Chapter 1247: A Qualitative Change  

"[Avatar of the Fae: Worldbound Enclosure]!"

Zhou Ying summoned tens of thousands of wood dragons from the ground, enough to fill up the entire arena. They were thrice as thick as before, and their barkskin shone with metallic luster.

As they attacked Zhang Lie, countless golden leaves accompanied them.

A black serpent wrapped around Zhang Lie. Any leaf that touched its body was dissolved instantly.

"[Ninecarp Transformation]!"

Zhang Lie waved a hand. His genetic energy, as dark as ink, dissolved the majority of the wood dragons. However, the wood dragons stubbornly clung onto life with their remarkable vitality, and new ones regenerated within moments. Zhang Lie's attacks were barely sapping away at their regeneration. Tens of thousands of wood dragons surrounded Zhang Lie.

The densely packed wood dragons formed a cage, one interspersed with large quantities of golden leaves. Even a mosquito wouldn't be able to escape.

Zhou Ying wasn't standing still, either. Her body melded into the leaves, and she slashed with a flurry of strikes. She chopped off the serpent's head, but before Zhang Lie could retaliate, a vine grew out of the ground from Zhou Ying's feet, bringing her up and away.

Zhang Lie punched the cage of wood dragons, but by the time he emerged from their midst, Zhou Ying had vanished.

"It's time for a different style, I think."

Zhang Lie's genetic energy transformed from pitch-black to silvery-white, striated with gold.

"[Ninecarp Transformation: Golden Tiger]!"

The image of a golden tiger appeared behind Zhang Lie's back, and its roar echoed through the air. A golden aura suffused Zhang Lie. A mountain of blades rested atop the tiger's back, and Zhang Lie's body itself underwent a transformation. His hair turned silvery-white, until they became akin to silver needles.

His genetic energy likewise became more honed. Silvery-white genetic energy gathered over his body, and tigers' stripes appeared on his arms. His eyes became those of a tiger's, and steely sharpness erupted from every pore.

His genetic energy shot out from him like blades, slicing apart the wood dragons. However, Zhou Ying was nowhere to be seen.magicVitality and natural energy formed a web of roots underground, allowing them to regenerate near-instantaneously. The split wood dragons merged together within moments.

The wood dragons that were unable to regenerate and had fallen to pieces on the grround squirmed like segments of a snake's body. Where their wounds were, gray fog began to spread, and vines grew out of them. Even more wood dragons and vines attacked Zhang Lie, attempting to trap and entangle him.

Zhang Lie closed his eyes, attempting to use his senses to detect a combination of vitality and natural energy, and hence to find Zhou Ying's location.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"

Zhang Lie suddenly opened his eyes wide and punched forward.

The [Fists of the Silent Sea] formed a fist in combination with the black serpent form and a mallet with the golden tiger. The condensed genetic energy solidified into sharp silver crystals, piercing through the horde of wood dragons like honed daggers, but they missed.

The crystals had gone through all the wood dragons in the vicinity, and Zhang Lie could see out into the open through the holes they had left behind. However, Zhou Ying was nowhere to be seen.

"Haha, catch me if you can, Captain!"

Zhou Ying darted through the wood dragons leisurely. The terrain was as easy and familiar for her to traverse as though she were in her backyard. She moved so rapidly that she left a flurry of afterimages behind.

"[Storm of Leaves: Void Cut]!"

The afterimages suddenly seemed to gather as she appeared atop Zhang Lie's head. As she clutched her dagger in a reverse grip and arced it downward, her face lit up in a smile. "I've succeeded."

Zhang Lie smiled, as if he'd guessed where she would be all along. Zhou Ying's eyes widened.

As he punched toward his back, he knocked Zhou Ying's dagger flying—along with Zhou Ying herself.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"

A crystal wall appeared behind Zhang Lie, reflecting light in five colors, so dazzling it dazed any who looked at it, so beautiful it sparked their desire.

As Zhang Lie manipulated space, that crystalline genetic energy shot out of the wall behind him in the form of sharp daggers, able to penetrate anything thanks to Zhang Lie's mastery of space.

The daggers tore through sky and space, cutting a route through the wood dragons. By then, however, Zhou Ying had vanished again. Vitality and natural energy surged, and even more wood dragons grew out of the ground."Haha, Captain, you can't catch me unless you deal with the wood dragons first!" Zhou Ying's voice came from all around Zhang Lie, preventing him from pinpointing her location.

A dense horde of wood dragons surged toward him in a golden flood.

As Zhang Lie activated his blood ant and dragonwolf soulshards, he transformed into a dragonwolf with russet fur and limbs covered with dragons' scales. His aura became magnified as a hurricane of blood spawned around him.

Whenever he cut apart a wood dragon, gray fog would seep out of its "wounds". As he cut more and more of them, the air filled with gray fog.

Zhang Lie didn't dare to breathe in or even touch the fog, not knowing whether or not it was poisonous.

Golden genetic energy formed a protective barrier over his skin, like a suit of golden armor that isolated him from the fog.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Hundred Dragons Soaring]!"

As he cocked his fist, dozens of crystalline dragons formed behind his back, roaring in unison and causing the sky to tremble.

The next moment, they shot out through his fists.

Hundreds of crystalline dragons criss-crossed through the air, beautiful and dazzling. They pierced through huge swathes of the wood dragons and burst apart, sending crystal shards exploding through the dragons in a storm. The wood dragons fell like bushels of wheat, and their golden leaves exploded. As more fell, the gray fog grew thicker and denser. Golden leaves floated through the air and toward Zhang Lie in a flood.

Zhang Lie unsheathed Guicang, cutting apart the golden leaves.

A golden explosion bathed the pocket dimension in golden light. Shrouded by the leaves and light, Zhou Ying appeared behind Zhang Lie once more.

"[Storm of Leaves: Fourfold Void Cut]!"

Zhou Ying gripped a dagger with each hand, and the tendrils growing out of her lower body wrapped around two more. The daggers slashed through the void, and all four converged on the same spot.

Zhang Lie reacted very quickly, unsheathing his blade and slashing at Zhou Ying in one graceful turn. Guicang shattered even the void daggers.

Wind and storm buffeted the two combatants, and a flurry of sharp leaves surrounded Zhang Lie.

"[The Boundless Blade: the River Lethe]!"

As black genetic energy surrounded him, the temperature of the pocket dimension dropped to sub-zero values, and a strong wind buffeted everyone present. Blood-colored frost appeared around them all.

An underworld river materialized in the air. As though the doors to hell had just been thrown open, tens of thousands of serpents rushed out in a flood.

The golden leaves clashed against Zhang Lie's demonic serpent in a series of explosions. Zhou Ying made her move, her hands and feelers waving in the air with layered void slashes, as though attacking Zhang Lie with a hundred daggers in unison.