Chapter 1301: A New Gathering Point  

Zhang Lie returned to the fourth realm from within his disaster-grade dragonwhale storage, but he saw not a single genetic hunter left.

They had all run away.

"Surely not..."

Clearly, after the news of Flamin's death had spread, the genetic hunters weren't able to work together cohesively against the beast stampede. Instead, they had split up and fled.

Zhang Lie didn't know that he was actually the main cause of this.

[Fists of the Silent Sea: Soar] had caused such an incredible commotion that the genetic hunters were worried an even larger and more frightening lifeform was about to appear. If Flamin had been present to calm them all down, the genetic hunters wouldn't have dispersed so quickly—but Flamin was gone, presumed dead.

Without a leader, their morale low, the besieged hunters of the gathering point fled in the face of a crisis that they couldn't stop.

The teleportation apparatus had been stripped bare. Because the genetic hunters had run off in a hurry, they were unable to bring the entire apparatus with them, but they had removed its core components. Clearly, the apparatus was no longer functional.

Zhang Lie was stymied.

"I was intending to report back to the Milky Way once things stabilized, but now... it feels like something big happens wherever I go."

The draconian sage and Li Zongming had called Zhang Lie a herald of disaster. Zhang Lie hadn't thought much of it, but a rare stampede had occurred almost as he ascended to the fourth realm. Could he truly be cursed?

"I thought it would be straightforward to return to the Milky Way, but this stampede—argh, why am I so unlucky?"

Now that the hunters were all gone, having dispersed in all directions, it would be difficult to chase them back down. He would have to find another gathering point in order to return to the Milky Way.

Zhang Lie listed the tasks he had yet to accomplish in the fourth realm.

First, finish maxing out his gene fragments.

Second, find the next gathering point. magic

Third, head to the location of the treasure indicated by the map he had completed in the third realm.

Fourth, find a way for Li Qianlin to survive out in the open.

These were the four main tasks Zhang Lie had set for himself.

He retrieved the map of the fourth realm that he had obtained from Hong Tianqi and cross-referenced it with the third-realm treasure map. The map encompassed essentially the entire world, with detailed coordinates about every location of interest.

After all, the treasure map was composed of almost a hundred thousand fragments, each about the size of a finger. Even Zhang Lie had to spend multiple days piecing the puzzle together, but the bright side was that the resulting map was stunningly detailed.

Zhang Lie intended to head in the direction of the treasure and hope that he found a gathering point along the way.

As far as he knew, there were over 130 gathering points in the fourth realm, some of which had been destroyed and some of which were newly built. Based on Hong Tianqi's map and his own past life, he identified the location of a few gathering points on his map.

He glanced at the map and charted his path, jumping aboveground via the hole he had punched deep underground.

All he saw was a pile of old ruins.

"So that's how it is."

Evidently, this gathering point had once been a city, but which had subsequently been destroyed by a beast stampede or a particularly strong genetic lifeform. The city constructed by the hunters of the Milky Way was unable to withstand its might and had turned into a pile of ruins instead. The hunters of the Milky Way escaped underground—compared to the perilous surface, the threats underground were at least less frequent.

This was likely the source of the underground gathering point. The moment Zhang Lie leapt out of the hole, he sensed a few lifeforms nearby. They were hairless, their skin wrinkled, their eyes glowing in green. Their faces were ugly and sharp, and they looked somewhat like apes. The lifeforms emerged from the ruins upon sensing an intruder.

"I don't much like humanoids..." Zhang Lie sounded like a god of death passing judgment on the condemned. Black genetic energy snaked down his body and toward the apes. Thick dark clouds surrounded him, reaping countless lives like a reaper's scythe.

Before the apes could react, their bodies had already fallen to the ground, swiftly decomposing.

Some more apes emerged from the ruins, screeching in anger. They leapt toward Zhang Lie, their claws raking the air.

"[Ninecarp Transformation]!"

A black serpent materialized behind Zhang Lie, by now so large and so developed that it resembled the world-swallowing serpent Jormungandr. It let out a threatening hiss as its scales clicked together.

The serpent's tail sent all the apes flying away. As they struck the ground, their bodies decomposed rapidly.

Zhang Lie's genetic energy had grown even stronger than before. The black genetic energy was like lethal poison. The other apes, scared by the danger he clearly possessed, fled in fear. The apes that had pounced toward him likewise dragged their decaying bodies away.

Zhang Lie didn't chase after them; he didn't much like consuming humanoid lifeforms, and there would be little need to kill them.

However, it would be difficult for any of those apes struck by his attacks to live. The corrosive black genetic energy would continue ravaging their bodies—the apes would die in fear and pain, watching as their lives seeped away.

As Zhang Lie headed in the direction of the treasure, he encountered five regular-grade lifeforms and two mutated-grade lifeforms, all of which he killed.

[You successfully killed a regular-grade roc. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade roc, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a regular-grade galewind ape. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade galewind ape, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a regular-grade pigeon of rains. By consuming the flesh of the regular-grade pigeon of rains, you may receive one to ten regular gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a mutated-grade mosswind tiger. By consuming the flesh of the mutated-grade mosswind tiger, you may receive one to ten mutated gene fragments.]

[You successfully killed a mutated-grade haunted vulture. By consuming the flesh of the mutated-grade haunted vulture, you may receive one to ten mutated gene fragments.]

After killing those lifeforms, Zhang Lie saw the apes from before reappear in his vision. They tossed rocks at Zhang Lie, but those rocks were crushed to powder by his genetic energy before they could land.

The apes clapped and cheered. Clearly, tossing rocks at Zhang Lie was something that brought them great pleasure.

"I heard that apes kept long grudges, that if you ever hurt an ape in a colony, the others would continue pestering the assailant for good. Well, let's see just how many apes are in your colony for me to put down."

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!"

Zhang Lie punched forward, and the black serpent behind him shot forth. A huge serpent shot toward the apes, opening its maw wide and biting their heads off one by one.