Chapter 270: Waiting at the Lake

In the next two weeks, however, nothing of note seemed to occur within the regions that Zhang Lie had highlighted, and the hunters of Team Zenith couldn't help but suspect that this was all just a test of patience from Zhang Lie's perspective.

Once again, they gathered at the VIP suite of the Blacksteel Hotel. Zhang Lie had been waiting there for all of them; Fang Yi, Sun Mengmeng, Sun Xiaowu, Yang Ze, and Li Feng had appeared in turn.

Only Zhou Ying remained absent, even long after the scheduled meeting time.

"What's going on? Which of you is closest to the region Zhou Ying was in? Has anyone heard anything from her?" Zhang Lie was visibly anxious.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Captain, the regions you assigned to us were so large that it takes quite a while to check each one exhaustively. Could Zhou Ying have forgotten the time?" Sun Xiaowu proposed.

"Better safe than sorry. She was in charge of regions C4 through D8, wasn't she? I'll go have a look—stay here and see if she tries to contact any of you!" Zhang Lie dashed out of the window.

By the time Zhang Lie found Zhou Ying, she was already on her way back to the hotel. The two of them noticed each other around a hundred and twenty kilometers to the north of the Blacksteel settlement, and they recognized each other's familiar genetic fluctuations almost immediately.

"Zhou Ying!"

"Captain!"

"What's going on? Why are you only returning now? Did something happen in the region you were responsible for?"

"I'm not certain, Captain. I keep feeling as though something's amiss, but I can't find anything specific upon careful investigation," Zhou Ying replied.

"Show me what's going on."

.

"Yes, Captain!"

Regions C4 through D8 were a whole three hundred kilometers away from the Blacksteel settlement. As far as Zhang Lie could recall, there was a small settlement, the Galewind settlement, in that region. Zhou Ying had spent much of her time there, occasionally venturing out into the outskirts of the settlement and nearby regions to check for any disturbances.

Despite pushing his senses to their extremes, just like Zhou Ying, Zhang Lie was unable to sense anything amiss. He began a careful investigation with Zhou Ying, but they were again stymied. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"Zhou Ying, what exactly did you find unusual? Could you simply be overthinking things?" Zhang Lie asked.

"Captain, give me a moment. Let me try with my genetic energy—could you help give me a boost?"

It took them around half an hour before Zhou Ying suddenly called out, "Captain, I found it! It's the bubbles in the river in region C6—there are significantly more bubbles in the water than before, I'm certain of it!"

"More bubbles? Do you know where the source of this river is—is it the Galewind Lake?" Zhan Lie hurriedly asked.

"I believe so, Captain. Is something the matter?" Given Zhang Lie's reaction, it seemed as though this was an event of some importance, though Zhou Ying couldn't understand how.

Zhang Lie had no time to explain anything to her. "Zhou Ying, return to the Galewind settlement immediately. Get everyone to evacuate as quickly as possible, then return to the real world and warn all the hunters in the first realm to return to the real world. Finally, inform Commander Su Feng to spread the word to all Chinese hunters and even hunters worldwide: for the moment, do not enter the first realm. A disaster is on its way!"

Zhou Ying's eyes widened. She still didn't know what was going on—how could a few bubbles herald such an occurrence?!

"Captain, I—"

"Enough! I don't have time to explain this to you. At the very least, get everyone from the Zenith Dojo out and spread the warning far and wide. Whether or not they listen, we've done our part.

It would take him far too long to explain just how extreme a disaster-grade lifeform's strength was.

Zhou Ying rushed off into the distance, whereas Zhang Lie himself followed the river up toward the Galewind Lake. By the time he arrived there, he could see no sign and sense no trace of the disaster-grade lifeform, but he was certain that it would appear in the first realm from within the lake, given the unusual bubbles that were rising up from its depths. This was a clear sign that space was growing thin around the region.

Perhaps the disaster-grade lifeform was, at this very moment, fighting for its life in a higher realm. Given the reports he recalled from his past life, the disaster-grade lifeform had appeared in the dimensional world bearing serious injuries, as though it had previously been part of a fight.

Zhang Lie had no interest in the sort of being that would be able to wound a disaster-grade lifeform to this extent; at the very least, he was certain he had no ability to survive an encounter with such a creature. He was simply hoping to take advantage of the disaster-grade lifeform's heavily wounded and weakened appearance to see if he could kill it and reap the benefits for doing so.

His next step was therefore to set up traps for this lifeform all around the battlefield. As a disaster-grade lifeform, it would be immune to most physical attacks, and even spiritual attacks would need to exceed a certain threshold to be able to damage it.

Even Zhang Lie would be hard-pressed to break past its defenses, but he had come prepared with a series of potions that would be particularly useful in this fight.

With the blood-attuned reagents he had tasked the members of Team Zenith to find, he had concocted a few potions specifically against this disaster-grade lifeform, which would crystallize in its body and restrict the rate at which it could gather genetic energy.

Zhang Lie blocked off the outlet to the lake, then began pouring all his potions into the Galewind Lake, dyeing it a bloody red.