Chapter 20: Violent Confrontation  

"[Thunder God's Wrath]!"

With a yell, Qin Xiao's polearm blazed with lightning, frying countless scorpions ahead of him.

During the slaughter, because Qin Xiao had been the last to reach the cave entrance, all the best positions had been taken, and his luck was unusually bad. He had only killed a few mutated-grade venombane scorpions, let alone a superior-grade one, and had only managed to obtain a few regular-grade soulshards. As a result, when he saw this superior-grade scorpion, he hurried over with his team.

Of course, he didn't attack yet.

In the dimensional world, it was the hunter or team who scored the last hit on a lifeform that would be rewarded with its spoils—its flesh, with its associated gene fragments, and its soulshard, if one were to condense.

Superior-grade lifeforms, as the strongest grade of lifeforms in the first realm of the dimensional world, possessed significant vitality and constitution, and wouldn't be so easily killed.

Qin Xiao was waiting for this superior-grade scorpion to enter its death throes.

"Chu Lan, watch Qin Xiao carefully for me. If he gets within twenty meters, attack him!" Of course, as his old rival, Chu Feng knew what Qin Xiao was thinking. Almost as soon as Qin Xiao began moving closer, he murmured a few words to a female hunter by his side.

"Yes, Chu Feng!" She, along with two of her subordinates, stopped chasing after the superior-grade scorpion and went to waylay Qin Feng instead.

In truth, Chu Feng was hiding his true power as well. He displayed neither his best techniques nor his most useful soulshards.

The Void Cup, hosted once every five years, was right about to occur, and it made sense to hide as much of his strength as he could.

Furthermore, he knew quite well that Qin Xiao wasn't the only one eyeing this superior-grade lifeform. Yun Bing's team, as well as those of the three corporation heads, had all drawn closer.

He certainly didn't want to waste his efforts in vain. As he commanded his subordinates to increase the thickness of the wind walls, he activated an illusion-type soulshard to hide what was happening in the enclosed area from the outside. Then, he began whittling down the scorpion's health with only his [Hurricane Blade] and [The Whispering Wind].

The curious sight caused a certain hunter, watching from a fair distance away, to begin smirking. He was clad in black, hooded, and stealthed, and it was impossible to make out his features. As the fight continued within the rock cave, the black-clad man scattered an acid-green powder into the waterfall.

Clearly, he was hoping to cause a commotion.

Chu Feng was still patiently fighting the scorpion, but his opponent was getting much more fed up.

Clang! His blade again struck the superior-grade scorpion's stinger, and its fury was palpable. Indeed, the venombane scorpion was completely enraged—it had been trapped within this enclosed region and persistently attacked by an annoying foe. Suddenly, it expelled a haze of poisonous mist and made its move.

A violet flash suddenly blazed by Chu Feng's nose, causing his back to erupt in cold sweat.

What was that? It was way too fast! So fast that he had caught only the barest hint of motion, so fast that he, despite all his gene fragments, couldn't respond in time!

Chu Feng hadn't even been able to see the mechanism behind the scorpion's attack by the time the violet flash reached his eyes. The only reason he was able to avoid it was because of his body's instinctive response. However, just because he could do so didn't mean his subordinates could.

One of them, struck by the violet flash, had his head suddenly rot and fall off his neck, his skull turning to powder as it struck the ground. The entire process had happened within three seconds, and no blood or brain matter was visible anywhere. His head had simply decayed away, and his skull had crumbled away to a fine powder.

What horrifying poison!

Even worse, the violet beam didn't lose any momentum. It shot forward into the hunters behind him, and all those who were struck by the beam immediately began to decay. The area enclosed by the wind walls was now furnished by a carpet of ash.

"That must be [Netherworld's Gaze]!" the black-clad man murmured to himself, stiffening as he saw the sight.

[Netherworld's Gaze] was a lethal skill that consumed much of the venombane scorpion's poison and vitality.

In exchange, the terrifying attack would cause instantaneous decay in everything in hit, and was particularly corrosive?against living matter. Even a hunter who had a hundred superior gene fragments wouldn't be able to take the blow head-on.

"[Wings of Wind]!" Since he was in mortal danger, Chu Feng couldn't risk hiding his best skills any longer. As he dodged the violet light, genetic energy poured out of his body.

A pair of wind-green wings unfurled from his back. With another soulshard activation, a long, thin blade, almost like a rapier, appeared in his left palm. [Wings of Wind], Nature's Thorn, Chu Feng's signature move and sword, finally made their appearance.

"[Tempest Cut]!" Jade-green sword energy arced toward the scorpion with the fury of a tempest.

