Inside the room designed to be the living room of the two-story building that was devoid of practically any furniture, Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue, Nangong Yi, and Nangong Linxin, were standing while looking at the unconscious person on the floor with her limbs restrained.
The room was completely silent, the only exception being the cold wind coming through the broken windows of the building.
While there was electricity in this particular building, the place did not even have a single light bulb. Therefore, to prevent being in the dark, Bai Zemin's group had no choice but to make a temporary fire using the wood from the kitchen counter.
The group planned to move tonight in any case, so after capturing part of the base they would no longer have to stay in this broken and run-down building.
The fire in the bonfire was swaying to the rhythm of the wind blowing through the broken windows and the illumination provided by the blaze was enough so that the appearance of the unconscious person on the ground could be seen by all present.
"How was the young lady's strength?" Nangong Yi asked calmly. His voice amidst the silence was clear enough for everyone to hear even though his tone of voice was quite low to avoid waking up the mother and daughter duo sleeping in the room above.
Shangguan Bing Xue and Nangong Lingxin also looked at the one person who had confronted the assassin waiting for his answer.
Bai Zemin was silent for a moment before finally answering honestly, "Her statistics didn't seem to be too surprising."
Before the others could say anything, he continued, "But... Her combat ability, her control over her body, the speed with which she could react. the choice of each move, and the elasticity with which she could move... Everything was top-notch. Except for Shangguan Bing Xue and me, not even Chen He would be able to survive five trades with this girl as her skill with throwing weapons is so terrifying that even I have to be careful with."
The three of them were shocked at Bai Zemin's words. especially Shangguan Bing Xue.
She looked at him with clear surprise in her clear eyes and asked, "She is definitely already a First Order existence so she must be one of the strongest soul evolvers within this base... But it only took about ten seconds from the time you detected her presence to the time you captured her alive. Are you sure you're not exaggerating a bit?"
Bai Zemin shook his head and replied in a clear voice, "No, I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. Sure, if I wanted her to die I could have easily killed her in the blink of an eye... But capturing her alive was far from easy. In fact, if she hadn't shown any hesitation in her final attack, even I might have found myself with a little headache and definitely would have been injured."
"What?" Nangong Lingxin couldn't help but raise her voice as she looked at Bai Zemin in a state of utter shock.
To her, Bai Zemin was simply the very representation of the god of humanity; therefore, hearing his words came as a great shock to Nangong Lingxin.
Forget Nangong Lingxin, the most shocked person present was undoubtedly Shangguan Bing Xue. As one of the people who had walked the same path of survival as Bai Zemin from the first day the world completely changed, she had watched him grow up step by step and knew that he was a horrendously strong person. However, the girl who was passed out due to the hit she received could have hurt him?
If it was a Second Order beast, then Shangguan Bing Xue would be able to accept it more easily. But even a group of a dozen First Order beasts could not injure him in the past! It should be even more impossible now that he had absorbed some of the Second Order Archaic Bear's Soul Power!
Bai Zemin naturally felt Shangguan Bing Xue's look of disbelief and Nangong Lingxin's incredibly shocked gaze. He immediately understood their thoughts, so he smiled bitterly and instead of explaining pulled out a dagger from his waist.
"That's...?" Shangguan Bing Xue looked at the dagger in confusion.
The dagger was deep black with the engraving of a blood-red rose between the hilt and the edge of the blade. The shape of the blade was quite strange as it had several curves and on the edge, one could see what appeared to be the vines and thorns of a rose.
"This dagger... This dagger is a Magic grade treasure. It's the assassin's weapon." Bai Zemin sighed and handed the weapon to Shangguan Bing Xue. "Look at that dagger and you will understand what I mean."
Shangguan Bing Xue frowned slightly and looked at the dagger in her hand. She wished to know the weapon's information, and soon the messages began to flash in her retina.
------
[Death's Kiss (Magic Grade Treasure): When equipped automatically increases the wearer's Agility by 50 points and Strength by 30 points. Crafted from Orchid Baddtialaite from the Zolian World. Extremely lethal and capable of piercing any armored vehicle on pre-apocalyptic Earth as well as any defensive object of Rank 2 and below. Once per day you can activate the unique skill Death's Kiss, increasing your critical hit probability by 50% during your next attack and poisoning the enemy with a paralyzing effect for 1 second.]
------
After reading the information about the dagger in her hands, the coldness and indifference on Shangguan Bing Xue's face disappeared completely. This greatly surprised Nangong Yi and Nangong Lingxin, as this was the first time they had seen Shangguan Bing Xue show such a level of shock.
As if she was in some sort of trance, she passed the dagger to Nangong Lingxin; who five seconds later had exactly the same reaction.
Dying of curiosity, Nangong Yi did not wait for her younger sister to hand over the weapon and instead grabbed it out of her hands as if he were an anxious little child instead of a 40-year-old adult.
Nangong Yi, unlike the two women, sucked in a breath of cold air and unconsciously muttered, "Zolian World...? Another world..."
Although when the Soul Record appeared for the first time on Earth everyone present already had their suspicions about the existence of other, more evolved worlds, this dagger called Death's Kiss confirmed it completely.
This was different from scientific theories, this was total certainty!
Moreover, the material from which Death's Kiss was crafted was a kind of metal so strong and powerful that even the Soul Record used it together with the remnant Soul Power of the fallen existence to shape this dagger. This also meant that, at the very least, that world was quite a bit more advanced than the current Earth.
Shangguan Bing Xue could not help but worry: "The Earth... It won't be invaded by other worlds, right...?"
For the first time since Bai Zemin met her, this woman who always stood her ground revealed an expression of anxiety, worry, and her always confident and arrogant voice now contained some incertitude.
* * * * * * *
Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW <3