Chapter 457: Destroying the Animal Kingdom

Chapter 457: Destroying the Animal Kingdom

Jack broke into the mass of enemies. His Dao spread out, forming the shape of a large fist around him which came crashing down like a meteor. The colosseum spectators cried out. The enemies groaned.

But they were not defenseless. Every Elder of the Kingdom activated their powers. So did the two remaining Ancestors. The Emberheart Supreme Ancestor roared, his body flickering with crimson lightning—his wrinkled skin tensed up, muscles stuck out of his scrawny arms, and his white mane stood up like rods. Though nowhere near his peak, he remained a supremely powerful individual.

The Supreme Ancestor, already using the Thunder Body battle transformation, clashed head-on with Jack’s attack. The white-cloaked man assisted him, using time and space to dissolve some of Jack’s momentum.

A tremendous shockwave spread from the point of impact. The two late B-Grades managed to stop Jack’s assault, but the remaining force tossed the Elders behind them away like ragdolls.

Jack roared. He smashed another fist at the Supreme Ancestor, but the man was no slouch—he crossed his arms to defend, then exchanged a few strikes with Jack. His speed and strength belied his age. This was a martial arts master.

“AGAIN!” the Supreme Ancestor roared, but it was a fake. Eva Solvig appeared behind Jack, slamming down a white palm. The space behind him turned barren. He sensed lifelessness heading for his back. He barely managed to teleport away, watching the area an entire mile around his previous location turn...not dead, but something even worse, something beyond the scope of his many Daos.

Pure—in a terrible, terrible way.

A shiver ran down his back, accompanied by excitement. Three late B-Grades besieged him, flanked by two early B-Grades and over a dozen C-Grades. What a line-up...

The Supreme Ancestor led the charge. Eva Solvig followed, ready to attack Jack a beat later and disorient him, while the white-cloaked man floated far away, constricting spacetime around Jack from a distance. None of them were simple opponents. At the same time, the early B-Grade Ancestors led the Elders to barrage him with attacks from afar.

The audience cheered. Jack laughed. “Bring it on!”

His form flickered. He used a thought to shatter the white-cloaked man’s grip on spacetime, then he warped it until it seemed like there were twelve Jacks, not just one. All twelve charged up a Supernova.

Eva snorted. A white field spread around her, annihilating everything—even spacetime and the fake Jacks. Twelve disappeared—none were left.

“What!?” was all she had time to cry out before a thirteenth Jack appeared behind her, smashing a punch into her lower back and sending her flying. The Supreme Ancestor flashed over, planting a knee in his chest. Jack’s breath was cut short. He was sent flying, his regeneration already working to fix his ribcage, but found everything accelerating around him.

No, they weren’t accelerating—he was the slow one. Time stagnated around him.

Jack tried to break the hold, but he was more proficient in space than time. He needed a moment—but that wasn’t time he’d be allowed. The Supreme Ancestor flashed before him, suddenly much faster than before. His limbs turned into blurs. Fists and feet and elbows and knees rained on Jack.

The Emberheart family used a full-body martial style, but this Supreme Ancestor took it a step further. In his movements, Jack could see a shadow of the sharkens’ unpredictability, the canines’ ferocity, the eagler’s speed. He was a force of nature barraging Jack with dozens of strikes every instant, and though he tried to defend, there was only so much he could do when slowed down.

A few strikes got through. His knee bent backward, a chop bruised his neck. Each of the Supreme Ancestor’s strikes were aimed at a vital spot, and each could fell a mountain range. Jack spat out blood, rapidly retreating, only to be met with a terrible heat at his back.

The Elders, who had been throwing attacks all this time, finally got him. A green fireball exploded behind him, searing his back and destroying half his cloak. Just as the shockwave pushed him forward, the Supreme Ancestor was there again, his limbs flowing in a bloody dance.