As it hit the scorpion's stinger, a small piece of exoskeleton, about the size of a fingernail, chipped off the scorpion. magic

With Nature's Thorn in his left hand, and a long blade in his right, Chu Feng seemed to have morphed into a howling tempest himself. While it defended against his attack, he rushed toward the scorpion, swinging his blades.

Amidst the whirlwind of attacks, the venombane scorpion let out a small cry, had a few more pieces of its exoskeleton chipped off, and again went back into stealth. Chu Feng chased after the scorpion, but the moment right before it vanished, the scorpion shot out another [Netherworld's Gaze].

"Be careful!" After seeing how horrifying the effects of the skill were, Chu Feng naturally had to swerve to dodge the attack. As he called out a warning, he flapped his wings, barely avoiding the ray.

With Chu Feng's advance warning, none of his subordinates fell prey to it this time around. However, one of the wind walls had vanished entirely after being struck by the attack. Seeing the enclosure break apart, Qin Xiao's body crackled with lightning. With a yell, he streaked toward the scorpion like a bolt of lightning.

"Halt them!" Chu Lan shouted, seeing Qin Xiao and his team approach.

Amidst the clash of genetic energy and steel, the Qin and Chu hunters began to face off with each other. The Zhou, Li, and Zhao teams also rushed into the enclosure, turning the battlefield into a mess. As everyone was distracted by the fighting, a translucent cloud of mist wafted over the battlefield and through the wind walls.

Within the enclosure, the superior-grade venombane scorpion had gone berserk, shooting off [Netherworld's Gaze] indiscriminately with a wave of its stinger. Like a web, the death rays criss-crossed the enclosure, killing yet another half-dozen elites from the Chu clan.

Then, the venombane scorpion went back into stealth.

Chu Feng began to frown. This superior-grade venombane scorpion was the smallest of all the superior-grade creatures he had fought. Coupled with its stealth ability, it was more than able to match Chu Feng's wind-attuned speed.

Even he was having a hard time dealing with the scorpion. It was difficult to catch, and lethal when it struck!

Suddenly, he noticed the mist drifting into the enclosure.

"Yun Bing, you came!" Chu Feng didn't even cast her a look as he continued chasing after the scorpion, as if he had long since guessed that Yun Bing would have been the first hunter in.

Yun Bing smiled as she morphed back into a human. "It looks like you need some help."

"Help? Shall we call it cooperation instead?" Chu Feng smiled, seeming to have come to the same conclusion.

"Cooperation? How do you want to split the spoils?" she asked.

"We won't try to hinder each other. Whoever defeats the scorpion takes it all."

"Deal!" Yun Bing nodded, returned to mist, and rushed toward the battlefield.

At the same time, Chu Lan, who had been eyeing Qin Xiao throughout the fight, successfully managed to stop him from approaching the scorpion. However, she was incapable of stopping the three corporations' teams from heading in while she blocked Qin Xiao.

"[Cloudmire]!" On the battlefield, Yun Bing waved her blade, expelling the mists around her. The fleeing superior-grade scorpion suddenly stiffened as the mists surrounded it instead.

The mists seemed to make the air denser, preventing the scorpion from skittering as quickly as before. Moreover, despite their evanescent appearance, the scorpion couldn't seem to cut its way out of the mists.

"[Tempest Slash]!" Chu Feng certainly wouldn't give up such an opportunity; almost immediately as the scorpion became entrapped, he crossed his two blades and swung both at the scorpion, sending a cross-shaped slash of wind toward it. At the same time, he swooped down on it with a flap of his wings.

Suddenly, two mutated-grade scorpions appeared out of nowhere and took the vicious blow, exploding into pieces as they did so.

The superior-grade venombane scorpion let out another desperate cry, and a dozen mutated-grade scorpions, like loyal soldiers, rushed out from the depths of the cave and began harassing Chu Feng.

"Scram!" In anger, Chu Feng swung his swords again, killing the mutated-grade scorpions before rushing toward the superior-grade one.

"[Thundercloud Strike]!" But before he could advance, a sword wreathed in mists had stabbed the superior-grade scorpion's body. With a distinct crack, a burst of dark violet blood shot out of the scorpion's body, and it vanished from sight.

This time, it had vanished for good, and even Chu Feng's [The Whispering Wind] couldn't sense its position.

Just then, the teams led by the three corporation heads had smashed the remaining wind walls apart. Together with Qin Xiao, they rushed toward the heart of the battlefield.

All six clans were together again, but their gathering was hardly as peaceable as before. The teams of hunters, their swords raised, billowing clouds of genetic energy swirling around them, were trapped in a stalemate.

By the waterfall, the black-clad man's smile deepened.