Bai Zemin and Wu Yijun began to run on the road; a road which had now been almost completely destroyed as the world grew up. In fact, it was no longer correct to call it a road at all and at this point the pavement was no different than several pieces of concrete scattered haphazardly all over the place.
Even so, it was good enough that thanks to it the two of them managed to find their way roughly to Cuicun Town. However, to Bai Zemin and Wu Yijun's complete disbelief and shock, even after the two of them had been running at over 100 km/h for 30 minutes, they still didn't even get close enough to see Cuicun Town.
"It looks like planet Earth grew at least three times compared to its previous one." Bai Zemin said in a slightly dark voice.
Now not only did the roads have to be rebuilt, but even the maps of the past had become completely useless as far as scale was concerned. The only good thing was that so far it seemed that the world had grown equally in all directions so every point should be located in the same space only that the distance between two different points was a lot greater than before.
Bai Zemin suddenly stopped his steps so Wu Yijun also stopped and looked back in confusion.
"Wu Yijun, ride on my back." He said out of nowhere.
"Excuse me?" Wu Yijun blinked dumbfounded as this was all too sudden.
"Get on my back, hurry!" Bai Zemin frowned and turned around to crouch down. He pointed behind him and repeated, "Get on. We have no time to waste."
The urgent voice was the engine that propelled Wu Yijun's steps toward him even though her mind was still blank. Although she understood that this was because her Agility was too slow, she never expected that her closest contact with him to date would come in this way.
However, she definitely wouldn't pass up a golden opportunity like this. Who knew when she would again have such bliss to feel the warmth of his body at close range? Therefore, she did not hesitate to obey him and more than a command to Wu Yijun's ears was a reward.
She leaned her upper body and then wrapped her arms around his neck. In fact, Wu Yijun was brave and bold enough to wrap her long legs around his waist to lock her position more firmly.
"Is it okay like this?"
Bai Zemin felt Wu Yijun's breath behind the back of his neck and when her sweet voice reached his ears for an instant he felt as if every bone in his body weakened. But the worst of it all were those two great treasures that despite not being able to feel their softness due to the leather armor he was wearing Bai Zemin could definitely feel their firmness and weight pressing against the material that clung to his back tightly.
"… It's fine like this." Bai Zemin nodded gratefully as indeed the posture she had taken was perfect for him to move with ease.
"Hold on tight and don't open your mouth!" Bai Zemi warned as he stood up and put strength into his right leg slightly ahead of his left leg.
"Eh-"
Boom!
Wu Yijun couldn't even finish her words as everything around her became a blur. Her hair flew wildly behind her and her face turned white as a sheet when she couldn't even see her surroundings. The pressure on her body increased so much that had it not been for the fact that Bai Zemin was supporting everything by going to the front her bones might have been crushed at this point!
Only now did she understand the reason why he asked her not to open her mouth!
But, what crazy speed was this?! Wu Yijun felt as if her heart was going to jump out of her chest in fear but she also felt a surge of powerlessness hitting her.
'So this is the world he fights in? So this is the world he sees…' Wu Yijun realized that this speed that for her was just exorbitant, for Bai Zemin was just normal.
At the same time, she finally understood how dangerous the enemies he faced every time he got hurt were. His Agility stat alone was enough to overwhelm and destroy her bones, so what about the rest of his stats? Wu Yijun could not even comprehend the level that Bai Zemin was at.
While Wu Yijun's heart was staggering, Bai Zemin simply focused on running at high speed forward. Moreover, unlike her, he could see all his surroundings clearly as all his stats were high and not only his Agility was unbalanced.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!….
The earth split with every stomp he made and shockwaves of dust rose up everywhere leaving a straight line as a trail even though when that straight line of dust rose up he had already become a distant dot running towards the horizon.
Along the way, there were numerous creatures that attacked the duo. However, Wu Yijun simply felt the wind around them howl for a brief moment before everything returned to normal.
All the enemies were torn apart by Bai Zemin the first instant they decided to show up to create trouble. The only drawback was that he couldn't stop to search for Soul Stones or collect the useful materials, but considering the current situation, there was no time for that.
Even running at over 1000 km/h, Bai Zemin took about 5 minutes longer from when he started his run with Wu Yijun resting her head on his back to catch a glimpse of Cuicun Town.
However, at this point there was no trace of Cuicun Town.
It was a place with around 30,000 residents in the past and where nature-loving tourists often visited to stay the nights before continuing their travels had practically disappeared to become something unrecognizable that a foreigner would most likely consider as some sort of ancient ruins.
In fact, the only reason Bai Zemin was sure this was the right place was not only due to his own knowledge of the terrain but also thanks to the 2,000-meter-high ice tower that stood in the middle of nowhere.
