Zhang Lie nodded. If the hunters of Team Zenith had grown fearful upon just hearing the name of the Desert of Silence, there would be no point venturing there.

"Next, your warm-up exercise: attack me with all you've got, and don't hold back."

Sun Mengmeng and the others hesitated for a moment. They had all grown significantly during that battle, and their latent ability had been dragged out by the fight they had suffered through.

Would Zhang Lie be able to fend off all of them at once? They really didn't want to take the risk of harming Zhang Lie, who had given them so much, even if the chances of that happening were minute.

"Don't worry about me—the ones you should be worrying about are yourselves." Zhang Lie's lips quirked into a smile.

With that thought, Sun Mengmeng and the others gave up their reservations. Zhang Lie was their captain, and he'd never done anything he wasn't certain about. Sun Mengmeng smiled, and the other members took a deep breath. They circulated their genetic energy and got into battle stances.

"Remember, don't hold back!" Zhang Lie instructed. Otherwise, there would be no purpose to this warm-up.

Sun Mengmeng and the others nodded firmly. 

Sun Mengmeng aimed her bow in Zhang Lie's direction. As she circulated genetic energy through her body, the arrow began burning with flames, so hot even the air seemed to distort around it. The flames gradually grew purple, as was characteristic of her framework, [Black Sun].

Zhang Lie's eyes narrowed. Based on the aura that Sun Mengmeng was giving off, she seemed to have taken a great stride forward. The sound of wind broke Zhang Lie out of his reverie. As Sun Mengmeng released her bowstring, purple flames shot toward his face.

A purple crescent moon appeared out of nowhere, causing the flames on the arrow to flare up and adding to the spatial distortion effect of the arrow.

"Stacking fire-based effects, huh!" Zhang Lie smiled. Just as the arrow was about to hit him, he activated his galewolf soulshard. Zhang Lie's figure blurred, and he dodged the incoming attack as agilely as a snake, too quickly for Sun Mengmeng and the others to follow.

After evading the blow, Zhang Lie dashed straight toward Sun Mengmeng, Venombane glinting with purple light. Sun Mengmeng felt a grave pressure descend on her, as well as the chilling touch of death.

It was then that she understood just how frightening Zhang Lie's true abilities were. As Zhang Lie dashed forward, Sun Mengmeng retreated back. None of the others had trained their footwork as much as he had, so the distance between them was only narrowing.

If Sun Mengmeng were alone, this would have been sufficient to spell her doom, but she had the rest of Team Zenith with her.

The reason that Zhang Lie had chosen this as their warm-up exercise was to let them experience the chill of death, as well as to improve the teamwork between every member of the party. After the Kez invasion, their skills had all grown by leaps and bounds, and this would be an opportunity to hone them as a team.

Whether or not they succeeded would depend on them and them alone.

In a matter of moments, Zhang Lie had already drawn close to Sun Mengmeng, and Venombane thrust straight toward her head.

Sun Mengmeng's face turned pale. If she didn't defend against this blow, she would die. Zhang Lie's killing intent caused her heart to palpitate and her breathing to stutter. This was the first time she had truly felt the fear of death.

"Are you still hesitating? Do you really want to die?" Zhang Lie hollered at her.

Sun Mengmeng jolted up, a burst of purple flames emerging from underneath her feet. She quickly darted away from Zhang Lie's sword.

"[Flameburst Step]? Not bad!" Zhang Lie stomped on the ground with one foot, causing ripples to emerge with him at the epicenter. When it struck the other members of Team Zenith, they found themselves temporarily stuck.

After his use of [Mirrored Refraction], Sun Mengmeng was in critical danger. If none of her teammates came to help her out, it would be near-impossible for her to avoid the next blow.

To his left, Zhang Lie could feel a water-attuned fist technique heading his way: Yang Ze had used [Fists of the Silent Sea]. Help was finally on its way.

Zhang Lie punched back with the same technique, shattering Yang Ze's attack.

Yang Ze was flung up into the air and landed on the ground with a huge thud. He certainly wasn't going to overcome Zhang Lie with one of Zhang Lie's best techniques, but Zhang Lie had made sure to demonstrate a variation that incorporated principles Yang Ze was still weak in.

Even as he picked himself up, Yang Ze's eyes were gleaming, clearly having intuited something from the blow.

"Is this all you've got? Do you really want to watch Sun Mengmeng die?"

No one else had stepped forward after Yang Ze. Zhang Lie turned around and surveyed the other hunters, anger in his eyes. The other hunters reacted belatedly: Zhang Lie was right—if this were a true life-or-death situation, Sun Mengmeng would have died quite a few times by now.

Li Feng dashed forward with a shout, steps of light guiding his path, his longsword radiant and gleaming, his aura like that of a coiling dragon. Indeed, [Dragon's Triumph] wasn't a legendary-grade technique only in name. Li Feng hadn't trained with the technique for all that long, but he was already able to produce quite a shocking attack.

However, in the end, it seemed as though all that was just a facade. The attack looked imposing and intimidating, but it simply didn't threaten Zhang Lie. He countered Li Feng's strike with Venombane, causing an explosion of radiant light. Li Feng staggered back, but Zhang Lie stood unmoved.

"Now!"

Zhang Lie turned to see that the remaining hunters had surrounded him, blocking his escape path, and Sun Mengmeng had once again nocked an arrow to her bow.

It was now clear that Li Feng's attack was just a distraction.

"That's more like it!" Zhang Lie combined [Fists of the Silent Sea] with [Three-Wave Crescendo] with his left palm, then struck with [The Boundless Blade] from his right. He targeted the weak spots in the other hunters' formation, slicing through Sun Mengmeng's arrow with his sword, then forcing Yang Ze and Li Feng back with a fist and a leg.

Zhang Lie broke out of the seemingly hopeless situation with surprising ease, but just as he thought himself safe, vines suddenly emerged from the ground and wrapped around both his feet. At the same time, he felt a chill from his back.

Behind him raged wind and storm. A spear shot toward him, an attack he felt that he couldn't avoid. It had to be Fang Yi!

Zhang Lie didn't need to turn around to know who was behind him. From the strength of that attack, it seemed as though Fang Yi was staking everything on this attack. Ever since they had broken Sun Mengmeng free of his clutches, the hunters of Team Zenith had all been preparing for this single blow!