Chapter 977: Zhang Hanxiang in Battle

Thinking back to the giants' frightening howls, Zhang Lie instantly understood what was going on. He sighed in commiseration for the aliens in the territory of the king of chaos.

It was clear that, while passing through the wormhole, all the aliens had been affected by the giants' howls and transformed into giants themselves.

In some sense, the world of chaos was worse than the unclean world and the world of black fog. In the latter two worlds, the aliens were treated like nothing more than slaves, but they at least had a chance to save their lives. No such possibility was afforded those of the world of chaos; the king of chaos treated the aliens of his jurisdiction like ants, whose lives were entirely irrelevant.

Zhang Lie was certain that, if not for the fact that lower worlds had the possibility of advancing into superior worlds and fueling these superior worlds of antiquity with rare and precious superior world's energy, the third realm would look entirely different than it currently did.

The giants howled as they charged forward, but the black spirits were immune to their howls. Either the death spirit king had been on guard against the king of chaos' abilities and had prepared preventive measures accordingly, or the black spirits themselves were immune because the giants' howls were only effective to living beings, and the black spirits didn't count as alive.

Zhang Lie was even more perplexed.

Wouldn't the frost spirits count as non-living beings too? Their bodies were ethereal, not corporeal—and the monstrosities composed of gray fluid and shadows in the black fog, were those alive too?

Zhang Lie's gaze turned to the white bones that the decaying king controlled. Those bones were unaffected by the giants' howls. However, those bones were surely dead. They were all simply being controlled by the decaying king's powers.

In that case, the giants' howls wouldn't have any effect on items. Were the black spirits considered items?

In the end, Zhang Lie settled on the conclusion that the death spirit king had done something to the black spirits to immunize them from the giants' howls, likely because he had suffered against them in the past.

None of the death spirits' battleships, or the death spirits inside, seemed to be affected either.

Zhang Lie was speechless. The most danger he had faced on this battlefield to date had come not from the enemy, but from a purported ally. If these giants' howls weren't affecting the death spirits, why would they continue howling? Were the giants deliberately trying to weaken their allies?

Zhang Lie had to admit that the giants possessed astonishing physical strength, each of which was on the level of a peak-grade lifeform.

A million peak-grade lifeforms represented overwhelming strength, especially compared to the ragtag groups of aliens that the other kings fielded. The army of giants was fit to be the forces of the strongest superior king, the king of chaos, whose howls could mass-produce forces on the level of peak-grade lifeforms.

Suddenly, Xing Ying pointed at the sky. "What's that?"

At some point, a black crescent moon had appeared in the sky. The tips of the crescent curved steadily up, as though someone were mocking the entire realm.

Black blood dripped down from one tip of the crescent. Zhang Lie looked more carefully—no, that wasn't a moon at all, but a grinning bat on the level of a superior king!

"As expected of the strongest king..." Zhang Lie could identify the bat's strength based solely on its aura.

It opened its sole fiery-red eye, which split into three. Just seeing those eyes made one's body shudder. Even Zhang Lie was overcome by a split second of fear, whereas everyone else on the battlefield who looked at the bat suddenly froze.

What had caused that sudden sensation of fear? Zhang Lie understood instantly. The bat had to have some special fearmongering ability. He immediately shouted, "Don't look up!"

Those whose minds were easily manipulated were shocked stiff the moment they caught sight of the bat in the sky. Some were so scared that they began to urinate or defecate—and the weakest even fell dead on the spot.

As the black bat terrorized the battlefield, the death spirits' battleships began to explode in the air.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing. It'd ruin the name of the Zongming world." The other superior kings would look down on the Zongming world's forces.

Pitch-black genetic energy emanated from Zhang Lie, coalescing into a black serpent that coiled around him. Its scales turned blood-red and horns protruded from its forehead as it morphed into a dragon of blood.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!" As Zhang Lie punched forward, the blood dragon roared in rage and launched itself at the death spirits' battleships, tearing them apart with its teeth and claws. The dragon shot all the way into the center of the formation of battleships.

With a snap of Zhang Lie's fingers, a wave of annihilation exploded around the dragon. Pitch-black energy swallowed everything in the vicinity like a storm at sea, covering up the sky.

The explosion swallowed up the majority of the death spirits' battleships, forming a black hole that sucked in everything in sight.

Once the black hole reached a critical threshold, it shrunk down to the size of a pinhole and vanished from sight, leaving a vacuum behind. A storm manifested as the air itself cavitated. A hemispherical hole was left behind on the battlefield, as though a bomb with a few megatons of energy had just been detonated.

The coffin-carrier, black bat, frost spirit commander, and captain of the solar corps—the strongest troops that the various superior kings had sent out—all looked toward Zhang Lie, the source of the destruction, with a variety of gobsmacked expressions on their faces.

Zhang Lie smiled.

The death spirits, having lost such a large fraction of their forces, didn't dare to keep fighting. They released a large number of black spirits to cover their trail as they fled. The frost spirit commander and captain of the solar corps simultaneously shouted, "Don't let these fellows get away!"

The aliens rushed forward, Zhang Hanxiang foremost among them. She waved her hands in complicated patterns, freezing the black spirits and turning them into ice sculptures, which splintered and turned into crystalline flecks of ice.

"Hey, don't rush so far forward!"

Hong Xi activated [The Elusive Moon], then followed swiftly behind Zhang Hanxiang with a superior-grade illusory leopard soulshard.

Subsequently, she activated all her combat-oriented soulshards in one fell swoop. A fan of feathers materialized in her left hand, and a moonlit sword in her right.

Behind her, multicolored light flared. The domain of [Eclipse] spread out beneath her feet. She walked forward, moonlight radiating from her every move. A black sun appeared behind her, sparking where it touched the moonlight at her feet.

Wind howled. The sword in her right hand gleamed like the radiant moon. As she waved her fan, she summoned a silver twister in the air, cutting apart large swathes of the black spirits.

Zhang Hanxiang ignored Hong Xi's shouts. Her hands shone with ice-attuned genetic energy as she shot into the midst of the black spirits. "I have to show my worth in a battle of this magnitude—it makes no sense for me to remain in the center of the army, protected and coddled!"