Chapter 1131: Opening the Door
The king of keys' soul was difficult to describe. Rather than a tree, it looked more like a person, whose outline was a glossy silver, who had grown from a seed.
The soul of the king of keys, who was poised to take over the third realm, was human-shaped...
The humanoid's chest had a bright red seed embedded within it, which was giving off a powerful and ancient aura.
Zhang Lie frowned. "If I'm not mistaken, that must be the core."
As Zhang Lie struck, a rainbow arc accompanied his slash, as though an aurora were visible in the sky. It shone in all the colors of the rainbow, momentarily hypnotizing anyone who looked at it.
With Guicang in hand, Zhang Lie flew through the void. His sword shone as brightly as the auroras overhead, bringing him momentarily out of the physical into the intangible.
The disaster-grade mistmeld clam soulshard, when incorporated into Zhang Lie's soul-targeting attack, had the ability to target and corrupt its opponents' souls. Everyone was dazed by the rainbow gleam.
Stuck within a whirlpool of energy, entwined by the black and blood dragons, then dazed by the rainbow-colored sword energy, the king of keys had no chance to avoid the attack. Zhang Lie's strike struck the seed and split it in two, causing it to burst.
The silver figure that was the core of the king of keys' soul screamed in agony, and the twin dragons swallowed the king of keys whole. A huge glow erupted from the point of impact as countless worlds exploded with such force that Zhang Lie's twin dragons were annihilated by the attack. Swelling waves of energy sprayed into the void, peppered with fragments of the various worlds.
The members of Team Zenith hurriedly dodged the aerial bombardment as Zhang Lie stood silently, floating in the void and staring at the center of the explosion. The world fragments that emerged from the explosion all seemed to swerve away from Zhang Lie.
They danced through the air like meteors, flying in all directions. Wilbow stood stiff, paralyzed with shock.
"Father lost?" Wilbow had been shocked to witness Ghroth's defeat.
Wilbow had never anticipated that his father could lose, nor Ghroth. However, thinking about how Fang Yi's spear had invoked the power of fate itself, Wilbow had no choice but to accept this truth. Fang Yi had sufficient strength to do so, after all.
Now that he was witnessing the death of the king of keys, Wilbow was even more shocked than before. Zhang Lie had neither procured a spear that could cut through fate, nor had he worked together with five others to kill Ghroth.
Zhang Lie's own strength proved superior to the king of keys'; he had never been on the losing end of the fight, and had incurred no injury from the king of keys. This was what Wilbow found most shocking about the king of keys' defeat—and, most importantly, the king of keys was his father.
The stars in the void seemed to wink out. The featureless void was now interspersed with fragments of the various worlds, with trees and grasses and flowers and rivers in various shapes and sizes.
Yang Ze bounded toward Zhang Lie with excitement. "Captain, we've won!"
Zhang Lie suddenly shouted, "Stop! Don't come any closer!"
Yang Ze hurriedly stilled. The members of Team Zenith looked on in shock. When they noticed that Zhang Lie's gaze was still fixed on the epicenter of the explosion, they too turned toward it.
There was a ball of light at the heart of the explosion. The fragments of the various worlds around it seemed to coalesce, as though forming something—a cocoon, an egg, an open door.
Upon sensing what was within, Zhang Lie grew visibly alarmed.
"[Ninecarp Transformation]!" The void turned red as red scales covered up Zhang Lie's body like a plate of armor.
What looked like scarlet flames surrounded Zhang Lie, but it was actually steaming, blood-red water-attuned genetic energy. A black sun rose behind his back, and a blood moon shone at his feet.
A long tail grew out of his back. His black hair took on a red tint, as though they were lit up by an inner fire. Interlocking rings of black and red that warped natural law surrounded his body, and a domineering aura exuded from him.
Boulders all around him vaporized into nothingness, and the void distorted in the heat. The world fragments blazed with flame. Red water-attuned genetic energy surrounded Zhang Lie, manifesting in the shape of a dragon.
Zhang Lie had invoked his strongest techniques to face what lay at the heart of the explosion, something so threatening Zhang Lie had no choice but to go all out.
The scattered world fragments were all drawn toward the center of the explosion, which now looked like a quickly growing nebula. The heart of the nebula glowed even more brightly than the sun.
Wilbow heaved a sigh of relief. "Father's alright!"
The members of Team Zenith began to panic. "What's going on?"
The world fragments formed a massive portal that seemed to lead to a mysterious universe on the other side.
The members of Team Zenith glanced at each other, visible confusion on their faces. Yang Ze asked, "What happened? Hasn't the king of keys perished?"
Zhang Lie forced a smile. His silver dragon's pupils trembled imperceptibly as he stated, "I seem to have opened Pandora's box."
No one knew what was displayed within Zhang Lie's sight, within a pair of eyes that could pierce the soul.
The door to the portal slowly opened, revealing silvery-white light. Truth and destruction lay within.
Zhang Lie called out, "King of chaos, is this the answer you were seeking?"
"Zhang Lie, you overestimate me." A layer of space peeled away, like the superficial layer of an onion. Twenty-four sections of space split apart, and Nightdemon, wearing a lab coat, walked out.
Yang Ze's eyes grew wide. "Was all this part of the king of chaos' plan?"
Zhang Lie's eyes bore holes into Nightdemon. "You've been taking advantage of me all along!"
Li Feng's face fell. "Is the king of chaos so skilled at manipulation?"
Wilbow sighed. "So all this is the will of the king of chaos..."
Yang Ze seemed to slump. "No wonder."
Upon hearing that the king of keys commanded the king of chaos' third-strongest subordinate, they should have guessed that the king of chaos had a hand in this entire event.
Sun Mengmeng muttered, "No wonder the king of chaos told us so much about the king of keys, and about inviting us to his night banquet! He was planning to take advantage of us from the start."
Sun Xiaowu snorted. "I thought the strongest king of the third realm would be better than this—but they're all just manipulative bastards!"
Li Feng nodded. "Truly peas of a pod."
Nightdemon shrugged. "Feel free to disparage me, but don't think that highly of my abilities."
Zhang Lie stared coldly at Nightdemon. "What's there to say at this rate? You've been planning all this with the king of keys—to take advantage of my strength to help him step through the door."
Nightdemon shook his head. "Indeed, I expected that you might have been able to provide a different sort of stimulus to the king of keys, which could catalyze a transformation..."
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