The elders from the other delegations were all quite sly, Zhou Hong's uncle in particular. The reason he had proposed a match was because the Yun and Chu clans were present, and a direct confrontation would have led to severe losses for their delegation.

If they had won, then the Chu and Yun clans would have had to hand over their goods, but now that they had lost, they would have to launch a sneak attack and force this Zhang Lie fellow to spit out everything he had managed to claim for himself.

After all, the Eclipse Sage was a hunter whose name had been immortalized in the Xumi Tome, and if [Eclipse] had been included in his inheritance, then the Zhou clan would immediately be elevated in power. 

How could he give up on such valuable treasure? At any rate, he was certainly willing to sacrifice his reputation and ethics for it.

On the other hand, the Yun and Chu clans were playing the long game. If they were to try to snatch the spoils from Zhang Lie, they would immediately sour the budding relationship between Zhang Lie and their clans. In that case, why not do him a favor and develop a stronger bond between this hunter from the younger generation who had displayed impressive potential and the clans' successors?

The moment they exited the ruins, the Zhou, He, and Qian clans, along with the ministry of ruins and various other delegations, quickly came to an agreement. At this moment, they were lying in wait by the portal to the ruins, intending to ambush Zhang Lie.

Unfortunately for them, Zhang Lie arrived with the delegations of the Yun and Chu clans in tow. The gathered forces didn't anticipate that the Yun and Chu clans' protection would extend so far. The elders from the two clans were sandwiching Zhang Lie between them, and Yun Bing held out her orb of primality prominently.

They were all cautiously circulating their genetic energy, clearly having prepared for an ambush.

"These damned bastards!"

"What, were we discovered?"

"No, but they predicted that we wouldn't give up so easily!"

"What?! Have they been working together all this time?"

"Alright, shut it! Let's just follow them for now! We'll observe the situation and see what happens. I bet they're heading to the capital first, before using the teleportation array there. We won't have a chance to catch this Zhang Lie today, but we can certainly track where he's headed. It won't be that easy to get away from us!"

The ambushers had no opportunity to strike; under the protection of the Yun and Chu clans, Team Zenith successfully returned to the capital. 

As they stepped toward the teleportation array, Zhang Lie turned around and waved toward the ambushers following them, making the other three major clans from the capital itch to punch him in the face.

However, just as Zhang Lie and the others were about to step into the teleportation array, a mysterious tearing sound came from the sky, and a wormhole emerged in mid-air, causing emergency alarms to flare throughout the capital.

"Warning! Warning! A mysterious wormhole has connected to Earth. We are experiencing an alien invasion! Alien invasion! All citizens should seek shelter immediately! All hunters, mobilize!"

"Warning! Warning! ..."

Everyone stared up at the skies, only to find fleet after fleet of alien warships appearing out of nowhere. Countless black dots descended on the capital like a thunderstorm, and the tremendous pressure made it difficult to breathe.

It had been dawn by the time they emerged from the ruins, but the clear skies were quickly covered by dark, ominous clouds. The capital hadn't suffered an incursion in years—at least, not until this morning.

The Kez, an alien insectoid race whose name sparked fear in lifeforms all around the galaxy!

Zhang Lie had fought against the Kez in his past life. The Kez were a highly coordinated force with considerable strength and constitution that dwarfed mankind in terms of numbers. They were famed for the sheer magnitude of soldiers that they dedicated to any single battle, as evidenced by the size of the fleet that they had sent to Earth.

The first wave of attacks was here. Woofbugs flooded the skies and ground in numbers so dense the sun was blotted out. 

These so-called woofbugs were ferocious insectoid lifeforms the size of dogs. Except for the fact that they walked on all fours, they bore little similarity to actual dogs. They possessed an extremely hard, thorny carapace, an unusual ability to leap, and made sounds that were uncannily like dog barks.

They were the infantry and shock troops of the Kez, famed across the universe for their immense reproductive ability and ferocity, and were key to the number of units the Kez could field in any given battle. They often swarmed the battlefield, so it was extremely difficult for their opponents to systematically exterminate these pests.

On the streets, there were more of these woofbugs than humans. While regular pedestrians stood frozen by the sudden appearance of the Kez, countless woofbugs had opened their mouths wide and let out piercing woofs.

"Help! Save me!" a man shouted, just as a woofbug swiped its forelegs and sliced off half his head.

