What happened could only be described with the word terrifying. Something that humanity was witnessing for the first time and that from a certain point of view was even more terrifying than the amazing changes that the unknown entity that called itself Soul Record brought to the lives of all living beings on Earth.
No one expected such a thing to happen.
Even Bai Zemin did not foresee this. After all, this was the first time he had used the power of the Endless Blue Lotus Flame in combat; in fact, from a certain point of view, he wasn't even using it to attack anyone.
However, it was precisely there where the main problem lay…. Bai Zemin was not attacking a human, he was not aiming at a beast, nor was he aiming at a zombie or any other living being in sight… But he, due to the limits that his birth imposed on him, forgot that the world in which he lived also had its own rules.
Rules that if broken, unbelievable things would naturally happen.
For example, one of the rules or limits of the Earth was the sound barrier, a barrier which with the constant evolution of the world became a lot more powerful and therefore more difficult to break. However, it was not as if mankind had not managed to overcome this barrier in the past, therefore, everyone knew well what happened when this barrier was overcome.
In this case, the breaking of the sound barrier by an object moving at high speeds was not dangerous to life as long as it happened at a considerable distance. However, there was a barrier that must not be destroyed no matter what, or else calamities would strike.
Bai Zemin never expected something like this to happen precisely because this kind of situation could only happen in light novels, science fiction movies, or fantasy books. Even the most advanced technology of mankind had not been able to do something like this, so he never thought that there would come a point when he would be able to do something of such magnitude.
From the first moment the huge deep blue fireball began to shrink in size, Bai Zemin for some reason sensed that something was not right. But everything happened so fast that he could not even react until the disaster happened.
After contracting to the minimum possible, the now small blue fireball swelled up like a balloon and in just a few blinks of an eye, its size increased to over 1000 meters. It was so big that the sun had been completely covered and replaced in its entirety!
When the slightly pale blue fireball after the expansion reached 1500 meters, Bai Zemin roared towards the sky and shouted, "Blood Barrier!"
The small pearl that currently contained around 200,000 liters of blood immediately reacted to the received mana wave and like an unstoppable gust, the stored blood shot skyward.
In just an instant and under everyone's shocked gazes, a huge dark red gust flashed across the sky before taking on a faint bright crimson glow and spreading far and wide while still hovering above the sky 500 meters above.
"Bing Xue, use your skill to reinforce my barrier! Hurry!"
Shangguan Bing Xue didn't understand what was going on but this was the first time since they met that she had seen Bai Zemin so anxious and worried about something. Despite not knowing what was so bad, her face grew serious and she raised both hands towards the sky:
"Ice Barrier!"
Swoosh! Swoosh!
The crimson barrier and the semi-transparent white barrier quickly spread out at the same time. The semi-transparent white barrier seemed to reach its limit after reaching 2000 meters but the crimson barrier still seemed to have much more to show as it continued to spread across the battlefield, even reaching certain areas inside the walls of Baiquan Camp.
Bai Zemin had over 800 Mana points in total. Despite having consumed 200 points just now, he still had over 600 points in his Mana reserve so there were many things he could do with that amount. Since the Blood Manipulation skill only consumed Mana when activated but did not actually consume extra Mana to mobilize the element in contrast to Shangguan Bing Xue's Ice Maker skill, the amount of Mana consumed by Bai Zemin to spread the blood as much as possible was an insignificant 1 point.
When the blood barrier reached 9200 meters in just a matter of seconds, Bai Zemin finally could no longer continue any further due to his physical inability and because his Magic stat did not allow it.
"Strengthen!"
His deep voice echoed throughout the battlefield and at the same time as Bai Zemin spent the large sum of 500 Mana points, the blood barrier glowed deeply. The sunlight had long since not been visible to anyone in the surroundings, all people could see were two different colored barriers above their heads. When the crimson barrier glowed, despite being half a kilometer high, that dark blood-colored glow illuminated the ground faintly, giving the earth an appearance similar to the hell described in the legends.
It was just then that hell really broke loose.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!
The huge fireball finally exploded after reaching a diameter of 2000 meters and the power united by the flames belonging to Mo Zan's skill as well as the flames of the seemingly innocent but powerful Endless Lotus Blue Flame joined together to give rise to an explosion of warlike magnitude.
Bai Zemin did not know how destructive a nuclear bomb could be as he had never in his life witnessed with his own eyes the explosion of one. Videos that could be found on the internet could show the result of the explosion, but the oppressive feeling could never compare to living it in his own flesh and blood.
However, he believed that the power of this explosion was definitely beyond what a normal nuclear bomb could do.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!….
