After confirming that the dreadtoad had been completely paralyzed, Zhang Lie leapt into the hole after activating his stealth, then killed the dreadtoad with a clean strike through its head.

[You successfully killed a superior-grade dreadtoad, but did not obtain a soulshard. By consuming the flesh of the dreadtoad, you may receive one to ten superior gene fragments.]

As the will of the world spoke into their minds, every member of the team that had participated in the kill sighed in relief.

Sun Mengmeng asked expectantly from the top of the hole, "How did it go, Captain? Did it produce a soulshard?"

Superior-grade soulshards were a particularly rare and precious commodity within the dimensional world, especially those that were particularly useful. Even though Zhang Lie had stated clearly that none of them would get the soulshard if one were to condense, Sun Mengmeng was still very excited at the possibility of one.

Zhang Lie shook his head in annoyance. "No, it didn't!"

Zhang Lie wasn't acting this time. In an attempt to condense a dreadtoad soulshard, he had secretly smashed up two regular-grade potbellied-toad soulshards, and even then nothing had emerged.

Sun Mengmeng's face fell. "That's a shame. But soulshards were always rare to begin with, so there's nothing we can do about it. Won't you hurry out of the hole? Xiaowu and the others can't hold them off much longer!"

By the time Zhang Lie leapt out of the hole, there were already quite a few people behind Sun Mengmeng.

As he glanced toward Zhang Lie, Li Hong, with five of his subordinates gathered around him, smiled superciliously at him. "What good timing! You, in the silver armor! Hand over the spoils, and I won't kill you!"

When Fang Yi's team came by again to hold him back, Li Hong began to suspect that something was amiss. He split his team up into two, then rushed toward where he had last heard the dreadtoad's cries.

Zhang Lie smiled. "Captain Li, the dreadtoad's dead, and it didn't condense a soulshard. Even if you were to obtain its flesh, you won't be able to get any superior gene fragments from it, would you? How about doing me a favor and leaving, so none of us have to go through any trouble?"

Zhang Lie glanced at Sun Mengmeng, motioning for her to get ready for battle.

"A favor? Who do you think you are, to deserve a favor from m—"

"Attack!" Of course, Zhang Lie didn't expect an arrogant, condescending hunter like Li Hong to let things lie. The only reason he had said what he did was to give Sun Mengmeng some time to prepare.

The moment Li Hong responded, Zhang Lie brusquely broke him off. Genetic energy exploded from his body as he activated [Rippling Walk], tracing out a dragon's form as he dashed forward. In his hand, Venombane glowed violet, like the tooth of that dragon.

His blade headed straight for Li Hong's throat.

Li Hong certainly hadn't anticipated that the other party would attack him immediately, even when he was surrounded by his team. These were the blackwater sands, right by the Blacksteel settlement and under its control! What hunter would dare to strike at him here?!

Before he could react, Zhang Lie's blow was right in front of his face. His speed made Li Hong realize that his opponent had no fewer superior gene fragments than he did, and likely even had more. Reacting almost by instinct, he raised his spear to block the blow.

However, the moment he did so, Zhang Lie changed his stab into a slice, tracing out a violet arc against his right arm. Venombane was a weapon that had come from a superior-grade soulshard, and was even rarer than a weapon forged from materials that came from a superior-grade lifeform. How could Li Hong's armor block a blow from this sword?

Their initial confrontation left Li Hong injured with a shallow cut. Luckily, he had about a dozen superior gene fragments, and was able to react almost as the shortsword split his skin a[art. He leapt away, preventing Zhang Lie from taking advantage of his momentary opening.

"Kill them!" Li Hong shouted, his eyes red with bloodthirst, pale-blue genetic energy emanating from his body.

The moment Li Hong's team prepared to fight, a firebird swooped down toward them, an attack from Sun Mengmeng. The explosion from the firebird was blocked by a rainbow of genetic energy: Li Hong's team was strong even by the standards of the blackwater sands, and it was able to handle even this sudden attack.

As smoke and dust billowed through the air, Zhang Lie vanished from sight. Amidst the dust, a violet light sparkled. At the back of Li Hong's team, a young hunter who was about to throw a spear had his neck pierced clean through. Even to his death, he had no idea from which direction the shortsword had appeared.

"Be careful! That fellow has some unusually advanced stealth technique! Zhang Chao, toss flash powder into the air!" The team had certainly noticed their long-ranged attacker dying, and Li Hong forced himself to ignore the corrosive poison in his wound as he commanded the rest of his team.

Li Hong hadn't expected that his opponent's blade would have been smeared with poison. He retreated and drank two whole bottles of antidote, to no avail.

He had initially thought that his opponent's blade had only left a scratch on his arm, but it was far worse than that. The poison on the blade was so strong that he had to devote most of his genetic energy to prevent it from spreading throughout his body.

A cloud of white powder was tossed into the air, but Zhang Lie had come prepared for that. Water saturated the air around him, turning it to fog, as he dashed out of the powder's range.

At the same time, the other half of Li Hong's team, which had been stalled by Fang Yi and the others, finally arrived at the scene. Of course, as they rejoined Li Hong, Fang Yi, Sun Xiaowu, and the others headed to Zhang Lie's side.

The two sides faced off again, their weapons raised, but Li Hong appeared to be far more serious than before. Given Zhang Lie's attitude and strength, he knew that he wasn't going to benefit from today's confrontation.

The most pressing issue was that silver-armored hunter's strength, his unpredictable movement speed, undetectable stealth, and frightening poison. Perhaps he would be able to defend against him if he hadn't been wounded, but now that he had been poisoned, he could well suffer grievous injuries if the fight were to continue.

He shot a piercing glance toward Fang Yi and Sun Mengmeng, then turned toward Zhang Lie. "I was too rash. Will you accept my apology and let matters rest?"

Li Hong, admitting defeat? Fang Yi could barely hide his look of shock and amazement. Li Hong had always been an arrogant asshole to everyone around, so when had he become so... nice?

Could he have misheard? He glanced at the stupefied faces all around him. No, that couldn't be the case.

Sun Mengmeng was the only one who understood what was going on. After all, she had been scrutinizing Zhang Lie very closely during the fight. 

It was from then on that she decided to become one of his followers.