Chapter 1300: Stopping the Stampede

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"

As Zhang Lie punched forward, the blood dragon roared in rage and tore apart the earth dragon.

[You successfully killed a regular-grade demonic earth dragon. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade demonic earth dragon, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

After claiming the remaining pieces of the dragon's body, Zhang Lie returned to the gathering point. He was attacked by a few more of these dragons, but Zhang Lie easily defeated them with just one punch each. However, their vitality and constitution meant that they didn't die that easily, and Zhang Lie had to spend more time killing them. As a result, it took him some time to get back to the gathering point.

By then, the demonic earth dragons had invaded the entire territory, along with a different species that looked like rats covered in ore.

Each rat was about the size of two people, and looked far more ferocious than the demonic earth dragon.

After killing one such rat, the will of the fourth realm announced, [You successfully killed a regular-grade earthvein rat. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade earthvein rat, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

With a casual attack, Zhang Lie killed a dozen or so demonic earth dragons and earthvein rats simultaneously, lowering the pressure the other dragons had to face.

Zhang Lie waved down a genetic hunter. "Which hunting grounds are stampeding?"

The hunter glanced all around him in fear. "It's a hunting grounds rather far away from the gathering point, filled with regular-grade lifeforms."

There were benefits and drawbacks to having an underground space.

Subterranean spaces were largely free from random attacks from genetic lifeforms in the field, and the competition for territory and space that was so prevalent aboveground. The drawbacks, however, were equally evident. They would have to face attacks from subterranean lifeforms instead, fewer though they were.

The genetic lifeforms burrowed out of the ground all over; defending the gathering point would be no easier than it was aboveground.

The genetic hunter asked, "Have you seen Flamin? Only he can muster a defense and set up defensive lines to quell the stampede now!"

The genetic lifeforms had already made their way into the gathering point. Although individual hunters were stronger than individual lifeforms, they seemed to pour out without end. Without someone to lead and coordinate the defense, it was only a matter of time before the gathering point fell.

Flamin was key to that defense.

Zhang Lie shrugged. "He's dead."

The genetic hunter clutched his head in shock. "He's dead?! That's impossible! Black Armor's by his side. Flamin's a terrible man, and he frequently snatches resources from the rest of us, but he's maxed out his superior gene fragments, at the very least! How could he be dead?"

For Flamin, their leader, to be dead at such a critical moment... It looked as though the gathering point's remaining lifespan would be a matter of minutes or hours.

Zhang Lie smiled. "Don't worry, I'm not lying. I killed him myself, you see."

"Oh, is that so—you killed him?!"

"He tried to snatch what belonged to me, so I took care of him."

The genetic hunter cried out in anger and panic, "How could you have killed him? Flamin's the leader of the gathering point, with the strongest hunter around as his bodyguard! Who would be able to kill him?!"

The hunter was panicking to such an extent that he had all but turned incoherent.

"Believe me or not—it's up to you."

Although he didn't want to believe what Zhang Lie had said, it was true that Flamin and Black Armor hadn't shown up despite the invasion of lifeforms.

Flamin, who treated the entire gathering point like his personal possession, wouldn't allow such a stampede to go unchecked. Even if Zhang Lie hadn't killed him, he was likely in dire straits.

"How could you have killed him? He's not a good person, but he's still our leader! What are we going to do now? How are we going to survive this invasion? Our gathering point's done for! I have to flee—I can't stay here!"

Zhang Lie patted the hunter's shoulder in consolation. "It's not so bad. I'm here, aren't I?"

By then, however, the hunters were in full panic mode. Zhang Lie's words had no effect.

"Do you know where the lifeforms are coming from?"

The hunter continued murmuring to himself, "I have to run, I have to run! With the leader dead, we can't defend against even a stampede of regular-grade lifeforms!"

Irked, Zhang Lie shouted, "I'm asking you where they're coming from!"

The hunter regained his senses. "They're coming from all over! How would I know in which direction they're coming?"

"Do you at least know where their usual hunting grounds are?"

The hunter pointed at the direction of their usual hunting grounds.

