Chapter 373: Besieged on All Fronts

Unfortunately, although the humans' strength had risen, the sura weren't their only enemies in this realm.

Just as the Qi forces were fending off the sura, Zhou Ming rushed back with another unwelcome piece of news. "Governor Xiao, something's wrong! The eastern, northern, and southern walls are all being attacked!"

Xiao Zhengyang's face fell. "When did the sura learn to divide their forces?"

"It's not the sura, Governor, but the forces from other races!"

Qi wasn't close to any of the sura's lands, but there were quite a few alien races close by. Under usual conditions, they wouldn't have the strength to attack Qi, but now...

"Damn it! These bastards, they're taking advantage of the sura attacking us! Zhou Ming, defend the eastern wall with your special forces team. Gao Tian, you bring your team to the south. Ye Tianlang, you go to the north! We fight to the last. Even if Qi is to fall, we humans won't debase ourselves in front of the sura!"

While the hunters in Qi were fighting for their lives, the Zenith Dojo was in a festive mood as the Zenith Dojo conducted its second-ever tournament for promising hunters from all around the galaxy.

The alien competitors fought particularly fiercely; each of them was accompanied by what seemed to be entire clans. The tournament had attracted so many qualified participants that it almost seemed like a miniature Void Cup.

The participants were all hoping to get the grand prize for themselves—an opportunity to become Zhang Lie's own apprentice.

Not long after the start of the tournament, however, as Zhang Lie was welcoming the guests that were trickling in in a steady stream, Yan Long messaged him and warned him not to enter the second realm at the moment.

Zhang Lie immediately messaged him back asking about why.

"Zhang Lie, listen up. Qi's currently being attacked by all sorts of alien races, but the situation isn't looking good. No matter what, you can't head back in!"

"Why? I'm also a human, and I'm a citizen of Qi!" Zhang Lie retorted.

"I know you're upset, but you can't act rashly. The sura have attacked, and we don't stand a chance! You're more important than the entirety of Qi. Even if it's destroyed, you musn't die!"

Zhang Lie's eyes flashed coldly. "So what if it's the sura? I can't just stand still while the entire city's fighting without me!"

"You'll just be commiting suicide! What can you do against an entire horde of the sura?!" Yan Long shouted back.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. I'll change the tides of this battle—just you watch!"

Zhang Lie hung up, then gathered up the members of Team Zenith and other elites in preparation for joining the battle in Qi.

On the other side of the call, Yan Long smashed his transceiver against the ground in anger. Beside him, Hong Tianqi continued enjoying his cup of tea. "I told you not to call him, didn't I? Zhang Lie's temper was just like mine as a newbie hunter—you wouldn't have been able to stop him!"

Yan Long bared his teeth at Hong Tianqi. "How can you smile at a time like this? You know just what Zhang Lie represents for the future of humanity!"

Hong Tianqi smiled again. "Zhang Lie's not a rash fool. If he's choosing to head into the battle, I'm sure he has something in mind that can turn the tides."

"But the sura are attacking, the sura who have claimed so many of our human geniuses! What if he dies?"

Hong Tianqi's eyes flashed coldly. "If he dies, I'll force myself down to the second realm and slaughter the sura to the last myself.

Yan Long rolled his eyes. "The two of you are both crazed fools."

Blood dyed the grounds around Qi a vibrant red. The battle between the sura and humans continued, but the human forces were at an absolute disadvantage after having to split their forces on four fronts.

Some of the sura ate the humans' corpses as they fought, grabbing a human head, squeezing it until it exploded, then eating its contents raw as though they were consuming raw eggs. Others broke the humans' legs off, eating them with one hand as they fought the rest of the humans off with the others.

A few sura were tasked with capturing live humans and carting them back to the city of the sura.

If the sura weren't so domineering and instead allowed the other alien races to join their battlefield, even more humans from Qi would have perished. Nevertheless, Xiao Zhengyang couldn't bring himself to be happy about this—no, this was his biggest shame as governor of Qi. The sura thought of the humans as mere livestock, and he hadn't been able to change that perception at all! Any hungry sura warriors would eat the humans' corpses on the spot, and they were even taking captives to rear back on sura lands.

Xiao Zhengyang had once heard a legend about the sura, which had solidified his decision to never submit to the sura. Apparently, the sura found human babies to be a particular delicacy. Those human captives who gave birth would have their babies eaten whole, just like that.

Human captives had no rights to speak of within sura lands. Those who refused to copulate would find pills being added to their food, so human babies would be produced without fail every year.

The fighting on the other three fronts fared almost as badly as against the sura. There were simply too many members of the alien races present, and human forces were in short supply.

Although more and more hunters were joining the fight through the teleportation array, they still weren't sufficient to counter the hostile forces massing outside Qi.

The sura elder floated into the air and shouted, "Humans, stop resisting senselessly! There's no chance you'll be able to survive the sura's onslaught. Kneel on the floor obediently and you'll be spared from death."

Some of the human forces backed down and hesitated.

The sura elder continued, "The benevolent king of the sura does not wish to slaughter all of you. For an annual tithe of a hundred thousand humans, not only will we sura back off, we'll even protect Qi against other alien races."

This was the sura elder's true objective. The reason he had initially requested a million humans was to shock the humans into fighting the sura. Once they realized their dire straits, the sura would 'relent', suggesting an annual tithe of a hundred thousand humans each year instead.

This was just one tenth of the amount that had originally been suggested, and it made the deal seem much more reasonable than before, despite the fact that it was still a ridiculous price in absolute terms. The sura elder's objective was to break their mental defenses, then to offer 'protection'. Under the protection of the sura, the humans would gradually grow weak, complacent, and dependent on the sura—truly livestock in their own right.