The wind was blowing softly, but that breeze seemed to come from the Antarctic itself as the temperature was by no means spring-like. The leaves of the trees became damp with the evening dew as the distant sun began to descend lower and lower, until its light was no longer yellow and turned slightly orange on the distant skyline.
In the middle of a forest seemingly devoid of human life, occasionally the roar of several beasts could be heard in the depths that terrified those weaker ones who were just starting to evolve at a considerably slower speed.
BOOOOM!!!
A thunderous explosion broke that slight balance and for a moment all the roars disappeared as if even those beings hiding in their domain on the inner parts of the forest realized something.
The earth shook fiercely, trees flew everywhere, splinters of shattered wood and crushed leaves scattered across the shaken ground while dust rose into the sky forming a thick cloud of earth that seemed to want to block out all light.
In a clearing in the forest, a young man was standing in front of a crater approximately three hundred meters in diameter with a depth of half a meter at the edges and up to four meters in the center.
This young man was not wearing conventional clothing, instead, he was wearing an extravagant suit of armor as black as the night sky with no stars and no moonlight. His right hand gripped the hilt of a sword even taller than his own body while the greatsword rested with the tip buried in the ground.
In the center of the crater, if one looked carefully, one could notice shattered bone fragments, bloodstains that splattered all over the ground in a messy manner, flesh torn into pieces of different sizes, broken pelts, rocks crushed into dust, etc.
The young man's face could be considered quite attractive. However, the left side of his face, just below the eye and up to the bridge of the nose, a large blood splash gave him a rather dangerous appearance which, in conjunction with his dark eyes as cold as ice, would prevent any girl from approaching him as his whole existence was brimming with an extremely lethal aura.
Calmly, the young man walked to the center of the crater. The sound of his boots echoed amidst the deadly silence that haunted the area and he squatted down before picking up a small light green rock.
"At least I got a First Order Soul Stone… Everything else turned into nothing but debris." The young man sighed softly and stood up.
Just as the young man planned to go deeper into the forest, the military radio inside the small cross-body pouch he wore at his waist turned on and a beautiful but cold voice came from there:
"The Beginning Village advance team has just arrived."
The young man was silent for a moment before picking up the radio and calmly replying, "I see. I'll be there in five minutes."
The other side did not respond, instead, the radio made a faint sound similar to television jamming waves when the channels were not working properly before going silent again. This meant that the other side had cut off communication after transmitting the necessary message.
"Little brother Zemin, will you start moving immediately?"
A silhouette materialized several meters ahead of the young man and asked in a soft voice that contained a certain natural sensuality but countless hidden dangers.
Bai Zemin looked towards the source of the sound and saw Lilith standing on the branch of a huge tree looking down at him with a faint smile on her beautiful face.
"Not yet. Even if I wanted to, it's simply impossible." He shook his head and put away the First Order Soul Stone in the pouch before walking in the opposite direction he was currently heading.
Straight to the exit of the forest. It was currently considerably deep, so a few First Order beasts were slowly appearing and most creatures in this area were level 15 or higher.
He had gone hunting on his own as this had been one of the rare opportunities when he had free time. Since he had no close friends and no one to share his time with, he went into the forest to absorb some Soul Power and test his strength.
The results scared him at first, and although he had calmed down after a while, the amazement still lingered.
Swoosh!
The blood in the crater suddenly glowed and turned into a large hand of blood.
The blood hand grasped the hilt of the crimson greatsword and with accuracy slashed towards him. However, instead of wounding him, the blood hand simply set the greatsword back into the scabbard before turning into a slapdash puddle of blood on the ground.
"You've become significantly more adept at controlling mana, haven't you?" Lilith pointed out as she followed closely behind him. Her feet were a few inches off the ground, she looked like a heavenly fairy and the entire forest seemed to bow to her existence.
"No, it's not about the mana itself." Bai Zemin gently shook his head. His cloak swayed softly in tune with the forest wind as he calmly said, "When Blood Manipulation evolved into Second Order, I obtained a lot of information imprinted on my soul that gave me a lot of knowledge and simpler ways to control the skill. Now it's much easier for me to create different solid objects and controlling them to perform simple actions doesn't pose too much of a challenge either."
"Ah, I see what you mean." Lilith nodded with a smile and commented, "It's similar to my main skill. Every evolution not only increases the overall power or maybe a second activation, but also teaches us more about the evolved skill."
"You mean one of your charm skills?" Bai Zemin asked casually as he walked forward. Even though he was walking the speed at which he was moving was enough to advance tens of meters per second, leaving a gust of wind for everywhere he passed.
