The blood was perfectly red, but unlike the blood of all normal humans and the rest of the soul evolvers, this blood had a sweet smell that practically tantalized the senses of even the sanest being of all.
Even though the blood was warm, Shangguan Bing Xue felt as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on top of her head as she felt the red drops slide down her left cheek to her neck, getting lost inside her plate armor.
Her blue eyes trembled as she looked at the outstretched hand just above her shoulders. Her mother’s hand was extended forward, and although it had not pierced from side to side the distinctly male arm that stood in the way it definitely managed to pierce not only the dark red armor but also the skin and flesh….
… Dark red armor…?
The image of a person flashed in Shangguan Bing Xue’s mind and her entire body trembled as a chill ran through every cell of her existence.
Shangguan Bing Xue and Shangguan Xinyue turned their heads almost at the same time, looking in the direction where that hand covered in thick armor that seemed to have been forged using dragon scales had come from.
There, just an arm’s length from the two women, a sort of portal as black as a wolf’s mouth was slowly spinning. Moments later, a leg came out from inside the portal and upon sensing the aura of the approaching person Shangguan Xinyue immediately retracted her hand and with a swift movement her body was surrounded by powerful gusts of wind that blew her away from the place in an instant.
Bai Zemin had a slight frown on his brow when he finally stepped out of the portal and the first thing he did was to make sure Shangguan Bing Xue was safe.
“Are you okay?” he asked with a frown as he saw that there were several slash wounds on her arms and her beautiful thighs.
What Bai Zemin was worried about was that he might have been a little late. Although after defeating the enemy army in the other part of Haidian District he had used the activation of his Super Warrior skill to teleport to this place because his anxiety was becoming unbearable, Bai Zemin was not sure if Shangguan Bing Xue’s wounds had been inflicted by the zombie that had just injured him.
However, Shangguan Bing Xue did not respond to his words. Her trembling eyes were completely fixed on his right arm, more specifically, what she was staring at was the red blood slowly turning black that was dripping from the flesh wound on his wrist.
“Bai… Your… Arm…”
Her face turned as white as if all the blood in her body had been drained away while her lips now purple with fear trembled as a sweet and fearful voice like a little girl’s came out in a broken voice every time she opened her mouth with her eyes still fixed on the wound her mother had inflicted on Bai Zemin.
No… Shangguan Bing Xue knew that the reason Bai Zemin had been harmed by her mother, by a zombie, was exclusively because she stood motionless and was about to be infected by the wild mana.
What happened when a zombie managed to inflict a wound on the flesh of a human? Shangguan Bing Xue was very clear about that.
The strength in her legs disappeared in the face of the future of what was about to come all because of her mistake, and if not for Bai Zemin managing to support her in time Shangguan Bing Xue would have definitely collapsed just like that.
“Bing Xue?” Bai Zemin panicked a little, but more than panic what he felt was anger thinking that he had come too late.
It was only when he noticed her staring at his right arm even now that he realized what Shangguan Bing Xue was thinking.
Bai Zemin watched as his blood turned blacker and blacker and the flesh under his skin began to corrupt, turning from bright red to a strange reddish with small black polka dots. He could feel the mana inside his body stirring and his soul shuddering, his records seemed to be fighting against the impending modification.
Zombification… It was something every human would definitely experience when bitten by a zombie or if they received a scratch hard enough to pierce the skin. Even soul evolvers couldn’t completely escape it.
“Don’t worry about this.” Bai Zemin said as he watched her eyes slowly fill with more and more tears until they could no longer be contained by her beautiful eyelashes and slid down her grieving face.
This was the second time Bai Zemin had seen Shangguan Bing Xue shed tears. Whether she had cried alone or not, he did not know… but this was the second time she shed tears in front of him, and it was something Bai Zemin hoped not to witness for a third time to avoid feeling that uncomfortable feeling where his heart clenched as if it was about to break into a million pieces.
Shangguan Bing Xue’s eyes were filled with sadness. She had gone through a roller coaster of emotions in less than 30 minutes.
Not only did she face the cause of the suffering during most of her life but she was also reunited with her mother. However, that person she so longed to see day and night turned out to now be a zombie that attacked her, and as if that wasn’t enough, one of the most important people to her ended up getting hurt and was now slowly being turned into a zombie because of it.
Probably even immortals would break down at such a fierce rise and fall of emotions not to mention a young woman barely 22 years old who until 5 months ago was living a relatively normal and ordinary life like any other human on planet Earth.
Bai Zemin remained alert as he knew there were two powerful enemies on this battlefield. Even then, he focused on Shangguan Bing Xue, and to appease her trembling heart a little, he whispered something to her in a low voice.
“Eh?” She looked up from his arm and stared at him in confusion.
Bai Zemin wanted to wipe away her tears that were falling down like delicate pearls, but he restrained himself as it probably wasn’t right for him to do something like that.
“Look, it’s all right.” Bai Zemin said in a low voice as he activated the Third Activation of his newly evolved Blood Manipulation skill.
“Blood Immortal Radiance.”
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[Blood Manipulation (Third Order active skill) Level 1: Second Order Blood Manipulation level 5 power multiplied by 4. Your blood weapons have a 25% chance to inflict a critical hit when hitting an enemy. Increases the body’s healing and cell regeneration capacity by 30%].
[Crimson Flame (Second Activation): Consume 20 Mana points to activate and 1 Stamina point every 5 seconds. Envelop your weapon or a part of your body with a crimson blood flame, increasing your physical attack power and magical attack power by 30%].
