Chapter 336: In Dire Straits

The eagles' target, Zhang Lie, didn't seem at all surprised by their attack. Perhaps the two eagles could have caused him a headache in an aerial battle, but since he was on the ground, he had nothing to fear. After all, he was far stronger than either one, or even both combined.

Zhang Lie stomped on the ground, and three runic tablets fell from the skies. A blood moon ascended, and the figure of a dragonturtle seemed to appear behind Zhang Lie. Gravity multiplied in the vicinity of Zhang Lie, causing the eagles to squawk in sudden disorientation.

Their ballistic trajectory turned parabolic as they were dragged down by the force of the runic tablets.

Zhang Lie's runic tablets could fully restrain even Wang Yanyi; it was overkill for the two superior-grade lifeforms. They met the same dire fate as their companion—the last thing they saw was a little white snake flicking its tongue at them.

Just as Zhang Lie was about to store the eagles' carcasses, he felt a sudden motion to his right behind him, along with the aura of no less than a hundred superior-grade lifeforms. The commotion he had caused had clearly summoned what seemed to be an entire superior-grade horde.

Zhang Lie raised his eyebrows, stowed away his spoils, then went back into stealth.

As he did so, a flock of giant bats, over a hundred strong, darkened the skies as they landed in front of the stream. Upon seeing the bats, Zhang Lie lost all interest in hunting them down. He dashed off into the distance.

Not all lifeforms in the second realm could be consumed easily, and the bats were one such example. They were extremely toxic, with genes largely incompatible with humans, and would cause crazed madness if forcibly assimilated.

Of course, from the bats' perspective, this was an excellent survival mechanism to prevent their numbers from being whittled down by overzealous hunters.

Zhang Lie was headed toward the Yeluo Valley, located in the western side of the inner perimeter of the forest. It was a gigantic valley. A clan native to this valley had the ability to make potent pills that were able to counteract high-ranking fighters of the sura, but they were as yet unaware of this ability.

Zhang Lie, whose eventual target was the asura, could hardly miss an opportunity to get these pills for himself. Along the way, he would hunt down any suitable prey he encountered as well.

Given his top speed, Zhang Lie anticipated that he would be able to make it to the valley within three days, but by the end of those three days he found that he hadn't even gotten halfway there. There were simply too many superior-grade hordes roaming the region, and Zhang Lie had to consume a significant amount of genetic energy to maintain his advanced form of stealth.

He had spent over half of the last three days skulking around in order to restore his energy. Of course, even that amount of progress was shocking. Even a whole special forces team would have been hard-pressed to remain in the forest for over three days. Most of their hunting consisted of identifying a target via preliminary scouting, blitzing that target down, and then running off. The superior-grade hordes that roamed the inner boundary of the forest were particularly dangerous, and could easily kill even a fully equipped team of hunters.

Despite how careful Zhang Lie was, he had still ended up fighting three superior-grade hordes, once because he found them a suitable target, but twice because his stealth had been broken and he had no choice but to fight. Fortunately, he was strong enough that the fights weren't a challenge.

However, Zhang Lie was dissatisfied with his rate of progress, and he decided that he would acquire some superior gene fragments first. Doing so would require him to consume the flesh of these lifeforms that he had hunted down, so he would need to find a secluded location in which he could start a fire.

This wasn't an easy task in the middle of the gigantic forest that bordered Qi, and Zhang Lie had spent a day and a half searching before he saw a small mountain of rock nearby, devoid of any greenery in the area or any traces of superior-grade lifeforms. Most importantly, it was close to a source of water.

Zhang Lie walked up to the side of the mountain and used his corrosive genetic energy to excavate a cave. Furthermore, he laid out a special formation by its entrance to make the cave hard to detect.

With a canteen of water, Zhang Lie began to prepare the carcasses of the prey he had hunted. He roasted them on four giant spits, seasoning them with a satchel of spices he had prepared beforehand.

The cave quickly filled with the enticing aroma of meat, but under Zhang Lie's circumstances, this wasn't good news. The moment he could detect the smell, he increased the density of water vapor in the air, trying to dampen the aroma and prevent it from leaking outside the cave.

It took a few hours for the lifeforms to be ready for consumption. Just as he was about to dig in with gusto, he could sense the auras of a human hunter and over a dozen lifeforms entering his range of perception.

He frowned, then headed out of the cave to see what was going on.

The struggling, bedraggled hunter noticed his presence almost immediately as he headed out of the cave, and she darted toward him. Over a dozen rhinoceros dogs were chasing her.

These rhinodogs were a combination of rhinoceroses and dogs, the size of giant boulders with a constitution and stamina to match. They possessed great physical resistance and a frightening bite. As superior-grade lifeforms, they controlled earth-attuned genetic energy, and were able to use those techniques to capture or trap their prey. The combination of all these characteristics made them particularly difficult to hunt.

Most importantly, they roamed the forest in large packs consisting of hundreds or even thousands of lifeforms. The dozen or so that were following the female hunter seemed to be a scouting party of sorts.

If he were to participate in this battle, he would have to end it quickly. He was rather interested in the female hunter—as far as he knew, no one would dare to venture so deeply into the forest alone. She wasn't weak, but clearly wasn't strong enough to be able to survive in the forest alone.

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Had she lost her teammates? If that were the case, she should have headed toward the outskirts of the forest rather than its interior, surely?

Hong Xi sighed. Underneath her outwardly bloodied and disheveled appearance was a young woman, soon to be entering her twenties. She came from Mars; her speech had a tinge of a Martian accent.

She was the last hope of the Hong clan. There was naturally a reason she risked her life to venture so deep into the forest around Qi. Before she could reach her destination, however, she had been found by a pack of rhinodogs, and had to flee for her life shortly afterwards.

When she saw the hunter coming out of his cave, her eyes widened, and she ran in his direction. "Please, save me!"

If there was anyone who could save her, it would be him. He seemed calm despite seeing the pack of rhinodogs chasing after her, and he clearly had some skill if he managed to survive in the forest alone for so long.

She grabbed onto the man's right arm, but he shrugged her off almost immediately.

She pleaded with the man for her life.

"Why should I save you? What can you give me?" Although he had already decided to help her out, Zhang Lie didn't intend to do so for nothing.

"I'll give up anything I own, anything!" Hong Xi begged urgently.

"Very well. Hide in the cave behind me. Don't step out, no matter what you hear."

Zhang Lie dashed forward into the pack of rhinodogs. The reason he had chosen to save her was because he felt a familiar source of genetic energy emanating from her.