Bai Zemin confirmed the evolution requirements of the new Superhuman Health skill but seeing that he needed First Order Soul Stones in addition to Unclassified Soul Stones he decided to stop temporarily.
Although he still had approximately seven First Order Soul Stones left, Bai Zemin knew that such Soul Stones were currently precious. Unless the First Order creatures suddenly became normal like the other monsters or their numbers increased exponentially he was not willing to spend all his Soul Stones.
After all, he still needed equipment for himself, for his subordinates, even to evolve other skills.
In fact, were it not for the current situation they were in it was improbable that he would expend one of the few First Order Soul Stones he had in his inventory.
"You two should also check to see if any of your passive skills can be improved." Bai Zemin instructed as he looked at the two women beside him. "Before we go deeper into the forest we should take the opportunity to become as strong as possible."
Shangguan Bing Xue and Wu Yijun nodded at the same time before they began to slide down their own records carefully.
While Wu Yijun did not possess any skills before, after acquiring her Plant Empowerment skill she began to fight on the front lines regularly so by killing mutated zombies, mutated animals, and engaging in fighting against more powerful creatures, she was also gradually acquiring some useful passive skills.
"In fact, with these Soul Stones I can level up some skills... Even evolving to the next Order is not impossible." Wu Yijun nodded before smiling bitterly and saying in a bittersweet tone, "Unfortunately, my natural stats don't reach the necessary requirement so I can't do anything about it."
"I see..." Bai Zemin nodded with understanding.
In fact, Lilith had already mentioned previously that evolving skills was by no means a simple thing and that he had been doing it constantly due to fighting beings more powerful than him relentlessly.
As his life was constantly in danger, it was only natural that the rewards were juicier. That was precisely why his natural stats were overwhelmingly higher than those of someone at his own level. Otherwise, he would also not be able to level up skills continuously, let alone upgrade Orders.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!...
The wind suddenly swooshed as several Soul Stones flew out of the leather bag on Shangguan Bing Xue's slender waist.
Flash!
"This is..." Bai Zemin muttered to himself as he looked at the light flashing and enveloping the Soul Stones. The same wonderful effect of the movement of mana together with a strange feeling of closeness every time an evolution happened flooded him.
Not only Bai Zemin felt this way, Wu Yijun, and even Lilith herself was no different.
The feeling they felt just by the mere fact of being close to the evolution process was so warm that it could not be described in mere words.
Bang!
With a burst of bright lights, particles of light filled with power surrounded Shangguan Bing Xue and as she kept her eyes closed, savoring the feeling of warmth within her soul, her skill finished evolving successfully.
She opened her eyes and sighed softly before looking at Bai Zemin and Wu Yijun with a rare smile, "It's done."
Wu Yijun smiled back and congratulated her while Bai Zemin simply nodded towards her and urged, "Let's get going... I'd like to at least get to see the camp before nightfall."
His last words were spoken in a joking tone, but the three of them knew that if a situation like the Wolf Spiders happened again it was likely that they would not really reach the place even after hours of walking.
* * *
The group of three advanced through the forest for more than two hours. In fact, the amount of time they had to advance to leave the area covered with Wolf Spider blood totaled an astonishing 30 minutes in all.
In those thirty minutes, they had advanced a total of almost 5 kilometers... That meant that all the low-level enemies within five kilometers had been slaughtered by Bai Zemin's Blood Manipulation skill!
It was only after seeing such a thing with his own eyes that he finally realized why such a powerful and mysterious being like Lilith said that his skill was more powerful than he believed.
Until now, Bai Zemin had only scratched the surface of the full potential of the Blood Manipulation skill. Just imagining how powerful this skill would be when it evolved and reached higher Orders made his heart pound.
Along the path, they encountered several enemies. All of them were naturally wild animals that had mutated due to mana and were constantly evolving due to the endless absorption of Soul Power.
After all, unlike intelligent beings who could argue with words other than killing each other, unintelligent animals spent most of their time fighting each other, devouring each other, and constantly getting stronger.
This meant that their numbers were steadily decreasing, but as a consequence, the few that remained were becoming more powerful. This would continue until one of them rose into power, becoming a terrifying existence not only with overwhelming might but also with a capacity for reasoning and judgment of its own.
Lilith had told him earlier that Second Order creatures could judge and have simple thoughts. Although they were not especially intelligent, neither were they incredibly dumb like those Unclassified or as suicidal as those of the First Order.
Fortunately, no powerful beings crossed their paths.
Nor were there any instances where large herds of insects or wild animals suddenly appeared and launched an attack against the group of three.
"It's only a short distance from here." Wu Yijun paused for a moment and surveyed the surroundings before pointing to a strange rock in front of them, "I remember back then I told my grandfather that this rock was shaped like an alien and less than forty minutes later we arrived at the military zone."
Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue looked at her with peculiar eyes and then looked at each other silently before looking at the strange rock.
"Indeed... It looks like a cartoon-like alien." Bai Zemin didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the sight of the rock that seemed to have a puffy head with bulging eyes and a small body.
Shangguan Bing Xue shook her head and did not comment on it before she started walking forward. However, just then, several roars echoed from all sides and her movements stagnated to a halt.
Rumble!
The ground began to shake fiercely as if a high magnitude earthquake suddenly happened, destabilizing the three of them.
"Ah!" Wu Yijun cried out taken by surprise as she almost fell and quickly clung to her best friend as she created several ice stakes from which they both leaned on.
Bai Zemin's face changed slightly and narrowed his eyes while looking ahead.
Even for himself it was a bit challenging to keep his balance if he stood in the same place without moving. Therefore, he had no choice but to take small steps sideways to adjust to the terrifying shaking of the earth.