In the skies, a slender, green-winged insectoid flapped its wings as it grabbed a five- or six-year-old girl with its pincers, flying off into the distance. The woofbugs flooded the streets, slaughtering yet another life with every crunch of their mandibles.

Hovercars trailing black smoke crashed into the ground, citizens cried and howled as they fled from the insects, and blood dyed the streets red.

"Please, someone, help! Help!" As a little boy cried out, a sharp foreleg sliced toward him like a reaper's scythe—but a violet shortsword blocked the woofbug's foreleg before its attack could land.

"Flee!" Zhang Lie flipped the woofbug over, leapt up into the air, and thrust his shortsword, wreathed in black mist, into a chink in the woofbug's exoskeleton, killing it instantly.

Woofbugs only had two weak points: a small triangular patch of chitin on its back, and a slit by the third patch of chitin on its abdomen.

This was valuable information whose cost had been paid in blood in Zhang Lie's past life.

"What are all of you waiting for? Save the civilians!" Zhang Lie cried out.

The Kez were one of the most vicious alien races known to the galaxy; other intelligent life might well have enslaved these conquered humans instead, but those races that had fallen to the Kez faced one certain outcome: death.

As a result, battles against the Kez had a particularly high death toll, and if they were to lose, everyone in the capital would be consumed by the Kez! Not only that, the capital would be turned into a breeding ground for the Kez, and once they gained a foothold, they would be able to devour the entire planet.

Fortunately, mankind had discovered the dimensional world, obtained gene fragments, and constructed a relatively robust defense system. In the past, the Kez had created wormholes that were too unpredictable for humanity's forces, which had lost quite a few battles as a result,

but this time, the moment the alert sounded, the government's reserve forces reacted immediately.

All manner of experts were rushing toward the capital. What everyone in the capital had to do was to protect themselves, along with the major teleportation arrays in the region.

"These damned bugs!" Zhang Lie cried out. "Kill them all! Are we going to stand here and let them invade the capital? Surely not!"

None of the clan hunters were weak, and they immediately jumped into the fray as soon as they reacted. In a matter of moments, the vicinity of the teleportation array had turned into a gruesome battlefield, with human and insectoid limbs splayed out all over the ground.

The stench of blood permeated the air. Despite all their efforts, the clan hunters represented only a small fraction of the present citizens, and there were so many woofbugs that more and more humans were dying every second.

If there were ever a time to reveal the extent of his powers, it was now. When he saw a young girl being bitten to death by a woofbug, he could hardly stomach the sight. For what other reason had he obtained such strength?

He darted from road to road and street to street, killing every insectoid lifeform he encountered.

Drones whizzed through the air, and the sound of explosions had become a refrain. Since they were on Earth and not in the dimensional world, all sorts of high-tech weaponry were usable, but they would have to restrict themselves to small-scale bombardments so as not to damage the capital beyond repair.

After all, their goal was to defend the capital, not to destroy it.

By this time, armed soldiers had begun appearing around the teleportation arrays.

"Stand back! This is the main battlefield, and you civilians should stay far away from this area!" a soldier yelled out, commanding hundreds of elites behind him. As he shouted at the civilians, he began firing into the midst of the woofbugs.

Zhang Lie glanced at the soldier and immediately motioned his team over.

"Captain, why are we heading over to the soldiers? Shouldn't we head to areas that they haven't cleared out yet?" Li Feng asked. 

He wanted to keep fighting, to protect the weak and the innocent! He scarcely noticed that they were where the fighting was most intense, that, given their current strength, without the soldiers' firepower holding their enemies back, they could easily die.

"Just follow my orders!" Zhang Lie shouted back, picking up his pace.

The members of Team Zenith followed closely behind him. They trusted their captain, and would follow him through trial and tribulation. Zhang Lie knew that the battlefield would be dangerous, but the safety of the capital was far too important to be ignored.

The Kez would focus all their efforts on taking down the teleportation arrays so as to isolate the capital. Without any reinforcements, the Kez would easily be able to take over the capital given their numerical superiority.

Zhang Lie and the rest of Team Zenith would have been able to escape from the battlefield via the teleportation array, but they certainly weren't about to let their capital fall to the Kez. No: they had to stay, to protect the capital, to protect the teleportation array that the bugs were after.