Zhang Lie charged forward in that direction as the genetic hunter turned his back to the gathering point and fled. To him, this gathering point was as good as dead.

Zhang Lie rushed toward the original hunting grounds, killing all the demonic earth dragons and earthvein rats he saw along the way.

[You successfully killed a regular-grade demonic earth dragon. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade demonic earth dragon, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

[You successfully killed a regular-grade earthvein rat. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade earthvein rat, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a regular-grade demonic earth dragon. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade demonic earth dragon, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a regular-grade earthvein rat. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade earthvein rat, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

The fastest way to stop a beast stampede, besides mustering a defense with hunters in the vicinity, was to take the initiative and destroy the genetic lifeforms' original hunting grounds.

Weaker gathering points simply didn't have the manpower for the latter option, but stronger ones combined both approaches.

One person wouldn't be able to defend against genetic lifeforms from all over, not even Zhang Lie, no matter how strong he was. Unlike Sun Xiaowu, he couldn't transform into a hundred thousand clones.

As such, the fastest and most convenient way for him to stop a stampede was to make use of his own strength to destroy the lifeforms' hunting grounds and force them to return.

The deeper he went into their territory, the more lifeforms barred his way.

"You won't stop me now!"

Pale blue genetic energy rippled about Zhang Lie's arms. He flicked his wrists, causing a frightening aura to descend on the world. The world seemed to darken, and a fish the size of a whale materialized.

A howling gale swept over the underground region. As more and more genetic energy gathered around Zhang Lie's arms, it looked as though he were at the heart of a whirlpool.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar]!"

A huge wave soared into the air. As Zhang Lie punched forward, the fish slammed its huge tail on the ground and sent a torrent of water surging.

Ripples of energy spread out from Zhang Lie, warping the space around him. The towering waves looked like enraged black dragons, flooding the region and knocking aside everything in his way.

The genetic lifeforms before him were either obliterated by the flood or washed away. The flood removed all obstacles in his way.

[You successfully killed a regular-grade demonic earth dragon. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade demonic earth dragon, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a regular-grade earthvein rat. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade earthvein rat, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a regular-grade demonic earth dragon. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade demonic earth dragon, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a regular-grade earthvein rat. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade earthvein rat, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

A huge rumble shook the ground.

All the genetic hunters at the gathering point were terrified. They didn't know what the source of the sound could be, and many of them suspected that an even more terrifying genetic lifeform had emerged. Many of the hunters thought to flee.

As the flood reached the end of the passageway, the waves burst apart and the air filled with echoes of Zhang Lie's signature genetic energy, shattering space and swallowing up all life in its vicinity. Boulders flew up as a storm devoured everything in sight.

After Zhang Lie's attack passed by, the passageway was wider and more spacious than it ever had been.

However, it could no longer be described as a passageway. The passageway had burst apart and expanded to such a large extent that it looked more like a gymnasium that extended endlessly forward.

Zhang Lie strode forward. The genetic lifeforms barring his way had all been cleared away, and the pale blue storm of genetic energy that he had released had even opened up a hole aboveground. Light shone down from above, revealing a mess of blood and body parts.

The demonic earth dragons and earthvein rats in the hunting ground had all been killed, and the remaining ones were hurriedly scampering and digging away.

The stampeding lifeforms did fear death, but the hunters were uniformly too weak to pose a threat to them.

"I suppose this is where the hunting ground is located..."

Zhang Lie could still sense, to his surprise, a few weak pinpricks of life. A battered demonic earth dragon slowly arose from underneath a pile of rubble.

"To think there were still a few living ones... I don't know whether to call you unlucky or lucky."

Lucky, to have survived Zhang Lie's [Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar]; unlucky, to have encountered Zhang Lie, and hence to die.

"[The Boundless Blade: Yawning Wave]!"

Zhang Lie extended his pointer finger like a sword, and water-attuned genetic energy gathered around it. As he waved his finger, sword energy erupted like a wave. The demonic earth dragon's head fell to the ground.

A raging shark opened its maw wide and began tearing at the demonic earth dragons.

