Earth, around 4.000 meters below sea level.
"White Hole: Expel Energy!"
As these words left Bai Zemin's mouth, the small milk-white sphere suspended just in front of his two outstretched palms quickly turned red until it reached a bright crimson color that illuminated over 5 kilometers of the surrounding area, giving the waters a bloody tinge as the color became deeper and deeper.
Thao Zhi had experienced many life and death situations throughout his life as a soul evolver; in fact, not long after waking up from countless years of deep sleep, he fought the young man in front of him, and if not for him fleeing the battle, Thao Zhi could have died right there back then.
However, in that instant when his reptile-like eyes were fixed on that white-colored sphere turning redder and redder Thao Zhi felt one of the biggest dangers he had ever felt in his entire life.
SWOOOSH!!!
The crimson glow that had tinged the waters became much deeper and large amounts of sea vaporized in a jiffy when from the sphere suspended in front of Bai Zemin shot out a great blood-colored ray that in a heartbeat reached in front of Thao Zhi and passed beyond.
It all happened too fast.
Shangguan Bing Xue had not yet comprehended the situation and for the first time in years, she was stunned looking at everything that was happening without her brain and heart adapting to the terrifying roller coaster of emotions she was subjected to in a short span of seconds.
No more than a few seconds ago, Shangguan Bing Xue had witnessed the same energy beam that had shattered Kong Jun's defenses, severely wounded him, and pushed him probably several kilometers deep into the ocean, completely covering Bai Zemin's body.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})She knew that he had more than likely died but simply did not want to and could not accept it... But seeing him standing not too far away, all covered in wounds and exposed burns with all of his equipment shredded to the point where he was currently almost completely naked... What Shangguan Bing Xue felt was not joy and happiness; what she felt was fear and terror.
"Ah..." A small sound similar to a little kitten's whine came out of her mouth as she wanted to say something, and it was then that she realized that there were still crystal clear tears running down her face uncontrollably.
Shangguan Bing Xue looked at the hand with which she was holding the sword that Bai Zemin had given her and then looked at her free hand. She was trembling. Her whole body was trembling. Her legs felt weak as jelly and her teeth were clattering beyond her control.
It was at that very moment that she was horrified with the realization that a split second too late on Bai Zemin's part, a miscalculation during the activation of that unknown skill, the lack of that skill... A single change, the slightest one, would have been enough for him to lose his life right before her eyes without her being able to do anything.
It was at that precise moment that Shangguan Bing Xue remembered the words Lilith had said to her more than two months ago.
"A little kid who has lost nothing and can afford to restrict her power for such a childish reason wants to defeat me? You're still 55 years too young, brat." That was what that woman had said to her.
But it was only now that Shangguan Bing Xue realized that Lilith was right.
She had lost practically nothing since the world began to evolve and from many points of view had gained much more than she had lost.
She had no idea how terrifying and frightening was the feeling of helplessness one could feel at the loss of a loved one while she could do nothing but watch with wide eyes as the life of someone of utmost importance was extinguished in front of her partly because of her own incompetence, or in this case and even worse, because of beliefs that perhaps did not make much sense.
As Shangguan Bing Xue began to undergo a change of mind that would likely take time to fully settle in, Bai Zemin winced as he lowered his hands.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"He really didn't die even with that." He gritted his teeth as he read the message that flashed in his eyes.
[You have received the Soul Power of Third Order Xian Kun level 134. You...]
Previously, Bai Zemin had placed himself in a position where after taking that strange beam he managed to have both Thao Zhi and Xian Kun in a perfect straight line. Thus, even if Bai Zemin could not kill Thao Zhi he would at least be able to end the Third Prince's life the moment he returned the beam attack since even though Xian Kun was imprisoned by the formation that Kali and Meng Qi worked on for a long time, there was still a need to get past Thao Zhi to kill him; the Fourth Order Alligator certainly would not allow it.
Although Bai Zemin had managed to kill Xian Kun and was now only 1 opponent away from evolving to the Second Order and finally acquiring his Blood Mistic class, he was not satisfied at all.
Bai Zemin coldly looked to his right, and right there he saw Thao Zhi's body slowly materializing.
"Unexpected... Too unexpected..."
Thao Zhi seemed to have lost his sanity a bit as he stared wide-eyed at his missing left leg and half of his severed tail.
"Even with Blink being an automatic lifesaving skill... I still suffered so much damage..." Thao Zhi looked at Bai Zemin with wide eyes and said in a low voice, "As expected from the cannons of the city of His Majesty the Forgotten King... Even angels and demons would fall before its power not to mention a mortal like me."
Thao Zhi extended his hand outward, and from the distance, a small object suddenly released a faint glow before flying towards him.
Bai Zemin immediately realized that it was a small wooden pagoda. It was definitely the pagoda that was in Xian Kun's possession before.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"This pagoda... it belonged to His Majesty the Forgotten King..." He began to talk to himself. "But after His Majesty fell after those events happened I took the pagoda and immersed myself in deep sleep in a safe place. The Immortal Ice Coffin can protect the soul and physical body from the passage of time without letting the records of a living being weaken over the years, but in return, you can't leave unless someone removes the top of the coffin... And the person who opens the coffin can ask for a will from the being resting inside."
