Chapter 567: The Swan Slaver

The colors of all four seasons seemed to swirl in Zhang Lie's pupils, so beautiful they entranced those around him.

Zhang Lie's eyes were the most beautiful pair of jewels in the world; nothing else could even compare.

He had found a cave and taken shelter there to undergo the absorption process. He stepped outside to see Zhu roasting some fish she had caught. When she heard his footsteps, she turned to him in surprise, only to fall into a daze as she looked at him.

Zhang Lie had grown quite a bit more handsome than before. After consuming so many disaster-grade cores, his genes had taken on their most ideal form, and he was well past the stage of an ordinary human.

Such evolution took place both within and without.

What the monarch of stars and Fenghe had done was to grant themselves the speed of a leopard, the explosive power of a lion, and the strength of an elephant by directly splicing those characteristics into their bodies, but this could hardly be considered an evolution; these characteristics weren't innate or natural to their bodies, and they were nothing more than tools, comparable to a sword or blade.

True evolution built on one's foundations, just like how smaller and smaller transistors ultimately led to cheaper, faster, and more lightweight phones and computers. It would hardly make sense to splice a smartphone with a television in order to get a larger screen, or to equip it with a ten-pound battery to have longer battery life. That wasn't evolution; it was horror.

Zhang Lie's recent evolution had adapted both his body from the inside and the outside.

He had grown stronger, his muscles more compact, his looks more handsome, endowing him with the classical beauty of Grecian statues. Most important, however, were his eyes that seemed to captivate the soul.

Zhang Lie knew that his features might change as a result of absorbing these disaster gene fragments, but he didn't realize the change would be quite so potent. Even Zhu seemed to be attracted to him now...

The fish in Zhu's hands dropped to the ground. Heaven and earth seemed to turn black and white; Zhang Lie was the only source of color in the world.

The light gleaming from his eyes, with irrepressible charm, like the first rays of sunlight in winter, a gentle breeze in spring, were enough to befuddle one's mind. The sun, the moon, and the stars lost their luster in comparison to the twinkling of his eyes.

Zhang Lie walked forward and waved a hand in front of Zhu's face. "Hey, are you alright?"

Zhu stood dazed, saliva dripping out of one corner of her mouth...

Zhang Lie took two steps forward before all the birds in the sky began falling to the ground before him, before the fish in the sea leapt ashore, waving their tails about madly as if hoping that Zhang Lie would eat them...

Zhang Lie clutched his head. "This will be troublesome..."

He had just absorbed the clam's disaster gene fragments, and it would take him some time to rein in his newfound strength. The mistmeld clam's signature ability was in its potent mental strength, which manifested as irresistible charm. Once he fully digested the new fragments, however, this side effect would thankfully vanish.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

After his third absorption of disaster gene fragments, the increase in Zhang Lie's strength was immense. Although he didn't undergo as significant an evolution as the previous absorption, he had grown stronger across the board.

His bones had crystallized completely, and his soulspace had grown one size larger. His soul, on the other hand, had compressed and grown more refined. His [Ninesoul Dragonblade—Second Form: Piercing the Soul] would be far more potent than before.

His brain was faster and more efficient; he felt impressively alert and able to notice even the smallest of details.

Whitey received a fraction of his rewards as well, considering it was harbored in Zhang Lie's soul. Currently, it was in an egg-like state within Zhang Lie's soulspace, having reverted into that form during the process of Zhang Lie's evolution. It had originally been a peak-grade soulbeast, so Zhang Lie was very interested in seeing just what its evolution would look like.

It took Zhu embarrassingly long to recover, but she was clearly still unused to Zhang Lie's transformation. She would stare at him in the day and at night, and sometimes she even crept closer while asleep.

Zhang Lie spent the better part of the week on the island. Only when he could repress his charm and prevent it from affecting his surroundings did he finally prepare to set off again.

Zhu asked, "Where are we going next, Mister?"

"My intention is to head back to land, to a kingdom governed by a genetic lifeform."

"A genetic lifeform's kingdom?" Zhu frowned. Zhang Lie had told her what these genetic lifeforms were, but as far as she knew, such lifeforms had no culture they could call their own. Despite the fact that they were about as intelligent as humans, their nature meant that they would hardly form kingdoms of their own.

