Wu Yijun felt as if her heart tried to burst out of her chest and for a brief moment she even wondered if the man sitting on the bed could hear it beating. 

Since she finally came to accept and notice that she was in love with the man in front of her, an emotion she felt for the first time in her life, Wu Yijun felt that being in front of Bai Zemin was a lot harder than it normally should be. Ironically, even though she felt a little shy and embarrassed, she didn't want to stay away from him either; on the contrary, the longer and closer, the better.

Just as she was about to say something to break the silence and to avoid Bai Zemin realizing that she was so nervous she didn't know what to do, his voice rang softly in the middle of the room:

"Sit wherever you please, I'll be with you in a couple of minutes. Just let me finish with this first."

"Eh?" Wu Yijun finally realized that Bai Zemin had not looked at her yet. However, she also realized the reason why he was so focused on something else.

In front of him were five different clumps of blood, two of them were much larger in size than the other four which were barely a few thin drops that probably didn't reach 100 ML. The floating blood did not draw Wu Yijun's attention too much as everyone in the faction was aware that Bai Zemin was in possession of a powerful skill that allowed him to control such an element and manipulate it practically at will.

What caught her attention was the power that radiated from within and around the blood. Even she, who was a First Order existence, felt slight threat even though it was only blood. Wu Yijun was an intelligent woman so she naturally came to the conclusion that this danger she felt did not come from the blood itself but from the creature to which that blood belonged in the past.

As she wondered if that was the blood belonging to a powerful Second Order beast similar to that terrifying bear they met in the forest, she watched as Bai Zemin controlled one of the two larger blood globes and slowly swallowed it.

Bai Zemin closed his eyes and frowned slightly. When the blood of the goblin named Inac whose level while alive was 74, he felt as if his flesh was being pierced by countless needles. If it wasn't for the fact that he had experienced pains that were a lot greater than this to the point where his skin and flesh burned and to the point where his bones were crushed to dust, Bai Zemin knew that he would definitely be rolling around on the bed while screaming in pain.

Wu Yijun became somewhat anxious as the minutes passed and she watched the frown on Bai Zemin's face deepen little by little. Moreover, occasionally she could see the skin on his arms, hands, face, and probably every part of his body tingle as if there was some mysterious creature tugging at his flesh inside.

About ten minutes later, Bai Zemin finally opened his eyes again and exhaled, letting the heavy air in his lungs out and relieving him greatly.

--------------------------------

[Agility +30. Stamina +15.]

[For the next 20 seconds, increase the probability of inflicting critical hits on your enemies by 5%.]

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Without saying a word, Bai Zemin looked at Geminder's blood and after a moment he used Blood Manipulation to slowly make the blood glob go into his mouth in the form of liquid threads.

Geminder's level was 87, considerably close to Third Order. At the very least, Geminder was by far the closest enemy to level 100 that Bai Zemin had met and faced to date. Ironically, he was also one of the easiest enemies to defeat despite being the most powerful of them all; this was because by the time Geminder appeared before him, Bai Zemin already possessed stats comparable to those of a peak Second Order, and by the time Geminder angered him through threatening his loved ones, Bai Zemin acquired another 400 Strength points after activating the first level of the skill Blood Berserker's Wrath unlocked at that time.

Humans possess the ability to create atomic bombs but cannot withstand their explosions. The reasoning behind Bai Zemin not being able to consume Geminder's blood so easily despite defeating him so easily was very similar to the previous reasoning.

When the blood of the former most powerful and highest goblin leader of the northern region of China entered Bai Zemin's body, he immediately felt as if a two thousand kilogram hammer had hit him directly on the head. For a moment, he felt like his world was spinning around him and he almost fell on his back on the bed.

Then, his flesh seemed to tear apart only to regenerate once again in the next instant. His muscle fibers seemed to break into pieces countless times at the same time, regenerating over and over again. This whole process lasted a total of twenty minutes.

During the past twenty minutes, Wu Yijun could only stare as Bai Zemin's face turned red and his eyes grew to the point of looking quite terrifying; it was obvious from the way he was gritting his teeth that the pain he felt threatened to drive him out of his senses. She felt anxious whether sitting or standing as if she were a little girl arriving at elementary school for the first time leaving her parents at home.

However, for the past twenty minutes, Bai Zemin's mouth remained closed at all times; not even the slightest grunt slipped from his lips. 

His show of tenacity greatly surprised the only woman in the room. Not only did this make her care for him more, but she also unconsciously felt that this was how a real man should be. She didn't want him to suffer but at the same time, she felt that his masculine charm increased dramatically.

Bai Zemin was completely different from those men who had approached her in the past. All those young men from prominent families, wealthy, or multi-talented; they were all women in men's skin who if they were in the man's place before her would definitely be calling out the name of their mothers, fathers, grandparents, and the entire generation of their ancestors.

