Chapter 1151: The Night Banquet
"I think you must be mistaken. I didn't nudge you because I wanted to prevent you from intuiting something. After all, to my original form, you're more interesting the stronger you are."
Zhang Lie frowned. "Intuiting a bit of information won't turn them into the likes of Ubbo, surely?"
"Do you know how those wriggling grubs ended up over Ubbo's body?"
"Aren't they cell-like structures from his body?"
Ubbo was particularly large, and the dense carpet of bugs crawling over its body seemed very much like a group of cells.
Nightdemon's mysterious smile made Zhang Lie realize that his original impression was completely mistaken. Thinking back to Ubbo's transformation, Zhang Lie instantly understood what Nightdemon meant.
The transformation to Ubbo's body had resulted from studying the Keys of the Elder Gods. The reason Ubbo hadn't transformed into a small bug, but rather a gigantic bug surrounded by the Keys of the Elder Gods, was because of his overwhelming initial strength.
Zhang Lie didn't dare gamble with the lives of Team Zenith. He immediately awakened the dazed hunters.
Nightdemon warned, "You might know others' names, but it's better not to address any guest by name during the banquet, at risk of tethering yourself to them by karmic links. Ubbo's title is the Null Source; you'd best come up with titles of your own."
Green Flame asked, "Are you all kings of the realm?"
The witch of dreams murmured, "I heard that three new superior worlds emerged among the three thousand worlds, and they even defeated all the original superior worlds of antiquity—along with the king of keys, who's invited every year!"
Green Flame remarked, "They must be impressive if they got rid of even the king of keys..."
The witch of dreams wondered, "Just who managed such a feat?"
Green Flame echoed, "Which superior king among you was so strong as to be able to defeat the king of keys?"
Zhang Lie shook his head. "None of us are superior kings."
Green Flame flared in shock. "None of the new superior kings have been invited?"
Zhang Lie asked, "Are they invited each year?"
Green Flame nodded. "All newly ascended superior kings are invited to the banquet their first year."
The witch of dreams cocked her head. "Why didn't they receive an invitation this year?"
Green Flame continued, "As long as these new superior kings can weather the assault of their established brethren, they'll receive an invitation."
Nightdemon shrugged. "This year's newly ascended superior kings are all a little boring, and that Zongming king's far weaker than the superior kings of antiquity."
After all, all three new superior kings had been fostered by Zhang Lie. Without Zhang Lie and the members of Team Zenith present, the three new superior worlds would have been crushed by the superior kings of antiquity, and they were naturally weaker than those that could survive against the superior kings' assault unaided.
The witch of dreams asked, "But didn't they take down the king of keys?"
Green Flame added, "If the king of keys is no match for them, how can they be weak?"
Nightdemon patted Zhang Lie's shoulder. "It was this fellow who took down the king of keys—and even after the king of keys had stepped completely through the door of power and was reborn anew. It was an interesting evolution. All was within it, and it was within everything. It was no mere continuity of space and time, but rather the boundless source of life, surpassing all natural law and mathematical logic."
Upon hearing that Zhang Lie had killed the king of keys, and the king of keys' ascended form at that, the witch of dreams and Green Flame couldn't help but look askance at Zhang Lie.
Green Flame remarked, "This year's banquet seems like it'll be quite interesting indeed..."
Nightdemon had been boasting a little, but Zhang Lie couldn't deny that Silver had been evolving toward such a being at the pinnacle of life.
If Silver hadn't been a newborn and commanded greater faculty over its powers, or if it had attempted to kill Zhang Lie from the very beginning, the outcome of the fight could have been very different.
Nightdemon sighed. "It's a pity that I didn't have the opportunity to kill it myself."
Suddenly, a narrow beam of light floated down from up above at an extremely slow rate, as though it was a living being. Strange multi-colored light surrounded it. When it finally struck the ground, it expanded into a cone that could either remain stationary or move to nearby locations.
Upon witnessing the true form of the light, Zhang Lie was stupefied.
It belonged to a high-dimensional realm far beyond what humanity could comprehend. Its body had a defined shape, but that shape was so complicated that it couldn't be determined by eye. Its body was hemispherical and composed of shining metallic cylindrical particles, gray in color.
Those who looked at it had the strange sense that there might have been multiple glowing, sparkling eyes between the cylinders, but no matter from which direction they looked, all they could see was the space delineated by the cylinders.
Its true form was so complicated that eyes were insufficient to uncover it.
The gray of its constituent cylinders was a uniform shade, so it was impossible to distinguish which part of its body was closer, and which farther.
"This is Daoloth, the Parter of Veils." Nightdemon continued introducing the various guests present. "That wriggling bug, with a head on either end of its body, is Noth. It has no title. It once created a species of interdimensional hounds, the Hounds of Tindalos, alongside the Everbearing Lady K'thun."
Nightdemon pointed at the large tree behind Noth, pale gray with black vines hanging down, without any branches or leaves whatsoever. A giant eye was supported on its crown.
Zhou Ying frowned at K'thun, and K'thun's giant eye stared back at her.
Zhou Ying murmured, "I don't like it."
"Why?" Sun Mengmeng asked.
"It feels like it's my natural enemy."
"And there's the leader of the dog pack, the strongest of the interdimensional hounds that K'thun created."
Hong Xi frowned. "It looks like there's nothing there?"
Nightdemon shook his head. "No, don't look at it with your eyes. Focus on your senses, your perception of space."
Everyone immediately tried to do as Nightdemon said. Zhang Lie was first to sense it, quickly followed by Yang Ze.
"What's that?"
An angular, distorted body, with sharp, bony limbs and protrusions from all manner of odd places… Once the hound appeared within their senses, sight quickly followed.
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