Chapter 720: The Final Blow

Zhang Lie had used his dragonturtle tablets to great effect against his foes, never suspecting that he would fall prey to similar effects himself. The sensation was vertigo-inducing, and he could feel his genetic energy roiling in his soulspace.

It took Zhang Lie only a moment's contemplation to summon the two gravity-controlling tablets and re-orienting himself, but even so, he had left an opening for the king of the realm to exploit.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Between experts, such openings could often be lethal, and golden radiance had just torn apart Zhang Lie's underworld river. The light would penetrate him within moments, but Zhang Lie didn't seem to panic at all.

.

The golden light flashed by. The skies were dyed fully golden once more. The inhabitants of the entire world could see the light—not just atop Mt. Yun, but over the entire world.

Li Zongming, king of the east, firmly believed that nobody would be able to withstand his blow. The guests, witnessing what had happened, believed that Li Zongming had taken care of the arrogant upstart who had dared to claim his daughter as his own.

"He's truly a brash young lad, isn't he? Daring to snatch the bride away from such an important wedding—he had to know he wouldn't make it out alive!"

"Indeed. I wonder who gave him the idea that he could succeed if he's incapable of dealing with the king of the realm's wrath?"

"He did seem strong, didn't he? It's just that his opponent was even stronger."

The guests who had chosen to remain on Mt. Yun were all esteemed personages in their own right, and they had seen their own share of trouble. This was nothing in comparison—or so they'd like to think, but in fact, they were trapped on the mountaintop by the horde of lifeforms that were slowly gaining ground despite the defenders' best efforts.

Those who could fight were already doing so, while the remaining guests huddled at the top of the mountain. As time passed, however, they calmed down. After all, there was nothing they could do, so they might as well watch the king of the realm's fight and the guards' defense.

Suddenly, one of the guests asked, "Just what happened to the groom?"

Indeed, what had happened to the king of the west's son?

"I heard the guards mention that he was found in the bride's room, crippled in more ways than one..."

The guests' eyes widened.

"Ignoring the fact that he was found in his fiancee's room, what do you mean, crippled in more ways than one?!"

"As a man, as a warrior, and as a person..."

Xing Ying's lips twitched. "The champion of mankind is truly quite something." ?Did he bear the groom some deep enmity, so deep he would cripple him personally?

Li Zongming was just about to turn and leave when he suddenly sensed something from where Zhang Lie was standing.

A strange half-dragon half-wolf blood-colored demihuman floated in mid-air. His appearance was far removed from anything the king of the realm had ever witnessed, but his aura was familiar enough that Li Zongming could place him immediately: this was Zhang Lie!

"This is your true form?"

By then, Zhang Lie had activated his dragonwolf and blood ant soulshards, absorbing the blow from Li Zongming's golden light on the basis of physical strength and fortitude alone.

Li Zongming frowned. "No, that's not right. You aliens from the Milky Way use these treasures known as soulshards, don't you? To think there were such powerful transformation-type soulshards!"

"You're not bad yourself. This is the most anyone has pushed me in the third realm, I should think."

The next moment, Zhang Lie morphed into a bolt of blood-colored lightning and shot forward at Li Zongming, who had to make use of his authority as the king of the realm to suppress the attack.

Even so, these constraints were meaningless to Zhang Lie. After his dragonwolf transformation, Zhang Lie received such a huge boost to his abilities that he could transcend natural law—no gravity or spatial barriers would deter his movement, because his strength was enough to eclipse those effects.

Li Zongming's eyes widened as Zhang Lie charged forward, the sword in his hand forming a veritable net of sword strokes as he waved it around.

Li Zongming, caught unprepared by the sudden increase in Zhang Lie's strength, was forced back.

He howled. His skin began to give off golden light, and he shone so radiantly he was like a miniature sun. Zhang Lie's sword slashes were annihilated by his radiance. As the light struck the gathered lifeforms, they burst into golden flame, swallowing them up whole.

The golden light landed not just where the lifeforms were concentrated, but also atop Mt. Yun, where the guests were gathered. It took Li Zongming's full concentration to control his power; he had no energy to spare for shielding others.

Fortunately, many of the guests were strong fighters. They would lose out in a direct confrontation against Li Zongming, but blocking the aftermath of his attack was straightforward enough.

The warlords of the Milky Way were able to counter the beams of light with nothing more than a wave of their arms. After the knowledge of disaster-grade lifeforms and limit fragments was disseminated to the public, the aliens of the Milky Way had grown stronger and stronger.

Zhang Lie darted between the rays of light so rapidly and skillfully that he was able to avoid the bombardment of light and appear before Li Zongming in no time at all. As he swung his sword, it broke the protection of the golden light, leaving a thin line of blood on Li Zongming's neck.

"If you weren't Qianqian's father, I'd have killed you with that blow!"

Li Zongming stepped back and thundered in rage, "Insolence! You're not the only one with a soulshard!"

As a bird's cry echoed amidst the heavens, Li Zongming began to transform. In the blink of an eye, he had become a gigantic bird with three black feet.

He had exchanged a large number of peak-grade lifeforms to purchase such a soulshard from aliens from the Milky Way.

As he flapped his wings, the golden energy condensed into a molten core, a gigantic sun whose diameter was thousands of meters long.

The sun turned night into day, illuminating the entire world. All the indigenous inhabitants of the world were wondering just what was going on. Too much unusual stuff had happened that day—the sky flashing golden and black, and now, the appearance of another sun?

The gigantic sun, which Li Zongming raised above his head at great cost, was so large that it dwarfed even the tallest mountain of the east.

Zhang Lie whistled, "King of the east, you truly don't care for your subjects, do you? Whether or not it kills me, we'll see, but it'll surely kill at least all those guests at Mt. Yun."

"Let fate decide life and death. This is my strongest blow. If you can defend against it, I won't stop you from leaving." Li Zongming's tone was no longer that of chasing down a criminal. To be frank, he had conflicting feelings of his own...