Chapter 1172: Broken and Averted
The witch of dreams had once stated that the Star Devourer's rank among the guests of chaos was indeterminate. Now, however, after having learned how to compress its flames and gaining some mastery over it, it was surely among the top three.
Fang Yi had no other choice but to use his trump card. "Fate!"
Although he knew that Fang Yi possessed such a technique, it was the king of chaos' first time seeing it in action. Against this type of higher-order energy, even the king of chaos was paying careful attention. "But I wonder if he'll be able to cast it this time?"
The king of chaos couldn't help but feel excited.
As the wheels of time cracked, so too did Fang Yi's spear. Even his brand-new spear was unable to withstand the stress that his skills imposed; after all, it wasn't a disaster-grade spear.
Even a disaster-grade spear would be completely trashed by Fang Yi's eightfold ultimate, let alone a superior-grade one.
Fang Yi's own body, however, fared even worse than did the spear. Blood fountained from all his orifices, and green veins bulged from his forehead. The penalty for forcibly using his ultimate skill despite his exhaustion caused incalculable damage to his body.
As a spearman himself, the king of chaos naturally hoped that Fang Yi would be able to release the skill, but he simultaneously hoped that Fang Yi wouldn't succeed. Only then would he be able to adopt Fang Yi as a companion, following the terms of the bet.
A spearman who could unleash such devastation was more than worthy of being part of the halls of chaos, and he would be able to elevate the halls of chaos to even greater heights.
The fated spear was undoubtedly an exceptionally strong attack, even among the hunters of Team Zenith. Zhang Lie himself wouldn't dare to get hit by that attack.
Unless he were able to defeat Fang Yi before he could launch that attack, there was no other recourse. The fated spear was guaranteed to hit.
Such an overwhelming attack naturally incurred a commensurate cost. It would drain essentially all of Fang Yi's reserves even at about 80% of his peak strength, but he had forcibly activated it with 40% of his strength remaining. Fang Yi was putting his life on the line with this match.
His bones creaked and cracked. Having depleted the genetic energy in his body, the skill was exacting its price from his lifeforce and spiritual energy.
The gray world of temporal stasis burned to a crisp under the Star Devourer's flames.
His enemy released from the time lock, his own strength fading away, Fang Yi sensed the impending toll of defeat.
His body trembled. His grip faltered, and golden threads spun haphazardly around him. Many tangled around Fang Yi, trapping him within a golden web. The threads turned black, corrupted with karmic backlash.
Zhang Lie couldn't help but be reminded of Feitian's appearance when he died. Those who took advantage of karma and fate would be killed by those same principles.
Fang Yi had been taking advantage of fate to kill his opponents, and this was the backlash that had been held in abeyance.
Perhaps there had been a possibility that Fang Yi wouldn't have fallen here, but he had twice used the fated spear to kill the solar king and Ghroth respectively.
Both those opponents were ones that Fang Yi couldn't have been able to kill otherwise. Fang Yi, Li Feng, and Zhou Ying, despite having the upper hand in the battle, took far longer than expected to finally win against him.
Against Ghroth, they even had to pay a price and incur a series of injuries in order to finally kill him.
They could very well have died against the solar king and Ghroth; it was Fang Yi's fated spear that had allowed them to avoid this fate.
After employing this technique multiple times, Fang Yi was finally now suffering from its backlash.
The possibility of winning against the Star Devourer had been stripped away, leaving just a single outcome behind: Fang Yi, unable to withstand the expenditure of his fated spear, would die to his technique.
In some sense, karmic backlash was like bad luck; it stripped away the subset of favorable outcomes, leaving only unfavorable ones behind. Rather than cause those unfavorable outcomes directly, the effect of the backlash was indirect. The most frightening part about it was that it could appear at any time and in any fashion.
Lightning crackled like a demon swiping its claws. A storm raged, and space tore apart. Black-and-gold chains criss-crossed and tangled up under the influence of fate.
So chaotic was the energy around Fang Yi that even the Star Devourer didn't dare approach, wary of being sucked into the mess.
The king of chaos frowned. The energy that Fang Yi had summoned was so frightening that the king of chaos wouldn't be able to turn back time and revive him even if he wanted to. This was the incredible power of fate.
Zhang Lie, noticing the badly devolving situation, forcibly broke through the king of chaos' barrier around the arena.
The king of chaos advised, "Give up. It's pointless now—if you approach, you'll just hurt yourself."
"Even so, Fang Yi's my companion. I owe it to him to try."
Pale blue genetic energy rippled about Zhang Lie's arms. He flicked his wrists, causing a frightening aura to descend on the world. The hall began to darken, and a fish the size of a whale materialized in the air.
"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar]!"
A howling gale swept over the hall. As more and more genetic energy gathered around Zhang Lie's arms, it looked as though he were at the heart of a whirlpool.
A huge wave soared into the air. As Zhang Lie punched forward, the fish slammed its huge tail on the ground and sent a torrent of water surging into the air. Ripples of energy spread out from Zhang Lie, warping the space around him. The towering waves looked like enraged black dragons, flooding the hall.
As though devouring the sun, Zhang Lie's genetic energy swamped the chaotic barrier and broke a crack in it.
Just as Zhang Lie was about to launch another attack, something happened at the heart of the confluence of energies.
.
Fang Yi thundered, "My fate isn't to perish here!"
Fang Yi burned all his lifeforce and spiritual energy, and even his potential, to break the chains of black and gold that surrounded him.
Dragon-like lightning, tiger-like storm, formless time, timeless space—those four disparate energies combined into a cohesive whole, tied together by a dark gold thread. The energies revolved around each other, summoning a howling gale surrounding a spatial rift.
The spear in his hand exploded, only to be replaced by a revolving spear that manifested out of genetic energy.
The cracks in the air continued to propagate, shattering space and time, devouring and annihilating everything in sight. Unusual pitch-black thorn-like protrusions appeared all around the hall…
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