Almost as Zhang Lie gave his command, two streets away, situated in a tall building, a sniper team launched the first shot of this skirmish.

None of the seven hunters of Team Zenith reacted, but the sniper bullet somehow dropped to the ground, sapped of all momentum, three meters away from the group. As though it had experienced some tremendous pressure, the bullet made from S-gold alloy was squashed into a thin disk.

"Did someone just fire a bullet?!"

"A terrorist!"

"Summon the guards, the guards!"

Commotion erupted in the nearby streets, and the pedestrians and hovercars in Odinstadt rushed away in panic. However, Zhang Lie and the other members of the Team Zenith continued walking forward slowly, inexorably, as if they were impervious to the attack.

In the middle of the panic, a white-haired old man tripped and fell in front of Zhang Lie and the others; instead of helping him up, however, Zhang Lie shot a bullet of genetic energy straight through his forehead.

The man died instantly.

"Captain, this—!"

"Can't you sense his killing intent? He's surely part of the group of people targeting us."

At the same time, even more gunshots rang out from all around them. Zhang Lie raised his head. "Li Feng, I'll leave the rest to you."

"Yes, Captain!"

Li Feng would obey Zhang Lie's orders without question. He immediately began circulating his genetic energy as he activated his lightborne beetle soulshard and beams of light shot out all around him.

Moments later, cries and yelps of pain came from the surrounding buildings.

The main force quickly approached. As if realizing how acute Zhang Lie's senses were, they appeared directly from the streets. A dozen hunters, each with a frighteningly strong aura, surrounded Team Zenith.

"Your death has come, Dragonwolf Zhang Lie!" the leader of the hunters shouted. From the fluctuations in his genetic energy, it seemed that he was a second-realm—or even a post-second-realm—hunter.

"Is that so? Let me guess just who's behind your deployment. The Long clan? The Qin clan? The Li clan? The Wang clan? Or all of them combined?" Zhang Lie didn't seem to think much of their strength.

The old man didn't respond. He activated a toad-form transformation-type soulshard, and his team of hunters launched attacks toward Zhang Lie and his team instantly. The dazzling glow of soulshards filled the streets of Odinstadt.

The leader of the hunters, now a speckled toad, used its tongue as a sharp sword that could be contracted or elongated at will. He would have been able to take down a regular first-realm hunter within three blows, but against Zhang Lie, the transformation seemed more like a paltry parlor trick than anything else.

Zhang Lie frowned. He shot out a bubble of genetic energy toward him, which expanded into a black torrent of water that drowned the toad. The toad didn't have any time to react; caught within the water, it slowly disintegrated into nothingness, leaving behind only a steaming pool of black acid.

At the same time, the other members of Team Zenith began to retaliate.

Their leader's gruesome death shocked the other hunters, who were momentarily distracted by the sight. Vines creeped up their legs, impaling and rooting them to the ground.  The force of their combined auras, eclipsed that of a regular third-realm hunter, and the assassins clearly hadn't expected such overwhelming strength.

Even the third-realm hunters among them weren't able to do anything to Zhang Lie; indeed, their leader had died within just a few blows. Could they really handle such an opponent?

This was a question the clans backing them now had to consider carefully. Their clan heads had commanded them to assassinate Zhang Lie no matter the cost, but it didn't seem as though any of them would even be able to defeat Zhang Lie or his team.

A few reckless hunters continued to rush forward, but none of them were able to cross within three meters of Team Zenith. Given the disparity in their strength, those hunters who charged forward were all but commiting suicide.

Of the seven hunters of Team Zenith, only Li Feng had activated a soulshard to get rid of the snipers targeting them, and their primary target, Zhang Lie, had killed three third-realm hunters without even a weapon in hand.

Fewer and fewer of the assassins dared charge forward, and some even seemed to want to retreat. Zhang Lie's guess had been quite right: the backer behind this assassination attempt was clearly multiple clans.

The gathered hunters were dressed and equipped differently, with contrasting frameworks and fighting styles, and distinct accents. Zhang Lie didn't stop them from retreating, because he knew that they would be too terrorized of his strength to dare to attack him ever again.

At the same time, the guards of Odinstadt, along with Su Feng and Yan Long's own troops, finally arrived at the scene. Because the assassination attempt took place in broad daylight, news of the event quickly spread throughout Odinstadt.

"Zhang Lie, what's going on? Why didn't you inform us that you were heading over?" Su Feng questioned him with a frown.

"Well, I was thinking of giving you all a surprise..."

"A surprise? More like a shock! Were you injured?" Yan Long interrupted, extremely displeased by the turn of events.

Nevertheless, both Yan Long and Su Feng stood up for Team Zenith as the Odinstadt authorities tried to figure out what happened, and they were quickly escorted to Yan Long's hotel. Two officers took Zhang Lie's testimony regarding what he had experienced, and he wasn't disturbed after that.

Recordings of the failed assassination were immediately publicized by several of the hunters nearby that had witnessed the entire event, and Zhang Lie became the talk of Odinstadt not an hour after he had first stepped foot in the city.

"Well? What exactly happened?" Yan Long and Su Feng frowned as they questioned Zhang Lie, somehow feeling as though they had become his parents.

"What do you mean, what happened? You both saw it, didn't you—someone was trying to kill me!"

Yan Long pursed his lips. "Don't pretend you weren't just baiting them. What's the deal with the legendary lifeform you slew?"

Zhang Lie cocked his head and pretended not to understand. "What legendary lifeform? Did you send someone to spy on me?"

"Oh, just you keep pretending!" Su Feng presented Zhang Lie with the article on his holographic reader.

"What? Who took this picture—it's from such a terrible angle!"

"Alright, now—tell us about this legendary lifeform. What were the spoils? Do you think you can win the championship?" Yan Long asked again.

Zhang Lie knew that he couldn't dodge the question any longer.

"There were two moonlight wyrms, one superior-grade and one peak-grade. I obtained a peak-grade soulshard, but I'm keeping its abilities secret for now."

"Peak-grade? A peak-grade lifeform in the first realm? That's impossible!"

Su Feng expressed his disbelief—everyone knew that the first realm could only harbor superior-grade lifeforms at most! There was surely a mistake. Although Yan Long didn't comment, the disbelief on his face was evident as well.

Zhang Lie released a bit of his aura, which caused both Yan Long and Su Feng to narrow their eyes.

"Do you believe me now? I don't know how it happened, but this is the truth. I saw it by accident, then planned to hunt it down the day before the worldwide stage of the Void Cup."

"In that case, you now have ten peak gene fragments?" Yan Long pressed.

"Yes, I and every other member of Team Zenith!"

Yan Long and Su Feng were both flabbergasted. Yan Long slumped back down into his seat, his face flushing red with excitement.