Ultragene Warlord

The four hunters turned to the source of the commotion. Heaven and earth seemed like it was about to shatter. Ghostly blue lightning spread in a crackling web, destroying everything around it.

As the lightning storm continued to spread, beasts were sent flying.

Yang Ze gasped. "Is this divine retribution?"

"What an amazing sight!" Li Feng praised.

Fang Yi asked, "Captain, do we need to leave the area?"

Zhang Lie glanced at the lightning storm for a moment. "We should."

Yang Ze rubbed his jaw. "There's no need to worry, is there? It's moving too slowly to reach us for a few days, surely."

Zhang Lie replied, "That's true, but I'm worried the other competitors will find us."

The other three hunters immediately nodded. They vacated the area, then searched for shelter.

Sun Mengmeng and Zhou Ying were still out gallivanting on their own.

Zhang Lie shook his head. "There's no rush. The competitors are still searching for us. If we keep running haphazardly, we'd easily end up surrounded. We should find somewhere to hide for the time being, then absorb the bug monarchs and silver-dragon lotuses to raise our own strength."

After his momentary confrontation with Feng Xian, Zhang Lie realized that the other competitors were growing stronger with the resources they had harvested from this realm. Perhaps they might have been weaker than he had been at the start, but if Zhang Lie didn't learn how to take advantage of the resources available here, those weaker competitors would rapidly catch up to and eclipse him in strength.

Fang Yi shook his head. "Forget about the bug monarchs, I think. They won't represent a notable boost in strength for us."

The bug monarchs weren't bug emperors, after all. Fang Yi had consumed a bug monarch in order to recover from his injuries, and he was well aware of the potency of a bug monarch. It wasn't sufficient to elevate them to new heights; they had started out at the acme of the competitors in this realm, and it would be difficult for them to advance further.

"We'd better save the bug monarchs for when we suffer injuries," Yang Ze said. "As for the silver-dragon lotuses, Captain, you were the one who found them. It ought to go to you."

Li Feng nodded. "Even if we hadn't done anything, you would have been able to secure the treasure yourself, Captain."

Zhang Lie shook his head. "Better that we all raise our strength evenly to handle our opponents. We're a team, and I insist." The other three hunters nodded, no longer objecting. They were well aware that they could easily hold the others back by being too weak.

The hunters found a secluded location to absorb the silver-dragon lotuses.

Zhang Lie divided the lotuses into fourths, then gave each of the other three hunters one portion.

"I'll guard you as you absorb the lotuses. Once you're done, it'll be my turn."

"Why don't you go first, Captain?" Yang Ze suggested.

Zhang Lie kicked him. "Just get started and stop dilly-dallying!"

Yang Ze and the others consumed the silver-dragon lotuses and absorbed its potency. Each of them fuzzed into a ball of silver light, surrounded by fragments of the realm's laws. A mysterious transformation was taking place; the energy that seeped out from the silver balls was shocking.

Fang Yi's silver ball was crackling with lightning. Light pierced through the heavens as his silver ball transformed into a silver sun, then turned golden-yellow. Pitch-black storm winds surrounded it, almost like an eggshell. Karmic power wrapped around it, flecked with divine aura, and even bits of chaos started to appear.

This was an astounding transformation.

Yang Ze's situation was much the same. Pale-blue genetic energy spread out from underneath his body like tendrils of water. Spatial ripples surrounded him. As time passed, the genetic energy beneath his body formed waves over which light refracted. Space seemed to fold into high-dimensional accordion-like layers.

Li Feng was surrounded with light and radiated a holy, divine aura. An arclight dragon spawned around him.

Three whole days passed quickly.

Above Fang Yi, the wind and storm that surrounded his ball of silver light had manifested in the form of a giant lotus. Chaotic energy surrounded the lotus, obscuring Fang Yi at its center. A shocking metamorphosis was taking place.

Beneath Yang Ze was a huge sea of genetic energy. A lotus of crystalline ice bloomed around him, floating at the heart of the sea.

Li Feng was encapsulated within a huge lotus brimming with white light, like an egg or even a placenta. Within, Li Feng was in a state of nirvana. A dragon's howls could be heard from time to time around him.

Fragments of natural law surrounded the three cultivators.

The stone of counteracting fate emerged, a tiny shard of stone that sprayed out radiant light. It was blue one moment, royal purple the next, and ink black a moment later. Mysterious shades of light filled the land.

Fang Yi's soul lit up, illuminating the entire virtual realm. The aura was expansive, dark, chaotic, and rampaging; it was grand and all-encompassing. All of it stemmed from that mysterious stone.

What the stone gave off wasn't radiant light, but rather formless energy—not a curse, and instead more like an extreme sense of willpower. It felt as though there were countless figures surrounding Fang Yi, roaring and screaming in defiance.

A pair of wings formed behind him, composed entirely of lightning. Wind and storm surrounded him as lightning fizzled through the sky.

Then, he was swamped by wind and storm again. They surrounded him like a cocoon. He seemed to be advancing beyond mortal ken.

Wisps of white fog, like divine qi or like bursts of primordial chaos, wreathed around him, mysterious to the extreme.

Around him, all manner of grass, shrub, herb, and plant began to grow: some in gold, in purple, and in green. All radiated with luster.

This greenery wasn't real; it had manifested from lightning. Fang Yi was intuiting a facet of lightning that had previously eluded him.

Not only that, he could feel a strong and vibrant lifeforce around him, ensconced in the silver-dragon lotus. Not only was he undergoing a mental metamorphosis, he had gained insight from the transformation as well.

Lightning wasn't just an element that harbored immense destructive potential; it could likewise birth life and vitality.

Understanding this aspect of lightning was the key toward true mastery of the element: what came after destructive lightning was budding life.

Greenery grew rampant around Fang Yi, a breathtaking display of nature. Flowers bloomed with uncommon beauty, marked with lightning.

Then, all that greenery wilted.

The cycle repeated, lush blooms transforming into withered husks, almost like a cycle of reincarnation. Fang Yi's mastery over fate thrummed as he enacted the cycle of life, death, and rebirth fundamental to lightning. He melded that cycle with power over fate. At the heart of this combination would be mastery over reincarnation itself.

Finally, the greenery all vanished. Metal appeared before and behind Fang Yi. Golden spears pointed toward the heavens.

Then, they began to resonate, gleaming and crackling with energy.

Fang Yi's understanding of lightning was deepening by the moment.