Chapter 1236: Matryoshka
Yang Ze murmured, "This is a familiar scene indeed. Could it be..."
Even the second barrier that Zhu had laid down was unable to bear the strain any longer, and it too cracked as the mecha continued to grow relentlessly.
Fang Yi cried out, "Does [Adamantine Aegis: Invincible Martial God] have a second-stage transformation?"
Li Feng shook his head. "This is already the third stage."
With an ear-splitting crack, the mecha broke through layer after layer of dimensional barrier. Zhu was continuing to expand the space, but she couldn\'t keep up with Sun Xiaowu\'s mecha\'s growth.
As though breaking through an eggshell, the warlord\'s head poked out through the final barrier of the pocket dimension.
The enormous mecha bore characteristics of both Sun Xiaowu and Zhang Lie, as though they had combined into one entity. Sun Mengmeng couldn\'t help but feel rather disturbed.
Golden radiance caught the eye as the mecha\'s armor gleamed a resplendent gold. Its body shone brighter than the sun itself.
Indeed, the size of its body was well comparable to the sun. As it stood beyond the pocket dimension and light seeped out of its body, the entire unified world witnessed an intense golden glow.
Only the unified world was large enough to contain the figure of such a large mecha.
Yang Ze\'s lips twitched. "Sun Xiaowu\'s new technique reminds me of a series of infinite nesting dolls..."
First [Adamantine Aegis], then summoning more clones, then combining them; then transforming into a mecha, summoning more clones, then combining them; using this sort of strategy, Sun Xiaowu seemed able to augment his combat ability indefinitely. Who would be able to beat him then?
However, things weren\'t as straightforward as Yang Ze expected. [Adamantine Aegis: Ultimate Martial God] was Sun Xiaowu\'s current limit, and he was barely able to control such tremendous strength. The golden mecha seemed liable to collapse at any moment.
Sun Xiaowu was very satisfied with what he had accomplished. "What do you think, Captain?"
However, Zhang Lie was clearly dissatisfied with Sun Xiaowu\'s transformation.
"Is this your response to my question?"
Sun Xiaowu puffed out his chest proudly. "I don\'t think it\'s an exaggeration to say that I\'m currently the strongest member of Team Zenith."
The members of Team Zenith glanced askance at him. Against Sun Xiaowu\'s mecha, as large as a sun, they really weren\'t sure whether they could contend against him.
Zhang Lie\'s face turned dark. "It looks like you haven\'t understood what I told you."
Sun Xiaowu raised his hands, and the mecha mirrored his actions. "Am I not strong enough y et?"
Sun Xiaowu felt that, in this state, he might even be able to spar on even terms with Zhang Lie.
"If you think you are, let me test you."
Guicang and Hanguang shone in unison.
"[Blades, Reverberate]!"
A blood dragon materialized around Zhang Lie. Energy poured out of him in waves, honing the edge of his blade. The pulses of energy struck the realm like a tsunami, devouring everything within.
The twin blades Guicang and Hanguang emitted a fearsome aura, shining as brightly as the sun and moon. Sword energy materialized from Guicang into a blood dragon that revolved around his body.
The blade Hanguang morphed into a black dragon, and the blade Guicang into a blood dragon. The two dragons, coiling together as one, shot out toward Duan Zisuan like a hurricane, bearing down on him with the might of Zhang Lie\'s spiritual sea between them.
Infused with the blood moon and the black sun, the twin dragons formed a black whirlpool. Tremendous suction, like that from a black hole, sucked up everything around the two combatants—layers of earth sank into the whirlpool, obliterated in an instant.
As the pitch-black storm grew fiercer, the air around the arena turned dark, covering up the golden radiance that Sun Xiaowu gave off.
Sun Xiaowu\'s pupils contracted as he sensed the power of Zhang Lie\'s blades.
"[Goldenscale Palm: Ten Suns\' Annihilation]!"
Light flared up from around Sun Xiaowu\'s body as ten huge suns appeared by the manifestation of the golden mecha.
The suns were dazzlingly bright, and the golden radiance they gave off much like shining swords. They pierced through the cloud cover and the sky.
Yang Ze seemed particularly surprised. "This technique... really does seem interesting."
Li Feng asked, "Is this an evolution of [Blinding Flash]?"
The ten blazing suns were all his clones.
Sun Mengmeng chuckled as she shook her head. "So far, Xiaowu\'s still unable to produce full clones of his golden mecha in this ascended state, but I hadn\'t expected him to be able to use his incomplete clones like this."
Sun Xiaowu himself understood that he wasn\'t able to control his clones perfectly, but that didn\'t mean that they weren\'t useful.
His clones simply had to be functional; that was enough.
"[Echo of Origins]!"
The ten gigantic suns transformed into a wave of energy that Sun Xiaowu sucked into his body and transformed into explosive strength.
Golden energy erupted from him like a volcano, covering everything before him in piercing light. The entire world was dyed golden; a wave of gold clashed against Zhang Lie\'s twin black and blood dragons.
Despite Sun Xiaowu\'s strength, Zhang Lie was stronger.
Even if Sun Xiaowu\'s [Ultimate Martial God] was able to augment his strength by ten thousand times, his imperfect control of this strength made him weaker than Zhang Lie.
The golden light was forced back, and Sun Xiaowu stumbled. The golden mecha behind him seemed on the verge of crumbling.
Zhang Lie pointed at Sun Xiaowu with his pointer finger.
"It looks like you aren\'t as strong as you thought you would be."
Sun Xiaowu\'s manifestation of his golden mecha flickered. The attack just now had drained him of all his reserves.
"In the end, I can\'t best you, Captain."
Sun Xiaowu clutched his chest in lethargy, then raised both hands. The golden mecha vanished completely. "I don\'t have the strength to keep fighting."
Zhang Lie asked, "Did you intuit something?"
Sun Xiaowu frowned and replied, "That I need to focus on combining and upgrading my skills?"
Zhang Lie seemed to become angry. "It looks like you haven\'t intuited a thing!"
Sun Xiaowu smiled wryly. "To be frank, Captain, I have a hard time simultaneously pondering your questions while engaging in a difficult battle against you."
"In that case, we can\'t stop here."
Zhang Lie activated his dragon\'s pupil soulshard and stared straight at Sun Xiaowu\'s soul, one resplendent in gold.
Sun Xiaowu visibly shook as he activated his last dregs of genetic energy.
"[Second Form: Piercing the Soul]!" Zhang Lie\'s disaster-grade mistmeld clam soulshard activated as he infused its energy into his swords, causing them to shine radiantly with multicolored light...