a smile—but as she reached toward it, the cave began to shake.

"What's with all this fuss?" Zhang Lie wondered.

Hong Xi frowned. "I think something's wrong."

Zhang Lie whirled around, sensing an overwhelming fluctuation of genetic energy from behind, abrupt but dense, so dense that even Zhang Lie was forced to pay attention to the attack.

He materialized Venombane with a flick of his wrist, then cut forward.

"[Ninesoul Dragonblade—First Form: Parting the River]!" A cloud of dust filled the air, but the rumbling and quaking continued. Zhang Lie was forced to take a few stumbling steps back. Venombane quivered in his hand.

Zhang Lie glared at the gigantic maw before him, his eyes as cold as flint. The maw was so large that a small bus could fit comfortably within. It was surrounded by sharp, serrated teeth. Green saliva pooled on the ground, letting out sizzling sounds as it touched the rock.

He was facing a gigantic sandworm—from the looks of it, a peak-grade sandworm that had lived out its life underground in darkness. Its skin was unusually resilient and tough; even Zhang Lie's [First Form: Parting the River] had barely done anything to it.

"A-A peak-grade lifeform!" Upon sensing the genetic energy exuding from the peak-grade sandworm, Hong Xi's legs turned to jelly as she fell to the ground.

Zhang Lie's face turned cold. The sandworm was strong even for a peak-grade creature, especially in an environment that was far more suited to it than to Zhang Lie. If he could avoid having to attack it, he would.

"Why is there a peak-grade lifeform around?!" Hong Xi cried out.

From the sandworm's aura alone, Zhang Lie suspected that it was at least ten times the strength of the moonlight wyrm that he had faced in the first realm.

The sandworm hissed—its sneak attack had failed, and it had even received a few injuries as a result.

Unexpectedly, however, it gave up on attacking Zhang Lie and turned to Hong Xi instead.

[Ninecarp Transformation: Fourth Form]! The image of a dragonturtle appeared before Zhang Lie as four runic tablets crashed into the rock floor, surrounding the sandworm from all four cardinal directions.

Under the enhanced force of gravity, even the peak-grade sandworm was forced deep into the lakebed. Even so, the sandworm continued to writhe and thrash around, as though it were trying to get into the cave.

"No—it's not interested in you, but rather the treasure behind you!" Zhang Lie came to a realization. There was something in the treasury potent enough to attract even the peak-grade sandworm. He stomped on the ground again, maximizing the force of gravity surrounding the sandworm and completely enraging it.

The sandworm howled as it thrashed forward, but Zhang Lie avoided the attack with [Mirrored Refraction].

"Shut the doors and protect yourself—I'll have a little fun with this sandworm!"

The sandworm had grown visibly slower owing to the four runic tablets pinning him down, and Zhang Lie was easily able to evade its blows. He counterattacked, circulating [Ninecarp Transformation] to its fullest as a dark dragon wrapped around his arm.

[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]! A huge explosion echoed about the space, followed by an unusual cracking sound: one of the sandworm's gigantic teeth had been cracked in half by the attack.

"You really are a durable bastard, aren't you? Well, take this! [Fists of the Silent Sea: Hundred Dragons Soaring]!" Zhang Lie punched forward with his left arm, sending a torrent of dragons flooding toward the sandworm's open maw.

The dragons crashed into the sandworm's maw, and it howled. The noise from the altercation could be heard throughout the lake. After stunning the sandworm with his two attacks, Zhang Lie immediately followed up with Venombane. He activated his blood ant soulshard, then struck with [The Boundless Blade: Dragon's Wrath].

A dragon of blood shot into the sandworm's maw and pierced it from the inside out, dyeing the water around them in ink-green blood. Any other peak-grade lifeform would have died of such a wound, but the sandworm's strength was exactly in its fortitude and vitality.

Zhang Lie had dealt it a heavy blow, but not a lethal one—indeed, it wasn't even life-threatening. However, the blow was strong enough that the sandworm knew that it couldn't overwhelm its opponent. It tried to flee, turning around and attempting to burrow into the lakebed.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"I won't let you go!" Zhang Lie shouted.

A black carp manifested around him as he too darted into the water, chasing after the sandworm. He grabbed its tail, then pulled it back as he pummeled it with his fists. The sandworm howled, and its giant maw turned back to attack Zhang Lie even as he grabbed onto its tail.

The strength of the attack was so great that it warped the space all around them, shocking even Zhang Lie himself. He immediately turned to defense, activating his white-grub soulshard and trapping the sandworm's maw in a net of thick silver hemp.

Unable to bite, the sandworm could only attempt to defeat Zhang Lie with brute force, slamming into him with its body like a hammer.

Zhang Lie activated both his forest wolfman and blood ant soulshards in tandem, then attacked again with [The Boundless Blade: Dragon's Wrath]. He charged forward with the bloody dragon, using it as cover to launch the second form of his [Ninesoul Dragonblade].

A violet arc traced out the motion of the dragon's body.

[Second Form: Piercing the Soul]! The sword's slash cut through the sandworm's maw and sliced all the way through its back.

[The Boundless Blade: Dragon's Wrath]! With another attack, the sandworm's battered body was neatly carved into a dozen pieces.

[You successfully killed a peak-grade sandworm. By consuming the flesh of the peak-grade sandworm, you may receive one to ten peak gene fragments.]

Zhang Lie took in a deep breath, stored the carcass of the peak-grade sandworm, then rushed back to the treasury.

"Open up, Hong Xi!"

Hong Xi peered out at him through a slit in the door and immediately opened it. "What's going on, Zhang Lie? Are you injured? The treasury was shaking so badly that I thought I was about to be buried alive!"

Zhang Lie shook his head. "The peak-grade sandworm was tough, but that's about it."

"That's about it?! Wait, Zhang Lie, did you—did you kill that peak-grade sandworm all by yourself?!"

Hong Xi stared at him in disbelief, then understanding, then regret. That was a peak-grade lifeform! If she had known that Zhang Lie was able to kill it on his own, she would have thrown a dart or something its way—it would have given her access to ten peak gene fragments! How could she have forgotten?!

Zhang Lie knew what she was thinking, but he was inwardly glad that she hadn't stepped forward. If she had done so, it would have made matters much harder to control. He smiled. "Don't worry. Peak-grade lifeforms aren't as difficult to kill as you think, especially considering the treasures that the Eclipse Sage has left for you."

"Ah, I wouldn't know—I was waiting for you to return before opening it. Here!"

The young woman's innocence surprised Zhang Lie a little. "In that case, why don't you open it now?"

Hong Xi nodded, slicing her palm again and resting it on the battered chest. The lock clicked open, and Hong Xi found three treasures within. A black tablet immediately caught her attention—that was likely [Eclipse], which she had been searching for for so long.

She pointed at the plinth on which the chest had been located. "Zhang Lie, there's an optical reader there!"

As she slotted the tablet into the reader, a youthful Eclipse Sage appeared, explaining the basic principles behind [Eclipse].

Zhang Lie was naturally disappointed. On the other hand, Hong Xi fell to the ground, weeping tears of joy at the sight. "I've finally, finally retrieved it—my hard work hasn't been for naught, there's finally hope for my clan!"