Chapter 489: New and Old

Team Zenith hadn't been able to kill all the sura, and there were a few that evaded notice and managed to make it all the way back to the empire of stars.

When the monarch of stars heard about the news, he naturally exploded in rage. Seven godsons—all seven of his remaining godchildren had died, the seven potential successors to the empire of stars! Not only that, the culprit had also killed Xueju and Xuechi—he had stripped the monarch of stars of all his heirs!

Unable to curb his emotions, the monarch of stars erupted in rage. Heaven and earth trembled at his anger. Space itself began to crack, and several of his weakest officials, unable to bear the ripples of force that emanated from him, were sent flying out of the palace.

As the ground trembled more and more violently, it began to crack. The crack propagated all the way to the middle of the capital, and a third of the palace fell into the ground. The citizens of the empire of stars lay prostrate as they pleaded for the monarch of stars to calm down.

Eventually, the monarch of stars reined in his aura, but anger was apparent in every line of his face. As he slapped his throne, it shattered into pieces. The monarch of stars stood. "We march to war!"

He strode forward. "Only the blood of humans can pacify me now!"

"Please calm down, your majesty! Otherwise, the other sura empires might contemplate launching another attack against us!" the sura officials pleaded.

The monarch of stars glanced at the official, his blood-red eyes gleaming with light. The official burst apart in a shower of gore.

Renhuang had taken all nine of his godsons away from him. If the monarch of stars didn't make a move, for what purpose had he amassed all his strength? Despite the risk of the other sura empires attacking him, he would invade Renhuang at any cost.

"With my anger, I'll burn Renhuang to a crisp, scorching the earth and land forevermore! All mankind shall regret making me their enemy. Each and every sura will learn that those who dare go against me will pay the heaviest of prices. This is a war for the authority that the empire of stars represents!"

The sura officials, as one, knelt on the cracked floor. "We obey his majesty's orders!"

"What a beautiful city."

The day after the celebratory banquet, Zhou Liao and Zhang Lie toured Renhuang.

Zhang Lie explained, "This city exists only because of the combined effort of everyone around, human and alien alike. To me, there isn't a better city around in the entirety of the second realm."

They walked through the streets toward the bazaar, where members of every race had set up stalls. Zhou Liao's eyes lit up. "Is this what an interracial city looks like?"

There were quite a few hunters touring the bazaar. The human reinforcements hadn't participated in the war; rather, they were spending all their resources in the bazaar, providing a significant infusion of trade into the city.

"Every race brings out their specialties and sells them here at this bazaar we've set up. We humans provide soulshards, the wood spirits sell the herbs and plants they've been cultivating, the Yeluo sell their potions and concoctions, the rock spirits sell the genetic lifeforms they've hunted, and the crag eagles do the same, along with various trinkets and oddities they've collected. By cooperating with each other, we grow stronger as a whole," Zhang Lie explained proudly.

Zhou Liao's gaze landed on a stall that had been set up by a rock spirit, with genetic lifeforms locked behind cage after cage, much like a wet market in the real world.

All the genetic lifeforms that the rock spirit had captured were chained and sedated with a Yeluo concoction to prevent their escape.

Zhou Liao glanced at the stall in surprise. "So the hunters of Renhuang don't even have to hunt down genetic lifeforms on their own?"

Were they really able to obtain gene fragments within the safety of the city? That was incredible!

"Indeed, but there are generally only regular- and mutated-grade lifeforms available in the bazaar. Superior-grade lifeforms still have to be hunted down outside the city limits. There are some superior-grade lifeforms that appear in the bazaar from time to time, of course, but they get snatched up in no time."

Zhou Liao placed both his palms on Zhang Lie's shoulders. "Zhang Lie, don't you know what this means?"

"What?"

"Oh, you—" Zhou Liao sighed. "Of course you wouldn't know. You were strong enough to go out hunting on your first day, but that's not something regular hunters can do. In Qi, we once conducted an investigation of how to prevent hunters' deaths in the second realm. Do you know what we found?"

"What?"

Zhou Liao continued with a huff, "Ordinary hunters have significant trouble hunting down even mutated-grade lifeforms. This is what causes new hunters the most trouble, and the most lethal stage of their growth—a significant fraction of hunters even perish while trying to cap their basic gene fragments."

Zhang Lie frowned. "Surely you're joking—there's no way they can die to mutated-grade lifeforms!"

"No, I'm not! You don't realize just how weak incoming hunters are without basic or mutated gene fragments, and they struggle immensely to acquire such resources. Of course, the ones who survive this ordeal and end up challenging superior-grade lifeforms result in much fewer deaths, because they had to be strong and experienced to get to that stage in the first place."

In most cities, live, restrained regular- and mutated-grade lifeforms were a precious commodity and in high demand.

"This problem is exacerbated by the fact that regular- and mutated-grade lifeforms tend to roam in packs, and any additional degree of uncertainty can be debilitating to incoming hunters at their current level of strength."

For instance, it was far easier to make a hundred thousand dollars starting with ten thousand than with nothing.

Renhuang's bazaar obviated this struggle for new hunters, who would be able to acquire gene fragments without having to leave the safety of their city.

Zhou Liao continued, "Now that there's an easier way for new hunters to amass their strength, they'll be able to practice on regular- and mutated-grade lifeforms before setting their sights on superior-grade lifeforms with far less danger than before."

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

In time, as Renhuang's forces grew stronger and stronger, the number of superior-grade hunters would only increase, and they might even be able to take on peak-grade lifeforms together.

Zhou Liao sighed. "To be honest, I hadn't expected that an interracial city would confer such amazing benefits."

After all, alien races had no great need for genetic lifeforms. Instead of keeping the lifeforms for themselves, they could sell it to incoming hunters for a significant profit.

Zhou Liao admired Zhang Lie from the bottom of his heart.

In the past, while the humans were weak, no alien races had shown any interest in them. The humans had grown stronger since, but even in Qi, they wouldn't have been able to secure the cooperation of the alien races nearby.

With brute strength alone, it might have been possible to forcibly incorporate an alien race into Qi, but all sorts of societal issues might result instead. If the humans and aliens remained insular, there would be no point to their inclusion in the city at all.

On the other hand, with a large number of alien races present, there wouldn't be such a significant barrier because each race would be on equal footing; the different races would counteract one another.