Deep in the Runic Forest, the only illumination came from fireflies.

Sun Mengmeng took the lead with an orange fireball above her head. As the only fire-attuned hunter in the team, she was naturally tasked with providing illumination. She didn't make the fireballs as bright or as large as she could; under these conditions, even the weakest light could still draw a variety of lifeforms toward them.

If the light were too bright, it might attract more lifeforms than they could handle. The hunters weren't too afraid of such a scenario, but it would certainly sap them of their genetic energy and deter them from their goal.

"We're almost there. At our current speed, we'll be deep within the Runic Forest within two minutes. Be careful!" Zhang Lie warned everyone.

The hunters nodded.

Zhang Lie was far more familiar with the Runic Forest than the Desert of Silence, having released a detailed map of the former in his past life. As a result, despite the weak illumination, he was able to judge their rough location from the greenery that he identified.

Just then, Yang Ze accidentally stepped on a dry branch, which let out a sharp crack.

"Be careful!" Zhang Lie hollered. Yang Ze felt his back turn cold as killing intent latched onto his back, and he sensed motion to his left.

Sun Mengmeng moved her fireball closer, and everyone could see a speckled python opening its jaws wide, its forked tongue poking straight out like a stiff sword. Its sharp fangs caused everyone to shudder.

"[Baptism of Hellfire]!" Sun Mengmeng shouted. A series of purple flames erupted down the length of her longsword, which she directed right into the python's jaws.

With a shrill scream, the python's jaws burst into flames. It immediately gave up on its attack and vanished deep into the greenery of the forest.

Yang Ze exhaled. In that moment, he felt as though he had looked death in the face.

"Be careful. The Runic Forest isn't any less dangerous than the Desert of Silence," Sun Mengmeng reminded him.

"Yang Ze, perk up! You can't afford to slack off or lose concentration here," Zhang Lie added. Under such circumstances, every lapse of attention could lead to injury—or death.

"Yes, Captain," Yang Ze replied somberly.

If Zhang Lie weren't mistaken, that python was a superior-grade lifeform he recognized, with a rather valuable soulshard. However, it was skilled in stealth and deception, and Zhang Lie wouldn't dare go chasing after it in an unfamiliar environment. Furthermore, they had already designated a target before the start of the expedition, and he didn't want to derail them.

"Captain, we're entering the territory of the arboreal mantis!" Sun Mengmeng suddenly whispered.

Zhang Lie stopped. The arboreal mantis was a superior-grade lifeform particularly skilled at camouflage, with chameleon-like skin that could adapt to its surroundings.

The term 'arboreal' derived from its preference of hiding amidst branches and leaves as it waited for prey to appear. Just encountering one such superior-grade mantis was troublesome enough, but in this part of the forest, there could be a mantis lying in wait everywhere they looked.

"The arboreal mantis is small but deadly, and its poison can kill a victim in minutes. Everyone, be careful!" Zhang Lie warned.

The gnarled wood and twisted branches of the trees in this region were rather ominous, and there were countless nooks and crannies in which a mantis could be hiding. A path strewn with branches lay before them, with dry leaves hiding what was underneath. Who knew what nastiness they would have to wade through?

"Let's go." Zhang Lie stepped forward. The leaves cracked into pieces; where the forest floor was damp, the stench of rot emerged.

Zhang Lie frowned. What could be the source of that stench? He felt as though he were wading through a muddy swamp.

"Watch out," he reminded the others again, treading carefully forward. The others followed suit.

Suddenly, a dull thump seemed to come from underneath them. Halfway to their destination, the ground began to shake, and the gnarled trees on both sides began waving their branches as if they had come to life.

"Those runic trees are... moving?!" Yang Ze widened his eyes in shock.

"There's a superior-grade lifeform here!" Zhang Lie said. The dry leaves on the ground were brushed aside as it suddenly parted.

"Captain, we're stepping on the roots of these runic trees!" Sun Mengmeng shouted, uncovering the truth. Countless roots had emerged from the ground and were rushing toward the hunters of Team Zenith.

Zhang Lie frowned. Circulating his genetic energy, he summoned Venombane to his hand.

Around Zhang Lie rose the sound of running water. "[The Boundless Blade: Expulsion]!"

