Although the chimera's core was five times larger than ordinary disaster-grade cores, Zhang Lie had rich experience absorbing them at this point. The fivefold energy rampaged through his body with uncommon force. An ordinary hunter's body would have been destroyed, but Zhang Lie was an emperor-grade lifeform. He merely found the sensations in his body somewhat interesting.

When Zhang Lie maxed out his disaster gene fragments, a different transformation happened. He sat cross-legged in that pocket dimension, deep in meditation, his body forging itself anew with every breath.

An indeterminate amount of time passed. Without anyone to disturb him, without any sudden fluctuations to his emotions, he gradually began to smile, a reflection of his heart and inner being.

Light began to shine from his body. He was surrounded by a glowing ball of light, and the skin beneath that was revealed was a pearlescent white, supple and smooth. A spiritual glow suffused him.

His bones cracked as they became even stronger and sturdier, taking on a metallic luster. A membrane of crystalline light formed over their surface, strengthening them, improving their ductility and hardness. His body was being reforged from the inside out and the outside in, as though becoming that of a deity.

Muscle, flesh, skin, and bone merged together in a flash of blinding light. Membranes of diaphanous light brimmed with vitality.

In that transcendent state, time passed in the blink of an eye. He spent a week in meditation, freed of worry, freed of strife, freed of turmoil and dissonance. There he found an intrinsic joy.

Zhang Lie breathed out with a puff of light. The air that was sucked into his body took on the shape of dragons. He breathed with a particular rhythm, neither quick nor slow, ever following the pulse of the world.

The air that Zhang Lie inhaled took on the form of dragons. As he exhaled, those dragons coiled around his body and transformed into genetic energy. Behind Zhang Lie appeared swimming pale blue fish. His pale blue genetic energy billowed out from him and transformed into a sea that filled the trial world.

Waves charged forward, lapping the shore, sounding like peals of thunder, like stampeding hooves.

The pale blue fish behind him transformed into pitch-black serpents as the sea turned dark. Waves roared through the skies like galloping steeds, like thundering dragons. The surface of the sea frothed with angry waves, like dragons emerging with the tide.

The black serpent transformed into a whitegold tiger as Zhang Lie's genetic energy seemed to mutate. The black sea turned radiant gold, and the serpents that constituted it turned into countless sharp blades. The entire sea transformed into crystal.

As the ground quaked, the whitegold tiger turned into a black dragonturtle. Four ancient tablets appeared in the sky, each filled with abstruse and incomprehensible runic text. The text flowed out of the tablets and surrounded Zhang Lie.

One was as heavy as a mountain, the other as light as a feather. One sealed the mind, and the other turned space sluggish. The four dragonturtle tablets began to resonate as one, sending ripples that melded with the space and forming an absolute domain over all things within and without.

The crystalline sea began to ripple continuously.

The black dragonturtle transformed into a flaming red lion, causing the crystalline sea to froth and turn a vivid blood red. It looked like flames blazing through the air, scarlet steam rising from the sea and distorting space.

With a huge rumble, the flaming lion transformed into bolts of lightning that filled the air, which manifested in the form of a wyrm. The scarlet steam burst apart and transformed midway through into an endless field of lightning.Wind and storm surged. The lightning transformed into a raging tempest and rainbow clouds, while the wyrm transformed into a phoenix.

Its physical body continued to evolve. The transformation of his physical body fused his flesh, organs, and bones together, combining them into a single entity.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Zhang Lie recycled the waste energy he had emitted and opened his eyes. His pupils were bright and filled with vital energy, with a spiritual glow that made him look like a supernatural entity. It was obvious that he had broken through and elevated himself to an entirely new level of strength.

As Zhang Lie stood up, the trial world seemed ready to burst. Spirituality illuminated him from within and without. He sat cross-legged like a deity, with a luminous haze surrounding him and seeping into his body.

The membranes that surrounded his bones and organs had vanished, absorbed into his body and replaced by the essence of divinity.

Spiritual energy seeped into every portion of his being.

Zhang Lie: an emperor-grade lifeformTechniques: Rippling Walk (pinnacle), Three-Wave Crescendo (pinnacle), Calm Waters (pinnacle), Fists of the Silent Sea (pinnacle), The Boundless Blade (pinnacle), Eclipse (pinnacle), Syzygy (pinnacle), Ninesoul Dragonblade (pinnacle), Blade of the Heavens (pinnacle)

Genes: Basic, 160; Mutated, 150; Superior, 150; Peak, 150; Disaster, 150; Monarch, 0; Emperor, 0

Soulshards: White Grub (superior), Blood Ant (superior), Potbellied Toad (mutated), Eternalspring Cocoon (superior), Dragonwolf (superior), Moonlight Wyrm (peak), Golden Roc (peak), Dragonwhale (disaster), Mistmeld Clam (disaster), Limitless Universe (monarch)

Zhang Lie stepped across the space with just one step, returning to the pocket space that Bu Wentian was in. Bu Wentian had witnessed Zhang Lie's ascension himself, and he had opened a portal for Zhang Lie. He was naturally aware of Zhang Lie's return.

Bu Wentian scanned Zhang Lie. "You've grown far stronger than before. Perhaps you really can win the Galactic Rising Stars Cup."