Chapter 152: Pay Up or Die  

As his fresh blood dyed the sands red, Young Master Long was forced onto the sands by a foot to his back. An ominous purple flush had quickly spread through his skin from the wound: a sign of the venombane scorpion's poison.

Young Master Long opened his eyes wide. "This sword... is poisoned!" The skin by his wound had festered, turning a deep purple as it did so.

"Too easy a death for you," Zhang Lie spat out.

"Don't, please! I surrender!"

"Do you recognize me, then?" Zhang Lie gave him a chilling smile.

"Do you really intend to kill me? In that case, are you prepared to face the wrath of the Long clan from the Godsbane settlement?!" Young Master Long gritted out. His fury at his helplessness turned his eyes red, and his body spasmed from the corrosive nature of the poison. From his perspective, although Zhang Lie was a strong hunter, he wouldn't be foolish enough to try to start a blood feud with the Long clan by killing him.

"Oh? Sounds frightening." Zhang Lie's eyes narrowed as he recalled what he could about the Long clan. It was even stronger than the five major clans of the capital, and its scions seemed to be unusually talented. The signature framework of the clan was also quite potent.

But so what? Zhang Lie wasn't the one who had instigated this affair! The Long clan might not have been an easy target, but what about Zhang Lie? This was the dimensional world, after all, where strength trumped all else. Even military hunters had to obey this law of the jungle, let alone the Long clan.

"How much stronger do you think the Long clan is compared to the Li clan?" he asked coolly.

The Godspath hunters' eyes widened. Yes, the Li clan might have been weaker than the Long clan, but not by much. The day of the Zenith Dojo's opening ceremony, Zhang Lie had killed the son of Clan Head Li right in front of his face. In other words, if he was willing to kill a scion of the Li family under public scrutiny back on Earth, what was stopping him from doing so now, without any eyewitnesses, in the dimensional world?

"He's going to kill us! Flee!" Young Master Long shouted. The Godspath hunters began to move, but far too late.

They shot attacks toward him as they turned to run, but Zhang Lie only glanced at them disdainfully as he waved Venombane.

"[The Boundless Blade: the River Lethe]!" Dark genetic energy formed a pitch-black river that annihilated everything before it, sweeping the Godspath hunters up.

The river raged; its waters seemed to be formed of sword energy, causing the Godspath hunters to feel excruciating pain every second they were immersed in it. After a moment, when the river faded away, the bedraggled form of the Godspath hunters could be seen splayed in the mud. They all seemed to have suffered some grotesque torture, with no piece of their skin left intact, like bags of bloody flesh.

"Do you think it's that easy to run? Aren't you a young master of the Long clan? Didn't you want one of my teammates to serve you? Well? Are you pleased with my service? Would you like to bet that I can kill you without the Long clan daring to make a fuss about it?" Zhang Lie whispered. His tone was relaxed, but his words sent a chill down the hunters' backs.

"You..." The heavily wounded Young Master Long widened his eyes. He knew that Zhang Lie wasn't joking; someone like him had no need to worry about the Long clan.

"Any last words?" Zhang Lie smirked. "Dragonwolf Zhang Lie, you're already enemies with the Li, Qin, and Wang clans. Are you sure you want to add the Long clan to the mix? This won't be a smart decision, I assure you." Under threat of death, poison flooding through his body, struggling for his last breath, Young Master Long nevertheless calmed down and displayed some semblance of his upbringing.

"Should I care?" Zhang Lie grinned, and the tip of his sword dropped to his neck.

"No, no, please! Zhang Lie, please forgive us, please forgive us all!" the Godspath hunters' leader interjected before Young Master Long could speak. He moaned at how unlucky he had been to chance upon Zhang Lie's team out here in the Desert of Silence, but that wasn't the worst part of it. He had to ensure that Young Master Long didn't die; if he were to die, their whole team would be killed to accompany him!

The Long clan was proud and domineering. Even if Zhang Lie let them go and not Young Master Long, the Long clan would surely take revenge on them! He had no choice but to speak up then.

"Let you go, so you can menace other hunters? No, I think not." Zhang Lie didn't think that any of the Godspath hunters would dare interrupt the conversation between him and Young Master Long.

"No, no, of course not! As long as you're willing to let us go, we'll swear never to hunt other hunters ever again!" The Godspath leader immediately pledged to turn over a new leaf. Of course, he was the only one who believed his words.

Zhang Lie stared at them all. "It looks like you all value your lives very much, don't you? If you want me to spare you, hand over all your soulshards!"

"What? Soulshards, all our soulshards?!" the Godspath hunters cried out.

If they had to give up all the fruits of their labor these last few days, and even lose the soulshards that they originally had as well...

On the other hand, the eyes of the hunters from Team Zenith gleamed. They had yet to obtain any soulshards from their excursion into the Desert of Silence, but now they could get a huge haul in one fell swoop!

