Was it really possible that the nightdemons had managed to find over two hundred competitors and defeat them in the span of ten minutes? Of course not. In that case, whence came their points?

It came from those competitors who were subordinate to the nightdemons, or those who knew they wouldn't be strong enough to get a good placement and wanted to develop good relations with the nightdemons. Indeed, this was likely how the top eight teams had managed to get all their points.

After all, Earth's team was strong and lucky, and even then, they had only managed to secure fifty points or so within the first ten minutes, and that only because one of the teams they fought off had already defeated another team.

No matter how strong a given team was, even with exceptional luck, the most points it would be able to obtain from actual fighting within ten minutes was around a hundred.

After all, the forest quadrant was extremely large, and the artificial intelligence tried to evenly distribute the teams around the area so as to avoid any unfortunate clashes at the very beginning. 

As a result, it was near-impossible that a team had managed to obtain two hundred points legitimately, and all those teams who had done so had managed it because they had subordinates or alliances with other clans or races.

This wasn't something that Zhang Lie could do anything about, and there was no point worrying about it.

What he was concerned about was something he had neglected before—the difference between Earth's team and the nightdemons, or any of the other top teams from around the galaxy. 

Influence.

The nightdemons were strong and influential, and those teams that were unlucky enough to encounter them would either hand them their points voluntarily or resist and be killed. The choice was obvious.

The nightdemons were well known to be cruel and vicious, and the price for resistance would be too large to bear. That meant that the nightdemons, along with the other top races, would amass more and more points quickly.

They would even obtain more points than was necessary so as to be able to control just who would advance to the next round, which could very well hurt Team Zenith's chances. Zhang Lie had to win the tournament; it would determine whether or not his sister would be able to stand against. The updated leaderboard caused Zhang Lie to give up on his plans on having opponent teams come to him; he would have to seek them out instead.

On the other hand, the fact that the Earthlings were currently in tenth place shocked quite a number of top teams in the quadrant. Where the nightdemons were standing, Fu Bo murmured in displeasure, "Just how useless are the teams in this quadrant? Even the Earthlings managed to get into the top ten!"

"Well, let them be happy that they're the best of the worst. If you're that upset, why don't you have our mistress put a bounty on their heads?" one of his teammates suggested. Fu Bo's eyes gleamed as he glanced at Pu Kui, but he didn't dare speak up.

However, Pu Kui had also heard the suggestion. She nodded casually. "I am rather bored, and your suggestion isn't bad. Let's have some fun with them, shall we? Fu Bo, inform our followers from the Darkgleam star system to search for Zhang Lie and his team. If they find them, I'll guarantee them a pass for the next round!"

"Yes, Mistress!" Fu Bo saluted, smiling. "Looks like these ants won't be able to hide much longer!"

The other nightdemons laughed. However, what they didn't realize was that their actions would only be helping Zhang Lie out.

He was worried about whether he would be able to get enough points before the top teams snatched them all away; thankfully, the nightdemons were sending quite a bit his way.

As the nightdemons' announcement spread throughout the forest quadrant, the teams gathered there were all in a frenzy. The nightdemons, one of the four prime clans, would guarantee them placement in the second round!

Furthermore, this wasn't a challenging task at all. They didn't have to fight the Earthlings, only identify their location. As a result, the atmosphere in the forest quadrant seemed to shift in a strange manner.

The night spirits had also received the announcement, and they indeed sent groups out in search of Zhang Lie, but they were doing so in order to help them out, rather than to hunt them down.

After all, the Earthlings were important business partners of the night spirits, and if Zhang Lie were to die or be otherwise incapacitated, then the night spirits surely wouldn't gain access to the limit fragments that would elevate them.

Furthermore, from Ye Mo's perspective, her banquet was partially the reason for the feud between Zhang Lie and the nightdemons, so she felt some measure of guilt and shame as a result. If possible, she wanted to compensate Zhang Lie a little for his troubles.

Zhang Lie was naturally unaware of what was going on. He chalked off the fact that he was encountering more teams to mere luck.

Chu Feng, his body wrapped up in a sphere of wind, defeated yet another stubborn opponent.

"Hand over your points or die!" Chu Feng challenged his fallen opponent, who had no choice but to choose the former.

"Captain, how're my skills?" Chu Feng had started pandering to Zhang Lie after seeing how dramatically Team Zenith had improved over the last few months, hoping to get a few pointers from him.

Yun Bing was equally sharp, but she applied her talents in a different direction. "Zhang Lie, something's wrong. For some reason, the number of competitors around us has been increasing over time," she warned.

Before the Void Cup, Zhang Lie had specially asked Yun Bing and Chu Feng to bring a venombane scorpion soulshard each with them, so as to enhance their whole team's stealth abilities. They were currently traveling around in stealth and launching sneak attacks at every team they encountered.

In just ten more minutes, they had already obtained eighty points. It seemed as though the density of competitors in the region was increasing rapidly, and once they were done with each fight, two or three more teams would have appeared in the vicinity.

This was an exceptionally unusual situation. Everyone had been enjoying how easily they were obtaining points, but once Yun Bing pointed out how strange the situation was, they reacted instantly.

"Isn't it a good thing that all these hunters have gathered around us? There's no need to worry about it. We can just ask some of these hunters if we want to know more, surely."

Zhang Lie smiled as he gestured to the hunter Chu Feng had just defeated, and Yun Bing pointed at him with her blade. "Well? Why are all of you gathering around us?"

The hunter spilled the beans. "Don't kill me, please! The nightdemons announced that any team who found the Earthlings would be guaranteed a spot in the second round!"

Everyone in Zhang Lie's team was shocked.

"In that case, they must intend to fight us," Fang Yi murmured, then continued angrily, "Well, Captain? Should we wait for them to come, then take them on right here?"

Everyone turned toward Zhang Lie, infuriated that the nightdemons would cause them so much trouble, but Zhang Lie didn't seem at all angry. 

"Interesting. What's there to be angry about? Weren't we concerned that we were gathering points too slowly? Look at how nice the nightdemons are, to give us such an advantage! We'll have to defeat the nightdemons sooner or later if we want to become the champions, and there's no rush to face them now.

"We'll continue our original strategy. Defeat all competitors we find and collect whatever points we can from them, then keep moving so they can't determine our location precisely. If the nightdemons want to chase us, let them. The sooner we can acquire the required points, the sooner we can leave the arena."

Indeed, it seemed that Zhang Lie's strategy would work. How infuriated would the nightdemons be to realize that they had just sent the Earthlings hundreds, even thousands, of points?

Zhou Ying's root network suddenly pinged.

"Captain, more hunters are coming—at least five teams' worth!"

"Retreat! Five teams will cause too large a commotion to face. Once they split up, we'll split into three groups and handle them all. Not only will we be able to muddle their scouts this way, we can also acquire points even more quickly.

"Yes, Captain!"

Zhang Lie, Yun Bing, and Chu Feng would be in one group, Fang Yi, Zhou Ying, and Li Feng in another, and Sun Mengmeng, Sun Xiaowu, and Yang Ze in the third. After separating into groups of three, they quickly vanished into the forest. 

It took their pursuers little more than a minute to arrive at where Zhang Lie's last victims were located, but by that time, there was no one in sight. There were three sets of footprints leading away from the scene of the battle, so the pursuers naturally split into three groups as well.