Ultragene Warlord

Chapter 1567: Life Ascension

The entire stretch of seabed and ocean continued to glow, transmitting an endless torrent of information directly into Zhang Lie's soul.

In this virtual realm that lay between reality and illusion, Zhang Lie obtained insight and intuition almost beyond his imagination. He gained a deeper understanding of reality and illusion, of body and spirit, as though he had a vision of what it meant to be at the peak of all these fields.

His soul continued to advance by leaps and bounds, spurred forth by the dual lives he had led. It began to evolve on a physical level, and he gained a deeper understanding of his spiritual techniques, as well as his mastery over the environment for the seventh form of his [Ninecarp Transformation]. All his attributes had advanced by a notable degree.

Above his head, the manifold insight and intuition he had amassed transformed into a dense forest that glowed with light. Beyond the forest was a starry sky in five colors. Stars shone and meteors fell in a dazzling rain of colors. Starlight gathered and condensed on Zhang Lie's body as the entire ocean of light turned resplendent.

Countless bouts of arcane insight and intuition surged into Zhang Lie's head, left behind by all manner of strong cultivators of the fifth realm.

Zhang Lie saw transformation after transformation—the pinnacle of life, dragons and serpents, shattered stars, the advent of lightning.

Rather than absorb all that intuition, Zhang Lie consolidated only those that resonated particularly strongly with his own techniques. Just the core insight that dealt with the nature of reality and illusion was more than enough for him to handle. Trying to be greedy and absorb more would be a waste of time and dilute his efforts.

Zhang Lie didn't have the time to consider these insights carefully. The heavenly cordon neared, and the altar began to collapse. Zhang Lie, who had gained a tremendous amount of insight, retreated from the pillar of light to face the heavenly cordon.

His eyes opened wide, revealing pupils that seemed to be portals into a deep abyss, pupils that could see through all manner of natural law and arcane obfuscation.

The sun and moon shone; celestial phenomena appeared.

Zhang Lie didn't resist the power of the heavenly cordon. The entire world was collapsing, and no other competitor remained. Even the members of Team Zenith had been transported out. He was the final competitor remaining in the Cup, and its ultimate winner.

His body was obliterated by the heavenly cordon and transformed into a nebula of starlight. He possessed such an incredible quantity of mental particles that, when it burst from him, it formed something beyond even an ocean—a nebula.

In this virtual realm, the nebula was reconstituted into Zhang Lie's body, one stronger than ever before.

"Could this be the prize chamber that only the top ten competitors have access to?"

His body seemed to be immersed in some sort of divine fluid, and was incomparably comfortable.

His mind, battered and bruised after bouts of fighting, was able to relax and be nourished.

His mental avatar, forged from the mental particles he had obtained after killing countless genius cultivators, was far stronger than the original one he had possessed.

When this avatar returned to his physical body, Zhang Lie was certain that he would grow considerably stronger than before.

However, Zhang Lie was still underestimating the reward of the stars. Genetic expansion went far beyond what he had sensed for the moment.

Fog gathered around him. Rosy light filtered down to where he was. Vitality surged forth.

His nebular avatar glimmered with light and shone with the mark that had appeared when he entered the finals of the tournament.

The mark extended throughout his body and shone resplendently. In this virtual realm, as a mysterious energy filled his body, it began to evolve.

The metamorphosis wasn't yet over.

His bones were crushed to powder. He bore with the intense pain as the divine fluid washed over his body. The rumbling of thunder could be heard within his body as golden light bathed his limbs and bones, shrouding him in radiance.

The divine fluid released concentrated essence that imbued itself within Zhang Lie's body.

His bones cracked. He shuddered in overwhelming pain as natural law seeped into his very bones.

The bones shattered and reforged.

Zhang Lie underwent a metamorphosis. Despite his advancement to date, his physical body was still inferior to those that could survive among the very stars themselves.

The virtual realm was reassembling his body and advancing its status, just like when he was advancing from realm to realm.

This wasn't ordinarily a phase of the final distribution of rewards, but Zhang Lie and the others were unable to experience genetic expansion directly.

Their status of life was simply too low; they didn't meet the minimum requirement to access the stars themselves. The virtual realm had no choice but to subject them to additional enhancement to even bring them to the required baseline.

His body sizzled and cracked as his bones were pulverized further.

Blood seeped out from his skin, carrying trace impurities with it.

To be frank, the will of the virtual realm had never seen lifeforms so impure.

The heaven-blessed cultivators that were able to make it to the final stage of the tournament, like the Solarvines and Feng Xian's race, had all but perfected their genetic code and bodily structure. The flawed humans of the fourth realm, represented by Zhang Lie and the others, had never before entered the hands of the will of the virtual realm.

To the will, they were better than bugs, but might as well have been crippled and limbless in comparison to the peak races.

Even more astoundingly, these humans had somehow managed to win the tournament, seizing the top seven spots all for themselves.

Zhang Lie was a little better than the others, all of whom might as well have been stunted children.

Their bones continued to grind against each other, turning into powder.

This was a frightening scene to behold. Considering the extent of the destruction, if anything untoward were to happen, their mental avatars could be ruined for good.

Zhang Lie could only react passively. He gritted his teeth and bore with the pain.

Even his skull began to fragment, crack, and turn to powder.

With his bones shattered, the blood seeped even more quickly out of his skin, carrying the impurities of his mental avatar along with him. The blood turned black; new, fresh, pure blood would be created within his body as it was reforged.

Golden light bathed him, refining blood, flesh, and bone.

The light smelted his body, fully obliterating bone in preparation for reconstruction.

Finally, his body shone with even more intense light, blood-colored as impurities streamed out. What remained of his body was weakened and febrile.

Almost all his blood had been replaced; his body was being prepared for a final reconstruction.

The divine fluid bathed his body, immolating him, reforging him, and finally imbuing him with life.

The heavens rumbled as Zhang Lie underwent his metamorphosis. The shattered bones in his body were reforming in jeweled splendor.

Divine radiance seeped out from the depths of space and rained down on the cultivators in a shower of light.

His bones shone with luster. Golden dragons surrounded them as they emitted a divine hum.