After reaching an agreement with the Seventh Princess Xian Mei'er, Shangguan Bing Xue and Bai Zemin set to work together with the other sea creatures that were still alive to eliminate the slightly more than 300,000 zombies that remained on the bridge.
With the intervention of three such powerful existences among which one of them possessed the power of a maximum Second Order existence and two of them possessed the ability to fight and even defeat Third Order existences, the remaining zombies and few beasts were unable to put up any kind of resistance.
The death of the Apocalyptic Power Zombie had caused the overall strength of the zombie army to plummet as they now did not attack in waves but attacked in small groups. So, it didn't even take 30 minutes for all the zombies and beasts to be completely annihilated.
While the sea princess together with her subordinates was in charge of taking all the blood of the zombies, as well as their share of the beast army, Shangguan Bing Xue and Bai Zemin were in charge of taking the 70% of zombies that belonged to them according to the agreement formed before joining in alliance with Xian Mei'er.
The sea princess was generous enough to control the waters and bring back the lifeless bodies of the zombies that had been swallowed by the sea once they fell into the deeps as a result of the powerful shockwaves and stray magic attacks from the main battlefields.
Although Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue had no one to help them, the speed of the two was fast enough to check dozens of corpses in just a second. However, when the idea that they didn't have to worry about the destruction of the Soul Stone struck them, the speed at which the two of them checked for the existence of a Soul Stone in a zombie's head increased explosively.
Now, for every second that passed, at least 1000 zombie heads were exploding. Only the smallest portion left a beautiful glowing stone behind amidst the bloody mess while the other heads just exploded without doing more than spewing out blood and broken bones.
Unfortunately, even though the two were very fast, the number of zombie corpses they needed to check was simply colossal. 70% of 20,000,000 zombies was a number high enough to scare anyone after all.
Needing to check 14,000,000 bodies, at an approximate speed of 1000 zombies per second, Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue would need about 4 hours before finishing the whole process. However, it was not as if they both had any other choice considering the circumstances so after dividing the bridge into two lines, they both set to work.
With him on the north and her on the south of the bridge, blood blocks and ice blocks fell from the sky continuously. The heads of the zombies exploded one after another at thunderous speeds and the terrifying sound of skulls being crushed was spread by the strong winds blowing across the sea.
Time passed quickly and as humans and sea creatures worked without disturbing each other, it was only another hour before the sun would rise again.
When the clock ticked 5 o'clock in the morning, Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue met again in the central part of the bridge.
"From the shine in your eyes, I guess the result on your side has left you satisfied." Bai Zemin said with a slight smile of amusement as he saw the excited look in Shangguan Bing Xue's beautiful eyes.
"Of course it has!" Shangguan Bing Xue nodded vigorously. The corner of her lips lifted upwards to give birth to a heavenly smile on her charming face as she said in a dreamy voice, "I found over 1,000,000 Unclassified Soul Stones! Now everyone in our faction will be able to evolve their skills smoothly to at least level 5 Unclassified! Many will even be able to upgrade their main skills to First Order!"
Unclassified Soul Stones had long since ceased to be indispensable resources in the eyes of Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue. However, this only applied as far as the monstrous skills of monsters like them were concerned; for normal soul evolvers, Unclassified Soul Stones were treasures as they were the quickest way to become stronger.
"I found just over 1,500,000 on my side." Bai Zemin chuckled. Even though he was terribly tired, Bai Zemin couldn't help but feel that at least, all his effort and the danger he had experienced in these past few days had paid something in return.
Over 2,600,000 Unclassified Soul Stones, approximately 600 First Order Soul Stones, 3 Second Order Soul Stones, and 1 Third Order Soul Stone; this was all the loot that Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue managed to gather after taking care of the corpses of beasts and zombies alike.
"With all this meat, even if 5 years pass it will be enough to feed 500,000 people with ease." Bai Zemin sighed gratefully as he realized that with the corpses of the giant beasts his faction would no longer need to worry about food for a long period of time.
"Even if our population grows to several million it shouldn't be a problem. Now, one of the major concerns of ruling has basically disappeared in the short run." Shangguan Bing Xue's eyes flashed with a glint of coldness as she looked in a southerly direction.
Although the coldness in the gaze of Shangguan Bing Xue only lasted for an instant, this did not manage to go unnoticed from the sharp eyes of Bai Zemin. He and she had experienced many things together over the past two months; from good times to bad times, from times when they felt dislike for each other to times when they put their lives in each other's hands. Therefore, it was impossible for her to hide anything from him once she unconsciously showed some agitation in her soul's windows.
Therefore, after a few moments of consideration, Bai Zemin looked her in the eyes and said in a slow voice: "It will be soon. Once we cross this bridge, except for the northern area, we will be connected to all the districts and sub-districts of China. Eighty percent of Beijing will be conquered by us very fast…. Do you know what that means?"
The current Bai Zemin was basically unrivaled on Earth; this was a fact that both he and Shangguan Bing Xue had accepted as fact even though it was impossible to know with 100% accuracy.
