Chapter 685: Lilith's mysterious discovery
Lilith had seen all kinds of skills throughout her life and among those skills were definitely not lacking some that could simply be described as heaven-defying skills.
Among all the existences she had met so far, be it Lower Existences or Higher Existences, the existence with the highest number of heaven-defying skills was undoubtedly the man who stood next to her physically and in her heart emotionally; Bai Zemin.
The skills of Bai Zemin, besides being extremely powerful and destructive to the point of inflicting fear just by the aura of their activation, were so well complemented that when one was used in conjunction with another the result of the stronger skill would be far more brilliant or terrifying than normal.
Bai Zemin was undoubtedly the existence that in the eyes of Lilith had the highest chance of reaching the true perfection in both, body and soul, and finally unveiling the mysteries of the cosmos.
After having met Bai Zemin and following his records with every step he took, Lilith thought that she definitely could not be so surprised by another existence, let alone a Lower Existence. However, she was clearly wrong.
As she watched the terrifying power with which the group of humans before her burst out pushing hundreds of thousands of enemies back with at least 5 times the previous speed, Lilith's eyes flashed with astonishment impossible to hide.
She silently activated a skill and two small magic circles of a slightly darker color than the natural ruby color of her eyes and immediately noticed several auras surrounding every fighter, mage, assassin, and archer in the group.
"They are all linked to you. More like, it's as if they're using you as fuel..."
"What?"
Bai Zemin looked at Lilith, who was glaring at the surroundings.
Lilith deactivated her skill and asked in a serious voice, "Little brother Zemin, try to check if you can break your connection with them?"
Bai Zemin nodded as he perceived Lilith's serious voice and quickly focused on the several tens of threads touching his soul. He tried to sever the connection with one and it didn't take him long to realize that if he wanted to he could easily crush each thread at will.
"Yes, I can do that."
Lilith sighed in relief and nodded slowly, "That's good.... That's good."
"Lilith, what's going on with Xia Ya's skill? How can there be such an unbalanced skill like this?" Bai Zemin frowned as he asked in a low voice that was easily swallowed up by the explosions, shouts, and shrieks from the battlefield.
However, Lilith shook her head in response, "Don't ask me. This is the first time I've heard of or seen a skill that.... Using records of one to potentiate others...?"
Suddenly, the eyes of Lilith widened as she realized something and subconsciously sucked in a breath of cold air as she thought of something.
"Lilith? Is something wrong?" Bai Zemin couldn't help but panic as he saw Lilith's sudden change in attitude. This was one of the few times he had seen her behaving like this and the first time she did it for something that was somehow not closely related to him.
Suddenly, however, Lilith chuckled and then began to laugh out loud, surprising Bai Zemin even more.
"Hahahaha! What's happening with this? It's really funny! How can something so interesting be happening over here? Hahahahaha!"
Lilith's laughter was as beautiful as her voice, even when she laughed out loud, her laughter was not loud noisy but was like silver bells jingling amidst the summer breeze right under the eaves of a holiday house.
However, Bai Zemin was so surprised by her sudden outburst that he had no time to appreciate even the beautiful sight of her upper body shaking and bouncing. On the contrary, he even wondered for a moment if someone had cast an illusion-like skill or something.
Approximately a minute later, Lilith's eyes were on the verge of tears and her stomach hurt from laughing so hard. She somehow managed to slowly get herself under control and as she used her flawless long fingers to wipe away the teardrops catching on her long eyelashes she sighed.
"It's been a while since I've laughed so heartily.... It really is refreshing."
Bai Zemin looked at her with bitter eyes and growled under his breath, ".... Miss Sixth Order succubus, could you explain so we can all laugh together?"
Lilith looked at him, slowly regaining her composure. Her voice turned slightly serious but the joy was still noticeable as she slowly said, "Little brother Zemin, all you have to do is to put a leash on that woman Xia Ya.
"A leash?" Bai Zemin frowned.
"What I mean is that you can't let her go, no matter what you must keep her by your side." Lilith pointed out, her voice growing a bit more serious as she looked at Xia Ya fighting in the front line, "Even though she's unlikely to betray you or try to hurt you considering how happy she is right now, just like someone who found what she had been looking for her whole life, just in case it would be good if you used your Loyal Follower skill on her."
"...Even if you didn't tell me I was planning to do it anyway." Bai Zemin looked at Xia Ya with complicated eyes and sighed, "Even though she will soon be my subordinate, I don't know Xia Ya well enough to trust her. Besides, there's no way I would allow someone with such dangerous and mysterious skills to roam free so that one day it might turn around and bite me in the ass."
Bai Zemin knew that he was powerful and he feared no one; he even dared to take two attacks from a Fourth Order existence head-on. However, even though he knew he was strong and feared no one, Bai Zemin did not see himself as an invincible being; even on Earth.
In China alone, there were great talents such as Chen He, Shangguan Bing Xue, Sun Ling, Wu Yijun, Feng Hong, Feng Tian Wu, Liang Jing, Kang Lan, Cai Jingyi, etc.... Bai Zemin was not stupid enough to think that in the whole world only China was a place where the privileged gathered.
There must definitely be some terrifying existences out there; existences that would one day be powerful allies or devastating enemies depending on the circumstances.
