Chapter 929: Slaughtering the Death Spirits

The king gasped. "Do you mean to say that these black spirits are already dead?"

"More precisely, they're monsters that were created from souls."

"Are they ghosts or spirits?"

"Similar to both, but not truly either. They're weapons of war created by the death spirits, manufactured from a combination of corpses and the living."

The king clarified, "The death spirits are the mastermind behind all this, then?"

"You wouldn't understand even if I explained it, and knowing too much would only put you in danger. Finish cleaning up the rest of the black spirits first."

If Zhang Lie were to tell the new king that the black spirits were being controlled by the death spirits, whom even the other superior worlds feared, he doubted any good would come out of it—it was more likely that the king would shrink back in fear.

After Zhang Lie dealt with the strongest black spirit, the king and his soldiers easily handled the rest.

The king led Zhang Lie to the palace and asked expectantly, "Why have you come, Master? Could you have rushed over because you knew that our world was in danger?"

Upon seeing the king's shining eyes, Zhang Lie couldn't help but sweat. In the end, he couldn't bring himself to claim that it was all a coincidence.

"I would be lying if I said otherwise. As your master, I was worried about what would happen after I left. Although I have quite a number of disciples, you're one of the ones I care about most. I left an imprint of my aura behind that would let me know if this world was ever in danger."

The king was instantly touched.

Zhang Lie coughed and tried to hide the blush from his face. "Of course, I'm also a busy man with lots of tasks to accomplish, and I came back to this world for other reasons as well. After seeing that the black spirits were bullying my student, there was no way I could let them go."

The king asked, "Master, what's your plan now?"

Zhang Lie smirked. "I'll slaughter them all and destroy their stronghold."

The king bowed and cupped his hands. "Thank you for your assistance, Master!"

"While I deal with the black spirits, there's a task I need you to help accomplish."

"Anything, Master!"

"It's just a minor errand. Help me find this item—it's located somewhere in this world."

Zhang Lie handed the king the coordinates he had received from Hong Tianqi. Subsequently, he strode out of the palace, beckoned to the multicolored dragon, leapt up onto its back, and flew off in the direction of the black spirits.

Not only had Zhang Lie maxed out his disaster gene fragments, he had even obtained a few monarch gene fragments. Even before obtaining these monarch gene fragments, he had been able to slaughter a king of a superior world—and now, his combat strength had grown even further.

The black spirits were naturally unable to block Zhang Lie's advance, but Zhang Lie himself didn't make a move. He had Gold Comet deal with all the black spirits while he watched on the throne atop the dragon.

What made Zhang Lie uncomfortable was that the worlds that the black spirits had conquered were sucked free of lifeforms and even the world's energy. The worlds closer to the stronghold were the worst impacted by the black spirits.

The black spirits began to marshal their forces, their black cloth bandages spinning together to form a huge ball of cloth which seemed to be bulging monstrously from the inside.

Gold Comet morphed into a beam of light and bisected the ball in half. However, whatever sustained the ball didn't dissipate—the black bandages unraveled into a long river.

Gold Comet's scythes cut apart the river in a flurry, turning cloth into scraps.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Zhang Lie rode the multicolored dragon into the world in which the black spirits had constructed a stronghold. Its surface was a barren black desert, and the will of the world had been completely consumed. "This world is dead," Zhang Lie proclaimed.

Purple flames spread across the desert, as though a sea of purple flame were overlaid above it.

"For there to be so many void spirits—just how many worlds did the black spirits take over, and how many lifeforms did they kill?"

From above, Zhang Lie estimated he could sense about a hundred million spirits.

He shook his head. "The black spirits have truly gone crazy."

He couldn't understand just what the death spirits were thinking. Did they really think the black spirits' rapid, uncontrolled expansion would go unnoticed?

The death spirit king had left countless black spirits all over the three thousand worlds—and no one knew how many had been taken over by the black spirits.

Now that the black spirits were aggressively taking over other worlds, however, they would immediately draw the attention and scrutiny of the other superior worlds. Wouldn't that destroy all the planning that the death spirit king had done to date?

"Perhaps the death spirit king doesn't care that his plans will be exposed?"

But just what had happened to cause the death spirit king to act so recklessly? In the end, Zhang Lie could think of only one thing: the destruction of the xuluo world.

Zhang Lie sighed. "In the end, it's my fault again...?"

Logically, there should have been no reason for the death spirit king to expose his plans even with the destruction of the xuluo world.

Could something have happened to the barricade that the other nine superior worlds had constructed around the death spirits' world? Surely not. The nine superior worlds had spent millennia constructing the barricade, and it should have been able to survive the destruction of the xuluo world, at least temporarily.

If the destruction of the xuluo world had really been problematic, the envoy from the superior world wouldn't have acted so high and mighty in front of the Zongming world.

Surely the millennia of construction had shored up the barricade enough to hold?

"No, I can't understand what's going on. There's some critical component of the death spirit king's plan that I'm missing, I'm sure of it."

The dragon flew over the surface of the planet. Zhang Lie could sense a vile, disgusting source of energy from deeper within the black spirits' territory, and he motioned for the dragon to head toward it.

He encountered a phenomenon similar to that which Fang Yi had experienced: a huge sandstorm. However, Zhang Lie was no Fang Yi. He stepped outside the palace and stood atop the dragon's head. As he clenched his fists, blue genetic energy gathered and rippled around his arms. He flicked his wrists, spawning a frightening aura.

A sandstorm began to rage around him. The two sandstorms clashed, sending black sand all over—as though two huge armies were clashing against each other.

A pale blue whale flew out amidst the sandstorm and revolved in the air.

More and more genetic energy gathered around Zhang Lie's arms, spinning rapidly until it looked as though he were in the center of a whirlpool.

"[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 toward the air.

The pale-blue genetic energy overwhelmed the opposing sandstorm. Ripples of energy spread out from Zhang Lie, warping the space around him.

With a shudder that shook the world, the opposing sandstorm suddenly dissipated.

The outcome of the clash was obvious. The shockwaves and water-attuned genetic energy exploded, releasing a huge burst of energy that swallowed up the nearby lifeforms like a rampaging beast.

"A mobile warship, is it?"

With the sandstorm quelled, a black pyramid was exposed within sight.