"This fella..." Zhong De shook his head as he looked at the mess Nangong Yi had caused. He shouted back, "Hey, old man surnamed Nangong. Don't you think you're a little too old to play this kind of competition?"

"Hahahaha!" Nangong Yi laughed out loud, His voice sounded slightly altered due to his current state. "Come on man, don't say that! You and I are the top two Strength-based soul evolvers in the entire faction, what's wrong with competing a little? Besides, I'm only a little over 40 this year! Considering I can live over 120 years, in theory, I haven't even reached a third of my life! How is that being a little too old, em?"

After chatting with Zhong De and handing him several things that Bai Zemin wanted to give him but had not had the opportunity to do so due to circumstances, Zhong De rejected the active skill Scaled Lizard Transformation despite knowing how powerful it was after learning that it was a skill that while it granted great power to the user in the initial stages of evolution would eventually become quite useless as over time the natural body would become strong enough to withstand bullets, agile enough to move faster, and eventually more powerful enough to make every blow deadly.

Zhong De thought the same as Bai Zemin, he did not think it was a smart thing to occupy a valuable active skill rune just like that for the sake of gaining some immediate power. Besides, Zhong De was already powerful enough as he was and did not need power boosts at the cost of his own future. If the situation was pressing, then the case would be different. But since his life did not depend on it. then there was no need to rely on such a skill.

However, when Bai Zemin asked Nangong Yi if he wanted the skill, the man did not even hesitate for a second and agreed immediately. This surprised Bai Zemin a bit as he believed that Nangong Yi was a reasonable person who would also refuse the skill. But in response to this, Nangong Yi simply smiled mysteriously and told him that in the future he would understand the reason why he made such a decision.

In the end, Nanong Yi was left with the Scaled Lizard Transformation skill and even though he had not yet evolved to the Dragon Transformation stage it was only a matter of time.

Zhong De rolled his eyes and did not respond to Nangong Yi's words. Nangong Yi was currently level 25 and had already entered the First Order, the three soul evolvers he was facing were all level 25 but had not broken the threshold yet so from the beginning there was no hope for them to win the fight.

Instead of getting annoyed with Nangong Yi, Zhong De looked at the two enemies in front of him and suggested for the second time, "I said it before the battle starts and I will repeat it again, but this will be the last time.... Surrender obediently and become subordinates of our Legion Leader. All the beneficts you have now will probably be improved in the future... Even you, who lost a limb, will have hope of regaining it when our group's main healer becomes powerful enough."

Zhong De was a person who by default preferred not to talk too much unless necessary. His temper was also not very good and when he got upset he would immediately destroy the heads of his enemies. However, in this case, he was quite reasonable.

First Order existences, regardless of the purity of one's Soul Power, were undoubtedly treasures for mankind. Even in the Transcendent faction, which greatly encouraged human evolution, there were only around 15 First Order humans of which most were barely level 25 with normal jobs.

If possible, Bai Zemin wanted to attract as many soul evolvers as possible and accordingly, his fighters tried repeatedly to lure the enemy to their side.... Of course, most of them refused the offer and slowly began to be slaughtered.

More than 370 soul evolvers had arrived from Baiquan Camp along with more than three thousand armed soldiers. However, the armed soldiers were being held at bay with relative ease by 500 soul evolvers from the Transcendent faction and only 180 of them were enough to face the enemies that numbered more than twice as many as they did.

Hao Zheng and Ye Jiao looked around, observing the diverse battlefields after hearing the enemy's offer before them now with different thoughts and feelings than when they heard it for the first time.

What awaited Hao Zheng and Ye Jiao was an even greater shock when they saw that the enemy was slowly but surely overwhelming Baiquan Camp's forces.

Although the soul evolvers of Baiquan Camp were fighting mostly in groups of three against a single enemy, the average level of the enemy was higher. Moreover, while half of the soul evolvers from Baiquan Camp wore armor and swords, all of the enemy soul evolvers carried swords, spears, armors, bows, even magic staffs! 

In fact, more than half of the enemies had at least one or two treasures with them that increased their stats!

Due to the extremely severe rules of the Baiquan Camp, all treasures had to be handed over to the base no matter what, so all the good stuff always fell into the hands of the strongest soul evolvers or the higher-ups who, despite being just normal humans, wanted to show off to the rest as they considered the treasures coming from the Soul Record as a kind of object to show their status and natural power.

On the other hand, even though the treasures found by the soul evolvers of the Transcendent faction also had to be handed over first, in the end, 90% of the treasures were divided among everyone so no one was really suffering a real loss considering that they enjoyed countless benefits for being part of the faction and adhering to its rules.

