Chapter 514: Location of the Disaster-Grade Lifeform

Despite participating in countless battles, the monarch of stars' personal strength hadn't increased, and he was still no match for the disaster-grade lifeform.

Zhang Lie expected that this lifeform was rather strong even for disaster-grade lifeforms. Roughly speaking, the disaster-grade lifeforms of the second realm should be as strong as sura monarchs.

However, because disaster-grade lifeforms had particularly high resistance against physical attacks, they were generally more difficult to kill.

That said, the monarch of stars' armor was half-spiritual in nature, so the fact that the disaster-grade lifeform could defeat him so utterly suggested that it was strong even for a disaster-grade lifeform.

The monarch of stars returned to his empire dragging his defeated body along. After some recuperation, he again focused his entire attention on strengthening his body. As long as he could reach the realm of an asura, he would be able to defeat the disaster-gade lifeform.

At the same time, however, he began to feel weaker and weaker. He understood that he was far from reaching the realm of an asura, that there were bottlenecks in the development of the sura. Once he reached such a bottleneck, he would be unable to progress further—akin to hunters who had capped their gene fragments.

He didn't know how it was possible for the asura to be so strong given that they too were sura. In order to uncover their secrets, he dedicated himself to research.

Perhaps because of the thousands of bestial souls trapped within him, or because of his innate craziness, his research became more and more perverse. Once he realized that the essence of life was spiritual matter, he was nigh unstoppable.

The monarch of stars began to forget his original purpose. As he continued diving into research, he found that his mental state was beginning to deteriorate.

In the meantime, he had taken on several godsons. He gave his treasured blade to the first, divesting himself from its madness-inducing nature, and then handed several fruits of his research to the others, in hopes that they would be able to develop it further.

He extracted part of his soul and transferred part of the negative emotions he had incurred over.

In theory, by that point, the monarch of stars should have been freed from the influence of his thousand bestial souls, but in truth, his madness had already seeped into his bones and couldn't be dispelled any longer.

The pinnacle of his research was a compass powered by spiritual matter. He was confident that, the moment he produced this compass, he would have strength on par with that of an asura. To this end, he was willing to sacrifice millions of souls.

By that time, the monarch of stars had yet to realize that he had walked down a forbidden path, but it was already too late.

He spent almost two decades charting his path forward, provoking three sura empires into attacking the empire of stars, destroying them, then sacrificing their people for the compass of his dreams.

The monarch of stars succeeded in this objective, encountered Zhang Lie, and was swiftly trounced by Zhang Lie.

As Sun Mengmeng flipped through the newest pages to the monarch of stars' autobiography, a note fell out. Zhang Lie picked it up and found, to his delight, a list of known disaster-grade lifeforms and their locations.

Before finding the first love of the monarch of stars, the scouts of the empire of stars had explored much of the second realm and discovered the locations of quite a number of peak- and disaster-grade lifeforms.

The monarch of stars had patiently gone through all his scouts' reports to compile this information, and Zhang Lie would now reap the rewards.

To be frank, by the time the monarch of stars acquired his compass, he had gained the strength to defeat his first love. By then, however, he had long since forgotten about the serpent.

Just as Zhang Lie was going through the monarch of stars' treasury, the Zenith Dojo was undergoing a sneak attack.

News of the clash between Renhuang and the empire of stars had spread far and wide across the Internet. However, the participants in that fight were still in the capital of the empire of stars, and no word of their victory had been leaked to the public.

As such, the raiders who had planned to attack the Zenith Dojo made their move right then and there.

The area around the Zenith Dojo was densely guarded by the Chinese military, and the raiders couldn't hide for long. The longer they waited, the more likely it would be for them to be found.

As an explosion rang out, a group of black-clad raiders rushed into the Zenith Dojo, but the dojo was prepared for them. The moment they rushed in, Jun Jiuxiao rushed forward with his [Blade of Heavenly Wind], cutting one raider apart in a matter of moments.

Night descended on the dojo. Ye Xianchen attacked with [Nightmarish Strike], decimating the raiders. Hong Xiao yelled out as a black sun rose behind his back and a white moon by his feet. He charged forward, downing every raider he encountered.

Behind them, Lin Xiu, Zhang Hong, and a subordinate of Martial Sage Hong Tianqi stepped out of the shadows, glancing at the raiders as though they were clowns.

It was evident that word of their supposedly covert operation had leaked; they were under the watchful eye of the staff of the Zenith Dojo this entire time.

Zhang Lie only had one sister, and he would protect her with his life. A plan as foolhardy as kidnapping Zhang Hanxiang to control Zhang Lie... Amurong had to be crazed with anger to do such a thing.

The raiders clearly didn't expect that Team Zenith would be so hard to take down. There were countless expert hunters within the dojo which easily took down the raiding team.

The leader of the raiders was completely flummoxed. He had just received an important piece of news—"Renhuang was victorious against the empire of stars. Retreat immediately!"

His eyes bulged, and his mind went blank. How could Renhuang succeed against all odds? Its opponent was a sura empire, the strongest of all sura empires! Wasn't it too late to retreat now?!

They were already surrounded by a group of Chinese soldiers. With Lin Xiu and the others around, the raiders surrendered without a hitch.

This was nothing more than a minor interlude to the Zenith Dojo of the present; they didn't even feel that it was worth informing Zhang Lie about.

It took Zhang Lie a few days to find all the information that the monarch of stars possessed about disaster-grade lifeforms. Within that time, the forces of Renhuang had taken control over the empire of stars' capital.

Thanks to the generous "aid" of the monarch of stars, the empire of stars was unable to defend against Renhuang's takeover. Because the three neighboring sura kingdoms had also been sacrificed, Renhuang's forces didn't even have to worry about attacks from the neighboring kingdoms.

They had plenty of time to search through the capital and inspect the nearby cities.

The sura within the capital had left behind countless assets when they perished—gold and gems, special ores and minerals, spiritual herbs and plants. These ores and minerals were particularly valued by the rock spirits, and could be used to hire a band of rock giants as mercenaries. Meanwhile, the herbs and plants could be traded to the Yeluo or the wood spirits for special potions.

The monarch of stars had left behind a whole city of treasures.

Zhang Lie and the other members of Team Zenith, who had taken control of the treasury, didn't stop the hunters and reinforcements from sacking the capital.

There were far too many miscellaneous trinkets scattered about the residential districts and the like. To be frank, Zhang Lie and the others didn't feel it worth their time to hunt for treasure, but the hunters at the scene felt differently.

Zhang Lie had a few trusted hunters and the leader of the rock spirits maintain order within the capital and guard the monarch of stars' study before motioning for his team to follow him to the monarch of stars' treasury, where the monarch's most valuable possessions were kept.

Thanks to the elder, Zhang Lie knew precisely where this treasury was, as well as what booby traps lay in wait for him...