Chapter 980: An Unusual Strategy

Molding life out of flesh and blood was certainly an impressive feat, though not an overwhelming one. Even if the king of keys hadn't created life from nothing, it was clear that it had superior knowledge and resources.

Wilbow smiled, but his appearance was so strange that his smile looked somewhat grotesque.

Black fog drew close toward the various commanders, coalescing roughly into the shape of a man.

Zhang Lie hedged, "This representative from the world of black fog is..."

The frost spirit commander and the others were used to this curious sight.

Wilbow shrugged. "This is the nature of the world of black fog, mysterious and ethereal."

The frost spirit commander explained, "Even in the past, the world of black fog never sent any men to participate in battle, only black fog. We've all been curious as to the structure of their world."

Were there other living lifeforms in the world of black fog? It was likely that there weren't—and even the king of black fog itself might not be a biological lifeform.

The captain of the solar corps added, "This black fog is a physical manifestation of the king of black fog's strength, as well as a clone of its body."

The corpse-carrier didn't participate in the meeting. It listened only to the decaying king's orders and wouldn't act on its own. The king of evil's monstrosities were likewise incapable of communication, and just about all the commanders who were going to come had come—save one.

The moment Zhang Lie recalled his existence, the black bat appeared. The frost spirit commander and the others hastily bowed. "Welcome, your majesty."

The black bat folded its wings and transformed into a man in a white coat, wearing silver glasses.

The frost spirit commander pulled on Zhang Lie's arm. "What are you doing?"

Zhang Lie was bewildered. "What majesty?"

The frost spirit commander cried, "He's the clone of the strongest king, the king of chaos!"

The clone smiled. "I prefer not to associate myself with chaos. We clones each have the capacity for independent thought, and it would be easy to confuse us. You had better address me as Nightdemon."

Zhang Lie was curious as to why the king of chaos' clone took on a human form. Upon recalling that the king of keys' puppet had appeared as a blonde, blue-eyed loli, he turned to the frost spirit commander and asked, "What does Nightdemon look like to you?"

The frost spirit commander understood what Zhang Lie was getting at. After all, the first time he encountered Nightdemon, he had asked the ice queen if the clone were a frost spirit, only to be made fun of by the ice queen herself.

He replied, "The king of keys' puppets and the king of chaos' clones all possess the special ability of being recognized as members of the same species by whoever comes into contact with them. Nightdemon must look like a human to you, and he looks like a frost spirit to me."

To the frost spirit commander, Nightdemon was a shaman of the frost spirits, likewise draped in a white cloak.

Nightdemon seemed to have noticed Zhang Lie's curious expression. He explained, "I've transformed my appearance so that we can converse more easily."

After all, Nightdemon's original form was a bloodsucking bat surrounded by an aura of fear, which would discomfit the other commanders needlessly.

It seemed that the most ancient and the strongest superior kings shared the same characteristic: they couldn't be seen or witnessed directly.

Looking directly at the king of keys would confound the mind, and looking directly at Nightdemon would produce a sense of innate fear. There were quite a few aliens on the battlefield who had looked directly at Nightdemon and gone crazy as a result.

The king of keys and the king of chaos were the two most exceptional superior kings, and they boasted characteristics that no other superior king possessed.

The other superior kings were just somewhat stronger than kings of large worlds, just like Li Zongming. They hadn't changed dramatically as a result of their worlds' evolution.

For one, Li Zongming was still yet unfamiliar with the strength that a superior world possessed, and for another, the remaining superior kings were far from the level of the two exceptional kings.

It was as though the king of keys and the king of chaos had surpassed some formless threshold of being.

As Zhang Lie pondered these questions, the blood lord finally arrived.

Nightdemon spoke up. "I believe we're all gathered, then."

The blood lord began, "I'm very curious as to just who this newbie is. What king would send such a strong subordinate directly onto the battlefield? Excepting the king of chaos, of course. The king of chaos could certainly afford it—he has dozens of clones, each on the level of a superior king."

Fighters as strong as superior kings were exceptionally rare even on superior worlds—except the world of primordial chaos. The strongest king also boasted the strongest world.

The blood lord continued, "Even if the king of chaos were to field a few dozen fighters on that level, I wouldn't be surprised—but other kings don't have so much power to throw around."

Fighters on the level of superior kings were existences equal to those kings. It was difficult to command them, and the kings generally kept them close to their sides in case of danger. They were like trump cards to be wielded jealously, not sent to the battlefield—and this wasn't a battle important enough to warrant such an exception.

The frost spirit commander explained, "He came from a newly evolved superior world."

The blood lord frowned. "A newly evolved superior world? I think I may have heard about it from the blood king—a world that destroyed the xuluo world! So you must be from that world? It looks like it's far stronger than I had anticipated."

For Li Zongming to be able to send a subordinate on the level of a superior king to such an unimportant battle—he had to possess multiple such forces.

Zhang Lie's smile grew wider. This was a beautiful misunderstanding. He suggested, "Let's start the meeting immediately. Blood Lord, I heard that you had an extremely important piece of news to share. Could you tell us about it?"

The blood lord nodded. "The remnant forces of Blood Heaven have recently discovered a shocking truth, a frightening plan concocted by the death spirits."

"What plan?" Zhang Lie asked.

"You all know of the death spirit king's ambitions, don't you?"

Zhang Lie nodded. "To absorb more and more wills of the world to grow stronger on his own?"

"That's right. The death spirit king is aware of the allied forces that are prepared to challenge him. Strong though he might be, there's only one of him and eight other superior worlds he has to face—and the king of keys and king of chaos, mysterious and ancient existences, among them."

Zhang Lie felt as though there was something strange in what the blood lord was saying, but he couldn't pinpoint it immediately.

The blood lord continued, "The death spirit king can't guarantee that he'll be able to wrest victory from the king of keys and king of chaos, so he's come up with a new strategy instead."

Nightdemon glanced toward the blood lord with interest. "What strategy?"

"To start by absorbing the lower realms!"