It was past six o'clock in the afternoon and little by little the sun was beginning to lose its power. Although it still shone high in the sky, the temperatures were beginning to drop at speeds that would be noticeable to anyone and that bright golden yellow that characterized it so much was slowly becoming faint until it took on a slight orange tinge.
The Beginning Village consisted of a secure perimeter of at least ten kilometers around with the village itself as the center. In this perimeter, the probability of a survivor encountering any kind of mutated creature or zombie was especially low since Fu Xuefeng and the rest had worked hard to wipe out any kind of latent danger.
Still, it was simply impossible to prevent the occasional wild animal or zombie from sneaking in. After all, to prevent such a thing from happening would require a large armed manpower guarding the perimeter day and night; such a thing was simply impossible at present.
To avoid unnecessary deaths, the survivors, who now numbered almost 2000 in total, only lived in the houses near the middle perimeter. Although they were still on the outside, since they were only normal citizens.
The Normal Citizens, those who did not want to do any kind of risky work or use their strength to earn their meals, were the minority inside the village. The majority were Noble Citizens willing to work, so they occupied the middle perimeter.
Under such a protective regime, unless someone ignored the established rules and wandered too far, casualties were practically zero.
To further secure the surroundings, Chen He, Shangguan Bing Xue, and Kang Lan, took over a hundred Noble Citizens with construction experience or strong bodies to do heavy work before heading to the outer perimeter of the settlement.
Under the care of three powerful fighters and more than seventy armed soldiers, some survivors began to dig two or three meter deep holes while others carried large tree trunks or sturdy wooden planks.
Little by little, a rustic but firm wooden wall with a height of six to seven meters was erected.
* * *
Meanwhile, Bai Zemin was currently inside a building at the back of his villa.
The beds and furniture that had previously occupied it had been removed in their entirety. Several walls had been knocked down, leaving only a huge living room with over a hundred square meters of space that was now filled with many strange objects that had replaced the previous furniture and appliances.
Tongs, a fireplace, hammers of all kinds, different sized anvils, large work tables, etc. All kinds of tools hung on the walls or rested on neatly arranged shelves on the sides.
In a corner one could see all kinds of large pelts hung up and stretched by various ropes. In addition, in another corner were several mountains of objects of different sizes that seemed to shimmer with a metallic touch in the glare of sunlight coming through the large solar window in the ceiling.
"Not bad. They did a good job here." Bai Zemin walked over to the pelts and touched them to check that they were dry as he commented casually.
"Will you start working now?" Lilith asked. She was in her natural form as she rested comfortably on one of the work tables and looked at Bai Zemin's back with a small smile on her lips.
Bai Zemin waved his left arm several times before nodding, "That's right. I need to urgently start working on the pelts or they will start to go bad as time goes by. Even the world's mana can't beat decay, can it?"
"Mmh." Lilith agreed. "The power of time still reigns supreme and only when one reaches the Fifth Order can one become immune to the decay of the river of life that flows endlessly."
"Fifth Order..." Bai Zemin paused for a moment. After considering for a moment, he asked tentatively, "After you reach the Fifth Order is when you become what you call Higher Existence?"
Lilith did not hide it and nodded calmly. She explained in an indifferent voice: "Putting aside Unclassified existences, from First Order to Fourth Order, no matter how strong an existence is, it will eventually die. This is an absolute fact."
"While the life expectancy between a First Order existence and a Fourth Order existence is completely different, at the end of the day, they all end up turning to ashes. These existences that fail to defeat the passage of time are called Lower Existences by the Higher Existences."
"..." Bai Zemin remained silent. He finally understood many things.
The term Lower Existence was not meant to offend anyone. It was just that from the point of view of those who managed to defeat the time, they were special beings, different from the rest. That was why they differentiated between Lower and Higher.
Bai Zemin wanted to ask what level he needed to reach the Fifth Order, but in the end he decided not to ask that question. He was just a miserable First Order level 40 existence.
What was the use of asking a question that would probably only end up depressing him when he knew the answer? Bai Zemin believed it was better to focus on what was ahead of him rather than looking so far ahead.
Of course, this didn't mean that he was neglecting the future. It was just that there were things beyond his reach that he didn't need to worry about.
Regardless of whether it was a powerful Higher Existence or whether it was a "mere" level 100 Lower Existence, all of them could crush Bai Zemin with one hand. This was an undeniable fact; therefore, there was no difference between one or the other for him.
Still, he decided to ask one more question. A question that would not make him feel overwhelmed but would at least give him some clues about the general situation of the universe as a whole.
"Can you tell me how many factions of Higher Existences exist?"
Bai Zemin was not an enemy of any of these factions. At least not yet. Therefore, he was not concerned about them; whether one existed or thousands existed, such things had nothing to do with him figuratively.
Lilith thought about it for a moment, tilting her head to the ceiling and gazing up at the sky through the light breaker. She looked like a celestial goddess illuminated by the rays of the sunset.
Just when Bai Zemin thought she wasn't going to respond, she answered somewhat unsure of herself.
"I'm not too sure... There are probably more hidden beings, but to my knowledge and probably to most, the number of factions of Higher Existences that currently exist are eight."
Lilith then listed them one by one:
"The Army of Heaven, led by the God of the Bible."
"The Demonic Army, led by Lucifer or Satan."
"Dragon God Kingdom, led by the Dragon Monarch."
"Immortal Bloodlust, led by the Vampire King."
"Endless Crimson Flame, led by the Eternal Phoenix."
"The Heavenly Moon Army, led by the Wolf Emperor."
"The Army of Evolution, led by the Zombie Ancestor."
"Devourers and Destroyers, led by a beast who calls itself Star Devourer."