Unlike Bai Yong and Jin Shun, Bai Zemin did not fear that the soul evolvers of his faction would turn around to bite him in the ass one day. This was because the power difference was too great and even if his 700 subordinates magically decided to betray him, at the end of the day they would all end up dead. 

Moreover, Bai Zemin firmly believed that a true leader was not one who oppressed by force but one who led the troops to victory while earning the loyalty and respect of the people. Forced rule never had a good ending, and the history books were irrefutable proof of this fact.

Hao Zheng and Ye Jiao realized that slowly, all the battlefields were tilting in favor of the enemy faction.... But worst of all, there were two people on the enemy side who had yet to step forward and act.

Standing on the main branch of the only standing tree, right in the center of the whole mess, two beautiful women looked down as if they were supreme goddesses disdaining mortals. 

The tree was completely frozen and had been transformed into a huge ice statue that towered over 250 meters into the sky. The ice carambans occasionally fell slowly to the ground before disappearing as if they had never existed. The most terrifying thing, however, was undoubtedly that regardless of how powerful the shockwave or stray magic attack that hit the tree was, nothing managed to destroy the ice that covered it.

Zhong De followed the gaze of the two soul evolvers of the enemy faction and immediately understood their thoughts.

"Forget it, you two. Those two women are too powerful to join this kind of petty battle. If one of them made a move it would all be over too quickly and our Legion Leader's objective would never be fulfilled." He said indifferently.

The two women who had yet to step forward were naturally Shangguan Bing Xue and Evangeline. Both women's expressions were indifferent and ice-cold, not the slightest emotional fluctuation could be seen in their eyes as they watched the scene unfolding before them.

Regardless of whether an enemy or an ally fell, neither seemed to care at all.

Shangguan Bing Xue was currently level 46 and Evangeline was level 41, barely above Chen He. However, the power of both of them was far beyond what the levels said. In Evangeline's specific case, even her stats did not represent her full power as her own personal prowess and combat experience promoted her true power to new heights.

Just as Hao Zheng and Ye Jiao were hesitating over what to do, a shrill cry coming from a few hundred meters away attracted everyone's attention.

That cry basically sealed the fate of the battle of soul evolvers.

On a battlefield far away from the rest, Cai Jingyi held a dagger in her left hand and dexterously parried the enemy's sword before her; this enemy was a man whose power scale was First Order level 35. Compared to Cai Jingyi's level 27, the difference was quite big.

However, the levels could also not be used to measure Cai Jingyi's actual strength. In fact, Zhong De's overwhelming physical strength aside, Cai Jingyi was many times more dangerous than him even though they both possessed a similar level.

While in her left hand she held a dagger to parry the enemy attack, Cai Jingyi's right hand held a second dagger. The shape of this second one was a bit strange as the blade had several curves which gave it an appearance similar to a snake slithering silently as it stalked its prey.

"You... You actually wield two..." The enemy soul evolver spoke with some difficulty as a thin trickle of blood fell from the corner of his mouth and stained his leather armor.

This soul evolver's leather armor was some of the best that the blacksmith of Bai Yong's faction could offer so it was naturally Rank 1. However, it only gave 180 points of defense, it was a piece of equipment that had barely made it into Rank 1.

"That seems to be the case." Cai Jingyi replied with a faint smile on her face. 

Contrary to the kind smile on her face, the coldness in her eyes did not reflect kindness at all. Moreover, the fact that her second dagger was deeply plunged into the enemy's heart did not reflect the same emotion as her smile either.

Blue lightning flashed intermittently over Cai Jingyi's body, illuminating her figure for an instant.

Swoosh!

Before the enemy could even utter another word, Cai Jingyi pulled out the dagger from his heart and spun his body nimbly. After completing a 360-degree turn in an instant, her left leg swung out like a whip and fiercely struck the right side of the enemy's face.

Bang!

The soul evolver working for Bai Yong was sent flying more than ten meters before falling to the ground. His body shuddered a couple of times, but in the end, it was only a last-second struggle as in the next instant Cai Jingyi received the enemy's Soul Power.

The Rank 1 armor with 180 defense points meant nothing against Cai Jingyi's Rank 1 Treacherous Dagger, which granted her 490 physical attack points.

"Only 17 extra stat points even though I defeated someone almost 10 levels above me?" Cai Jingyi pouted and kicked the ground as she said, "What a crappy Soul Power this person had, for goodness sake..."

It was as if the fact that she had just defeated not only in combat but also killed a soul evolver who was 8 levels above her was no big deal and the only thing she was really worried about and the cause of her grumpiness was the fact that the amount of stats obtained was pitifully low due to the inferior purity of the enemy's Soul Power.

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