By the time Bai Zemin began to lead the team previously led by Chen He and the rest back through the passage to meet with the team of Shangguan Bing Xue, there were many weaver ants that got in their way.
“It’s probably because the weaver ants in the central passage finally started to slip in everywhere.” Bai Zemin murmured with a strange flash of light in his eyes as he watched the huge sea of ants charging toward them.
This time, he did not plan to continue making the same mistake as before. Therefore, while he could take down all the enemies before them, Bai Zemin took a step back and ordered in a firm voice:
“Fighters in front, archers and mages behind. Xia Ya, you will be the main source of attack this time.”
“Uh? Is something wrong?” Sun Ling looked at him in confusion.
But Sun Ling was not the only one who felt confused as everyone felt that the commands from Bai Zemin were a bit weird.
“This time I won’t intervene unless one of you is very close to death.” Bai Zemin said in a firm voice. “I want you to pretend as if I am not here, and if one of you relaxes just because you are aware that behind your backs there is me… Then I will not protect that person.”
Everyone immediately had changes in their expressions, but seeing Bai Zemin closing his eyes and folding his arms as if he didn’t even have any intention of intervening in the incoming combat, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and start forming a tight circular formation in order to protect the backs of each other.
“Lightning Arrow!”
“Bloody Rose!”
“Fireball!”
“Ice Spike!”
“Earth Spear!”
“…”
Several magical skills were activated almost at the same time and immediately the passageway lit up with different colors. The different magics flew through the air and began to slam indiscriminately into the midst of the seemingly endless army of weaver ants.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!….
Even before reaching the group, the number of weaver ants that were torn apart and turned into a pile of meat paste after receiving dozens of attacks from First Order existences was definitely not small. At the very least, several tens of thousands of Unclassified weaver ants were destroyed on the spot by either magic skills or powerful shockwaves.
However, none of the soul evolvers of the human group felt happiness in their hearts as not even a second later that hole left behind by the tens of thousands of fallen ants was easily filled by the weaver ants behind them.
Soon, the soul evolvers specialized in Strength, Agility, and Stamina, had no choice but to join the fray as the troops at the front of the ant army finally crashed into them.
“Unstoppable Slash!”
The cold flash of the blade of a level 39 soul evolver flashed for a second and in the next instant the heads of a dozen weaver ants in front of him were sent flying into the air. However, the silver flash continued to spread up to 200 meters, cutting more than 5000 enemies to pieces and spreading their blood everywhere.
A level 37 mage pointed at the torrent of blood flying through the air uncontrollably and chanted loudly, “Wind Blast Pressure!”
The wind suddenly pushed hard from the top down and all the bloodshot into the middle of the army of ants with force and speed no less than that of a bullet. The bodies of the ants began to fall like wingless flies, and in an instant more than 20,000 of them lost their lives.
Although the weaver ants were many in number, their defenses were really low and considering that everyone present was a First Order existence, they had no way of resisting such attacks.
Now that the human group had been able to regroup and create a firmer formation than before, every time the weaver ants tried to break through the defensive perimeter they found themselves being stopped before they even opened their jaws.
It wasn’t until the First Order weaver ants appeared that the advantage in power of the humans slowly began to show signs of faltering.
A level 40 soul evolver was sweating all over after more than an hour of continuous combat in total. Seeing the dark green weaver ant charging toward him, the man gritted his teeth and forced his tired body to move while raising his sword to block the legs of the enemy.
Boom!
The body of the man was forced to the ground, barely holding himself steady after resting one knee on solid ground. His eyes had turned bloodshot as he clung tightly to the sword above his head, trying to push away the two legs of the First Order weaver ant that was pressing down as hard as a mountain trying to crush him.
Cough!
The level 40 soul evolver coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood, but instead of feeling fear, the adrenaline rushing through his veins served as fuel to feed his rage. The man roared and surprisingly he slowly managed to push the weaver ant backward until several seconds later he finally found himself back on both feet.
“Sharp Blade!” Roared the enraged man.
The First Order weaver ant froze as both of its legs were severed and sent flying. But that wasn’t all as soon its head was also sent flying through the air and its lifeless body collapsed to the ground with a thud.
The momentum of strength gained through the momentary adrenaline rush soon began to wear off and the man immediately felt the consequences of the shock his organs received during the previous impact against the First Order weaver ant. It was just then when an orb of light rushed into his body and his soul began to warm, nourishing his flesh, his blood, and his muscles.
[You have received the Soul Power of First Order ‘Fatal Weaver Ant’ level 45. You have received Strength +54, Health +22, Agility +10.]
[You have leveled up and reached level 41. You have received 2 status points to distribute freely].
“Sweet! Add 1 point to Stamina and 1 point to Strength!” The man shouted as he felt strength filling his body and his wounds recovering quickly.
He didn’t even wait for a new enemy and instead charged forward like a tiger eager for more, engaging in combat with another First Order weaver ant a few seconds later after decapitating over 200 Unclassified enemies.
What happened with the previous soul evolver was being replicated in different parts of the circular formation and the number of humans leveling up and taking the Soul Power from enemies of a higher level than them either by teamwork or fortune as well as willpower was rising with each passing minute.
