Ultragene Warlord

Chapter 1569: Demigod

Leiting Zi's testimony caused a huge stir.

Many of the cultivators who had been criticizing Zhang Lie quickly changed their tune. They began to praise and revere him thereafter.

"It's incredible. Can you believe it? Someone unknown managed to take down the rising stars of all the supreme forces! My blood's boiling just thinking about it."

"It's a grassroots invasion. What will the supreme forces do?"

"Just who managed to accomplish such a feat?"

To those cultivators in the universe who didn't belong to a supreme force, Zhang Lie and the others became revered as heroes.

Everyone was searching for the members of Team Zenith, but the universe was simply too large. There were far too many races that bore a resemblance to humans, and there was too much data for anyone to discern truth from falsehood. No matter the rumors, however, there was no indication of Zhang Lie and the members of Team Zenith belonging to any one race. They seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

In the end, no one ever figured anything out.

A number of cultivators had gathered somewhere in the universe to discuss Team Zenith. One appeared to be composed of lightning, and another blazed with divine solarflame. All who appeared at this meeting were invested with authority from the supreme forces. None came physically; these were all mental projections.

It was almost like an online chatroom, but everyone involved could easily destroy a constellation or another while they chatted.

"It's not a big deal that the virtual realm was destroyed. It's only a byproduct of our experimentation, after all, so that's easily replaceable."

"The problem is the intuition that we vested in the realm—it's authority, insight, and knowledge that accumulated over centuries. The destruction of the realm led to the loss of all that information, and it'll be difficult to replace even with all of us gathered here."

"Let the Hall of Immortals provide what's necessary. Their eighth Immortal King was the one who caused this mess, and they have to take responsibility. As the most ancient power, they surely have a large stockpile of information."

"That's true. If the Hall of Immortals refuses to take responsibility, it would be a bad look."

"The most important task at present is to find the top seven competitors from the Cup. Do they really not belong to any of your forces?"

"We've said it countless times, haven't we? We don't know anything about them."

"At any rate, the priority is to find them quickly. Such geniuses couldn't have appeared out of nowhere. There must be traces of their existence. Fold them into our forces if we can—and if not, annihilate whatever force was able to cultivate such geniuses."

The supreme forces had never gone without representation among the top ten competitors in any Cup.

To them, this was a gross insult. If they couldn't claim Zhang Lie and the others, they would destroy them all.

Just then, within the dimensional world, Zhang Lie's body sizzled and cracked as his bones were pulverized further.

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

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.

Without sufficient energy, this transformation would be prematurely cut short—but the organizers of the Cup would never make such a low-level mistake.

The mental projection conveyed a tremendous quantity of energy that would be sufficient for Zhang Lie to draw on as necessary.

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.

This wasn't a particularly dangerous transformation, not with experience from what he had undergone in the virtual realm. The most important factor was whether he could suffer through it all.

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

Every bone in Zhang Lie's body shone with a faint golden aura, like dragons in miniature. They howled, shaking the entire realm.

Burgeoning vitality emerged from his body, causing bone, blood, and flesh to resonate.

Incredible vitality nourished his body and caused it to gleam with light.

The vitality in his body gushed forth, stronger than ever before.

His bones gleamed with radiant light. The faint golden sheen that they had given off turned red.

His body glowed with a sheen like that of top-quality jade.

His long hair lay draped over his shoulders, and his eyes were clear and limpid. He looked almost divine in nature and being.

His blood boiled, rumbling like thunder, a frightening sight to behold.

When Zhang Lie's mental projection returned to his physical body, it immediately triggered an evolution in his status of life. Zhang Lie opened up his stats interface.

When he saw it anew, he was stunned.

"This is..."

Zhang Lie: a demigod

Framework: Foundation, Lv. MAX, Ninecarp Transformation, Seventh Form: Phoenix

Techniques: Rippling Walk (pinnacle), Three-Wave Crescendo (pinnacle), Calm Waters (pinnacle), Fists of the Silent Sea (pinnacle), The Boundless Blade (pinnacle), Eclipse (pinnacle), Syzygy (pinnacle), Ninesoul Dragonblade (pinnacle), Blade of the Heavens (pinnacle)

Genes: Basic, 160; Mutated, 150; Superior, 150; Peak, 150; Disaster, 150; Monarch, 0; Emperor, 0

Soulshards: White Grub (superior), Blood Ant (superior), Potbellied Toad (mutated), Eternalspring Cocoon (superior), Dragonwolf (superior), Moonlight Wyrm (peak), Golden Roc (peak), Dragonwhale (disaster), Mistmeld Clam (disaster), Limitless Universe (monarch)

The greatest treasure he had obtained from the virtual realm was reaching the peak of the seventh form of his [Ninecarp Transformation].

But what was his new status of life?

A demigod?

An emperor-grade lifeform would be understandable, but a demigod... Had he become a deity?

Was this a fantasy novel, or a supernatural one? This was meant to be a sci-fi novel!

He could feel the changes in his body, the great leap forward he had taken with the return of his mental projection. His soul had grown at least twice as strong, and there were mysterious patterns of light circulating in it that were impossible to remove.