Chapter 502: Galaxies of Blood

"Interesting! [Ten Thousand Claws]!"

The monarch of stars' claws blurred as the beasts behind him came to life, each taking on one of Zhang Lie's dragons. Frightening explosions filled the sky, far stronger than any that had come before.

As the last black dragon burst apart, Zhang Lie suddenly rushed forward, a sword piercing the air as he struck.

"[The Boundless Blade: Yawning Wave]!"

The sudden appearance of Zhang Lie's bladed weapon left the monarch of stars somewhat surprised, but he had encountered so many battles, so much fighting to the death, that his experience allowed him to react quickly. He reached out and grabbed the blade with his bare hands, allowing it to slice his palm.

The sword energy burst apart in his palm, instantly crippling his arm, but the monarch of stars didn't even frown. He punched forward with his other arm without any hesitation.

A white light shone on Zhang Lie's right arm, blocking the monarch of stars' claw.

One of the sura monarch's arms had been crippled by Zhang Lie's blow, and a long gash appeared on the other.

Nevertheless, the monarch of stars didn't much care. "Oh? You really aren't bad. It's a pity that you were born a human!"

"I never expected the renowned monarch of stars to be such a loudmouth!" Zhang Lie replied. Black genetic energy gathered over his sword.

The monarch of stars stretched. "It's been quite a while since I exercised my body to this extent. It's refreshing!"

"Oh? One of your arms is crippled, and the other's halfway there. You're going to call this a mere exercise?" Zhang Lie taunted the monarch.

"Very well. I'll admit your strength. You're eligible to be my lab rat."

The monarch of stars retrieved a compass. As it spun, a dark red sun rose from its surface, causing the entire realm to tremble. The scarlet sun seemed to possess some tremendous energy, as though it were a miniature universe in its own right.

The moment the sun emerged, the monarch of stars' injuries were healed immediately.

The compass was an exquisite construction, and the monarch of stars gave it its full attention. "In that case, let's conduct an experiment now.

Rejoice—you'll be this compass's first test subject!"

As the scarlet sun appeared, the entire sky seemed to take on a tinge of the same color, replacing the sun shining over the very realm itself. Although the scarlet light it gave off wasn't particularly strong or bright, it felt as though the light was devouring everything around it.

When the Renhuang forces saw the sky suddenly turn red, shock filled their eyes. Sun Mengmeng's hands trembled, and a note of worry crept into her gaze. In her heart, she earnestly prayed for Zhang Lie's safe return.

The monarch of stars cupped the compass as he introduced it slowly. "This is a peak-grade armament I created after a deep study of life and spirit, a miniature universe given life by copious amounts of blood and spiritual matter."

The scarlet sun that rose out of the compass opened one eye and cracked a mocking smile. A scarlet beam shone out of it, one which Zhang Lie immediately dodged. It landed on a large hill behind him and sent a cloud mushrooming into the air. The hill had been vaporized in its entirety, leaving nothing but smoking earth and what seemed like lava behind.

"A peak-grade armament, you say? It seems quite easy to dodge." Zhang Lie smiled lazily at him.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Frowning at how the first test of his long-planned weapon had gone, the monarch of stars retorted, "Useless fool, what do you know? You won't be able to hide for long! [Universe of Blood]!"

The dark red sun exploded with light, and a blood-red night sky seemed to spawn into existence. Each star seemed to be filled with lifeforms brimming with anger, malice, and rage. As the monarch of stars tapped his compass, thousands of those stars fell through the air like a meteor shower, each of them heading straight for Zhang Lie.

Zhang Lie darted and skirted by each star gracefully, never being caught by any of the projectiles.

The monarch of stars tapped his compass again. A thick beam of blood-red light shot toward Zhang Lie from the scarlet sun.

Zhang Lie was forced to dodge, but the change in tempo caused him to be struck by dozens of meteors as a result. They buried him in an explosion that covered the ground.

The monarch of stars turned and sighed in disappointment. "It's over!"

With just a minute fraction of the compass' true strength, he had killed Zhang Lie.

"Humans truly aren't strong, after all."

"Hoh? You must be dreaming. Don't you feel ashamed of calling these meteors? They can't even scratch my itches!" Deep within the ground, Zhang Lie stood perfectly upright, the bombardment of meteors blocked by a suit of glassy genetic armor. The meteors couldn't even touch Zhang Lie, let alone kill him.

