Ultragene Warlord

Chapter 57: Handing Out Soulshards

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“Not bad.
Do you have any more?”

Zhang Lie's face was the epitome of greed.
But under these circumstances, no matter how excessive his demands were, Li Jin could only agree to them with a smile.

“You want mutated-grade soulshards too?”

“Of course! Those are still points, after all.”

Li Jin's eyebrow twitched, but he opened up his soulspace again.
In another blinding flash of light, more than thirty mutated-grade soulshards, each like a resplendent gem, appeared in front of Zhang Lie.

This time, he was too lazy to even inspect each one.
Instead, he swept them all up into his potbellied-toad pouch.
This was essentially all the profit that Zhang Lie could extract from Li Jin.

“Very good.
For your sincerity, I'll spare your life!”

Zhang Lie's sword gleamed as he stabbed down past Li Jin's chest and splintered his genetic core.
From that moment on, Li Jin would forever be a cripple.

“No! Why?! I've done everything you told me to! Why?!” Li Jin roared in rage.

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“Of course it's because I don't want you to seek revenge.
You're not a threat to me, but it would be quite annoying.
And now, I won't have to worry.
See you around!”

Zhang Lie whistled as he walked away, quickly vanishing from Li Jin's sight, leaving him alone in the forest, howling, “Bastard, kill me! I dare you to kill me!”

By then, Zhang Lie was too far away to hear his screams. 

He headed back to the settlement to deposit his spoils for the day.
Coincidentally, outside the settlement, he found quite a few black-cloaked hunters dressed exactly like him.
He was currently stealthed, and when he walked closer, he immediately discovered their identity.

“Fang Yi, Yang Ze, Sun Mengmeng…
what are the three of you doing?”

The three of them had been hiding by the settlement grounds and scoping out the Li clan's movements, and the sudden voice that seemed to come from midair gave them all a big shock.

However, they quickly realized that that voice was very familiar.

“Captain! I recognize your voice, it has to be you!”

“Are you safe now?”

Fang Yi and Sun Mengmeng's concerned tone left Zhang Lie a little confused.
“What trouble could I be in?”

“Weren't you caught by the Li clan?” Sun Mengmeng asked.

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“How did you guys know about this?”

Fang Yi was speechless.
“News about the Li clan's mobilization was spread throughout the settlement! How could we not hear about it?”

Zhang Lie patted his head.
“Ah, that's right, it would have caused a big commotion.
In that case, what are you doing here?”

Sun Mengmeng replied, “What else? Of course we're trying to divert the Li clan's attention! How are you? Were you injured?”

Zhang Lie shook his head, seeming to have guessed something.
“No wonder Li Jin was trying to retreat! You made a ruckus somewhere, didn't you? Alright, alright, rein everyone back in! We can't bully the Li clan too much, can we?”

Zhang Lie's words confused the three hunters.
In truth, they couldn't imagine what dreadful odds he had faced, alone against a veritable horde of Li hunters.
So what was with this talk of bullying?

“We'll talk back at the inn,” Zhang Lie added, then began walking toward the settlement gates..

While the hunters didn't quite understand the situation, the fact that Zhang Lie was so unperturbed must have meant that there was nothing to worry about.
They immediately recalled the other three hunters to the Blackgold Inn.

It was when they saw the five resplendent, egg-sized superior-grade soulshards lying on a table that they realized what Zhang Lie had meant by 'bullying'.

They gaped at Zhang Lie's spoils.

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Was there something wrong with the news that they had heard? Could it be that the captain had surrounded the Li clan with his own hunters instead? No, that couldn't be! The entire settlement was in an uproar about the Li clan's mobilization: how could there have been a mistake?

“Captain, how did you…
What happened?!” Fang Yi could hardly believe his eyes.

Zhang Lie smiled.
“I just took advantage of two opposing forces.”

Sun Mengmeng suddenly cried out, “The blood ants of the Bloodcrystal Valley? You managed to provoke a superior-grade blood ant into attacking Li Jin?”

Zhang Lie nodded.
“Good guess.
 Li Jin wasn't weak, but his experience as a commander was far too limited, and I was able to take advantage of his naivete.
I destroyed his genetic core, and about four-fifths of his elites were killed in the fight against the blood ants.
I suppose soon there'll only be five great clans in the Blacksteel settlement—or, I suppose, four.”

The gathered hunters glanced at their captain in shock, hearing his words but not being able to process them.
Was he still human? He alone had caused such massive destruction amidst the ranks of the Li clan?

Zhang Lie ignored their stupefied looks.

“You all did well causing a distraction, and you made Li Jin panic near the very end.
As the team leaders, Fang Yi, Sun Mengmeng, take your pick of one of these five soulshards!”

What? Surely they must have misheard?

These were superior-grade soulshards, so rare and precious that there were never any on the trading post, not that they would ever be able to afford any.
Zhang Lie would let them pick one, just like that?

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“Isn't this t-too much?” Fang Yi stammered.

When he had volunteered to take action against the Li clan to distract them from Zhang Lie, he didn't anticipate that this would be the reward.

“Don't look so shocked.
Don't you think I understand that you could well have perished given the risk you took? You might even have implicated your families! Your willingness to help me out despite such a massive risk to yourselves is worth far more to me than a superior-grade soulshard.”

A moment of stunned silence passed, then two.
They were just ordinary hunters trying to grow strong, still nothing more than weaklings on the pecking order.
What they had accomplished at risk to their own lives was something that barely affected Zhang Lie, but he understood their struggles and was rewarding them for it.

From that moment, they truly developed a sense of loyalty to Zhang Lie.

Not any ordinary leader would be willing to hand over such precious commodities to their subordinates.
In the dimensional world, where strength was power, who would give up such a rare source of strength? Familial ties had been broken for less.

Fang Yi picked up the obsidian spear with the snake motif, and Sun Mengmeng the sunbird bow.

“Captain, I, Sun Mengmeng, pledge my eternal loyalty to you!”

This was a superior-grade soulshard, a superior-grade soulshard, something that even some among the top fifty hunters in the settlement didn't have! And now, she had one of her own, one that was particularly compatible with her own attack style.

This particular soulshard would double—no, triple, at least—her strength.
In the past, she would have to work together with her teammates to kill a few strong mutated-grade lifeforms, but now, with superior gene fragments and this superior-grade armament, she thought she would be able to kill them alone with just one arrow.

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