Ultragene Warlord

Chapter 261: Top Six

The next match was between Sun Mengmeng and Lianna of the aquatic.
Even before the match began, the crowd had already begun to murmur: Lianna was water-attuned and Sun Mengmeng was fire-attuned, so this match would surely be interesting.

“Sun Mengmeng, you'll fight me at full strength, won't you? What happens in this arena stays in this arena!”

“Of course, Princess Lianna.
I won't go easy on you!”

“In that case, let's begin!” Lianna activated her genetic energy.
A conch-like object by her chest began to glow, forming a patch of ocean around her.

Sun Mengmeng didn't dare take Lianna lightly.
Almost as she activated her item, Sun Mengmeng cast [Black Sun], forming a cordon of purplish-black flame around her.
Finally, she activated her most important soulshards for battle, transforming from a young woman to a fierce warrior with a chitinous carapace, wreathed in black flame.

“[Netherworld's Gaze]!” Sun Mengmeng shot out tens of arrows toward Lianna.

“[The Lily Blooms]!” Lianna splayed out her hands, and a gorgeous patch of water lilies came to life by her feet.
These lilies were large but intricate, and covered in a crystalline sheen that made them resemble delicate pieces of art.

Sun Mengmeng's hail of arrows struck the water lilies, leaving a few smoking craters behind, but were ultimately unable to penetrate the multilayered petals that protected Lianhua.

 “Take this—[Netherworld's Torrential Flame]!” A frightening fan of flames poured out from Sun Mengmeng's bow, an attack far stronger than the volley of shots she had activated just prior.
The strength of her attack shocked Lianna and the gathered crowd.

Most astoundingly, the flames didn't seem to stop pouring out of her bow, because Sun Mengmeng's hands were still moving as fast as ever.
While she still had stamina, this frightening attack wouldn't come to an end.

The sight boggled the spectators, and even Lianna was awed by her strength.
However, as Sun Mengmeng's opponent, she certainly couldn't take this attack lightly.

“[Kingdom of Water]!” As her conch shell glowed with pure blue light, seawater poured out of it, rejuvenating the injured water lilies and summoning countless merwarriors from deep within the ocean.

The water lilies, unfortunately, perished quickly to Sun Mengmeng's neverending torrent of flame.
The merwarriors charged forward at the rain of black flame, though they too were destroyed almost immediately as the fire landed on them.
However, they could be reformed endlessly with Lianna's water-attuned genetic energy.

As a result, the two competitors ended up in a sort of equilibrium; the winner would be determined by who could outlast the other.

Zhang Lie stopped paying attention to the battle.
At this point, it was clear who would win: Sun Mengmeng.
Lianna certainly wouldn't be a match for her when it came to stamina.
Sun Mengmeng had started off as nothing more than an ordinary girl from the capital.
In order to keep up with Zhang Lie, she had put in more work than any ten normal hunters combined.

From what Zhang Lie could recall, she spent at least ten hours a day practicing her archery and refining her genetic energy.
Even compared to the other members of Team Zenith, she worked harder than everyone but Fang Yi and Yang Ze.

Furthermore, her stamina was boosted by her limit fragments and her ten peak gene fragments, so there was no way she could lose.

The spectators were raptly observing the confrontation between the two hunters.
Their match seemed more like two armies clashing against each other, and the sight was astounding to behold.
After all, they were only first-realm hunters, and there were second-realm hunters in the audience who couldn't claim to be able to do as much.

The fight persisted for a surprising amount of time.
By the time Lianna surrendered, her face pale and gasping, they had fought for one whole hour. 

Neither combatant was able to risk changing tactics on the fly without getting hit by their opponent's attack, so the match had turned into one of pure endurance.
And after one whole hour, no matter how impressive their techniques were, the spectators were getting rather tired.

When they heard Lianna surrender, quite a few hunters even heaved a sigh of relief.

As the spectators murmured to each other, Sun Mengmeng shook Lianna's hand as she returned to the humans' waiting room.

“Sister, congratulations! You're at least among the top six competitors in the Void Cup, and you could even get into the top three if you win the next fight!” Sun Xiaowu shouted the moment she returned.

“Congratulations on advancing, Sun Mengmeng!” the other hunters of Team Zenith all called out.

Sun Mengmeng thanked them all before looking toward Zhang Lie, wanting to get his opinion on how the fight had gone.

“You played excellently to your strengths.
Good work, Sun Mengmeng!”

“Thank you, Captain!” She smiled happily when she obtained the praise she was hoping for.

After Sun Mengmeng's fight, the next few matches would be rather tough.
Zhou Ying was the next competitor up; her opponent was Xing Bai.
Based on Xing Hui's match against Fang Yi, Zhang Lie didn't give her more than a 30% chance of winning.

After all, Zhou Ying's opponent favored brute strength, whereas Zhou Ying herself focused on deterring her opponent.
Zhou Ying's methods would be extremely effective against a weaker opponent, but Zhang Lie expected that Xing Bai would be able to overcome it all with brute strength alone.

As expected, Zhou Ying lasted only a minute against Xing Bai.
She exchanged three blows with him; Xing Bai destroyed all her vines during that period of time, then forced her to the side of the arena, where she had no choice but to admit defeat.

Against Xing Bai's frightening, oppressive strength, she had no recourse; indeed, most of the other hunters from Team Zenith would also have lost to him.
It was evident that Xing Bai himself also possessed a few peak gene fragments, and as the young leader of the starbeasts, his strength could only be greater than even that of Xing Hui.

After these two matches, the remaining ones weren't very exciting.
Pu Kui barely won against Xing Yan of the starbeasts after using a variety of secret techniques and potions, and Yang Ze naturally overwhelmed Pu Feng in the last match of the day.

After all, Pu Feng was only the third-ranked competitor among the nightdemons, and he had only managed to make it into the top twelve from sheer luck alone.
It was inevitable that he would end up facing an opponent he couldn't overcome, but such a high rank wasn't anything to scoff at.

With Yang Ze's victory, the top six competitors of the Void Cup were established: Zhang Lie, Fang Yi, Sun Mengmeng, Yang Ze, Xing Bai, and Pu Kui.

Of these six competitors, an overwhelming four came from the human race, an outcome that shocked the gathered crowd.
No other race had managed such a feat in the entirety of the Void Cup; the members of Team Zenith were creating history at that very moment.

In fact, if Zhang Lie were to face Xing Bai in the subsequent match, there was a very good chance that the humans would end up monopolizing the top three spots in the Void Cup, causing Zhang Lie to become the idol of all the hunters in China, Earth, and even the Solar System at large.

Indeed, without Zhang Lie, there wouldn't be a Team Zenith, and the human race surely wouldn't have been able to come up with limit fragments.
And without any of those factors, the humans certainly wouldn't have been able to uniformly enter the top hundred, let alone have the chance to monopolize the top three.

Whether they would succeed would have to await the schedule to be released tomorrow, but their successes today were already well worth celebrating.
Yan Long and Su Feng had already set up a banquet at the Nike Hotel by the time Zhang Lie and the others returned.

In the past, thinking that Zhang Lie was a little arrogant, Yan Long had avoided heaping praise on him to his face, but given his superlative performance in the Void Cup, Yan Long couldn't care less anymore.