"Well? Don't you value your life?" Zhang Lie swung Venombane in small arcs as he waited for the Godspath hunters' response.

Young Master Long sighed. No one would risk their lives for material possessions, and Young Master Long was certain that, as long as he could live, he'd be able to get back these soulshards one way or another. Gritting his teeth, he spilled his soulshards all over the desert sand.

The gems caught the sunlight and glowed in all colors: as expected of a young master of the Long clan, most of his soulshards were superior-grade.

"We'll hand ours over too!" With Young Master Long as an example, the other hunters quickly followed suit, spilling their soulshards on the sand. Although their collections weren't as lavish as Young Master Long's, they did have quite a few superior-grade soulshards as well.

"Will you let us go now?" Young Master Long asked once more. At this point, he just wanted to preserve his life. Given the extent of their injuries, if they didn't perform any first-aid, they would die without Zhang Lie making a move.

Once Sun Mengmeng and the others had stored all their loot, Zhang Lie grinned. Would he allow these hunters to live and continue their life of crime? Of course not! Furthermore, even if others feared the Long clan, the same couldn't be said for him.

"In that case, I'll spare your lives."

The Godspath hunters saw an arc of violet light, then felt a chill in their chests. As they howled in pain, they stared angrily at Zhang Lie.

"You've... stripped us of our genetic cores?!" Young Master Long cried out.

"Dragonwolf Zhang Lie, you've gone back on your word! I curse you, I curse you with my life!" the Godspath leader spat out angrily. "Have I gone back on my word? Really? All I said was that I'd spare your lives, not that I'd avoid attacking you."

Zhang Lie marshaled the rest of Team Zenith away without looking back at the fallen hunters.

"Zhang Lie, I'll kill you! I swear I'll kill you!" Young Master Long howled at his back.

Zhang Lie ignored him. The moment before he vanished from sight, he turned around and smiled. "Tell me that when you make it out of the desert alive."

Making it out alive would be far harder than it sounded. To be crippled and bleeding to death deep in the Desert of Silence was tantamount to a death sentence. In the best-case scenario, they would die of blood loss; if they were unlucky, the last thing they saw would be a beast's maw.

After all, the blood they were giving off would surely attract lifeforms from all around the desert. Although Zhang Lie wasn't going to kill them, he had blocked off any chance of survival.

Not long after Team Zenith left the scene, a few lifeforms began scouting out the scene.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this, Captain." The hunters of Team Zenith all seemed a little despondent that Zhang Lie had to come save them; it seemed as though, from their very first meeting, they had been dragging him down.

"What're you talking about? All of you were handling it well enough even without me."

Indeed, Fang Yi and Yang Ze's combination attack had grievously wounded Young Master Long, and the remaining Godspath hunters were about to be subjugated by the rest of the team.

"Really?" Sun Mengmeng glanced skeptically at Zhang Lie. He had always dominated his opponents in so overwhelming a fashion that they paled in comparison.

It was then that Zhang Lie realized he had to let the other members of Team Zenith overcome a few obstacles by themselves so that they could understand their own strength.

"Right, did you all have any luck with soulshards?" Zhang Lie asked.

"Unfortunately not. We were steadily going deeper into the desert, but nothing we hunted dropped the soulshards we were aiming for," Sun Mengmeng sighed.

The Void Cup was just about to begin, and if they couldn't find appropriate soulshards, then they wouldn't be able to grow any stronger.

"So? We've just gotten a generous gift from a few anonymous donors, haven't we?" Zhang Lie patted the pouch into which they had packed the spoils from the Godspath hunters.

Everyone's faces brightened: indeed, they had received a veritable heap of soulshards!

The Godspath hunters had stolen quite a few soulshards from other hunters, and all their spoils had now gone to Team Zenith. Young Master Long's soulshards were particularly appealing: he was the scion of a large, rich clan, and the soulshards that he kept on his body were surely the best of the best.

"We really do have to thank them for their generosity!"

Sun Xiaowu waggled his fingers as he dug into the pouch, glancing at the soulshards of various shapes, colors, and textures as he did so.

"Wow! This is from a superior-grade rampaging rhinoceros. It's a defensive-type soulshard that covers your body in a thick hide, conferring as much defense as you'd expect from such a sturdy lifeform!" His eyes shone. Without a question, this soulshard was most suited to someone like him, whose framework was defense-focused.

The others also found quite a number of soulshards to their liking; Fang Yi had acquired one that would grant him short-term explosive strength, whereas Li Feng identified a superior-grade radiant beetle soulshard that could transform into a winged suit of armor. Sun Mengmeng picked up a superior-grade firebird soulshard, which enhanced her already-potent flames even further.

However, despite the thirty or so superior-grade soulshards they had acquired, neither Zhou Ying nor Yang Ze found ones that were perfectly compatible with their frameworks. They had no choice but to choose more general soulshards for temporary use.magic