"Charm skills? What makes you think my charm skills are my main source of power?" Lilith asked with a raised eyebrow, seemingly amused. No matter how fast Bai Zemin advanced, the distance between them never grew and always was the same.
Bai Zemin looked back slightly and said with a hint of surprise in his voice, "Well, aren't you a succubus?"
Judging from what Lilith had just said, it seemed that Bai Zemin's previous thoughts were too naive. Because this was the first time they were talking about her skills, his curiosity began to itch.
What powerful skills would Lilith have? As a Sixth Order being, her skills must be incredibly powerful and destructive. It was what Bai Zemin believed.
"Hahaha…" Lilith laughed amusedly and stopped, which caused Bai Zemin to stop as well.
"You're wrong though, little brother Zemin." Lilith shook her head, causing her thick dark hair to dance softly. "Though I do indeed have charm-focused skills, my main skill is nothing of the sort."
"It isn't?" Bai Zemin blinked and asked curiously, "I see, then can you tell me what it is?"
Lilith looked at him with a smile and walked towards a huge tree a short distance away. She laid her soft, smooth white palm on the dark, wrinkled bark of the tree that reached over four hundred meters high and said, "Since you're curious about it, let me show it to you."
"Eh? But didn't you say that you…"
Although Bai Zemin did not finish the sentence, Lilith understood what he meant.
She chuckled and said calmly, "I said that I can't take the initiative to attack living beings or interfere in battles of Lower Existences, that's true. However, I may have expressed myself poorly back then… What I meant was that I cannot initiate an attack against conscious living beings. While this tree here is undoubtedly alive, it is not conscious of such a thing and since its consciousness did not awaken when the mana of the world began to circulate in its body, then it will never awaken consciousness of its own. Therefore, the Soul Record does not consider such beings to be truly alive even though the world does."
"I see…" Bai Zemin nodded and finally understood. Still, he shook his head and said with some concern, " Either way, forget it, Lilith. If something goes wrong here just for a stupid reason like this, then you might die. You don't need to."
"Oh?" Lilith stopped her movements and looked at him with genuine surprise on her face. "You care about me?"
Bai Zemin hesitated when he heard her question. However, seeing the slightly anxious expression on her face, he finally conceded, "Yeah, well… Actually, one of the requirements to evolve Stone Heart was completed thanks to you. This means that you are someone important to me."
Lilith stayed silent and her seductive red lips opened slightly due to the surprise in her heart. A trace of disbelief flashed in her ruby eyes before a hint of joy replaced that emotion.
"You've already completed one of the requirements to evolve that skill? That's impressive!" She rejoiced.
Bai Zemin might not know how difficult it was to complete requirements for a Third Order skill with his current strength, but Lilith was very clear about this. Even Fourth Order existences did not necessarily manage to evolve skills beyond Third Order due to the difficulty it represented!
"Rather than me completing this requirement, I would say that the one who completed it is you." He shook his head and forced a smile, "Me trusting you 100% means that you are worthy of my Stone Heart skill not being activated against you. Considering that you are a woman, the difficulty of becoming someone important to me is even more challenging, but you still managed to do it in just over 1 month. In that case, the impressive person here is you."
Lilith was silent for a long time, during which time the two simply looked at each other.
The wind blew hard again, his cloak swayed and her hair danced. The inky black of the cloak and hair formed a beautiful painting that contrasted harshly with the vivacious green of the forest and the silence only made everything even more perfect.
After an unknown period of time, Lilith removed her hand from the bark of the tree and smiled bitterly, "Little brother Zemin, you should be careful with your words and actions."
Bai Zemin looked at her blankly, "What is that supposed to mean? I don't think I've done anything wrong though…"
Lilith brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and sighed seemingly exasperated before saying in a tone of an older sister reprimanding her younger brother, "Listen, you little rascal. We women are a little complex sometimes, but we all have something in common. Want to know what it is?"
"…Sure…" He nodded with some hesitation.
"Well, I won't tell you." Lilith stuck her tongue out at him in a super cute way before disappearing as if she had never been there.
"But what the f…" Bai Zemin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Forget it man. Let's get out of this place."
His right foot stomped with all his strength on the ground and his body shot out like a cannonball forward, covering more than 100 meters in a second. The nearby trees swayed fiercely and those weaker and smaller ones were directly uprooted or blown to pieces just by the wind resulting from the explosive speed.
Lilith appeared above the clouds and shook her head while whispering: "Really, this little rascal is very dangerous… In several meanings of the word…"
She touched her slightly disturbed heart and with a lot of effort managed to calm her emotions once again. Her black dress swayed slightly and in the next instant she vanished once more.
* * * * * * *
Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW <3