[You successfully killed a mutated-grade demonic earth dragon. By consuming the flesh of the mutated-grade demonic earth dragon, you may receive one to ten mutated gene fragments.]

Zhang Lie hummed in surprise. "A mutated-grade lifeform? No wonder it was so resilient as to have survived [Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar]."

[Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar] had shocked all the other lifeforms in the vicinity. The demonic earth dragons and earthvein rats fled without looking back, solving the gathering point's immediate crisis.

Zhang Lie tried searching for a mutated-grade earthvein rat, but it seemed that there were none to be found. In the end, he gave up and returned to the disaster-grade dragonwhale soulshard.

"Qianlin, long time no see! I missed you."

Li Qianlin seemed surprised. "Why are you back so quickly?"

Zhang Lie retrieved some dragon and rat carcasses from his extradimensional storage. He slumped into a chair, steepled his hands under his jaw, and parodied, "May these scorching-hot creatures from deep underground, steepled in darkness, burned by eternal sun, be transformed into delicacies. So spake I, drenched in the blood of slaughter, my will consumed by eternal hunger."

Li Qianlin stared at him. "Speak properly."

"Can you make me some good food out of the flesh of these lifeforms, like a soup or something? I usually just roast them, and they taste fine that way. I was just fighting some beasts, and now I'm hungry."

Li Qianlin sighed. "It shouldn't be a problem."

She picked up the carcasses with some disdain. "These lifeforms have been pulped."

Zhang Lie sighed. "These are some of the better ones—I don't dare to show you the ones that really are just meat paste."

He intended to bring the remaining carcasses back to the gathering point to see if he could exchange them for the flesh of other regular-grade lifeforms.

Li Qianlin was an excellent chef, and she quickly transformed the dragon and rat meat into delicacies. Zhang Lie had grown quite hungry after the battle, and he ate her cooking with gusto. Announcements from the will of the fourth realm continued to ring throughout his head.

[For consuming the flesh of a regular-grade demonic earth dragon, you received one basic gene fragment. Current total: 11]

[For consuming the flesh of a regular-grade demonic earth dragon, you received one basic gene fragment. Current total: 12]

[For consuming the flesh of a regular-grade demonic earth dragon, you received one basic gene fragment. Current total: 13]

[For consuming the flesh of a regular-grade demonic earth dragon, you received one basic gene fragment. Current total: 14]

He subsequently consumed the mutated-grade demonic earth dragon.

[For consuming the flesh of a mutated-grade demonic earth dragon, you received one mutated gene fragment. Current total: 1]

[For consuming the flesh of a mutated-grade demonic earth dragon, you received one mutated gene fragment. Current total: 2]

[For consuming the flesh of a mutated-grade demonic earth dragon, you received one mutated gene fragment. Current total: 1]

Zhang Lie: an emperor-grade lifeform

Techniques: Rippling Walk (pinnacle), Three-Wave Crescendo (pinnacle), Calm Waters (pinnacle), Fists of the Silent Sea (pinnacle), The Boundless Blade (pinnacle), Eclipse (pinnacle), Syzygy (pinnacle), Ninesoul Dragonblade (pinnacle), Blade of the Heavens (pinnacle)

Genes: Basic, 30; Mutated, 10; Superior, 0; Peak, 0; Disaster, 0; Monarch, 0; Emperor, 0

Soulshards: White Grub (superior), Blood Ant (superior), Potbellied Toad (mutated), Eternalspring Cocoon (superior), Dragonwolf (superior), Moonlight Wyrm (peak), Golden Roc (peak), Dragonwhale (disaster), Mistmeld Clam (disaster)

After finishing his meal and absorbing his gene fragments, Zhang Lie waved farewell to Li Qianlin. She smiled with happiness and helped Zhang Lie straighten his clothes. "Go on. I wish you success. Remember to be safe."

Her relationship with Zhang Lie had taken an unusual turn, but it was, in most aspects, the life she had wanted.

Zhang Lie sighed. "Don't make it sound like I'm about to leave on a long journey!"