With the death of the First Order Brutal Zombie that was blocking the road, now all that was left was to slowly start moving the vehicles at the front that had been overturned or sent flying into the middle of the bridge by the sudden movements of the beast or some battle that may have broken out there.

After Bai Zemin retreated from the front lines, several soul evolvers and armed soldiers carefully advanced and began to move out the troublesome vehicles cautiously to clear the way.

On the other hand, Fu Xuefeng stepped forward and aimed Infinite Reduction, the Epic grade treasure, and pulled the trigger in the direction of the Brutal Zombie's corpse. The energy beam immediately began to work and in a matter of seconds, the creature's body had been reduced to a small miniature. Then, with the teamwork of several soul evolvers, the body was moved to one of the modified trucks.

Most of the soul evolvers had followed the advice of the veterans, focusing mainly on three stats; Strength, Agility, and finally Stamina. These three were the main stats to ensure minimum safety in combat against zombies and other enemy creatures.

Regardless of whether it was in movies or books, Bai Zemin had always seen or read that raising a mage was much more difficult than raising a warrior. Now, he was experiencing it in real life.

Anyone could be a warrior, but not everyone could be a mage. This was because not everyone had a high Magic stat at the beginning of evolution like Kang Lan, and distributing points to that stat at the beginning of the apocalypse was not a good idea unless someone powerful protected you until the time you got big enough. This was precisely what happened with Kang Lan, since at the beginning she was the weakest by far, needing everyone's protection until several days later when her investment in Mana and Magic began to show its fruits.

...

"You took longer than I thought. Any problems?" 

Shangguan Bing Xue looked at Bai Zemin curiously as she watched him return to the interior of the vehicle.

He ordered the driver to start the engine again and then looked at her before replying, "It's nothing important. It was just a giant First Order zombie blocking the road to the south, Nangong Lingxin took care of the creature splendidly."

"Oh?" Shangguan Bing Xue raised an eyebrow in surprise and said lightly, "That's quite surprising. I think other than the past you, Chen He, and myself.... Probably only Cai Jingyi has the ability to fight against a First Order existence despite being only an Unclassified existence. To think that Nangong Lingxin would also become so powerful."

Fighting against an existence one stage higher was a bit odd but not too surprising either. There were always several beings in every world capable of accomplishing such a thing.

On the other hand, killing a higher stage existence was considered an amazing feat in the entire universe. Relatively speaking, very few existences had the ability to do such a thing; each and every one of them were geniuses among geniuses, beings capable of becoming Higher Existences if they did not fall before reaching the necessary requirement.

Even though Nangong Lingxin's enemy was exactly the kind of enemy she did not fear thanks to her skills that were perfectly suited to combat strength-but-slow type existences, a victory was indeed a victory.

"You, Evangeline, Cai Jingyi, Nangong Lingxin, Chen He..." Bai Zemin calmly reviewed aloud, "For now, you five can be said to be the central pillars of the faction. Although Fu Xuefeng, Kang Lan, Zhong De, and Nangong Yi are extremely powerful, they still need a signature skill, something that becomes their fatal moves to take the life of someone who surpasses them in terms of power."

Shangguan Bing Xue was silent for a brief moment, and after some thought, she realized that Bai Zemin's words made a lot of sense.

Leaving aside Bai Zemin himself and Shangguan Bing Xue herself; Evangeline, Cai Jingyi, Nangong Lingxin, and Chen He had their specialties that somehow made them stand out from the rest.

For example: Evangeline's whole body was a lethal weapon. Cai Jingyi was not only fast and quick to learn the use of different weapons but also extremely cunning like a fox. Nangong Lingxin possessed a powerful defensive skill capable of withstanding the blows of a being in a higher Order, which served to buy time and seek a path to victory. Chen He possessed a very high talent for melee and ranged combat, which if not for monsters like Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue would probably make him the most powerful of the faction.

All of the aforementioned had in some way or another the ability to oppose beings that surpassed them. They were true geniuses, some of them were born privileged as was the case with Chen He while others had to work hard to get where they were, as was the case with Evangeline.

"I think you also forget one person." Shangguan Bing Xue suddenly thought of something and pointed.

Bai Zemin looked at her puzzled, and after a moment, he asked, "Who?"

"It's Yijun." She said earnestly.

Yijun? Bai Zemin blinked blankly before the image of a beautiful young woman appeared in his mind. Even though it had been little more than a week, for an instant he had even forgotten Wu Yijun's existence. After all, a lot had happened during this period of time.

"Even though her skill Plant Empowerment allows her to fight several hundred enemies and even thousands at the same time, I don't think the current her possesses the ability to fight a First Order being while she is an Unclassified existence." Bai Zemin reasoned calmly.

Wu Yijun was undoubtedly powerful. In the entire faction led by Bai Zemin, apart from Shangguan Bing Xue, Wu Yijun was the only one with the ability to be able to kill hundreds of enemies in an instant as long as she had plants or seeds around her. However, this was not enough to consider her a genius; at least, not from Bai Zemin's point of view.

As the vehicles began to move again, indicating that the march had resumed, Shangguan Bing Xue gently shook her head and said something that greatly surprised Bai Zemin.

