Chapter 820: The Death Spirits

Sun Mengmeng turned toward Yang Ze. "Didn't you encounter a king of the realm too?"

Yang Ze thought, "I did kill one, but he didn't seem all that strong..."

Sun Xiaowu replied, "Perhaps you met one of the weaker ones?"

Zhang Lie smiled as he listened to the hunters' conversation. Li Qianlin poured him tea, and he took a sip. He knew the answer to their conundrum, but he didn't intend on revealing it.

Dong Mingxing also ran into the room, enticed by the commotion she heard. "Ah, Zhang Lie, you're back! And there are so many people with you, too."

Dong Mingxing had a seat and began sipping at tea, her movements so natural it was almost as though she had made herself at home.

Li Qianlin began, "As far as I know, there are no weak kings of the realm."

Yang Ze shrugged. "We fight differently, so we might come to different conclusions about the same foe, after all."

Sun Mengmeng and Sun Xiaowu both found the kings of the realm they faced to be quite strong, but Yang Ze disagreed. The kings might have been somewhat interesting, but nothing more than that.

Whereas the Sun siblings preferred to tackle their enemies head-on, Yang Ze preferred to get his hands dirty as little as possible. To put it nicely, Yang Ze was sly and slippery. He fought dirty.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

He preferred to avoid direct confrontation and to make use of strategy and tactics to win his battles as efficiently as possible, and many of his techniques were designed to help him achieve just that.

Strategy and tactics were part of his strength, after all. Sun Mengmeng and Sun Xiaowu had to face their foes with a hundred percent of their strength, but Yang Ze only needed half, or even less, of that. This was the difference that tactics achieved during a battle, as well as what Zhang Lie wanted everyone to learn from him.

However, trying to use tactics efficiently enough to deal with foes of the same level was hardly straightforward, and Zhang Lie didn't insist that everyone focus on it.

The fourth to return was Fang Yi, but he had to be carried back in.

Yang Ze gulped. "What happened to you?"

Xing Ying, who had carried Fang Yi back, replied, "Thanks to the miraculous potions you guys brought back from the second realm, he's fine—just physically exhausted and drained."

The restoratives that Zhou Ying had produced were able to increase cellular activity and alleviate muscle fatigue rapidly, but even they couldn't do much about mental fatigue. Instant recovery was impossible, especially given how much Fang Yi had exerted himself.

The members of Team Zenith knew that Fang Yi had been experimenting with two ultimate techniques in the second realm.

"I used both of my ultimate techniques in quick succession," Fang Yi explained in embarrassment.

Yang Ze sucked in a deep breath. "The king of the realm you faced was that strong?"

Fang Yi sighed, relief creeping into his tone. "As expected of one of our captain's trials—it was far too harsh! If not for Warlord Xing Ying's assistance, I wouldn't have made it back."

Even Sun Mengmeng and Sun Xiaowu seemed taken aback by this revelation.

After a moment's silence, Yang Ze murmured, "I might have killed a fake king..."

Fang Yi turned to the three hunters who had returned before him.

"Did you all kill your assigned kings of the realm, too?"

Fang Yi was shocked that they were all unharmed. Sun Mengmeng, he could understand—she had been facing devil trees, and her elemental attunement was a perfect counter for them. Yang Ze and Sun Xiaowu, on the other hand, didn't seem injured either. Sun Xiaowu's face had traces of fatigue, but Yang Ze looked as though he had just come back from a walk outside.

The three hunters all nodded, pointing at the proofs of kingship they had retrieved.

"How?" Fang Yi asked curiously.

Sun Xiaowu replied, "By defeating the king in battle, of course!"

Fang Yi sucked in a deep breath. "Didn't you have to do anything special?"

Sun Xiaowu cocked his head. "What are you referring to?"

Fang Yi scowled. "Why are all of you fine? When did I start falling so far behind?!"

Fang Yi knew that the hunters of Team Zenith were all roughly equal in strength—at least, that was the case before they had ascended to the third realm.

Zhang Lie rolled his eyes. "No, you haven't fallen behind. You're just unlucky."

Fang Yi turned to Zhang Lie. "What? What do you mean, Captain?"

Zhang Lie replied, "It's exactly as I've stated. Why do you think I dispatched some warlords to help you out?"

"Isn't it because I was so weak that I needed the help?"

"No—the trial I planned was for all of you to fight against the kings of the realm to get a sense for their power and the authority they control. Feel what the peak of the third realm is like. I hope all of you have gotten a sense of that. Of course, I don't intend for any of you to die in a trial. The world of the black spirits is rather unusual, and none of the three of them would have fared any better than you there."

Yang Ze asked curiously, "What's so special about it?"

"Any living creature who steps into the world of the black spirits will be haunted by void spirits. They're about as weak as mutated-grade lifeforms, but they come in endless numbers. There's also a mysterious black pyramid, the apex of which can shoot out a laser of light..."

Fang Yi described his experience in that unusual, arcane world.

The other three hunters of Team Zenith were gobsmacked. Compared to Fang Yi, they had been playing on easy mode; Fang Yi was trapped on a nightmarish difficulty.

Endless spirits, a black pyramid, and the inverted pyramid that lay beneath, disaster-grade lifeforms hiding in the desert—all of Fang Yi's encounters were far beyond what they had to go through.

When Yang Ze finished hearing Fang Yi's recounting of his struggles, he patted him on the shoulder. "You've had it hard, my dear friend."

Fang Yi seemed on the verge of tears. "I feel like I've been targeted... Captain, Zhang Lie, have I done anything to offend you? Tell me directly if that's the case—I could have died fighting the king of the black spirits!"

Zhang Lie scoffed. "Am I that petty?"

Sun Mengmeng nodded seriously. "Right, if our captain really didn't like you, you wouldn't have made it back alive."

She felt an instinctive desire to defend Zhang Lie.

Li Qianlin agreed. "I don't want to agree with this woman, but she's right. If Zhang Lie really wanted to mess with someone, he wouldn't need to use such tricks. One glance and you'd be vaporized."

Zhang Lie choked on his tea.

Fang Yi still didn't understand. "Why was I the only one who received this 'special treatment'?"

Yang Ze replied, "It must be because our captain really values you and wants to challenge you in particular."

"...I'm touched, but I'd rather not in the future, thank you."

Zhang Lie rolled his eyes. "You really are overthinking it. I said it just now, didn't I? You were simply unlucky. You were the ones who picked out which kings you would face, not me."

Sun Mengmeng asked, "Are these black spirits really that powerful?"

Zhang Lie replied, "Well, they're backed by a super-large world, the death spirits' world."

Li Qianlin grew pale. "The death spirits?!"