The broadleaf forest was, as its name suggested, a forest composed solely of broadleaf trees. 

Within that forest lived all sorts of wolf-type, rodent-type, and bird-type lifeforms.

A seven-member team of hunters was proceeding quickly into the depths of the forest, making such a ruckus that they were clearly unconcerned about attracting the attention of the lifeforms all throughout the forest.

Of course, this team of hunters was none other than Zhang Lie's Team Zenith.

As they rushed forward, Zhang Lie asked, "Mengmeng, how far away is the forest wolfman's lair?"

Sun Mengmeng glanced around her. "We're only about three miles away, Captain!"

"In that case, let's proceed at full speed." Black mist shrouded Zhang Lie as he darted forward even faster than before, wind trailing in his wake. 

Seeing their captain pulling ahead, Sun Mengmeng and the others immediately sped up as well. It took only moments before they all arrived at the wolfman's lair, a cave in a rocky mountain of middling size.

Around the cave sat about a dozen or so wolf-type lifeforms, like royal guards protecting their monarch from harm.

Upon seeing Zhang Lie and his team rushing forward, they immediately howled and blocked their way. When they stood up, they were over two meters tall, with sharp horns protruding from their head.

The hunters' faces were all calm and collected; after all, these forest wolves might look intimidating, but they were only mutated-grade lifeforms, and hence of essentially no threat to the gathered hunters.

The wolves that blocked Zhang Lie's path were each cut apart with a few clean strokes from Venombane, some of them still howling even as they died. With the other hunters dealing with the stragglers, all the wolf guards perished in just one minute. 

Unfortunately for Zhang Lie, none of them dropped a soulshard. Zhang Lie didn't want to take any chances against such valuable prey, so he was rather concerned about what to do next.

As he was deep in thought, however, wolf howls echoed throughout the cave and the mountain. In a matter of moments, hundreds of forest wolves had emerged from the vicinity, surrounding Zhang Lie and his team.

The wolves stared at the seven hunters, eyeing them but not rushing forward. 

At the same time, from within the cave emerged a five-meter tall, bipedal forest wolfman. The forest wolfman was a superior-grade lifeform that evolved from the mutated-grade forest wolf. It was bipedal, with its shoulder and elbow joints having transformed to become more human-like.

Except for its hind legs, its anatomy was no different from that of a regular human. Of course, from appearance alone, it still looked like a wolf. Fur covered its entire body, and it had lupine claws and a snout filled with sharp teeth.

Upon seeing the carcasses in front of Zhang Lie and the others, it howled, prompting the gathered wolves to rush down from the mountain and leap toward Zhang Lie.

"Kill them!" Zhang Lie shouted, rushing forward and facing the pack of wolves straight on.

The wolves' bodies seemed to split apart almost before they reached Zhang Lie, most of them dying before they could even get a good look at his appearance. The disparity in their strength was simply too large.

Even Fang Yi, Sun Mengmeng, and the others found it quite easy to deal with even such a large pack of wolves. A dozen had already fallen to Fang Yi's obsidian spear, and Sun Mengmeng's sunbird bow was all but designed for such fights. The wolves couldn't even approach her, let alone harm her.

Despite seeing their comrades perish, the wolves didn't shrink back. As the wolfman howled again, they surged forward at full strength, emboldened and fearless. The wolfman himself joined in the fight, pouncing toward Zhang Lie.

However, what surprised the hunters—and even the wolfman himself—was that Zhang Lie darted toward the left flank of wolves instead, continuing to slaughter them rather than face the wolfman.

Why would he avoid a direct confrontation now? Wasn't their objective the forest wolfman? Given their captain's strength, he could certainly handle the wolfman easily, so why wasn't he fighting?

Zhang Lie scowled as he tore apart wolf after wolf. He was having a remarkably bad string of luck, and he hadn't yet obtained a mutated-grade forest wolf soulshard yet.

He needed one to guarantee that a superior-grade soulshard would drop, so he certainly didn't want to attack the forest wolfman until he had one in his possession.

The forest wolfman was naturally enraged that its opponent was simply ignoring it. With a fearsome howl and an explosion of life-green genetic energy, the vines in the forest began to grow rapidly, shooting toward and wrapping around Zhang Lie as if they had been endowed with life.

"Captain, we're coming to help you!" The other hunters immediately began shooting long-ranged attacks toward the forest wolfman, trying to distract it from its attack.

However, the moment they made their move, Zhang Lie shouted, "There's no need! Just protect yourselves and leave him to me."

A flurry of quick slices cut apart all the vines heading in his direction. At the same time, Zhang Lie beheaded a mutated-grade forest wolf rushing toward him. With a puff of green smoke, a dark green soulshard condensed on its head.

Zhang Lie's eyes lit up expectantly. With this mutated-grade soulshard in hand, he was sure to get a superior-grade forest wolfman soulshard now!

As he reached out for the soulshard, the forest wolfman, wreathed in sparks of green genetic energy, pounced toward him.