"[Rune: Control]!" Black ripples emanated from the two gravity-altering tablets, forming a localized region of distorted gravity.

As the dust and smoke from the explosion cleared, a blood-colored dragonwolf emerged.

Zhang Lie's newly acquired peak-grade dragonwolf soulshard replaced his superior-grade forest wolfman soulshard in functionality. His lupine form had pitch-black fur and slitted eyes. A few dragons circled around him. A black sun appeared behind his back, and blood-red moonlight by his paws. He looked like an atavistic deity.

Upon seeing Zhang Lie's dragonwolf transformation, the monarch of stars eyed him with newfound desire. "What a beautiful lifeform, what beauty! Even I, who have recanted from bestiality, feel desire thrumming in my veins. You're surely the most beautiful lifeform I've seen in my entire life!"

"You said that your compass created a miniature universe, didn't you?" Zhang Lie ignored the monarch of stars' words. ?"It's nothing more than a toy, one created with an immense amount of spiritual matter and genetic energy! You dare call it a universe? You, a foolish sura king from the second realm, dare to claim that you've made a universe? How laughable! Let me show you the truth—I'll destroy it before your very eyes! [The Boundless Blade: the River Lethe]!"

An underworld river hurtled into existence, roaring into the skies and clashing against the scarlet manifestation of the night sky.

Strong though the monarch of stars' weapon might be, Zhang Lie was stronger. His dragonwolf transformation had boosted his strength tremendously, and the river of the underworld broke what now seemed to be an illusion.

As the monarch of stars tapped on his compass again, the scarlet sky mustered a defense, forming a concentrated beam of starlight.

"[Rune: Resonate]!" Zhang Lie raised an arm into the air and sent the gravity and anti-gravity tablets crashing down by the four sides of the monarch of stars. They began to resonate as one, sending ripples that melded with the sky and forming an absolute domain over all things within.

However, for the first time, Zhang Lie found his tablets ineffective.

The monarch of stars continued moving naturally, as though he were shielded from the domain the tablets had created. A shining brilliance emanated from his body.

He commented coolly, "You might have the ability to suppress space and time, but I have some achievement in those areas, too."

After all, the time-reversal technique that Suiyue had came from the monarch of stars' direct tutelage. Unlike Suiyue, who obtained the ability to reverse time, the monarch of stars was able to speed up time and space locally around him.

Zhang Lie's four tablets formed an absolute domain that could even slow time, but the monarch of stars could counteract his technique by accelerating time around himself insead.

However, Zhang Lie had inspected the manual for this technique closely, and he knew that it came with extreme side effects as a result. Mortal bodies weren't equipped to handle such cosmic principles, and any self-targeting techniques of this kind often came with commensurate drawbacks.

As the scarlet sun burned brighter and brighter, the monarch of stars' aura increased dramatically. The crimson starlight descended to the ground. Without any hesitation, Zhang Lie waved his sword, sending the underworld river clashing against the beam of starlight.

As the two frightening sources of energy struck each other, twin bursts of light filled the sky.

The monarch of stars laughed. "Interesting!"

"Oh? Your nine godsons said the same, but they all perished afterwards. Just you wait—I have more interesting tricks to show you. Don't die too quickly, will you? [The Boundless Blade: Dragon's Wrath]!"

A dragon's roar resounded through the air like peals of thunder. A rampaging dragon of blood pounced toward the monarch of stars.

As the scarlet sun burned even more brightly, more and more stellar energy wrapped around the monarch of stars and shielded him from the dragon's advance.

The rampaging dragon tore all that energy apart. On seeing that Zhang Lie's attack was so strong, even the monarch of stars had to pay him more attention.

"It looks like I've underestimated you. I have to admit, you're a wonderful test subject!"

The monarch of stars materialized a crimson blade from the compass and waved it at the dragon, causing another earth-shattering impact. Even Renhuang's forces, now a few hundred kilometers away, could still sense the strength behind the clash.

The fight between the monarch of stars and Zhang Lie was apocalyptic; it went far beyond what the second realm could handle. The will of the world was paying close attention to the fight, but it didn't dare interfere, especially after what the monarch of stars had done to it.

The blade in the monarch of stars' hand burned like the sun. Flames of blood flared up and down the sword as the monarch of stars fought off Zhang Lie's dragon. As the flames fell to the earth, they caused explosion after explosion, causing the ground to erupt and lava to form.