After the hell finally ended, Bai Zemin slowly sat back down and when he looked at himself he realized that he was drenched in sweat.

"It was worse than I expected." He said with a bitter smile. He really didn't expect to experience so much pain in return for so few stats.

--------------------------------

[Strength +40. Stamina +40.]

[For the next 120 seconds increase physical attack power by +200.]

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Eighty stat points.

If 90% of the living, self-aware beings in the universe who were struggling hard to level up for two stat points heard what Bai Zemin had just said, they would probably curse him and those who brought him into this world for being so shameless.

'Really, the most effective way is to absorb Soul Power from other existences.' Bai Zemin thought as he sighed and ruffled his somewhat humid hair.

While one could obtain stats once by absorbing Second Order blood before the body became immune, the pain in some cases was too great to receive a rather miserable compensation compared to the large amount of extra stats that could be obtained by absorbing Soul Power.

Still, a boost of power was always welcome and Bai Zemin was willing to experience the same pain multiplied several times over just for the sake of getting even a fraction of what he had just received. That's how desperate for power he was.

"A- Are you okay?"

A soft voice brought them out of their inner thoughts and as he looked to his right he remembered Wu Yijun was there. 

"Sorry... I was so focused on absorbing this blood that I couldn't pay attention to you properly earlier." Bai Zemin apologized with a somewhat awkward smile as he looked at the woman sitting on the couch by the window.

Wu Yijun was wearing a pretty refreshing violet summer dress with ruffles that flowed down to just above her knees, covering her thighs but exposing her beautiful calves and shiny skin. Most eye-catching was that her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail and this in tandem with her baby face but an extremely hot body made her look extremely charming and seductive.

"I- It's okay. Don't worry about it." She hurriedly shook her head.

Seeing her ponytail bouncing wildly along with her movements, Bai Zemin chuckled as he calmly said, "Give me two minutes, I'll be with you after checking a new record."

"O- Okay!" Wu Yijun nodded as she kept her stare focused on him and his movements.

Bai Zemin forced a smile into his heart and shook his head secretly as he saw this. Soon, he looked at a fixed point before him and began to roll through his records, easily finding what he was looking for as it had just happened.

--------------------------------

[Your Stamina stat has broken the four-digit threshold without external support.]

[Your skill First Order Bronze Skin level 5 evolves forcibly to the next stage.]

[Bronze Skin (First Order passive skill) level 5 --------------> Silver Skin (Second Order passive skill) level 1.]

[Silver Skin (Second Order passive skill) level 1: Your skin becomes tough and strong enough to withstand large caliber bullets. Rank 0 physical weapons will not be able to penetrate your defense and the effect of Rank 1 physical weapons is reduced by 10% against you. The strength of your internal organs is multiplied twice compared to the previous level. Automatically increases your Stamina stat by +300 points permanently.]

--------------------------------

A big smile lit up Bai Zemin's handsome face when he saw and verified that things did indeed turn out as he estimated. Although he didn't know that such a crazy increase was required to force a skill to evolve forcefully, he was at least fully aware that such a thing would probably happen at some point.

If his body met the stat requirement and even exceeded that requirement, then the Soul Record had no need to use the power contained within the Soul Stones; it could simply use the Stamina-type Soul Power that far exceeded the limit of X's rune to force it to evolve and adapt to the body.

Because he had been carefully studying and learning about the Soul Record, Bai Zemin managed to save a large number of Unclassified Soul Stones, and more importantly, First Order Soul Stones. While this was only possible because he was a beast with human skin, at least his previous theory turned out to be quite accurate with only a few minor but inconsequential differences.

In addition to strengthening his body from the outside, the skill Silver Skin also strengthened Bai Zemin's internal organs to twice what they were before; this was an extremely good thing since his internal organs were stronger, and shock from blows would not hurt him internally as much compared to the past. In addition, his skin became softer and more delicate which without neglecting the overall masculine look gave him a far more radiant appearance, briefly dazzling Wu Yijun as she observed all these changes from up close.

"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting around here." Bai Zemin finally shifted his eyes back to Wu Yijun and looked at her with an apologetic smile. This was not the time to dive into deep thoughts or analyze too many things.

"Don't worry." Wu Yijun also smiled to see him that, despite the pain he had just experienced, it seemed to have been worth it as he had a smile bright as the sun on his face.

"So, about the reason why I called you here." Bai Zemin didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point.

"Y-Yes... Tell me." Wu Yijun became a little nervous and her heartbeat was disturbed. For an instant, she thought that maybe he wanted to talk to her about what happened four days ago and that was why he had called her here.

Of course, Bai Zemin wasn't planning to do anything like that. At least not now.

Instead, what he said was the following:

"Do we have anyone capable of making potions or similar brews?"

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