Chapter 529: The Yeluo Poison

Zhang Lie finally emerged from the endless desert into what seemed to be a rainforest.

He sighed. "How did it end up like this, just how did it end up like this..."

He had spent one and a half months within the desert before finally giving up. He was certain he could sense the presence of a disaster-grade lifeform within, but he simply wasn't able to find it.

It was evident that the disaster-grade lifeform was hiding from him.

Zhang Lie was exasperated—as a human, he had always been underestimated by his foes. However, despite the fact that he had traveled through the desert while stealthed, the disaster-grade lifeform within still managed to detect and avoid him somehow!"

"I wonder if the monarch of stars' information is accurate?"

The disaster-grade lifeform within the desert, which the monarch of stars had named the shaji, had the ability to burrow deep into the sand and an almost precognitive ability to sense danger. It was likely this latter ability that had allowed it to avoid Zhang Lie for so long.

In the end, Zhang Lie gave up. According to the monarch of stars' information, there was a stronger-than-usual peak- or higher-grade lifeform, a golden chimpanzee, within a nearby rainforest. Whether it was a disaster-grade lifeform remained to be determined.

Zhang Lie walked through the forest, crowded with trees that had grown to a massive size. To hug one such tree would take fifty hunters circling it hand to hand.

Among the chimpanzees that lived in the forest, the black-furred ones were over five meters tall. There were also silver- and golden-furred ones present, each on a higher level of strength than the last.

Beneath Zhang Lie's feet and surrounding him were the carcasses of many such chimpanzees. The unceasing rain swept their blood away as Zhang Lie walked through their corpses.

Not long after Zhang Lie had entered the rainforest, the black-furred chimpanzees began to swarm over him. Unfortunately for them, they had picked a terrible target.

They were so persistent that Zhang Lie didn't have a choice but to kill them.

After killing a few of the chimpanzees, however, he seemed to have angered the entire pack. Zhang Lie killed all the chimpanzees that came for him; by the time he was done, the entire forest was littered with carcasses.

Subsequently, the ground began to shake. As the shaking grew more and more intense, Zhang Lie's eyes began to brighten. Could he have found his target already?

As a gigantic tree before him was uprooted, a chimpanzee about a hundred meters tall and covered with golden fur appeared before him. The trees that were so tall Zhang Lie couldn't see their tops even when he craned his head were nothing more than tall grasses to the chimpanzee.

As it craned its head down and roared, sound waves rushed toward Zhang Lie like a flood. The sound waves alone caused no little amount of pressure to Zhang Lie.

The chimpanzee's eyes were blood-red. It opened its mouth wide and bared its sharp, fierce teeth. Its golden fur stood stiff and upright, and it was clearly enraged that Zhang Lie had been killing its kin.

Zhang Lie picked at his ears. "Is it really only this strong...?"

He was rather upset that, despite trudging all the way out of the desert and into the forest, despite being bitten by mosquitoes and having to kill what seemed like an endless wave of chimpanzees, his only reward was a peak-grade lifeform.

It was true that this golden chimpanzee was quite close to disaster-grade, about as close as the golden roc that he had initially encountered, but the difference between peak- and disaster-grade was like a chasm, and the two types of lifeforms were fundamentally distinct.

Disappointed, Zhang Lie turned to leave, but the golden chimpanzee refused to let him go. It slammed a fist onto the ground, cratering it and causing Zhang Lie to stumble.

"I was just about to leave. What's the matter with you?" Zhang Lie's voice emerged from the canopy—out of nowhere, he had managed to scramble up onto a tree.

The golden chimpanzee roared again, so loudly it forced the rain aside with the force of its breath. Zhang Lie tutted in exasperation. "What, you're blaming me? If your kin didn't attack me, I wouldn't have attacked them."

The golden chimpanzee's muscles bunched up. In anger, the chimpanzee unlocked its latent potential. As it smashed its fists against the ground, a frightening shock wave spread out around the point of impact, crushing boulders into powder and uprooting countless trees.

Indeed, this was the strength of a peak-grade lifeform about to ascend to disaster-grade.

The golden chimpanzee lifted its fists to discover that nothing was beneath them.

"Rather brutish, aren't you?" Zhang Lie's voice appeared by the chimpanzee's shoulder. "Why am I speaking with a beast, anyway? Did my brain get fried from being in the desert for so long?"

There had been absolutely nothing of note in the desert. No matter Zhang Lie's willpower, it was impossible not to have been affected by such a prolonged period of solitude.

