Meanwhile, Zhang Lie was watching the genetic lifeforms that the members of Team Zenith were facing.

"Aren't you lazy? Why do these disaster-grade lifeforms look so familiar?"

Bu Wentian rolled his eyes. "Do you think that disaster-grade lifeforms are easy to cultivate? It's difficult enough without ensuring that they also have combat ability. To make them strong enough to serve as a challenge is even more so.

Zhang Lie had to agree. He had cultivated his fair share of disaster-grade lifeforms—and a significant number, at that. Disaster-grade lifeforms that were designed for combat were almost impossible to be found; the majority were just meat shields.

"I carefully selected and cultivated the best among this group of disaster-grade lifeforms, so as to mass-produce ones with combat ability."

Zhang Lie scoffed. "Mass production, is it?"

Bu Wentian laughed. "You don't know anything! It's precisely because I'm trying to mass produce them that it's difficult. I have to learn precisely how things work to get the same result each time. You don't know how long it took me to breed these lifeforms—at any rate, since no one will go through the trials twice, I don't really need to change things up that much."

Zhang Lie:...

Back in the trial chamber, Fang Yi had pierced through one of the nine-headed lion's heads with his spear. The lion roared so loudly and ferociously that an ordinary hunter's soul might have been expelled from the hunter's body. The fight between Fang Yi and the lifeform took place over a battlefield of unparalleled size.

Its nine heads howled as one, sending nine waves of umbral energy into the sky. The ground cracked. Man and beast chased each other for hundreds of miles as the battlefield grew larger and larger.

The nine heads roared again. The sound waves took on physical form, and golden ripples covered the air.

As Fang Yi and the lion fought each other off, moving rapidly from one place to the next, the umbral waves caused the surrounding low-lying mountains to crack and fall, and some boulders even burst apart into powder.The black lion's physique was shocking, and its claws had the power to destroy mountains. When those claws smashed into Fang Yi's fist, the resulting boom could be heard all throughout the world,

As the lion's body smashed into Fang Yi's, umbral light encapsulated both combatants.

The disaster-grade lion was exceptionally strong. It had safeguarded this vault for an eternity and slain the manifold challengers that had come its way. It was halfway to monarch-grade itself.

Its nine heads all widened their jaws to reveal incisors over a meter long. Gleaming light shot right by Fang Yi's face, scraping his skin and cutting off a few strands of hair. Far into the distance, where the light struck a mountain, the mountain crumbled.

With a low shout, Fang Yi dashed forward with his spear in hand. He launched his spear, crackling with wind and lightning, with incredible force. It sent wind howling and lightning flashing through the sky.

With his spear, he invoked chaotic energy in the form of lightning and raging wind. The spear left a dozen afterimages in its wake.

The clash of metal filled the room. Fang Yi waved his spear with lethal speed and precision, the clash of steel against fur causing sparks that shot into the air. The power of wind and storm circled Fang Yi.

The man and lion fought and fought and fought, summoning winds around them from nothing but the force of their blows. The world shook and trembled.

As they clashed again, the black lion roared, sending a bombardment of sound waves at Fang Yi.

Struck by battle-frenzy, Fang Yi was fighting as much like a beast as a man. Heated blood pumped through his body, and his eyes were those of a predator's. He thrust his spear forward. Its tip gave off a chilling light.

The black lion, surprised by the attack, reflexively dodged at extreme speed. It morphed into a bolt of black that pinballed through the air in a rumble of black lightning.

"[Floating Clouds]!"

The wind and lightning formed a loop around his body. Wind and storm surged throughout the loop, providing explosive strength. The spear split apart a rock mountain through its center.Dust billowed into the air as a cloud, revealing an ashen lion that had once been black. Large patches of scales had fallen off its body, and one of its heads had almost been smashed open. A terrible wound marred its body, and flowing blood dyed one of its eyes red.

"[Born of Lightning, Swallowed by the Wind]!"

As Fang Yi shouted, his spear traced a half-moon in the air, surrounded by an aura of time. Light and shadow flashed by its tip, just like the wind and lightning that made up the core of Fang Yi's techniques. All movement was locked in time.

Everything froze and turned gray: the only color in the space, the only movement, came from Fang Yi.

The spear pierced through the nine-headed lion's third head, causing it to jerk. The temporal lock only lasted for a very short amount of time.

The lion's howls were like thunder. The world of gray shattered like glass, and shining brilliance drowned the sky in gold.

"[Floating Clouds]!"

It looked as though Fang Yi had morphed into lightning itself. Storms rose up all around him, and he left a flurry of afterimages behind. The lion's counterattack struck nothing.

In fury, the black nine-headed lion roared again, spawning a crescendo of waves.

"[Heaven's Judgment]! [Tiger's Howl, Dragon's Bellow]!"

Fang Yi's spear took on the aspect of a dragon of the winds and a storm tiger as he charged forward. Wind and storm combined and crackled at the tip of Fang Yi's spear, and a dragon's howl echoed resoundingly in the air.

All the afterimages struck simultaneously, making it difficult to distinguish an illusion of the attack from the real thing.

The combination of wind and lightning generated a frightening force that seemed to be able to penetrate space, as though the spear had transformed into an electric saw.

As the two attacks collided, clouds of dust formed around the combatants.

"[Wheel of Time]!"

Fang Yi's spear took on the aspects of time and age. Temporal winds buffeted the spear, and a mysterious light began to circle the spear like lightning. A wheel of light appeared behind Fang Yi, taking on the form of a clock.