"Currently, Yijun has already become a First Order existence three days ago."

"Oh?... That's great." Bai Zemin was naturally pleased.

A First Order existence might be nothing in his eyes, but for a faction as it was, a First Order existence was no different from a powerful guardian and general.

But Shangguan Bing Xue was still not finished. She continued:

"Do you know what was one of the requirements Yijun had to complete for the Soul Record to allow her to breakthrough?"

Bai Zemin narrowed his eyes slightly as an idea flashed in his heart.

Looking at him silently, she stared at him to study his expression before slowly saying:

"To advance to First Order, Yijun had to defeat a First Order plant-type creature and obtain a First Order Soul Stone by herself to then evolve her Plant Empowerment skill to the next stage."

Bai Zemin's eyes lit up upon hearing this, realizing what those words represented.

After a moment of silence, he chuckled and said quietly, "I guess you can count her too then."

"Mhm." Shangguan Bing Xue nodded in satisfaction and didn't say much more. She just hoped that her best friend's efforts would not go unnoticed by the person she was trying to surprise to catch his attention.

...

Time passed very slowly, especially since the trip was extremely tiring and boring. Since no one had anything to do, 90% of the time was spent inside the different vehicles; the only reason they got out was to prepare food and eat.

Except for meal times, all the survivors spent all their time in the vehicles and even slept in them. While many were anxious to get off, no one said anything, much less dared to complain. They were all people who had already seen with their own eyes how cruel the outside world was and were aware of how blessed they were to have people willing to protect them.

The various drivers of the vehicles rotated every 6-hour turn, allowing the others to rest and spend time with their loved ones. 

Throughout the ride, while the caravan encountered a few zombies or mutant beast attacks, nothing too major happened. All problems were solved before they grew to become headaches for the soldiers or soul evolvers.

There was not even one instance where Bai Zemin's strength required presence so he was able to relax. Although it was not much, the fruits of his efforts were slowly beginning to show.

Although these fruits were still small and unripe, at least he began to see and understand the reason why Lilith always tried to make him build an army that would follow his commands. If everything required his presence and act, Bai Zemin might fall due to exhaustion or neglect important things due to lack of time.

* * *

Three days later.

A huge caravan composed of more than 300 large vehicles was moving at a steady speed along one of the main roads leading to Baiquan Subdistrict, the subdistrict bordering Yanqing District and Changping District.

In the distance, the drivers of the first vehicles in the caravan caught sight of a large lineup ahead, which caused them to unconsciously slow down.

A large troop of armed men consisting of two hundred soldiers neatly dressed in military uniforms and another two hundred men dressed in light armor and swords were firmly guarding the passing road, and anyone who wanted to force their way through this area would definitely have to pay a huge price as apart from this troop of four hundred men there were also several vehicles with mounted weapons and some heavy machine guns on top of what appeared to be a large wooden wall.

The first vehicle leading the caravan stopped a hundred meters away and little by little the rest of the vehicles following the lead vehicle slowed down until finally coming to a complete stop.

A modified military jeep came out from inside the base, stopping 50 meters away from the caravan. The doors opened almost simultaneously, and four people got out; two men and two women.

All four appeared to be young, young enough to be college students.

One of the males was burly and tall with a serious look, the other was handsome like an elf from the legends and his bright eyes sparkled with excitement as he stared at the vehicle from a short distance away.

As for the women; one of them had a small and lithe body along with a witty smile on her face, the other had an incredibly sexy body coupled with an angelic face and pure eyes that stared at the vehicle from a short distance with the same intensity as the aforementioned man.

The lead vehicle started up again, moving forward and stopping ten meters away from the modified military jeep.

The doors of the lead vehicle opened in unison and slowly, four people descended.

As in the previous case, those who descended were two men and two women.

The eight people looked at each other in silence for a few moments, each one of them with different thoughts. 

Although they had not seen each other for several days in the midst of this chaotic world, being far from each other by a distance of several days' travel, the eight did not feel in any way strange when they met again.

After all, these eight had fought countless battles together since the first day the world changed with the appearance of the Soul Record and the activation of the world's mana.

The eight of them had been part of the initial team that, after much effort, not only managed to escape from the university that had then become a prison but also managed to form together what was now a large faction with almost 10,000 survivors and a powerful army of armed and evolved men.

The four people who descended from the modified military jeep were Zhong De, Chen He, Cai Jingyi, and Wu Yijun.

On the other hand, those who had descended from the lead vehicle of the huge caravan were Fu Xuefeng, Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue, and Kang Lan.

None of them knew if they would still be alive tomorrow. Safety was not a guaranteed thing for anyone and each of them was aware that perhaps a moment later it would all end.

However, as they had done in the past and as they had done to this day, they would fight.

They would fight together.

After all, for better or worse, the eight of them were a team.

Bai Zemin's thoughts were probably the most indifferent. He was using his sharp eyes to see if he could get anything from the aura of the people before him to understand what level of power they were at.

However, he didn't have too much free time to think or to analyze things as one of the women on the other side did something that shocked him.

* * * * * * *

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