Chapter 878: A Walking Treasury

Zhang Lie unleashed his dragonturtle transformation. The image of a dragonturtle manifested behind him as his water-attuned genetic energy seemed to turn heavy and sluggish. Ripples of genetic energy emanated from him, sealing and solidifying the space all around him—and trapping the disaster-grade lifeforms within.

Entering this domain was like wading through a swamp. It cost tens or even hundreds of times more energy just to move forward, or even to wiggle a single finger.

Any victims would feel as though a mountain were pressing down on their bodies, one so heavy they could barely breathe, slowing down all their bodily processes. Even the air seemed to solidify and turn to syrup.

The disaster-grade lifeforms felt as though they were slowly turning to stone; only Zhang Lie was free to move. As though he were simply strolling through a garden, Zhang Lie avoided the disaster-grade lifeforms' telegraphed attacks and walked straight to Diavus.

Upon seeing Zhang Lie get closer and closer, Diavus unleashed lightning on a level stronger than ever before. He knew that, if he didn't fight for his life now, he wouldn't have a chance to do so later.

"[Rune: Control]!" Zhang Lie easily dealt with his attack by raising an arm into the air and sending the gravity and anti-gravity tablets crashing down. Black ripples emanated from the two gravity-altering tablets, forming a localized region of distorted gravity.

The lightning that Diavus unleashed grew out of control, and he spat a mouthful of fresh blood from his mouth.

Just then, the thirty disaster-grade lifeforms managed to break free of their binding and charged toward Zhang Lie.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Quake]!" With a smile, Zhang Lie launched a fist toward them, sending the thirty disaster-grade lifeforms flying. At the same time, the ground beneath Zhang Lie cracked. Huge cracks propagated through the ground, sending lava into the air and causing the skies to turn red.

Diavus, who had been struck by Zhang Lie's [Fists of the Silent Sea], was a terrible sight to behold. His skin had cracked as though he were a piece of pottery that had fallen to the ground.

His internal organs had been obliterated, his bones shattered. As lava seeped out of the ground, Diavus screamed shrilly. He had lost all mobility, and his body was being burned to a crisp by the lava.

Zhang Lie's two runic tablets began to resonate with his [Fists of the Silent Sea: Quake]. As ancient runes appeared on their surface, the two tablets began to toll like a bell. A pulse of energy struck all enemies on the battlefield, destroying Diavus' body.

A rain of blood fell from the heavens, accompanied by a mournful sigh.

The thirty disaster-grade lifeforms had been injured, but only incidentally. Zhang Lie hadn't put much force into his attack, certainly not enough to endanger their lives.

He controlled the thirty lifeforms one by one, then interrogated them as to the location of the proof of kingship.

Unlike the most annoying kings that Zhang Lie had faced, Diavus didn't have the inclination to hide his proof of kingship somewhere secret—but its location was still quite unexpected.

Diavus had had one of the disaster-grade lifeforms swallow the proof of kingship.

Even beyond the thirty disaster-grade lifeforms, the Shouyin world was rich and replete in resources. The Shouyin had gathered all the lifeforms from dozens of neighboring worlds here, and the number of lifeforms had increased exponentially after years of reproduction.

If not for the fact that this world was at the peak of large worlds, it wouldn't have been able to support so many lifeforms.

How could Zhang Lie give up on such an amazing resource?

The regular- and mutated-grade lifeforms were too numerous and common to claim, but Zhang Lie was certainly intending to bring all the superior- and peak-grade ones away.

After all, superior- and peak-grade lifeforms took a relatively long time to reproduce and grow. It would take at least two years for a superior-grade lifeform to mature, and he had even seen records of them taking two or three decades to do so.

Even artificially, Zhang Lie was only able to speed up this period to two or three months.

Since Zhang Lie had to investigate what lay beyond disaster-grade on his own, he would need large quantities of raw materials and lifeforms. This world was like a walking treasure chest to him.

After securing all the lifeforms he wanted, Zhang Lie left whistling a jaunty tune.

He didn't return to the Zongming world by shattering space; because of the lifeforms he was bringing back with him, he had no choice but to make use of the wormhole system instead.

When he passed through those worlds that had been conquered by Xing Ying and the rest of his party, the indigenous aliens shuddered at the sight of the horde of genetic lifeforms coming their way.

If this batch of lifeforms had participated in the initial invasion against their worlds, many of the indigenous aliens would have become nothing more than food for them.

Zhang Lie took just three days to bring his herd back through the series of wormholes and into the draconian world.

When the draconian sage noticed the lifeforms flooding into the draconian world, he immediately teleported to the source of the disturbance.

"I thought the world was being invaded again—but it's just you!" the draconian sage groused.

"I need a place to conduct research," Zhang Lie requested.

"That's fine, but how will you feed all these beasts?"

This was a headache-inducing question for Zhang Lie as well. It was easy to transport all these lifeforms over, but having to feed them would pose a problem—especially given the veritable sea of beasts behind Zhang Lie.

Invoking the authority of the realm, the draconian sage counted the number of lifeforms that Zhang Lie had brought back with them.

"A million superior-grade lifeforms, a hundred thousand peak-grade lifeforms... just how many worlds did you go through to obtain so many?"

"Just one—from an extremely large world."

"Hah." The draconian sage clearly didn't believe Zhang Lie's claims.

Zhang Lie clarified, "That world cultivated a lot of genetic lifeforms, so I brought some back with me."

The draconian sage rolled his eyes. "Don't speak of these superior-grade lifeforms as though they were some form of specialty produce! Do you know how many of your human comrades die or become hurt trying to hunt down just a single superior-grade lifeform?

"There's quite a lot of land in this world, enough for all these lifeforms to roam around, but you'll have to deal with food yourself. Don't expect my help. I can't help you with anything more!" The draconian sage teleported away before Zhang Lie could request anything else from him.

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Zhang Lie began to ponder how to deal with the problem of food. Surely it wouldn't be a good idea to have them feed on each other...