Chapter 659: The Beast Stampede

Jian Mo roared. Killing intent surged over his body, fusing his blood, flesh, and bones.

"Kill, kill, killkillkillkillkillKILL!" As he mumbled to himself, his killing intent sharpened once more.

From the ninth prince's perspective, Jian Mo was turning into some sort of monster. In the chaos, Jian Mo's body and killing intent melded together more strongly than ever before, transforming him into a monstrous lifeform.

Zhang Lie waved a hand to defend himself and the ninth prince from the blades of energy spawned by Jian Mo's killing intent, sending sparks flying into the air as the killing intent scrabbled to find purchase amidst Zhang Lie's defenses.

Jian Mo morphed into a black shadow that shot toward Zhang Lie.

"I suppose I'll have to get serious while you're in this state, won't I?" As Jian Mo pressed on relentlessly, Zhang Lie found his fingers starting to hurt. He retrieved a blade he had left unused for quite some time: Guicang.

As Zhang Lie struck with his blade, a formless aura enveloped White, Whiter, and the ninth prince and pushed them away.

Zhang Lie and Jian Mo clashed in a brilliant explosion of light. The aftermath of that confrontation scarred the ground, leaving wide gullies criss-crossing the battlefield.

Zhang Lie's eyes gleamed with rainbow light. Jian Mo, crazed as he had become, wasn't susceptible to Zhang Lie's mental compulsion, but his mind did freeze up for a split second as a result of Zhang Lie's attack.

That was all the opportunity Zhang Lie needed.

"[The Boundless Blade]!" Guicang flashed. Zhang Lie's blow penetrated Jian Mo's chest, and his accumulated sword energy exploded in Jian Mo's body and tore it to pieces.

Zhang Lie sucked in a breath and sheathed his blade again. "Let's go!"

The ninth prince, White, and Whiter, hiding by a corner of the battlefield, popped their heads out. "You've killed Jian Mo already, Master?" the ninth prince called out in surprise.

"Look at the battlefield—can't you see?" Zhang Lie rolled his eyes at him.

The ninth prince was agape in shock. "Master, how did you kill Jian Mo so quickly? He was devoured by madness!"

Zhang Lie shook his head. "He's not as strong as you think. If he can't even control his will, do you think he can really control his sword?"

Could a swordsman manipulated by his sword be considered a true swordsman? Jian Mo was only intimidating because of his killing intent, and that killing intent didn't necessarily translate into strength.

The ninth prince laughed nervously. "You might be the only one around who can claim that, Master."

Zhang Lie leapt up onto White and continued rushing forward.

"We're almost there," he suddenly said, after they had traveled some distance ahead.

The ninth prince seemed confused.

"To the stampeding peak-grade lifeforms, right over there!" Zhang Lie pointed to his front, where they could all see a group of ten peak-grade lifeforms all charging forward in a certain direction.

The ninth prince was very shocked. They hadn't seen any trace of peak-grade lifeforms during their hunt, but there were ten of them right here!

Shock quickly gave way to fear.

"Fourth-level beasts!" the ninth prince cried out, his face turning pale. "Master, could the mastermind be controlling these fourth-level beasts as well?!"

"It's quite possible." After all, it was clearly unnatural for them to see a pack of ten peak-grade lifeforms all gathered together when they hadn't even seen one during the hunt.

The ninth prince's face turned ugly. "There are quite a few of these fourth-level beasts within the hunting grounds, and even fifth-level ones as well. If they're all under the mastermind's control, just what kind of forces will he possess?!"

"There's no rush. We'll deal with the ones here, first. [Rune: Resonate]!"

The image of a dragonturtle appeared over him as the four tablets revolved in mid-air. They crashed down in a square, surrounding the peak-grade lifeforms.

A black array spawned to life. The four tablets began to resonate, sending ripples of black energy into the enclosed space within, sealing it off from space and time.

The peak-grade lifeforms halted to a standstill. Zhang Lie leapt down from White. "[Shadow and Light]!"

His sword technique broke the spatiotemporal seal and left countless bleeding slashes across each of the ten lifeforms' bodies. With a snap of his fingers, the four tablets dissipated. The ten lifeforms fell to the ground, dead.

The will of the world's notifications chimed in his head.

[You successfully killed a peak-grade heavensilk dragon. By consuming the flesh of the peak-grade heavensilk dragon, you may receive one to ten peak gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a peak-grade demonsoul wolf dragon. By consuming the flesh of the peak-grade demonsoul wolf, you may receive one to ten peak gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a peak-grade armorbreak beetle. By consuming the flesh of the peak-grade armorbreak beetle, you may receive one to ten peak gene fragments.]

After all, Zhang Lie had reached his disaster gene capacity in the second realm alone.

Given the additional limit fragments he had acquired from his foundational breakthrough and Potions #1 through #4, he might even have been able to take on ten disaster-grade lifeforms at once, let alone ten peak-grade ones.

By now, he had largely filled up his gene fragments in the third realm. He might not be a famous third-realm hunter yet, but his strength was far beyond what anyone could have expected.

After claiming all the peak-grade carcasses, they set off again toward the king of the realm's golden tent.

"We're almost there!"

By then, the tent and its surroundings had been ravaged by the stampede of lifeforms, but the king of the realm's elite bodyguards were barely holding the beasts back.

"[The Boundless Blade: the River Lethe]!" Upon seeing what was going on, Zhang Lie made his move. An underworld river hurtled into existence, roaring toward the ground and decimating the beast horde.

The ninth prince waved and called out, "General!"

The general guarding the king glanced at the reinforcements in surprise. "N-Ninth prince?!"

White and Whiter were so fast, and Zhang Lie so adept at dealing with the obstacles in their way, that the ninth prince was the first prince to return to the king's side.

"Ninth prince, y-you're the first to return!" The general was particularly shocked that his body barely showed any signs of injuries at all.

The ninth prince asked, "Is Father alright?"

The general patted his chest. "With me around, his majesty shall come to no harm!"

Just as Zhang Lie and the ninth prince arrived at camp, a group of fighters could be seen storming back from the left. Upon seeing them, the general called out,

"It's the crown prince, the crown prince! Send an escort to bring him back!"

A group of elites rushed out of the beast horde and cleared a way for the crown prince.

When the crown prince returned to the camp and found the ninth prince present, his eyes grew wide. "Ninth brother? What are you doing here?"

"I've just returned, eldest brother."

The crown prince was covered in dust and grime, and he had been bloodied on the way back. His guards all boasted injuries of their own.

However, the ninth prince seemed entirely unharmed.

It was only reasonable that the crown prince was so shocked—the ninth prince was known to be a weakling, but he had somehow made his way back through the beast stampede unharmed and unscathed, arriving before the first prince himself.

If not for the creases in the ninth prince's attire, the crown prince might even have suspected that the ninth prince had remained in the camp all along.

He knew that the ninth prince had no capabilities to survive such a stampede by himself, so the only factor that could have made a difference was...