Why? How could Zhang Lie be so much stronger than she was? It was true that she didn't have any actual combat experience, and that she mostly leeched off her teammates, but she should have had many more gene fragments than he did, surely? And those gene fragments were directly correlated with her constitution, with how much genetic energy she had!

How could he have flipped her head over heels with just a single blow?

Just how many gene fragments did Zhang Lie possess?

In truth, Zhang Lie still had no mutated gene fragments, but his ten superior gene fragments represented a strength roughly equal to that of a hundred mutated gene fragments. With his extensive combat experience on top, Wang Xiaohua never stood a chance. No one would be able to beat Zhang Lie in terms of constitution if they didn't have superior gene fragments themselves.

It wasn't just Wang Xiaohua who was stupefied by the outcome of the fight, but all the onlookers as well.

"When did the king of the dumps become so strong?"

"Well, are you sure he's the one who became strong? Maybe it's Wang Xiaohua who's always been this weak!"

"If I were her, I'd go crawl into a hole and die. Honestly, how could she lose to someone like him with a single blow?"

No one believed that Zhang Lie, who had resisted any attempt to be dislodged from his position at the bottom of the gene leaderboard, could have suddenly grown so strong. The natural conclusion could only have been that Wang Xiaohua was unexpectedly weak.

Of course, there were bystanders who noticed something amiss.

"Are they all fools? Wang Xiaohua has twenty mutated gene fragments, so how weak could she really be? No: the conclusion must be that Zhang Lie's far stronger than he's letting on!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Xiaohua yowled as though she were a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "That's nonsense! How could trash like him be strong? I was just careless! If I had prepared in advance, I would have pummeled him into the ground!"

The remaining onlookers quickly backed off upon seeing Wang Xiaohua's somewhat crazed expression. She twisted her head and glanced toward the direction in which Zhang Lie had vanished, her eyes narrowing into thin slits. "Zhang Lie, just you wait. I'm not done with you yet!"

Not far outside the settlement, Zhang Lie ducked behind a tree, activated his white-grub soulshard, and encased himself in translucent white armor. His target for today would be a galewolf, a wolf-type lifeform that lived in the Valley of Winds.

Zhang Lie had long since mapped out the dimensional world, and he headed straight for the valley without needing to check his map.

In terms of outer appearance, galewolves were quite similar to regular gray wolves, though they were significantly larger. With all four limbs on the ground, their backs would be at eye level. Despite their intimidating size, however, they were just regular lifeforms.

Zhang Lie didn't need any preparation to handle such prey; the moment he found a pack of galewolves, he rushed straight at them.

The other hunters in the valley all thought that Zhang Lie was going crazy. Usually, to hunt a pack of galewolves, most people would lure them into a narrow pass and kill them one at a time there.

Zhang Lie could only be so daring because of the white-grub soulshard and the superior gene fragments he had obtained. At this stage, he didn't have to fear most regular lifeforms at all.

Despite the wolves' desperate attempt to bite and scratch him, they weren't able to claw away his armor. On the other hand, Zhang Lie was able to wave his sword with abandon, beheading a galewolf with every strike. His immaculate footwork and lethal technique made fighting the pack of galewolves seem like child's play.

In a matter of moments, carcasses were strewn all around him.

A team of hunters, who had witnessed the sight from afar, could only stare at him in shock.

Of course, such a massacre would have produced regular soulshards, but Zhang Lie only clucked his tongue as he picked one up.

Given his recent acquisition of a superior-grade soulshard, these regular-grade soulshards seemed useless in comparison. Only a mutated-grade soulshard, at the very least, could capture his attention.

He raced through the valley, killing every pack of galewolves he came across. After hundreds of kills, he finally heard a deep howl from the distance. As Zhang Lie looked toward the source of the noise, he saw a truck-sized galewolf emerging from afar.

"A mutated-grade lifeform! Haha, it finally appeared!" 

Licking his lips, Zhang Lie rushed forward fearlessly.

The regular galewolves quickly moved out of the way of the impending confrontation.

Clang! Zhang Lie's sword struck the wolf's claws.

