Chapter 1250: An Army of Treemen  

Hong Xi manifested a fan of feathers, which she waved to conjure a windwall around them.

Jun Jiuxiao conjured a field of wind and storm, while Ye Xianchen released an aura of ghosts and shadows.

Sun Mengmeng's flames, which would have been particularly effective against Zhou Ying, weren't a viable option because she was still recovering from the exertion of the previous battle.magic

Zhang Lie suffered from the same issue as did the members of Team Zenith. The wood dragons grew far more quickly than he could get rid of them, even though he was able to cut down a large group with every swing of his sword. The moment he set them aflame, even more would appear; meanwhile, his movements were steadily growing more and more restricted.

"[Blades, Extinguish]!" Guicang gleamed brightly in Zhang Lie's hands as he infused more and more spiritual energy into it. From the surface of his spiritual sea came waves charging forward, sounding like stampeding hooves, like raging dragons.

Zhang Lie's spiritual sea expanded greatly, past the confines of his own body. As the mistmeld clam soulshard's energy was infused within the blade, it began glowing with multicolored light, simultaneously illusory and real. A sea seemed to rest in the crack between the two domains, unable to be touched or otherwise sensed.

The transient, illusory nature of the light captivated everyone who saw it.

The sword in Zhang Lie's hands burned with scarlet water-attuned genetic energy. Billowing clouds of red-tinted steam surrounded him as though he were a burning pyre.

The high-temperature steam was so hot that it visibly glowed an alarming shade of red.

Despite their distance, the members of Team Zenith could feel the steadily increasing heat. Sweat dripped down their backs. Zhang Hanxiang emanated an aura of frost, trying to retain some moisture in the air to prevent them all from fainting to heatstroke.Zhang Lie's domain of scarlet steam looked less like a domain than a red sea, one which overtook the void. Wood dragons spontaneously combusted in the vicinity.

The temperature around Zhang Lie grew so hot that his surroundings began to warp. Mirages formed all around him.

One of Zhang Lie's blades glowed with radiant light; the other shone scarlet with water-attuned genetic energy.

The illusory sea combined with the scarlet ocean of reality, the attack simultaneously in the boundary between the real and the illusory, linking together the physical and metaphysical, the real and the abstract.

The two halves of the attack clashed with each other.

The spiritual sea began to burn, as though it had been ignited by the scarlet steam, forming spiritual flame. The scarlet steam, bolstered by the spiritual sea, grew even hotter. Contact with the steam seemed to sap at one's very soul.

Zhang Lie had allowed these two disparate sources of energy to combine, and their merger was so intense that the distinction between the real and illusory began to blur.

The surface of the sea frothed with angry waves, like dragons emerging with the tide. The waves roared through the sea like galloping steeds, like thundering dragons.

From afar, the waves looked like a coven of flaming phoenixes spreading their wings and taking flight; from close up, they looked like flaming dragons.

These manifestations all drew from Zhang Lie's immense spiritual and genetic energy reserves, along with the sword techniques and willpower that he had honed over countless battlefields.

The spiritual sea seemed to belong to a separate dimension altogether, whereas the scarlet water-attuned genetic energy was in Zhang Lie's current dimension. The two sources of energy were linked and made manifest by Zhang Lie, and they both surged forward as Zhang Lie swung his twin blades.

The two blades combined spiritual and genetic energy, willpower and time. All that melded into a tsunami. The combination of these disparate energies was so potent that it could destroy any lifeform's body and soul.Around the vortex of reality and illusion, the scarlet sea and spiritual sea spun around each other, forming a massive tsunami that shook the entirety of the void,

The pocket dimension cracked apart as the ethereal sun and real and illusory oceans clashed. The ground melted and turned into boiling-hot lava.

Where the oceans met, a tsunami formed, which suppressed the multicolored sun. A burst of strength crumbled everything around, cracking the ground and sweeping away the forests and wood dragons.

Zhou Ying's body flashed jade-green as she radiated light like a jewel. Golden radiance and gray fog combined into a cohesive whole as Zhou Ying's body transformed. Her body turned to wood and grew rapidly. Within moments, she became a thick tree, the crown of which was pushing against the top of the pocket dimension.

The leaves of the tree were arrayed in gold, green, and gray, and a gray eye was embedded into its crown.

Upon seeing Zhou Ying's transformation, Zhang Lie was shocked.

In exasperation, he called out, "Surely there's no need to transform into a tree just because you can't beat me? This is a training exercise, not a bout to the death!"

After Zhang Lie activated [Blades, Extinguish], Zhou Ying had transformed herself into a towering tree to withstand the attack. She had rooted herself in lava.

The leaves shook and trembled as a mysterious voice rang out, "This is my strongest battle-form, which I developed after absorbing the strength of the Everbearing Lady, Captain. I can change back, but it's my trump card and a key component of my power."

Zhang Lie glanced at her thoughtfully. "Just like the wood spirits—no, the wood spirits can merge with trees, but you transform into one instead."

The ground shook. Tremors formed with Zhou Ying at their epicenter. The trees all around her uprooted themselves and turned into treemen.

"This is the army that I've prepared diligently—" Before Zhou Ying could finish, Zhang Lie had made his move.

"[Ninesoul Dragonblade—Third Form: Separating Earth and Sky]!"

White light split the sea and the sky, cutting apart the horizon. The skies split; the black- and white-colored energy that went into the slash erupted like a volcano. White energy drifted toward the skies, and black energy sank to the ground, dividing heaven and earth in two.

As the two shades of energy combined, everything in sight was destroyed.