Chapter 954: The Gathered Kings

Li Zongming swallowed a gulp of saliva and looked toward Zhang Lie. He was hardly a strong superior king—the only reason he had survived his world's evolution was because of Zhang Lie's presence.

Upon witnessing the shock in the eyes of Li Zongming and the warlords, the envoy smiled with glee. He hadn't introduced all the kings out of the goodness of his heart, or because he had nothing better to do. He looked down on Li Zongming and these interlopers who belonged to lesser worlds.

Li Zongming might be a superior king, but he had no strength to his name. The only reason the envoy was making these introductions was because of a direct command from the king he served.

Just introducing the various kings was enough to shock and terrify Li Zongming and the warlords.

The envoy knew very well that, even without inflating the kings' capabilities or strength, their very presence, aura, and history would be more than sufficient to terrorize the aliens before him.

However, to his surprise, one of the aliens seemed wholly unperturbed: Zhang Lie.

"Is he shocked stiff?" That was what the envoy thought.

The superior kings made their way into the castle toward the meeting room at its top. The first to enter was the king of chaos, followed by the solar king and the ice queen.

The solar king and ice queen were antithetical to each other and clearly bore each other no small amount of resentment. They were swiftly followed by the king of black fog, the decaying king, and the king of evil.

The king of keys was a special existence. If it were to walk in directly, half the kings present would go crazy with pain. Instead, it cast a long shadow into the room, which it manipulated like a puppet.

The puppet took on the shape of a gold-haired, blue-eyed loli wearing a long black dress and with a small bonnet on her head. Bright bows were tied around her dress.

Xing Ying was stupefied by the sight of her. "A starbeast?"

Ren Kunjing remarked with surprise, "I'm seeing a member of the Jinghun clan!"

Zhang Lie understood what was going on immediately. The king of keys' puppet wasn't actually a cute young girl; she just looked that way.

"It's an illusion. The king of keys is making use of some artifice to make everyone present see the puppet as a member of their own race. For instance, I'm a human, so I see the puppet as a human. You're a starbeast, and you see the puppet as a starbeast—and so on."

The warlords sighed in relief.

They had initially thought that the king of keys was a member of the same race as they were, but a moment's thought revealed the impossibility behind that line of thinking. They were aliens of the Milky Way, and it was impossible for their race to be endemic to the third realm. Neither could they ever become kings of the world—and the envoy had clearly identified the king of keys as a king who originated from a will of the world.

The king of keys scrutinized Zhang Lie carefully, then smirked. "Interesting."

The solar king's gaze landed on Li Zongming, his eyes like concentrated beams of sunlight. Li Zongming felt his body burning up. Sweat beaded on his skin.

"You must be the new superior king, who took down Feitian. To be honest, you don't seem very strong," the solar king remarked.

The decaying king writhed. "If even someone like you were able to take down Feitian, he must truly be growing weak in his old age.

The ice queen's words were rimed with frost. "I'm curious as to how you succeeded."

The solar king nodded. "Feitian isn't the strongest among us, but his heaven's might is quite something. If you were able to destroy the xuluo world, you must have some special talent."

The king of keys' puppet said, "Feitian's destruction was written in fate."

The solar king turned to the puppet. "King of keys, will you clarify your words?"

The king of keys explained, "Those who claim the fruits of karma will be destroyed by karma. The destruction of the xuluo world was preordained—this new superior king is just the weapon of fate."

The decaying king disagreed. "Preordained? Hardly. All of us here got to where we were by defying fate."

The ice queen shrugged. "In that case, Feitian must have been conquered by fate."

The solar king noticed a glaring absence. "Where's the king of blood?"

The decaying king murmured, "He can't have forgotten about this meeting because he's busy bedding someone, could he? No—that does sound like something the king of blood is known to do."

The king of chaos spoke up in the meeting for the first time. "The king of blood has been destroyed."

Its voice was difficult to make out. Just hearing the voice gave the warlords a splitting headache. Their irises turned dark.

Li Zongming felt an uncomfortable chill, as though the madness-inducing flutes were being blown around him. Zhang Lie also frowned—he could sense that the king of chaos's voice possessed an unusual strength, as though there were countless black feelers trying to drag anyone listening to the king into the abyss.

The superior kings gathered around the table collectively sucked in deep breaths.

The solar king cried out, "How did the king of blood perish? Was it the death spirit king?"

The king of keys nodded in confirmation. "Not long ago, the death spirit army attacked the superior world of blood. The king of blood proved no match, and was destroyed by the death spirits."

The other kings' faces turned serious. For a superior king of the same caliber as they were to be destroyed—they grew even more wary of the death spirit king.

The king of keys continued, "It's been tens of thousands of years since we last convened such a meeting. I doubt I'll have to remind you all why we're gathered here."

The death spirits had broken through the barricade that they had maintained for countless years. All the superior kings here knew that.

The king of keys explained, "We gather here for two reasons. The first is to welcome our newest member, Li Zongming of the Zongming world, whom all of you have just met."

None of the superior kings particularly cared about the Zongming world, but Li Zongming and Zhang Lie knew that already.

"The second and main reason is to deal with the death spirits. None of us knew that the death spirit king had been planning for a war for years. He installed the black spirits among the three thousand worlds and has been secretly harvesting the world's energy since as he waited for an opportunity to strike."

The solar king added, "We need to work together to suppress his strength. If we allow the death spirits to grow stronger, he'll destroy our worlds next."

The king of keys instructed, "Each of our worlds will prepare a fighting force capable of stopping the death spirit king's plots."

The solar king turned toward Li Zongming. "Newbie, are you strong enough to field such a force?"