It took Bai Zemin a total of 3 days from the outside world, 30 days inside the Collector's Pocket World to get fully recovered from the injuries he had received in the operation that had taken place in outer space.
Although the Fifth Order phoenix had not managed to hit him directly with her attacks, the aftershocks alone were enough to shatter a good portion of his body.
While the wounds that plagued Bai Zemin's body had not been serious as far as his life was concerned, his right arm had practically disappeared after being incinerated by the phoenix's flames, leaving behind no more than small pieces of half-burnt flesh stuck to his bones.
In addition, part of his back and ribs on the right side of his body had suffered burns that although not as serious as those on his arm still required time to heal.
During those thirty days inside the Collector's Pocket World, Bai Zemin not only set out to recover but with the help of Kali and his little sister Meng Qi he repaired his armor and created other pieces of equipment such as leg protectors, shoulder pads, upgraded his old cloak, among others.
"Bullet, why don't you forge a pair of boots by yourself?"
Kali's question certainly managed to take Bai Zemin by surprise and he gave her a puzzled look.
Kali explained, "Back in Eventide World, I remember that Seraphina's magic boots were not treasures from the Soul Record but were boots forged by a blacksmith. You are much better than those blacksmiths, so I'm sure you can do something better... and with my help we can make a pair of boots worthy of an anomaly."
Bai Zemin was happy that Kali was talking more even if it was just with him, but he had a problem with her words.
"My dear powder, when you refer to me as an anomaly... Are you praising me or insulting me?" he asked with a small smile.
Kali's pale lips curved slightly for the briefest of split seconds before returning to her usual nonchalant expression, "Of course, it's a compliment."
"...Your amused smile from just now tells me you're lying."
"Lying? Me? You slander me." Kali snorted before adding, "Besides, I didn't smile."
"Of course you smiled."
"I didn't smile."
"Of course you-"
"I didn't smile."
"... Forget it."
... Although Bai Zemin certainly wished to forge a new pair of boots for himself, circumstances were not particularly peaceful for him to take his time.
Bai Zemin considered himself to be a meticulous, and sometimes even a bit of a perfectionist type of man.
"That Leviathan said something regarding other generals, and he also said 'His Majesty'..." Bai Zemin stopped standing on top of the tallest building on the base and as the cold night wind blew across his face he analyzed, "That means there is someone behind that monster, and considering that thing also said something about 'freedom' it's not hard to imagine how hard things will become soon."
A gust of rose-scented wind blew, and at the same time as he smiled slightly the most beautiful voice of all sounded beside him.
"It seems that you have already discovered everything by yourself."
Bai Zemin continued to look off into the distance as he said, "That's right."
During the past few days, Bai Zemin with the help of Wu Yijun had moved around 20 tamed mutant beasts to the Collector's Pocket World so that soon the number of the mounts would increase exponentially thanks to the time discrepancy between the two sides, and he had even hired people who would never betray him as they had much to lose and little to gain to work the soil of the place.
In just 1 month's time, the Transcendent faction would begin to see results. A great flood of resources would begin to rain down on their heads.
But while others were taking care of those things, Bai Zemin brought Lilith up to date with everything that had happened during her absence.
"You chose 'Blood Warlock' as your Third Order class, and I must say that the requirements are really peculiar this time." Lilith sighed. She looked at her beloved out of the corner of her eye as she said without knowing whether to laugh or cry, "Zemin, as you have realized, there are very powerful beings in different parts of the Earth, and those you need to hunt are strong enough to be able to kill you... Therefore, you need to be careful."
"... I thought that after evolving to the Second Order I would be invincible in my world, but I was naive." Bai Zemin smiled bitterly.
"No. Actually, I also thought the same thing as you." Lilith took his hand and continued, "Zemin, Earth is a world probably as strange as your existence. In this place was born Fire Sorrow, Lucifer, Sirius, and most likely many more terrifyingly powerful soul evolvers... We shouldn't judge this world using common sense."
Bai Zemin could tell that although the requirements he needed to complete this time to evolve seemed to be simpler thanks to his immeasurable increase in overall power, the reality was quite different.
