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Chapter 234: Heart of the Battle

Furthermore, communications were only active between competitors within each quadrant, so those competitors who were eliminated were unable to reveal just how strong the Earthlings were. In addition, only one team would be able to receive the nightdemons\' boon, so it was only natural that even the search teams would be wary of each other.

This made Zhang Lie\'s point-gathering mission proceed much more smoothly, but he would only be able to keep it up for two or three more waves of pursuers. After that, based on how many points they had alone, any team would realize that these Earthlings weren\'t a force to be trifled with.

In less than an hour, Team Zenith had earned 379 points, putting them seventh on the leaderboard and rousing the nightdemons to anger. Not only had the competitors they sent out been unable to handle Zhang Lie and the others, they had just ended up as free points to strengthen Team Zenith!

At the very least, these competitors had managed to identify approximately where Zhang Lie and his team were. The nightdemons increased the bounty on the Earthlings, causing the pursuers to search for them even more frantically.

At the same time, Pu Kui herself joined in the search with her team.

Because this was a free-for-all, even the hunters who weren\'t affiliated with the nightdemons began to gather around where Team Zenith was located because of the density of hunters there. As a result, all of a sudden, Zhang Lie and the others found themselves at the center of a gathering group of hunters.

Deep within the forest, Zhang Lie and the others were having a quick meeting. Surprisingly, the hunters were excited rather than fearful.

"Captain, I think there must be around fifty teams in our vicinity!" Zhou Ying called out.

"Fifty!" Chu Feng murmured. How had the situation devolved to such an extent?

"Shall we retreat for now?" Yun Bing asked cautiously, understanding very well just what being surrounded here could mean for them. The nightdemons were known to be vicious, and there was no need to take such a risk.

"We\'ll certainly retreat, but this situation can also be an opportunity for us if we play our cards right," Sun Mengmeng suggested.

"Indeed, we can\'t retreat so easily. We definitely have something to gain here, with so many teams around us," Fang Yi added.

This would be an opportunity to collect all the points they needed to advance, given the density of teams in the area, so unless they truly felt threatened, it would be far more preferable not to retreat.

"Well, Captain? What do you propose?" Sun Xiaowu looked at Zhang Lie in excitement, not seeming to think much of the dozens of teams in the vicinity.

Chu Feng and Yun Bing were watching this sight with flabbergasted astonishment. The hunters of Team Zenith really didn\'t think much of these competitors; were they so strong that they thought they could handle them all?

Zhang Lie thought for a moment, then decided on a plan. "We could fight them head-on, but there\'s no reason to. Yun Bing and Chu Feng haven\'t been with us long enough to cooperate seamlessly, so there might be some accidents. Instead, let\'s retreat to the outer boundary and take things from there."

Zhang Lie\'s final decision left Chu Feng and Yun Bing\'s faces flushed. Were the two of them being a burden to everyone else?

"I\'m sorry. What if the two of us were to drop—"

"No, no, don\'t take it that way—we\'re all a team!" Zhang Lie interrupted Yun Bing. The other hunters trusted Zhang Lie, and they wouldn\'t doubt his judgment. Further, as had been mentioned, fighting head-on wasn\'t the best strategy. Given how many hunters were gathering around the area, it was certain that a big fight was about to erupt—gathered here were teams searching for Zhang Lie, as well as teams hoping to acquire more points for themselves.

Quite a few of these teams were just barely weaker than the competitors from the four prime races, and it was evident just what sort of mess would result from the congregation of all these teams. As a result, it made sense to escape from the encirclement and to catch any stragglers by the boundary of the fight.

With Zhang Lie\'s guidance and protection, the hunters swiftly made it out of the encirclement, barely before the search parties organized by the nightdemons arrived.

Among them, the dark spirits and blood demon teams were on rather poor terms, having come to blows before the tournament. The tension among the teams gathered at the center of the encirclement was palpable.

As the dark spirits approached, the leader of the blood demons strode forward with a smirk on his face.

"Who\'s this, the trash collectors? You\'ve heard of all the teams that the Earthlings managed to defeat, haven\'t you? I\'m surprised you still had the courage to come! Go on, scram—unless you want to lose both your reputation and your lives!" the blood demon leader cackled.

"Oho? It seems like all you can do is talk. Don\'t you remember what happened the last time we clashed? Your clan had to send an elder to rescue you! Well, there won\'t be any elders here—if you want to embarrass yourself, go somewhere else!" the dark spirit leader retorted.

The other search parties, having found nothing of import, gathered around to watch the teams fight. With an audience around, neither team leader was willing to back down. If not for some hunters in the audience dissuading them in time, they might already have begun to fight.

After all, they were all allied with the nightdemons, and it would be ludicrous for them to start fighting and hurting their own forces while the Earthlings got away scot-free.

Of course, others in the crowd were more than happy to take this opportunity to start a conflict. Just as they were about to disperse in search of Zhang Lie once more, a thin black needle suddenly shot out from the direction of the blood demons, piercing the head of one of the members of the dark spirits, who was turning around.

"Be careful!" someone shouted, but it was too late. The member of the dark spirits who had been attacked slumped over and fell to the ground.

"Kill them all!" The leader of the dark spirits whirled around and commanded his subordinates to attack as he charged forward.

Opposite them, the leader of the blood demons stared in surprise at the sight, unable to get a word out before the leader of the dark spirits reached him. "You think I\'m afraid of you?! Kill them!"

With a similar command, he charged forward with his subordinates, marking the start of the fight that would ultimately drag in all the hunters in the area. Of course, most of the hunters present, with the obvious exception of the two fighting teams, were rather clear-headed.

Many of them knew each other, and they were all in a state of precarious balance, one which was broken by the influx of teams who were there hunting for points.

It was true that the nightdemons were strong and influential, but no matter what, they wouldn\'t be able to dominate over the entirety of the teams in the forest quadrant. There were certainly many races who didn\'t fear the nightdemons one whit; as soon as they noticed that a fight had broken out, they rushed toward the scene to try to get as many points as they could, dragging the other hunters nearby down with them.

The situation spiraled out of control.

It was then that Pu Kui arrived with the nightdemons; by then, there was nothing that they could do about the massive battle that had broken out. "What happened here?!" Pu Kui exclaimed.