Ultragene Warlord

Chapter 1516: Zhou Ying's Evolution

At the heart of the ancient palace, a beam of light shot into the sky and pierced through the heavens. The ground cracked; the central pillar was surrounded by countless chains of natural law that linked the entire realm.

The man in a dark green robe sat on a flight of steps, eyes glowing with frightening light. He looked agitated. "I'll quickly be able to obtain the most valuable treasure of this virtual world, the largest inheritance, and recover my peak strength once more."

Before him lay the Immortal King's substitute, who had fully recovered from his injuries and even grown stronger beyond that. The Holywing's silver wings were outstretched and blazing even more brightly than before. There was a youth dressed in green, floating atop a flaming golden lotus, There was a man crackling with golden lightning, his face a golden mask, his body shrouded by golden light, as if he were himself a man of gold. There was a man on whom a golden sun shone, seated cross-legged in meditation as he floated atop the void, austere and holy, a man like a god.

A cultivator in blue, with a golden lamp in his hands, appeared. All manner of cultivators were arrayed around the man in the dark green robe, each illustrious and renowned in their own right.

In addition, there was even an arcane centipede, a golden elephant, a jade mantis, a golden luan, and a sapphire-blue scorpion.

Any cultivator who saw this array of cultivators and beasts would be shocked to no end. Combined, they would easily sweep through the tournament.

After Sun Mengmeng consumed the bug monarch, her body reacted immediately. Manifestations formed around her and condensed into the form of phoenixes, their wings outstretched.

Sun Mengmeng's manifestations lasted only temporarily, unlike Zhang Lie's.

Clearly, she had only received a boost to her mental faculties; she couldn't replicate Zhang Lie's tremendous gains from consuming a bug emperor.

Then, with natural energy and vitality brimming in her hands, Zhou Ying gently opened up her cocoon and extracted the bug within.

As she did so, a manifestation formed.

A golden crow cawed. Life, nature, death, and mutation energy surged forward like the tides, blooming in jade-green, black, and purple. Green and black leaves danced through the air.

The members of Team Zenith, who had seen these cocoons opened before, were shocked by the sight. Yang Ze frowned. "This is comparable to what happened when our captain unraveled his cocoon."

Life, nature, death, and mutation surrounded the cocoon. A bug appeared from within, only about as long as an arm. Its body was mottled with green and blue, and it seemed to radiate a gentle warmth. The next moment, however, the colors had transformed into black and purple, causing those who saw it to shudder in distaste. The black and purple splotches seemed to form a ghastly face.

One moment, it radiated the energy of nature; the next, of death, as though just touching it would inflict a curse. A giant tree sprouted by the side of its body.

The sun and the moon shone on it in turn. As the celestial bodies' light shone on the tree, it transformed. In the daytime, the tree's leaves were jade-green, filled with natural energy and vitality, like a tree of life.

At nighttime, the tree's leaves turned black, like a ghost tree that would have been planted in the netherworld. Its branches were like claws, ghastly, frightening, and steeped in the aura of death. Many tendrils suddenly grew out of the tree and flew around like tentacles. A large eye opened up on the tree trunk; onlookers staring at the trunk at any angle would feel as though the eye were looking at them.

Even the hunters of Team Zenith subconsciously took a step back.

The tree was illusory in nature, floating in the void, mysterious and palpably strong, holy and yet intimate.

Yang Ze said, "This manifestation isn't weaker than Captain's..."

Li Feng and Fang Yi nodded simultaneously.

Either Zhou Ying had been lucky, or her infusion of vitality and natural energy had caused a resonance with the construct within the cocoon.

Compared to the manifestation from Zhang Lie's bug emperor, however, Zhou Ying's bug emperor seemed far more sinister.

Sun Mengmeng hesitated. "Zhou Ying, this bug seems a little sinister. Are you really going to eat it?"

"That depends on what it says," Zhou Ying replied.

Zhang Lie: ? ? ?

The other five hunters of Team Zenith: ...

Do you ask food whether it wants to be eaten before you have meals? What sort of strange response was this?

Zhou Ying asked the newly hatched bug, "Are you willing to join me?"

The bug's round eyes looked toward Zhou Ying. From her, it sensed a natural intimacy. It nudged her fingers, as though thinking of her as its mother. It leapt up into the air and burrowed into Zhou Ying's body in a beam of light.

Zhou Ying's body radiated with light as she underwent a metamorphosis. A giant tree manifested around her, shining and splendid.

The image that had been revealed when the cocoon was first unraveled appeared once again. The sun and the moon shone on the tree in turn. In the daytime, the tree's leaves were jade-green, filled with natural energy and vitality, like a tree of life.

At nighttime, the tree's leaves turned black, like a ghost tree that would have been planted in the netherworld. Its branches were like claws, ghastly, frightening, and steeped in the aura of death. Many tendrils suddenly grew out of the tree and flew around like tentacles. A large eye opened up on the tree trunk; onlookers staring at the trunk at any angle would feel as though the eye were looking at them.

Bloody roots appeared, flowing like blood, extending within her body, rooting within her flesh: a sinister transformation. The tree turned from green to black, from vitality and natural energy to death.

Her flesh squirmed, as though every bit of her body were coming to life.

As life and death transformed into each other in turn, her mind likewise evolved. After every cycle of life and death, her body seemed to be forged anew. 

Something within Zhou Ying's body was glowing with light, controlling the transformation to her body.

On careful inspection, it was the bug emperor that had just darted into Zhou Ying's body.

The bug emperor provided crystalled intuition about the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, a startling evolution that resonated with Zhou Ying's path of life and mutation.

The resonance between the two paths was immediate and intense, and another startling evolution took place.

Zhou Ying seemed to transform into a tree brimming with vitality, which then transformed into a haunted, malevolent tree, and finally back into human form.

She opened her eyes, which were lustrous and endowed with preternatural depth. Her left eye had turned blue, and a tree of life had taken root there. Vitality and natural energy shone from it. Her right eye had turned dark gray, and a ghostly tree had taken root there. Her heterochromic vision was a sign of her advancement and understanding of life and death itself.

The sun and moon shone; celestial phenomena appeared.

Zhou Ying grew far stronger than before.

She let out a breath. She was excited by the transformation and astounded by the new sensations that suffused her.

"What a miraculous world."

Sun Mengmeng sighed. "Was that how we should have absorbed these bugs?"

Asking the bug whether it wanted to be eaten, and then allowing it to enter her body...

Zhou Ying shook her head. "This method would only work for me."