After the thirty-two soul evolvers were killed by Chen He, Shangguan Bing Xue sighed inwardly.
How could she not understand her childhood friend's current state of mind? The problem was that there wasn't much she could do about it. While it was true that she had not spoken to Chen He yet as Bai Zemin had advised her when they were still at the North Camp, this was not because she did not want to but because the opportunity never presented itself.
Shangguan Bing Xue and Chen He were very busy people. The amount of free time they had despite their high positions within the faction was so limited that it was even pitiful. If they weren't hunting zombies or mutant beasts then they were training alone or with the other soul evolvers and if they weren't looking for supplies then they were focused on expanding the faction's territory to the east and west while searching for survivors in the process.
Under such circumstances, there was no way she would one day wake up and say, "Hey, let me reject you a second time and see if you finally understand how things are going". One had to think very carefully about what she needed to say since even if she was not in love with Chen He she definitely cared for him very much as a good friend and brother.
However, she believed that she might finally have to forcibly find herself some time off after this war ended and the more important post-war matters were dealt with.
While Shangguan Bing Xue was immersed in her own complex thoughts, out of the corner of her eye she saw Bai Zemin walk toward the body of the thirty-two soul evolvers, confusing her.
At first, everyone thought that he was going to simply take the enemy's weapons. However, this was far from reality.
"Rank 0…" Bai Zemin shook his head and tossed the sword he was holding in his right hand to the side as if he was throwing a piece of trash. "Take these guys' weapons and armor. The armors can then be given to some soldiers of the Blood Sword Legion or Blood Whip Legion depending on their ranks…. As for the weapons, let the lower level soul evolvers use them while our faction's blacksmiths upgrade the level of their Blacksmithing skill."
Currently, there were around thirty survivors who were being rigorously trained by the three blacksmiths that Bai Zemin had managed to find so far. Although they could only forge equipment of Rank 0 and of the lowest quality at that, they were gradually improving. Bai Zemin believed that after a few months they would be able to forge Rank 1 equipment if they worked hard and received the right materials.
Bai Zemin himself was only able to forge Rank 1 equipment thanks to the use of good materials and because he had worked for two whole years with a man who forged his whole life. Had it not been for that experience gained over two long years it would be absolutely impossible for him to forge the equipment he was currently wearing.
After the armor and weapons were taken by the soul evolvers on his side, Bai Zemin took the dagger from his waist, and under the shocked eyes of the people behind him, he stabbed fiercely at the center of the head of a female soul evolver.
There was no mercy in his movements nor were there any emotional fluctuations in his eyes always calm and indifferent as an old lake. He did not even hesitate to stab a pretty woman's face.
"W- What are you doing?" Nangong Yi asked dumbfounded and unconsciously took a step back.
"Legion Leader?" Zhong De frowned as he watched Bai Zemin's movements blankly.
"Leader?" Kang Lan was also surprised. This was the first time she had seen Bai Zemin do something like this to the corpse of a dead human.
Everyone looked at him blankly, except Wu Yijun. Her beautiful eyes widened slightly and her pupils twitched softly as a thought flashed in her heart.
"You… Don't tell me what you want to do is…."
She couldn't finish her words.
"Some beasts have Soul Stones inside their brains, the same goes for goblins. We even recently discovered that zombies can spawn one…" Bai Zemin said calmly and indifferently as he walked to another corpse and repeated the stabbing motion.
"Then I thought… Why in the world wouldn't we humans be able to have a Soul Stone too?" he culminated as he pierced the center of the third corpse's head.
Feeling no hindrance or hardness in the dagger's path, he shook his head and walked to the next one.
One, two, three, four, five….
The entire forest seemed to fall silent as the eyes of the slightly less than seven hundred soul evolvers hidden in the shadows watched as Bai Zemin mutilated the human bodies with a mechanical expression on his face.
"I… I don't think I can do something like that." Wu Yijun shook her head as she closed her eyes.
Perhaps it was hypocritical of her, she was aware of this fact. She could pierce the skulls of mutant beasts, goblins, not even the gruesome face of zombies could stop her from searching for valuable Soul Stones. However, doing that to her own race was something the current Wu Yijun did not feel capable of doing; even if they were enemies. After all, they were all human and they were all Chinese. There was no hatred between them and the only reason behind their animosity was that they fought for different leaders and for different purposes.
In fact, Wu Yijun was not the only one who thought this way. There were many more who thought the same way she did.
"Maybe you don't…" Bai Zemin said as he stood up after piercing the brain of the last soul evolver, the leader of the group. Then, holding in his bloodied hand a small rock, he said coldly, "But I do."