Bai Zemin did not interrupt or try to attack right away. He didn't care about Thao Zhi's story but what he cared about was using Overlap Regeneration to the max to increase his Health stat and recover a little faster from his injuries; serious injuries that he had been unable to escape from earlier.
"That stupid Xian Kun asked for my help to become the next King of the Seas so I did everything I could to help him, I even lent him the Pagoda of Corruption." Thao Zhi looked at Bai Zemin, and his eyes finally showed a terrifying glare as he said almost in a whisper, "It was you... You messed it all up!"
RUMBLE!!!
The mana inside Thao Zhi's body suddenly began to boil furiously and the sea began to rumble viciously as his magical power made its full presence known.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!...
Hundreds and soon thousands of glowing magic circles appeared everywhere; top, bottom, left, right, center... It was as if the entire sea had been covered by magic circles in a matter of a second or two.
Bai Zemin gritted his teeth and tried to think of what to do while slowly began to become desperate.
His current condition was far from good and he had been fighting for a long time so he could probably only use Overlap Regeneration for another 3-4 minutes at most. In addition, he also couldn't use White Hole again at his current stage, therefore, his number of cards had been drastically reduced.
[Gravity Manipulation (Fourth Order active skill) level 5: Its power depends on the user's knowledge and imagination. It consumes 200 Mana points to activate and 30 Mana points every 5 seconds to keep active, allowing the user to increase or decrease the gravitational power of the world or part of the universe they are in at will up to a maximum of 150 times.]
[Second activation (Ruler of All Matter):...]
[Third activation (White Hole): White holes absorb energy for a short period of time and then expel it again in the opposite direction from which it came, unlike black holes that devour everything. The magic power and soul league of the user is too low thus you can currently only use this Third Activation 1 time every 24 hours. Effect: Absorbs 70% of anything and releases it as energy.]
Soul Manipulation did not allow raising the level of skills that increased the knowledge of something, but Bai Zemin knew perfectly well the theory of white holes and their characteristics, therefore, he was not really receiving basic knowledge of anything. He only gained power and a terrifyingly powerful third activation.
Unfortunately, although the power of the third activation of Gravity Manipulation was unquestionable... Its limits were clear. In this case, the limit was none other than Bai Zemin himself.
Just when Bai Zemin was contemplating what to do since with his current situation it was absolutely impossible for him to defend against so many magical attacks as even if 50% of them were stopped by the Anti-Magic Domain the other 50% was enough to devastate him given the severity of his wounds, a silhouette stood next to him.
"I will fight alongside you."
Bai Zemin looked at Shangguan Bing Xue, and somehow felt that she was a little different. Unfortunately, there was no time for such things.
"I will do my best, little kids." Shangguan Xinyue also joined in.
Wu Yijun stood next to Shangguan Bing Xue, and although she said nothing and her expression was not visible due to the mask everyone wore her resolve and intention were more than obvious.
There was not much they could do anyway.
They could only fight with what they had.
5000
10.000
15.000
20.000
...
The number of magic circles did not stop growing, and although the trio knew it was better to attack rather than let the number increase... Sometimes it was difficult to do what was the best as the circumstances were often even more of an obstacle than the obstacle itself.
Just at that moment, a small disturbance in the area occurred a few hundred meters ahead.
Thao Zhi, who had directly consumed 70% of his remaining Mana to launch a fatal attack, was surprised and his eyes widened in shock as a beautiful figure with blonde hair tied in a ponytail appeared inches in front of him.
Instinctively, Thao Zhi activated his strongest barrier to defend his body. But his pupils contracted fiercely when he realized that the female in front of him had played it cool.
... He could not activate his barrier less than half a meter away from his body, and the woman whom he had overlooked and whose existence he had forgotten since she had not participated in the entire battle was less than 5 centimeters away.
Evangeline's emerald eyes flashed coldly under her mask, and at the same time as a strange energy covered her body she said in a low voice, "Distortion Dance."
Under the wide eyes of Thao Zhi, Bai Zemin, the Shangguan-surnamed mother-daughter duo, and Wu Yijun, around 30,000 Evangelines suddenly appeared all around the sea; one for each magic circle.
It all happened too fast, fast enough that the brain and nerves in Thao Zhi's body could not move before the female in front of him did a 360-degree turn and soon enough all he felt was an overwhelming flood of pain.
"BITCH!!!"
Thao Zhi's bellow was not unlike a roar, and from inside his mouth came a huge fireball which Evangeline had to dodge by making use of one of her life-saving skills.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The fire drowned and suppressed by the water did not go out but exploded, sending Thao Zhi flying with injuries now more severe than before. He writhed in pain in the water as large amounts of blood spurted from the sockets where his eyes had previously been.
Not only had Evangeline slashed Thao Zhi's eyes, depriving him of the privilege of seeing; she had even somehow made all the magic circles disappear without a trace!
Thao Zhi had literally just lost 70% of the Mana he had left to gain anything because of Evangeline!
* * * * * * *
