Ultragenic Warlord

Chapter 393: Reappearance of the Sura

The envoy didn't deny the sura king's words. "Indeed, your majesty! We bring this suit to you with an agenda in mind, but we have been nothing but truthful in our recounting of the events that have transpired."

The sura king clutched his armrest. "From your description, it looks like the humans of Qi really do have an inflated opinion of themselves."

"Exactly right, your highness! The most arrogant among them slaughtered us and took over our territory without paying any heed to the sura. Furthermore, he apparently caught a sura king alive and is hanging him from the city walls. According to the humans we've interrogated, his name is Zhang Lie, and the humans are calling him the champion of mankind!"

The gathered sura elders all began to laugh. "Champion of mankind? You must be joking—no sura king could be defeated by a pitiful human."

"It's well-known that mankind is the weakest of all the races in the second realm. How could they defeat a king of the sura? What a ridiculous claim!"

"You must be shocked silly—that simply can't be true."

The representative from the alien race cleared his throat politely. "There's something very strange about Zhang Lie. He doesn't seem like a weak human at all; rather, he might be a member of another race who's currently taking on the guise of a human."

"Oh?" The sura king seemed quite interested. "This Zhang Lie seems like an interesting fellow indeed."

Upon hearing this, the envoy continued inciting the sura into action. "Your highness, this Zhang Lie fellow has also insulted the sura more than once. He claimed that even a sura king wouldn't be able to face him for more than a few blows; even all the sura kings together wouldn't be his match! What's more, he even claimed that the times were changing, and that mankind was about to take over the second realm!"

Upon hearing these words, the sura in attendance at the palace quickly became enraged.

"How could mankind be so insolent? Your majesty, I humbly ask that you call for this arrogant human's head to be fetched back to you at once!"

"To think a human would dare besmirch the honor of the sura! Your majesty, I'm willing to kill this human and all his relatives myself!"

"Have the sura deteriorated to such an extent that they would permit humans to criticize them? My liege, we'll teach them a lesson!"

Despite his officials' reactions, the sura king himself seemed rather composed. "Although I'm not sure about the veracity of this representative's story, it is true that there was recently a sura kingdom destroyed by a human. It's very possible that the culprit behind this was Zhang Lie!"

An elder asked in surprise, "Your majesty, do you think that this Zhang Lie can really defeat a sura king?"

The king stood up. "We'll find out once we find him, won't we?"

"Y-Your majesty, will you be seeking him out yourself?"

"I've been wanting to take a stroll, at any rate. Don't you wonder just what kind of human would be able to take so much land from these other races?"

Zhang Lie didn't know that he had once again become a target, though he wouldn't have cared if he had known—unless he had finally caught the attention of the asura emperor himself, the strongest fighter of the sura clan, who had hardly been seen in the last millennium in the second realm.

He was rushing to the Yeluo Valley with Hong Xi.

As they ran, Hong Xi asked, "Master, why the hurry?"

"We've already used up most of the sura poison, and I feel like there'll be a large battle soon."

"Master, haven't we chased the enemy races far from our reach? What else could possibly threaten Qi?"

"Let's hope I'm just being overcautious."

After all, hanging the sura king's body on the walls of Qi would surely lead to retribution from the sura, and Zhang Lie wanted to be prepared for any attacks that might result.

The best scenario would be if the sura didn't make a move, but if they did, Zhang Lie wouldn't have to worry as long as he had a stock of the sura poison on hand.

Because the sura poison was difficult to concoct and not particularly useful, Zhang Lie hadn't managed to secure a large supply of it, but now that the Yeluo clan were properly motivated by the soulshards that Zhang Lie had promised them, their productivity had increased greatly. Zhang Lie found himself with five or six times the quantity of poison that he had collected last time.

If he used it appropriately, it would be more than sufficient to destroy one or two more sura kingdoms. After all, the reason the sura were so strong was because of the strength of their leaders and the bloodlust of their fighters. The sura poison from the Yeluo clan would easily decimate the ordinary fighters, whereas Zhang Lie himself could easily take care of the sura kings and generals.

Zhang Lie traded the useless soulshards he had amassed over this period to the Yeluo for the poison, then left hurrying in the opposite direction with Hong Xi.

Meanwhile, Qi was welcoming its third wave of enemies. The city walls had just been repaired when a new wave of enemies was spotted over the horizon.

"Something's wrong! The sura are here, the sura are here again!"

Qi entered a state of total defense as Xiao Zhengyang and a number of hunters observed the approaching forces from the city walls.

Xiao Zhengyang's face turned ugly. Despite the fact that there were no longer any enemy races around, much of Qi's fighting force was still recuperating, and they didn't have the numbers to defend against the sura.

"Where's Zhang Lie?" Xiao Zhengyang asked fretfully.

Zhou Ming replied, "He left with his team, apparently for some important purpose or another."

"What? Why is it that he's never around when these things happen? Has he been waiting for the situation to turn dire before stepping in?" someone wondered.

The sura approached, stopping right before they were in range of the humans' arrows. When they saw the king of the sura hanging from the city wall, with all sorts of weapons sticking out of his rear, the sura began to frown. Was this meant to frighten them?

An elder stepped forward, flanked with two guards. He infused his voice with genetic energy and said calmly, "Call the human you call Zhang Lie out. Our king would like to meet with him."

Xiao Zhengyang stepped forward. "I'm the governor of Qi, Xiao Zhengyang. May I ask on what grounds you're requesting Zhang Lie's presence?"

The elder replied, "Are you Zhang Lie?"

"No, I'm the governor of Qi—"

"If you're not Zhang Lie, scram! Tell him to come out and face us."

Xiao Zhengyang's face turned glum. Was his position as governor meaningless? In the past, the governor had been the strongest hunter in a human city, and the first thing any invader would do was try to get rid of him. Now, however, compared to Zhang Lie, he felt like a farce.

Governor Xiao decided to stall. "For what purpose are you summoning Zhang Lie? Unless you state your intentions clearly, I won't call him out!"

The elder snorted. "Who gave you humans the courage to talk back? Send him out, or I'll level Qi!"

One of the sura began to laugh loudly. "Looks like this Zhang Lie fellow isn't anything special—he's just a coward!"

Upon hearing this, however, the hunters of Qi all began to frown. "What? Repeat what you said!"

To the hunters of Qi, Zhang Lie was their savior and an amazing hero, and they wouldn't allow anyone to besmirch his name.

More of the sura began to laugh. "Oh, are all of you angry now? I don't think I've ever seen a human dare to talk back to me!"

"Oh my, should I be scared of you puny humans? What would you do, bite us? You'd sooner break your own teeth!"

"I'll repeat it as many times as you want: if Zhang Lie doesn't dare come out of the city, he's nothing but a yellow-bellied coward!"

Some hunters of Qi were about to charge out to confront the sura when Xiao Zhengyang hurriedly stopped them. He shouted back, "Zhang Lie isn't in the city. Would you be willing to wait? He should be returning shortly."