The fighters were getting stronger, the assassins faster, the archers more lethal, and the mages more destructive. In just 20 minutes from the time the second war began, this time with Bai Zemin standing in the center without interrupting once, the level of everyone had increased by at least 1 and those with higher achievements had even risen up to 3 levels.
Bai Zemin had long since reopened his eyes, and as he watched the performance of everyone and the fierce and firm expressions on the face of every soul evolver under his command, he could not help but confirmed more and more that his previous approach was not correct.
Although he was aware that his presence had greatly relieved the mental pressure the human group felt as they all knew in their hearts that if worst came to worst Bai Zemin would definitely intervene, if his presence served to boost morale without him having to extend a helping hand then that was fine.
Fight to the death! Defeat your enemy! Evolve beyond!
“To think that I forgot the three most important principles and rules of this world.” Bai Zemin muttered to himself as he shook his head.
“Don’t worry, you realized it early enough to not have to suffer regrets later.” Lilith smiled weakly as she surveyed the surroundings with interest. “But, you know this will not continue like this for long, right?”
Bai Zemin narrowed his eyes but said nothing.
The combat continued and the human group gradually managed to advance halfway towards the exit of the passage, leaving behind mountains of corpses belonging to the weaver ants. So far, although some had suffered wounds, none had suffered gravely or enough to have to retreat from the battlefield.
However, 20 minutes later, the words spoken by Lilith finally proved to be true.
“Shit!”
A soul evolver committed a small mistake by deciding to block an attack that would have caused him medium-grade wounds if he had decided to finish off the weaver ant that took advantage of that moment to sneak in and get within dangerous range for mages and archers.
Swoosh!
Just as the weaver ant was planning to jump towards one of the mages who had her back turned, a bright blue arrow flew from the distance and pierced its head, turning its brain into a pile of pulp and ending its life effectively.
The soul evolver who realized his mistake sighed in relief and nodded his head in thanks to Chen He, who although his whole body was trembling with fatigue and his face was as pale as a sheet continued to harvest lives with his arrows and watched the battlefield with eagle eyes.
Little by little, small mistakes began to happen more frequently and the number of wounds on the bodies of the soul evolvers of the human race began to increase. In fact, if it were not for the armor and tunics with at least 350+ physical defense points that Bai Zemin had given them days ago, many of them would have to retreat from the battlefield, or worse yet, they might be dead.
Bai Zemin knew this would happen, after all, this group had been fighting for a long time and the Stamina and Mana consumption when facing large numbers of enemies was simply enormous not to mention the mental fatigue. However, he did not move even when one of the men almost lost an arm.
Xia Ya, who had become the tip of the spear leading the charge for the human troops, frowned slightly as she realized the problems the team faced. She looked at Bai Zemin and seeing him standing there, slowly advancing with an indifferent expression on his face, she finally gritted her teeth and tried to activate one of her skills; one she had not used until now.
“Wolf Pack!”
“Uh?” Bai Zemin raised an eyebrow as he noticed again that Xia Ya was doing something with his stats system.
However, he soon understood what was going on and a flash of surprise shone in his gaze as he looked at Xia Ya.
“Woooo! My stats increased by over 400 points in total!”
“Woooo! Same here!”
“I can feel my wounds regenerating faster now!”
“I feel like I can keep fighting for a couple more hours!”
“Who’s giving us buffs?”
“It’s lady Xia Ya!”
“I can feel some kind of connection with Team Leader Bai!”
“Are these stats points from Team Leader Bai? That’s amazing!”
“…”
The human group suddenly burst out with new vigor, pushing the army of weaver ants back with a renewed ferocity. Physical attack power, magic attack power, movement speed, attack speed, defense and stamina, as well as regenerative speed…. They all received huge boosts in their systems and were now fighting like a real pack of wolves devouring sheep!
“Wolf Pack?” Bai Zemin muttered under his breath with disbelief in his voice.
Just as some had just pointed out, Bai Zemin could feel his stats being shared with his subordinates. However, even more surprising was the fact that his stats had not decreased at all! To him, nothing had changed; there were no negative effects and no trace of side effects, everything was completely normal!
“Hahaha! It really worked!” Xia Ya laughed happily as she cast a curse and ended the lives of over 15,000 ants in an instant. She turned for a moment to look at the surprised Bai Zemin and said in a sweet voice, “Leader, you said you wouldn’t intervene in this battle unless it is absolutely necessary, right? Don’t worry, you won’t have to move even a single muscle now!”
Lilith looked at Xia Ya with wide eyes and as she watched the craziness unfolding right in front of her, she couldn’t help but mutter to herself, “What the…. Who the hell is this woman?”
Lilith’s shock was so strong that it had even faintly touched the shock she felt in her heart the first time the Soul Record appeared on Earth, modifying Bai Zemin’s body from the inside out.
Wolf Pack? What kind of nonsensical and broken skill was that? Lilith had never heard of a skill capable of doing anything like what the skill of the woman called Xia Ya was doing!
