Chapter 998: I Underestimated You

The death spirit king murmured, "Primordial chaos, is this the fighter you were so eager to show me? He doesn't seem very strong at all."

Nightdemon had already brought out the Shining Trapezohedron as he tried to counter one of the flagships. He smiled and called back, "You're in too much of a rush! Just wait for the surprise!"

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!" As Zhang Lie punched forward, the blood dragon roared in outrage and shot forward.

Zhang Lie shot back the moment he launched his attack.

The blood dragon tore apart the death spirit king's black bandages as he sneered, "Is that all you've got?"

The death spirit king punched at the dragon, a layer of superior world's energy having solidified around his fists, and burst its head open with one punch.

The next moment, the frightening energy that lay dormant within the blood dragon's body surged out.

A wave of annihilation exploded around the dragon, shredding the black bandages. Pitch-black energy swallowed everything in the vicinity like a storm at sea, causing the death spirit king's throne to explode and covering up the sky.

The explosion was like a black hole that consumed everything in sight—boulders and bones, the black rain and the graveyards that filled the ground. ?The death spirit king himself was sucked into the explosion.

This was the first time that the death spirit king panicked and lost his composure in the battle. At the instant of the explosion, the death spirit king realized that he had underestimated Zhang Lie.

Zhang Lie's energy of annihilation was far stronger than he had anticipated. The death spirit king tried to block it with another barrier of superior world's energy, only to find that Zhang Lie's energy had the unusual attribute of being able to devour the superior world's energy and convert it into more energy of annihilation. The more he tried to resist, the stronger the energy would become.

"What an interesting strength. In that case, let's see who among the two of us is stronger!" The death spirit king corrupted the superior world's energy and countered with his own version of annihilation.

Zhang Lie's energy was of higher quality, but the death spirit king had more of his energy to spare. In the end, the death spirit king was able to forcibly dispel the attack.

The death spirit king praised, "What a pity that I didn't know of you sooner. If I had known that this realm possessed such strength, I would have studied it carefully. It would have given me another trump card up my sleeve."

"I know you," Zhang Lie replied, stunning the death spirit king for a few moments. He was certain that he would never have forgotten such a strong and interesting fighter. "You simply don't know me," Zhang Lie finished.

"It looks like you're still able to fight, aren't you?" The death spirit king sneered.

"Your death is predestined."?Both in my last life, and in this one.

The death spirit king sneered again. "Zhang Lie, is it? A confident fellow. You're strong enough to make me remember your name."

"Unfortunately, you won't be able to remember it for long!" Black genetic energy burst forth from Zhang Lie, as though there were hundreds, thousands of dragons surging throughout his body. "[Fists of the Silent Sea: Hundred Dragons Soaring]!"

A horde of over a hundred black dragons launched out of Zhang Lie's left arm as he expended half his genetic energy in one supercharged attack.

Howling with the force of thunder, the hundred dragons soared through the air. They were fierce and domineering, and all hundred of them boasted the power of annihilation.

"Ignorant fool! Only the primordial chaos is my match in the third realm. You might have some semblance of strength, but it's nothing impressive. Let me show you why all the superior worlds fear me."

Violet flames flared up around the death spirit king. The flames gradually turned multicolored, like a superior world's energy.

Zhang Lie had previously thought that the death spirit king was burning up his own soul, but he was instead burning fragments of wills of the world. Although these wills operated like computer programs, they still needed to be managed by administrators or moderators of some sort. The kings of the realm served as these administrators.

Despite this restriction, the wills of the world's soul fragments were of a far higher quality than ordinary lifeforms. The wills of the three thousand worlds were, in some sense or another, soul fragments of the third realm.

The death spirit king was burning up one of these fragments and deriving strength from it. The quality of the souls captured therein was directly correlated with the boon in strength he would receive—and the soul fragments of the realm were potent indeed.

Black smoke swirled around the death spirit king. As he reached out, it curled up around his arm. Zhang Lie could keenly sense that this black smoke was the corrupted energy of annihilation that the death spirit king had already produced multiple times.

Zhang Lie finally understood how the death spirit king had developed this technique—it had to have been through experimentation with these soul fragments.

With his body protected by the spiritual flames of the realm, and with a source of annihilation at his disposal, the death spirit king was in a near-invulnerable state.

The death spirit king sent a flurry of punches toward Zhang Lie, destroying the black dragons that he had summoned. Energy of annihilation was produced whenever a dragon exploded, but the death spirit king was able to counter it with his own energy and the spiritual flames burning around him.

The multicolored flame condensed into an armor that shielded him from attacks as he charged forward against the horde of dragons, striding toward Zhang Lie slowly but inevitably.

Rather than run, Zhang Lie stepped forward. He brandished Guicang as he dashed toward the ?death spirit king.

Each of the death spirit king's punches was imbued with annihilation, as was Zhang Lie's sword. Sword and fist clashed with each other in mid-air, gleaming brightly in the darkness. A storm of annihilation spawned around the two combatants as the dark clouds in the sky were torn apart. The ground, already having cracked, was smashed into powder.

Within the multicolored flaming armor, Zhang Lie could see the crying, keening faces of endless wills of the world. The death spirit king's strength shook space and distorted natural law.

Zhang Lie raised the blade in his hand high into the air, encircled by black genetic energy. The temperature of the battlefield dropped to sub-zero values, and a strong wind buffeted all combatants present. Blood-colored frost appeared around them all.

"[The Boundless Blade: the River Lethe]!" An underworld river materialized in the sky. As though the doors to hell had just been thrown open, tens of thousands of serpents rushed out in a flood.

Multicolored flame flared and black smoke swirled as the death spirit king destroyed thousands of such serpents in one fell swoop.

The smoke launched forward like a spear, but Zhang Lie evaded the attack. The next moment, as the smoke exploded, pitch-black energy swirled around Zhang Lie as though a devil were descending on the world...