Chapter 1132: The Door's Transformation
Nightdemon sighed. "Isn't it normal for us to take advantage of each other? But by no means should you think of yourself as a pawn. That was my intent, yes, but the transformation was ultimately effected by the king of keys himself. There was a very real possibility that the king of keys could have perished."
Yang Ze frowned. "You're trying to claim that the king of keys' metamorphosis has nothing to do with you?"
Nightdemon shrugged. "Think what you will. There's no direct relationship, but if you want to consider an indirect one, by all means. The king of keys' metamorphosis was a result of his own will. No matter what stimuli I contrived, without exercising his own will, he wouldn't have made it this far."
Zhang Lie's face turned dark. "In the end, regardless of what else happened, you took advantage of me."
Nightdemon sighed. "That's what I was planning at first, but this development was beyond my own predictions."
Zhang Lie's frown deepened. "You've been spying on us all this time!"
"Let's have that discussion later.Watch out." Nightdemon revealed the Shining Trapezohedron, peeling away another layer of space. "Your next opponent is the king of keys' ascended form, the king of keys who has stepped through the door of strength."
After the twenty-fourth layer opened up, Nightdemon slid into the crack in space, which closed up again layer by layer.
The other side of the door harbored not another universe, but rather the fundamental mechanisms of life. Mathematical logic integrated with biology, which lay beyond the constraints of the third realm, the secrets that underlay rationality...
It was like staring into an abyss. The path in front was unclear and incomprehensible. Just witnessing it made Hong Xi and Zhang Hanxiang, the weakest among them, develop a rapidly worsening headache.
The other members of Team Zenith were barely able to hold on themselves. Behind the door lay a throne, one hewn out of raw stone. There seemed to be nothing special about it, but on careful inspection, an observer would notice that it had been constructed out of countless world fragments, each embedding a natural law.
The figure behind the door wasn't seated on this throne. Rather, as though floating or gliding, the figure's features were blurred and unfocused.
The shape was roughly humanoid, but it seemed half again as large as typical human proportions, and there was a thick layer of some gray textile covering its features.
"You have my gratitude," the figure called out, but its voice was distorted. They were no mere sound waves, but instead were able to impel natural law. The members of Team Zenith were forced to clutch their ears in pain.
The blurry figure continued, "Without you, I wouldn't have been able to give up everything I possessed and welcome a new life."
Zhang Lie's face turned stiff. Billowing clouds of red genetic energy wrapped around him, like a dragon soaring into the heavens.
"By killing me, you made me face the fear of death—and surpass the limits of humanity."
The figure behind the door seemed to ignore Zhang Lie's growing strength, its tone calm and robotic, as though Zhang Lie wasn't worth any concern whatsoever. "I failed to surpass the limits of humanity for one key reason: not because I don't understand or haven't steeped myself deeply enough in humanity, but instead because I had never experienced humanity's fear of death."
The members of Team Zenith continued to retreat, incapable of handling the figure's voice, which seemed poised to destroy their rationality.
"All life must face death, but I had forgotten this crucial point. As a result, my humanity was incomplete—merely an imitation, incapable of becoming real. The king of chaos was mistaken. He doesn't understand humanity, and he understands me even less. The next step wasn't to discard my humanity, but rather to capture it even more closely."
The figure who had stepped through the door finally understood the king of chaos' intent. "No, the king of chaos wasn't mistaken—but what he intended on doing was to give birth to an entirely new world, not what I've become."
The figure beyond the door pointed at its own chest. "I have to thank you. If not for your destruction of my soul, the source of my being, I wouldn't have been able to stage such a rebirth."
Zhang Lie's destruction of the king of keys' soul had simultaneously destroyed any possibility of the king of keys transforming into a new world and guaranteed him his rebirth.
From afar, Wilbow called out, "Are you still my father?"
He couldn't sense any bit of the king of keys that had been left behind.
The figure replied, "If you think of me as your father, I'll be your father; if you don't, I won't. No longer am I the king of the past. You may address me as Silver."
"The king of chaos hoped that you would appear, and I was the one who made you become who you are. In that case, I'm the one who should destroy you, too."
Zhang Lie summoned swords reaching up into the sky, tearing apart the void. Blood-red genetic energy gushed from him like waves, and his aura grew like that of a dragon's. A frightening strength caused the void itself to tremble as Zhang Lie attacked.
Silver didn't strike. It sat down on the throne as Zhang Lie's attack advanced—but without being able to strike its intended target.
Zhang Lie and Silver weren't far apart, especially for combatants beyond the level of superior kings. It was a distance that Zhang Lie could cross with a single breath, just as though he were taking a single step.
Even so, crossing this distance suddenly felt like an impossibility.
Zhang Lie was incapable of reaching Silver no matter how much energy he expended in attempting to do so. He could sense that the separation between them had been locked down by spatial force, a spatial lock that Zhang Lie couldn't break no matter what he did.
"This is what the door represents." Silver floated above the throne, its tone calm, as though it had done something inconsequential. "Even if I stand before you, as long as the door is closed, you'll never be able to step inside."
Zhang Lie dispelled his genetic energy. He knew very well that he would never be able to strike Silver in this fashion.
"[Blades, Extinguish]!" Guicang gleamed brightly in Zhang Lie's hands as he infused more and more spiritual energy into it, causing it to flare as it reached a critical threshold.
From the surface of his spiritual sea came waves surging forward, sounding like peals of thunder, like stampeding hooves.
Zhang Lie's spiritual sea expanded greatly, past the confines of his own body. As the mistmeld clam soulshard's energy was infused within the blade, it began glowing with multicolored light, simultaneously illusory and real.
The ocean seemed to lie at the boundary of dream and reality, untouchable and impenetrable, captivating everyone who saw it...
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