Chapter 507: A Sea of Souls

If not for the massive damage dealt to his soul, the monarch of stars would likely have been able to face off against Zhang Lie for no less than an entire day.

Zhang Lie was no human—he was a demon!

The monarch of stars had never expected to lose to a human, let alone lose so completely that he couldn't even run away.

Zhang Lie walked closer and closer to him. The monarch of stars attempted to scramble up a few times, but he ultimately failed to do so. He lay in a heap on the ground.

The forces of Renhuang and the world federation stared at the sight in shock. This was the monarch of stars, the strongest of the sura—and Zhang Lie had pushed him so hard that he couldn't even stand up!

Didn't that mean that Zhang Lie's strength was approaching that of an asura? If they hadn't witnessed this scene for themselves, they wouldn't have believed it. The hunters, who knew little of the sura hierarchy, weren't particularly shocked, but the members of the four prime races were agog.

Lianna muttered, "I'm not blind, am I? I seem to be seeing... Zhang Lie beating up the monarch of stars!"

Xing Bai nodded. "I'm seeing the same thing. Could this be a mass hallucination?"

Hong Yu replied, "What a coincidence! I saw the monarch of stars caught up in sparkling white waves, before he was forced to the ground like a limp rag!"

Pu Kui frowned. "And now he's lying there, moments from death!"

The representatives of the four prime races looked at each other in shock. ? This was no illusion—Zhang Lie really had bested the monarch of stars.

"How could this be?!"

No one could deny what lay ahead of them. Zhang Lie had created a miracle; he had written himself into the annals of history once again. No human nor alien had managed to defeat a sura monarch to date—and this wasn't even the weakest of the sura monarchs, but rather the strongest, the one closest to the level of an asura!

Before Zhang Lie appeared out of nowhere, humanity had no hunters to boast of save the Martial Sage Hong Tianqi. Moreover, the martial sage wasn't even a pure-blooded human.

It would have been high praise to call humans a nameless race. Compared to the innumerable races scattered all throughout the Milky Way, the human race was little more than an afterthought—all until the appearance of Zhang Lie.

The representatives of the four prime races had to revise their estimation of Zhang Lie once more.

Lianna jerked upright. "The limit-breaking potions! Yes, it has to be those frightening potions that gave Zhang Lie such strength!"

Surely it would have been impossible for Zhang Lie to rise out of a race known for nothing but mediocrity if not for these potions? Surely it would have been impossible for the entirety of the second realm to know his name if not for them?

If Zhang Lie were the only overwhelmingly strong hunter they knew, they would at least be able to console themselves with the thought that Zhang Lie was exceptionally special. However, they knew a crucial piece of information—every member of Team Zenith had the ability to take on a sura king on their own. This could never have happened before Zhang Lie's time.

In that case, what was the answer—the only possible answer!—to this conundrum? It had to be the limit-breaking potions that Zhang Lie had developed. These potions, that every human hunter could consume, would change the trajectory of the human race.

The four prime representatives coveted these limit-breaking potions more than ever.

If the humans had managed to get so strong after consuming these potions, strong enough to be in contention with the four prime races themselves, how much stronger would they get when they came up with such potions too? If they allowed Zhang Lie to continue his experiments unchecked, the four prime races would soon have to bow out to the dominant race of the Milky Way—the humans.

They had to speed up research into these potions, they had to!

After Zhang Lie, Sun Mengmeng, and the other members of Team Zenith obtained their limit fragments, they were able to defeat sura kings by themselves despite their initial weakness. In that case, once they obtained limit fragments, wouldn't they be able to stand against sura kings, or even sura monarchs like Zhang Lie, themselves?

Zhang Lie walked up to the monarch of stars' side, his blade gleaming with light. The monarch of stars, panicking and flustered, called out, "Hold on! We have no grievances between us, and you haven't lost anything. Why don't you let me go? I'll have my forces retreat immediately!"

"Oh? What good does that do me?" Zhang Lie laughed.

The monarch of stars' eyes widened.

Zhang Lie's smile shook him to the core. "Without any sura from the empire of stars to defeat, how will Renhuang be able to make a name for itself? I do have to thank you for renouncing your claim to as large a piece of land as the empire of stars."

"This—This was all your plan?!"

"Not quite. Let's call it a coincidence."

The monarch of stars begged for mercy. "I'll cede over all the land under the jurisdiction of my empire, as well as everything in my treasury. Won't you let me go this once?"

.

