Chapter 187: Preparations Complete

As he headed deep into the Night Forest, Zhang Lie finally stopped by a particularly fetid swamp. This swamp, the Night Swamp, was the only place in which night yams would grow. These yams were the last ingredient that Zhang Lie needed for Potion #3.

In truth, these yams weren't strictly necessary, and were just an additional ingredient that would boost the success rate of concocting it. However, Zhang Lie's knockoff version of Potion #3 would be brewed with quite a large number of substitutes, and these night yams had turned from a recommended to a necessary ingredient.

Luckily for him, Zhang Lie wouldn't have much trouble wading into the swamp because of his white-grub soulshard, and all that he had to be careful about were the alligators that lurked within. He sucked in a deep breath, encased himself in silver armor, and hopped into the swamp.

In the Long manor at Lingnan, a day after the end of the Void Cup, the Long clan head looked down at his kneeling subordinates, their eyes filled with fear and unease.

"Why didn't you strike?" Long Xiao asked, his tone menacing.

"The military laid down a direct passageway to the tournament for Zhang Lie. Judging that our attack would likely be unsuccessful and would attract the attention of the military, we chose not to act," the leader of the men explained. In truth, what he cared most about at that moment was his own life.

Long Xiao narrowed his eyes.

"You're all hunters who have dedicated your lives to the clan. I'm disappointed that you chose to prioritize your lives over the clan's wellbeing," Long Xiao stated, his fingers tapping on his armrests. The kneeling hunters' faces turned ashen.

"No, Head! I was simply waiting for a better opportunity," the leader of the hunters said, causing Long Xiao's fingers to pause.

"Very well. You'll have an even better opportunity shortly. The worldwide tournament will begin in around a month's time. Make your preparations now; I don't want to see him during the worldwide tournament!"

"Yes, Head!" The black-robed hunters vanished from sight as though they had never been there.

On the other hand, the Qin and Wang clans had largely given up on opposing Zhang Lie. Both their clans were vehemently against the notion, and the Qin and Wang clan heads might not keep their positions for long if they were to oppose that decision.

As such, they had no choice but to delay any plans they might have had for the future—but how could the Li clan head give up on his blood feud against Zhang Lie, who had slaughtered both his sons?

"Why didn't you strike? Why did you allow Zhang Lie to appear in the tournament?" Li Mo interrogated the hunters kneeling at his feet.

"Head, I wanted to strike, but the military seems to value him enough to send an airborne fort to the tournament and lay out a special passageway for him. I didn't dare strike lest I rouse the military's ire," the Li hunter explained. Indeed, no one could have predicted that the military would value Zhang Lie so highly.

"Lucky brat—but he won't remain that lucky for much longer. Before the worldwide stage of the Void Cup, make sure to hunt down this bastard!" Li Mo closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Just like Long Xiao, he wanted to get rid of Zhang Lie before the worldwide tournament began.

At present, Zhang Lie was already starting to unsettle him. If he let Zhang Lie develop much further, then he would surely crush the Li clan beneath him. The only solution was to kill Zhang Lie and extricate the Li clan from the embarrassing situation it had found itself in.

"I understand, Head," the hunter replied, then got up to leave.

Back in the dimensional world, a forest wolfman suddenly emerged from the swamp with a violet sword glowing brilliantly in his hand. As he emerged from the swamp, so did countless bubbles from nearby—the superior-grade lifeforms around him were darting out of the muck to ensnare their newfound prey. One glare from the wolfman was sufficient to dissuade them from that idea.

Once he was fully on shore, Zhang Lie returned to his human form.

"I've finally collected all the ingredients for Potion #3," he breathed out, smiling at the night yams in his hand. Potion #3, which he expected only to be able to concoct in the second realm, would be finished far ahead of schedule.

He returned to the Moonlit Pond. The deep trench in the middle of the pond remained as ominous as before, as though there were a slumbering lifeform deep below. If he were able to concoct Potion #3, it wouldn't be impossible for him to overcome even the peak-grade moonlight wyrm.

However, he didn't know if he could be entirely successful, because even in his past life, he hadn't experienced a foundational breakthrough, and he hadn't witnessed the wyrm's true strength for himself.

