The blood dragon that swooped out of Venombane dove into the sura king's chest and gouged a big hole in it, causing the sura king to spit out blood as he hastily retreated. 

At the same time, however, he reached out and grabbed Venombane. "Die!"

His blood sea exploded as lances of blood flew out from his domain, heading straight for Zhang Lie.

Zhang Lie didn't dare to take such a close-ranged explosion lightly. He manifested his crystalline genetic armor, and added his white-grub armor as an additional layer above it.

An explosion of a magnitude that dwarfed any other this fight spread out from the epicenter of the clash between the sura king and Zhang Lie. As he hunkered down, Zhang Lie began charging up power in his right fist.

The walls of Qi, unable to withstand the impact, crashed to the ground once more. A number of spectators who had gotten too close to the fight found themselves pierced by the spears themselves, paying the ultimate price for their ignorance.

As the explosions came to an end and the dust settled, the sura king let out a smile, one which froze on his face.

Zhang Lie hadn't even been injured—he was standing right there in front of him, covered in a protective layer of some strange substance. The outer layer was riddled with holes, but the inner, crystalline layer had hardly a scratch on it.

Even the sura king was agape.

Zhang Lie said calmly, "Now that your attack's over, it's time for my own. [Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"

This sura king seemed stronger overall than the previous one Zhang Lie had faced, but the previous king had had two trump cards up his sleeve, and he was a considerably more annoying foe to deal with.

"You monster!" the sura king shouted, before trying to defend ineffectively against Zhang Lie's next attack.

Unfortunately for him, Zhang Lie had amassed quite a lot of energy in that one blow during the course of the explosion, and his inexorable punch burst apart the sura king's head without his being able to do anything about it.

The rare few sura fighters who hadn't been struck by the poison were all staring open-mouthed at the scene. "Could this really be a human?!"

They had initially thought that it would be trivial for their king to kill a human, let alone take down the entirety of Qi by himself, but Zhang Lie had somehow, against all odds, overcome the sura king and even killed him instead.

Only now did they understand why the nearby enemy races had feared the humans so much that they were willing to cede so much land to Qi—they weren't a match for Zhang Lie at all!

The sura were very suspicious of Zhang Lie's true heritage: how could he be a human? Weren't humans supposed to be weak? How could one best their liege himself in a fight?

As Zhang Lie's gaze turned to them, they all shuddered in unison, but they were hardly able to muster any sort of resistance before he and the members of Team Zenith slaughtered them all.

Amurong had just entered his office when an urgent knocking could be heard from outside.

"Enter."

His secretary quickly stepped inside. "We've just gotten more word from Qi."

Amurong frowned. "Zhang Lie again?"

Zhang Lie, Zhang Lie, Zhang Lie... he had heard so much about Zhang Lie over the last few days that he was sick of the name. Unfortunately for him, he had to remain up to date with the world federation's affairs.

The secretary reported, "Another horde of sura attacked Qi and demanded that Zhang Lie be handed over to them."

"Zhang Lie, Zhang Lie again... hold on, you said, 'hand Zhang Lie over'?" Amurong asked.

The secretary nodded and clarified, "Yes, the sura wanted to recruit him."

Amurong's eyebrows shot up. "Recruit him?! Are you sure this information is reliable?"

"Of course!"

"What happened next? Did he refuse to submit, causing Qi to perish at the sura's hands? Or did he get captured by the sura?"

The secretary shook his head. "Neither. Zhang Lie prevented the sura's invasion once again and slew the sura king who wanted to recruit him!"

Amurong's face turned dark. "He caught one alive, and now he's killed another. Just what is he trying to do?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, sir."

To Amurong, this wasn't a piece of good news, because it meant that Zhang Lie's reputation was only going to keep rising. He leaned back into his chair and fell into deep thought.

"What's the situation like in Qi right now?"

"In the aftermath of the battle, the newly built walls of Qi crumbled to the ground again, and quite a number of spectators who remained on the city walls even after the battle became heated were seriously injured or even killed."

Amurong clapped loudly. "Oh? Good, very good, Zhang Lie! Destroying the walls of Qi and killing his own kind by not reining in his own strength... very good!"

Amurong's secretary seemed a little confused. "Sir, aren't you one of the highest authorities of the world federation? The humans are part of the world federation too; should you be treating them like enemies?"

"Until they hand over their limit fragment research, they might as well be considered an enemy to all of us. Furthermore, I had nothing to do with the event: Zhang Lie triggered everything himself. Help me contact the wounded of Qi!"

Amurong had decided on a strategy to deal with Zhang Lie. Since Zhang Lie's reputation had soared to such an extent that he wouldn't be able to interfere directly, he would start by ruining Zhang Lie's reputation. The sura king's invasion had been very timely indeed.

He would let the citizens of Qi besmirch Zhang Lie's name themselves.

When he returned to the city, Zhang Lie received far less welcoming a response to his arrival. There were only a few that loudly cheered for him, but those standing behind them stared stonily at Zhang Lie, a hint of enmity in their eyes.

Zhang Lie didn't pay them any attention; he stared glumly at the ruined castle walls.

The governor of Qi, Xiao Zhengyang, stepped forward. "Welcome back."

Zhang Lie scratched his head in embarrassment. "I apologize for destroying the walls of Qi once again—it looks like you'll have to rebuild."

Xiao Zhengyang shook his head. "It's alright. By now, we're used to it."

Suddenly, a voice shouted from the crowd, "Governor, what do you mean it's alright?! We're the ones who have to suffer! Zhang Lie, don't you know just how difficult the rebuilding process is?!"

Someone else immediately retorted, "Shut up! If not for Zhang Lie's presence, we would all have been captured or killed by the sura!"