The golden chimpanzee's pupils widened as fear leaked out of its gaze. It hadn't even seen Zhang Lie's movements, and it didn't understand how such a small creature could move so rapidly. Despite its rage, the golden chimpanzee understood the threat that Zhang Lie posed.

Obeying its instincts, it tried to run away, but it was already too late.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Quake]!" Zhang Lie waved a hand carelessly. His fist landed on the golden chimpanzee's head. A shiver spread throughout its body, and the mountainous form of the golden chimpanzee slumped to the ground.

Zhang Lie jumped down from its body. "Well, I don't think I'll kill you. I hope you've learned your lesson."

He had gotten tired of killing endless hordes of lifeforms along his journey, having killed more than his fill of even peak-grade lifeforms. If he didn't have to, he had no intention of making a move.

He turned around sharply, then vanished from sight amidst the downpour.

At the gathering of the sura, a heavy silence had fallen on the stage and its surroundings after the sura kings verified that the monarch of stars himself had been defeated by Renhuang.

The monarch of the sun declared, "Now, all of you should be aware of just what kind of threat Renhuang possesses to us. Apparently, they have developed a toxic poison that's targeted specifically at us sura. No matter what, we have to level Renhuang and prevent any of this poison from spreading!"

Renhuang was strong, but five sura monarchs and countless sura kings were present at the gathering. Together, they were a force that even the monarch of stars wouldn't have dared to provoke.

"Indeed, Renhuang has to die for what they've created—we can't let this poison spread!"

"We have to raze Renhuang to the ground!"

"No matter what, knowing what they've done, we can't let them survive."

The sura kings had realized that Renhuang's continued existence threatened not only their hegemony over the sura realm, but even the existence of the sura.

If this poison that they had developed could be mass-produced and purchased by alien races, how were they to survive?

This was the primary reason the sura monarchs had convened this gathering.

"For the future of the sura, we have to destroy Renhuang. This isn't just mere conflict between our races, but rather a battle to the death. As long as Renhuang lives, the sura will perish!"

Despite knowing that Renhuang had the strength to destroy even the empire of stars, the sura had no choice but to wage war against Renhuang.

Renhuang represented far too big a threat to the sura.

"Kill these humans!" one sura king stood up and shouted.

"Destroy Renhuang, kill the humans, and defeat the alien races that have made themselves our enemies!" the other sura kings echoed.

The sura monarchs and sura kings were very confident in their success, believing that they were far stronger than the monarch of stars. After all, the monarch of stars was just one sura monarch, whereas they had five working in tandem.

.

"Silence!" the monarch of the sun commanded, raising his hands.

The sura kings quieted down.

The monarch of the moon began, "From now on, we will no longer call the humans livestock. Our opponents are worth paying careful attention to; after all, they did manage to defeat the empire of stars and gather an alliance of alien races against us."

The monarch of the sky, whose body radiated a mysterious aura, murmured, "We cannot afford to underestimate this opponent."

The scarred monarch of the sun replied, "Since it seems like we're all in agreement, let's discuss our plan of attack."

The monarch of the sun was surrounded by superheated air at so blistering a temperature that the air seemed to twist and shift all around him.

The monarch of the moon emphasized, "We have to be cautious of this poison that they possess."

One of the sura kings in the crowd spoke up. "From one of my fighters who participated in a battle against Renhuang, the effects of this poison are particularly debilitating. Being in contact with just one drop will cause your body to begin to melt, and you'll lose all your combat strength."

Another sura king added, his face pale, "First the seven-kingdom coalition, then the empire of stars... if even these forces weren't able to defeat Renhuang, well, that tells us just how strong this poison is."

The sura kings' faces fell.

Not a single sura king had escaped unscathed from the battle against Renhuang, and it seemed quite plausible that this mysterious poison was effective against them. Otherwise, it was impossible to imagine that they could be defeated by humans.

The monarch of the sun nodded gravely. "We've received important information from those who escaped the fighting, and we monarchs have some strategies ready for dealing with this poison."

The space around the monarch of the sky began to crack, shatter, and reform. This wasn't something that he did intentionally, but was rather a side effect of his strength.

Although the empire of the sky was third in the rankings, the monarch of the sky's strength was almost at the level of the monarch of stars'. The only reason his empire was third was because he was too lazy to improve its ranking; it was rumored that, if he wanted to, he could turn into the second monarch of stars at any point.

To date, neither the monarch of the sun nor the monarch of the moon had faced him in combat, and neither had a measure of his true strength. Of the monarchs of the nine sura empires, he was the most mysterious.

The sura kings all perked up as they leaned forward and waited for the monarchs to speak. Had they already come up with a countermeasure so quickly?