After the skill Blood Manipulation evolved into Second Order, the formerly deep red rune became slightly lighter and gained some mysterious engravings. This rune, like all learned skills regardless of whether it was passive or active, represented what a skill could do and the information on how to use that skill was imprinted in the user's soul, allowing an existence to make use of that skill as if they had been training for a lifetime.
The power of Blood Manipulation grew to twice the previous and Bai Zemin also acquired a lot of information, which caused the number and variations of attacks he could make using the skill to increase explosively. After acquiring a lot of knowledge, his control over the Blood Manipulation skill was significantly higher than in the past.
Therefore, it was relatively simple for Bai Zemin to establish a safe perimeter.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
As the blood threads surrounding Shan Li tightened, blood wounds opened up on every inch of his skin and the clothes covering him began to slowly shred into pieces.
"Ugh... Agh!!!" Shan Li tried to endure the pain, but after a couple of seconds, the pain of being cut into hundreds of pieces while he was still conscious was too much for anyone to bear silently.
Bai Zemin showed no mercy.
"Surely you have committed many atrocities after gaining power. So I shall give you a death full of pain and regret." He declared as he held the thread around Shan Li's neck taut enough to hurt him but not enough to decapitate him.
"Kill me! Kill me if you dare!" Shan Li could no longer resist such torture and all he desired was death.
His skin was cut, his flesh ripped apart. and his muscles torn into thin pieces. The tendons in his body broke as the blood threads dug into his body and blood began to stain the courtyard floor.
"You will die. You will definitely die." Bai Zemin nodded and focused his full attention, taking great care as he made the blood threads advance at millimeter speed. "However, you have to suffer first. You are not worthy of a quick death."
"AAAGH! Who are you to judge?! DAMN, IT HURTS! Do you think you are God?!" Amidst cries filled with heart-rending wailing, Shan Li looked at Bai Zemin with bloodshot eyes.
At this point, he could no longer be considered a human as his body was completely dyed red. Flesh and blood were falling to the floor non-stop and his limbs were about to fall to the spot on the grass along with his waist practically cut into pieces. The pain Shan Li was experiencing was so great that he had passed out several times in the process before waking up again due to the pain.
"No, I am not God." Bai Zemin shook his head and said calmly, "But I am stronger than you. Just as you decided who lived and who died before, now that someone stronger than you appeared then naturally you should be prepared for that someone, namely me, to decide on your fate."
Shan Li could not reply. He could only scream; scream until his voice became hoarse and until his vocal strings practically broke.
Shan Li's cries, filled with anguish, sounded like the wails of a ghost in gloom. The silence of the night was broken and all those who lived in the vicinity of Kang Rong's villa despaired in their own villas without daring to go out.
"Too cruel..." Nangong Lingxin could no longer look at Shan Li's miserable appearance anymore.
She was a normal woman, after all, she didn't have a skill that made her practically immune to emotions like pity and sympathy towards others just in the same way as Bai Zemin.
Unfortunately, although she could decide what to see and what not to see, the piercing screams of the man being cut to pieces was not something she could stop. Even after covering her ears, she could not stop the pain-filled voice from reaching her.
Shangguan Bing Xue tolerated it for a few seconds. However, it soon became intolerable even for her. Unable to bear to see any more, she also turned her face away and as she listened to the thunderous screams, her blue eyes flashed with a complicated light.
After a few more seconds, Shan Li's four limbs had fallen off his body and fell helplessly to the floor. His torso was practically torn apart and his internal organs fell to the earth one after another. The current him could no longer be considered a human anymore.
Even if Bai Zemin left him like this he would definitely die soon, and the only reason he was still breathing was because he was a rather powerful soul evolver.
"No more screaming..." Bai Zemin muttered as he looked at the man in front of him with cold eyes.
He had his own reasons for being this cruel to Shan Li.
When they entered the courtyard, Bai Zemin noticed how Shan Li looked at Shangguan Bing Xue and Nangong Lingxin with greed and naked desire. Such a man who looked at women as if they were objects definitely wasn't a good bird, and Bai Zemin had no doubt that he had abused the survivors of the base to satisfy his own vanity and lust.
From his personal point of view, a person who took the lives of the innocent without a second thought and used those of the opposite sex as a toy did not deserve any mercy. Bai Zemin could be wrong, maybe his way of acting was not the right way, he was aware of this.
"But if I am wrong, if my actions are wrong, then I am willing to suffer the consequences if someone stronger than me appears someday." He muttered under his breath, talking to himself as if to affirm his own thoughts.
After this, Bai Zemin looked at Shan Li, who had a blank look and didn't seem to be able to feel the pain, and said loudly, "Shan Li, don't worry... I will take care of your family personally!"
