Chapter 154: A Planned Ambush  

Zhang Lie's name had spread far and wide across the first realm of the dimensional world, and he was known to just about every hunter.

"The same Zhang Lie who rose to fame during the Kez invasion of the capital, and who killed the Li clan head's two sons?" Long Sheng narrowed his eyes, barely suppressing a quaver in his tone.

"Yes, that's him!" The hunter nodded.

Long Sheng grimaced. His brother's killer would be harder to deal with than he expected.

First, Zhang Lie had monopolized the entire stock of white-grub cores, and if the Long clan were to stand against him openly, it would only end up like the Li clan. Second, if Zhang Lie chose not to leave the Blacksteel settlement, even the Long clan wouldn't be able to do anything about him. Third, Zhang Lie was simply too strong. It would be near impossible to kill him within the dimensional world.

But even so, how could he afford not to avenge his brother's death? Otherwise, how would he be different from that cowardly Clan Head Li?

"Young Master Long, it's possible that only the hunters of Team Zenith were involved. The Dragonwolf Zhang Lie might not have had anything to do with it," the hunter suggested.

"Whether or not Zhang Lie was part of it is unimportant. Would he stand idly by if I were to attack his team? What's Team Zenith up to at the moment?"

"They've been cooped up in the Blacksteel Inn ever since their return from the Desert of Silence. However, I learned that they were planning to head out tomorrow to hunt some superior-grade lifeforms," the hunter replied, having a surprisingly clear grasp of Zhang Lie and his team's whereabouts. magic

Long Sheng's eyes gleamed. "Is that so? How arrogant they must be to not lie low after killing someone from the Long clan! Help me find out where they're going. I'll pay you ten times the usual amount," Long Sheng instructed. Indeed, he planned on dealing with Zhang Lie and the rest of Team Zenith at the earliest opportunity.

"I'll let you know immediately!" The hunter's eyes lit up with greed upon hearing Long Sheng's offer. The next moment, she vanished in a puff of smoke.

The next morning, Sun Mengmeng eagerly asked, "Captain, are we returning to the Desert of Silence?"

"No. We'll be heading to the Runic Forest this time."

By now, there were so many hunters in the Desert of Silence that even the superior-grade lifeforms were starting to retreat closer toward the heart of the desert. Unless they were to go deeper into the desert, they would barely find any prey, but it would be too unsafe to go too far in. As such, the Desert of Silence wasn't Zhang Lie's preferred hunting ground.

"The Runic Forest?"

"Yes. As you can tell from its name, there are likely more wood-attuned lifeforms there, and it'll be more suited to Zhou Ying."

"Thank you, Captain." Zhou Ying's eyes turned misty. She wasn't a particularly strong hunter within the group, and because of her personality, she didn't really stand out. As such, she hardly expected that Zhang Lie would direct everyone to the Runic Forest just to get a soulshard for her. "In that case, we'll have to leave soon. It's rather far from the Blacksteel settlement," Fang Yi advised. "And there's more. The Long clan seems to be trying to figure out our whereabouts, so we may need to be wary of them as well!"

"No matter. Let them come: if they're anything like that Long hunter, they might even save us some trouble." Zhang Lie's face turned cold; to him, the hunters of the Long clan were nothing more than walking sacks of soulshards.

The other hunters blinked, then smiled dryly as they prepared to head toward the Runic Forest.

"The Runic Forest? It's a sparsely populated hunting ground—Zhang Lie's really asking to be ambushed."

A skulking shadow, trailing Team Zenith from a distance, began to make a move. She was the female hunter that Long Sheng had been talking to. After tracking Team Zenith for some time, she deduced their final destination by process of elimination.

"The Runic Forest? Dispatch all Long teams to that location. We'll leave immediately!" Long Sheng commanded.

Following his command, the Long clan's hunters set off toward the Runic Forest. They caused such a commotion that even the Blacksteel settlement learned about the news.

Li Sheng sat in a pub. Turning to the person beside him, he whispered, "Are you certain that the Long clan's destination is the Runic Forest?"

"Yes, sir. Before that, we've had a few reports that Zhang Lie's Team Zenith also seems to be heading in that direction," his subordinate reported.

"Hoh, interesting." Li Sheng narrowed his eyes. He believed that Long Sheng wouldn't lead an expedition there for no reason, so his objective must have been Team Zenith.

And if he were bringing so many hunters with him, then he had to have ascertained the culprit behind Long Fei's death.

"As expected of that fellow," Li Sheng murmured to himself.