The gusts of wind struck and cut through the two magical barriers uncontrollably and even though the survivors inside the Baiquan Camp were being protected by the barriers so they could not see what was beyond, they could actually hear clearly as the threatening blasts shattered one after another.
But this was not the most frightening thing. The scariest thing was what happened next.
Swooosh!
The explosion was mainly concentrated in a single point, the center. When the concentrated magic power and mana broke outwards abruptly, the spatial barrier protecting the Earth that did not expect that kind of sudden assault shuddered for a moment before a 20 meter wide and 30 meter long crack appeared without warning high in the sky.
Although normal humans could not see beyond the two barriers, soul evolvers whose levels and purity of Soul Power had reached a certain peak could since when the barriers actually stretched out they became quite thin after stretching too far to the point where if not for the mana reinforcement received they would have been broken long ago.
"For the love of god…" Chen He whispered under his breath and his legs weakened before finally collapsing to the ground on his butt.
Shangguan Bing Xue's face was as pale as the purest snow as her blue eyes quivered in fear. Were it not for the fact that she needed to keep her Ice Maker skill active to constantly supply Mana to the ice barrier she had erected so that it would not lose defensive power she might as well have collapsed like Chen He.
Those inside the forest were also covered by the magical barriers and very few could see beyond. However, thanks to the fact that Pei Pei's skill was projecting what Shangguan Bing Xue saw at that very instant, everyone saw that small but terrifying crack slowly appearing over the skies.
"C- Crack… Spatial crack…" Cai Jingyi muttered in shock.
Although her voice was soft and low, the silence inside the forest was deadly after the shockwaves resulting from the explosion disappeared so everyone heard her words and immediately thereafter the sound of gasps rang out.
In the command center inside the Baiquan Camp, Commander Jin Shun and Mayor Bai Yong had already basically lost any hope of victory they might have had after losing contact with the armed troops and soul evolvers sent into the forest to face the enemy.
They had only fought for a little over 30 minutes but the entire allied army seemed to have been swallowed up by the earth! What hope could they even have against an enemy capable of defeating a force of several thousand men in such a short time? They had none!
Even Mo Zan, the most powerful soul evolver in the entire Baiquan Camp and whose destructive power was well known, ended up being badly wounded by the archer named Chen He before he even saw the face of an even more powerful Bai Zemin!
However, it was only after seeing how the enemy leader humiliated Mo Zan and dealt with him as easily as dealing with a small child that everyone thought they finally knew how powerful Bai Zemin was. Unfortunately, and to further fuel the deep despair felt by the Baiquan Camp high command, the negative surprises were not yet over.
As Bai Yong and Jin Shun's faces lost all color, Shen Mei felt her worldview change again and unconsciously muttered the question they were all asking: "Breaking the world's space…? How powerful does an attack have to be to open such a spatial rift…?"
Unfortunately or not, no one could answer that question. Even Bai Zemin himself was not capable.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The suction force coming from the space crack was similar to a black hole that wanted to devour everything as if it were the sin of gluttony.
Had it not been for the fact that there were two powerful magical barriers covering an extension of several kilometers and thus protecting the possible affected areas, the trees would have been uprooted and carried into outer space along with some houses; even the humans and beasts in the vicinity would not have been spared!
However, it was not easy to defend against the suction force coming from the space crack.
The barrier erected by Shangguan Bing Xue began to shudder gently at first but several seconds later the tremor grew so much that cracks began to appear on the surface of the defense. She bit her lower lip hard and provided as much Mana as possible, but after about 40 seconds she finally ran out of energy so her barrier exploded with a loud bang.
Her body swayed gently and she looked at Bai Zemin as she regretted, "Bai Zemin, I'm sorry…. I don't have any Mana left."
Bai Zemin did not respond, seemingly focused entirely on his current task.
Seeing his back a short distance away, Shangguan Bing Xue saw for the first time his firm posture flinch slightly and even though it was only an instant she didn't miss it.
She unconsciously clenched both fists tightly to the point where she didn't notice how her nails dug into her skin and self-inflicted wounds deep enough to turn her palms red in no time.
Weren't they friends? Weren't friends supposed to help each other in times of trouble? But what was she doing now then? This was possibly the first time in her entire life that Shangguan Bing Xue felt so helpless, insignificant, and useless. That kind of feeling of only being able to see but not being able to do anything was like the bite of a snake slowly consuming her little heart.
Chen He looked out of the corner of his eye and watched as the red drops of blood trickled gently and dyed the shattered ground in crimson. His eyes flashed in a complicated way before he turned his gaze back to the man who literally seemed to be fighting against the whole world.
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