With a howl, the mutated-grade galewolf repeatedly swiped at Zhang Lie, but he didn't even flinch. The protection of the white-grub armor was such that he only had to focus on attacking, and attack he did, his sword gleaming as he thrust it toward the wolf's underside.

In a matter of moments, the two of them exchanged hundreds of blows, but the mutated galewolf's claws found no purchase on Zhang Lie's armor. However, Zhang Lie's sword also couldn't penetrate the wolf's dense layer of fur and muscle, and the resistance even caused the blade to snap in half.

"You bastard—that sword cost me 800 points!"

Zhang Lie had overlooked the fact that he was still using the cheapest blade he could afford; it was sharp and strong enough against regular lifeforms, but for a mutated-grade galewolf...

The galewolf almost seemed to cackle as it opened its jaws wide, intending to finish Zhang Lie off with one bite.

"Just because I'm weaponless doesn't mean I can't kill you, you know."

As the galewolf bit down, Zhang Lie's amorphous armor suddenly flowed into the wolf's mouth and began to balloon. In a matter of moments, the galewolf's eyes bulged as its throat swelled.

Pop! After a discomforting stasis, the galewolf's throat finally exploded, separating its head from its body and showering Zhang Lie in blood.

As Zhang Lie crushed the soulshard of a regular galewolf, the will of the world spoke into his mind. [You successfully killed a mutated-grade galewolf and received its soulshard. Soulshard designation: augmentation-type.]

A mutated galewolf's soulshard was particularly useful in the dimensional world. As an augmentation-type soulshard, it was able to increase one's speed without inducing any additional energy consumption. Upon its activation, he would be able to move as fast as lightning for a short period of time.

Zhang Lie had gone to the Valley of Winds to hunt for both gene fragments and this particular soulshard. He hadn't expected that he would be so lucky as to encounter a mutated-grade galewolf so quickly, however.

After its death, the surrounding galewolves all cowered and fled, leaving the carcasses of their mutated- and countless regular-grade comrades behind.

Zhang Lie took out a gigantic pot and a variety of spices and seasoning, then began butchering the carcasses, stripping away their fur and bones. He threw the meat into the pot, added the spices, and poured in a generous quantity of white wine. After letting it stew for three hours, the wolf-meat broth was ready to be consumed.

[For consuming the meat of a galewolf, you received 1 basic gene fragment.]

[For consuming the meat of a mutated-grade galewolf, you received 1 mutated gene fragment.]

...

Zhang Lie: a mortal lifeform

Framework: Foundation, Lv. MAX; Ninecarp Transformation, First Form: Carp

Genes: Basic, 40; Mutated, 10; Superior, 10

Soulshards: White Grub (superior); Galewolf (mutated)

The mutated galewolf had provided him with ten mutated gene fragments. Although there was still a large quantity of galewolf meat left, hunters could only ever get twenty gene fragments of each type from any particular species, so Zhang Lie packed up the rest of the meat and got ready to leave.

He also brought the backbone of the mutated-grade galewolf back with him. Bones from mutated-grade lifeforms made for good crafting materials for weapons, and Zhang Lie was in need of a new one.

When the hunters saw Zhang Lie returning so soon with a huge sack of items, they all began to gossip. [1]

"Oh? The king of the dumps is returning with a big haul, I wonder what it is?"

"White grubs, of course."

The other hunters couldn't help but snicker. "Is he still hunting those stupid grubs?"

"Really, how long is he going to keep doing that? He seemed to have become a little stronger judging by the results of that fight, but he's still repeatedly doing the same things!"

"I heard Wang Xiaohua's going to face him with her whole team next time."

"Well, he asked for it."

"Isn't Wang Xiaohua pretty trashy, though? Does she need her whole team to beat a weakling like him?"

As usual, Zhang Lie ignored the crowd. He placed the sack of galewolf meat on the point-conversion counter and found that it was worth 500 points. He couldn't help but sigh in anticipation: his hardest days were over.

He had previously amassed 1000 points only with three grueling months of work, but now—just one day had netted him 500 points.

With all his preparations in order, it was time for the next step.