After the training he underwent in the third realm, Fang Yi now had sufficient reserves to continue fighting even after launching his ultimate techniques.

The black nine-headed lion attempted to dodge the blow, but it was too late. The spear had pierced through one of its left heads, and pitch-black lightning crushed it.

The lion roared again. Fearful and unwilling to resign itself to its fate, it immediately retreated.

With another slash, two more of its heads on the right were destroyed. The black nine-headed lion roared in outrage, only one of its nine heads still remaining.

"[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.

The lion counterattacked once more as it fought for its life. Accelerated by the wheels of time to his back, Fang Yi struck faster and faster.

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, suppressing the grievously wounded lion with the power of chaos, wind, and storm made manifest in the form of spears.

"[Heaven's Judgment]!"

Wind and storm combined and crackled at the tip of Fang Yi's spear, and a dragon's howl echoed resoundingly in the air. As he manipulated his spear, a fusillade of lightning shot through the arena. The combination of wind and lightning generated a frightening force that seemed to be able to penetrate space, piercing through the lion's body.

A hole appeared in the lion's chest. Fang Yi, standing behind the lion, held a disaster-grade core in his hand. The will of the fourth realm's announcement rang out in his head.

[You successfully killed a disaster-grade nine-headed lion. By consuming the core of the disaster-grade nine-headed lion, you may receive one to ten disaster gene fragments.]

Yang Ze's trial was against a bipedal black turtle, which rushed toward him with a fist. The fist passed through Yang Ze; Yang Ze's figure was nothing more than an illusion.The true Yang Ze had already jumped up to the black turtle's head.

"[The Boundless Blade: Ersatz Yawning Wave]!"

The sword slash rippled like a river. Waves roared through the skies like galloping steeds, like thundering dragons.

Despite its mountainous size, the black turtle was exceptionally nimble. It jumped into the air, dozens of meters high,and avoided the attack.

The turtle agilely executed a backflip, retreating hundreds of meters in an instant. It landed on the ground with a huge crash, smashing a crater in the ground where it stood. Its body glowed with radiant light. Suddenly, a wave of black fog rose up from the ground and surrounded it like a hurricane.

The turtle sucked in a breath and seemed to expand multiple times in size. Its muscles bunched up around its body as it charged forward. Where it stepped, the ground cracked. Huge boulders were sent flying into the air, threatening to drown Yang Ze in the resulting bombardment.

The turtle pounced toward Yang Ze.

"[The Boundless Blade: Dragonwhale]!"

In the blink of an eye, Yang Ze was surrounded by a patch of ocean.

The lapping of waves echoed through the battlefield. They grew and grew, reaching a crescendo and rising into the sky like a tsunami, manifesting in the form of a huge whale.

"Almost there."

As the whale exploded, huge quantities of water-attuned genetic energy filled the space. Yang Ze transformed all that genetic energy into a white mist that covered the entirety of the trial space. As the mist gathered, a horde of sharks emerged, forming an incredible tide.

As the turtle howled, the dark clouds of energy surrounding it grew even more solid than before. Its arms retreated into its shell as it vibrated, knocking the sharks back.

"[The Boundless Blade: Sea Serpent]!"Yang Ze's sword morphed into a sea serpent, pale blue in color, with gills on either side of its body, its scales like crystalline shards of ice. It surged forward,striking the turtle's shell in a huge explosion that could be heard from a hundred miles distant.

The turtle roared and pounded its chest as it emerged from its shell, surrounded by black light. The shell flew out of its body, glowing with umbral light, as it shot toward Yang Ze with a frightening aura.

The turtle's shell was large and moved surprisingly quickly. It was difficult to avoid, and quickly enveloped Yang Ze.

The turtle began to pound on its shell, causing it to toll loudly with every strike. The sound echoed and reverberated within the shell, so loud as to be ear-splitting; the turtle was trying to quake Yang Ze to death, to turn him into a pile of mush.

An unusual sound came from within. It began to hum in a curious manner, and umbral light began to flood into its center.

Suddenly, the disaster-grade turtle felt someone tapping on its shoulder.

The disaster-grade turtle didn't pay it any mind. It continued pounding on its shell furiously, infusing all its strength into the attack, with the intention of turning Yang Ze into a pile of mush.

The disaster-grade turtle ignored the tapping on its shoulder as it went into an enraged state, howling as it ponded on its shell. If it could speak, it might very well have said something along the lines of,

"Think you're all that, aren't you? Weren't you supposed to be strong? Try to get out of my shell and strike back at me, then! How does it feel to be inside my shell? Haha, haha!"

The figure standing behind the turtle continued tapping at his shoulder relentlessly until the turtle impatiently turned around, only to be shocked stiff.

It and Yang Ze were the only two entities in the trial grounds—who else could be tapping on its shoulder?

The disaster-grade turtle gaped at what it saw.

Yang Ze smiled. "You must be very shocked and confused as to why I'm out here, rather than within the shell."

The turtle nodded fervently.

Yang Ze smiled. "Did you really think that I could be trapped in such a paltry shell?"

He really liked fighting against genetic lifeforms.

Intelligent aliens and genetic hunters were rather difficult to trick; he might be able to do so once, but not a second time. On the other hand, genetic lifeforms, which were more simple-minded, could easily be fooled by his illusions and [Reflected Sight, Refracted Vision].