Upon arriving in the vicinity, Bai Zemin immediately noticed huge amounts of corpses spread everywhere, craters of different sizes, patches of scorched ground, frozen areas, ammunition shells scattered on the ground, and large pools where huge amounts of blood had accumulated.
It was clear that a big war had taken place there but that it had apparently been ended very soon. Moreover, judging by how the frozen areas were the predominant ones, Bai Zemin naturally understood that if it was all over so soon it was due to Shangguan Bing Xue's overwhelmingly supreme power.
"Leader!"
"Leader!"
"Good thing he's all right!"
"The Leader is here!"
"Second Vice Leader Wu Yijun is also fine!"
…
When Bai Zemin stopped his steps in front of the first line of defense composed of 2 battle tanks, 5 IFVs, a dozen gun-mounted vehicles, and about 1000 soldiers, everyone who was tense with their weapons raised immediately relaxed and began to shout their excitement out loud.
Although she felt a little reluctant, Wu Yijun had no choice but to get off Bai Zemin's back when he touched her left thigh gently as if he was telling her that they had arrived at the place so she should get off.
She went down and turned around to fix her hair as she didn't want the man she was trying to charm to see her disheveled.
As for Bai Zemin, he approached a soldier and ordered him to take them to the command center.
The soldier was just a normal man so when the person with the highest powerhouse in the entire faction appeared before him requesting something he became so nervous that he almost froze. Fortunately, he quickly came out of the surprise and with excitement bubbling in his blood he led Bai Zemin and Wu Yijun to the center of the destroyed city.
The survivors had not yet gotten out of the vehicles; it was clear that they had been ordered to remain in their seats in an orderly fashion and without causing trouble.
Moreover, Bai Zemin saw that apart from a war tank and several dozen military vehicles surrounding the area to keep the survivors in order, the rest were nowhere to be seen. But judging from what the soldier told him, it appeared that Shangguan Bing Xue had mobilized the armed troops and soul evolvers to patrol the entire 5000 meters around in sizable groups.
She had ordered to slaughter any beast, mutant plant, or any other non-human creature that appeared within the indicated boundaries. In addition, Shangguan Bing Xue had also ordered all troops to immediately stop any humans that appeared in the vicinity and the soldiers had been allowed to fire when they felt it was necessary to fire.
Bai Zemin nodded and was extremely satisfied with Shangguan Bing Xue's leadership in the military aspect.He had not only sent her to follow the entire faction because of her overwhelmingly higher strength compared to any other First Order existence but also because he trusted that Shangguan Bing Xue could keep her mind cool and clear when it came to making decisions.
In this kind of circumstances where the world was going through a second crucial change, it was necessary to be cruel with the orders given; even if some innocents died, that was how things worked and if some innocents had to die to save many more, then there was no choice but to do it no matter how cruel it was.
At the end of the day, there were no gods here and everyone was human regardless of how strong they seemed to be; everything had limits.
The so-called "command center" was actually nothing more than a clean clearing where several chairs and tables had been set up as so far Bai Zemin had not managed to see even a single building still standing.
Seeing Bai Zemin and Wu Yijun arrive safely, everyone there was visibly relieved as with things as they were it was hard to tell what would happen. Even if Bai Zemin was powerful, no one knew what might come out of the forests or the seas.
After escorting Bai Zemin there, the soldier bowed respectfully and retreated to his position again as he didn't have the qualifications to be there.
"Good job keeping everyone safe." Bai Zemin immediately praised Shangguan Bing Xue in a serious voice, "If it wasn't for you, the entire faction would have fragmented and countless would have died in the fauses and under the clutches of some out of control mutant creature."
Everyone nodded in agreement at his words and it was clear from the way they looked at Shangguan Bing Xue that the ice princess had truly won everyone's admiration; even the ever cold Evangeline looked at her with more friendly eyes this time.
"If not for Shangguan Bing Xue's crowd control skills and Chen He's ability to take out multiple enemies at the same time, as well as Kang Lan's poison, I'm afraid we really would have been in trouble this time." Nangong Lingxin said with lingering fear.
Bai Zemin noticed a white claw mark on her leather armor and a faint trace of blood at the corner of her mouth. It was clear that Nangong Lingxin had taken a heavy blow from a powerful beast that had shaken her internal organs and if not for the armor her life might have been lost.
Seeing him looking at her with a frown, Nangong Lingxin smiled slightly and shook her head, "Don't worry, Wen Jian has already treated me with his skill. Except for a little pain, my condition is perfect."
Nangong Lingxin was one of the soul evolvers that Bai Zemin valued the most out of his entire faction. In fact, her value hardly lost to Kang Lan's due to the fact that the skill Energy Barrier that Nangong Lingxin had, as well as her skill Reflect, were such rare skills that only she possessed in the entire faction.
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