Chapter 542: The Victor Has Been Decided

"[Blades, Extinguish]!" Spiritual energy condensed into shining waves. Like a tsunami, the waves filled the entire pocket dimension and smashed against the whirlpool tyrant's soul.

Though the whirlpool tyrant's strength lay in its physical body, no part of a disaster-grade lifeform was weak. The tyrant's soul had been refined and honed by the sun and stars, and two spiritual attacks wouldn't be able to kill it.

The tyrant's body tossed and turned in the sea, sending huge waves cascading down its body. Zhang Lie's attacks were surprisingly effective, and it felt unimaginable pain that it had never experienced to date.

Even before evolving into a disaster-grade lifeform, it hadn't ever experienced such soul-splitting pain, one that struck at the heart of its body.

It had battled with quite a few stronger oceanic lifeforms in the past, but those had only hurt his physical body. None like Zhang Lie had the ability to target an enemy's soul.

Given the whirlpool tyrant's massive body, a physical injury was easily ignored and negated. After evolving into a disaster-grade lifeform, it no longer had any enemies to speak of—all it did, day in and day out, was absorb the essence of the sun and stars before returning to the depths of the sea. No one offended it; no one dared to offend it.

That day, however, the whirlpool tyrant experienced the greatest pain it had felt since its birth—and all that was caused by an insignificant, diminutive lifeform.

The whirlpool tyrant sucked in great gulps of seawater.

"One last blow!" The twin blades Guicang and Hanguang emitted a fearsome aura, shining as brightly as the sun and moon in the dim pocket dimension of the tyrant's body. Sword energy materialized from Zhang Lie's blades into a blood dragon that revolved around him.

Before he could attack, however, a great quantity of seawater rushed into the pocket dimension. Zhang Lie was still in the middle of charging up for an attack, and he was sucked away by the changing pressure due to his inattention.

A pair of wings sprouted from Zhang Lie's back, allowing him to stabilize himself in mid-air. He raised his hands, and the image of a dragonturtle appeared behind him.

The whirlpool tyrant expelled Zhang Lie from its body through its blowhole with incredible force, sending him out of the sea and into the air. Under the moonlight, he seemed to turn into a silvery-white pillar of light.

The whirlpool tyrant repeated its actions several times, and Zhang Lie had to flap his wings to remain steady.

Waves surged up in a circle around the whirlpool tyrant for miles on end.

It was truly incensed—as the tyrant of the whirlpool strait, the sea was its domain. No lifeform could challenge its authority, especially not a minuscule bug that had come out of nowhere!

The whirlpool tyrant's body burned with blood-red flame as it summoned its reserves of solar energy. Red light streamed from its body and illuminated the entire sea—it turned into a miniature sun that rose up high into the sky.

On a faraway shore, the merpeople hiding in a cave by the cliff were roused awake in a dazed stupor. It hadn't seemed like that long since they fell asleep—was it daybreak already?

All the races of the sea, not just the merpeople, could see a rising sun from the midst of the ocean, one so bright it eclipsed the radiant moon.

The entire sea turned red. Just above the horizon was a luminous, glowing sun, whose rays shone red as they pierced through the clouds, making the sky look as though it were burning up.

The sea turned turbulent. Under the red light, gigantic waves crashed down beneath the sun the whirlpool tyrant had transformed into.

Even without getting close, Zhang Lie could feel a hot, scouring wind burning his skin. From afar, Zhu's face fell. She had never before seen such potent strength. The whirlpool tyrant looked as though it were about to devour everything in sight, and she was so scared she was paralyzed with fear.

The moonlight wyrm Whitey evacuated with Zhu; just the fallout from Zhang Lie's fight with the whirlpool tyrant was something it couldn't bear.

"Is this the true strength of the whirlpool tyrant?" Zhu wondered.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

It was far stronger than the sea god that her tribe had worshiped. With one move, it could send waves rippling over the entire sea. With one act, it could send light flaring into the sky so brightly that it created a new dawn. This was a true god—how would Zhang Lie be able to challenge it?

Zhu found it incredibly hard to believe that there could be other existences able to match the tyrant in strength. Zhang Lie seemed as though he were about to be swallowed up by the red sun himself.

Facing the scorching wind, the approaching sun, Zhang Lie only smiled coldly. "Don't you find it interesting that my white-grub soulshard—forget it, you wouldn't understand."

Zhang Lie snapped his fingers at the sun, causing the tyrant to stop in mid-air.

The tyrant's body rippled with energy that was not its own. As the ripples spread out over its body, time and space froze around it.

"[Rune: Resonate]!" Within the whirlpool tyrant's body, the four dragonturtle tablets formed a black domain. They began to resonate as one, sending ripples that melded with the space and forming an absolute domain over all things within and without.

The whirlpool tyrant had made a terrible mistake in swallowing Zhang Lie—it didn't have the appetite or strength to contain him.

Before being sent out of the tyrant's body, Zhang Lie had stuck the four dragonturtle tablets to the interior of the pocket dimension by making use of the adhesive properties of his white-grub soulshard, all for this very moment.

The tyrant's defenses were crippled; it was nothing more than a target now.

The whirlpool tyrant would have been able to expel the tablets from its body with seawater except for the fact that Zhang Lie had adhered them to the pocket dimension, a space that even the whirlpool tyrant didn't have direct control of.

"The victor has been decided!"

Zhu stared openmouthed at the scene. The tyrant might have turned into a sun, but Zhang Lie had frozen that sun with just a snap of its fingers! Zhang Lie was even stronger than that godlike existence!

She stared at him in awe.

Nevertheless, the whirlpool tyrant hadn't given up. Despite the slowed time, it continued to open its maw, from which a beam of golden light formed.

Zhang Lie knew that he had to end the fight immediately.