[Blood Immortal Radiance (Third Activation): Consumes 400 Mana points to activate and lasts for 60 minutes before going into cooldown for 48 hours. Covers the body with a faint glow of blood, while the effect is dormant the physical defense and total magic defense are multiplied by 2 while the Health stat is multiplied by 3. During the 60 minutes that this third activation is active, any status effects that affect the user’s deepest records negatively are immediately purged regardless of whether the adverse effect occurred before or after the activation].
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Under Shangguan Bing Xue’s teary but wide open eyes, a faint crimson light surrounded Bai Zemin’s silhouette. It did not obstruct the view of his body at all, only the outline. Therefore, it was easy for her to see that the small black polka dots quickly began to disappear and the flesh became red again as before.
Within seconds, the black blood turned back to red and when Bai Zemin activated Blood Manipulation coupled with his colossally high Health the wound closed in a matter of blinks as if it had never been there even though the cause had been a Third Order existence.
“That… The zombie infection…” Shangguan Bing Xue sobbed as she looked Bai Zemin straight in the eyes as if she wanted to believe in miracles even though common sense told her that such a thing was not possible.
Bai Zemin nodded with a gentle smile and said softly, “It’s all right now…. You just rest and leave the rest to me.”
Bai Zemin had only taken a quick glance at the battlefield before and the destructive level of the entire area was proof enough that the battle or battles that had occurred here had been terrifying and dangerous. Shangguan Bing Xue not only faced the man who, regardless of the hate or anger she felt for him, was her father… and when Bai Zemin saw the woman’s perfectly snow-white hair in the distance it was not difficult for him to understand roughly what had happened.
“My mother…” Shangguan Bing Xue closed her eyes, and like a little kid began to choke back her own tears. She seemed to have found a shoulder to rely on as she blurted out her pains, “She’s a zombie.”
“Mhm.” Bai Zemin nodded and as he stroked her hair he said softly, “Remember what I told you… Even if your mother is a zombie, I will bring her back for you…. I will keep my word, just like I always did.”
Shangguan Bing Xue looked into his eyes, confused but strangely confident that he would be able to keep his word this time too. Again, common sense told her that such a thing was impossible…. but hadn’t the little young man in front of her accomplished what many thought impossible not once but several times? She not only wanted to believe him but was willing to cling to any false hope, therefore, she nodded.
“Okay.”
Bai Zemin nodded and his expression became serious as he slowly straightened his posture and turned around. His serious eyes scanned the surroundings and the first thing he noticed were naturally the endless flashes of lightning that crackled all over the ground but strangely only hurt the man in the distance who was still struggling to break free, slashing with his sword over and over again at what seemed to be endless electric elemental snakes.
Xuanyuan Wentian was powerful, so powerful that in a 1 vs 1 battle Bai Zemin could not win unless he gave his 90%. This was because the other party was also an existence whose Soul Power was incredibly pure, which meant that he had always fought and killed beings above his level. Considering that Xuanyuan Wentian was almost 50 levels higher than Bai Zemin, it was only natural that his stats were far above his.
However, if there was one thing that Xuanyuan Wentian lacked in, it was Stamina and the ability to fight numerous enemies for long periods of time. Furthermore, although his skills were powerful, he lacked skills capable of affecting the terrain and large numbers of enemies… or perhaps he did have such skills but perhaps they were used during his fight against Shangguan Bing Xue, Bai Zemin did not know.
‘Well, at least that trash father is not going to die for now.’ Bai Zemin thought before turning to look at the woman who had strangely remained silent and had not attacked even though he had turned his back to her before.
As he expected, Shangguan Bing Xue’s mother was a great beauty. Leaving aside Shangguan Bing Xue and Lilith, the woman Bai Zemin had in front of him was worthy of taking the position as the third most beautiful woman in terms of face he had ever seen in his entire life. It was just that in contrast to Shangguan Bing Xue’s silver-white hair, Shangguan Xinyue had completely snow-white hair. In addition, her chest was clearly not particularly full-grown but her hips were undoubtedly alluring.
However, what interested Bai Zemin most was neither the beauty nor the identity of this woman…. In fact, there was something else that caught his attention.
He frowned, and as he slowly walked forward, he asked in confusion, “What are you doing?”
Shangguan Bing Xue’s mother was licking her right hand and fingers constantly. She occasionally closed her eyes softly and her body was shivering strangely, the pale skin on her face had a pleasant blush and the snowflakes around her were dancing happily for some reason.
Shangguan Xinyue slowly opened her eyes when she heard the voice of the man who had recently interrupted. She used her two big red eyes to look at him and her lips curved into a sweet smile as she said gently, “Your blood. It’s very delicious. The most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted in my entire life either as a zombie or as a human.”
Bai Zemin’s expression was a bit weird as he didn’t know if he was being praised or not but for some reason he didn’t like being treated like food.
Perhaps being aware that confrontation was inevitable, Shangguan Xinyue tried to find a different solution.
“Young man, may I know what kind of relationship you have with my daughter?”
Alarm bells were fiercely ringing louder and louder inside Bai Zemin’s head for every second he listened to the woman in front of him speak. She, Shangguan Bing Xue’s mother, was definitely very different from all the other zombies he had faced so far.
Not only was she giving him a tremendous sense of danger but she was also giving him a strange feeling of cunning that Bai Zemin only occasionally felt from Lilith or Meng Qi.
This woman not only kept her memory intact from her time as a human but also didn’t seem to particularly dislike humans even though her records had been modified down to the base after she turned into a zombie.
Shangguan Xinyue looked innocent and very sweet, really sweet to the point where even the heart of the cruelest murderer would falter. However, that angelic smile for some reason looked dangerous in Bai Zemin’s eyes.
It was not murderous intent… It was something different, something that Bai Zemin could not yet identify.
‘She’s definitely planning something.’
The more Bai Zemin thought about it, the more alert he felt towards her.
* * * * * * *