As a safety precaution, Zhang Lie would need to concoct an additional potion besides, one that was specialized against scaled lifeforms, with the ability of greatly reducing their scales' defense.

This potion was one of the catalysts for mankind's growth: quite a few hunters used it to great effect to acquire gene fragments that were otherwise unattainable to them, improving the strength of all hunters uniformly by a rather wide margin.

Zhang Lie would be making a variant of such a potion that he could dissolve in the Moonlit Pond, with which the moonlit wyrm would be forced to come into contact. With both superior-grade limit fragments and this new potion, he was certain of the success of the hunt.

After all, this moonlight wyrm was known to be extremely intelligent. If his first attempt to defeat it were to fail, it would be near-impossible to lure it out the next time around.

"There's still almost a month before the worldwide tournament, so I should have enough time," Zhang Lie murmured to himself, then left the pond for the Blacksteel settlement.

There were quite a few ingredients necessary for the scale-weakening potion, but they were relatively common. Zhang Lie had long since requested the ingredients from the Thousand-Treasure Pavilion.

There were five ingredients in particular that he was missing, three of which could only be found in the second realm: the mandara flower, violet-edged brambles, and soulhome grass.

These were all notable poisons in the second realm. The poisonous fog that the mandara flower gave off had deleterious effects on the minds of both hunters and lifeforms. Light exposure would affect mental fortitude, whereas heavy exposure would prevent the activation of genetic energy entirely.

The violet-edged brambles had thorns covered with particularly debilitating poison. Once the poison entered a hunter's bloodstream, it would affect the hunter's constitution and leave the hunter in a grossly weakened state, one which could lead to life-threatening danger.

Finally, a hunter who consumed soulhome grass would die in a matter of moments; there was no known antidote to its consumption.

All three poisons were vital to this scale-weakening potion. Before he could think about this potion further, however, his emergency transceiver began to beep, and Zhang Lie had no choice but to drop what he was doing and return to the real world.

Yang Ze was trying to contact him. "Captain, isn't the Void Cup over? Should we return to the dimensional world?"

Indeed, it had been some time since he had last communicated with Yang Ze, especially after the Void Cup started. Furthermore, even after the tournament, everyone had been busy dealing with all sorts of miscellanea in the Zenith Dojo.

"Yes, I expect the nationwide tournaments are over both on Earth and on Mars," Zhang Lie replied.

"Yes, it's over on my end too. Since the worldwide tournament is coming up, should we return to the dimensional world to train?" Yang Ze asked with a smile, but there was a hint of loneliness in his eyes.

"Good idea. I'll inform everyone that we'll be returning, and I'll see you at 5 PM at the Blacksteel Inn," Zhang Lie agreed. The members of Team Zenith would want to see the Moonlit Pond for themselves to plan for the upcoming battle.

Subsequently, he then returned to the dimensional world, where he contacted the Thousand-Treasure Pavilion.

"Honored Mr. Peppercorn, it's been a while since we last spoke. Is there anything that I may help you with?" Daffodil replied almost as soon as he sent her a meeting request.

"How much of my order have you managed to complete?" Zhang Lie asked.

"We're almost ready, Mr. Peppercorn! We have 90% of your order on-hand."

"Good. Do you have these three ingredients at the moment?" Zhang Lie asked about the three poisons that he would need to brew the scale-weakening potion, which were relatively difficult to obtain because of their highly poisonous nature and the fact that they were guarded by rather strong lifeforms in the second realm.

"Please wait for a moment while I check on the status of these ingredients, Mr. Peppercorn. I'll let you know as soon as I find out," Daffodil replied.

"If they're not ready yet, prioritize these ingredients as much as possible. The price isn't a problem for me," Zhang Lie added, then terminated the conversation.

He believed that there would surely be hunters willing to brave the risk if he were willing to spend additional points on those poisons. For now, however, he would start brewing Potion #3.

Just like before, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Zhang Lie spent ten thousand points to rent out the best underground lab that the Blacksteel Inn had to offer. With all his preparations complete, the next step would be to start brewing the potion in earnest...