Everyone's eyes automatically gathered on the gray-colored Soul Stone in Bai Zemin's hand, many of them could not believe it while many others sighed as in their hearts they knew that such a thing could happen but refused to accept it. Only a small minority in comparison kept an indifferent expression on their faces.
"I will do whatever it takes to survive. I don't care how others see me. The winner, the real victor is the one who survives the longest. Everything else doesn't matter. Compassion for the dead? I doubt that my enemies will have compassion for my corpse if at some point I fall so no one has the right to demand anything from me."
At Bai Zemin's words, everyone fell silent. One did not have to think too hard to realize that while his words sounded somewhat cold and perhaps not something a 20-year-old who two months ago was just a normal student should say, they were logical and true.
"Death means the end of everything. We just have to survive or otherwise nothing will be meaningful." Cai Jingyi smiled slightly and said calmly, "What's the use of keeping certain moral codes from the past in this new world? Haven't all of us seen enough so far?"
In one of her search for supplies in one of the villages that were almost a day away from the central base, Cai Jingyi had seen with her own eyes how a father ate the lifeless body of his daughter, a body that was already half-finished. The saddest part of this story was that the daughter had clearly been killed with several stab wounds, which made it clear that the father had done this under the torture of hunger.
She did not judge the man saying words of righteousness; because she did not have the qualifications to do so. Had it not been for people like Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue, especially Bai Zemin, who saved her in her lowest and most hopeless time, Cai Jingyi would be lucky if her fate was death as she did not know what she would be willing to do when faced with the feeling of having her own body slowly consuming her due to starvation. However, even though she did not use words of righteousness, she also could not forgive the man's behavior.
Therefore, the man was killed by her. It was not something she felt particularly good about doing and was possibly the hardest death Cai Jingyi carried on her conscience so far even though she had killed many people before.
From then on, Cai Jingyi felt that there was nothing she could not do. At this moment, surviving another day was all that weighed on her mind, and to accomplish that small but at the same time big goal she was willing to do anything that did not require losing her dignity as a woman and as a fighter.
There were at least 200 soul evolvers who agreed with Bai Zemin and Cai Jingyi. All of them had seen or experienced firsthand their fair share of sadness and cruelty to worry about something as small as scavenging human heads.
As for the rest of them, they still had a little way to go to accept it.
"It's all right. You'll all get used to this sooner or later." Bai Zemin smiled slightly as he put away the now clean Soul Stone in his bag.
It had only been about two months since the world changed. It was impossible to make everyone's mentality change so quickly to adapt as best as possible to the world change. Even if humanity was a perfectly adaptable race, many of them needed time.
"Chen He, you come with me." Bai Zemin said, not wanting to give the enemy any more time to prepare.
The 48 hours had passed. There was no need to show mercy at all.
Besides, he was sure that the reason the enemy camp commanders did not send their army in pursuit was because the subdistrict's forests were too large and dangerous. Trying to find intelligent enemies hiding in such an environment was no different than courting death, and as if that wasn't enough, the war tanks, IFVs, and other larger war machines could not go too deep into the forests because of the huge trees.
Therefore, they had no choice but to wait as it was in their best interest to hold their positions. After all, it was easier to defend a place than to attack it for obvious reasons such as the possibility of setting traps, knowledge of the terrain, early positioning, etc.
Chen He was confused at Bai Zemin's name-calling but he still walked over and stood next to him.
"Since you are so eager to prove your strength, I will let you show off today." Bai Zemin gently tapped his shoulder and as if he had thought of something suddenly looked at a beautiful woman with an extremely hot body and ordered, "Nangong Lingxin, you too come with me."
Nangong Lingxin was hiding on top of one of the many trees surrounding the area and after hearing Bai Zemin's call she revealed herself. Dressed in her brown leather armor that fit her figure perfectly, her hips swayed with every step she took, causing the eyes of several men to unconsciously turn towards her.
"I'm here for anything you need." She said with a slight smile as she emphasized the word ANYTHING, obviously on purpose.
"Cheeky." Bai Zemin chuckled and joked.
"Good for you to know." Nangong Lingxin also chuckled.
The two of them were getting along much better since they conquered the North Camp while working as a team. Of course, not only did Bai Zemin and Nangong Lingxin get along well enough to joke around like this, but Bai Zemin with Nangong Yi was also now getting along well enough to completely drop the formalities.
Although Nangong Lingxin's voice was low to prevent others from hearing what she said, Chen He was standing next to Bai Zemin so he naturally heard everything. Even knowing that they were joking from the tone of voice of both of them, the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
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Mass release: 2/10
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