Giant waves of sword energy emanated from Zhang Lie, sweeping toward the roots of the runic trees that were coming for the hunters of Team Zenith from all directions. The seemingly sturdy roots were nevertheless like papier mache against Zhang Lie's piercing sword energy, and they were easily torn apart.

Sun Mengmeng and the others also activated their own genetic techniques, forcing the roots back or destroying them entirely.

The ground shook. The roots leaked purple fluid into the ground.

Zhang Lie activated his galewolf soulshard as he jumped into mid-air. As he landed, the two closest runic trees began to move toward him, causing the ground to quake even harder than before, as though a ferocious beast were about to emerge from underground. The trees' roots spiked up, twining into two pillars that supported the trees' massive bulk.

"So what if you're superior-grade lifeforms? [Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"

Zhang Lie combined [Fists of the Silent Sea] with [Three-Wave Crescendo] in a rapid attack.

With a shout, Sun Mengmeng loosed an arrow, sending a flaming purple arrow toward the runic tree.

The hunters of Team Zenith, their cooperation honed from months of training together, avoided the trees' roots and began their counterattack.

The two runic trees screamed shrilly. Under concentrated fire from the hunters and Sun Mengmeng's particularly effective flames, they quickly turned into heaps of ash.

"What's going on? Why can these trees move?!" Yang Ze asked once the battle was over.

They were deep within the Runic Forest, and there were runic trees surrounding them all. If the trees could all move, wouldn't the hunters of Team Zenith be trapped deep within enemy territory?

"No, these two aren't just runic trees—they're runic treemen," Zhang Lie explained.

These treemen were a class of lifeforms in their own right. It was likely that the reason they had seemed to transform into runic trees was because of how long they had remained in the Runic Forest.

"Aren't these treemen a little too large?" Li Feng commented idly.

Usual treemen were generally only the height of two adult hunters, but these two treemen were the size of small mountains. If not for how well the hunters of Team Zenith cooperated, by the time the two treemen extricated themselves from the ground, they would likely have become far more dangerous foes.

"They must have blended into their surroundings and killed quite a fair bit of prey, or they wouldn't have been able to grow so tall." Fang Yi swept aside some of the leaves remaining on the path, revealing bones scattered among them. Some of the bones seemed a little fresh, with a bit of bloody meat still on them.

Unfortunately, neither of these runic treemen dropped the hunters any soulshards, or they would have been quite compatible with Zhou Ying.

After a momentary pause, the hunters forged onward, each of them more alert than the last. Even the runic trees on either side of the path could well be enemies, and they had to focus to prevent any potential ambush.

The hunters walked out into a clearing, so quiet that they could all hear each other's breathing.

"This should be where the arboreal mantises are located," Zhang Lie murmured, glancing all around him.

However, something seemed to be wrong: it was simply too quiet where they were. They should have been targeted by the arboreal mantises long ago. Why hadn't they been attacked by any other lifeforms other than the treemen yet?

"Fresh blood! That's a superior-grade lifeform's carcass!" Sun Mengmeng was glancing at a puddle of blood in front of her.

About ten meters in front of the party, there was a pool of green blood surrounding an unmoving lifeform. The lifeform had dark gray skin, a triangular head, two barely visible feelers, and a pair of black pincer-like arms.

"A superior-grade arboreal mantis!" Upon seeing this arboreal mantis' carcass, Zhang Lie frowned. In general, such mantises were highly territorial, and each territory would only be led by a single superior-grade mantis.

The superior-grade arboreal mantis in this territory had become a carcass, and there was no sign of any other such mantises around. The most likely hypothesis was that the territory had recently been taken over by some other superior-grade lifeform.

"The blood's still very fresh. Everyone, be careful!" Sun Mengmeng whispered.

The hunters all looked around them. Any superior-grade lifeform that was able to kill a superior-grade arboreal mantis would be a difficult target indeed.

Just then, a gust of wind began to blow in the clearing.

Zhang Lie's breath hitched. Where could the wind be coming from? 

Sun Mengmeng and the others also noticed this oddity. However, except for the sudden wind, nothing seemed to be amiss.

"Ah, what's going on? Why is there a pleasant scent in the air?" Sun Xiaowu took a deep breath and felt his mind become disoriented.