Inviting the four races? Even Hong Yu showed a brief expression of disdain at that remark. This human was truly contemptible and shameless—was the implication that only all four prime races together would be worth his time? Did he truly think that he was all that?

Hong Yu didn't respond. With a faint smile plastered on her face, she dragged Ali off into the distance.

"Zhang Lie, can you stop causing trouble?" Yan Long questioned him almost as soon as the winged had left. The winged had come over to invite them personally—and Zhang Lie had declined the invitation just like that!

"Better to have them think us provincial and overconfident, don't you think?"

Yan Long, who had been doubting his decision, instantly understood what Zhang Lie meant. While they traveled, Yan Long had informed them all about the four prime races, who had dominated the Void Cup and won almost nine times out of ten. Zhang Lie's attitude was meant to provoke them and to get them to underestimate him, instead.

"If we accepted the winged's invitation, we would surely have to do the same for the other races' invitation, and I wasn't lying when I said I was a little tired," Zhang Lie added.

The encounter with Hong Yu was just a small interlude, though not the only one. Zhang Lie and the others received invitations from a variety of other races that had taken note of him, but after refusing the winged's invitation, he had no qualms about rejecting them all.

In the monarch suite of the Solas Hotel, one of the aquatic race's competitors, Lianna, began to laugh. "You must be joking, Hua! Are the competitors from Earth really so strange?"

"Lianna, the rumors have spread all around the capital—I'm sure it's the truth!"

Lianna cavorted in the water as she heard the news, her arms covered in mysterious, luminescent scales. The prime aquatic race was largely humanoid, though there were also countless other aquatic lifeforms that came in all shapes and sizes, unsurprising given the large number of aquatic lifeforms that existed. There were over a dozen princes and princesses of the prime aquatic race, let alone the others.

"So Phoenix got snubbed, then?" Lianna laughed again.

"Indeed! I heard that Phoenix sent word to have the winged competitors teach their human counterparts a lesson if they came across them during the galactic stage," spoke a young woman whose lower half was draped in a mysterious blue fog.

"Is that so? Well, it's not clear to me just who will be punishing whom," Lianna replied, smiling happily just imagining Phoenix's treatment.

"Ah, Lianna, what do you mean? Surely you can't think that—"

"Who knows? His research is certainly far beyond what his race should have been able to come up with, at any rate," Lianna added.

Despite Zhang Lie's overwhelming strength, it was still rather rare for his competitors, predilected unfavorably toward the human race, to take him seriously. Most of them, unlike Lianna, were tricked by the first impression he had given off, and thought of him as just a lucky hunter who had coincidentally come across some powerful inheritance, like the starbeasts and nightdemons.

The starbeasts boasted the strongest physical capabilities of any known race in the Milky Way, and they were far more capable of absorbing and assimilating gene fragments than humans. As a result, these limit fragments that Zhang Lie had supposedly discovered seemed like a joke to them. After all, they didn't have human forms, and the technique wasn't necessarily compatible with their alien biology.

As for the nightdemons, a new clan head had just ascended to power, and his current objective was to consolidate power. Under his leadership, the nightdemons scoffed at these so-called limit fragments, recognizing no one but themselves as the superior race. Their clan head had personally tasked them with taking the top three places in the tournament,  and they were almost as brash and daring as Zhang Lie himself.

However, even though the nightdemons didn't pay much attention to Zhang Le, a related offshoot race, the night spirits. Unfortunately, the night spirits weren't able to draw any attention to their cause, so they decided to approach the humans on their own.

Their goal was to get a sense of the humans' strength, as well as to learn about this theory of limit fragments that Zhang Lie had proposed.

By the time the theory had made its way over the galaxy, the long distances over which it had to travel had garbled the message, and they naturally wouldn't put much faith in a theory for which they had no evidence.

Conveniently for them, they were rather lucky—the hotel in which they were currently staying was exactly the same one that Yan Long had booked, the Nike Hotel. They covertly sent Zhang Lie an invitation. In truth, they didn't expect anything to come out of it, but Zhang Lie, who had rejected the winged instantly, accepted the invitation of the night spirits.

Despite the relative secrecy, the news spread throughout the capital instantly. By the time Zhang Lie and the others were ready to attend the night spirits' banquet, the other competitors had all found out about the affair.

"What's going on? Just what are those Earthlings trying to do? They don't want to live, do they?" In the penthouse suite of the Sufei hotel, Phoenix stared at his subordinates with an ugly expression on his face, and Hong Yu, Ali, and his other subordinates all looked on with thunderous expressions.

"Your Highness, these monkeys don't know any common courtesy. Allow me to teach them a lesson!" Ali shouted, proffering his blade. If Phoenix were to order him to do so, he would stop at nothing to kill the hunters of Earth.

However, before even Phoenix could respond, Hong Yu had stepped forward as well. "We can't—this is the capital, and we're under the scrutiny of the entire galaxy at the moment! Even if we were to succeed, the punishment from the world federation would be too much to be worth bearing."

Phoenix frowned. Indeed, as Hong Yu said, even the four prime clans couldn't do whatever they wanted in the days before and during the Void Cup. After all, the Void Cup was organized by the world federation itself, and it was a horrible idea indeed to offend the highest authorities of the federation for worthless Earthling trash.

That Zhang Lie had accepted the invitation of the night spirits but rejected that from the winged clan was a huge insult, but one that the winged clan couldn't yet repay in kind.

Hong Yu added, "Highness, if it were only the Earthlings, I wouldn't care, but the night spirits—"

"Hong Yu, do you mean that this might be a plot from that scheming woman, Ye Mo?" Phoenix interrupted her halfway, guessing her thoughts, his features twisting in growing rage.

"It's not impossible. After all, even though the night spirits are a minor force, Zhang Lie hasn't accepted anyone else's invitation, and even though their delegations are staying at the same hotel, I'm almost certain that the nightdemons had something to do with it!"

Phoenix frowned once more. "I don't want to hear any more news about these damned Earthlings. If we see them on stage, however—kill them all!"

"Yes, Highness!" They, who had been with Phoenix for years, knew how angry he was. The Earthling competitors would surely be decimated without fail.

Zhang Lie knew how much his actions would offend the winged, but he had done so anyway in a bid to disrupt their mental state.

That evening, the young leader of the night spirits, Ye Mo, personally led Zhang Lie to the Yehua Hall. "How do you like it here, Mr. Zhang Lie? This is the most lavish hall in the Nike Hotel!"

"You honor me with this banquet, Ms. Ye Mo," Zhang Lie replied, glancing all around him. The silverware, decor, and even the food to be served all boasted a Chinese flair. It looked as though the night spirits had designed this banquet intently and with exacting detail.

"Of course—you're all honored guests! This is the least we could do," Ye Mo replied.