Chapter 1030: Paramount Importance
Zhang Lie smiled in relief. "It looks like it was a success."
Hong Xi nodded. "It should have been."
Zhang Hanxiang continued to emanate an aura of frost. "Kneel to me, my retainers!"
Zhang Lie darted to her side and rapped her hard on the head.
"Kneel? I think not—I'm your brother! If you want to make me kneel, you'd better grow far stronger than this."
Zhang Hanxiang clutched her head in mock pain, then beamed at him. "Brother, I succeeded."
Zhang Lie nodded. "I saw it."
Zhang Hanxiang asked, "How strong am I now?"
"Roughly at the level of a new superior king—like the draconian sage. However, you're not at the level of a superior king of antiquity yet. That difference lies in combat experience and combat strength. If you want to step beyond your current level of strength, you'll need to fight."
Although Zhang Hanxiang now had about as many gene fragments as the members of Team Zenith, she lost out significantly in terms of combat experience and training.
The members of Team Zenith had gained all their strength by hard work, fighting and killing for all their spoils. They had significantly more combat experience than Zhang Hanxiang, and she would quickly fall in battle against them.
Zhang Hanxiang nodded. I'll work hard."
Zhang Lie asked expectantly, "Did you gain any special intuition from absorbing Potion #4?"
Zhang Hanxiang hmmed. "I think I may have, but I don't know for sure. It's fuzzy."
Zhang Lei sighed. "You had better stay here and see if you can capture any traces of that intuition."
"Yes, Brother," Zhang Hanxiang agreed.
Zhang Lie then turned to Hong Xi. "It's your turn now."
Hong Xi didn't hesitate before swallowing Potion #4. Just like Zhang Hanxiang, as the potent effects of the potion surged through her body, she felt as though she were exuding heat from every pore on her skin.
Sweat dripped down her body, and the crystalline core that had formed upon her transformation into a disaster-grade lifeform glowed with light. Energy burst from her body, cracking the ice-covered ground. Black sunlight exploded from Hong Xi's body.
Her face took on the color of a boiled prawn.
At the same time, silvery-white moonlight spread out from Hong Xi.
Upon witnessing Hong Xi's pained expression, Zhang Hanxiang asked worriedly, "Brother, what's happening to Hong Xi?"
Zhang Lie replied, "If I'm not mistaken, this is caused by Hong Xi's framework."
Zhang Hanxiang remarked in worry, "She'll be fine, won't she?"
"Don't worry. No one has failed to advance after consuming Potion #4 yet. If you managed to succeed, then Hong Xi surely will."
"That's true... Hold it! Brother, you're making it sound like I'm worse than Hong Xi!"
More or less… Zhang Lie suddenly frowned at her. "Aren't you supposed to be figuring out the intuition you seem to sense after consuming Potion #4?"
Silvery moonlight and black sunlight revolved around Hong Xi, as though her body was their battlefield.
The two forces struggled without end—until Hong Xi's consciousness suddenly joined the mix, splitting the two forces apart.
However, the situation didn't take a turn for the better. After being suppressed, both the silvery moonlight and black sunlight suddenly flared, causing Hong Xi to spit out a mouthful of fresh blood.
"The situation isn't great." Zhang Lie's face turned serious.
The blood that left Hong Xi's body evaporated instantly, revealing just how hot her body had become.
Hong Xi's graceful features distorted in pain. Energy rampaged through her body, destroying it from the inside out.
"Quickly, drink Zhou Ying's restorative!" Zhang Lie shouted.
With her remaining shred of consciousness, Hong Xi followed Zhang Lie's command, causing a huge wave of vitality to flood her body from the inside and regenerate her cells.
Zhou Ying's restorative was extremely potent, and Hong Xi's face and expression immediately relaxed.
Perhaps it might be better to say that the Yeluo chieftain's skill at potionmaking was unparalleled, for there to be no side effects for consuming Potion #4 and Zhou Ying's restorative in quick succession. Zhang Lie had to admit that the Yeluo chieftain had reached unbelievable heights in his understanding of potionmaking and herbalism.
Zhang Lie frowned. "What are you looking at? Go focus on gaining some intuition!"
Zhang Hanxiang stuck out her tongue. "I can't do that while Hong Xi's in such pain."
Hong Xi's absorption process had yet to enter its second stage, but the energies were already getting too intense for her to handle. Pitch-black sunlight exploded from her body, forming a sun around it. Silver moonlight pierced through the sun and spread over the land.
Zhang Lie's face turned even more serious than before. "This is problematic. I never expected that Hong Xi's body would have so many issues..."
Hong Xi cultivated the combined framework of [Eclipse] and [Black Sun]. Both these techniques were rare, and their combination even rarer. Zhang Lie himself had studied the same technique.
Hong Xi hadn't managed to combine the two techniques completely, but this wasn't her fault. [Eclipse] and [Black Sun] weren't perfectly compatible because they represented diametrically opposed forces, like ice and fire, or heaven and earth.
A horizon separated heaven and earth, just as a divider separated [Eclipse] and [Black Sun].
Although the two techniques could combine to some extent precisely because they were diametrically opposed, their combination would always be imperfect.
Zhang Lie made use of his potent water-attuned genetic energy to forcibly combine [Eclipse] and [Black Sun] into [Syzygy], without relying too heavily on either technique on its own. To Zhang Lie, the two techniques were simply skills that he could use at will, nothing more.
Hong Xi felt differently. [Eclipse] and [Black Sun] were techniques created by her ancestors, and her clan had paid a heavy price to protect them. In the end, of their once-illustrious clan, only Hong Xi and Hong Xiao had survived. As a result, the two techniques were of paramount importance to the Hong siblings.
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