"It's good for you to be careful." Lilith was pleased with Bai Zemin's calm and mature attitude. With the way things were going, his arrogance would not lead him down paths that would sooner or later lead to self-destruction.
"But, Lilith." Bai Zemin looked at her with a frown and asked quietly, "You found out something, didn't you?"
Lilith just smiled and said mysteriously, "Little Brother Zemin, sometimes, I really can't help but wonder how high your luck can be.... From terrifying skills that complement each other to obtaining divine treasures that even Higher Existences would drool to obtain.... And now, another treasure has just been sent into your hands of its own free will. Could it be that instead of being the reincarnation of Sirius you are secretly the reincarnation of the God of Good Luck?"
"Did such a god really exist?"
"Who knows. I have no idea."
"You..."
As Bai Zemin and Lilith chatted, the battle between evolved humans and mutant weaver ants was still going on. However, the sudden burst of power on the human side had caught all the weaver ants off guard so they were being crushed with ease.
At the same time, deep in Bai Zemin's soul, a small object released a faint crimson radiance with black edges; this only persisted for a split second before the small object dulled again and everything returned to normal without anyone noticing.
* * *
Approximately 20 more minutes passed and the battle kept getting scarily bloody with each passing second. Fortunately, however, it seemed that the skill 'Wolf Pack' that Xia Ya had activated to connect a certain part of Bai Zemin's records with his subordinates had a very long duration time so the human group was still managing to keep the upper hand despite the occasional new wound appearing on the body of one of them.
Everyone was doing their best. The only one who was currently carefree seemed to be Bai Zemin and the reason for his calmness partially stemmed from the fact that Shangguan Bing Xue and her team seemed to be doing well in the opposite passage as so far there had been no indication of wanting help from them; Bai Zemin could even feel gusts of cold wind entering this passage, proof that Shangguan Bing Xue was still fighting and holding the fort on the other side.
As long as everything stayed like this, Bai Zemin had no intention of rushing.
He would use this ant colony to empower these troops to the highest point possible and then use them to create the strongest elite team of his Blood Spear Legion. In addition, Bai Zemin also secretly had another objective.
It was at that moment that a flash of red light charged from the distance.
Xia Ya had been bored slaughtering Unclassified and First Order weaver ants. To her who was currently connected to Bai Zemin's soul, only several Second Order weaver ants could present a challenge at this moment. Therefore, when she saw the flash of red light charging toward them, Xia Ya's eyes flashed with excitement and she immediately activated one more skill:
"Shared Agility!"
However, just as Xia Ya was thinking about crushing the incoming enemy, her footsteps froze as the Agility boost she had just received disappeared without a trace.
"What?" Xia Ya turned around abruptly, meeting Bai Zemin who was now shaking his head in her direction.
Bai Zemin smirked at the same time as he took out a box of chocolate and threw one into his mouth. He didn't even care about things like manners and said with his mouth full, "Fight a little harder."
Xia Ya didn't understand how it was possible that Bai Zemin could cut off her skill, but seeing the mocking expression on his face, she was quick to realize that there was no room for negotiation here. She, far from her previous lifeless doll attitude, stomped down hard and pouted just like a little girl throwing tantrums at her parents before finally charging forward to intercept the red-colored weaver ant.
Without having access to Bai Zemin's stats, Xia Ya could only rely on herself so it was not as easy for her to take down the red-colored weaver ant as it could have been. At least, she would definitely be busy for a few minutes there.
In fact, 5 minutes later, the red-colored weaver ant's head was sent flying into the air and Xia Ya continued purifying and increasing her Soul Power. During the entire fight, she had a happy smile on her face, completely different from her past attitude.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Amidst explosions and flashing magic lights, three howling wind sounds swooshed from the distance and everyone's expression changed as they noticed three red-colored weaver ants charging in their direction with brimming killing intent.
Xia Ya gritted her teeth and somehow managed to catch two red-colored weaver ants, engaging them in combat without losing any ground at all thanks to all the Soul Power she had gained from these constant battles, as well as her increased knowledge about the power of Second Order ants.
However, there were three... This meant that one of them continued to charge toward the human group.
It was just as the red-colored weaver ant was about to cut off the head of an assassin-type soul evolver that several blood chains wrapped around its body tightly, slowing its movements. However, the red-colored weaver ant's Strength was truly amazing as soon the blood chains began to crack as if they were going to break at any moment.
It was at that moment that a new change happened.
The blood chains suddenly lit up with a glow of deep blue light and the red weaver ant began to writhe as it shrieked in terror as if it had just encountered something dreadful. However, it only took an instant for its body to be engulfed in blue flames and a moment later only a small Soul Stone remained as proof that it had ever existed.
Some soul evolvers could not help but pause briefly as they watched one of the blood chains surround the Soul Stone that had just fallen from a Second Order existence and as if it had a life of its own moved towards the center of the circular formation.
Bai Zemin took the Second Order Soul Stone and as he fiddled with it through his fingers he muttered to himself, "261 out of 2000.... I wonder how many Second Order ants are in here... There must definitely be a few hundred."
Bai Zemin planned to make use of the fast evolution and numbers within this ant colony to increase his progress in his class mission. He believed that, at the very least, he would complete 1/4th of the 2000 Second Order existences requirement considering that they had not yet reached the end but the red-colored weaver ants kept arriving.
A few hundred? Lilith secretly shook her head after hearing Bai Zemin's words.