Chapter 921: Monarch Gene FragmentsIf Gold Comet were a god-class lifeform, then what would Zhang Lie, who had killed an ancient superior king, be called? A godkiller?
"Perhaps a myth-class lifeform, then?" But that didn't seem too suitable either. Gold Comet was hardly old enough to be considered a myth or legend.
"Monarch-class, perhaps..."
Suddenly, Zhang Lie blinked. "Ah, what an idiot I am! I can tell just by consuming the meat of such a lifeform—the will of the world surely has some designated name for it!"
Gold Comet immediately rubbed its scythes against each other, then cut off two big chunks of flesh from its legs.
Zhang Lie was very surprised. "After ascending to monarch-class, has your crystalline body turned back to flesh and blood? But no—I could sense how hard it was from when I touched you..."
Zhang Lie had infused genetic energy into his palms when stroking Gold Comet, and he had a good sense of Gold Comet's body composition.
"In other words, you must be able to transform between flesh-and-blood and crystal freely..."
Was this a special characteristic of a monarch-class lifeform??Zhang Lie hurriedly shook his head. "No, now's not the time to ponder such questions. Gold Comet, what are you doing? Why did you suddenly cut yourself?"
Gold Comet proffered the meat to Zhang Lie with its scythes.
"For me?" Zhang Lie was visibly surprised. "You know that I grow stronger by feeding on genetic lifeforms, so you're offering it to me as a gift?"
Gold Comet nodded.
Zhang Lie sighed. "Thank you. I'm very touched, but don't do this in the future, you hear?"
The reason Zhang Lie had fostered Gold Comet's growth was because he was curious about what lay beyond disaster-grade, not because he wanted to consume its flesh. Gold Comet was a pet; how could he stand to consume his pet's flesh?
Meanwhile, on the frontline, the coalition troops were suffering under the sudden appearance of Team Zenith. The members of Team Zenith had split into two parties and invaded the coalition members' worlds, giving their kings of the realm huge headaches.
The kings immediately returned to save their worlds, but Team Zenith was far too strong. Three of the kings who had returned perished at their hands. By the time the rest of the kings formed a huge party intending to counter the members of Team Zenith, they had fled.
"Dastardly humans!" The atmosphere in the coalition's meeting room was dark and dreary. "Such vile viruses, using these underhanded tactics!"
The kings of the realm had clearly forgotten that they had used the same tactics against the draconian world to begin with.
One king asked, "How's the frontline?"
"It's not going well. As the draconian territory shrinks, they're able to consolidate their defense on a smaller patch of territory, and our tactics aren't working out against them any longer. We even suffered a few ambushes and lost quite a few of our forces that way. We lost three kings of large worlds and four kings of medium-sized worlds in just a single day..."
The remaining kings all grew visibly frustrated.
One king stood up. "I can't stay here any longer. I have to rush back—my world is being attacked as we speak!"
The king of the Chiyan world raised a hand. "Sit back down!"
"If we can't take down their frontline, it's meaningless to keep fighting. I'd rather defend my world!"
Another king cried out, "Are we going to give up on the progress we've made thus far? Once we lose this opportunity, that's it! We've spent three whole months executing this plan, and we can't give up on imminent success just like that."
The king of the realm that had stood up snorted. "Easy for you to say—you're not the ones whose worlds are currently being attacked!"
"What are you talking about? We're all allied—if people start to leave, how are we going to maintain our offense? We need to be thinking about the bigger picture. If sacrificing your world allows us to preserve the integrity of our frontline, we'll surely compensate you for your loss afterwards."
The superior king that had stood up retorted, "And why does this sacrifice have to be of my world, not your world?"
Chiyan broke up the debate before it became a fight. "Enough! We can't be fighting among ourselves—there are enemies we have to handle!"
The kings of the realm quieted down.
"If we can't take down the draconian world's frontlines and they're attacking our worlds, what should we do?"
Another king suggested, "Why not change our tactics? Rather than go on the offensive, we can focus on defense to counter the six strong combatants that have joined the fight."
Another king scowled. "Won't that mean giving up the frontline?"
The kings of the realm became more perplexed. Zhang Lie's innocuous suggestion and the reappearance of Team Zenith proved to be a conundrum. If they were to focus on defense, their progress for the last few months would be for naught; if they were to continue focusing on offense, they might lose their own homeworlds.
The king of Chiyan surveyed the room. Glancing at the other kings' faces, he could see that Zhang Lie had already succeeded. The moment the members of Team Zenith were sent out to rejoin the fight, the other kings' morale had been crushed.
The king of Chiyan proclaimed, "We only have one path left to us."
The other kings reared up in shock. "Are you intending—"
Chiyan nodded. "Think carefully. These alien lifeforms are all tumors and viruses that will destroy our realm. If we don't suppress them and get rid of them, we'll all die anyway. We've already tried to muster up resistance. If we draw our forces back now, they'll only take the opportunity to invade our territory. Do you think they'll let us live?"
The kings of the realm couldn't deny the validity of the king of Chiyan's statements.
Zhang Lie had no intention of asking to feed on Gold Comet's body, but he couldn't deny that doing so would be hugely impactful to his own growth, and he wouldn't turn down the flesh that Gold Comet had already given him.
Gold Comet's wounds healed almost immediately as Zhang Lie hefted the flesh in his hands. He didn't have to ingest the flesh at all—given his current abilities, he could extract the gene fragments directly with his genetic energy.
[For consuming the flesh of a monarch-grade blood mantis, you received one monarch gene fragment. Current total: 1] Sᴇaʀᴄh the ɴøvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.
Zhang Lie received confirmation that the will of the world termed such lifeforms monarch-grade lifeforms—his guess had been completely correct. "As expected, the name isn't anything as ridiculous as god-class."
[For consuming the flesh of a monarch-grade blood mantis, you received one monarch gene fragment. Current total: 2]
Upon absorbing these two monarch gene fragments, Zhang Lie felt a burgeoning vitality exuding from every cell in his body, which seemed to have turned to miniature suns. His body began to radiate light. A single monarch gene fragment was stronger than even ten disaster gene fragments.
"This strength is intoxicating..."