Zhou Ying's lips curled up. She smiled like a malicious demon.

"Poison, is it?"

Her golden wood dragons turned an ashy gray, and smoke began to spread from the wood. The wood dragons boasted a mysterious strength. The disaster-grade plant immediately drew back its vines—the wood dragons were coated with something far worse than poison.

However, the disaster-grade plant was too slow. A layer of gray energy had attached itself to its vines, which quickly turned dark and swollen. They began to crack, causing mouths to appear all over the vines. The plant immediately cut off these vines, preventing them from infecting the rest of its body.

The wood dragons pushed forward as the plant lifeform shrunk back, limiting the size of its domain.

The disaster-grade plant launched its leaves toward the wood dragons, each with a serrated edge as sharp as a blade, tearing the wood dragons apart.

The wood dragons began to grow golden leaves, which clashed against the disaster-grade plant's leaves with the sound of metal striking metal.

The golden leaves danced through the air, obscuring Zhou Ying from sight. She darted through the leaves, her body splitting into countless afterimages that seemed to overlap. The plant had no chance of catching her.

The afterimages coalesced as Zhou Ying appeared to the plant's back. She struck with her dagger, but the disaster-grade plant responded surprisingly quickly. The plant-based lifeform didn't see with its eyes, so it wasn't tricked by Zhou Ying's deception. Its buds sprayed out purple liquid.

"[Storm of Leaves: Void Cut]!"

Zhou Ying clutched her dagger in a reverse grip and slashed at the void, dividing the stream of liquid.

The ground beneath her rose up as roots sprouted from underneath and began to attack her.

Zhou Ying quickly retreated as boundless vitality burst forth from her.

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

Zhou Ying summoned tens of thousands of wood dragons from the ground. They were thrice as thick as before, and their barkskin shone with dense gray smoke.The disaster-grade plant had been having a hard time dealing with Zhou Ying's wood dragons. With so many more wood dragons joining the mix, it lost control of its jealously guarded territory and was surrounded by the dragons.

After being struck by the gray fog, the plant-based lifeform began to swell. Poisonous tumors grew out of its body, along with strange, unusual vines that sprouted mouths. Each mouth was filled with venomous fangs. Purple liquid continued to splatter on the ground, sizzling as the ground corroded.

The vines that grew out of the plant's body turned on itself and began to devour the plant.

Zhou Ying shot out like a loosed arrow, passing through the densely packed wood dragons and bisecting the disaster-grade plant's body.

The plant keened in agony as its upper half fell to the ground and crystallized. Surrounded by wood dragons and infused with gray energy, the disaster-grade plant's vitality decreased dramatically.

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

Holding her daggers, Zhou Ying revolved in mid-air, cutting apart the void. The disaster-grade plant's body fell apart.

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

Within a pocket space of the trial dimension, Bu Wentian and Zhang Lie were having some tea.

Bu Wentian evaluated, "This companion of yours is also quite interesting. Not only does she have tremendous vitality and natural energy, she's also combined it with some unknown power that can cause deleterious mutations in biological lifeforms. It's worse than the cancer of the Milky Way—almost like a demonic curse of sorts."

Zhou Ying had obtained this strength in an exchange with the Everbearing Lady within the halls of chaos.

Bu Wentian continued, "This sort of energy seems to be one antithetical to life."

Zhang Lie said, "After watching them all fight, I'm feeling like some combat myself. Why don't you let me have a go at some disaster-grade lifeforms?"

Bu Wentian rolled his eyes at Zhang Lie. "Do you think I'm raising a pig farm?"

Zhang Lie replied, "Just one lifeform would be fine. Let me try out that six-headed one—I'm lacking a few dozen disaster-grade gene fragments, and that one would fill me up."Bu Wentian waved a hand. "That sort of disaster-grade lifeform is specifically cultivated for use in my trials. I generally only use it at the fifth stage and above, but you were so strong that I had to use it on the fourth stage during your trial. I just wanted to see where your limits were, but none of them did anything against you!"

"If you have so many disaster-grade lifeforms, surely you won't mind losing one or two?"

Bu Wentian replied, "Do you know how difficult those are to cultivate? I only have six more in my reserves. With your companions' strength, they'd easily make it to the fifth stage, and I'll need my reserves for their respective trials.

Zhang Lie would be able to take down such a disaster-grade lifeform in the blink of an eye; it couldn't even be considered a warm-up.

"One less won't make a difference," Zhang Lie replied reasonably.

Bu Wentian rolled his eyes. "Well, in that case, it won't make a difference if you have a few dozen less disaster gene fragments. You're already this strong, at any rate."

Zhang Lie sighed. "You want me to participate in this Galactic Rising Stars Cup, don't you? You do want me at peak strength for that."

Bu Wentian glanced at him. It was true that he would prefer Zhang Lie to be stronger for the Cup...

"I just cultivated a new disaster-grade lifeform and need some data on its performance for use in trials. You can test it out, and I'll allow you to keep the disaster-grade cores from killing it."

"Let's do it, then!" Zhang Lie rubbed his palms with glee.

Bu Wentian continued, "Don't rush it. Listen up. That disaster-grade lifeform won't be easy to deal with. After my efforts at cultivation, it's all but approaching a monarch-grade lifeform, and no ordinary genetic hunter can handle it."

Zhang Lie laughed. "Do you think I'm an ordinary genetic hunter?"

Bu Wentian gave him a thumbs up. "Confident, aren't you? But aren't you lacking a few dozen disaster gene fragments?"

Zhang Lie gave him a strange look.

Why was Bu Wentian asking about this now?

"Well, this disaster-grade lifeform will certainly satisfy you." Bu Wentian smirked, then summoned a door out of the void.

The door had just opened when a dark wind blew out toward Zhang Lie. Even before he stepped inside, he could feel a tremendous strength within. Zhang Lie instantly had the sensation that the disaster-grade lifeform lying in wait would be entirely different from the ones he had faced to date, one on a whole new level of strength.

"That's more like it!" Zhang Lie excitedly stepped through the door, only to be met with a vile stench and shattered crystals on the ground.