"Although I only have to kill a few enemies this time, they all seem to be incredibly hard." Bai Zemin forced a smile as he said, "The Soul Record is asking me to kill what are probably several top level Fourth Order enemies while I'm at level 100."
"... Not to mention the peculiarity of the other requirements you need to complete this time." Lilith could already feel a full-blown headache coming on... but before that, she felt someone's presence approaching, "Oh? You have a guest hehe..."
At the same time as Bai Zemin nodded, Lilith disappeared. And just a moment later, a lithe silhouette rose hundreds of meters in an instant bringing with it a strong gust of wind.
He looked at the beautiful young woman in front of him with indifference, and the girl returned his gaze like a brave pig who was not afraid of boiling water.
After a few seconds, Bai Zemin opened his mouth first: "Eleanora, what do you want?"
"...What manners..." The beautiful evolved soul with mind-reading capabilities belonging to the United States of America faction whispered to herself.
Bai Zemin frowned slightly as he realized that this girl's attitude was slightly different from what he remembered.
During all the time that had passed, Bai Zemin had never contacted Eleanora. He had her well watched by powerful soul evolvers 24/7, not obstructing her daily life at all but making sure she followed the faction's rules properly as instructed.
"You... Aren't you afraid that too many of your faction's secrets will reach the United States?" Eleanora snorted.
However, far from being offended or annoyed by the brat's words in front of him, what Bai Zemin felt was puzzlement.
Although the curvaceous 18-year-old blonde was acting tough, the fact that she did not dare to look Bai Zemin directly in the face did not make her threatening at all.
Just as Bai Zemin was wondering what was wrong with her, Lilith's giggle rang in his ears.
"My. My cute Zemin seems to have become quite the hunk while I was away."
It was only then that Bai Zemin finally remembered the fact that his race had evolved to a higher stage.
Bai Zemin didn't know how handsome he was, but he knew that his Charm was high; particularly with the opposite sex, and even more so with human females.
Immovable Heart plus High Human made Bai Zemin a male who aroused the most primal desires of the females of his species just as a strong lion did in the lionesses of its pride.
Seeing the slight blush on Eleanora's face completely confirmed any doubt.
Bai Zemin smiled wryly and shook his head not knowing whether he should really laugh or cry.
"You know what happened in outer space, don't you?"
"I-" Eleanora closed her mouth when she wanted to deny it. Finally, she nodded, "I do. I can't control my skill, and when I saw that Shangguan Bing Xue woman 2 days ago she was thinking about what happened in the sun."
Bai Zemin sighed heavily, "I knew it."
"Really.... Do such powerful beings really exist?" Eleanora asked hesitantly, "There were parts of Shangguan Bing Xue's thoughts that I couldn't read, but I know they are about some powerful being from the course of the conversation you all had."
"Oh?" Bai Zemin looked at her in surprise as he thought the girl in front of him knew everything.
"Unless a Higher Existence reveals itself there is no way for a Lower Existence to know about its existence." Lilith's voice cleared his doubts. "Except Kali. That little girl might be even more anomalous than you."
Bai Zemin looked at Eleanora and calmly replied, "Eleanora, many things will change soon."
"Eh?" She finally looked him in the eye. The surprise and apprehension in her voice were evident: "W-what do you mean by that?"
"What I mean is that depending on the choice Angelo and the United States of America make within the short period of time to come, our alliance will dissolve and we will turn into enemies."
The blonde beauty's expression changed greatly when she heard Bai Zemin's words, which far from sounding like a threat sounded like irrefutable facts.
It had been about 5 months since she had decided to stay in China while Chen He headed with Angelo's team to the United States. During this amount of time, Eleanora had come to learn many things about the Transcendent faction, their leaders, the type of governmental and military organization they were governed by, as well as who were the strongest of them all.
As patriotic as Eleanora was and regardless of the love she felt for her country, feelings and logic rarely got along; and Eleanora knew that if she put aside emotions she had to admit that the faction led by Bai Zemin of China was more powerful than the faction led by Angelo in America.
Even if Angelo had evolved to the Third Order and had become perhaps two or three times more powerful than before, Eleanora knew that Bai Zemin had unilaterally struck a massively sized Fourth Order beast off the shores of Shanghai.
