Because he had left the city of Qi in the middle of the night, Zhang Lie's initial progress was very limited. Only at dawn did he make it past the outer boundary of the nearby forest and into its inner region.

He was sauntering in a relaxed fashion; there was no urgent goal that he had in mind for this excursion, unlike in the past. 

However, he would have to start paying more attention. The outer boundary of the forest consisted only of regular and mutated-grade lifeforms, and Zhang Lie skirted by them with ease. In the inner perimeter were superior-grade lifeforms, and Zhang Lie would have to prepare to hunt them. 

At the very least, he certainly wanted to max out his superior gene fragments. In the dimensional world, might was right, and the superior-grade lifeforms of the second realm would be stronger than even the peak-grade moonlight wyrm that he had faced in the first realm.

He would even have to use the advanced form of stealth from Venombane to avoid detection, and he certainly couldn't afford to be as careless as he had been in the outer boundary of the forest. Maintaining this level of stealth would also consume quite a lot of genetic energy from his end.

The forest was foggy and filled with lush greenery, the foliage so thick that sunlight barely penetrated the canopy. Zhang Lie strode through the forest without disturbing the leaves by his feet, not having noticed a single superior-grade lifeform. He didn't relax, but he wasn't overly anxious, either. According to the map Zhou Liao had given him, the inner perimeter of the forest was extremely large, and it would be a hundred kilometers more before he reached its core.

Zhang Lie stopped by a bubbling stream, noticing three black eagles, each about half a human tall. Two of them had their heads lowered as they drank from the stream, while the third was glancing alertly at its surroundings.

They were apex predators able to fly at ten times the speed of sound. If they were airborne, Zhang Lie wouldn't have dared to set his sights on them, but it was another matter entirely if they were on the ground. After all, it would take them some time to fly into the air. By then, Zhang Lie would easily be able to take them down.

The reason he hadn't yet struck was because he was observing his surroundings to see if there were other superior-grade lifeforms nearby. He didn't want all his hard work to have gone to naught if there were others waiting to claim his prize from him.

Fortunately, he and the eagles were alone. He struck.

A runic tablet fell from the skies. The eagle responsible for surveying the surroundings immediately squawked, then pinpointed Zhang Lie's location. By the time the eagles reacted, they found themselves forced to the ground by gravity.

The three eagles tried to leap into the air to counter the force, but they ended up falling into the stream instead. They began to squawk loudly as they crossed their wings and sent blades of wind flying in Zhang Lie's direction.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Dragon's Wrath]!" By the time the eagles attacked, he had already sent a blood dragon flying in their direction, an attack so strong that it easily obliterated the eagles'.

As Zhang Lie's attack rushed toward them, they flapped their wings in earnest in an attempt to flee, but caught within the localized gravitational field, they weren't able to make it out in time before Zhang Lie's attack struck them.

Working together, the three eagles tried to resist Zhang Lie's attack, but to no avail. The eagle at the very front, struck by the full force of the attack, fell to the ground like a rock. The other two eagles weren't too affected, and even made use of the force of the attack to escape the gravitational field.

The struck eagle recovered from the attack quickly, but it had missed the best time to escape. Zhang Lie was right below it. Almost as the eagle fell, one of Zhang Lie's soulshards gleamed, and a ball of silver liquid shot up toward the eagle.

The next moment, like a mosquito stuck to a wad of bubble gum, the eagle and silver ball crashed down by the side of the stream. No matter how it struggled, it couldn't free itself from the silver liquid, which seemed to latch on to the eagle more and more tightly.

As it fell to the ground, a black boot stepped on its body, draining it of its genetic energy and obliterating all resistance. The next moment, a small white snake flashed before its eyes, and then it knew nothing more—Whitey was a summoned beast who consumed other lifeforms' souls as food.

Zhang Lie stored the eagle's carcass in his potbellied-toad pouch, ending the battle bloodlessly.

He didn't chase after the other two eagles that had already taken to the air, which would be meaningless—it would be difficult to catch them if they were focused on running away, and he would already obtain more than enough gene fragments from consuming the eagle's carcass.

However, his planning this time around didn't account for the fact that the eagles might not actually want to run away...

Two sharp cries pierced the skies, and the eagles who had escaped out of harm's way shot back toward Zhang Lie like two loosed arrows. 

The three eagles shared a close bond; upon realizing that their comrade had been trapped, the two remaining eagles rushed back. Their bodies burned with black flame, and their incredible speed made them seem like two ballistic missiles.