Jack didn’t even consider defending. He let a palm land on his chest to forcefully teleport away, barely dodging a white beam released by Eva Solvig. He coughed out blood. The moment he appeared, he saw that the white-cloaked man had read his movement and teleported at the same spot before him, meeting his arrival with a spatial blade aimed at his heart. Jack twisted out of the way, letting it slice through his ribs, then threw a punch in the same movement. The white-cloaked man flew away with minor wounds.

They smashed into the walls head-first. They may have been illusions, but they hid real spatial barriers underneath. Breaking through wasn’t easy. Even if the late B-Grades were the ones to try, it would still take some time.

Jack broke off from the Supreme Ancestor and teleported to the middle of the colosseum. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, his smile tainted by blood. “From the moment you decided to fight me, you lost your right to escape. It’s victory or death.”

“VICTORY OR DEATH!” the audience chanted after him, and Jack laughed.

“Get him!” Eva shouted, suddenly feeling an intense sense of crisis, but her attacks landed on nothing. Jack had already teleported away. His form flickered across the colosseum like a specter of death.

Back before he entered the Black Hole World, Jack had already been able to match Eva’s speed. Now, he was easily twice as fast. Even in the enclosed space of his colosseum which not even he could escape, even with the white-cloaked man working hard to limit his movements, Jack was the fastest cultivator present. Maybe he couldn’t harm the late B-Grades like this, but they also couldn’t catch him.

Suddenly, Jack was everywhere. The late B-Grades ran after him but missed him. Wild attacks filled the arena as everyone tried to stop him. The Elders panicked and ran around like headless chickens, but it was useless.

Jack was a Gladiator Titan. Placed in this group of weaklings, he was like a wolf amongst sheep. The rushing Elders might as well be sitting still. He flashed to their sides, casually severed their lives, then teleported away again. Between teleportations, he flew at speeds untraceable by the naked eye.

Five Elders died within two seconds.

“To me!” the Supreme Ancestor shouted, incensed. The Elders rushed over—the smart ones were already there—but it was useless. Jack intercepted them midway and flitted around like a deadly butterfly, easily killing them all. Of course, the more the Elders gathered, the easier it was for the late B-Grades to catch Jack. Some attacks connected, shaking him and making him spit out blood, but he ignored them. His body was ridiculously sturdy, and his regeneration was godly. He could take it.

Notifications rang continuously in Jack’s ears. He usually ignored them until the battle was over, but he now paid attention, telling the System to keep investing everything into Physical. His power grew. He became stronger and faster with every passing second, terrifying the late B-Grades. For someone to advance like this mid-battle was unthinkable.

When he arrived at Animal Planet, Jack had been Level 363. Over the course of killing these Elders, he’d reached 378, a difference of fifteen levels and three hundred stat points. That wasn’t a minor increase.

The Animal Kingdom possessed thirty-two Elders, all at the middle C-Grade or above. Two had been killed by Jack before this battle, so thirty remained. That was their main force, the core of their faction. Every single Elder was of paramount importance.

In normal times, even the worst faction-destroying disasters couldn’t get too many of those Elders because they were spread across the constellation. Now, however, the Hand of God had ordered them all to gather at Animal Planet, and they’d all rushed out together to face Jack, foolishly emboldened by their numbers.

That was their doom.

The cornerstones of the Animal Kingdom fell like flies. Within a single minute, all thirty of them were killed. The Grand Elder had also fallen. The Kingdom lost all of its Elders. Even one of the two Ancestors, the one from the Emberheart family, had been caught off guard and slain—his strength had been lacking to begin with.

Even if Jack died right now, the Kingdom couldn’t continue existing as a major faction in this galaxy. They only had a single Ancestor remaining, alongside the Supreme Ancestor who was just too old. Everyone else was at the early C-Grade or below.

It could be said that, right now, Jack had already destroyed the Animal Kingdom—and he wasn’t even done yet!

All around the galaxy, every spectator drew cold breaths. They were witnessing the fall of a giant. The million year-long reign of the Animal Kingdom...ended today!