"Haha, Zhang Lie, I knew I made the right choice in supporting you!" Su Feng boomed, his face equally excited. The events of the day would surely enter the annals of history; how could he and Yan Long not understand the enormity of what Zhang Lie had accomplished?

Zhang Lie threw back his head and laughed. "I'm not finished yet—watch me claim the Void Throne as my own!"

"In that case, let's hope that you end up fighting against Xing Bai tomorrow so we can claim the top three spots for Earth," Su Feng murmured.

They headed to the table, which was replete with freshly prepared food. The hunters, exhausted from their day of competition, dug in with gusto. They could clearly sense the caliber of their opponents increasing; except for Sun Xiaowu and Li Feng, everyone else had to show at least part of their true skill.

Because there would still be another day of competition ahead, Yan Long and Su Feng hadn't arranged any other activities. The hunters quickly returned to their hotel, where they began to prepare for the finals of the Void Cup the next day.

As Zhang Lie and the rest of Team Zenith arrived at the competition grounds the next day, coincidentally, so did Xing Bai and Pu Kui. They all met at the entrance to the tournament grounds and ended up chatting a little.

"Zhang Lie, please go easy on me if we end up fighting!" Xing Bai pleaded.

"Right, me too! I'm happy just having gotten to this point. If we really end up fighting, Zhang Lie, please don't make me lose too badly." Pu Kui had faced Zhang Lie herself, and she was quite aware of his strength. Given what had happened to Phoenix, she certainly wasn't going to provoke Zhang Lie.

Zhang Lie smiled, replying to Pu Kui, "Of course not! It would be in bad taste. As for you, Xing Bai, didn't you want to test my strength? If we do end up facing each other, let's both give it our all, then."

"Haha, very well! I'm sure I can't compete in anything else, but in terms of strength..." Zhang Lie's suggestion immediately roused Xing Bai's interest.

The three parties all headed into their respective waiting rooms and waited for the roster to be announced. The moment the first match-up was decided, everyone cheered, especially the humans and the starbeasts.

Zhang Lie VS Xing Bai

No one understood better than they just what this fight represented.

"Ah, they're the two strongest competitors in the Void Cup! This will be a history-defining moment, I'm sure of it!"

Compared to this first match-up, the next two would be far less interesting, because the winner of this match would undoubtedly become the champion of the Void Cup. If Zhang Lie were to win, then without a doubt, the humans could take all three podium positions in this iteration of the Void Cup, but if Xing Bai were to win, then the best the humans could manage would be second and third place.

Sun Mengmeng VS Pu Kui

Fang Yi VS Yang Ze

The next two match-ups were quickly revealed, but they garnered far less attention. The fight between Sun Mengmeng and Pu Kui would likely start out strong, but with Pu Kui's surrender moments later, whereas Fang Yi likely had a slight advantage against Yang Ze, who had had to start from scratch with a difficult framework to master.

Regardless of who won the third match, however, it would be a human who advanced. Glancing at the roster, Zhang Lie sighed in relief. Team Zenith would indeed be able to claim first, second, and third place in this year's Void Cup.

"Captain!" The members of Team Zenith had clearly noticed this point too.

Zhang Lie smiled. "You've all worked hard, everyone, and these are the fruits of our labor—an accomplishment never before achieved in history."

The first match seemed to begin in the blink of an eye.

"Zhang Lie, we finally face each other!" Xing Bai smiled, as joyful as a kid in an amusement park. The moment he had learned of Zhang Lie, he had wanted to fight him, but he had never had an opportunity until now.

"Right, it's past time! Show me all you've got—otherwise, if you're injured, I won't take any responsibility!" Zhang Lie really was quite interested in Xing Bai, who seemed purely focused on the pursuit of strength.

Similarly, Xing Bai respected Zhang Lie's abilities, and he felt a surprising kinship to him. When he heard Zhang Lie's words, he laughed and responded, "To be clear, we're pitting our strength against each other—don't bully me by bringing in your speed too!"

As he spoke, he began transforming into a gigantic beast over five meters tall. His body was covered in burnished silver-white scales shot through with specks of color, reminiscent of twinkling stars. Xing Bai curled his forearms, revealing bunched muscles the size of car tires.

"Very well!" Zhang Lie called back, activating his forest wolfman soulshard.

Fusing his genetic energy with the dense water-attuned genetic energy around him, he advanced the transformation further into a black-furred wolfman whose size and stature were no less imposing than Xing Bai's own.

"I'm coming!" When he saw Zhang Lie's transformation, Xing Bai grinned. He raised his forearms and shot toward Zhang Lie like a bolt of lightning. His punch was so forceful, so fast, that it broke the sound barrier. Space rippled around his fist.

At the same time, Zhang Lie struck with his right fist. A black dragon curled around his arm, shooting forward with unmitigated authority. As the black and white fists smashed against each other, the entire arena distorted, and amidst shocked gasps from the crowd, the barrier separating the arena from the audience began developing spiderweb-like cracks.

"Not good—fix that barrier immediately!" the host of the galactic stage of the Void Cup commanded his subordinates.

They all knew that this match would be a sight to behold, but not to this extent. After all, the barrier separating the competitors from the spectators had been laid down by the combined efforts of a few fourth-realm warders, and no one would have expected that Zhang Lie and Xing Bai alone, two first-realm hunters, would be able to splinter it to such an extent.

The spectators closest to the fight were even getting a little flustered, but three warders had already rushed to the scene to temporarily sustain the barrier before the spectators could make much of a fuss.

As they placed their palms on the barrier, the shuddering and splintering force field immediately regained its usual crystal-clear transparency. 

Just as they were about to leave, however, Xing Bai laughed. "Impressive, impressive! Zhang Lie, it's been too long since I've been able to release such a forceful punch without worrying about the consequences! Come, let's go at it again!"

The three warders glanced at each other fretfully.