"Soon it will be time for you to return to your country, so I hope you will pass my words to Angelo... Tell him that I, Bai Zemin, will NEVER hand over the reins of my life to another living being even if they are gods." Bai Zemin's eyes flashed with rarely seen ferocity as he coldly said, "Anyone who becomes my enemy... I will crush them with no regard for the past!"
Thanks to the Soul Record's warning in which it made it clear to him that if he wanted to evolve into Blood Warlock he could not join any faction and the fact that he needed to expel the invading factions coupled with Fire Sorrow's appearance near Earth, Bai Zemin was 85% certain that soon the Higher Existences would burst onto the stage that should only belong to Lower Existences.
Even if they couldn't act directly, nothing prevented them from moving cunningly or indirectly as Lilith had been doing until today.
Eleanora looked at Bai Zemin with her beautiful blue eyes wide open, and for a long time she was unable to say a single word.
Eleanora was supposed to be able to read his mind, but Bai Zemin's race surpassed her by an entire stage so even if she was a level 145 soul evolver it was of no use. Still, she was able to understand some things.
Eleanora could sense his anger, apprehension, wariness, distrust, and above all; ferocity.
"I'll... I'll tell Angelo your words." She nodded.
Bai Zemin nodded back and was about to leave when the girl in front of him stopped him.
"I heard you plan to attack Russia, is that true?"
Eleanora's eyes flashed with genuine curiosity, and although Bai Zemin carefully observed her for almost a full minute he couldn't notice any kind of malice from her.
"...It seems these months here have made you mature."
"Eh?" She blinked, surprised as she hadn't expected those words.
Bai Zemin continued, "At the very least I can say that you are no longer an unbearable brat like before. You're still a brat though."
"You..." Eleanora's body trembled slightly, glaring angrily like that of a small tiger wanting to pounce on him to bite him several hundred times.
"Anyway," Bai Zemin waved his hand and nodded, "That's right. The idea is to attack Russia in seven days."
"Seven days..." Eleanora frowned and muttered something to herself before staring at him again, "In that case, take me with you."
"...Excuse me?" Bai Zemin moved his face closer with his left ear towards her, a clear gesture of someone who thought he had misheard.
"...I said take me with you." Eleanora gasped and her eyes widened in frustration, "I want to join that little team of weaklings of yours to help."
Bai Zemin was really and genuinely surprised this time. He looked at Eleanora from the tip of her toes to the last strand of hair on her head for so long that the beautiful American began to feel uncomfortable.
"Stop looking at me like a fucking pervert."
Bai Zemin thumped his chest and sighed in relief, "Thank heavens it's you. For a second I thought you'd been switched with someone else and I was already wondering how I'd explain this to Angelo."
"You! You really get on my nerves!" Eleanora gasped with a face red with anger as she looked at him with eyes about to spit flames.
"First of all, a brat like you shouldn't say bad words... But considering that American culture is much more open than Asian culture I guess it's normal for you guys to talk about fucking." Bai Zemin turned to leave after saying these words, and at the same time as his body became a blur his voice rang out in the surroundings, "Seven days from now at dawn. North Gate. If you don't show up then I'll assume you changed your mind."
"You- You- W- Wait a minute!" Eleanora lunged forward at lightning speed, but all her hands touched was air as Bai Zemin's body turned out to be no more than an afterimage.
She shouted skyward. "You think a lady like me is someone easy?! Just so you know, I still-!"
Her face turned ugly as she realized what she was saying and quickly stopped.
"Bai Zemin, I must eat your flesh and drink your blood!"
Unfortunately or not for the beautiful blonde girl from the United States of America, Bai Zemin not only hadn't heard her but wasn't even on Earth.
He had returned to the Collector's Pocket World, only this time there was no one but him and Lilith there.
A world all to themselves in which a wager would take place similar to that night at Bai Zemin's parents' house but much wilder and kinkier.
* * * * * * * * * * * * A/N: Guys, chapters will arrive somewhat irregularly for maybe 2-3 days as I am flying from South America to Asia, which takes time considering the stops. Sorry and thank you for your support >.<
We have been in the top 1 GT for 10 months in a row, and it means a lot to me to see that my effort pays off. Many thanks to you, who still donate your golden tickets and support Blood Warlock <3

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