Zhang Lie had killed or harmed quite a few scions of the major clans: Qin Xiao and Li Hong, then Li Jin and Li Xin. Their backgrounds were all relatively illustrious, and no one had dared to stand up to them, no one but Zhang Lie.

"Does the clan have any instructions for me?" Li Sheng asked.

"The clan head has designated Zhang Lie as a mortal enemy, one whom we have to kill at any cost!" Li Sheng dismissed the hunter and bade him send word back to the real world.

Indeed, the Li clan would try to kill Zhang Lie at every opportunity. If the Long clan were going to attack him, then the Li clan could well take advantage of the opportunity to do the same. Once Zhang Lie died, not only would Li Jin and Li Xin be avenged, his monopoly on white-grub cores would also be no more. With the Long clan as scapegoat, the Li clan wouldn't even have to fear judgment from the military or world federation.

"Advance." Li Sheng himself led a team of Li elites out of the Blacksteel settlement.

The commotion caused by the two clans was far too large to have gone unnoticed by the other hunters.

"This—they're all planning to kill him, aren't they?"

"It looks as though Zhang Lie and his Team Zenith are going to perish in the Runic Forest!"

"What a shame! They won't even be able to participate in the Void Cup." "Don't you know how strong Zhang Lie is? I think there's a chance that Zhang Lie might slaughter them instead!"

"Hah! This is the dimensional world. No matter how strong Zhang Lie is on his own, do you really think he can defeat the combined might of two major clans?"

Many of the Blacksteel hunters, eager to find out just what would happen, also began heading to the Runic Forest.

The Wang, Qin, Zhou, Qian, and He clans didn't make a move; it seemed like an opportune time to strike, but they were rational enough not to do so.

On the other hand, the Yun and Chu clans, who were sorely hoping to establish a cordial relationship with Zhang Lie, naturally dispatched a few reinforcements toward the forest as well.

This was a perfect opportunity to demonstrate their resourcefulness as would-be allies.

Furthermore, within the dimensional world, Chu Feng and Yun Bing were essentially in charge of their respective clans' forces. After sending word to their clans in the real world, they hurriedly led a delegation of elites toward the Runic Forest.

The hunters of Team Zenith had no clue just what sort of commotion they had caused within the dimensional world.

Within the forest, they saw countless trees reaching for the skies, surely decades or centuries old at the very least. Their thick branches were intercrossed and leafy, shrouding the forest underneath a canopy of green. The trees within the forest, unlike those found outside, all seemed to have runic inscriptions running the length of their trunks, giving rise to the name of the forest.

The forest seemed as quiet as a ghost town.

"Captain, is this the Runic Forest?" Sun Xiaowu swallowed a gulp of saliva.

If the Desert of Silence, scoured by wind and sand all day long, were like the sea during a thunderstorm, then the Runic Forest was a calm, unperturbed lake. The surface of the lake was smooth and placid, but beneath it hid startling danger.

"Yes, we're at the Runic Forest," Zhang Lie replied. According to his past memories, even though the Runic Forest wasn't as well-known as the Desert of Silence, it was similarly dangerous.

Many of the lifeforms who made this forest their home were extremely skilled at disguise. There was little light in the forest, much of it having been reflected by the canopy, and a hunter could easily be caught unaware.

"Let's go," Zhang Lie instructed, stepping forward as he sucked in a breath.

Fireflies danced up from where he strode, lighting up the patch of ground surrounding Team Zenith.

From a distance away, however, the entrance to the Runic Forest looked like a gaping maw, swallowing up Zhang Lie and the other members of Team Zenith.

Soon, all they could hear were their own footsteps. However, the silence wasn't destined to last long. Amidst a series of hurried footsteps, Long Sheng appeared over the horizon.

"Young Master Long, we've arrived at the Runic Forest," one of his troops reported.

"Team Zenith's likely already inside. We'll set up an ambush for them out here," Long Sheng commanded.

By the time Team Zenith left the forest, they would be weary and fatigued. That would be the best time for Long Sheng and his troops to strike; even at his full strength, it was unlikely that Zhang Lie could survive such an ambush, let alone when he was weakened.

The Long troops followed Long Sheng's command.

Li Sheng and the other hunters of the Li clan approached the Runic Forest from another direction. They were even more careful than the Long clan, hiding amidst the trees and bushes a fair distance away from the entrance to the forest.

The spectators arranged themselves even farther away from the forest, some even climbing up a nearby tree or two to have a better vantage point. The Long clan was waiting for Team Zenith to leave the forest, whereas the Li clan was waiting for the Long clan's ambush.