Shan Li, who seemed to have lost consciousness after feeling his body being cut into hundreds of pieces, suddenly gained self-consciousness again after hearing what Bai Zemin said. His eyes were filled with fury and he seemed to be about to say something, but Bai Zemin had no intention of listening to his empty threats or useless curses.
Bai Zemin tightened his grip on the end of the blood thread in his hand and pulled it roughly.
The blood thread, which was wrapped around Shan Li's neck, immediately tightened and the thin cord cut the throat and then the rest of the man's neck without any difficulty as if it were a pair of sharp scissors cutting white paper.
[Critical Hit!]
[You have received the Soul Power of First Order Shan Li level 35. You have received Magic +19, Mana +10.]
Shan Li's head made a thud as it hit the ground and rolled over twice before it stopped. The expression on his face, filled with fury, fear, and grief, had been immortalized forever as his life was lost in that instant.
Bai Zemin walked slowly forward as the others looked at him with lingering fear and respect. No one dared to make the slightest sound.
After reaching Shan Li's practically torn corpse, Bai Zemin seemed oblivious to the mess of blood and flesh as he crouched down.
I see... Then that's the why I felt this part was harder to get through. Bai Zemin lighted up as he looked at the leather armor covering the torso of the corpse before him.
This leather armor was made from the leather of a First Order beast, but its durability had fallen to critical levels after being tortured by Bai Zemin's blood threads. After all, Bai Zemin's blood creations were 20% more powerful than his other attacks thanks to his unique job Blood Berserker.
Ignoring the armor that was definitely not worth the effort of repairing, he picked up some pieces of equipment belonging to the Soul Record system and temporarily stored them in his waist pouch for inspection later.
Only one item remained in his hands: a scroll.
[Gravity Manipulation (First Order active skill) Level 5: By learning this skill, the user gains the ability to control gravity 10 meters around. The increase or decrease of gravitational force is based on the laws of the world where the user is and the user's Mana and Magic, where 10 Mana and 10 Magic are the equivalents of increasing or decreasing gravity x1. The current limit is 15 times gravity. It consumes 5 Mana points to activate and 1 Mana point every 10 seconds to maintain the skill.]
The information on the scroll containing the skill Gravity Manipulation was quite similar to what Bai Zemin expected to find. Basically, the effect and its range as well as the amount of consumption and how it worked. However, that was all.
Fortunately, Bai Zemin already had a good foundation on how to use the Gravity Manipulation skill thanks to spending time studying Shan Li and analyzing the details and uses that the scroll did not state by default.
Furthermore, another thing that left Bai Zemin incredibly satisfied was the fact that the Gravity Manipulation skill was not exclusively tied to planet Earth. If this was the case, then he might have to give up learning this active skill since while it was powerful, with such a limitation its future would not be good.
Bai Zemin tightened his grip on the earth-colored scroll in his right hand and it burst into particles of brown light that were soon absorbed into his body.
[You have learned the external active skill First Order Gravity Manipulation level 5.]
[You have learned 5 external active skills. You cannot learn any more external active skills before reaching Second Order.]
"Second Order, huh..." He muttered in a sigh as he slowly stood up.
He was currently level 45, and ever since he defeated the Second Order Archaic Bear his level did not go up. While his soul power was purer and bigger since he had defeated and killed many enemies, the amount of soul power gained was not enough to push him to the next level.
Still, while he had spent 1 week locked up in his workshop forging equipment and his level had not increased, Bai Zemin's strength had increased a lot. In fact, even he didn't know how strong he was now.
I didn't even have to unsheathe the Blazing Scale Greatsword. Bai Zemin reached back and stroked the handle of his weapon, which still rested sealed inside its scabbard.
His instinct told him that it was better not to test the power of this weapon here, so in the end, he decided it was better not to do it. He would have plenty of chances in the future anyway, there was no hurry.
Bai Zemin turned his body and looked at all the people present coldly. Those who were more timid took a couple of steps back as they shuddered in fear.
But such a reaction was natural considering everything they had just witnessed, and Bai Zemin did not mind. He waved his hand casually and activated Blood Manipulation once again.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The blood on the battlefield trembled and under his command moved in his direction swiftly gathering under his feet. In the next instant, the blood rose into the sky taking the shape of a small stage over ten meters high.
Bai Zemin again waved his hand in the wind and from the blood-stage several blood chains flew towards the floor at full speed.
Before anyone could react, the blood chains surrounded Kang Rong's body and lifted him into the air, leaving him suspended in mid-air a short distance away from Bai Zemin.
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