Most importantly, of these dozens of soulshards, none were of inferior quality. In fact, all of them were mutated-grade soulshards. Among these, Zhang Lie even found the soulshard of a mutated-grade blood ant. 

"Thanks for the loot. Hope you enjoy the Underworld!" With a thrust of Zhang Lie's sword, Li Hong's head sank to the ground in disbelief. He hadn't expected that, even after he handed over his soulshards, Zhang Lie would still kill him.

However, a dead man's thoughts were of no consequence.

Upon seeing Li Hong's death, his two subordinates, who had prostrated themselves on the ground, immediately got up and tried to flee. Unfortunately for them, Fang Yi and Sun Mengmeng had snuck up behind them even before Zhang Lie killed Li Hong. If even Li Hong had died, then surely they wouldn't be allowed to live.

Thus ended this one-sided slaughter. 

In the end, all the hunters in Li Hong's team perished, whereas a few of Fang Yi and Sun Mengmeng's teammates were injured. Luckily, the injuries were minor and could be readily treated.

In truth, except for the wildcard called Zhang Lie, the two teams' strength was comparable. In fact, Li Hong's side had more hunters. The reason they had suffered such overwhelming defeat was because Li Hong had been overconfident, and because Zhang Lie was simply that strong after surpassing the usual gene capacity multiple times.

He scooped up all the soulshards and smiled. "Haha, this was a good haul! Clean up the scene, and then we'll divide up the loot back in the settlement."

Everyone started moving. Conveniently, they had a large hole already dug up for the ten corpses of Li Hong's team, and all they had to do was throw them inside and bury them.

Back in the Blacksteel settlement, in a VIP suite in the Blackgold Inn, Fang Yi, Sun Mengmeng, Yang Ze, Li Feng, Sun Xiaowu, and Zhou Ying all looked at the unmasked Zhang Lie with varying levels of incredulity.

Who would have expected that the mysterious hunter behind the silver armor would be the hunter who had been at the bottom of the gene leaderboard for so many months, Zhang Lie?

They had even heard other hunters discussing rumors about him, but now… 

The hunter who had shocked them all with his prowess, and the hunter in front of them now... reconciling the two hunters in their mind was a difficult affair.

After all, it was Zhang Lie who had killed Li Hong in a one-sided fight. 

Had this world gone crazy? How could Zhang Lie be so strong?

Then, they began to think about another affair in which Zhang Lie had been implicated, that one fateful night in the venombane glade. The Qin, Wang, and Zhou families had all suffered great losses in the aftermath, especially the Wang and Qin families, who had lost almost half their wealth just from that one incident alone.

The gathered hunters shivered upon feeling Zhang Lie's glance on them.

"What, do I look that frightening?" Zhang Lie smiled amiably, but none of them were at all relieved. This innocent-looking hunter was a living devil!

"Captain, now that you've revealed your identity to us, aren't you afraid that we'll spread—"

"Spread what? That I'm actually a very strong hunter, that I was the mastermind behind the scheme that brought the Wang and Qin families low? Or that you helped me kill Li Hong and his team? Do you think anyone would believe what you said, given my reputation in the Blacksteel settlement?"

Fang Yi gaped at Zhang Lie speechlessly. Zhang Lie was right: even if he were to tell others the truth, it seemed so outlandish that no one would believe him. After all, he had witnessed the entire fight for himself, and still he had trouble believing what he had seen.

"No one would believe what you said—honestly, even if I were the one who said it, no one would believe it either. Furthermore, the fact that I'm willing to reveal my identity to all of you means that I'm prepared for whatever happens next.

"After all, those two clans do know about me, and yet I'm still here, hale and hearty! Alright, all that was in the past, and it's unrelated to any of you. Don't try to stick your nose in. Now, shall we split up the soulshards?"

Zhang Lie was quite interested in Fang Yi, so even though Fang Yi's question was rather inane, he still patiently explained himself.

Then, he patted his potbellied-toad pouch and dumped a few dozen soulshards on the table. The gathered hunters glanced at each other in surprise. They knew quite well just how little they'd contributed to the fight, and they clearly hadn't expected that Zhang Lie would still be willing to split the spoils with them.

"Captain, thank you for your sincerity, but we can't take any of this from you. Honestly, if not for you, we wouldn't have managed to hunt anything at all today! Just a bit of the dreadtoad flesh is more than sufficient."

Zhang Lie raised an eyebrow. "Being too polite isn't a good thing, you know." He picked out the mutated-grade blood-ant soulshard from the pile, then announced, "For everyone's performance today, you'll each get two soulshads. Take your pick!"

The hunters glanced at each other, waiting for someone to take the first move. 

It took only ten seconds before a hunter stood up. 

"In that case, I'll go first!" Sun Mengmeng was the first to choose, and she picked out two rather compatible mutated-grade fire-attuned soulshards for herself.

With a broad smile on her face, she turned to Zhang Lie. "Zhang Lie, thank you for treating us with respect. I, Sun Mengmeng, will repay you with my loyalty. If you'll have me, from today onwards, I intend to be your follower, your most reliable subordinate."

She had made this decision quite some time ago, and Zhang Lie's actions now reaffirmed her choice.

Soon, the other hunters all picked out their soulshards and expressed their intention to follow Zhang Lie. However, the last hunter left, Fang Yi, seemed to be hesitant.