As Zhang Lie traveled the realm, the world federation again turned in earnest to the upcoming sura invasion.

[A hundred million sura are on their way to attack Renhuang!]

Just like every other time before, there were those who felt that Renhuang was at the end of the line, that it would surely fall to this calamity.

"A hundred million sura? The sura are going to kill Renhuang—there's no way Renhuang can survive!"

"Is that so? You must be truly naive!"

"What did you say the last few times Renhuang encountered such calamities? Renhuang's much stronger than you give it credit for. Don't you know that just about all the races hostile to the sura have gathered at Renhuang for a last stand?"

"Right! The ones who will truly decide Renhuang's fate aren't we commenters sitting idly by, nor the alien races who have gathered at Renhuang, but rather Zhang Lie and the members of Team Zenith!"

"I'm in Renhuang myself, and I haven't seen any sign of Zhang Lie around. Preparations for the battle are being organized by the members of Team Zenith. In truth, Zhang Lie seems to have left Renhuang quite some time ago."

There were more than fighters in Renhuang; some of the civilians were businessmen and merchants, and they had no intention of participating in the fight against the sura.

"Zhang Lie isn't there? In that case, surely Renhuang is doomed!"

Many believed that Renhuang wouldn't be able to create another miracle without Zhang Lie, that he was the only reason Renhuang had survived this long.

"Where is he? Doesn't he care about his own city?"

Unfortunately, no one was able to answer that question.

Zhang Lie was, at that moment, heading toward the kingdom of genetic lifeforms that the monarch of stars had carefully marked in his notes.

Genetic lifeforms weren't much less intelligent than members of an alien race. Some, like the mistmeld clam Zhang Lie had encountered, were even equally intelligent, if not more so. The mistmeld clam possessed far more intellect than a typical human, but even so, it had yet to create a culture of its own.

Genetic lifeforms didn't have an understanding or concept of culture and tradition; their strength lay in evolution, adaptation, and survival.

As a result, Zhang Lie's claim of a kingdom of genetic lifeforms left Zhu very confused.

Didn't genetic lifeforms not have any ability to maintain a culture of their own?

How could they have created a kingdom, then?

Zhu had heard many tales from her father, but she had never heard of the like.

In truth, Zhang Lie was rather surprised as well.

Many genetic lifeforms boasted the requisite intelligence for culture and heritage, and yet they had never seen evidence of such culture from these lifeforms. This had prompted some scientists to suggest that genetic lifeforms were artificial in one way or another, as though their brains had been limited in some fashion that prevented them from creating cultures of their own.

When Zhang Lie saw what the monarch of stars had written, he had idly wondered whether these lifeforms could one day develop to become like humans, but that thought had been dashed by what he subsequently read.

Apparently, the genetic lifeforms had created a kingdom of their own, but no accompanying culture. This kingdom did comprise multiple species of genetic lifeforms, but their relationship was one of master and slave, not equals.

The ruler of this kingdom was a black-and-white swan. Unlike other genetic lifeforms, this swan had the special and potent ability of granting other species and lifeforms strength.

This strength came in the form of a seed, one that would grow stronger with the lifeform and impart it with commensurate strength, but the swan could reclaim this seed at any time. Once the swan reclaimed it, the lifeform would quickly shrivel up and die.

Every so often, the swan would have the lifeforms to which it had given its strength tithe half the strength their seeds had stored up back to the swan. In truth, it was more like 80%, but the swan claimed that it was only half.

In order to keep the lifeforms docile and obedient, the swan would occasionally give the lifeforms under its sway some benefits, like free food. This food came in the form of genetic lifeforms that were shepherded by a rather intelligent lifeform under the swan's control. As a result, the swan didn't need to do anything at all on its own; it simply went about its own business and happily claimed some of its slaves' strength once in a while.

In order to amass more strength, the seeded lifeforms would all work hard to hunt down stronger and stronger prey, and they would even fight among themselves. If they were able to kill each other and consume their seeds, they would receive a dramatic increase in strength.

The kingdom of the swan had been built on such unstable principles, and it was better termed an arena rather than a kingdom. Perhaps because the monarch of stars was interested in these seeds or in the swan itself, he had described the kingdom in great detail...