The world seemed to erupt in black and red.

Chu Xun, hiding a fair distance away, whooped in amazement.

As the commotion settled, a screech emerged from amidst the dust, and beams of red light shot straight toward Li Jin.

"Shield—" Li Jin, who had used the majority of his genetic energy in that one blow, was in a weakened state, and would have been unable to block the blow on his own.

Another multilayered barrier sprung up around him, but this one was far weaker than the one before. It broke apart almost as soon as those beams of blood struck it, unable to block the blood arrows that had been consecrated in the blood ant's lifeblood.

At the same time, the superior-grade blood ant, whose pincers had been smashed apart, whose head was half-caved in, skittered out of the dust toward Li Jin.

Three unlucky attackers were quickly cut apart. Even so, Li Jin's elites didn't back down. Right before them was a heavily wounded superior-grade lifeform—of course they would charge forward!

If they were able to land the finishing blow, they would get a great boon from the clan, and even perhaps a little of its flesh.

Unfortunately, they underestimated the strength of a superior-grade [Bloodbath], and a dozen hunters died in the melee.

"Spread out and stall it! It won't be able to last for too long!" Li Jin shouted. He was an adept commander: [Bloodbath] was designed for head-on attacks, and if Li Jin were to be blinded by greed and sent his elites charging forward to land the finishing blow, they would surely succumb to the blood ant's last stand.

However, if they were to take advantage of their numerical superiority to harass the superior-grade blood ant until its [Bloodbath] wore off, Li Jin could easily claim the kill without any unnecessary losses.

Li Jin was intelligent, but the blood ant wasn't unintelligent, either.

After killing a dozen of his hunters and sensing that the duration of [Bloodbath] was almost over, the blood ant thought to retreat. It tried to skitter back to the Bloodcrystal Valley, but it was too late.

"You think you can run now? Ha! Throw another astral web over it!" Li Jin shouted in glee. It was time for the harvest! He brandished a golden polearm in front of him as he rushed down from the hill.

Another astral web appeared, tangling up the blood ant. It cried out in agony and anger, and countless mutated-grade blood ants, like an ocean of red, emerged from the valley. Unfortunately, they were too slow and too weak for Li Jin's elites, and could hardly hope to save the superior-grade blood ant.

"[Radiant Slash]!" Genetic energy extended the blade of Li Jin's polearm until it was seven or eight meters tall, then swiped down with immutable force.

With a screech, the superior-grade blood ant, weakened after its use of [Bloodbath], crashed to the ground. As the golden energy-blade penetrated its body, a large piece of its carapace fell off. 

Then came the steel of the actual blade, reinforced with superior-grade materials. It left a huge gash in the blood ant's body, but at the same time, the blood ant, which seemed to have given up retaliating completely, suddenly shot a blood arrow at Li Jin.

The blood arrow was an extremely rapid attack, and even Li Jin wouldn't be able to dodge it at close range. 

However, Li Jin had anticipated this last-ditch effort. The moment the blood arrow appeared, a sturdy, intricate tortoiseshell shield appeared in Li Jin's hands. It was so large that it almost covered Li Jin's body completely. From its intricacy and majesty, it was obvious that it was also derived from a superior-grade soulshard.

As the young head of the Li clan, Li Jin naturally had all manner of superior-grade soulshards.

With a dull thud, the blood arrow was unable to penetrate the shield, but the force of the blow was beyond Li Jin's expectations. He stumbled back a few steps, and a trickle of blood dripped down his lips.

Li Jin was somewhat injured, but he didn't much care. He smiled in glee: that was likely the superior-grade blood ant's final retaliatory blow. Now that he had overcome it, he would be able to reap its rewards.

Unfortunately, his dreams were about to be dashed.

The moment Li Jin moved his shield aside, he saw a black shadow and a faint purple glimmer. His eyes widened. It was the hunter who had killed Li Hong! He was right here! All his attention had been devoted to the fight against the blood ant, and Li Jin had temporarily forgotten about Zhang Lie.

Who would be crazy enough to wait right by the blood ant's side until he was about to strike his finishing blow?! This clearly wasn't something Li Jin had anticipated.

Regardless of Li Jin's thoughts, Zhang Lie's blade was coming right for him.

Li Jin barely blocked it with his polearm, but his right cheek was still grazed by the glancing blow.

The blow gave him some measure of his opponent's strength, and his first instinct was to retreat: after all, he had suffered some injuries from the fight against the blood ant, and a prolonged fight would be disadvantageous to him.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Lie also retreated.

Li Jin was confused by his opponent's actions until the will of the world announced in his mind, [You participated in the successful kill of a superior-grade blood ant. By consuming the flesh of the superior-grade blood ant, you may receive one to ten superior gene fragments.]

As the superior-grade blood ant drew its final breath, a ruby-like soulshard found its way to the black-clad man's palm.

"Thanks for the soulshard!" With a cheery tone that sent angry shivers through Li Jin's body, Zhang Lie patted the superior-grade blood ant's carcass and vanished with it from Li Jin's sight.

"Just you wait! If I don't mince you to pieces today, I'll renounce my name!"

His face was such a deep red that it was shocking that he didn't explode right then and there.