With food no longer being a problem and with the now enormous number of Unclassified Soul Stones, as well as the considerable amount of First Order at their disposal, not only did the Transcendent faction led by Bai Zemin not need to stop worrying about feeding citizens and troops, but the overall strength of the current and future army of soul evolvers would skyrocket to a great extent.
It was no longer necessary to be so careful. Once the important things were settled, the speed of Bai Zemin's conquest would soar like a rocket bursting beyond the Earth's atmosphere.
"Once we start to conquer Beijing, we will have to face that man." Shangguan Bing Xue said calmly. She looked Bai Zemin in the eyes and nodded, "Don't worry, I'll take care of that when the time comes."
"…" Bai Zemin looked at her without saying anything for several seconds before nodding slowly.
Since she understood, then there was no need to say more. Shangguan Bing Xue would soon be forced to decide what to do about her father; it would be solely up to her whether she wanted the man to live or die, and regardless of whether the person called Xuanyuan Wentian was a saint who had saved the lives of countless during the apocalypse, Bai Zemin would not hesitate to help Shangguan Bing Xue fulfill whatever her wish might be.
Even though the rules said that they could not murder just for the sake of murder, Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue were basically the two central pillars of the entire faction. It was simply nonsense to try to compare them to normal citizens who needed to obey to the letter. They were the ones who made the rules.
The sun slowly began to ascend over the distant horizon and as the black cloak that covered the sky began to tinge crimson red, the darkness that reigned supreme soon became a thing of the past as the bright light took over.
Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue watched in silence as the dawn rose soundlessly and enjoyed the slightly warmer sea breeze.
As the sea creatures finished doing the job, both of them were silently lost within their own minds. But if he and she decided to expose their thoughts, they would probably be surprised as they were both thinking almost the same thing.
Shangguan Bing Xue was thinking about her mother. Silently praying and pleading for her well-being.
Bai Zemin was not much different. He hoped that all of his family members were alive and well despite knowing that the odds of both of those things being met were not particularly high.
Just a short time more. A week at most and they would finally be forced to face reality; light or dark, life or death.
"Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue."
A soft voice sounded from the sea as both he and she looked at the setting sun, and when they both turned in that direction, they saw the Seventh Princess still riding her wave slowly approaching the bridge.
The giant leviathan had long since disappeared but the sea princess clearly hadn't completely given up her vigilance as she still kept some distance from the two humans; which was perfectly normal considering they were not only of different races but barely knew each other.
"As per our agreement, my race will take 50% of the defeated beast corpses and 100% of the zombie corpses." Xian Mei'er said with a bittersweet smile.
She seemed to be experiencing both joy and sadness at the same time. With the loss of over 90% of her troops, the sea princess would experience hard times once she submerged into the waters again. However, obtaining several million bodies with which to feed her race, it was certain that the mermaid princess's problems had been alleviated to a great extent.
Bai Zemin looked at the mermaid princess and after a few seconds' consideration seemed to have made up his mind. He waved his hand into the air and his storage ring flashed.
A small body with a shattered heart and crushed internal organs floated in the air before slowly falling to the ground.
"Th- That's…" Xian Mei'er's eyes sparkled powerfully and her heart pounded fiercely inside her chest.
While the mermaid princess was excited about the corpse, Shangguan Bing Xue was shocked by the sudden magic act of Bai Zemin….. Where on earth had he gotten that body from? She simply didn't understand what was going on.
"This is the corpse of the beast leader." Bai Zemin said calmly. "Before I left, I took it with me and according to our agreement it would belong to you, but my human race has no use for the zombie leader's corpse even though it is a Third Order treasure. Therefore, I would like to exchange this beast body for the body of the Third Order zombie."
"…. What do you have in mind?" The Seventh Princess did not immediately get angry at Bai Zemin's words and instead tried to reason.
After all, if Bai Zemin wanted to harm her, he could simply say that the beast leader's body was destroyed when he killed him and the mermaid princess would not be able to disprove it.
"Since I kept the Third Order Soul Stone from the zombie leader's corpse, then the untouched and unexplored body of the beast leader should be yours… Honestly, I could have kept both of them, but since we had a deal, I'd like to hold up my end." Bai Zemin said in a deep voice. "Xian Mei'er, I will hand over the skull of the beast leader to you. I don't know if it has Soul Stone or not, I haven't checked yet and it will depend on your luck."
Xian Mei'er finally understood what Bai Zemin meant.
Since humans couldn't make use of the zombie's corpse but the sea race had no problem eating it, Bai Zemin wanted to exchange the zombie leader's corpse for the beast leader's corpse. But since he had taken the Soul Stone from the zombie leader's corpse, and to avoid conflicts, he decided to give the beast leader's head to Xian Mei'er.
Again, it was a win win situation no matter which way one looked at it.
"Ok." Xian Mei'er nodded easily and the way she looked at Bai Zemin was now much friendlier. "You really are different from the rest of the humans I've met in the past. Even though you could have kept the beast leader's corpse to yourself without saying anything, you kept your end of the deal. You have my respect."
Bai Zemin felt a little embarrassed to hear the words filled with honest praise from the mermaid princess. After all, even though he was keeping his word, it was also true that he had other motives for doing what he was doing.
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