Chapter 877: Many Disaster-Grade Lifeforms

"Hold on! Surely there must be some misunderstanding—I don't even know your name!" the Shouyin king argued.

"My name?"

"I'm Diavus, and my kin call me Skyfather. Our race is known as the Shouyin, and we go by a few other names besides." Upon seeing that Zhang Lie was willing to engage in conversation, Diavus immediately grew excited.

.

"I'm Zhang Lie, and I'm here to kill you!" Zhang Lie struck the very next moment. He had accumulated quite a bit of pale-blue genetic energy, which he incorporated into his attack. Water flooded the battlefield.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar]!" A huge wave soared into the air. As Zhang Lie punched forward, the fish slammed its huge tail on the ground and sent a torrent of water surging into the air.

Ripples of energy spread out from Zhang Lie, warping the space around him. The towering waves looked like enraged black dragons, and they swamped the nine-headed spider.

Lightning radiated from the Shouyin king, dyeing the entire sky a radiant white. White flashes of forked lightning gathered around Diavus's body to form a huge shield.

As the pale-blue waves and the white lightning clashed, explosions rang through the air. The waves continued clashing with the lightning over and over again. The seawater evaporated; the lightning flickered.

The clash of the two opposing forces shook heaven and earth. The ground began to crack, and huge clods of earth and boulders were sent flying. After the energy from both attacks had dissipated, the ground was a mess of rubble and devastation.

Diavus stood amidst the wreckage, one of his wings broken off, half his beard shaved away, and wounds marring his body.

Diavus shouted, "Who are you, and why do you seek my death?!"

A tidal wave of water-attuned genetic energy appeared behind Zhang Lie. A violent shark materialized around him and soared into the air as the energy circled his body and condensed by his index finger.

"Don't you remember the group of people you injured recently?"

Zhang Lie slowly raised his index finger up high as the pale-blue genetic energy rushed into the depths of space and formed a waterfall that cascaded down.

Diavus seemed to have come to a realization. "Those invaders?"

Zhang Lie responded with actions, not words. The waterfall struck like a blade, propelling the shark forward.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"[The Boundless Blade: Yawning Wave]!" Zhang Lie swung downwards with a heavy blow, and the shark swam forth. It opened its bloody maw as Diavus shot s huge pillar of lightning straight into its mouth, piercing it through and shredding Zhang Lie's attack. By the time it got to Zhang Lie, only a small sliver of lightning remained.

Zhang Lie flicked at the lightning with a finger, causing an incredible explosion that dyed the world white. The lightning enveloped Zhang Lie in an instant. Diavus had condensed the bulk of the attack down to this sliver in an attempt to hoodwink Zhang Lie.

As the lightning dissipated, Zhang Lie's figure could be seen anew. A black serpent had wrapped protectively around its body, shielding him from the force of the lightning.

"[Ninecarp Transformation]!" The black serpent, which resembled the world-swallowing serpent Jormungandr, let out a threatening hiss as its scales clicked together.

Diavus nodded to himself. "So you're with those invaders—no wonder!"

"For injuring my people, you'll pay with your life." Zhang Lie clenched his fist tightly and cocked his arm. The serpent lowered its head so that it was aligned with Zhang Lie's fist.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!" Zhang Lie punched forward, and the black serpent behind him shot forth.

Diavus, his body wrapped entirely in lightning, radiated light even brighter than that of the sun. He smashed into the black serpent, and the skies responded in kind. Half of it was pure white, while the other half was pitch black. The black energy was dissolving the white lightning, but the white lightning was piercing through the black energy.

After the energy of the two attacks dissipated, Diavus found himself in an even more sorry state. His single good wing had been dissolved, as had much of the upper half of his body. If not for his shield of lightning, Diavus would likely have been nothing more than a pile of bones.

He roared in outrage, "Don't get too cocky—I'm not alone!"

Diavus made use of his authority to distort his surrounding space. The space around him began to ripple and warp.

Zhang Lie didn't stop him. Instead, he waited expectantly. Zhang Lie hadn't come to this world solely for revenge. His principal reason was the thirty disaster-grade lifeforms under Diavus' control.

The appearance of all thirty such lifeforms shook the battlefield once more. Diavus' authority wouldn't allow him to teleport disaster-grade lifeforms at will; they had to permit it.

Zhang Lie activated his disaster-grade mistmeld clam soulshard, and his eyes glowed in all the colors of the rainbow.

Diavus, realizing what Zhang Lie was doing, immediately waved an arm and shielded the disaster-grade lifeforms with the world's energy.

"Petty bastard!" Zhang Lie groused.

Diavus' forehead beaded with sweat. If Zhang Lie had succeeded and subverted the lifeforms, turning them from allies into enemies...

"If you're unwilling to give them to me, I'll simply have to take them by force!" As Zhang Lie activated his blood ant and dragonwolf soulshards, he transformed into a dragonwolf with russet fur and limbs covered with dragons' scales. His aura became magnified as a hurricane of blood spawned around him.

As soon as he killed Diavus, the world's energy would stop shielding those disaster-grade lifeforms, and Zhang Lie's mistmeld clam soulshard would take effect.

The next moment, Zhang Lie vanished from the spot. He appeared right behind Diavus—but Diavus was prepared. Streaks of white lightning flashed from his body. Zhang Lie tore apart the lightning with a claw, sending blood flying.

"Che, he still managed to escape." At the cost of an arm, Diavus had fled from Zhang Lie.

The disaster-grade lifeforms that Diavus controlled launched a simultaneous attack and pounced toward Zhang Lie.

Zhang Lie now faced a dilemma: how was he to kill Diavus while hurting these lifeforms as little as possible? It sounded like an unrealistic goal, but not for Zhang Lie. After all, Zhang Lie was now strong enough to crush a large world underfoot...