Chapter 525: Assimilating Disaster Gene Fragments

By then, Zhang Lie had finished his warm-up, and nothing was left of the dozen or so peak-grade spiders that had scuttled toward him.

Zhang Lie rushed toward the side of the disaster-grade lifeform.

Comically, the disaster-grade lifeform actually tried to flee. Whenever it tried to attack Zhang Lie, it was hurt instead, and it didn't want to risk it any longer.

It howled at Zhang Lie in an attempt to expel him, or perhaps as a threat, announcing that this was its domain, that this cave and all its contents belonged to it and it alone.

The spider's legs struck at Zhang Lie as they whizzed through the air. Meanwhile, the spider devoured its fallen kin, consuming their bodies for the resources to regenerate its body.

"Is this all you've got? [First Form: Parting the River]!"

Gleaming light honed the edge of Zhang Lie's sword, and a beam of sword energy rose into the air. The beams sliced through the spider's legs with barely any resistance at all.

The crystallized legs broke and smashed to pieces, but Zhang Lie's blow drew no blood. Except for causing the spider to crash down to the ground, Zhang Lie's attack had dealt almost no damage whatsoever.

A disaster-grade lifeform was more or less impervious to physical attacks, but cutting off its legs and hindering its movement was certainly a viable tactic.

The first form of Zhang Lie's [Ninecarp Transformation] activated, revolving quickly about his genetic core. 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.

"[Blade of the Heavens: the Sea Swells]!"

The disaster-grade double-headed spider waved its few remaining legs in an attempt to fend off Zhang Lie's blow. Seven of its eyes glowed with blood-red light as the force of Zhang Lie's attack was abruptly countered. Behind the tsunami, however, was yet another sword technique.

Zhang Lie's blade was so fast that even the disaster-grade spider could barely see a blur as he struck.

"[The Boundless Blade: Requiem of the End]!" Black genetic energy covered the blade's tip and ravaged the spider's body from the inside out. As Zhang Lie infused more and more energy into the attack, the spider's remaining eyes burst apart, and his sword energy could be seen from the wounds all over its body.

The head was a critical point. Even the disaster-grade spider screeched in pain, unable to believe that such a small lifeform like Zhang Lie could boast such terrifying strength.

He was trouncing the spider easily; if the spider were to continue fighting, it would surely lose the fight. The spider waved its remaining legs by the front of its eyes as it tried to chase Zhang Lie away, then began to scurry back toward its lair. With its intelligence, it was well aware that it would be no match for Zhang Lie.

Strangely, even though it was retreating, Zhang Lie didn't give chase. He even smiled at the spider. The moment he did, the spider realized that there might have been a trap waiting for it, but it was all too late.

Behind it, a white wyrm blinked into existence. The next moment, the spider felt the presence of a foreign soul invading its thoughts. Its thoughts seemed to slow, and the wounds by its eyes seemed to magnify.

Struck by a mental blow, the spider fell into temporary paralysis. A frightening, corrosive energy entered its brain through the wounds by its eyes, finally prompting it to retaliate with the full force of its might as it tried to retreat.

Zhang Lie slammed a palm against the ground, activating his superior-grade white-grub soulshard and causing the struggling disaster-grade spider to stick to the ground.

As Zhang Lie infused genetic energy into his soulshard, the spider struggled against its restraints to no avail, only becoming more and more entangled as time passed.

The next moment, the spider saw a moonlight wyrm in its mindscape, a sharp horn on its forehead and its maw wide open. Brilliant white soulfire burned over its body.

All faded to black. The spider lost control over its body as its soul was torn to shreds.

[You successfully killed a disaster-grade double-headed spider. By consuming the core of the disaster-grade double-headed spider, you may receive one to ten disaster?gene fragments.]

The gigantic spider's body was criss-crossed with cracks. Upon devouring enough souls, Zhang Lie's moonlight wyrm had been able to shred even a disaster-grade lifeform's soul. At the very end of the battle, Zhang Lie had silently released Whitey in order to give the retreating spider an unexpected blow, which made the rest of the fight much simpler.

Zhang Lie quickly recovered the core of the double-headed spider, a black, crystalline orb out of which many spikes protruded.

This wasn't a good place to absorb such gene fragments; Zhang Lie left the mountainous cave and headed to a secluded location nearby, the depths of a forsaken valley. It was unlikely that any genetic lifeforms would pass by; even if they did, with Whitey guarding Zhang Lie, he likely had nothing to worry about.

The black, crystalline orb appeared in Zhang Lie's hand. Just like the first core he had consumed, this one was made of an exceptionally sturdy crystalline material, and it was the size of a fist. It radiated palpable warmth, as though it were still alive.

This was the genetic core of a disaster-grade lifeform, the source of all their energy—their heart.

To be honest, it didn't even look like an edible object.

Just from holding it in his hands, Zhang Lie could feel an oppressive energy radiating out from it. The spikes were far sharper than they seemed, and they were pricking his palm.

Zhang Lie cut his palm with his sword, then dripped blood onto the core. The moment it touched the dark, spiky core, the blood was quickly absorbed into its interior. It sucked up more and more of Zhang Lie's blood until it turned blood-red.

Zhang Lie had to reopen the wound five times before the transformation was complete. Then, he closed his eyes and began pouring concentrated, black genetic energy from his body into the core.

It took him an entire hour before he felt the core start to soften. Ten minutes or so after that, the core softened completely.

As Zhang Lie clutched the crystalline orb, he felt some unusual sense of kinship with it, as though it was already part of his body. Once he felt such a sensation, Zhang Lie couldn't resist his impulses any longer, and he swallowed the core whole.

As the core slid down his throat, Zhang Lie felt a fiery, numbing sensation spread throughout his body. Subsequently, all that energy contained within the core burst apart in his stomach.

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Almost immediately, Zhang Lie took on the color of a boiled prawn.

After absorbing disaster gene fragments within the first realm and barely making it out alive, Zhang Lie expected that it would become far simpler to do so in the second realm, after his body had made advancement after advancement. Nevertheless, he had underestimated the strength and potency of the disaster-grade lifeforms of the second realm.

His body couldn't contain and rein in so much energy; he could feel his blood beginning to boil...