"If I kill you, I'll be able to claim those prizes for myself, too."

The monarch of stars frowned. "Governor of Renhuang, don't be too full of yourself. Don't think that I'm helpless!"

"Are those your last words?" Zhang Lie replied coolly. "Unfortunately, I have no intention of erecting a headstone for you. You'll die without a trace!"

The monarch of stars could see the frost in Zhang Lie's eyes. At that moment, he understood that, no matter how he begged or pleaded, Zhang Lie wouldn't let him go. Rage and malice filled the monarch of stars. How had he landed in such dire straits that he would be begging a human for mercy?

"Blame yourself for forcing me down this path!" the monarch of stars roared. He grabbed the black orb from his compass and pressed it to his chest.

The orb's eye and mocking smile appeared once more. This time, it smiled more widely than ever—as though its long-laid plans were about to come to fruition.

Alarmed, Zhang Lie tried to stop the monarch of stars, but it was all too late.

Blood-red light erupted from the monarch of stars, and eyes and mouths appeared all over his body. The pupils of those eyes were darker than the abyss, darker than the night, filled with corruption and chaos.

As the monarch of stars began to scream, countless tendrils exploded out of his body. The monarch of stars opened his mouth, and even more black tendrils squirmed out of his eyes and throat.

"Let's die together!" Covered from head to toe with corruption, the monarch of stars transformed into a monstrosity.

Zhang Lie's dragon's pupils revealed this monstrosity to be composed of pure malice along with an extremely high density of spiritual matter.

The monarch of stars had barely consumed a hundredth of the energy encapsulated in the black orb. The remaining 99% erupted at this very moment. The will of the world shrunk back, escaping to the recesses of the realm.

These tendrils had torn part of its incorporeal body off once before, and it didn't dare appear in front of them again.

Zhang Lie hurriedly took a stance, his blades in his hands.

"[Blades, Extinguish]!" A blood dragon revolved around Zhang Lie. Energy poured out of him in waves, honing the edge of his blade. The pulses of energy struck the realm like a tsunami, devouring everything within.

A dragon of blood rushed out of the tide. The rampaging dragon of blood snuffed out a few tendrils, but even more grew out of the monarch of stars' body. As the monarch of stars' body exploded, even more tendrils shot out from the pulsing mass. Eyes appeared on the tendrils themselves, repulsing everyone who saw it.

The monstrosity's eyes and mouths were of various shapes and sizes—the only thing that they had in common was their contempt for the world.

Curiously, this monster gave Zhang Lie a familiar sensation, much like the dragonsoul he had killed in the valley that had been described in Xuechi's diary. The similarity was only superficial; Zhang Lie was certain that the origins of the two creatures were different, and he didn't even know if the monster in front of him could be considered alive.

Countless eyes gazed at Zhang Lie, and countless tendrils shot toward him. The tendrils targeted all lifeforms nearby. Quite a few headed toward Renhuang's forces, who stood stock-still, petrified by fear.

Zhang Lie sliced off tendril after tendril, but more grew out of the pulsating mass.

Upon realizing that quite a few were heading toward Renhuang's forces, Zhang Lie became anxious. His bladework faltered, and a swarm of tendrils quickly enveloped him.

Moments after the tendrils closed in on him, however, shining flames erupted from the center of the mass, breaking through the scarlet heavens and bringing light back to the world. Blinding light melted all the tendrils that got close to him.

"[Heaven's Judgment]! [Tiger's Howl, Dragon's Bellow]!" Fang Yi's spear took on the aspect of a dragon of the winds and a storm tiger.

"[The Boundless Blade: Shark's Wrath]!" Yang Ze swung down with his greatsword. A giant shark flicked its tail and bit down on a mass of tendrils.

"[Golden Divide]!" Sun Xiaowu's body blurred into hundreds of clones as resplendent golden light pierced the skies and wiped out all the tendrils before him.

"[Dance of the Incandescent Wyrm]!" Li Feng summoned dozens of serpents, flaring with blinding light. They clashed with the tendrils and burned them to nothingness, then continued charging forward.

"[Storm of Leaves: Void Cut]!" Zhou Ying waved the daggers in her hands. Thousands of cuts erupted over the tendrils' surface.

"[Netherworld's Torrential Flame]!" Sun Mengmeng's hand blurred as she shot out an entire field's worth of arrows. A frightening fan of flames poured out from Sun Mengmeng's bow. decimating the tendrils wherever she shot.