Chapter 589: Birth of a Supernova

Zhang Lie took almost half a month to finish the concoction. He treated the ingredients with care and devoted attention, and after one soul-crushing failure, successfully brewed a vial of Potion #4.

Glancing at the rainbow-colored potion in his hand, Zhang Lie felt a burden fall from his chest. It had taken longer than he had expected, but he had finally done it.

He downed the potion in one gulp.

Unlike the previous three potions, Potion #4 didn't taste like anything. It trickled down his body as though he were swallowing a cloud. However, his body responded immediately. A scorching heat enveloped him from head to toe, as though he had immersed his entire body in a vat of chili peppers.

Zhang Lie could clearly sense how, under the dominating effects of this potion, his pores seemed to breathe out fire.

Sweat poured down his back. Zhang Lie felt as though he had been running laps in the rain, his body wet and damp all over. His body, which had already crystallized, radiated light. The few impurities remaining in the crystal structure were wiped away.

His body seemed to turn into a miniature universe. The primordial elements of earth, water, wind, and fire tempered his organs and made them anew.

Marshaling the herbal energy of the potion, Zhang Lie began to circulate his genetic energy according to his [Ninecarp Transformation].

The outer layer of crystal flaked off his body like the shell of an egg, revealing an interior as hard and clear as diamond.

After ten full cycles, the genetic core in Zhang Lie's dantian grew to twice its size, and began to take on an opalescent sheen. The gene fragments that augmented his body seemed to have been converted to pure genetic energy. Zhang Lie directed all that energy toward the [Ninecarp Transformation] engraved on his genetic core.

His body bulked up, compressed, and bulked up again, increasing both his stamina and capacity for explosive force.

Zhang Lie's stomach rumbled. After advancing to disaster-grade, he was able to live off the ambient energy in the realm, but consuming the potion had given him an insatiable hunger. His body still remained crystalline, as did his bones, but the position of his organs had shifted in order to accommodate the internal world that had sprung out of thin air.

In order to replenish his body's supply of energy, Zhang Lie ravenously consumed all the meat he had prepared in his extra-dimensional storage beforehand.

Only when he had consumed everything he had did he sigh in relief. His body had grown far stronger; he was now easily able to strike with twice his original strength. More importantly, his peak gene capacity had gone up by another fifty points. Furthermore, after successfully concocting Potion #4, Zhang Lie was now able to set his sights on a Potion #5, for disaster gene fragments, and then a Potion #6, for a level of strength even Zhang Lie currently had no idea about.

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At any rate, however, those were plans for the future. It was just about impossible to be able to concoct those potions in the second realm.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

After all the meat Zhang Lie had consumed, he reached his new peak gene capacity immediately. By this point, his data were so far out of the norm that he was basically a human asura.

Zhang Lie: a disaster-grade lifeform

Framework: Foundation, Lv. MAX, Ninecarp Transformation, Fifth Form: Qilin

Techniques: Rippling Walk (pinnacle), Three-Wave Crescendo (pinnacle), Calm Waters (pinnacle), Fists of the Silent Sea (pinnacle), The Boundless Blade (pinnacle), Eclipse (pinnacle), Syzygy (advanced), ?Ninesoul Dragonblade (advanced), ...

Genes: Basic, 160; Mutated, 150; Superior, 150; Peak, 150; Disaster, 100

Soulshards: White Grub (superior), Galewolf (mutated), Blood Ant (superior), Potbellied Toad (mutated), Venombane Scorpion (superior), Eternalspring Cocoon (superior), Dragonwolf (superior), Flamewing (superior), Runic Salamander (superior), Moonlight Wyrm (peak), Dragonturtle (disaster), Mistmeld Clam (disaster), ...

Zhang Lie was so excited about his data that he howled into the air.

A massive gust of wind erupted around him. The sea began to frothe, and all the genetic lifeforms within trembled as they lowered their heads. The alien races felt a staggering strength overwhelm them, one that seemed to have come from the heavens themselves.

The races who believed in gods and deities all prostrated themselves on the ground.

The will of the world appeared and honed in on a specific spot in the sea. It didn't do anything to stop Zhang Lie, nor did it drop down a cordon of light—it knew that doing so was meaningless. ?The strength that Zhang Lie possessed would shatter such a barrier instantaneously, and it would hardly be of any use.

Energy burst from Zhang Lie's body in one long breath, sending a cyclone into the air. Beneath him, the waves ?churned, forming tsunami after tsunami that struck the shores of the sea. The entire second realm was trembling from Zhang Lie's strength.

The energy that filled his body was unbelievably dense, almost as though he had captured a supernova. His body began to crack. Blistering energy erupted from that crack and shattered everything around him; he was more blinding than even the sun.

Most of the energy gathered around his heart and genetic core.

If Zhang Lie hadn't crystallized them both beforehand, he would never have survived the absorption process for Potion #4. Even with his heart strengthened, Zhang Lie felt as though it could explode at any moment.

He finally understood how disaster-grade lifeforms evolved, because he was undergoing that process himself.

A disaster-grade lifeform's genetic core was located where its heart would be. Upon evolution, the energy spread out all over its body would concentrate in its heart, which caused a staggering amount of pain.

Zhang Lie had killed over ten disaster-grade lifeforms, but this was the first time he was able to learn more about the disaster-grade evolution.

He spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, after which blood began streaming from his orifices. The blood that left his body evaporated instantly, revealing just how hot his body had become.

A frightening current of energy seemed poised to tear Zhang Lie to shreds, then rebuild him from whatever remained.

Zhang Lie witnessed his own dissolution, unable to do anything about it. His mind and soul had been fortified after absorbing the disaster-grade mistmeld clam, and he retained consciousness throughout the entire process.

Unimaginable quantities of energy burst from his body, warping the world around him and shattering the realm...