Chapter 1130: The Soul of Keys
The king of keys moved so quickly it was almost as though he were teleporting through space.
"[First Form: Parting the River]!" Bright sword energy radiated from Zhang Lie like brilliant rays of sunlight, illuminating the entirety of the void.
A frightening force descended on the king of keys, energy rumbling and rippling around him. As Zhang Lie swung the blade in his hand, a huge slash of sword energy shot toward him.
The king of keys had avoided the blood dragon's attack, but he was unable to avoid the barrage of pale-white sword energy that shot down toward him from above. His body was sliced into ribbons, causing the eyes that his worlds had transformed into to burst apart.
"[Shadow and Light]!" Zhang Lie whirled around. Time suddenly sped up in the vicinity of Zhang Lie, and he caught up to the king of keys in an instant.
As sword energy filled the air, the king of keys blocked what attacks he could with world's energy. The two combatants reached the upper limit of time dilation within the third realm, and even the members of Team Zenith could no longer follow the rhythm of battle with their eyes.
Zhang Lie and the king of keys fought on a whole different level entirely, and the members of Team Zenith couldn't hope to support Zhang Lie in battle.
.
Zhang Lie drew his second blade, which flashed with light. Caught unawares, the king of keys didn't dodge in time. The attack struck his body directly, causing yet another swathe of worlds within it to explode.
"[Syzygy]!" A burning black sun rose behind Zhang Lie's back, and a bloody moon flared into existence at his feet. Under the combination of the two auras, Zhang Lie seemed to have transformed into a god.
His aura was magnified tenfold, and a halo of black sun appeared above his forehead. Natural law seemed to warp around him. Runes likewise appeared on the bloody moon by his feet, forming an intricate array.
Struck by the bloody moonlight, the king of keys' radiance grew dim. Under the black sun, the fluctuations in Zhang Lie's genetic energy were enhanced.
Zhang Lie crossed his twin blades. The blood moon resonated with the blade in his left hand, and the black sun with the blade in his right. He simultaneously slashed forward with both blades, forming a huge celestial web around the king of keys.
Struck once more, the king of keys had barely half his original number of worlds remaining. He ignited the world's energy he commanded, forging it into a frightening torrent.
"[Blade of the Heavens: the Sea Swells]!" Energy poured out of Zhang Lie in waves, honing the edge of his blade. The pulses of energy struck the sea like a tsunami, devouring everything within.
Zhang Lie's attack smashed into the king of keys' stored energy, unleashing shockwaves in the void that devastated the surroundings. Despite being far in the distance, the members of Team Zenith quickly scattered to avoid the aftermath of the attack.
The members of Team Zenith, who were all gravely exhausted from their fighting, would be heavily injured by these shockwaves alone.
The king of keys grew even more enraged. Despite using all his tactics, he was still no match for Zhang Lie.
Subsequently, Zhang Lie followed up his attack without giving the king of keys any chance to catch a breath.
The king of keys thought that he had overestimated Zhang Lie before the battle, only to belatedly realize that he was still underestimating him instead. The king of keys had initially expected that Zhang Lie would simply be one or two levels beyond an ordinary superior king of antiquity—but Zhang Lie turned out to be far stronger.
"[Blades, Reverberate]!" A blood dragon materialized around Zhang Lie. Energy poured out of him in waves, honing the edge of his blade. The pulses of energy struck the realm like a tsunami, devouring everything within.
The twin blades Guicang and Hanguang emitted a fearsome aura, shining as brightly as the sun and moon.
Sword energy materialized from Guicang into a blood dragon that revolved around his body. Hanguang's light coalesced into a black dragon that likewise curled up around him. The two dragons, coiling together as one, shot out toward the king of keys like a hurricane, bearing down on him with the might of Zhang Lie's spiritual sea between them.
Infused with the blood moon and the black sun, the twin dragons formed a black whirlpool. Tremendous suction, like that from a black hole, sucked up everything around the two combatants.
As the pitch-black storm grew fiercer, the air around the battlefield turned dark. The members of Team Zenith wobbled unsteadily on their feet, once again realizing the limits of Zhang Lie's strength. If they recklessly tried to participate in the fight, they would only hinder Zhang Lie from unleashing his full might—and they might perish just from the remnant waves of energy that resulted from his attacks.
Against Zhang Lie's strength, the members of Team Zenith, who were readily able to overcome even the superior kings of antiquity, would nevertheless be as weak as paper.
The king of keys was mired in the center of a hurricane. The void shattered around him, and the majority of the worlds he commanded were annihilated. World's energy gushed out from his body, but was still unable to prevent the suction of Zhang Lie's attack.
"Let's end it here!" Zhang Lie's disaster-grade mistmeld clam soulshard activated as he infused its energy into his swords, causing them to shine radiantly with multicolored light. "[Second Form: Piercing the Soul]!"
The ethereal attack didn't possess the blinding light of Zhang Lie's [First Form: Parting the River], nor the overwhelming awe of his [Blades, Extinguish]. Even so, the might of that spiritual energy shook the bystanders.
Against the mass of that spiritual energy, the members of Team Zenith felt small and insignificant. Zhang Lie activated his dragon's eye soulshard as he took in the full force of the king of keys' soul.
The multicolored soul was larger than that of any other lifeform he had previously seen, so large that even Zhang Lie's own soul, which had survived two lifetimes, couldn't compare.
The size of one's soul represented its strength—given that the soul was whole and healthy.
The king of keys' soul was not one such. Various wills seemed to be haphazardly stuck onto bits and pieces of that soul, the leftovers from the king of keys' indiscriminate merger of the wills of countless worlds.
This was what led to the incredible size of the king of keys' soul. However, these wills were rapidly decaying and shattering as Zhang Lie's attacks destroyed the integrity of the king of keys' galaxy.
The effects of [Blades, Extinguish] continued to wreck the king of keys' body from the inside out, finally revealing the heart of his soul.
Without being able to cut through his soul, Zhang Lie's [Second Form: Piercing the Soul] would have dramatically reduced effect, as though his strike were landing on armor.
When he saw the king of keys' exposed soul, however, Zhang Lie was stupefied...
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