No one around was able to answer her. Fu Bo immediately began to contact the remaining hunters left after the disastrous fight, and the answer caused him to curse. "Mistress, apparently, the fight started because the blood demons and dark spirits weren't able to curb their hostility toward each other!"

Pu Kui trembled in anger. "Unable to curb their hostility?! Are they children?! Strip them of their membership in the alliance. We don't need such fools!"

"Yes, Mistress!" Fu Bo replied, then asked, "What do we do next, Mistress?"

"What do we do? What else? Collect as many points as we can!"

"And the Earthlings?"

"Are you a hare-brained idiot? Either those hunters have either been caught up in the fight, or they're reaping the rewards of this heated battle like us. Keep patrolling—I'm sure we'll find them!"

The nightdemons strode into the remnants of the battle and began clearing out swathes of hunters at once. They were recognized as one of the four prime races, and their opponents were bruised and battered hunters who had just been in a fight. It would be trivial for the nightdemons to deal with the fighting competitors and hence amass a large number of points, but Pu Kui couldn't be happy for long.

She had noticed how the Earthlings' points were rising as rapidly as theirs. In fact, the difference in points between the two teams seemed to be decreasing, not increasing. 

In the dense forest, filled with sounds of fighting and brawling, it would be near-impossible to find Zhang Lie's party. In this instant, Pu Kui realized that she had completely lost this battle of wits against Zhang Lie.

More and more competitors joined in the fray, all hoping to get a slice of the pie; some lost their lives out of greed, but the success that others had found sucked in more and more people. In a few hours, the top teams already had over a thousand points each, and over eighty percent of the teams in the forest quadrant were gathered around the scene of the fighting.

As time passed, the free-for-all, which had lasted almost half the day, finally reached its conclusion as more and more competitors were eliminated. By that time, Zhang Lie and the others almost had enough points to advance.

"Captain, that was a sneaky move, but I can't deny how effective it was! We're already at 1500 points, and we're only 200 points away from the 1700 required to advance!"

"Right, I can't believe a single black needle could cause such a huge disturbance! We might even be the first team to make it out of the forest quadrant," Yang Ze added.

The hunters of Team Zenith were all overjoyed by their success, but just as they finished off yet another wave of fighters, a group of black competitors tromped over—the nightdemons!

As expected, the two teams had ultimately come across each other. By that time, Team Zenith had finished collecting sufficiently many points to advance, and it could retreat at any point without fear. 

The nightdemons had also managed the same feat, and the only reason they had stuck around was to find Team Zenith. Unfortunately for them, by the time they succeeded, they knew that their opponents would easily be able to depart.

Zhang Lie smiled. "Well, let's pack up and thank them for helping us out so much."

The other hunters grinned. The two teams met by the base of a small hill. The auras of the ten nightdemon competitors was intense, but it wasn't something that could frighten or stress Zhang Lie and his group.

"Zhang Lie, are you aware of your crimes?"

"Ah, isn't this the young leader of the nightdemons, Pu Kui? It's a pleasure to meet you, but I must ask—what crimes have I committed?"  

"Zhang Lie, I have to say that I've underestimated you, but now that I've found you, you should be aware of what's going to happen next. If you turn yourself in, I'll give you a quick death!" Pu Kui called out.

"I'm afraid I won't. Come—show me what makes you think you can command me!"

The nightdemons reared back in shock; how could Zhang Lie dare to challenge Pu Kui herself?!  

"Very well!  Given your courage, I'll at least leave your corpse intact!" Pu Kui shouted. Launching off against the ground, her body shot toward Zhang Lie like a bullet.

Dozens of meters away, she pulled her right arm back, and her body glowed resplendent with jade-green genetic energy. The front of her fist began sparking with green flame, and a boom sounded through the air as her fist broke the sound barrier.

Against this seemingly overwhelming blow, Zhang Lie did nothing more than punch forward with his hand, a hand unbacked by any technique other than brute strength, one that produced no sound, no fluctuation of genetic energy, nor any other unusual feature.

And yet that punch alone was sufficient to trigger Pu Kui's alarm bells.

Given her speed, however, a collision with Zhang Lie was imminent and inevitable. As the two fists met, the nightdemons saw a black figure flying toward them far more quickly than she had launched toward Zhang Lie.

"Mistress!" the nightdemons called out, preparing to catch her and gathering around in order to mitigate her momentum.

It took the nine nightdemons all their strength to catch their mistress, and even then, they left a huge furrow in the ground in their wake. This casual punch was so strong that it defied their understanding.

More frighteningly, their mistress's right arm—no, her entire body!—was still trembling.

What sort of situation was this? Was this a strength that a human could possess?

Even Zhang Lie was stupefied by his strength. That seemingly innocuous punch was actually an activation of [One Punch], which Zhang Lie had achieved some success with. That one punch boasted at least ten times his usual strength, even without proper preparation.

In other words, he would be able to kill or heavily injure any other opponent—except the nightdemons or starbeasts, whose racial strength lay in their physical body—with just one punch alone.

What Zhang Lie didn't realize was that Pu Kui was, in fact, heavily wounded. The crystalline skin on her right arm was filled with cracks, and if he had used a little more force, her arm could have exploded entirely.

"This is impossible! You—" Pu Kui's face warped with disbelief. Zhang Lie's fist had completely obliterated her pride and her understanding of the world.

What could have caused Zhang Lie to become so strong? Surely it wasn't... the limit fragments that she had derided? If that were the case, then there was no doubt that this hunter, who had pioneered the field of limit fragments, would become the king of all hunters of his generation.

"And why should it be impossible? The four prime races do have significant racial advantages, yes, but they're far too reliant on those advantages! And now, I think it's time for all of you to die."

Zhang Lie grinned, flaring his aura as the nightdemons buckled under the sudden pressure.

Against his absolute strength, the nightdemons were at a loss. When had they ever been so severely outmatched?

Fu Bo, who had instigated the enmity between the nightdemons and the humans, wanted to kill himself in shame. Pu Kui had warned him to ignore his pride, to focus on what Zhang Lie had developed, but he had made an enemy of Zhang Lie instead!

No, no, he couldn't let his mistress die for his misdeeds!

"It's all my fault!" Fu Bo shouted, stepping forward. "Mr. Zhang Lie, I'm the one to blame!"  My pride, my malicious words, caused my mistress to view you as an enemy, and I beg of you to let her go. For this boon, my life will be yours."