Chapter 433: Fish Out of Water

Xuechi's eyes filled with killing intent. "I'll admit that I didn't pay enough heed to you as an opponent, but I won't make the same mistake again."

Zhang Lie shook his head. "What a cruel, heartless man! Your mount died for you, but you aren't even going to mention him at all."

Xuechi barely avoided spitting out a mouthful of blood.?If not for you, would my beloved mount have perished?!

Unable to restrict his rage, genetic energy exploded from the sura king. His eyes turned blood-red, and the blood running throughout his body began to froth and boil. He knew that it was illogical to face an opponent like Zhang Lie while enraged, but he couldn't repress his anger any further.

Zhang Lie noted, to his surprise, that flames had crept up over the sura king's body, and that his strength had increased by another few times.

Xuechi called out, "I'll kill you and suck your body dry of blood!"

Xuechi's technique burned his body's blood to raise his combat abilities. The more injured he was, and the more blood flowed from his body, the more impressive the augmentation to his abilities.

It was for this reason that Xuechi took daily baths in blood, using a secret technique to increase how concentrated his blood was. However, the boost provided by the technique was limited. Given how Xuechi had been injured to almost the point of death, his strength was increased by an order of magnitude, and the duration of the technique was shortened commensurately.

The blood-colored flames spread to the lance in his hands as Xuechi transformed into a roaring flame and rushed over. With his burning blood, the force of his charge was stronger than even him and his steed combined.

"Ha! As if no one has an augmentation technique!"

A red moon appeared beneath Zhang Lie's feet, and his scarlet domain extended into the distance. A black sun manifested by his back, and the strength of his aura increased by an order of magnitude.

"[The Boundless Blade: Expulsion]!" Golden waves and a torrent of sword energy were encapsulated within the peak-grade golden roc's radiant light and sent out clashing against the sura king's bloody flames.

The golden waves evaporated on contact with the flames, and Zhang Lie was sent stumbling back. Xuechi chased after him.

"[Rune: Control]!" Zhang Lie raised both his arms into the sky, and the image of a dragonturtle appeared behind him. The two gravity-controlling tablets smashed into the ground.

Xuechi's momentum meant that he could hardly avoid entering the space of warped gravity formed by the two tablets. The two tablets began to revolve and resonate, sending out ripple after ripple of energy, with Xuechi caught at its very center.

As he entered the localized gravity field, he felt as though gasoline had been splashed on the flames burning all over his body. His blood began to froth, and he felt as though his body was about to explode. The flames suddenly grew tall one moment and short the next, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

If a regular hunter were to walk through such a formation, he too would have been disoriented—but not only that, Xuechi was in an enraged state, and the energy in his body was unstable to begin with.

Gritting his teeth and bearing the unbelievable discomfort, he tossed out the lance in his hand.

The lance shot toward Zhang Lie like a blood-colored fireball, and he could sense the threat to his life.

"[First Form: Parting the River]!" Zhang Lie raised his golden blade high into the sky. As he charged up his attack, the blade began to gleam brighter and brighter, as though a ray of light were impinging upon it from the heavens. With one casual slice, Zhang Lie drew a line in the air.

A strike that could part sky and mountain clashed against Xuechi's blood flames. Zhang Lie was forced back; his feet made furrows in the ground. The black sun behind him shone with light through its corona, augmenting Zhang Lie's strength further.

The golden blade gleamed even more brightly, and a faint trace of the roc could be glimpsed from its surface.

Zhang Lie let out a howl as he intensified his attack.

The blood-red flames continued clashing against Zhang Lie's sword strike. The ground tore and cracked where the two attacks met, and the will of the world descended on the match. It set up a barricade of light around the fight, cordoning it off from the rest of the world.

Xuechi's blood-red lance began to crack and break. He dropped his lance and pulled out the sword by his waist. The flames burned even more brightly.

The barricade set up by the will of the world was penetrated by blood-colored light, which struck Xuechi and turned him into a deity of blood.

The flames of blood grew brighter and denser, and the sura king Xuechi's appearance was hidden from sight. He realized that he would lose this conflict if it dragged out any longer, so he would end it with one blow at full strength.

The sura king leapt high into the air, transforming into a fiery meteor of blood, one which shone down on the entirety of the sura realm as though it were the natural color of the night sky.

"[Rune: Resonate]!" The image of a dragonturtle appeared before Zhang Lie as four runic tablets crashed down around the sura king, forming a black formation around him. They began to resonate as one, sending ripples that melded with the sky and forming an absolute domain over all things within.

Zhang Lie patted away the dust on his clothes and raised his head with some shock.

This was the first time he had seen his four-tablet formation be unable to lock down an enemy completely. Surprisingly, the dark red flames were still fighting against the sealing power from Zhang Lie's tablets.

Xuechi had halted for barely a moment under the four tablets' onslaught, but that one moment was enough. Zhang Lie's wings sprouted from behind as he soared into the air.

Blood-red flames followed Zhang Lie up into the sky, and the barrier that the will of the world had set up cracked and splintered in an instant. The remaining bloodwinged dragon riders, still fending off the attacks from the citizens of Renhuang, were swept away by the force of the blow.

A dark red mushroom cloud dyed the sky a garish red. Before the explosion reached him, Zhang Lie had activated both his blood ant and forest wolfman soulshards, Except for some singed fur, the explosion had hardly affected him.

A large crater remained on the ground, and blood-red flames continued to burn within. The sura king Xuechi flopped around the center of the crater like a fish out of water, his mouth opening and closing without any words coming out.